Love My Neighbor Public Art Project Is Now An Award-Winning Program!

The Love My Neighbor Public Art Project in the long-undeserved “Scottsdale” neighborhood of the City of Carson was just selected as the winner of the coveted California Park and Recreation Society 2019 Award for Excellence in the important Creating Community category.

It is an amazing and authoritative recognition of the conceptual uniqueness and real world community impact of our program. 

The uniqueness of art’s power, the uniqueness of its application within the community in need and the uniqueness of our amazing collaborations are the keys to this success. 

The amazing principle collaborators in this project are noted California artist Alexey Steele, the creator of the project, The City of Carson Cultural Arts Commission, The City of Carson City Council, The City of Carson Human Services Department, The Board of Scottsdale Townhouses Association,  On Site Community Management, Bank of America's Community Outreach Volunteers of "Better Money Habits" Program, Carson Sheriff's Department Gang Diversion Team (GDT), The 501c(3) non profit Artward Initiative.

Congratulations to the entire amazing Team Carson on this accomplishment! 

A Unique Partnership: Love My Neighbor Day With Bank of America

Love My Neighbor Day with Bank of America is a unique outreach program developed in collaboration with Victory Outreach and a

team of community activists and volunteers from Bank of America’s Better Money Habits program which ads substantial additional value to the program free to a community. 

It combines Artward! Kids program with free financial seminars by top regional professionals to children’s parents while kids’ participate in the art engagement program.

The Love My Neighbor Day collaboration formula we have developed proved huge success locally with word spreading and event being of truly unique, vital and real community spirit.

 

We developed a unique way to make this program mobile and transport to public square as part of citywide events such as Backpack Giveaway, Hispanic Heritage Month Celebration, Earth Day, Community Friendship Day.

Love My Neighbor “Curriculum” in Collaboration with Artward Initiative Non-Profit, The California Arts Council and The City of Carson

We just had the most awesome Love My Neighbor “Curriculum” event at our non profit Artward! Gallery “Scottsdale” for a group of 37 inner city kids of Bridges International program. It is the generous California Arts Council grant that had allowed us to hire a bus and pay for the accompanying adults and program assistants to make our The City of Carson sponsored program available to more in the community.  





For this event we integrated our Love My Neighbor publicart installation space with the children art studio with a great effect on the curriculum. 

Cirilo Campos, the beloved by the community local gardener of 35 years and the subject of my life size "El Rey Trabajador" painting in the installation is walking by the students to their great excitement. It is special individuals like Cirilo who bind our communities together and are truly unsung heroes of our troubled society.

 

Engaged by the images and stories of great neighbors presented in the installation many students came up with striking images of their own. 
 

In our amazing partnerships we really changing the story of this chronically underserved community known for decades of institutional failure. 
The community where some local residents and officials are sometimes still afraid to set foot in-  is now a cultural and artsitic experience destination where bus tours are coming to.  

With The Californis Arts Council grant we are enabling a paradigm shift with art at the very core.  That’s why in ART we trust ! 

Launching Love My Neighbor® Day "Scottdsale" With Bank of America and Victory Outreach

Enormously excited about the new great initiative and collaboration that we launched centered on my public art project in Carson’s tough “Scottsdale” neighborhood.  We started the Love My Neighbor Day as celebration of community in a unique personal collaboration with Bank of America.  

Our Scottsdale’s Love My Neighbor Day in collaboration with Victory Outreach, our Artward! Initiative and Bank of America’s Better Money Habits went better than all our expectations. 

Knowing full well how difficult it is to get any attention in Scottsdale and how even more difficult to turn it into a participation - makes what we did even more meaningful.

We had 20 to 25 kids participating in the art program.  Huge number for Scottsdale.  That included some tough and trouble kids.  It was difficult but we did it as even the hardest to get attention kids ended up getting engaged in art making.

While kids were doing art the group their parents had a unique chance to participated in the Better Money Habits with Bank of America specialists.  This group of residents took advantage of a unique opportunity to get an in-depth personal financial advise from some of BoA’s top regional and local execs.  5 executives worked with residents individually.

Huge kudos go to Victory Outreach for their work on the ground to build trust and communication with residents and kids and manage attendance while Artward and BoA provided unique additional programs.  Just as we believed, this proved to be a powerful and effective collaboration worth every bit of long hard work that went into it.

The most amazing part of BoA collaboration is that their participants are companies’ veterans of outreach, passionate about the local community and diversity, some having a multi-decade Carson experience.  They knew full well what Scottsdale is. 

This unique program left deep impression in “Scottsdale” and making serious impact.  The influence of local Piru gang on kids and residents has now a unique alternative.

 

 

Scottsdale knows it’s a new age there and that it turns the corner.

Thank you, BoA for showing what it is to engage in real community. 

Together we create impact.  It works.  Art is Power.