“Art & Social Change: Dudley Kiosk” was an interactive sculptural screen that I designed the structure and curriculum for while working at MassArt’s Artward Bound program. This project was a collaboration with Fish McGill, and Curtis Grynkewicz, other teaching artists. Viewers could interact with the piece and rotate two-sided swiveling panels, revealing a word and an image on each side that conveys ideas for positive visions for the community. The spin-able vision panels were created by rising 10th grade students in MassArt’s Artward Bound program.

In preparation to create the kiosk the students learned about visual art and artists that address social issues through visual strategies. Students also learned about symbol systems and typography and practiced different stylistic treatments with guidance from local artist/curator/activist Anabel Vasquez and local artist/designer/activist Kenji Nakayama. Students also learned about Dudley Square community issues from youth from the Roxbury Environmental Empowerment Project (REEP) who took Artward Bound on the Toxic Tour of Dudley Square. Artward Bound students discussed their thinking with the community activists about how visual language can raise awareness of social issues.

After investigating compelling activist art and examining what they appreciated and/or would change in the community, each student identified a word that captured the essence of a vision for the community that they wished to see. Students then created a graphic image to go along with the word, and these word/image combos were fabricated on the two sides of the panels and installed in the interactive screen in Dudley Square.