Turning stories into public art.
Together.
Not Alone.
POW! WOW! Worcester, Burncoat Middle School, and Harbor Voices Public Art Create “Not Alone,” a Laser and Sound Public Art Event
POW! WOW! Worcester commissioned a public artwork display by Burncoat Middle School students in conjunction with artist Stephanie Benenson of Harbor Voices Public Art, for an event at the Kids Club at Great Brook Valley in June 2021.
This artwork, titled “Not Alone,” represents a year of class research and explores mental health and the teen experience. Students conducted and recorded interviews with peers, community members, and local nonprofits organizations like the Shine Initiative to understand the importance of mental health awareness, particularly during the past year when cases of depression and anxiety amongst their age group have skyrocketed due to the pandemic.
For this public display, Harbor Voices produced a laser and sound demonstration and feature the recorded voices of 23 students and the people they interviewed in this process.
“Instead of having a stigma about mental health, we could accept it and help those in need. And this is why we need to have this exhibition - to learn and to accept.” said a 7th grader at Burncoat Middle School.
“Mental health, especially for younger people, is a critically important topic, and these students and organizations like the Shine Initiative are doing important work starting and normalizing conversations about it. Public art has the power to bring light to important issues and motivate people to learn and take action, and we hope this event will inspire more conversations about mental health.”
-Lisa Drexhage, Co-Director of POW! WOW! Worcester
Truth Be Told
During the summer of 2020, Harbor Voices collaborated with Lynn’s Beyond Walls to create a platform for youth storytelling and creative expression during the pandemic. In a critical moment in world history, youth voices of Lynn shared the pain, the resilience, and the strength it took to survive the circumstances of a pandemic. Community partners like the YMCA, Boys & Girls Club, the Haven Project, Family & Child Services of Greater Lynn, and Girls Inc. participated in storytelling, writing, drawing, and spoken word workshops to create a city-wide exhibition called Truth Be Told. In July 2021, Truth Be Told culminated with an immersive light and sound installation featuring an audio documentary of over 100 voices describing their personal experience of living through 2020.
CAPE ANN Museum
100 Voices, Our Collective Story
May 12-21, 2023
Presented with the Cape Ann Museum and the CAM Teen Council, 100 Voices, Our Collective Story is an immersive public artwork of light and sound by Harbor Voices that was created with community voices at senior centers, the offices of public officials, public schools, nonprofit groups, and historical societies. Ancestral and recent local immigration, migration, and origin stories specific to Cape Ann history were collected. Storytellers were invited to share in any language, resulting in a multilingual, inclusive exhibition that shares a wide range of global immigration perspectives.
In the Janet & William Ellery James Center at the CAM Green campus, an eight-minute show featuring a “babble” of languages overlapping into the sound of crashing waves is played on loop. Visitors can walk in at any moment and stay as long as they like. The sound installation immerses exhibition visitors in local stories while lasers visualize the web of connectivity between stories. Lights from opposite corners of the room connect and travel through space and time together, exemplifying the similitudes that exist amongst community members. Each story, old or new, is represented by a beam of light.
100 Voices, Our Collective Story will be on display from Friday, May 12 - Sunday, May 14, 2023 and Friday, May 19 - Sunday, May 21, 2023 at the Cape Ann Museum Green, 13 Poplar Street, Gloucester, MA. Free viewing hours are 10:00 am-5:00 pm on Friday and Saturday and 1:00-4:00 pm on Sunday.
In partnership with Wellspring House, a local organization that inspires families and adults on the North Shore to achieve employment and financial security through stable housing, education, job training and career readiness, we will host a TWO DAY show on May 6 & 7.
On Friday, May 6th we will host field trips and public tours – Friday evening will feature a ticketed event supporting Wellspring’s incredible programs that serve so many in Gloucester, including Cape Ann’s recent immigrants and refugees. Saturday, May 7th the exhibition is free and open to the public.
Friday, May 6
Support Wellspring House
Saturday, May 7
Free and Open to the Public
Register Now! 44 Commercial Street, Gloucester Harbor
We are living in a time when the global movement of people is top of mind – and we are all looking to support the global refugee crises. At Harbor Voices storytelling sessions, we are seeing firsthand how Wellspring House makes a massive impact on the personal journeys of our newest community members as they enter our country. We are so proud of this partnership, as we find new ways to provide public space for public voices in support of the community organizations that serve our future changemakers!
Participate in our Lynn Public Art Project!
Installation of Truth Be Told participant stories. Photo cred Beyond Walls in Lynn, MA
In conjunction with Beyond Walls, we launched Truth Be Told in Lynn, MA this June. Truth Be Told begins as a web portal where the youth of Lynn can submit stories and artwork about their experiences in the year 2020. Each submission will be a visual art piece paired with a written story.
LYNN COMMUNITY YOUTH OPEN CALL
Community-collaborative public audiovisual art exhibitions.
Harbor Voices is a catalyst for collaboration between artists, nonprofit organizations, and community. We create public art and facilitate social practice approaches to public art curation with our community partners.
We believe that Art, particularly participatory and inclusive projects, has the ability to bring people together and impact communities. Social collaboration and storytelling strengthen family and community bonds, creating resilience in our youth, and increasing connectivity and social activism within diverse populations.
Connecting to the Community
The Harbor Voices team collaborates closely with local organizations in each city we work in. Partnerships allow us to better understand each diverse community before launching our storytelling sessions. Local organizations are then invited to engage in the creative art of storytelling using Harbor Voices’ exclusive model, helping our artists generate a comprehensive view of each harbors' ancestral and recent immigrant community.
Community Storytelling
During the initial stages of a Harbor Voices project, community members are invited to share their stories, opening a dialogue about their recent arrival to our harbors or their ancestors’ arrivals. Stories are shared orally in any language, and young storytellers are often provided the opportunity to share their stories through artistic expression in various mediums.
Through storytelling sessions, Harbor Voices participants deepen their understanding of the immigrant experience, celebrate cultural identity, experience enhanced empathy and acceptance by discovering shared experience, and gain confidence that their voices can be a vehicle for social change.
Storytelling sessions are held at senior centers, the offices of public officials, public schools, nonprofit support groups, and historical societies, among others.
Mapping our Connections through
Public Art
Harbor Voices’ lead artist, Stephanie Benenson, then creates a public artwork celebrating the community’s collective voice. The stories shared during storytelling sessions are visualized into an immersive light and sound exhibition, celebrating local cultural identity and shared experience. All Harbor Voices public artworks are presented in a free public space, often in conjunction with other community events.
“Working with Harbor Voices gave me a whole new perspective about the Point neighborhood…”
— BOB ST. PIERRE, Former Chief of Police and Harbor Voices Storyteller, Salem MA
