Art of Belonging

A community-centered arts ecosystem rooted in creative practice, cultural continuity, and collective resilience.

Make It

The Mission.

The Art of Belonging is a two-year, community-centered arts initiative rooted in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, created in response to rising economic pressure, housing instability, and social uncertainty. Through a network of free creative workshops hosted across the neighborhood, the project offers intentional pauses from daily stress, inviting residents to regulate, reflect, and reconnect through art and movement. The work culminates in a community-generated archive—a time capsule documenting how Bed-Stuy residents navigated change, sustained resilience, and imagined pathways forward during this moment in the neighborhood’s history.

Partner Engagement

Art of Belonging collaborates with local businesses, cultural spaces, and community organizations as short-term workshop hosts. Partnerships are intentionally designed to be low-burden and clearly structured: sessions are scheduled during off-peak hours, facilitated and supplied entirely by the project, and limited to defined timeframes.

In exchange for space, partners participate in a neighborhood-wide initiative centered on community care and creative resilience. Each partner is acknowledged across project materials and documentation and becomes part of a distributed network supporting local well-being. This approach prioritizes clarity, respect for business realities, and sustainable collaboration.

Become A Partner

Our Community

  • What We Do

    Art of Belonging creates free, monthly creative workshops hosted across Bed-Stuy that offer residents intentional pauses from daily stress. Through accessible practices such as drawing, collage, movement, humming, singing, rhythm, and embodied reflection, participants are invited to slow down, regulate their nervous systems, and engage creativity as a tool for clarity and connection. Each session prioritizes process over product, welcoming people with no prior art experience and meeting them where they are.

  • Who This Is For

    This project is for Bed-Stuy residents navigating the pressures of contemporary life—rising rents, economic uncertainty, work stress, caregiving, immigration anxiety, grief, and social isolation. It is designed for longtime residents, Black and Brown communities, immigrants, elders, artists, newcomers, and anyone seeking space to pause and reconnect. The workshops are intentionally intergenerational and culturally responsive, reflecting the neighborhood’s diversity and evolving social fabric.

  • Why This Matters

    Stress narrows perspective, isolates individuals, and limits the ability to imagine alternatives. Art of Belonging responds by creating temporary creative hubs throughout the neighborhood where residents can step out of survival mode and into shared presence. These pauses support emotional regulation, collective reflection, and creative problem-solving—helping people feel less alone while cultivating the mental flexibility needed to navigate uncertainty. The work does not aim to stop change, but to slow it long enough for people to be seen, heard, and resourced by one another.

Guest Artists & Creative Leadership

In addition to sessions led by the project’s lead artist, Art of Belonging invites a rotating group of guest artists and practitioners to facilitate select workshops. Guest artists are invited to contribute a single session aligned with their practice—such as movement, sound, visual art, or embodied reflection—allowing for meaningful participation without ongoing commitment.

This structure supports local artists in gaining paid teaching experience, leadership opportunities, and deeper community engagement while contributing to a shared ecosystem rooted in generosity, cultural stewardship, and collective learning.

Join Us

Past Projects

About Me - The Artist

My practice combines painting, movement, ritual, and community-based art-making, with a long history of teaching and facilitation. This project is rooted in my lived, long-term relationship to Bed-Stuy and reflects a commitment to creative care, cultural respect, and community belonging.

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Outcomes

  • Over two years, Art of Belonging culminates in a Living Community Archive—a public time capsule capturing how Bed-Stuy residents experienced, processed, and responded to this moment in the neighborhood’s history.

    The archive is created collaboratively through workshop participation and takes multiple forms:

  • composed of photographic images of participants, reflecting the real demographic and cultural fabric of Bed-Stuy in 2026–2027

  • of collective humming, singing, and breath—layered into a shared sonic landscape

  • capturing gestures, rhythm, and embodied presence

  • identifying common stressors and the adaptive strategies participants developed through creative practice

This work is shared through a hybrid presentation that includes a physical installation, neighborhood-scale public displays during the summer months, and an accessible digital archive. Together, these elements preserve lived experience, highlight community resilience, and offer a blueprint that other neighborhoods facing similar pressures can learn from.

 

Get Involved

Whether you are a Bed-Stuy resident interested in participating, a local business or organization interested in hosting a workshop, or an artist interested in facilitating a session, we invite you to connect. Fill out the form below to get involved and stay informed about upcoming workshops and opportunities.

Support our Mission

Your support helps keep Art of Belonging free, accessible, and rooted in community care. Donations fund materials, guest artists, documentation, and the time required to sustain meaningful programming. By contributing, you are investing in creative pause, cultural memory, and the belief that communities thrive when people are given space to breathe, reflect, and imagine together.

3% Cover the Fee