Today Medicine Wheel Productions (MWP) kicked off the exhibition of its most recent Hand In Hand project at the Cyclorama at the Boston Center for the Arts in the South End. MWP creates Hand in Hand projects with the hope of mending divisions, as well as improving health and safety in communities through the creation of common experiences.
The exhibition is the result of a Hand in Hand project that brought Boston Police Department officers and young community members together for an all-day workshop. Each participating young person was paired with a police officer for the day. The young people and police officers were guided through mediation, shared a meal together, and expressed themselves as individuals and as pairs through works of art. The pairs were given a tutorial on molding and casting their hands and later the casts received an aged bronze patina. Participants also posed for individual and partner portraits, and the workshop closed with everyone being encouraged to reflect on their experiences by writing a facilitated “I Am” poem, sharing insights and experiences.
The work explores and challenges the capacity to humanize “the other” in our lives, and hopefully provides a deeper understanding of our commonalities. Recordings of the poems and the bronze hands are on display at the exhibit. Approximately 200 Boston youth participated in MWP’s Hand in Hand project.
This exhibit is free and open to the public 10am to 7pm Tuesday and 10am to 2 pm Wednesday.
Schedule of Special Events:
Tuesday: 5:30 – 7pm, The South Boston Community Health Center and Medicine Wheel Productions host a Youth/Adult Community Dialogue about Violence Prevention as part of the Health Center’s “Let’s Talk” Initiative. Officers from both South Boston’s C6 and the South End’s D4 will participate along with youth from throughout Boston.
Wednesday: 10 – 11am, Residents of the Cushing House Boys Program will meet with Boston Drug enforcement officers and reflect on their experiences.
Wednesday: 11am – 12pm, Boston Police Department officers from Area D4 will host a “Coffee with a Cop Hour” at the Hand in Hand exhibit to engage with the South End Community.
Wednesday: 6 – 9pm, Medicine Wheel Productions’ annual Turning the Wheel Gala will honor Mayor Martin J. Walsh, State Senator Linda Dorcena Forry, Boston Police Commissioner William Evans, Boston Police Deputy Superintendent Nora Baston and various Medicine Wheel youth and alumni. To purchase tickets, visit http://mwponline.org/wordpress/donate/
Medicine Wheel Productions is a 501c3 non-profit corporation dedicated to art as public service. We develop and implement sustainable public art projects that speak to the needs of individuals, specific communities and to the public at large, primarily in the Boston area. All of our projects invite people to an awareness that comes by creating together and a realization of who we are for ourselves and who we can be for one another.
For more information about Medicine Wheel Productions and the Hand in Hand Project, contact Michael Dowling (617) 872-6065.
