ReBuffed!

Whyte of Korea, Cyrus of Liberia, Craig of Brooklyn, Pop of Gastonia, and Ray Isaac of a country town too small to have a name volunteer their time and effort to buff and scrub the floor in the old soup kitchen cafeteria, initiating its tranformation into a workshop space for Community Works 945.

Point 8 Important Catalyst

The photo here was taken at Shook Kelly Design firm’s South End Office. A group of Architects and Artists called “Point8” (visit their website at www.point8.org ) have taken on Art Works 945 as the group’s major community project. As you may know Art Works 945 takes place in an old Train Depot. Point 8 is working with the historic building to make the space both functional-- for a dynamic, inclusive art workshop for people on the streets with their storgage needs etc.-- as well as attractive and unique in the way it displays art both indoors and out. In the this picture of the Point 8 project teams prepares their presentation while Knowledge, Craig Holley, Ray Isaac, Zenas Fewell, LA, Pop, Dale Mullennix, Marilyn Furman, Rob Cann, and I look on. The conversation dwelled mostly on the theoretical aspects of the approaches Point 8 had taken toward the project and was quite subtle. Most importantly, the presentations and authentic dialogue really catalysed a greater involvment in the program and a deeper feeling of ownership of the program. Many of our participants, in particular the younger ones, harbor a rigid skepticism towards the world in general. Such headway as Point 8 has helped us achieve paves the way for greater understanding across class lines, and also opens the minds our participants who have been conditioned to keep them closed.

Se Ve Bonito!

Anotonio Romero of Cali, Colombia inspects the newly painted and newly reconstructed arbor, one of the first projects Communtiy Gardens 945 has taken on since it was launched last month.

This time with a Quilt

Frances Hawthorne is back at it. It’s true some of these people just never move on from the soup kitchen. In Frances’s case she’s been out on the streets visiting the Urban Minsitry Centerever since 2002 when she led her first mural project here. In this picture she is seen with Pam Lawton her coworker in the UNCC art department as well as Helen Woodson, Cassandra, and Stephanie Johnson. The group is working on a communty quilt featuring time instensive hand stiched panels as well as contemporary photo transfer techniques. The quilt will celebrate everyone who has come together to create the unique community at the UMC from donors to the new building to the soup kitchen dogs like Rusty and Takota.

Matt Moves On, Still Helps Out

Matt Jules, carpenter, painter, poet, performance artist, novelist, and just about anything else you can name, is seen here doing what he always does—helping out around the center. He is building a storage unit for all the paintings waiting to go up in our forthcoming gallery. Incidentally, Matt is the proud tenant of a NoDa apartment for the past three months. Congrats Matt!

Mail-Art Project Starts

Barbar Shreiber, an artist in residence at the McColl Center for Visual Arts who resides full time in Charlotte, is working with Art Works 945 on a mail-art project, connecting folks on the street in Charlotte to people in a similar situation in Brasil and hopefully Argenita and Uganda as well. Walt (smiling), Knowledge (with visor) and Dave and Junior Mendoza are creating envelopes for the project in their free time. The other pictures show some examples of their work. This long-term project will last at least 6 months and culminate in mail-art exhibits that travel from Charlotte to other continents via the post. Come join in every other Tuesday at 10am at Community Works 945.