Community Heroes, NYC
A community organizing and public art project celebrating everyday heroes in New York City, neighborhood by neighborhood. Local community groups and local artists work together through community meetings, a nomination process, and storytelling sessions to produce a public art exhibition.
It is a way for communities to…
Celebrate long-term residents who strengthen and support their neighborhood
Invite local artists and storytellers to showcase neighborhood stories through a public art project
Listen to neighbors through active outreach
Celebrate and gather together
Organize a working group of storytellers, community members, organizations, faith leaders, educators, historic and new residents
Community Heroes is organized and produced by Photoville and Trellis, proudly supported by Partnerships for Parks and PhotoWings.
As the co-founder and project director, I collaborated with neighborhood partners to:
Conceptualize and create a neighborhood public art project celebrating everyday unsung heroes.
Develop outreach process to collect community nominations of everyday heroes
Commission photographers and train youth writers to document their stories
Coordinate display their stories as large banners in a local parks.
Foster an ongoing annual collaboration with two Fort Greene park groups.
Expand to create projects in new neighborhoods of Bed Stuy in Brooklyn and University Heights in the Bronx. St. Andrews Playground in Bed Stuy and Aqueduct Walk in the Bronx.
Write and publish a toolkit to make the project accessible to any neighborhood desiring to organize it.
Commodore Barry Park, Brooklyn
Aqueduct Walk, Bronx
St. Andrews Playground, Brooklyn