The Mobile Street Art Cart

• • 3ARTS MATCH SUPPORTED BY THE JOYCE FOUNDATION
  • 169% contributed

As a teaching artist with nearly twenty years of experience working in schools and arts organizations, I am excited to create a “Mobile Street Art Cart” that will bring collaborative, community-relevant artmaking to the streets of Chicago. For the past three years, I have staged street art workshops in Little Village, North Lawndale, and South Chicago. It has been very rewarding to teach people directly in their communities and to be immediately responsive to issues and ideas that young people and others are thinking about in their every day lives. With funds raised through this campaign, I will be able to construct a fully-equipped and mobile street art cart that will be used to deliver more of these workshops to communities in Chicago where I believe they are needed the most. There are no programs like this that deliver art workshops directly to participants in their neighborhood streets, especially on the south side of Chicago. 

About This Project

It has always been important that my teaching and art-making practice is relevant to the communities in which I work. I started the street art workshops as an experiment with this idea, and because I knew it would allow me to engage with people and communities I might not otherwise through a school or organizational program. What excites me most about this project is the art and ideas that come from literally taking these workshops to the streets.

As a Mexican male, my presence and intentions in public spaces is sometimes questioned. My street workshops provide an opportunity for various people in the community to engage with me as a visual artist and teacher. Through this engagement, I share with them resources in the community, opportunities for artmaking in neighborhood organizations, and possible projects we can generate together through participation and support. The people in the community likewise share project ideas they would like to see, concerns I should address, people I should work with, and spaces I should access. The Mobile Street Art Cart will make this work more accessible to the communities I work with and to neighborhoods within a 5 mile radius from Little Village.

The Mobile Street Art Cart will be designed to function on the sidewalk and have the capability to be pushed by a person or pulled by a bike. I have studied Mexican ice cream carts and food vendor carts in Little Village to assist in the development of a design, and I have identified a bike fabricator and carpenter to assist with the construction. The cart will be colorful, easy to maneuver, pedal-powered, light to transport, and have plenty of storage for art materials. It will have a metal chassis with a wooden box, plenty of compartments for storage, and two collapsible tables built in. I have created a schedule for fabrication and am in the process of planning workshops that would be ready for delivery in the spring, summer, and fall of 2016, provided I raise the necessary funds.

Your donations will be used to buy materials and pay for labor and construction of the cart. I have already secured additional funding through a "Salsa Fund" that I established so that I can facilitate the workshops for free to community members. In case I exceed my funding goal, I will use the funding to purchase more materials for future workshops.

Building the Mobile Street Art Cart will achieve the following: 1) Provide free art projects with people on the streets in their neighborhoods; 2) Address issues relevant to the community; 3) Create a temporary space where the community and I can talk about art and its impact on our communities, and 4) Share resources to support artmaking and community-building.

Your donations will allow for people to engage in collaborative, community-relevant art projects that are intentionally created to position art as a catalyst for change.

STRETCH GOAL! Thank you all for your generosity, love, and support in meeting the initial goal! Let's keep the momentum going and reach a stretch goal of 5,000 which will facilitate the purchase of art materials and significantly expand the amount of workshops that I can deliver in the community! 

Thank yous

Contribute any amount or choose from the levels below.

• $25
  A digital thank-you card via email, and a Facebook shout-out. ($0.00 is tax deductible.)
• $50
  A digital thank-you card via email, a Facebook shout-out, and a complimentary photo of the Mobile Street Art Cart once it is constructed. ($0.00 is tax deductible.)
• $100
  A digital thank-you card via email, a Facebook shout-out, plus 10 Mobile Street Art Cart buttons. ($0.00 is tax deductible.)
• $250
  A digital thank-you card via email, a Facebook shout-out, plus a Mobile Street Art Cart T-shirt. ($0.00 is tax deductible.)
• $500
  A digital thank-you card via email, a Facebook shout-out, a Mobile Street Art Cart T-shirt, plus a free workshop in your Chicago neighborhood of choice. ($0.00 is tax deductible.)

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William Estrada

Community Awardee

William Estrada (he/him/él) grew up in California, Mexico, and Chicago. His teaching and art-making practice addresses inequity, migration, historical passivity, and cultural recognition in historically marginalized communities. He documents and engages experiences in public spaces to transform, question, and make …

View William Estrada's profile

• 6 updates
• 101 supporters

• Update 1: We are off to a great start!

  Posted on February 21, 2016

   

  This is absolutely amazing! The Mobile Street Art Cart has been live for 4 days and we are already 26% funded!!! Thank you for you support and generosity. Lets keep a steady pace!!!

  Update 2: The 1st Week Was Amazing!

  Posted on February 25, 2016

   

  7 days of fundraising and the 3Arts Match have funded 74% of the project! Thank you for your support and generosity, we are almost there! Feeling all the love and excitement being generated by the Mobile Street Art Cart! Can't wait to share with you the various opportunities being generated by your support, I'll keep you posted as soon as they become more concrete!

  Update 3: WE HAVE REACHED THE INITIAL GOAL! LETS KEEP THE MOMENTUM GOING!

