 Hi and welcome to Live at 525, this is Corinne speaking and I'll be your host this evening. I'm here with Kylie Daly who is a local artist and a recent grantee of the Community Arts Fund from BCA and David Foss who is a resident leader at Burlington Housing Authority. He's part of the resident advisory board and he's on the resident steering committee at Decker Towers and yeah we're going to be talking a little bit about some activities we have planned for the art hop coming up this fall some of the things that we're doing this summer at Decker Towers and other BHA properties leading up to that and I want to hear a little bit more about you both individually. Kylie would you like to say more? Sure so thank you for that introduction Corinne. I'm really excited to be on the air today talking about these projects so I guess I could I could tell the story of how I got involved with the what we're going to be talking about today artwork and art hop with BHA residents so this past winter I was contacted by a resident of Worf Lane apartment buildings which is a BHA property Donna Walters and she had six months prior to that formed an arts council with some other members of the Worf Lane residents association because over the years there have been so many complaints about the the white walls and the just not really any visual stimulation in the common areas and so they formed the arts council to kind of figure out what what would people want to see and how would they get the resources to make it happen so Donna who's the the resident who formed that art council she met with Dorian Kraft who's the director of the BCA to kind of get some ideas where can we get funding to make this happen so she suggested pairing up with an artist from the community and applying for the community fund grant which is a fund created by the BCA Burlington City Arts and so we designed a project that would be a way to I I would come in and do workshops with residents to make art together inspired by nature Worf Lane is right on the edge of the rail yard it's it's in a very industrial part of town and residents really wanted to see more nature in their lives so we're going to be doing nature inspired art and and yeah and we were lucky enough to receive the grant and so now we're starting to make things happen the art hop is going to be kind of the kickoff for this project I'll be doing demos all weekend of the the technique called shadow painting that I developed for use in this project so that residents can kind of get a feel for it get an idea what are these workshops going to look like and I don't know I guess I'll stop there I think that was a lot of information yeah I actually um I'd love to hear from David a little bit about what resident association means and what makes you what got you involved in the resident association at Decker Towers and how has that changed your interaction with your community there um well I've been living at Decker Towers for almost three years and when I first got there it was kind of quiet in Decker Towers which was kind of nice but I really wanted to get more involved in the in the apartment setting there and I got involved with resident advisory board first and that is a group that each of the Burlington Housing Authority buildings have representation when they talk about policies events and me and a couple other folks are do um represent Decker Towers and then decided that we needed a little bit more input a little bit more working together to make it a better living situation for all of us in Decker Towers and then by reaching out to the other Burlington Housing buildings as well for those who don't know um what Burlington Housing Authority is uh can you tell us where Decker Towers is and a little bit about Burlington Housing Authority? Burlington Housing Authority is a whole series of buildings like Decker Towers, one-on-one North, 10 North Champlain, um we have Warflane, Bob-and-Mill, there's family development, there's senior developments, there's uh all kinds of different situations living situations and Decker Towers where I live is a combination of folks with um disabilities and senior housing and a little bit different than some of the other housing um a little bit more two more challenges and because we are we are a fairly varied age range trying to find common threads and one of the things we've noticed is like getting together doing art getting involved with uh both Corinne and Kylie with the Shadow Arts and the Voices of Home Project we actually started out with a few folks and a lot of people are getting interested so I think our community is getting closer together that's a great cue to talk about the shadow painting that Kylie started developing with the Warflane residents and has done a little bit with Decker Towers do you want to talk about that Kylie yeah um so I it's something that I just you know I came across um playing around in my studio a couple years ago I don't think it's it's a completely original technique I think a lot of people uh have been drawn to the way that you can trace shadows and create beautiful artwork um so I I came back to it when I was doing this project with Warflane trying to figure out what kind of workshops could we do together um because it feels like a very accessible way to make um a beautiful artwork you don't need to feel like you have to be trained as an artist to make to make um a painting inspired by the nature right outside your door um it's I use an overhead projector um I think I should probably try and illustrate this with my website um so I have um an overhead projector uh and I place plants that I gather just you know I go for woodswalk sometimes but even right outside my studio building or right outside Warflane um I found really nice