Hello Neighbor, 2017

Field interviews conducted in Tuscaloosa and Birmingham by University of Alabama students enrolled in Social Justice and the Arts, a course collaboratively developed and taught by Adrienne Callander and Dr. Lucy Curzon.

Project statement:

We are students interested in the ways art can be not only physical and material, but interactive and discursive as well. We have been exploring historical precedents for this specific type of art, known as Social Practice, to see how artists have previously used this platform to highlight issues within the social or political makeup of societies.

Our course has culminated in our own social interaction within local communities. Through this activity we hope we’ve used art as a vehicle for human engagement and, as a result, forged community where perhaps there was once none.

This project started with a conversation.

We began with the simple question: “What makes your day?”

By creating a platform for conversation, we discovered that the distance between us is far shorter than we had assumed. This archive reflects our joint desire to connect across difference and inspire others to say, “Hello Neighbor”.

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Checa Balderelli (Art and Art History), UA, Sarah Callaby (New College, UA), Carmen GOnzalez Fraile (Art and Art History, UAB), Joani Michelle Inglett (Art and Art History, UA), John Klosterman (Art and Art History, UA), Nick Jackson (New College, UA), Meagan Ollie (New College, UA), Gevin Brown (New College, UA), Becky Teague (Art and Art History, UA), Liam Ward (Art and Art History, UA).