Seeing from the Heart
It’s a new, community-wide,
collaborative art-making festival
in the Montclair area during Fall 2024.
You’re invited! Visual artists, art-making enthusiasts, and other members of the community, of all experience levels, will meet in small teams to create new collaborative artworks on the theme of
- mutual compassion, empathy, respect, and friendship across boundaries or differences.
- Feel better, do better, help people in our community.
- Find new friends, plug into our community.
- Enjoy fun, meaningful art-making experiences. Learn from collaboration.
- Take pride in your name on an exhibited artwork. Exposure as an artist.
2024 is a pivotal year for humanity. We want to work with the Montclair-area community to get through 2024 with dignity, decency, kindness, respect, understanding, and compassion. We believe that the arts offer some of the most effective and meaningful ways to address turbulent times.
THE AIM of Seeing from the Heart is to foster conversations, interactions, and connections among local residents and artists – centered around a socially meaningful art project. The Festival may help build authentic social relationships among artists and other members of the local community.
Art-making sign-ups in September.
Team art-making in October–November.
Public exhibition in December 2024.
You! Festival participation is open to all local community members – artists, art-making enthusiasts, and anyone who wants to collaborate on art-making. Sign up to join a collaborative art-making team!
Seeing from the Heart is co-sponsored by
Montclair Mutual Aid,
Montclair Art Museum,
Eclectic Chic Boutique,
Mellowworks,
The Space,
Keep Creating,
One River School of Art+Design Montclair,
Montclair Public Library,
Montclair Inn,
Ria X Gallery,
Ahava Felicidad Hair & Body,
Lovlee Art Studios,
and more.
Organizers, supporters, and found item donors are listed here.
FESTIVAL SUMMARY:
- YOUR TEAMMATES: Sign up below. We’ll match you to a collaborative art-making team. In the adult section, each team may have about 4–5 visual artists, art-making enthusiasts, and other members of the community. Or in the family section, parents and kids from 2–3 families participate together.
- YOUR ARTWORK: Each team creates one collaborative artwork, on the theme: mutual compassion, empathy, respect, and friendship across boundaries or differences. Each artwork is either a 3-D mobile or a 2-D patchwork/collage. Use found materials to create your artwork; we provide an initial supply.
- TEAM MEETINGS: Meet with your team at least 3 times during October and November. First meeting, all teams together, is on Saturday, October 5. Your team sets its own schedule; we can provide venues.
- ART-MAKING: We provide suggested prompts for team discussion – on our theme, on art-making, and on the artwork components that you make. Your team creates an overall design, and delegates components to you and your teammates. Between team meetings, you make your components.
- EXHIBITION: On December 12, the Festival will have a well-publicized exhibition opening for the artworks, at Montclair Art Museum. Some of the artworks will remain on exhibition at MAM through January 5. The exhibition of others will move to galleries and storefronts in Montclair.
- OUTCOME: We hope this will be a fun and worthwhile way for you to develop authentic, in-person social connections with Montclair-area neighbors in your team. We hope your participation will deepen and strengthen our feelings of community.
Seeing from the Heart co-sponsors:
