The Founders Project
The Founders Project is a multimedia installation by artist Stephen Hamilton that re-imagines Boston Public School High-School students as the legendary founders of West and West-Central African ethnic groups; specifically, those that are part of the ancestral base of the African diaspora.
The pieces will incorporate painting, weaving, and sculpture art traditions from each of the spotlighted ethnic groups and is installed in the Bruce. C. Bolling Building in Roxbury. The project is part of a larger curriculum on West African cultural continuity in the African Diaspora designed for High School students that comes out of Hamilton’s desire to address the persistent lack of Pre-Colonial African Narratives in mainstream educational discourse and to create empowering visual representations of Boston’s Black Youth. Learn more about the project on Instagram.
About the Artist
Stephen is an artist and arts educator living and working in Boston, Massachusetts. Born and raised in Roxbury, Stephen graduated from Massachusetts College of Art and design in 2009 with a focus in illustration. His life’s work aims to address the persistent lack of positive, multi-dimensional representations of African and African diasporan cultural discourses. Learn more about Stephen.
N+T Critic-in-Residence, Leah Tripplett Harrington dives into the 2018 N+T Public Art Accelerator projects, exploring how they use social exchange as their main medium and participation as their most critical material.