nice source material I lay the plant on the projector um and then uh there's a mirror which reflects it and then a lens that magnifies it so the shadow projects onto the wall of whatever I put onto the projector um and then that I'm kind of like visual this it's hard to explain it hopefully this is making sense um and then there's like a piece of paper on the wall or a canvas leaned up against the wall or something on an easel that the shadow is being captured on and then trace it with a pen or a brush and ink paint a colored pencil whatever is the material that like appeals to you um and then once you've traced that shadow of the plant onto the paper or the canvas that can be the jumping off point for a drawing or a painting um so I was doing this last week in those the art making sessions that um David was talking about at Decker Towers I was I was just tracing a whole bunch of plant shadows and with pencil and then handing them off um and some residents took them back to their room to color on their own time um we had at least one person coloring right there many other people doing just freestyle paintings which were turning out really well um so there so I can you know I can work on a number of levels that was just using pencils and colored pencils um to create artworks together uh and then um for the warfling I'm gonna give the rest because I've received this community fund grant I'll have the resources to get paint and canvases um and so the residents will have a chance to do the same technique but with um the the chance to use like the fine art supplies and make a really lasting artwork that can hang on their walls yeah I definitely um I think uh last Saturday was our most recent art session that was maybe the second time we had done that and it was really struck by the different environment um the art session had then uh compared to when we were meeting as a resident association there's this kind of like relaxation in the room and comfort and being there and um I definitely found the when you were giving people something to work in and like uh coloring like the outlines of a piece that uh was kind of beautiful and specific it was this calming effect and um people really were able to engage in ways that they weren't engaging uh during resident meetings what's nice we were talking art hop is coming up and one of the inspirations to do these drop-in sessions was to get folks excited about art um part of art hop part of the things that art hop is the BHA residents will have an opportunity to display some of their art and Kylie and Corinne both they've dropped in um we've had color paint we had pencils um and then Kylie's idea of bringing the uh different leaves and different outlines up on the board people are taking that and coloring in their own ideas and people are getting excited and that's what we were hoping that people with the drop-in art sessions I get people interested in the big thing which is art hop coming up in September why do you think it's important to engage residents in the art hop this fall like what how is it going to affect the residents or why why is it going to be a fun I guess of course it sounds fun but like what's the importance of it well one it is definitely an eye-opener for the community to a lot of folks especially I believe in like Decker Tower's Warflame Bob and Mill where the art hop session is going to be um get a chance to show a little bit of pride and I'm amazed just in my building how many different people are involved in art and excited about art and even the folks that kind of diddle in it you know they get real excited and it's something that's gonna I hope just catch fire and then we'll have all kinds of people looking at what we have to offer yeah do you have anything to add Kylie um yeah it's it's something that I talked about with Donna when we were putting together the um grand proposal for this project um is that you know so many people when they come into the building be it um uh be it the visiting nurses or the mental health services or even the police they are coming there when residents are in crisis and they're seeing only one side of these people um and so with with the the project over at Warflame making canvases to permanently install on their walls they're going to be having um an open house next spring uh to show off what they created um where they can invite these same people who usually come when they are experiencing difficulty and need help they're actually inviting them to show off like these really beautiful sides of themselves and their abilities and what and you know the the way that they've made this project happen by forming the arts council and so yeah I think I think art is um a really important way to humanize people um to show that there's really great sides of people that might that you know we might forget about like if if the if you're only going to provide services you might forget that these people have a lot to offer as well to the community I wonder if you have any big takeaways um from working with residents and attending some of these resident association meetings uh because you've attended a couple you attended the one at Warflame and you attended some of the Decker Towers meetings um well I feel like I'm learning a lot just about how how to make stuff happen with you know not a lot of resources um and how to figure out what are the resources that are there like uh when I've seen the residents in action at their at their meetings like you know they're they're planning some like they're planning skills or organizational skills um communication with each other making sure that like no one's feelings are hurt um there's there's a lot of really important skills that I mean I'm personally still developing as an artist