Artists Learn and Share: Gabriel Sosa

In the Artists Learn and Share series, NEFA connects with grantees to learn more about the impact of the grant on their work. Gabriel Sosa—along with collaborators in the Lawrence Arts Collective – received a Collective Imagination for Spatial Justice (CISJ) Grant in 2023. For their CISJ Imagination Journey, the Lawrence Arts Collective joined forces with Liza Zayas, Dariana Guerrero, and Gina Marte, who were artists participating in their social practice artist-in-residence program. Together, artists and staff came together to reimagine public artmaking as a tool for strengthening community relationships, driving economic growth, and nurturing contemporary art in Lawrence. In this blog, Gabriel Sosa responds to questions from NEFA’s Public Art Team about his CISJ experience.

Collective Imagination for Spatial Justice grants support teams of Massachusetts-based creatives and community members, to do the important work of imagining: What does public art that fosters positive social change look, sound, and feel like in your community? The Collective Imagination for Spatial Justice grant aims to support teams that are dreaming up what public artmaking can be as we strive for more just futures for our public spaces and public culture. CISJ applications are due October 21, 2024.

Danielle Amodeo (DA): You received a Collective Imagination for Spatial Justice grant in 2023. Can you tell us more about the team you applied with and what sparked your imagination journey?

Gabriel Sosa (GS): We applied as the Lawrence Arts Collective, a coalition of local nonprofits that promote the arts in Lawrence. Those organizations included Essex Art Center, a community arts nonprofit where I serve as deputy director; Ateneo Dominicano, a Dominican cultural organization led by Jenny García; and Izizwe Dance Studio, founded and run by Amy Xotyeni.

At the time, in 2023, we ran an artist residency focused on participatory community-based work. The residency took place from January - June 2023, and three local artists were provided with studio space, a stipend, a project budget, and studio visits with various leaders in the arts. Those artists were Dariana Guerrero, Liza Zayas, and Gina Romero. Each artist spent time getting to know their community in new and more intimate ways, and each developed their own participatory work. These included a Lawrence-inspired playing card deck by Dariana, audience-inspired dance performance by Gina, and a participatory spoken word of dance, song, and spoken word by Liza.

We conceived this residency out of a desire to expand notions of public art in Lawrence while also providing a nourishing environment for artists to grow their practices through mentorship, community connections, and challenges to make new work different from each artists’ typical way of working. The timing of CISJ aligned perfectly with our program, and as organizations we all felt that the artists—as well as ourselves as curators and administrators—would benefit from participating.

DA: What was it like for you to participate in CISJ? What did the imagination journey open up for you? What impact did it have on you, your team, and community?

GS: We enjoyed the monthly convenings with the rest of the CISJ cohort, and it was inspiring to learn about the powerful work that other artists and community leaders are doing across the state. In some cases, we recognized familiar faces—Izizwe has long been inspired by the work of Monkeyhouse, an organization focused on choreography that was part of our cohort, and that relationship helped inform our approaches to dance and movement as a team. Another group in our CISJ cohort, Chaos Theory based in Pittsfield, works to ensure that public art can create bridges between policy makers and those individuals in our communities often left without a seat at the table.

As a team, learning about their work helped push our considerations of participation and outreach. Jenny, Amy, and I wanted to provide a sense of structure and care for the artists-in-residence on our team while also ensuring the unencumbered freedom for them to experiment. These cohort meetings helped provide an additional anchor to our program and regular doses of inspiration and connection for all of us.

Finally, connections have also emerged from CISJ for me. Connections with other artists and organizations and just members of the community, which I'm confident are going to provide some kind of fruit.

DA: How did your imagination journey evolve over the course of the program?

GS: In addition to thinking deeply about participation and outreach, so many conversations within the CISJ cohort were about resting, recharging, and dreaming. We often found ourselves asking, “How do we rest? How can you rest adequately so then you can do the work you want to do properly and effectively?” I don't think there's an easy answer to that. I'm still struggling with that question because well, how do we rest? We're all artists and working at nonprofits and juggling a bunch of all these different jobs, and then there's family, personal obligation, etc.  But the ideas around the importance of dreaming that we have considered as a group were such a powerful part of our team’s work.

Another evolution I experienced as part of CISJ has to do with how I think about place. The objective of the social practice artist-in-residence program was to make community-based art and think about public art in ways where the public is actually able to take on some agency. Our focal point was not about making more murals or public artworks that people need to go to and admire, but rather about making work people are part of from the outset. I had time and space to think about public art as a shared experience.

My reflections on Lawrence as a place have shifted over the course of CISJ. This experience has been an affirmation that it is possible to expand the definition of public art to achieve those outcomes in Lawrence specifically.

DA: Would you recommend CISJ to artists or community groups who are thinking of applying?

GS: Yes! We were inspired to transform the ways we make work and dream up new projects, and we made exciting connections. As artists, at times it’s easy to become siloed, relishing whatever time we have available to hone our crafts and create new work. But art binds us and brings us together. Creating community is an integral part of making, and being a part of CISJ underscores that. I would encourage potential applicants to consider who their audience is—and who they want it to be—and keep open minds about the strategies and approaches that other artists and/or organizations use to invite those audiences and have them feel welcome.

DA: Do you have any advice for potential applicants?  

GS: For the Lawrence Art Collective, timing was a really important factor. I would encourage applicants to think about why the current moment is an ideal time to embark on this journey with others.