Since 1991, the vibrant, pulsing experiment known as the South
Boston -based Artists for Humanity has provided creative job
training and paid employment to thousands of urban tens in
the arts, giving them the keys to self-sufficiency;last year
alone the students’ work generated over $800,000 in sales. On
the eve of its Seventh Annual Greatest Party on Earth on April
28, artscope ’s Catherine Laferiere cornered AFH’s special
projects director,Jason Talbot .
Tell me a little bit about the early
days, 20 years ago, when you were
a teenager developing the vision
for AFH with your co-founders…
Talbot:The creation of a non-profit
is often a very academic endeavor.
People identify an issue and
propose a solution. That solution is
sometimes effective and sometimes
it is not. We instead came together
around an art project. A group of
teens, including myself, presented
ourselves as hardworking, outspoken
leaders and advocates for our peers.
When we started AFH it had a
direction, but it was flexible enough
to respond to the input of us as
teens. The fact we could contribute
ideas that were heard and responded
to made this place very different
than the established institution
we were used to. Living in a tough
neighborhood you see the issues that
lead to violence, poverty and poor
life decisions. (Executive/Artistic
Director) Susan Rodgerson listened
to our opinions and solutions and
she took that input and incorporated
it into her own creative vision and
AFH was born.
You currently lead the video
instruction program…
Talbot: With social media growing
in importance and impact, Webbased
media is at the forefront of
20th century communication. Like
lots of the programs at AFH it was
client-driven based on what clients
were looking for. I love videos, I love movies, and I love the idea of
making media in a creative way and
empowering young people to make
media as well. With web-based media
being so prevalent it’s important
that our youth take part in the
conversation and that they have the
tools and the resources it takes to do
so. We’ve turned out tons of great
projects.
Talbot:When Google rolled out
Google Apps they asked us to produce
a video showing the public how to
use those apps and make people
aware the apps existed. We also
did a project for the Boston Public
Health Commission — an anti-cyberbullying
campaign and a campaign
to encourage kids to drink water
and milk instead of sugar-sweetened
beverages. We did an Adobe Youth
Voices project, too, where we used
Adobe software to tell an awesome
anti-bullying story. We’re really good
at youth communication. Our kids
speak the language.
Share a recent success story with
me…
Talbot:That’s one of the awesome parts
about our program. You learn how
to draw, you learn how to paint,
you learn how to be creative but
you don’t pigeonhole yourself. We
want everyone in every industry to
realize that a creative person and a
creative thinker is a good person to
have on staff. In education, in civil
leadership, in corporate leadership—the more creative you are the
more successful you’ll be.
Talbot:Recently Mission Hill Main Streets
came to us to create bike racks to
help encourage bike riding in the
city. We gave the job to our sculpture
studio. It ended up taking on a life
of its own. Our young people had to
draw sketches, they had to produce
models, then use a 3-D design
program to model the bike racks.
Then they had to present the idea
to the client. There were all these
different levels. Mission Hill loved the
designs so much that they chose four
in total; the bike racks are still on
the streets today — still encouraging
people to ride their bikes and lower
their carbon footprint.
AFH’s mission is to bridge
economic, racial and social
divisions by providing paid
employment through the arts…
Talbot:Boston is a college town, it’s the
hub of commerce, but you have some
kids that are totally shut off and
segregated from those opportunities
and find themselves misguided,
with terrible role models. Susan
[Rodgerson] helped us understand
that to be successful you had to
work hard. That wasn’t the message
I always received when I was a
teenager. We thought that being
successful meant that you had to be
able to jump high and be a basketball player or win the lottery.
Talbot:So Susan helped to redirect us, as
teenagers, to hard work. She helped
us feel welcome in Boston, in arenas
like Newbury Street — I didn’t know
that I was welcome there, in the art
galleries all up and down Newbury
Street. Being a painter and starting
to see my work in those places, that’s
when I started to feel included and
that I had an alternative to some of
the negative things that were going
on in the street.
Talbot:We try to provide those same
connections with the kids today,
connections to lawyers and
entrepreneurs. We help to facilitate
meetings with businessmen and
business owners and designers. We
bring people together on the fact
that our young people do have talent,
and stories to tell, and a unique
know-how on the way that the world
works from their perspective. That is
a valuable resource to a lot of people.
Our kids are here because they’re
creative and our clients are here
because they’re successful with their
businesses. Together they can meet
on equal ground and that’s where we
built that bridge.
(More information on Artists for
Humanity can be found at www.
afhboston.org.)
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