'Sharing our love of community together'; 'Unifying as a community to create a sense of pride in our vibrant lives'; giving, caring, security - these were keynotes picked up on from a community listening session for an art installation completed over the summer with a team of 8 interns. The project was a summer residency with ArtWorks for Milwaukee, Inc., an arts-based organization that hires high school students as interns to learn job readiness skills by working with a lead artist. For this project, youth helped design and paint a mural, boulders for seating, and a story-pole garden with written statements painted by people living in the Burnham Park neighborhood. This park is a popular mixed-use park that attracts family and kids for recreation - mainly soccer and baseball, and is regularly booked for birthday parties, meetings and other gatherings in its recreational building. During the first week of programming I watched as my extremely shy interns came ...

by Tia Richardson This article is adapted from my talk for the Tedx UW-Milwaukee Salon 'Our City Our Canvas' December 2, 2015. It shares my process of how I came to discover community art as a sense of purpose in my life. I wasn't always a community artist. It wasn't always easy for me to be outgoing with people. I was, however, always an artist in the traditional sense. I grew up drawing and painting, supported and encouraged by my parents at an early age. Being good at drawing gave me a sense of feeling valued by others, when they appreciated my work, but it only went so far. Like most people I experienced life pains of growing up. For one thing, I was very introverted and insecure. I spent three of the most creative parts of my childhood growing up in rural Janesville, WI, a predominantly white town where my dad worked as an engineer and my mom attended nursing school. Growing up as the only black girl in most of my classes didn't help my feelings of i...

By Tia Richardson This article was first published by Visionary Viewpoints, a New Age newsletter dedicated to igniting ideas to change the world. I am deeply inspired by the veterinary community and the people who are part of it. Over the last couple of years I’ve had the chance to work with several of their communities and institutions as an artist. That journey has opened my eyes in a new way to the work they do and what they’re about. As we embark on our journey into the Aquarian Age, I wanted to share a little of what I discovered in that light.  Before my journey, the image that came to mind when I first thought of the word ‘veterinarian’ was a person with a stethoscope checking out a dog or cat patient in a clinic. I knew they loved animals, sure, but not much else about their interests or values as professionals. If you’d have told me then how much I would come to appreciate them now, I probably wouldn’t have believed you. But did you know they are also scientists, educato...

Learn about the process, background and how this mural developed.    Click here to listen to mural dedication spee ch Speech transcript below Sunday April 2, 2017 2pm-4pm All People's Church 2600 N. 2nd St Milwaukee, WI 53212 Mural in the sanctuary January 13th, about three weeks into painting Thank you to Pastor Steve Jerbi, for inviting me to be a part of this project, and to the members and friends of All People's Church who welcomed me into their sanctuary over the last six months, and who so graciously tolerated the 18' high ugly scaffolding taking over a corner of their church! It is with great joy that I honor this congregation and it's mission, through the completion of this mural. There were many moments and good memories that I'm going to miss while I was here. Before telling you about the mural itself, I want to share some of what I appreciate about the people here. Every day I came, I was greeted warmly and anyone was willing to offer a hand...