Program Overview

Art + Environment Initiative

Artist: Jamond Bullock (Frayser) + Khara Woods (Uptown)

Total Budget: TOTAL: 80,000 (40,000 Uptown) + (40,000 Frayser)

Program Description

The Art & Environment Initiative is a neighborhood-level environmental justice program that UrbanArt Commission (UAC) launched in 2018. UAC was awarded a capacity building grant from Mural Arts Philadelphia to partner with Clean Memphis and MMDC (Memphis Medical District Collaborative) in the creation of a project that uses public art to address an environmental opportunity/situation in two neighborhoods: Uptown and Frayser.

Khara Woods was selected to lead the project in Uptown, while artist Jamond Bullock was chosen to work with residents in Frayser. Woods was excited to be selected as the artist in Uptown because she “believes a clean neighborhood can improve an individual’s sense of well-being and positively impact the neighborhood at large.” Bullock has “deep roots in Frayser,” and feels a great sense of pride in this project. “In so many ways the community of Frayser has been calling me back,” Bullock says, “It's important that communities are part of the process from start to finish, because people value public art in their neighborhoods when they have a voice or even a hand in its creation.”

Selection Committee

• Yancy Villa-Calvo, Memphis-based artist

• Danielle Sierra, Memphis-based artist and Frayser resident

• Valerie Peavy, Owner of Office@Uptown and Uptown resident

• Charlotte Marshall, Fitness Trainer and Uptown resident

• Charia Jackson, Housing Counseling Program Manager at Frayser CDC

• Jana Wilson, Executive Director of ArkWings Foundation and resident of Frayser

• Sydney Sepulveda, Program Associate at the Memphis Medical District Collaborative (MMDC)

• Janet Boscarino, Executive Director at Clean Memphis

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