Heat Response
in partnership with Trust for Public Land and with support from Pew Arts & Heritage Center
Over the course of two years, I worked with artists Jenna Robb, José Ortiz-Pagán and Amber Art & Design and the communities of Gray's Ferry, Southeast Philly and Fairhill to elevate the lived experience of urban heat in Philadelphia.
As the lead artist, I worked with Trust for Public Land to design the scaffolding which we then collectively shaped into a project that worked hard to engage communities during the 2020-22 covid lockdowns. More information at tpl.org/heatresponse
Heat Response was a winner of the Environmental Protection Agency's "Let's Talk About Heat Challenge"and was featured in Cool it with art, a guide for local governments, community-based organizations, and artists interested in working together to promote creative approaches to address climate-driven extreme heat impacts and to promote healthy, climate resilient communities.
2019-2022
Citywide
My role in the project included looking at the impact of urban heat across the city. I worked in three phases, first connecting the three communities, second connecting to other communities in Philadelphia and third, building capacity for the communities so that work could be continued.
Citywide: Building Capacity
Notes of Creative Engagement
In thinking about how to provide tools to give back to communities working for change in Philadelphia, after many many iterations, I was most interested in provided a few insights from the artists and a lot of space for new ideas, so I landed on the idea of an inspirational sketchbook. Available as print on demand, no profit, just the cost of printing.
Citywide: Engage Wider Philadelphia Community
Future Philly
Throughout the project I and others working on the project interviewed residents on their lived experience with heat and their imagined future Philadelphia. These interviews were then used as inspiration for short videos created by artists Nate Dorr, Gina Furnari and myself. By screening these videos around Philadelphia, we hope to elevate the voices of community members.
Future Philly - Meadow City
Featuring the stories and ideas from: Phyllis Brennan, Lauren Troop, Ivonne Pinto, Jasmine, Cheyenne Flores and David Acosta
Video by Nate Dorr
Audio design and editing by Eve Mosher
Music: Cinematic Piano by @AShamaluevMusic | Motion by Ikson
Sound effects: Air conditioner by Jonathon Tremblay on freesound.org | rustling leaves by dannydandanshababaloo on freesound.org | Bees by Marek Wojtaszek on freesound.org | Children laughing by InspectorJ on freesound.org | Morning in the meadow by soundspunos.com
Visuals created with Disco Diffusion 52 by Somnai and Adam Letts, using the diffusion model by Katherine Crowson
Future Philly - Water City
Featuring: Oro Ayala, David Acosta, Margot, and Phyllis Brennan
Video by Gina Furnari
Audio design and editing by Eve Mosher
Music: Sorrow by AShamaluevMusic | Track: Secret To Happiness — JayJen [Audio Library Release]
SFX: Traffic by Zapsplat | Hospital ambience by nixeno from freesound.org | Community garden by Akoustikos from freesound.org | Medium sized crowd chatting by arpeggio1980 from freesound.org | Water fountain in a city by seanreads from freesound.org | Children playing from soundbible
Future Philly - Meadow City
Featuring: Cheyenne Flores, Alicia and David Acosta
Film and audio by Eve Mosher
Music: Farewell by @martynaslau | Beautiful Day by @justhea
SFX: City Ambulance from SoundBible | Birds by 5ound5murf23 from freesound.org | More birds by yakubova-studio from freesound.org | Construction from Zapsplat | Walking by JohnsonBrandEditing from freesound.org | Stock footage by: Videvo, Elsa Luebling and stockfootage from videvo | Kelly L from Pexels.com
Citywide: Connecting Communities
pop-cycle
In order to connect the three communities in Philadelphia with whom we worked, we designed a mobile tool of engagement, at times carrying a tree or an umbrella for shade, and always handing out Heat Response custom popsicles (designed and produced by Philabundance) and packets including:
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mullein seeds
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instructions to turn the envelope into a paper pot
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soil
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recipe for mullein tea (from José's work)
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the Seedlings coloring book (from Amber Arts work)
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postcards about urban heat (from Jenna's work)
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Southeast Philly
José Ortiz-Pagán
with community leads Gibrán Medina and Sulay Sosa and project partners Tyler School of Art and Bahay215
José's work included zoom town halls complete with hand delivered gifts for participants including cooling tea and ingredients and group activities the town halls hosted neighbors, youth and business owners. He also worked with University of Temple/Tyler Art students on curriculum development and interviews with neighbors involved in community gardens.These interviews were shared in the nrighborhood as pop-up projections. With this underpinning of knowledge, interaction and experience, he created a collaborative team to build "La Sombrilla" a modular community space for rainwater capture, growing space, solar power and community gathering. The "La Sombrilla" team included Bahay215, Gibrán Medina, and.
Grays Ferry
Jenna Robb
with community lead Phyllis Brennan and project partners 215 People's Alliance
Jenna Robb, working closely with her community lead Phyllis Brennan, rapidly responded to the covid lockdown situation by seeing a need in the community and providing outdoor art programs for youth in the local area in Lanier Park. She created an inter-generational conversation by inviting residents of a local elder living facility to provide inspiration and feedback for the youth art projects. These workshops were also a space to have deeper conversations on urban heat in the area which led to an installation of a park bench to represent connection and respite in the shade, and greater collaboration with the gardeners and community group 215 People's Alliance resulting in gardening classes and a collaborative and celebratory mural.
Jenna also created the Heat Response interactive mural for the Philadelphia Flower Show.
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Fairhill
Amber Art & Design
with community lead Charito Morales project partners Tyler School of Art Community Arts Practice
Amber Art & Design created practices with local artists to engage with the community early in the project process. This inspired their co-creation (with students Holly Hazel and Kenza) of a super hero based coloring book called Seedlings. Seedlings was distributed at playstreets and community events around Philadelphia as a tool for education and engagement.