  Posted on February 27, 2016

   

  YOU ARE AMAZING! We have reached the initial goal in just 10 days! Talk about community support!! Please continue to share this project so we can meet our stretch goal! This new goal will facilitate the purchase of art materials and will significantly expand the amount of workshops I can deliver! Lets keep this rolling!

  Update 4: The Mobile Street Art Cart is Almost Complete!

  Posted on June 21, 2016

   

  

  It has been a busy couple of months as Adrian Zelaya and I have been meeting to plan and engineer The Mobile Street Art Cart. Adrian has been working diligently to finalize the design and construction of the cart and I am excited to take it out for a spin in the next week or so. I look forward to sharing more images of The Mobile Street Art Cart in the neighborhood!

  Update 5: THANK YOU! It has been an amazing summer so far and it isn't over yet!!

  Posted on September 13, 2016

   

  The Mobile Street Art Cart has been visiting various neighborhoods in Chicago and its surrounding suburbs and the community is falling in love with it. Through the various workshops being delivered we have mananged to create amazing work that is relevant to the communities we engage and build community through the conversations we have. Here are some images of the Mobile Street Art Cart in action!

   

  The Mobile Street Art Cart being pulled by my bike. I was taking a water break on 26th Street and Laramie while on my way to Cicero, IL.

  

   

  These two young women stopped the Mobile Street Art Cart Crew as we were packing up in West Chicago, IL for some last minute button making.

  

   

  A community member poses with their freshly screenprinted t-shirt while it dries on the corner of Ogden and Central Park in North Lawndale.

  

   

  A young artist poses in front of the Mobile Street Art Cart with their "Culture Is" poster they have just designed during the Festival del Sol in Pilsen.

  

   

  A crowd gathered by the Mobile Street Art Cart to make buttons that celebrated the community and culture during the one day free music festival Villapolooza in Little Village.

  

   

  After many sketches and discussions with the Mobile Street Art Cart Crew (Tai-13 and Elan-10) we finalized and screenprinted the logo for the Mobile Street Art Cart on aprons! We can't wait to screenprint t-shirts and design stickers in the next few weeks!! 

  

   

   

  Gracias, without your generosity and trust in my vision to create the Mobile Street Art Cart I wouldn't have such an amazingly fun platform to collaboratively create culturally relevant art projects. It has been an amazing summer and it isn't over yet, we will continue to honor and amplify the creativity that already exists in our communities by addressing relevant social issues through art making in the streets and we look forward to keeping you updated.

  Con Corazon,

   

  William Estrada & the Mobile Street Art Cart Crew

  Update 6: One Last Update about the Mobile Street Art Cart Project!

  Posted on March 05, 2019

   

  Thank you for your critical love and never ending support of The Mobile Street Art Cart Project! Because of your initial support, 2018 was year of expansive growth filled with love and wonder over the possibilities to make art with people in their neighborhoods. I continue to learn from people as we develop art projects that respond to peoples needs and we collaboratively create art that amplifies the work and conversations already present. Your gesture of support and words of encouragement have created a project that is chllanging how we discuss art in communities and lives in spaces that radically reimagines what art education can look like, what community engagement is, what organizing means, and honors the rich history of community based art practices that have existed for generations. I look forward to engaging in deeper reflection on the work of the Mobile Street Art Cart Project as it relates to my arts and teaching practice as I prepare for 2019.

   

  In 2016, the MSACP delivered 21 workshops, reaching a little over 1050 people. In 2017, the MSACP delivered 29 workshops, reaching over 1450 people. In 2018, the Mobile Street Art Cart Project delivered a total of 62 workshops, reaching over 3100 people in their neighborhoods!! 55 workshops were in Chicago and surrounding suburbs, 4 workshops were delivered in Montpelier, Vermont thanks to the Art Education Department at the Vermont College of Art and Design, 4 workshops were delivered in Kearney, Nebraska thanks to the Fine Arts Department at University of Nebraska at Kearney and the amazing Nebraska Art Teachers Association, and 1 workshop happened at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois thanks to the invitation of the Arts Alliance Illinois!!

  You made this possible! Thank you for the bottom of my heart for your support, for your inspiration, and for creating spaces for my work to exist. I hope I can count on your support again as I prepare to embark on another project I believe will have the same impact as the Mobile Street Art Cart Project. The Chicago Neighborhood Family Portrait Project will provide free portraits plus interview people about their experiences with race and gentrification throughout Chicago. In collaboration with cultural centers and community organizations across the city, I will be able to engage people who are interested in having access to a free family portrait, amplify stories that are often untold, and learn how displacement affects Chicago residents and their neighborhoods.

  If everyone who supported the Mobile Street Art Cart Project donated $50.00 to this new campaign, the project would be funded by the end of the week. I hope you will consider making a tax deductible donation and thank you for your support. My work in communities exists because of people like you!

  To make a donation or learn more about the Chicago Family Portrait Project visit https://3arts.org/projects/portrait-project/

   

  Con Corazon,

  William Estrada

• Thank you to the following for contributing to 3Arts with the recommendation that we support this project.

  • Blair Kirkbaumer

  • Mary Milliken

  • jaime mendoza

  • Anonymous Supporter

  • Joseph Blanco

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