Welcome to The Future is On the Table #4
by daniel johnson, Director of Engagement and Learning, Artist-in-Residence at Mississippi Museum of Art
THE FUTURE IS ON THE TABLE #4 is an invitation for the people of central Mississippi to come together as a community and renew a path forward. This website is a window to where we have been and where we are going. We invite you to remember, actualize, explore, participate, and keep imagining with us.
In Fall 2012, the Mississippi Museum of Art invited artist team JEMAGWGA to conduct the Museum's annual community art project C3: Creativity. Conversation. Community. - a project seeking to “bring the city” to their Art Garden, especially local people who
may not feel welcome or included. As practitioners of art-in-community – carriers of the voice of participants – JEMAGWGA sought
from the start to remain “once-removed” from the actions of the Museum’s project while bringing a strong collaborative,
community spirit to the ultimate experience.
JEMAGWGA became “in service” to the participants; artists, educators and their students, administrators, activists. Primarily listening, then reflecting just enough thought and ideas to generate notions and visions in participants. The artists then, at the direction of community members, would build three-dimensional blanks and props while also teaching techniques, allowing participants to enter the process. Structures emerged transformed over three months through dialog and the work of many hands. For each of five disparate groups, a sculpture of iconic architecture in their local area resulted - modeled and injected with social, reflective and symbolic meaning. The sculpture became a vessel to carry the many conversations forward from planning to construction to their “finished” state, which continued to invite interaction and change.
Each group chose a social touchstone to respond to in their piece - Tougaloo College/Civil Rights, Operation Shoestring/ Education, the Nollie Jenkins Family Center, Rankin High School and the Pelahatchie Attendance Center/ Government & Policy, Farish Street and Smith Robertson Museum/ Arts & Culture, and Midtown/ Intricacies & Possibilities of Urban Renewal.
As these objects of collaboration between artists and participants were morphing into sculptures - art objects now entering the realm of culture - they were activated as a simulated city in The Art Garden at The Mississippi Museum of Art. As integrated sculptures, the props were actualized through scheduled convening, hands-on studio work, and performance, spontaneous or planned. It all took place around the pieces, in the garden, as participating community members - passing through the garden, feeling compelled to displace or transform, even adding to the various elements of the “city”. They became not only visual expressions but points to gather around socially, initiate creative collaborations, plan for action in the broader community, and affirm the role of artists and art objects as generators of actionable visions for communities to engage together.
Having existed in the garden for two weeks in March 2013, the sculptures - which had been conceived as movable parts and pieces – were separated again in a spree of trading amongst the groups. These exchanges signaled an important step in the artwork. Now that this initial cycle of creation and “completion” had occurred, how would the relationships now formed continue forward as an art work which had really just begun? How do art creations acquire value in community exchanges and sharing as well as in ownership or personal preferences? This question would be answered through an intention to stay connected, to inhabit each other’s spaces, and to continue working on the issues we had chosen to represent.
These sculptures have continued to weave their way through Mississippi as objects and ideas, memories of relationships and commitments to remain in conversation. They are both artifacts and prompts to action. This website is a window into the space between objects becoming art and art inspiring community; the world this space opens up and the shepherding of this process. Where are these sculptures/props now, where have they been, where are they going … how are they being used to inspire action?
The Future is on the Table #4 is now more spread out than it has ever been. This website will help us all to keep the project in view as its impact continues to extend. This website will help us learn from the paths these sculptures/props have taken thus far and then to partner and contribute to the conversations and actions which are propelling them forward.
We have now arrived at the next step of The Future is on the Table #4. This digital gathering space on the web was initiated by ALTERNATE ROOTS and the seed money provided by the Joan Mitchell Foundation. Because the creation of the city in The Art Garden was only a beginning, this website has been created to support the network of participants who make up The Future is on the Table #4. The underpinning principles for this project can be found in the ROOTS mission statement:
"Alternate ROOTS supports the creation and presentation of original art that is rooted in communities of place, tradition or spirit. We are a group of artists and cultural organizers based in the South creating a better world together. As Alternate ROOTS, we call for social and economic justice and are working to dismantle all forms of oppression- everywhere."
EXPLORE THE TIMELINE, the journey of the project - its challenges and questions - through text, photo, and video documentation of the inception of this art work as a C3 project at the Mississippi Museum of Art and the paths the participants and pieces have traveled in the wake of that beginning.
Then JOIN THE CONVERSATION and continue the shaping of The Future is on the Table #4. It is ours and yours.
daniel johnson
THE FUTURE IS ON THE TABLE #4 is an invitation for the people of central Mississippi to come together as a community and renew a path forward. This website is a window to where we have been and where we are going. We invite you to remember, actualize, explore, participate, and keep imagining with us.
