Community Heroes: Fort Greene

Community Heroes is a community-based public art project celebrating everyday heroes.

We’re partnering with communities in Fort Greene to nominate heroes and pairing local photographers to take their portraits, which will be exhibited at Fort Greene Park and Commodore Barry Park.

The exhibit aims to:

• Highlight great stories already taking place in each neighborhood

• Encourage viewers to take ownership of their community

• Community build by connecting local heroes (often historic residents) with local photographers (often newer residents).

Your contribution will support the public exhibition of Community Heroes Fort Greene which will be displayed in Commodore Barry Park and Fort Greene Park.

The funds will allow our team to hear from the community at-large, engage local photographers, print large-scale full-color banners and gather the neighborhood for public events around the exhibition.

Your donation is an investment in Fort Greene toward connecting, inspiring and supporting the community. It will support a local artist, share Fort Greene’s story, and inspire neighbors and visitors.

We appreciate all support for our community project. As a community partner, we will include your logo (for businesses) or name (for individuals) on the exhibition, and on our website. You will also be acknowledged during the exhibition opening.

Community Heroes is a collaboration between artist Jasmin Chang and nonprofit Trellis, which connects organizations seeking social justice in the city. Additional partners include the Brooklyn Arts Council, NYC Parks, the Fort Greene Park Conservancy and Friends of Commodore Barry Park.

January to May 2018: Community Outreach

We are currently getting out in the community to collect hero nominations. We take hero nominations online and by ballot. We aim to publicize this nomination process equitably, so everyone has an opportunity to have their voice heard.

June to July 2018: Taking Portraits

We will assign local photographers to photograph each hero. This is an opportunity for both photographer and hero to meet a member of their community who they may not otherwise cross paths with. The photo shoot can spark future collaboration. For example, after local artist Cassandra Giraldo participated in Community Heroes, she returned to do an in-depth profile of the local community center while on assignment for the Wall Street Journal.

August 2018 to May 2019: Public Exhibition

Hero banners will be exhibited simultaneously in Fort Greene Park and Commodore Barry Park. They will be installed along busy corridors and create a link between the two neighborhood parks.

New hero banners will be added throughout the installation.. We will also host public events to meet the heroes and artists of Community Heroes.

Fort Greene is a beautiful, rich and diverse neighborhood brimming with stories and energy. At the same time, there is inequality and the neighborhood is changing rapidly. There are many communities around Fort Greene that rarely overlap. They sit on different sides of the park, eat at different restaurants and shop at different supermarkets.

We believe neighborhoods flourish when we all work together. Our project introduces photographers (often newcomers curious about their neighborhood) to heroes (often historic residents who have sown into the neighborhood) through a process which values them both. Community Heroes provides an alternate narrative to that of development and gentrification. We hope everyone who sees this exhibition will recognize the beautiful stories taking place in their neighborhood, and be inspired to contribute positively to their community.