Latino Dialogue
African American Legacy Project
Hands of Health
Journeys Home
Reclamation Archive 2002-2005
Reciprocal University for the Arts Project 1999-2003
To employ the arts in temporarily or permanently revitalizing existing blighted landscape including abandoned public buildings such as schools, hospitals, vacant lots, and parks.
To employ the arts in temporarily or permanently animating existing public gathering spaces such as commercial shopping malls, libraries, movie theatres, and sports venues.
To employ the arts in the reclamation of the multi-cultural narratives embedded in these spaces thereby making visible a diverse community history and creating cross-cultural community knowledge and meaningful work.
Acts of Reclamation: Communities and Artists in Partnership, funded by the Nathan Cummings Foundation, is a specialized grant project that pairs practicing artists with community members and organizations to create collaborative public artworks that reclaim their environment.

Acts of Reclamation
employs prominent visual and performing artists-in-residence to work reciprocally in established community-university partnerships to create new community based art works that emphasize collaborative narratives, authentic community participation, and an aesthetically relevant and complimentary community-artist connection.

Each artist is invited to visit the California State University Monterey Bay campus in a series of three residencies, one for community collaboration and project design, a second visit for implementation and work, and a third for final realization and community presentation. In addition to the partnerships between artist and community, the collaborative nature of this project is furthered by the liaison with the Visual and Public Art Institute's curriculum and classes. VPA students and courses will be directly linked to assistance and implementation of the artist residencies in the local community.

Guided by the cultural citizenship model, the Reciprocal University for the Arts has specifically designed this project to be responsive to issues articulated by the community, and led by visual and performing artists in residence who have a history of working collaboratively with diverse communities on issues of social justice.
Made possible with a grant from the Nathan Cummings Foundation