With the primary goal to map, galvanize, and support arts organizations and programs focused on community healing, racial justice, restorative justice, transformative justice, and criminal justice reform, TCA has created a community arts project that will promote the development of representative imagery and messaging in Newark, a community in New Jersey that continues to be extremely vulnerable to racially unjust narratives of the war on drugs, as one of primary targets for true drug policy reform and holistic rehabilitation. In the pilot form of the Public Arts project, we will focus our coalition building efforts to provide framing tools, leadership, and guidance to address the project’s prompts:
- HOW CAN PUBLIC ART AND MEDIA INFORM BETTER DRUG POLICY IN NEWARK? WHAT VISUALS NEED TO BE INCLUDED AND WHAT VISUALS NEED TO BE ELIMINATED?
- HOW CAN PUBLIC ART AND MEDIA HELP TO DECRIMINALIZE PEOPLE WHO ARE IMPACTED BY DRUG POLICY IN NEWARK. WHAT VISUALS NEED TO BE INCLUDED AND WHAT VISUALS NEED TO BE ELIMINATED?
TCA is an outside organization working with the local Newark community, and has to build trust with community partners to assure that the project reflects the voices, leadership, and priorities of the Newark community. The design of the project addresses this obstacle by prioritizing relationship building and community decision making. The project also requires considerable research and organizing support.
