TURN THE CORNER
A successful project has an impact. Impact is hard to define, especially when it comes to art. In the society we live in, people like to see concrete results. A result that we can see and quantify is appealing. For example, when an individual exercises regularly they will see physical changes in their body. Exercise also improves mental health and overall well being, however, those results are harder to quantify. Consequently, people tend to be more motivated by physical gains. This example of exercise demonstrates how we are more likely to believe in the impact of an action if we can see a concrete change. A similar dynamic plays out in regard to art.
Art impacts individuals, relationships, communities, and societies, but most of the time we are not able to see that impact concretely. Art is nuanced and the impact is hard if not impossible to quantify. Many forms of art are ephemeral, whether live performance or street art that fades with time. Nevertheless, there are countless examples of how art has shaped our world and impacted human existence. Acknowledging art’s impact, on all levels, is integral. Unfortunately, the lack of concrete results often leads people to dismiss the power of art and the value of those who create it.
Furthermore, the lack of an impact that we can quantify makes assessing an artistic project as successful quite difficult. In fact, it seems that an entirely different set of qualifications may be needed to truly evaluate an artistic project’s success. More simply put, the understanding of impact present in society today does not inherently welcome or understand the abstract nature of art. We must change our understanding of impact in order to truly evaluate the success of an artistic project.
I believe that what touches one person touches many. In my eyes, an artistic project is impactful if it touches even one person. The success of a project can be measured by how deeply an individual is impacted. The impact does not have to be concrete but rather can be abstract.
As art is often abstract, our reactions to art are often abstract. For example, when I was a teenager, one of my teachers took me to see a dance performance by the company known as Batsheva. At the end of the performance, I exhaled. Then, I exited the theater into a world that was much the same as when I had entered. I, however, was not the same, despite no one being able to see the change in me. The performance had touched me deeply, and to this day, I recall that experience and the impact it had on me. Not only was I deeply inspired as a dancer, but as a human. I felt as though I had been taken on a journey through the mind and emotions of not one, but a whole ensemble of human beings. I felt wonderfully alive and simultaneously incredibly aware of mortality. That one performance impacted how I approach life. It also informed my understanding that art does not have to have a concrete impact in order for it to be impactful.
Thus, a successful artistic project must deeply touch at least one person. There are other abstract ways in which we can evaluate the success of an artistic project but I believe the above to be the most significant qualifier. Other qualifiers are specific to the project as you will see later on in my discussion of a project called ‘Turn the Corner’.
In the summer of 2021, The Arts Collective Bmore(ACBMORE/The Arts Collective) envisioned and carried out our first non-remote project, ‘Turn the Corner’.
The project consisted of the following: seven up and coming local artists were commissioned to create a piece of art; each artist chose a street corner somewhere in the city; their material was chalk and sidewalk. Over two days on a hot weekend in August, the artists each spent a couple hours creating their chalk piece. I filmed the process as well as conducting short interviews with each artist about their experience and their motivation.
The mission behind this project was threefold: to provide local artists with the opportunity to share their work with the community outside of an institutional setting; to see how Baltimore artists interpret the phrase “turn the corner” whether that be in relation to the city, themselves, or anywhere in between; and last but not least, to incorporate more art into our everyday lives and highlight the power of street art, no matter how temporal.
The project was not designed to draw a crowd during its creation, so while the occasional passerby stopped to ask what we were doing or marvel at the artwork, no one stayed long. The world continued to move around us as cars drove by and people went about their lives. A week later, as had been anticipated, most of the pieces had been washed away by rain. The only concrete record of the event is the following video.
As I reflect on the success of ‘Turn the Corner’, I am confident that the project deeply touched at least one individual and that alone makes it successful. Here are some instances that support that belief.
To begin, each of the seven artists expressed, for a variety of reasons, that they appreciated and enjoyed being a part of the project. For some, it was their first time using chalk since childhood. Those artists felt that they were opened to a whole new medium. Others communicated that they appreciated working outside of their comfort zone. Some said that they now were inspired to explore the medium of chalk in the future. Their reactions to the experience convey that the project had an impact on the artists who participated.
Furthermore, in the weeks after the project, another artist reached out to us on Instagram expressing that they would love to be a part of ‘Turn the Corner’ if we were ever to replicate the project. ‘Turn the Corner’ appealed to this individual in some way or another and they were not the only one.
On day two of the project, myself and Galya Kroiz-Seidel, the artist of the final corner experienced a beautiful moment. A short while earlier, a woman and her young daughter (somewhere between 5-8 years old) had passed by us. They stopped to see what we were doing and the woman shared how cool she thought the project was. The encounter was sweet and validating for both myself and Galya, however, that is only the preamble to the beautiful moment. A little while later, after Galya had finished her corner, I got in the car and proceeded to drive up the hill. All of a sudden I was motivated to stop the car in the middle of the road and jump out. In front of one of the houses I saw the same little girl from earlier but now sitting on the sidewalk with a piece of chalk in her hand, drawing. The mother saw me stop and came to tell me that as soon as they arrived home her daughter had asked her to get the chalk out. I was deeply touched by the impression our brief encounter had on the little girl. She was shy and only uttered a word or two, if that, but did permit me to take a picture of her as she worked on her creation. I walked back to the car feeling overjoyed and hopeful.
This story is an example of how a young person was inspired by ‘Turn the Corner’ as well as one of many instances of how the project deeply touched me.
That same day, at a different corner, two boys approached my friend and teammate, Damion Byrd (Dame), who was helping me with the project. I could not hear the details of the conversation as I was focused on filming Alia Isackson creating her corner, but afterwards Dame told me about his interaction. The boys had been intrigued by seeing us standing on the street corner. They happened to be young aspiring artists who were looking for guidance and advice. Dame, a Baltimore native immersed in the art world and community work, talked with them for quite some time, taking them seriously and providing them with words of wisdom and support.
Last but not least, at most of the corners, at least one community member, and often more, stopped to ask us what we were doing as they went about their day. People really liked the idea, as well as the execution, of the project. ‘Turn the Corner’ was unusual which was acknowledged and many people expressed that they appreciated the effort to beautify and incorporate art into the community.
Upon reflection, my belief that ‘Turn the Corner was successful has been confirmed.