so I feel like I'm learning a lot there yeah no I agree when we have these events people are so many differences but they do support each other in the arts and nobody makes fun of anybody and art can encompass so many different things between painting and drawing and photography and again it just blows my mind how many different where different people come from we have folks from many different continents different folks that live in the buildings and the biggest way that they do communicate is through art and pictures we have several folks that come to our drop-in that don't speak any English but they sit down and they smile and they everyone kind of paths them on their back and that's a big plus get everyone involved in our community how many people live in your building David um decorative towers we have about 160 residents a lot of people 11 floors of folks with a lot of differences but we find that our strength is is all the differences we have David you spend a lot of time um you know organizing meetings and uh preparing for meetings and going to the resident advisory board and uh supporting fellow residents and I just wonder do you personally feel like um the work that you are a part of is making a lasting impact at decorative towers I think so I first started you know over two years ago getting involved with the other buildings and now we've developed a pretty good system within our own building and we're starting to reach out to other buildings and trying to get everybody to work together I mean the housing situation is something that's not going to go away right away and it does take a lot of money a lot of effort and through Kylie and Corinne and hopefully together with the limited resources we learn to adapt and maybe develop skills that we can kind of aid each other in and develop you know you know learn something new and provide that communication and support with other residents when you say the housing situation isn't going to go away what is that referring to um there are a lot of folks that have limited means and need places to live I mean I think Burlington does a pretty good pretty good effort so far but there's just so many people with layoffs worry about money with illness I mean people are surprised I mean folks that live I live with a lot of those folks never intended to be you know situation where they're limited income and things happen in their life and so we do the best we can I know a lot about your personal story because they're interviewing you for the Voices of Home Project and I know that you have a personal you can really relate to that statement I wonder if you feel feel like speaking to that at all well I don't know I mean I just I went from a situation where I did have a good job and good place to live and a lot of support and I basically lost my my my lost my mom lost my house lost my job ended up primarily homeless and then started working with folks and myself and got out of it and hopefully with all the things I've learned there and with the other folks I've met we're learning to help each other go through all the different things what how are you inspired to be such a prominent leader in your community what was the how how did you find that energy and that motivation well the people around me motivate me I mean there's so many good people and the energy grows from except the differences we all have have for them to make a very strong bond and we're all trying to keep our housing it's fun to get cut all the time and it's ever-changing but we're all trying to fight to keep our spot and Kylie I know that you do a lot in the community besides just besides this project that you're working on I wonder if you could talk a little bit about the poetry show and what other kinds of things that you do to be involved in the community well the poetry show is a show really similar to this one another live at 525 show and we have kind of a broad focus so we call it arts and activism the poetry show so pretty much anything we want to talk about that falls under those three terms we'll talk about and my favorite thing is when we're interviewing guests um current actually was my guest last month uh and it's I don't know tv is like I kind of stumbled into it I didn't form the poetry show I was asked to be a co-host after it had already been established for several months uh so I lost the train um yeah it's it's fun to talk with people and like it's a cool medium for hearing stories on tv like you know when you sit down for a formal interview with someone you might hear a part of their story that would have taken you like forever to get to just you know in small talk and like casual meetings um so we got to hear last month on the poetry show we got to hear Corinne's whole story about how she got into working with affordable housing and storytelling projects which is really interesting and I've known Corinne for a while and never knew all that um another another project that uh I'm part of is a friend of mine Connor um does drawing nights uh he started doing it this past winter very similar to what is happening at Decker Towers right now with the community art making events um people just come with some paper and pencils or pens whatever project they're working on or just want to doodle and we spend usually about three or four hours together um drawing and socializing and uh we'll have music yesterday we had um a special musical guest uh Edward Burke did a workshop and demo um showing us all about his logger phones which he makes a folk instrument that um Edward's a local artist who lives and works in the south end um he makes these logger phones and so it's a chance for some new people to get exposed to his instrument and how to play it and we did some singalongs and um and