PACE (Public Art Community Engagement) Neighbors is a dedicated program designed to support local artists in creating community-based art projects. Focusing on the concept of community building, public art encourages participation and fosters comradery. The City of Lancaster is dedicated to discovering new ways to reach people, learn from them, and collectively redevelop the civic experience.
The residency supports five artists to create temporary art projects to envision the future of their neighborhood and their city. As a cohort, the artists have opportunities to connect with each other and are provided various resources to augment their own work. Information gleaned from this residency will inform the City’s upcoming comprehensive plan while contributing to neighborhood pride and sense of place.
PACE Neighbors is a National Endowment for the Arts Our Town project led by the City of Lancaster in partnership with Franklin & Marshall College and the City of Lancaster’s Comprehensive Plan.
Our Mission / Nuestra Misión
Our mission is to represent the rich cultural identities and talents of the Latinx communities through Latinx centered plays and originally devised works in both English and Spanish. Teatro Paloma provides artistic opportunities and connections for artists of colors from a variety of backgrounds.
Nuestra misión es representar los talentos e identidades culturales de la comunidad latina, produciendo obras y proyectos originales en español e inglés que exploran varios elementos de nuestra latinidad. Teatro Paloma ofrece oportunidades y conexiones para artistas de diversos orígenes.
Miss You Like Hell, Lancaster, PA, 2022. Image courtesy of Teatro Paloma and Creative Works of Lancaster.
Teatro Paloma’s anthology Relatos Caribeños is a story-relating project that centers on the collection, archival, and celebration of underrepresented local stories and creatives from the Caribbean Latinx diaspora. Through the making of accessible theater opportunities, facilitating community workshops, and organizing panels on immigration advocacy led by Latinx community leaders, we worked on establishing a constellation of creatives from various backgrounds to uplift these stories.
The word “relatos” in Spanish means narrated stories, and in English, the verb “to relate” has two different meanings: to tell a story and/or to establish a connection with somebody or something.
During our early phase of the project, we organized a forum on immigration advocacy as a pre-show discussion to our co-production of Quiara Alegría Hudes’s musical Miss You Like Hell with Creative Works of Lancaster. This play explored the daily reality facing so many undocumented families, locally and nationwide, and our pre-show panel focused on discussing these themes, while also providing a local resource guide to immigration advocacy in Central Pennsylvania.
Miss You Like Hell, Lancaster, PA, 2022. Image courtesy of Teatro Paloma and Creative Works of Lancaster.
For our second phase of the project, we conducted interviews with intergenerational Dominican and Dominican-American local residents and presented their stories through theater. By doing so, we worked on relating these cultural and ethnic-specific stories to Lancaster audiences, while also promoting a safe-space to build cultural bridges among cast and crew members through a discussion-based rehearsal process. During our rehearsals, actors were engaged in conversations about these relatos (narrated stories), and were encouraged to establish personal connections with them, through relating their own personal experiences. Actors also had the power to change the script based on linguistic accommodations and to meet cultural-specific needs. Relatos Caribeños: Dominican Stories is the second installment of Relatos Caribeños, an ongoing community project that seeks to collect and justly archive “relatos”—or stories—from local Caribbean Latinx voices to produce ethnic and cultural-specific theater. Our first installment was Relatos Caribeños: Puerto Rican Stories in 2017.
Relatos Caribeños: Dominican Stories, Lancaster, PA, 2022. Image courtesy of Teatro Paloma.
During our third phase, Teatro Paloma offered community flag-making workshops in both English and Spanish where participants created their own unique flags as a tool for ideating futures and world building.
Community Flags: Envisioning Futures and Building New Worlds Community Workshop, Lancaster, PA, 2022. Image courtesy of Teatro Paloma.
This play is a collection of sueñitos and personal experiences collected from community members from the Dominican diaspora. From improvised fiestas at the vecina’s house in Santo Domingo to personal reflections about ethnic and racial identity, Dominican Stories aims to represent and archive these voices through this celebratory theatrical experience ideated by our community for our community.
