Rancherx is a project designed to open conversations about mixed identity in the Latinx community by connecting borderland radio, car culture, colcha embroidery, and traditional quilting patterns through an immersive sound sculpture. A 1977 Ford Ranchero (the classic American coupe utility vehicle) with hand-embroidered leather seats will function as a sculptural object and listening space – the host site for a collision of cultural practices including Rio Grande handicrafts, Americana textile traditions, and musica de la frontera.

She Quit is a six-episode documentary produced by GPM which focuses on the exodus of Black women from the traditional workforce because of the unique mental, physical, relationship and financial health risks the workplace creates for them. The goal is to alleviate Black women of the necessity to justify their value, explain and unpack the impact of racism and microaggressions on Black women to White supervisors and coworkers and help traditionally White-led workplaces recognize and address barriers to equitable treatment.

The Indigenous Sign Initiative is a street art effort in which signs are placed throughout the city-scape denoting that those reading the signs are on Indigenous land. Created to look like official traffic/trespassing/public statement signs, these are meant to exist in plain sight, while simultaneously representing the fact that we are all on Indigenous lands.

Art Superette is a pop-up contemporary art and food-based project that is a partnership with a neighborhood corner store. The artists will work with the cornerstore to add high-quality, nourishing food at an accessible price. The back of the store will be turned into an art space that would show rotating contemporary art exhibitions, highlighting both local and national artists. The goal is to bring two things normally seen in upper-class communities – healthy organic foods and contemporary art – to our community. Art Superette will host events and educational programming focusing on art and nutrition.

As a celebration of the primarily Latinx community, Wareing Steele will create a series of diorama based installations enclosed in Retablo (Latin folk art) inspired cabinets. Each cabinet will contain a scene inspired by the ideas and drawings from students at Munroe Elementary responding to the prompt: “What does community mean to you?” The completed work will be installed in Friendship Alley, a space created by the community to provide a safe, welcoming space for young students in the neighborhood to walk and bike to and from school.

Every Human: Deserves to Heal is a public large-scale mixed media collage that encourages conversations about healing from intergenerational traumas. The final artwork will be inspired by a two-day workshop that is focused on providing tools for identifying and healing from intergenerational traumas in BIPOC communities. Colorado Art Therapy Association has agreed to be partners in this project to ensure we are able to facilitate a meaningful workshop that provides tangible skills, resources, and practices for participants. Three artists will co-facilitate the workshops and paint their reflections on canvases to be used in the final collage.

The pandemic made the importance of relationships clear. The time away from others made us miss our friends, extended family, school communities, etc… But it also gave us time to recognize toxic relationships. As we re-engage with the world it is important to use this information to inform how we rekindle, sever, or create relationships. Extending uses relationships found in nature to discuss humans relationships. Banowetz will collaborate with students to discuss meaningful relationships and from this process create a large fabric sculpture. This sculpture will reengage the community with the Via Verde and Weir Gulch walking paths.

This interactive multisensory art installation aims to highlight the artistic voices of blind students and broaden public sensitivity to this community and understanding of the visual arts. Each blind student will create a cane with mixed media and braille. These individual canes will then be suspended together to create an interactive tactile art experience with lights and sounds triggered by participants’ interaction with the sculpture and displayed in at least four different public locations. Future students would be able to add to the wind chime sculpture to keep the exhibit growing, uplifting, and dynamic.

The Denver Underground is FM4FP’s magazine project seeking to reinvigorate the online publication paradigm by operating around collective releases, with tangible, attend-able outcomes. FreeMusicForFreePeople (FM4FP) has been dedicated to new and creative ways to amplify the city of Denver since 2013. With the oversaturation of online issues, there is too often a level of missing engagement that keeps the true value of art-centered journalism from taking effect: fostering new collaboration and strengthening community. This INSITE project will focus on FM4FP’s second release: Queer Edition.

Reflections on the Future will be a collaborative art-making event where community members trace tree rings from cut trees in the Cal-Wood burn scar area. The tree ring drawings will be digitized and etched into stainless steel which will be cut to fit the tops of the stumps. The steel will be mirror-polished and placed atop the stumps and will reflect the surrounding landscape. Once installed, community members will be invited back for a second event involving multidisciplinary speakers. This event will provide space for those grappling with climate change and will provoke a collective understanding of the local landscape.

Through several seasons this community-based prayer wheel sculpture — built from washing machine tubs and other repurposed materials — has graced the Seeds of Power Unity Farm with its energetic presence. After several winters at this location, it is now in need of major restoration by the artist and with the help of contractors. This INSITE project supports structural improvements that will preserve its aesthetic and functionality into future years.

This project is a photo book time capsule of the year 2020 told through impactful images selected from photographers in Denver and around the country. Creating a platform that showcases a heartfelt narrative by a diverse collection of visual artists while empowering our communities creatively is essential in building BIPOC voices. Point + Shoot‘s purpose is to visually inform its readers of the hardships of 2020, thus bringing hope that the future will bring change to everyone.