Suzanne Lacy Vimeo Channel

An art project by Suzanne Lacy and students from the Otis MFA Public Practice Program, local residents of a small farming community in the San Joaquin Valley worked students to re-energize the tiny main street and its merchants, to engage public school students of all age levels, and to support cross-cultural conversation between the town’s diverse ethnic cultures. The artists created a series of small projects—painting the town, establishing a free store, creating a mural design program for elementary students, leading a sculpture workshop for high school students, making a new town sign, developing portraits and video projections and advertising to promote the community regionally. The feature event was a performance on Main Street with multiple video projections on the store walls, video installations along main street featuring merchant interviews, live music, stage lighting, and barbeque with over 1,000 in attendance. Funded in part by the Ford Foundation with Otis College of Art and Design.