Working in the realm of sculpture, Matty Geez’s pieces are three dimensional but maintain a kinship to two-dimensional works. Some are truly free standing while others are meant to be displayed on a wall, even though their surface has a relief quality. His works verge on the edge of fantastic while holding onto familiar botanical shapes. Juxtaposition of hard and soft along with the use of color explores gender identities and breaking the binary. Through the PACE Program with Lancaster City, he has collected information about queer businesses, people, and gathering spaces; tracking the relationship the queer community has with Lancaster as a whole. Results show the biggest asset to LGBTQ+ people is other like minded individuals who will build up and support the community and share in its visibility and empowerment. Although Lancaster has come a long way, it’s important to keep investing in queer health services, sober meeting spaces, and safe spaces for members of this marginalized group.
Libby Modern is the founder of Modern Art, an art and design studio in Lancaster’s West End. She works alongside other artists, neighbors, and community organizations to create projects that use curiosity, empathy, and humor to encourage us to confront complex issues from a new perspective, and inspire us to live better, collectively, in our community.
Welcome to the (Analog) Neighborhood Weekend Extravaganza, Lancaster, PA, 2022. Image courtesy of Michelle Johnsen.
Welcome to the (Analog) Neighborhood explores how we think and use our neighborhood in light of this era of technological saturation—how screens and media affect our attention, dictate how we spend our time, and take over our interactions. Through a series of surprising, curious, and unconventional installations, events, surveys, performances in and around my studio in the West End, I’ve worked to reintroduce my neighbors to the beauty and magic of their neighborhood—the people in it, the spaces, and the small, magical things we often miss when we are connecting only via screens. I’ve been working to engage people’s attention from a structure outside of an algorithmic architecture—unmediated by an institution—and one that they don’t have an obvious category for. This can catch people off guard, giving them an opportunity to think about, and interact with their neighborhood differently. Ideally with poignancy, humor, delight, and agency, rather than rage, angst, and frustration with an imperfect world.
Welcome to the (Analog) Neighborhood Weekend Extravaganza, Lancaster, PA, 2022. Image courtesy of Michelle Johnsen.
Through the collaborative projects of Welcome to the (Analog) Neighborhood, I’m exploring how participatory art can lead neighbors in the collective art of community building. I encourage participants to experience their essential role in the neighborhood, to take ownership of it, to care about it and care for it. Whether it’s following a “Maps of Delights” around the block, imagining secret portals to other worlds, checking your phone into a hotel, putting a line from a poem on a sign in your window, writing love notes, listening to a record with a stranger, making, sharing, and talking about art, these projects open doors that beckon people to enter, engage, and enjoy.
Statement Courtesy of the Artist.
Welcome to the (Analog) Neighborhood Weekend Extravaganza, Lancaster, PA, 2022. Image courtesy of Michelle Johnsen.
The ART bARTer mART is an old filing cabinet converted into a free neighborhood art swap. It lives outside of Modern Art, on the corner of West Chestnut and North Pine, easily accessible to passersby, night and day, from March through October. Anyone may take a piece of art from the drawers, leave a piece of art for others, or use the supplies in the top drawers to make an original piece on the spot.
The ART bARTer mART is currently stocked and open for business here in the exhibition. I invite you to participate by making, taking, and/or leaving a piece of artwork for the drawers.
The aRT bARTer mART, Lancaster, PA, 2022. Image courtesy of Libby Modern.
These three maps were created as walking tours through the neighborhood. Each map points out many of the hidden delights, magic portals, people and neighborhood stories gleaned from weeks of daily walks, conversations and interactive survey questions, both online and through an exercise bike turned pedal-powered electricity generator that sat outside Modern Art.
Each map also contains a tour of “Narrative Delights”— microfiction and poetry commissioned by three local writers. I divided each of the three pieces into individual lines, printed each line on a yard sign, then asked neighbors along a route to put one of the signs in their yard, window, or on their porch. Participants could then follow a map that led them from one sign to another along a path in order to read the whole piece.
Pick up one of the custom-made “Maps of Delights” created for this installation here and record the hidden delights you find on your visit.
Welcome to the (Analog) Neighborhood Weekend Extravaganza, Lancaster, PA, 2022. Image courtesy of Michelle Johnsen.
Modern Art’s Phonotel (a converted card catalog with 60 custom-designed rooms for your phone) provides an opportunity for you to disconnect from the internet in your pocket in order to connect with the world around you.