so it was kind of fun for everybody Edward got to practice his his workshop and we got to experience it and then we all drew together afterwards um so those are the kind of things that are really exciting to me I guess as an artist is is uh I mean my my independent art practice is really important but I like the way that art can be used to bring people together um you know through through a medium of of of workshops and just drop in drawing sessions or um using the tv as a medium to interview and get stories out there I was gonna say it's a good way to get stories um like I'm not really very good at paints and stuff I do a little drawing but my forte I guess is photography and I've learned people drawing and painting the stories of how they got involved and stories of where they are where they live their favorite kind of things and it's kind of activism in a sort of way because the stories will get out there and hopefully uh can help other people in other situations that's actually was one of my questions I was like what is this correlations between art and activism activism I wonder if you have any thoughts about that well I mean I think for me my art a lot of my art is like inspired by nature and beautiful colors and like time spent in the woods and um it's you wouldn't look at it and think like this is political art uh but over the last couple of years I'm I work in a studio with several other artists and oftentimes members of my studio will get really involved in a political project and use the studio as the workshop for creating the signs or the or the public art or whatever it is that is going to aid in their demonstration or their fight for this or that um so I've had a lot I spent a lot of time amongst that type of art that's more directly political and and spent a lot of time thinking about like how does my art fit in with this and and and kind of started to see that uh just the choice of whatever you wanted to pick like that's a political choice you're making you're saying like this is so important enough to me that I want to you know create this big representation or publish this book or or whatever it is and bring this thing into the world and bring people's attention to it um you know so for me like I might be making very uh kind of happy like joyous nature inspired artworks um and that's because I I think that stuff is important and I want to have a place for it and then the I guess when it becomes more activism is is when you find more direct ways to draw people into that world um and ways you know to like with the the war flame project Donna identified me as the artist because because it's colorful and beautiful and is going to be you know a bright spot in their building which is something that they really wanted well I think too over time you notice different errors when there was a lot of trouble or despair or in the world different art forms have come out of those different different saw errors of different music different colors and the same thing is happening and I think more and more people are realizing that we need to get together instead of fight each other and I see that more and more in the different arts and then more you know the music is changing that way again and uh this is a good way to express in dialogue as well as the visual aspects um I also I'm thinking about our art sessions and Kylie you were uh you encouraged me to like leave them pretty structuralist and I wonder like how that I was really nervous about but um you you were pretty confident it was like a choice can you yeah well I think that actually came out of my first experience with group art making sessions like that which was several years ago um I spent some time in the the psychiatric ward at UVM um and for panic attacks and other things like that and um though the way it's set up up there is everyone gets a room and then in the middle of all the rooms there's there's two common rooms one is like where you eat and the other one is basically just an art room like a big table and chairs and a ton of supplies um and I found so much value like that was the most healing part of the whole experience for me was just being in that art room with the when it was unstructured and we could just do whatever we wanted and getting to know other people who are also going through like really hard times in their mental health and you know kind of being able to feel inspired by what I was seeing come out of them you know being like oh this person's also going through something really hard and they're making something really beautiful and like you know so maybe I can do that too you know maybe we're all going to be okay together um and there were also times that were more structured activities like an art therapist would come in and it just it it never had the same like feel it didn't have the same feel to it where this is about us this is about the patients it felt you know it's more about like this project that the art therapist is bringing to us which might have its value in some settings but for me what I really needed was to get get to know other people who are going through hard times and like be able to see ourselves in a really positive light wow it's really powerful thank you for sharing that well art hops coming up and I think uh folks would go and attend and see the voices of home see Kylie and the shadow art and just drop in and see all the different different interpretations and it's going to be a cheese open house which is going to be good for everybody so everyone loves cheese our hop is jenny sepember 8th 9th and 10th and um thank you guys so much for joining me this is Kylie this is david thank you um also our hop will be in the bobbin mill center which is off of pine street uh our session sorry thank you