ArtWorks Wall(ln)

Wall (In) is a summer program within which local young artists will learn about community-based art through hands-on research and Practice. The program will culminate in the group co-designing a site-specific project in Liberty City.

Wall (In) will be a part of the Youth Artist Leadership Summer (YALS) program, founded by Liberty City native, and Academy Award winning playwright and actor, Tarell Alvin McCraney. The YALS program immerses young artists from the Liberty City area in a series of art intensives led by different practicing artists. Other partners include Arts for Learning and the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs.

Built in the 1930’s, in conjunction with Liberty Square Housing, one of the first black-only public housing developments in the U.S., the Liberty City segregation wall was intended to separate the newly formed black neighborhood west of NW 12th Avenue from the white neighborhood to the east. Today, at a time when Liberty Square Housing is slated to be demolished and redeveloped, this project builds on past and current efforts to preserve the existing community and honor the neighborhood’s past.

While there have been efforts to designate the wall as an historic site, there is currently nothing there to commemorate its history. Wall (In) allows community members to create a space for remembrance, empowerment, and expression. This project gives young artists the critical means to analyze their neighborhood’s history, the platform to tell their current stories, and the agency to shape what is to come.

Representing the future of the community, young artists will have the ability to create art that not only tells the story of the past, but also transforms a site that was meant to be exclusionary into a place for healing, organizing, and action.

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For more information, contact Ivy Bennett, Program Director: 305.576.1212, [email protected]