The concept is simple: you can check your phone into one of these rooms for as little as one-hour or as long as the whole weekend. You choose a room, pick up your key, and then tuck your sweet little phone into its cozy bed while you head off and experience all the tangible world has to offer. When separating from your special device, you may have a bit of anxiety, so don’t forget to grab a Phonotel Survival Guide with helpful tips on how to get through any uncomfortable times, a Phonotel button, pens, paper, books, and many of the other analog perks, all complimentary with your Phonotel stay.
Please feel free to look through the drawers, and sign our guest book letting the Phonotel know how you feel about your phone. The Phonotel will be open for select events throughout the duration of the exhibition.
Original Phonotel concept by Libby Modern and Joanna Davis.
Phonotel rooms made with assistance from Sidney Brant and Lauren Snell.
The Phonotel, Lancaster, PA, 2022. Image courtesy of Michelle Johnsen.
Over a beautiful weekend in May 2022, Modern Art held a giant participatory, conceptual, and interactive event with a host of analog delights to help remind neighbors of the beauty and magic of their neighborhood—the people in it, the spaces, and the small, magical things we often miss when we are connecting only via screens.
Welcome to the (Analog) Neighborhood Weekend Extravaganza, Lancaster, PA, 2022. Image courtesy of Michelle Johnsen.
I set up the Phonotel (a retreat for and from your screen) and invited visitors to come in and check in their phones for the weekend. I provided analog versions of the things we all rely on our phones for: Polaroid and digital cameras with a board (analogram) on which to post their photos, a Walkman with cassette tapes, a typewriter and “messenger service” to write notes for others to deliver to neighbors, a lobby with newspapers, books, board games, and a record player, comfortable places to sit and chat, and volunteer neighborhood “conversationalists,” “concierges,” and “bellhops’’ to help guide you through your device-free time.
Welcome to the (Analog) Neighborhood Weekend Extravaganza, Lancaster, PA, 2022. Image courtesy of Michelle Johnsen.
While their phones were relaxing, folks were invited to follow one of three “Maps of Delights” with tours through the neighborhood that pointed out many of the hidden delights, magic portals, and stories. Local brass band, Streetbeans, played a raucous live outdoor performance and led the audience in a parade around the neighborhood.
This event brought together all sorts of people, unmediated, to do something that they didn’t know they could do (but clearly can): survive in the world without their phone. When you remind people what it is to be human—using your instincts, conversions without distraction, daydreaming instead of scrolling, feeling the vitality of live art—you start to understand that it’s not about what you HAVE to do (put away your phone) but what you GET to do (enjoy the world and people around you.)
Welcome to the (Analog) Neighborhood Weekend Extravaganza, Lancaster, PA, 2022. Image courtesy of Michelle Johnsen.
There is nothing more important than connection. In a world so divided and sick, healing comes directly through community connection. Humans are social animals and we all are naturally drawn to and capable of healing through loving connection with others. This is how we grow and heal ourselves, each other, and the world. If I can provide that service through my work, I know I’m living my life’s purpose and am exactly where I’m meant to be. I have found working together on projects, sharing our stories, listening, and playing together to be powerful tools to this end.
Map-making workshop, Lancaster, PA, 2022. Image courtesy of Shauna Yorty.
When I walk down the street and see these people, my whole being lights on fire. They are the birds in the forest, they are the light that glistens in the morning dew, their faces shine like the brightest stars, and their hands tell the stories of a million generations of hardworking ancestors who guided them to be right here in this space and time working and loving and surviving all that is upon them and us. I am deeply honored to share this neighborhood with them and I want to show others the beauty I see in my world.
The assets in my neighborhood are the people, the beautiful people.
Statement Courtesy of the Artist.
Map-making workshop, Lancaster, PA, 2022. Image courtesy of Shauna Yorty.
Luis, 2022. Digital Photograph.
Well, there for a while I didn’t think I would be older than 16, then 21, and here I am at 73 working, doing stuff for people, doing stuff for myself. I enjoy life and doing stuff. Everything gives me hope—my wife, my mom, my kids, just being here livin’, friendship. We have a little bit of everything here, but we all get along together. We watch each other’s backs. We watch their kids when we’re sitting outside and we enjoy each other’s company.
Nick, 2022. Digital photograph.
