CodeVA Receives Grant for Youth-led Artwork, in partnership with Performing Statistics
7 August, 2020
CodeVA in partnership with Performing Statistics, has been named as a recipient of a $55,600 grant from Richmond Memorial Health Foundation’s Health Equity and Arts (HEArts) program. This new partnership will focus on the creation of mixed-media public artwork, including digital creations, created through a collaboration between Richmond youth impacted by the justice system and students in CodeVA’s Eureka Workshop programs.
Our Eureka Workshop students will work closely with the mixed media public artwork created by Performing Statistics students that proposes their vision for a world without prisons based on their experience navigating the justice system. The aim of our Eureka Workshop students will be to leverage both on-screen and off-screen digital experiences tied to the artwork to amplify the voices of Performing Statistics students. If your student is interested in joining us to create these digital experiences, please fill out this form.
CodeVA Receives Grant for Youth-led Artwork, in partnership with Performing Statistics
The partnership is possible through a grant from Richmond Memorial Health Foundation.
CodeVA in partnership with Performing Statistics, has been named as a recipient of a $55,600 grant from Richmond Memorial Health Foundation’s Health Equity and Arts (HEArts) program. This new partnership will focus on the creation of mixed-media public artwork, including digital creations, created through a collaboration between Richmond youth impacted by the justice system and students in CodeVA’s Eureka Workshop programs.
Youth from Performing Statistics will work with professional artists to create work, including a public mural, that speaks to their experience navigating the justice system and their vision for a world without prisons. CodeVA students will then translate their creative work to the digital space, using technology to amplify their stories both on-screen and off.
“We intend the themes highlighted in the mural and other art works to act as a catalyst for impactful conversations with Richmond city leaders,” says Trey Hartt, project director at Performing Statistics. “The youth are empowered through their art to express to our leaders the changes they wish to see.”
“By creating a digital experience around the public art piece, the students will not only learn about social justice, but they will gain the opportunity to teach others within their direct communities.” says Maggie Smith, Director of Children’s Programming for CodeVA.
As the recipient of the grant, CodeVA will work to support and facilitate Performing Statistics’s work and the collaborative effort between the two organizations. The benefits of this new partnership include:
- A youth-produced collaborative public artwork focused on solutions to a future free of youth incarceration.
- A digital presence to increase the visibility and interactivity of the work.
- Collaborative work between Richmond youth to help inform discussions with Richmond elected officials and city staff.
About Performing Statistics: Performing Statistics is a cultural organizing project that uses art to model, imagine, and advocate for a world without youth incarceration. Performing Statistics connects young people impacted by the juvenile justice system with the community and systems leaders through the arts. Learn more at www.performingstatistics.org
Richmond Memorial Health Foundation: Richmond Memorial Health Foundation (RMHF) works to address the social, economic and structural conditions that contribute to poor health outcomes. RMHF recently approved HEArts grants totaling $278,000 over two years. HEArts 2020 will build on it’s previous success by continuing to fund nonprofit organizations in partnership with equitably compensated artists engaging underserved communities in participatory sessions to identify barriers to health and/or housing equity and foster creative ways to remove the barriers faced. Learn more at: https://rmhfoundation.org/.