This is work in progress and another rough cut of just one small piece of a two year project to document The Welcome To The NeighborHOOD Project @ Literacy For Environmental Justice; A community arts project by Wendy Testu.

This segmant is where the artist, Robert Larson, spent thirteen weeks with six youth from the non-profit Literacy For Environmental Justice in the Bayview / Hunters Point neighborhood of San Francisco.This video piece is intended to be shown in the gallery space next to the actual art piece that was created by the youth. In 2010 this segment will be reworked with the other segments into a full length documentary film.

Rob and the youth began with an exploratory walk to scavenge and observe, to get physically involved with the neighborhood materials. Illegal dumping piles are plentiful in the Bayview and there was no lack of materials. Stories about the neighborhood unraveled as they found common materials, such as; Inmates wrist bands, stuffed animals from a sidewalk memorial site and a SF Police Department Frisbee.

The youth have created a modular mixed-media wall installation and other mixed media sculptures using their journal entries over the last nine months and found objects from their investigations.

Stay Tuned for more…

This project has been made possible with generous funding from:
The San Francisco Arts Commission
The LEF Foundation
The Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation
The San Francisco Foundations-Koshland Program

And generous support from:
T-Mobile
Motorola
Dan 'The Automator' Nakamura
Literacy For Environmental Justice
The EcoCenter
The Port of San Francisco
The African American Arts And Culture Complex; Sargent Johnson Gallery
ART 94124 Gallery
Zeum: San Francisco's Children's Museum

And many many generous volunteers

Thank you, each and every one of you

For more information, please visit:

The Project: welcometotheneighborhood.us

Literacy For Environmental Justice: lejyouth.org