Recreating with Curiosity: Dignity in Arts/Artivism

Yazmany Arboleda is NYC's inaugural People's Artist at the Civic Engagement Commission and Founder of The People’s Creative Institute, and is Senior Artistic Advisor at Community Arts Network (CAN), a Porticus partner. An architect by training, Yazmany builds community through large-scale public art projects. He has collaborated with Carnegie Hall, the Yale School of Management, and the United Nations.

Art invites people to imagine a different world.

Over thousands of years, we've learned so much as a species. But we've become stuck in a few systems that separate us and don’t work for the collective good. Through co-creation we can build stronger relationships with each other and transform systems and the way we think. My art practice is a way for me to invite people to imagine a different world and to practice creating it, together.

In 1980, my mother fled Colombia to Mexico City, taking a bus to Tijuana and walking north along the beach for 15 hours to reach San Diego. But in her imagination, she walked for half an hour and then stopped to sunbathe for half an hour. She always talked about the beautiful bathing suit she wore and the woven basket that she carried with a single bottle of water. In San Diego, she was picked up and put on a plane to Boston. She was pregnant with me at the time. I believe that my artistry, my way oedsf being in the world, comes from her way of thinking. I want to seek and find pleasure and beauty in all aspects of life, even when things are overwhelming.

I grew up in a conservative, macho Colombian family of devout Catholics – a context in which I felt very lost. I remember feeling so isolated, ostracised and criticised. I felt like an abomination. That being a little feminine boy and acting, speaking and moving in the world the way I did as a young person, as a burgeoning human, was not accepted. So, I invited people to make art with me to create belonging. It became a huge part of my healing. And it became my faith because I believe that the divine is everywhere. I want individuals and communities to connect profoundly by being and expressing themselves.

The act of being curious, the desire to understand differences and to be at peace with these differences is critical if we are to build a future that is healthy and beautiful for all of us. This is my life’s mission and work.

In 2013, Kenyans rejoiced that President Obama was to visit their country. His family has Kenyan roots and he is seen as the nation’s son. They were devastated when CNN dubbed its capital a ‘hotbed of terror’. Following this crude statement that left people hurt and demoralised, I was invited to Nairobi to sit with artists, filmmakers, musicians, and poets to create an oasis of unity across culture and religion. Together we created Colour in Faith, painting 18 churches, mosques, synagogues and temples bright yellow, in honour of the sun which shines on all of us.

These yellow buildings have become safe havens and have created connecting pathways. Children play by these buildings because they're so bright and colourful, they feel like toys. Commerce and community began to grow between neighbourhoods. Local people participated in workshops about leadership and communication, and these built meaningful relationships.

I had thought that it would be the outcome that mattered – the wonderful solidarity of colour across faiths. But it was the process of painting that spoke to a common humanity. People painting next to each other talked about what they were having for Sunday lunch. They talked about the places they hoped to visit someday. Painting the buildings broke down barriers and built friendships. We understand each other’s dignity through playgrounds for the imagination.

In another project in 2013, I worked with 100 Afghan artists and activists. ‘We believe in Balloons’ gave away 10,000 (biodegradable) pink balloons to residents of the country’s war-torn capital, Kabul. Each balloon contained a personal message of peace from people who had made donations around the world, giving the city 10,000 ideas to think about life and hope beyond the war, to imagine a different future, to believe in peace, gender equality and education.

Our capacity to create art really matters.

I ask groups I work with, Who are we and why are we here? What impossible things can we do together that we cannot do alone? Everyone learns from one another. And the more impossible the idea sounds, the more compelling and interesting it is to me. I think everything is possible. We just need to figure out how to find the resources and the storytellers who are going to bring it to life to inspire others to get involved.

We must imagine the future together.

This is a vision, a calling that I have always centred my work around. And it is a core connection to my work with Community Arts Network (CAN), a global network that enables, engages and empowers artists and arts organisations that use the arts as a vehicle for social change, and in the arts field of social practice. A core part of the mission of CAN, and one that I am aligned with as its Senior Artistic Advisor, is to build community for collective action – to bring into the mainstream the transformative and healing force of art to heal the earth and our lives together on it.

Only when we have a collective vision can we come up with a shared expression of our humanity. That good idea is like honey. Sticky and sweet, people come to it of their own free will. Democracy is described as a table where the elders sit down with their wisdom and the young sit down with their curiosity, and learn together what the world can be. In 2020, I became the artist in residence for the New York Civic Engagement Commission with a mandate to build trust in democracy.

Nobody knew the agency existed and we renamed it The People's Commission. For us, the table became a bus - The People’s Bus. Donated by Rikers Island prison, it became a mobile community centre that embodied beauty and joy, a celebration and place for connecting.

This was the first year that New York City was employing ranked choice voting (where voters use a rank to order candidates or options). We taught people how it worked and the possibilities available. Undocumented people who couldn’t vote in elections had a vote and learned the system. So many great ideas were born when we travelled and asked people what they wanted. The participatory budgeting process is now called ‘the people's money’. We have the people's fellowship, the people's bus, the people's festival - programmes that centre on collective well-being.

This year the bus became Tippy: “The Tender People’s Money Monster” – a huge bus-puppet that moves its eyes and talks. Tippy is touring the NY boroughs to raise awareness about the new Participatory Budgeting process and to celebrate participatory democracy. As Tippy makes stops across the city, New Yorkers can vote on how they want the city’s $5 million budget to be spent, letting communities decide where and how the funds will benefit them most.

I dream that arts will one day be a part of every community in every language across the world. It is inherent to human dignity that we value and respect creativity and imagination in each other. Please, play good music. Prepare a delicious feast. Make something weird, and important and fun.

We must build a world where we take care of one another. Where we laugh and play together. Where we see beauty and opportunity, even in difficult situations. Only then can we all find dignity.