The kids that come and are part of our lives for a season and then move away or grow up and, and move on, it’s kind of fun to teach ‘em something maybe they don’t know. We’ll show ‘em what plants they can eat in our yard and how to pick up bugs and critters. They all seem to really love the snakes, which is funny, funny to me. They can be doing whatever out here in our little mini wild area back here and just being creative and dirty and coming up with grass stains and whatever else on their skin and faces- dirt, crushed flower petals, smelling like mint. I find it glorious that they can do that out here and be creative making forts out of dirt and bricks and making little bug houses.
Noel, 2022. Digital photograph.
I don’t get no stress. I don’t get worried about nothing. I can’t get that shit in my heart because I can’t do nothing. I trust myself. I work. I love working. I take care of my family, I take care of this house. I give it the best.
Baez, 2022. Digital photograph.
Ha sido el sueño de mi vida vivir en los Estados Unidos y conducir un camión. Nunca imaginé que estaría aquí enseñando a la gente a conducir camiones. Dios me dio la oportunidad de estar aquí persiguiendo mis sueños y logrando todo lo que deseaba. Soy muy agradecido. Quiero dar oportunidades a las personas que nunca tuvieron una oportunidad. Enseño a personas de todas partes: Kenya, México, India, todas partes. En la escuela, les enseñó cómo estar en la calle conduciendo con seguridad y los trato como si fueran mis propios hijos.
It’s been my life’s dream to live in the USA and drive a truck. I never imagined I would be here teaching people how to drive trucks. God gave me the opportunity to be here chasing my dreams and accomplishing everything I wished for. I am so grateful. I want to give opportunities to the people who never got a chance. I teach people from everywhere- Kenya, Mexico, India, all over. At the school, I teach them how to be out in the street driving safely and treat them like they were my own kids.
Jennifer, 2022. Digital photograph.
I really am motivated by the idea that we can change the world, we can make a difference. I am optimistic. I really just try to offer what I have. The world is a big, scary place. But you know, if we all work together, we can make a difference. If we’re all rowing in the same direction, I really believe that we can change, and maybe not in my life, but maybe in my eleven year-old’s. And when you have those little eyes and ears and depending on you, you gotta just keep going. So, regardless, we’ll make it happen.
Guyula, 2022. Digital photograph.
I’ll be 98 my next birthday. I enjoy life. I come out here, I sit out in the sun and I try to get tan. I eat out on the deck in the backyard, watch the birds, and I talk to ‘em and they “dee-dee-dee-dee”, then I “dee-dee-dee-dee”, and I watch the ravens fly across. And so I enjoy life, I love life. Look at the beautiful sunshine, the beautiful weather we have and we get our food, and all the needs and everything, and rain. I pray for everybody. When they move by here, I say, “Have a good day. God bless you, and have a safe and a healthy one.” I have nothing to complain about. I have everything I need.
Victor, 2022. Digital photograph.
It’s quiet here. It’s just nice and quiet. I sit in the front in the daytime and outback at night. I like to talk to anybody who comes by. Sometimes they sit and talk and I talk. I enjoy life, just living.
Emily H., 2022. Digital photograph.
My church family pretty much all came from the southeast. The fact that I’m connected to those folks that grew up and their parents lived here, it’s cool to be with people who have been here a long time and understand and have been through different things in life. Having relationships with other families is something that’s been important for our time here. Our house is definitely a place for the neighborhood kids to come over. We usually have watermelon, sometimes ice cream. I like feeding people. People, Jesus, and connection bring me hope.
Chynaah, 2022. Digital photograph.
What makes me tick is what I call the life of ubuntu. Ubuntu is the African philosophy which says, “I am, therefore we are. We are, therefore I am.” In order for there to be any level of success, we must all be successful as a community.
What I want to offer to this world is me, the real me, not the representation. I’d rather somebody be turned off about the real me than turned on by my representation.
What gives me hope is knowing that for someone who has experienced certain things in life—divorce, rape, homelessness, economic challenges, the list goes on and on and on. If someone like me, who has had many, many of life’s tragedies could turn my life around and not only achieve getting my masters, but working on my doctorate and, being able to live a life that to me is according to my purpose, that’s hope not only for me, but the next person who needs an example of life and what life could be.
My passion is people. My passion is radical love and hospitality, creating shalom- peace that passes all understanding, ridiculous peace. You know, the kind of peace that you know has to come from some cosmic place.
