ArtsArlington has announced that work begun during Chanel Thervil's artist residency to celebrate and build black community in Arlington continues as the Black Joy Project.

Activities are being organized in collaboration with Arlington's Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and the Arlington Human Rights Commission.

Organizers have enlisted Stephanie McKay, a recording artist, educator and arts advocate whose artistic practice connects community, education and social justice. She joins a team that includes Jill Harvey, Crystal Haynes, Cecily Miller and Teresa Marzilli.

McKay is now serving as creative-arts and community-engagement leader, developing monthly gatherings of black folks who live, work, go to school in or are connected with Arlington for conversation, community, creativity and visioning.

The next planned event is a field trip to visit the studio of multi-award-winning Boston-based artist Ekua Holmes on Saturday, Dec. 10, from 2 to 4 p.m. If interested, RSVP here (scroll down) >>

The Black Joy Project is funded by a Public Art for Spatial Justice grant from the New England Foundation for the Arts.

Artist-in-residence designs Food Link poster 

Artist-in-Residence Kari Percival is using her mad illustration skills to illuminate the mission and messages of local nonprofits and grass-roots groups. 

In this playful, slightly retro design for Food Link, she has created an image of many hands lifting up colorful boxes of food to symbolize how community comes together to bring food where it is needed.

Food Link is "a community organization that envisions a world in which everyone has abundant nourishing food and a food system in which no edible food goes to waste." Participants rescue surplus fresh food, keeping it out of the landfill and on people's tables for healthy meals.

This is the fifth design in Kari's series titled "No Place Like Home," highlighting and supporting Arlington's dedicated volunteers and organizations.

These news announcements were published Sunday, Nov. 27, 2022, based on information from the newsletter published monthy by the Arlington Commission for Arts and Culture, or the ACAC, and updated later that day to provide background on artist Ekua Holmes.