FORWARD: Issue #3: Community Safety

How Artists Reimagine Public Safety as Community Safety by Prioritizing Healing, Expression, and Community Control

Welcome to FORWARD, a digital publication and conversation series from Forecast, a nonprofit that activates, inspires, and advocates for public art that advances justice, health, and human dignity. FORWARD highlights how artists are partnering with cities, institutions, and communities to courageously tackle the vital issues of our time. Forecast provides the technical assistance and training to do this in your community. This issue focuses on community safety. You can navigate it using the three bars at the top of the page — or the arrows at the bottom.

Image: Detroit Grand River at 14th site visit in July 2020. The project is a multi-building space that will prioritize the needs of community members impacted by mass incarceration. Photo by Stephanie Kamera.

Public Art Now with Amina Cooper

with artists Lava Thomas and Martha Jackson Jarvis An intimate discussion on contemporary public art policy. Cooper served as the Guest Curator of Public Art Now for FORWARD #3. Guest curator Amina Cooper says in her introduction to the Public Art Now collection in FORWARD Issue #3, "Across the full range of materials, styles, and degrees of permanence, public artworks by Black artists have made essential contributions to the built environment and to community spaces." This second Public Art Now collection in the FORWARD series features projects by Simone Leigh, Abigail DeVille, Dr. Fahamu Pecou, Jessica Moss, and April Banks. Amina and guests Lava Thomas and Martha Jackson Jarvis, discuss public art policy and their experiences as Black artists breaking into this field, the challenges they've encountered mounting their first projects, and policy changes they would like to see. This conversation was held via Zoom on Thursday, January 6, 2022 Watch the Recording on Forecast's YouTube channel.

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FORWARD conversation series panel

The Role of Artists in the Future of Community Safety An intimate discussion with Andrea Jenkins and Dr. André de Quadros about improving community safety and the unique roles artists play. One of the most pressing and precarious issues worldwide is community safety, and artists have long been integral to community safety efforts. Moderated by guest editor Mallory Rukhsana Nezam, this panel featured Minneapolis City Council member and poet Andrea Jenkins, as well as ethnomusicologist and human rights activist Dr. André de Quadros. This event took place on Thursday, September 16, 2021.

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