Risk to Resilience:
Harnessing the Transformative Power of Art
PROSPECTUS (Download PDF)
Violence Transformed is an annual series of visual and performing arts events that celebrate the power of art, artists and art making to confront, challenge and mediate violence.
Based in the center of Boston and in the towns and neighborhoods of Boston, Cambridge and surrounding areas, Violence Transformed draws upon the creative energies of artists throughout New England.
Violence Transformed also represents a unique collaboration among artists, activists, museum professionals, academics, and community service providers who share the conviction that art and art making are essential to the wellbeing and vibrancy of our communities.
Violence Transformed 2012 Call for Artists
Violence Transformed 2012 seeks entries in any medium for exhibition and digital projection at the Massachusetts State House and other curated venues in April, May and June. We welcome artworks addressing issues of protest, refuge, healing and commemoration and are particularly interested in works that give expression to the transformative power of art by imagining alternatives to violence. Submit disk containing up to 6 jpeg images, printed image list (title, medium, dimensions), c.v., artist’s statement and $15 submission fee by February 18 to: Violence Transformed, c/o Gail Bos, 48 Sheridan Street, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130.
A Brief History of Violence Transformed
Violence Transformed began in 2007 as a community initiative of the Victims of Violence Program of the Cambridge Health Alliance in an effort to draw attention to the transformative possibilities of art. It blossomed into an exhibit at the Massachusetts Statehouse curated by members of diverse arts, education and community service organizations and highlighted by an unforgettable evening of live performances. More than 3,000 children, families, students, legislators and their constituents visited the exhibit or attended the opening event. Each year since 2007, Violence Transformed has expanded beyond the State House to include exhibitions of visual and performing arts in a variety of other venues.
As a result of Violence Transformed, a wide range of visual and performing artists at different stages in their careers have had the opportunity to create new works and present existing pieces to diverse audiences. Arts organizations and community service providers have raised awareness of their activities through participation in the project. By celebrating the range of art and art-making projects that confront, challenge and imagine alternatives to violence, stronger ties across professional, geographic, generational and ethnic margins have been forged, generating new partnerships and collaborative opportunities.
THE STATE HOUSE EXHIBIT
Each year, the focal point of Violence Transformed is an exhibit of works in varied media held at the Massachusetts Statehouse in Boston and scheduled in concert with the annual Victim Rights Conference of the Massachusetts Office for Victim Assistance. The exhibition draws the attention of government officials and the general public to art and artists as crucial sources of societal and community transformation. In 2012, the centerpiece exhibit of Violence Transformed will again be held in Doric Hall on the second floor the Massachusetts Statehouse, April 16-27, 2012.
An Expanding Calendar of Events
The Statehouse exhibit will serve as the centerpiece of a series of Violence Transformed 2012 exhibitions and performances taking place at diverse venues throughout the greater Boston area from mid-March through the summer and into the fall months of 2012. Violence Transformed 2012 events will include:
Being Ubuntu: “The Youth Speak”, a collection of collaborative works made by area youth at 14 different project sites around Boston and exhibited at Wheelock College’s Towne Art Gallery. Exhibit opens Monday April 2 and runs through April 12, 2012.
MOVA’s Annual Victim Rights Event, with performances hosted by Violence Transformed 2012.
Violence Transformed 2012 exhibits at:
Resnikoff Gallery, Roxbury Community College Media Arts Center (May 2012),
The Urbano Project of Jamaica Plain (May 2012),
The Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists (June to September, 2012).
Please see the Violence Transformed 2012 Calendar of Events for updated information and a complete list of this year’s venues, events and opening receptions.
The Digital Exhibit
Violence Transformed 2012 also includes a digital exhibit curated by Jonathan Shirland, Gail Bos and Ron Wilhelmsen. The digital display consists of images of works which because of size, location or medium (and because of space constraints at our exhibition locations) cannot be physically included in our series of exhibits. Carefully organized thematically, high resolution scans of these works, accompanied by printed details of the artists represented, will be projected on a continuous loop throughout the entire run of the State House exhibition and will then travel to other locations.
For more details about how to submit work for consideration in the digital exhibit and other 2012 venues please refer to our 2012 Call to Artists’
The Curatorial Teams of Violence Transformed 2012
Each year, Violence Transformed brings together a range of artworks and perspectives to provoke debate, reflection and action. Our 2012 curatorial teams are selecting groups of work that express, for them, art’s transformative relationship with violence. Their experiences, perspectives and choices provide representative insight into the range of artistic strategies at work in the area today.
Please Support Violence Transformed!
You can play an important role in sustaining this collaborative project and in raising your own community’s consciousness by contributing to the Violence Transformed 2012 fund drive. No gift is too big or too small and can be tax deductible.
To learn how you can make a tax-deductible donation to
Violence Transformed 2012, please see our DONATE page.