I need people to support me in creating global ubuntu. In order to create a sustainable society of peace, of tolerance, of reconciliation, hope, it takes the village. It takes each and every person. I go to every person I come in contact with ‘cause they’re all reflections of me. I’m a reflection of them. So I go to myself and every person I come in contact with.
Fern, 2022. Digital photograph.
I was born here in this house on the couch five years ago, but I’ve lived here for thousands of years. Since then, they built a new fire station and are repairing the roads. I play in the whole neighborhood, and do the garden, and do the trash pick up with my trash picker. I’m skilled at running and jumping and if I fall, I just jump right back up. I want to offer the world love that looks like a bee. I’m my own neighbor.
Emily V., 2022. Digital photograph.
Estoy muy agradecida. Este es un lugar seguro y colorido. No era seguro donde vivíamos antes y las personas que nos ayudaron a venir aquí fueron muy amables y serviciales. Quiero ser parte de eso. Todos los días trabajo en el estudio y mantengo la cabeza recta. En el futuro, quiero ir a la universidad para estudiar medicina y ser enfermera. Pienso en dar y ayudar de la misma manera que me han ayudado. Quiero ser una buena persona con un buen punto de vista, no una persona egocéntrica.
I’m very grateful. This is a safe and colorful place. It was not safe where we lived before. The people who helped us come here were very nice and helpful. I want to be a part of that. Every day I work on studying and I keep my head straight. In the future, I want to go to university to study medicine and be a nurse. I think about giving and helping the same way that I’ve been helped. I want to be a good person with a good point of view, not a person of ego.
Sir Dominique Jordan, the Prolific One, is a poetic vanguard hailing from Lancaster, Pennsylvania; whether spoken word or on a page, he uses his unique verbiage to inspire others to use their vulnerability as a ‘super power’. He identifies as an “Artivist”, and teaches across the country about how Hip Hop culture and general creative expression are tools that can be used in the classroom and within neighborhoods to enhance the overall educational experience. He is also the founder and CEO of The Artivist Corp. and the Nobody’s Pen writers’ collective.
BlockRite, Lancaster, PA, February 19th, 2022. Image courtesy of Joshua F. Beltre.
The Artivist Corp. is organizing neighborhood clean ups, known today as The BlockRite Program, and partnering with local schools and organizations, as well as independent artists that are on the ground to shed light on continual oppression. They also strive to diminish the spread of misinformation of Lancaster’s abundant resources through creative mentorship and various other forms of engagement. This project is intended to impact our young people, as well as our local educators that typically do not live within city limits, which in turn will gradually translate into positive reinforcement in the hallways of our schools. The key demographics are our BIPOC community, as well as anyone that feels marginalized or is in search of a way to help keep our city safe and beautiful. Jordan loves to challenge people to make a difference in their community as they see fit, find him and his efforts on social media using the hashtag #WhatThatImpactDo.
Statement Courtesy of the Artist.
BlockRite, Lancaster, PA, February 19th, 2022. Image courtesy of Joshua F. Beltre.
BlockRite, Lancaster, PA, February 19th, 2022. Image courtesy of Joshua F. Beltre.
What That Impact Do
The world is changing ever so fast, yet the diaspora from the past exists and seemingly ever lasts with a crescendo of oppression that overcasts every ounce of Black Destiny. Not for nothing but... The most influential culture of all time has been altered and glorified with false shrines and diamonds that aren’t even ours to buy. Beware of a Nu Renaissance rising nearest you, where the cause always compliments the effect. The lies fed to us got us doubting our super powers. Inside, beneath, and behind all the masks, you’ll find a worthy soul just waiting to fly... if you let it be... but one must be willing to learn, hydrate, and nourish any and every seed of progressive affirmation.
It’s almost prophetic how the elders know best, yet the youth speak the most innocent, unfiltered truth. Exactly why the proper education is paramount. Real life feed these kids, crack the lid, open their wigs, fill it with tools and bliss. They need US! It’s imperative that the energy from Mr. Willie Thedford, Coach Collins “Boobie” Gantz, and Leon Buddy Glover flow through myself and all black men under their legacy in these halls and streets! The mission is that my mentees surpass all of our aspirations with ease! Here’s the historically ironic, kicker... just how precious are our lives if all it takes is one to pull a trigger? If you don’t know, we know. Remember this, with curiosity can come dangerous information, with that type of knowledge becomes a duty to do something with it. #WhatThatImpactDo