Overview

Join us as National Endowment for the Arts Chair Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson reflects on what it means to build arts-infused civic infrastructure, at this historic moment of federal investment that is reshaping communities. You’ll also hear inspiring reports about two Our Town projects that exemplify this vision, through deep cross-sector partnerships that position arts, culture, and design to advance equitable outcomes.

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FY22 Our Town grantee Asian Arts Initiative, and partners Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) and Friends of the Rail Park, have come together for THE CUT: Eco/Systems: Land Based Initiatives to support an arts and landscape design installation in Philadelphia's Chinatown North and Callowhill neighborhoods. Plantings, digital art, and educational programming will contribute to redeveloping a fallow rail line into a new three-mile greenway. The art installation will demonstrate the potential for natural ecosystems to improve quality of life for residents in neighborhoods that lack tree cover and are negatively affected by climate change. The project is engaging the local community and piloting potential partnerships for future infrastructure projects where art can contribute to mitigating climate impacts.  

The (Un)Known Project creates artistic spaces and experiences to support learning, healing, reflection, reconciliation, and action by honoring the names and telling the stories--of both known and unknown--Black men, women and children who were enslaved and hidden figures in Louisville, Kentucky and beyond. The project is led by Hannah Drake and Josh Miller as a collaboration between artist-led nonprofit IDEAS xLAB, the Frazier History Museum, Roots 101, various departments within Louisville Metro Government, and incorporated Louisville’s history and heritage in limestone benches, poetry, photography, and arts-based experiences along the Ohio River. Serving as a cultural heritage destination, the (Un)Known Project was co-created as a significant marker in Louisville, designating the location as a monumental site and symbol of African American history. Now, Louisville local government is extending the reach of the (Un)Known Project with significant new infrastructure investments.

Spoken word artist Autumn White Eyes will perform one of their original poems.

This session is presented by the Creative Placemaking Technical Assistance Program, led by the National Endowment for the Arts and Local Initiatives Support Corporation.

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Speakers

Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson is Chair of the National Endowment for the Arts. For more than 25 years, Dr. Jackson’s work has focused on understanding and elevating arts, culture, and design as critical elements of healthy communities. Her work blends social science and arts- and humanities-based approaches to comprehensive community revitalization, systems change, the dynamics of race and ethnicity, and the roles of arts and culture in communities. After confirmation by the U.S. Senate in December 2021, Dr. Jackson became the 13th chair of the National Endowment for the Arts in January 2022. With this historic appointment, Dr. Jackson is the nation’s first NEA chair to be an African American and Mexican American woman. Read her full bio here.

Jen Hughes is Senior Advisor to the Chair on Partnerships, Expansion, & Innovation at the National Endowment for the Arts. Jen is responsible for supporting the Chair’s strategic vision by advancing partnerships with federal agencies and philanthropy to extend the mission and reach of the NEA. In this position, she will assist the Chair in the development and implementation of key programmatic priorities that elevate the role of arts, culture, and design in advancing the well-being of communities and individuals. Read her full bio here.

Autumn White Eyes (they/she) is Oglala Lakota and Turtle Mountain Band of Anishinaabe, and was raised on the Pine Ridge Reservation in the temporarily occupied settler-state of South Dakota. They received a B.A. as a double major in Native American Studies and English with a concentration in Creative Writing at Dartmouth College, and an Ed.M. in Arts in Education at Harvard Graduate School of Education. They were a 2018-2019 member of the Intercultural Leadership Institute and a recipient of the South Dakota Arts Council’s 2019 Artist Career Development Grant. Autumn is a Queer, two-spirit femme spoken-word artist and arts educator. Her artwork focuses on releasing the femme, Queer, and Indigenous rage that lives deep within. Her Lakota name, Wanbli Ohitika Win means Brave Eagle Woman. Autumn lives with their partner and puppy and works remotely with Lakota youth poets as a Program Manager of Youth Development at First Peoples Fund. They live on their ancestral homelands.

Anne Ishii is the Executive Director of Asian Arts Initiative, which has operated with a mission to “create community through the power of art” in the North Chinatown neighborhood of Philadelphia since 1993. Anne is a writer and editor by trade, with a background in Japanese letters. Her work hinges on issues relating to gender and sexuality. In 2013 she co-founded MASSIVE GOODS: a lifestyle brand and arts agency representing queer and feminist artists from Japan. MASSIVE has produced multiple volumes of graphic novels and a line of clothing and accessories. She has been published in BUST, Nylon, Slate, Publishers Weekly, the Village Voice, the Philadelphia Inquirer and many other publications. She has translated and rewritten over twenty books.

Rebecca Cordes Chan is the Executive Director of the Friends of the Rail Park, the organization dedicated to bringing the Rail Park–a vision for a 3-mile greenway and infrastructure reuse project–to life. Prior to joining the Rail Park, Rebecca was the program officer for the National Economic Development and Creative Placemaking programs at LISC, where she managed a portfolio of projects focused on using arts- and culturally-based strategies as tools for inclusive economic development. She received her MS from the University of Pennsylvania’s Weitzman School of Design, and a BA from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Hannah Drake is a blogger, podcast host, activist, public speaker, poet, and author of 11 books. She serves as the chief creative officer at IDEAS xLab and co-lead artist of the (Un)Known Project. She writes commentary on politics, feminism, and race, and her writing has been featured online at Cosmopolitan, the Washington Post, the Bitter Southerner, the Lily, Harper’s Bazaar, and Revolt TV. In 2022, Drake was recognized by Today’s Woman magazine as the Most Admired Woman in the Arts. Drake has been honored as a Kentucky Colonel, the highest title of honor bestowed by the Kentucky governor, recognizing an individual’s outstanding service, and was recently selected as a 2022 Soros Equality Fellow. Drake holds a bachelor’s in communications from the University of Colorado and was granted an honorary doctorate in humanities by HBCU Simmons College of Kentucky.