Multidisciplinary artist Marisa Morán Jahn will harness art to impact housing policy and equity as NPHM’s 2022 Artist as Instigator

CHICAGO /PRNewswire/ — Art can spark curiosity, provoke deep thought and ignite change. That transformative power is at the core of the National Public Housing Museum’s Artist as Instigator Residency, and at the heart of Marisa Morán Jahn’s artistic practice. Jahn was recently selected to be NPHM’s 2022 Artist as Instigator. The yearlong residency fuses art and advocacy to impact public policy and promote equity, a key goal at NPHM, the country’s first cultural institution dedicated to interpreting public housing in America.

A multidisciplinary artist whose work spans mediums including documentary films, installations, policy toolkits, urban-scale and architectural projects, Jahn was selected from a large pool of nationwide applicants. Her creative practice is deeply rooted in community care, solidarity and self-determination, and focuses on redressing structural discrimination and injustice.

“Marisa’s work inventively blends art, culture and public policy, and allows us to imagine a more free and just world. Her careful and intentional practice works in solidarity with communities that are often overlooked. Her talent and passion will amplify NPHM’s mission to preserve the diverse stories of public housing residents, promote equitable public policy and ensure that everyone has a place to call home,” NPHM Executive Director Lisa Yun Lee, Ph.D., said.

“I’m honored to be chosen for this meaningful opportunity,” said Jahn. “I appreciate that NPHM positions public housing as a source of strength. The museum pushes the public to ignore stereotypes and reconsider what public housing is and why it’s so important. I look forward to using art and culture to build an exciting movement that not only envisions a vibrant future for sustainable public housing but helps effect real change.”

As NPHM’s fourth Artist as Instigator, Jahn will produce new, social justice-oriented work in partnership with the Chicago-based museum. She will receive a $10,000 honorarium and a $10,000 budget for project expenses. NPHM will also provide exhibition space, programming and administrative support and help Jahn make connections to residents and additional funding sources. Jahn also brings other partnership opportunities to her residency at NPHM, including Parsons’ School of Design Strategies at The New School where she is director of Integrated Design.

Prioritizing Collaboration to Create Transformative Art

Collaboration is a foundational tenet of NPHM. The museum partners with the community to capture the voices and memories of public housing residents and share those accounts through exhibits and oral histories. Similarly, Jahn’s art is fueled by collaboration. Much of her work has been co-designed with immigrants and working families, and she has created public art with input and insights from domestic workers, taxicab drivers, car washers, migrant workers and family caregivers.

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One of Jahn’s current projects is Carehaus—the country’s first care-based co-housing project—which she co-founded and collaboratively designed with architect and MIT Professor Rafi Segal. Carehaus is an intergenerational housing model where older and disabled adults, caregivers and their families will live in independent units clustered around shared spaces, and caregivers receive good wages, childcare and other benefits. The first Carehaus site will be built in Baltimore and is slated to open in 2023.

Besides providing quality homes and care for the adults and quality jobs and homes for their caregivers, the innovative, art-infused housing project will be a model for sustainable neighborhood development. Carehaus grew out of an ongoing art project Jahn created in collaboration with the National Domestic Workers Alliance to amplify the voices of caregivers.

“Marisa exhibits a sense of care and commitment, not only to her artistic principles, but to the individuals whose stories inspire her work. Her people-centered, care-centered approach truly resonates with our work at the museum,” said Tiff Beatty, NPHM’s program director of arts, culture and public policy.

Jahn’s vision for Carehaus—and her attraction to NPHM’s Artist as Instigator Residency—was inspired by her personal experience with public housing. Between 2008 and 2010, during the Great Recession, Jahn lived in a public housing development for low- and moderate-income residents on New York City’s Upper East Side.

“The opportunity to live in an affordable studio apartment enabled me to find meaningful work as a community organizer and advocate and to stay in New York City,” Jahn said. “A few things profoundly impressed me during my time in public housing. The development where I lived was one of the few places in New York where I saw multiple generations living together. Public spaces made it safe and easy for kids and elders to hang out, and the layout allowed ethnically diverse households to share food, childcare and other resources.”

In another recent project, the Seattle Public Library invited Jahn to envision and create a newspaper with teenagers living in NewHolly, a Seattle Housing Authority neighborhood redevelopment project with a branch library on its grounds. Impressed by the teens’ unique stories, civic engagement and journalistic rigor, SHA invited the team to create a year-round art and journalism program. “There are so many ways to enhance public housing, shift the thinking around this essential form of housing and deepen appreciation for what it offers,” Jahn pointed out. “And given the dire need for quality housing in our country, there’s no better time than right now.”

Folding Former Artist as Instigators into the Residency Process

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While NPHM’s Artist as Instigator Residency only lasts one year, the museum maintains ongoing relationships with artists. In fact, former Artists as Instigators William Estrada (2019), Jen Delos Reyes (2020) and Tonika Lewis Johnson (2021) helped shape the 2022 residency application process. Estrada, Reyes and Johnson contributed application questions, suggested novel ways to apply (applicants could opt for a video submission instead of a written one) and helped review submissions.

In addition to Estrada, Reyes and Johnson, the 2022 Artist as Instigator review committee included Lee, Beatty, NPHM oral historian Liú Chen, NPHM project coordinator Mark Jaeschke, and artists Kierra Wooden and Anwulika Anigbo. The committee narrowed the applicant pool down to three finalists: Jahn, Boston-based artist Anita Morson-Matra and Minneapolis-based artist Mark Valdez.

About the National Public Housing Museum: The NPHM is the first cultural institution in the United States dedicated to interpreting the American experience in public housing. Its mission is to preserve, promote and propel the right of all people to a place where they can live and prosper—a place to call home. Using art, oral histories and material culture, the Museum will archive and share public housing stories of hope and personal achievement, as well as stories of struggle, resistance and resilience. These stories create opportunities for visitors to understand and engage in innovative public policy reform to reimagine the future of our communities, our society and the places we call home. Its physical structure is currently in development and will be an adaptive reuse of the last remaining building of the former Jane Addams Homes on Chicago’s Near West Side. When completed, visitors will interface with compelling, historically significant exhibits and engage with the provocative ideas of internationally renowned contemporary artists.

SOURCE National Public Housing Museum