In Fall 2012, the Mississippi Museum of Art invited artist team JEMAGWGA to conduct the Museum's annual community art project C3: Creativity. Conversation. Community. - a project seeking to “bring the city” to their Art Garden, especially local people who
may not feel welcome or included. As practitioners of art-in-community – carriers of the voice of participants – JEMAGWGA sought
from the start to remain “once-removed” from the actions of the Museum’s project while bringing a strong collaborative,
community spirit to the ultimate experience.
JEMAGWGA became “in service” to the participants; artists, educators and their students, administrators, activists. Primarily listening, then reflecting just enough thought and ideas to generate notions and visions in participants. The artists then, at the direction of community members, would build three-dimensional blanks and props while also teaching techniques, allowing participants to enter the process. Structures emerged transformed over three months through dialog and the work of many hands. For each of five disparate groups, a sculpture of iconic architecture in their local area resulted - modeled and injected with social, reflective and symbolic meaning. The sculpture became a vessel to carry the many conversations forward from planning to construction to their “finished” state, which continued to invite interaction and change.
Each group chose a social touchstone to respond to in their piece - Tougaloo College/Civil Rights, Operation Shoestring/ Education, the Nollie Jenkins Family Center, Rankin High School and the Pelahatchie Attendance Center/ Government & Policy, Farish Street and Smith Robertson Museum/ Arts & Culture, and Midtown/ Intricacies & Possibilities of Urban Renewal.
As these objects of collaboration between artists and participants were morphing into sculptures - art objects now entering the realm of culture - they were activated as a simulated city in The Art Garden at The Mississippi Museum of Art. As integrated sculptures, the props were actualized through scheduled convening, hands-on studio work, and performance, spontaneous or planned. It all took place around the pieces, in the garden, as participating community members - passing through the garden, feeling compelled to displace or transform, even adding to the various elements of the “city”. They became not only visual expressions but points to gather around socially, initiate creative collaborations, plan for action in the broader community, and affirm the role of artists and art objects as generators of actionable visions for communities to engage together.
Having existed in the garden for two weeks in March 2013, the sculptures - which had been conceived as movable parts and pieces – were separated again in a spree of trading amongst the groups. These exchanges signaled an important step in the artwork. Now that this initial cycle of creation and “completion” had occurred, how would the relationships now formed continue forward as an art work which had really just begun? How do art creations acquire value in community exchanges and sharing as well as in ownership or personal preferences? This question would be answered through an intention to stay connected, to inhabit each other’s spaces, and to continue working on the issues we had chosen to represent.
These sculptures have continued to weave their way through Mississippi as objects and ideas, memories of relationships and commitments to remain in conversation. They are both artifacts and prompts to action. This website is a window into the space between objects becoming art and art inspiring community; the world this space opens up and the shepherding of this process. Where are these sculptures/props now, where have they been, where are they going … how are they being used to inspire action?
The Future is on the Table #4 is now more spread out than it has ever been. This website will help us all to keep the project in view as its impact continues to extend. This website will help us learn from the paths these sculptures/props have taken thus far and then to partner and contribute to the conversations and actions which are propelling them forward.
We have now arrived at the next step of The Future is on the Table #4. This digital gathering space on the web was initiated by ALTERNATE ROOTS and the seed money provided by the Joan Mitchell Foundation. Because the creation of the city in The Art Garden was only a beginning, this website has been created to support the network of participants who make up The Future is on the Table #4. The underpinning principles for this project can be found in the ROOTS mission statement:
"Alternate ROOTS supports the creation and presentation of original art that is rooted in communities of place, tradition or spirit. We are a group of artists and cultural organizers based in the South creating a better world together. As Alternate ROOTS, we call for social and economic justice and are working to dismantle all forms of oppression- everywhere."
EXPLORE THE TIMELINE, the journey of the project - its challenges and questions - through text, photo, and video documentation of the inception of this art work as a C3 project at the Mississippi Museum of Art and the paths the participants and pieces have traveled in the wake of that beginning.
Then JOIN THE CONVERSATION and continue the shaping of The Future is on the Table #4. It is ours and yours.
daniel johnson
Led by JEMAGWGA, for the MISSISSIPPI MUSEUM OF ART, Jackson, MS,
Project commissioned as part of the Museum C3, 2012-13 series
C3: CREATIVITY - CONVERSATION - COMMUNITY
This documentation hub commissioned by
ALTERNATE ROOTS
JOAN MITCHELL FUNDING
Project commissioned as part of the Museum C3, 2012-13 series
C3: CREATIVITY - CONVERSATION - COMMUNITY
This documentation hub commissioned by
ALTERNATE ROOTS
JOAN MITCHELL FUNDING