Empathy Through Art

**The first $10,000 raised will be matched dollar for dollar by anonymous donors! These funds will go to our partner nonprofit, the Dementia Alliance for NC, to support their mission of improving the lives of all North Carolinians impacted by dementia, engaging and empowering them through support, education and research, and to Empathy Through Art to support this project.**

Empathy Through Art is a new nonprofit launching in May, 2019 that uses art in all its forms to build community around and empathy for societal challenges we face today.  Empathy Through Art brings together artists, musicians, writers, dancers, and other creatives to work together to build multimedia exhibits and projects that provide a platform for communities to have open conversations about challenges they face.  All work is captured via short films and a print magazine that can be shared both in and across communities.

This project is the kickoff series. It explores the topic of Alzheimer’s and Dementia in the City of Raleigh, NC and across NC. The series will produce a visual art exhibit, community events, short film series, and print magazine.  The funds raised on ioby help fund these and help support the Dementia Alliance for NC.  We have partnered with Imurj to bring our kickoff event and exhibit to downtown Raleigh.

To see the full overview of the project, go to create-empathy.org.

To see a full overview of the project, visit create-empathy.org.

The following summarizes the main target goals of the project.  The May events are scheduled and will occur no matter the funding level reached.  All other events and deliverables will be dependent upon our crowdfunding campaign.

Completed

• The month of May - Gallery exhibit of visual art at Imurj in downtown Raleigh, NC and video interviews of selected artists from the community and their experiences on the topic.  Video interviews of local Alzheimer's/Dementia nonprofits. 
• May 3rd - First Friday community event - highlight the visual art exhibit, performances on the topic, live art creation, and audience art on the topic

Upcoming

• July (date TBD) - "Conversations Through Art" - we've partnered with the Institute for Emerging Issues to host an event that uses art and music to explore how we can make our community more dementia friendly.
• July 29th - "Creative Camp" for caregivers and their loved ones - we've partnered with the Creative Aging Network of NC in Greensboro to host a 3-day summer camp that provides caregivers and their loved ones the chance to do art and music activities in a safe and nurturing space.
• Summer (date TBD) - "Reflections Program at Nasher and Community Creative Workshop" - we've partnered with the Reflections Program at the Nasher Museum at Duke University to host a Reflections tour and community creative workshop sometime in Auguest.  Details forthcoming.
• Summer -  Local artists work together to build a multimedia work of art that conveys empathy for the topic across multiple mediums.
• September - Production of a print magazine that highlights stories (both fiction and nonfiction), photography, and other art on the topic.
• November (date TBD) - Community event and unveiling of the multimedia project - date TBD
• December - 501(c)(3) status and best practices report (to be used for future projects)

We are forgetting how to empathize with each other.  This lack of empathy shows itself throughout our society:

• We are becoming more polarized, making it difficult to have civil discourse
• Issues are becoming oversimplified, preventing room for understanding
• Reactions to disasters, news, and other current events lack empathy, and
• Groups are putting up walls instead of creating broader community

At Empathy Through Art, we believe that empathy is the key to helping our communities come together to face social challenges for everything from Alzheimer's to climate change to inequality and more.  

Art is the communication of emotion through a selected medium.  It provides us with the perfect tools to help foster empathy in others by sharing our experiences, thoughts, and perceptions in ways that are directly relatable.  Everyone relates differently - by combining different artistic mediums we have the opportunity to reach all walks of life in the language they understand best.

We bring together artists and community members to create and share exhibits, events, documentaries, magazines, and more to help convey empathy for social challenges so we can start tackling them together.