Empowering Communities Through a New Lens
Photography has a way of connecting people by allowing them to see things through a new lens; things they may not have seen had it not been for the image in front of them. Knowing the strength behind experience, five alumni from the University of Hartford’s MFA program in Photography have come together to use their art to connect communities. Their non-profit, the 5 Corners Collective, Inc., so named because of where they were each positioned in the gallery for their thesis shows at UHart, has found a way to use photography to not only empower groups of people, but thread communities and their rich cultures together through photographs.
Robin Dahlberg M'15 and her co-founders had different journeys to the MFA program. Dahlberg was previously a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, but always enjoyed photography. Her time in the program helped to define her as an artist. “It really challenged me. I had approached the program thinking I would be a documentarian. Coming out of the program I realized that was too limiting, that you can be so much more expressive with photography.”
The concept of expression through photography has helped to define the work of the non-profit.
The five founding members: Robin Dahlberg, Josee Schryer M'15, Veronica Melendez M'15, Sanne Vils Axelsen M'16 and Amy Horowitz M'15 each come from different backgrounds, but the common denominator has been how they use their experiences as photographers and art educators to teach not only the skills of photography itself, but how photography can tell a visual story. They began this work with a collaboration with the Boys & Girls Club on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation in South Dakota, and from there 5 Corners Collective was born.
The empowerment that comes along with learning that people want to hear what you have to say and that they are interested in your artwork...seeing how the children responded was really an amazing experience. Being able to provide them with these kinds of opportunities has been really meaningful.
The group was originally connected to the reservation through Dahlberg’s work there as an ACLU lawyer and her desire to go back. “I was really enraptured by the landscape and the culture and the history.” said Dahlberg. She reached out to one of her MFA classmates who she thought might be interested in participating in the co-teaching workshops, Sanne Vils Axelson, and the two traveled to South Dakota to work with the youth at the Boys and Girls Club. Through photography and videography, they were able to help the children living on the reservation explore their history, foster their confidence, and grow through their art. The two had an amazing time with the students, and found that their fellow classmates were also really interested in the work they were doing on the reservation. They decided to form a 501 (c)(3) to help fund it.
The next year, Robin Dahlberg, Josee Schryer, and Veronica Melendez returned to the reservation. With support from Media Art Xploration (MAX), a non-profit that uses art to explain scientific innovations, Dahlberg, Schryer and Melendez worked with the Boys & Girls Club to produce large photographic murals exploring Lakota culture and astronomy. The murals were exhibited in May 2019 in San Francisco, at the California Academy of Sciences, as part of MAX 2019: A Space Festival, and again in July 2019, in Rapid City, as part of that city’s People of the Prairie Festival. Six girls from the Boys & Girls Club traveled from South Dakota to San Francisco and again to Rapid City to see their work on display.
Although Dahlberg and Schryer were poised to return to the reservation this past summer, the COVID-19 pandemic hit and their travel plans were placed on hold. Undeterred, they formed a virtual Boys & Girls Club Summer Photo League. Six Club members used their cell phones to photograph their daily lives and uploaded those photos to Dahlberg and Schryer once a week for six weeks. Dahlberg and Schryer then uploaded the images to MAX’s website and the Club’s Facebook page.
What really surprised Dahlberg and Schryer about the cell phone images was the extent to which nature and natural beauty appeared in the images. Lakota culture teaches that the Lakota are stewards of the earth and responsible for protecting the landscape and everything that is in it. “The kids are really connected to that and lot of their photography is connected to that, even if they don’t know the specific cultural stories behind it” said Dahlberg.
Dahlberg and Schryer are scheduled to return to the Reservation in April 2021. Again, with the support of MAX, they will be working with kids from the Boys & Girls Club to explore the intersection between Lakota culture and artificial intelligence. That work is slated to appear in New York City in Fall 2021.
With MAX, 5 Corners Collective has also applied for an NEA grant to bring “creative placemaking” to the Reservation. The grant would allow them an additional year of funding to work with the children creating large murals to be displayed throughout the reservation and South Dakota that is as Dahlberg puts it “reflective of the community and Lakota culture in a way that elevates the community rather than emphasizes the issues around poverty, suicide and some of the other stuff that is going on in their community.”
As with most things in the current landscape of the world, 5 Corners Collective work has shifted a bit, but many silver lining projects have developed as a result. Dahlberg and another alumna, Nicole Rosenthal '16 worked together on a project that resulted from Dahlberg’s 9-month residency in 2019 at the Queensbridge Housing Project in Long Island City, NY. Rosenthal and Dahlberg co-taught three classes for senior citizens from the housing project. Throughout the pandemic the two have continued to work with the seniors of the Queensbridge Housing Project and have developed a piece called “We are Queensbridge: Perspectives on the Pandemic and Social Inequities.” The Zine presentation features stunning photography, shot by the residents, and motivational quotes and stories highlighting their experience of isolation during the pandemic.
The beauty of 5 Corners Collective, is that the possibilities for their work is endless. Their desire is to recruit teaching artists and photographers to volunteer their time and fund these workshops for communities to participate in. Their goal is to do two different community events a year.
There is no doubt that this group of women, and incredible artists, will continue to use art to inspire and empower communities that may not have been exposed to photography otherwise by “allowing them to see themselves reflected back in a way that they hadn’t before.” That is the true work of 5 Corners Collective.