An assistant professor of replicative media in the Institute for Visual and Public Art, Gilbert Neri has an undergraduate degree from UC-San Diego and an M.A. from UC-Santa Barbara. He joined CSUMB in the fall of 2001, drawn by the power of the university’s Vision Statement as well as VPA’s socially conscious approach to art making.

VPA Professors Johanna Poethig and Gilbert Neri

Along with Johanna Poethig, Gilbert teaches the large-scale digital public art class. In this class students learn digital art through a content-based, community collaborative practice. In the 2002-2003 school year, the class collaborated with the Second Chance Youth Program in Salinas to develop a series of billboards, signs and posters with anti-gang, anti-youth violence messages. Joan Weiner, RUAP coordinator, interviewed Gilbert.

JW: What is the objective of the digital art class? Tell me a little about the principles that shape this class. How does it fit in with the VPA vision? GN: The objectives in the large-scale digital mural class are many, but among the most important are creating public artwork in a true collaboration with our community partner as well as examining the role of the artist in the community. One of the driving principles behind the class is the bridging of longstanding gaps between the university and the communities for which it exists. Through RUAP, community relationships are not only established for the particular project we are working on in a given year, but are also maintained and allowed a space to grow for future collaborations and other creative projects. Another of the guiding principles/goals in this class is the investigation of the role of the artist in community-based projects, and also the role of authorship in these projects. It allows students, in many ways, to exercise creativity and also to activate that creativity as a form of social agency rather than as an outside entity, coming into it with pre-formed ideas about what matters to this community. This, I think, is one of the essential threads in the broader weave of VPA. It conceptualizes creative practice in the broader matrix of culture, history and the impact that creativity can have in envisioning a future as such.

JW: How was the decision made to integrate the class with RUAP? A RUAP community partner has worked with the VPA 306 class each year – Watsonville Community School, Monterey County AIDS Project, the Monterey Museum of Art, Second Chance. VPA 306 is an integral part of RUAP, and in some ways, the backbone of it. How did this come about?

GN: RUAP was envisioned by Amalia Mesa-Bains and Richard Bains as a way in which to change the ivory tower position many universities hold around the nation. RUAP allows us to work with community organizations in a more substantial way than simply a one-time event. The Reciprocal University for the Arts Project has successfully created an environment and means through which the Institutes for Visual and Public Art and Music and Performing Arts collaborate with the local communities on creative projects. The large-scale digital mural course addresses the complex process of creating and exhibiting public art. In this case the artwork is primarily digitally created, but the underlying tenets of public art issues are always present. RUAP works in tandem with this class as support and liaison to our community partner. RUAP establishes the partnership, and then our class continues the partnership through collaborative public art production.

JW: Can you describe the interaction you observe between your students and the Second Chance youngsters? GN: Before we meet our community partner members, Johanna Poethig and I have students read about and discuss the broader social and cultural issues that might impact our community partner. In other words, we attempt to build a collective understanding of our own preconceptions, as well as an understanding that we can bring to the table. It is very necessary background work needed to express the respect for a group or community one may not know much about. It is a way of digging deeper into the issues and details that our community partner might grapple with on a day-to-day basis, and also give us insights into the value of the work that they do. The interaction between our class and the youth from Second Chance was one that continually evolved. At first, of course, we were all getting to know one another, and also collectively crafting what we wanted to do. As a class, we do not dictate what the project will be. This is created only when the community partner’s members arrive. It gives the youth a place for their own voice to be heard and allows them to really own and invest in the project. So over the year, the relationships we built with the youth grew, and as confidence grew, so, too, did the process of the project.

JW: What do your students get out of the collaboration with community partners? In what ways did the class challenge the students by having to work collaboratively? GN: I think each student takes something different away form the class, especially because we all bring quite different life stories to the table. I think, though, that one of the challenges that the class poses is to bring into question the traditional notion of the artist-as-sole-creator. The project we create belongs to no one and everyone at once. I think it is a challenge that most of our students meet with enthusiasm. Another challenge is posed by students having to contact a local business for exhibition space. This was true of our class last year where we collaborated with the Monterey Museum of Art. I think the most significant thing here is that you are really putting yourself in a position where you are an advocate, community member, artist and collaborator all at once. It is a generous and vulnerable place to work from, but ultimately very rewarding. Johanna and I share every part of the process of contacting community members, organizing meetings, and dealing with the money issues involved in creating our project. Every part of the process is front and center; decisions are made by the class and our community partners. So there are many ways the class offers up collaborative challenges.

JW: How does the experience impact the Second Chance youngsters? Do you see changes in their attitudes, perceptions, participation level, etc., over the course of the semester?

GN: Again, our youth come from such diverse circumstances that it is hard to tell what impact it might have, but there are some visible changes, which are always great to see. This year one of our youth went on to record some hip-hop music and take part in a project called “Transmissions” which was a sound/art event that took place in Salinas. I think he, most visibly, has such confidence, and I think he was able to see his creative work as something that others would engage with. Two of the three youth from the first semester were incarcerated before the end of the semester. After they were released, they had no obligation to return to the class, but did so because they were really into what we were doing. This was great to see, and they were such a powerful and guiding force in the way the project developed.

JW: If it weren’t for RUAP, how would the class be different? Is having a community partner essential to the mission of VPA 306? GN: Definitely. Without RUAP operating as support and liaison to the community, VPA 306 would be a large-scale digital art class that is probably like any other digital art class. You cannot teach the creation of public art in as comprehensive a way without a direct and sustained connection to the community you are a part of. RUAP allows the class to take on the creative aspect of the work, but also make visible the often invisible work it takes to create and maintain community partnerships that are reciprocal and lasting.

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