Historic Preservation Program grant 2023-24:
“We Are Barcroft”:
A 60-Acre History of People & Place
The purpose of the project "We Are Barcroft: A 60 Acre History of People & Place," is to plan, launch, and develop a culturally specific arts-based community for the residents of Barcroft Apartments so they can engage in creative, community building projects through documenting cultural heritage and sharing oral histories.
Studio PAUSE’s experience working with culturally diverse communities has taught us how art-making is a powerful tool which serves the socio-emotional needs of communities, and an engaging prompt for telling stories.
Read the Historic Preservation Grants press release here.
Read the ARLnow story here.
This project is supported in part by Arlington County Government through the Historic Preservation Program and received public funds from the Arlington County Historic Preservation Fund.
Gather and Greets:
We started with getting to know the community through participating in events organized by our partners the Barcroft Resident Resources Team, and also by organizing events at the Studio location as we moved in, working with another partner, BU-GATA.
As we invited residents to PAUSE, we created an invite that had the word Pause designed to be an artwork to color in. We worked with four major languages spoken in the community. The English word, created by Sushmita, continued the work of her Words to Art project. The Spanish word, la pausa, was a collaboration between Sush and Loulou. The Arabic word for pause, tawakaf, was done by Sughra, and the Bangla word for pause, biroti, was also done by Sush.
Photos, above: Studio PAUSE is invited to meet the residents of Barcroft Apartments at their Summer Fest, 2023, thanks to partners Gates Hudson
We let children and adults take color pencils home to color the invite and bring it to the studio to be included in our opening show. We also invited residents’ to write the word for Pause in their languages on our board. Turns out many people picked a word that looked interesting to them and others picked a language that was theirs. But we know, art is like that. When they brought their PAUSE Cards to the Studio, they got to meet and engage with the space, the artists, project ideas, the SP Community (which is made up of artists, writers, historians, poets, photographers) and our project partners.
Photo, right: The Barcroft Apartments Tenants Council meets at the Studio thanks to partners BU-GATA
Learn more about our work through the videos!
2. Engaging with the Studio
Once the residents knew about the Studio they were invited to come in for Writing PAUSE, Poetry PAUSE, Family Art PAUSE sessions, and Community PAUSE events where they got to meet the Studio community, learn from them and hear their stories.
They also came in for one-on-one sessions. To make art. To chat over coffee.
Photos, right:
1: Family Art PAUSE invites Barcroft families to pause together. As Studio artists work with the older kids, parents with younger kids relax, read children’s books, or make art too!
2,3: Community PAUSE: Celebrating Diwali, a Bangladeshi resident encourages Studio artists to wear their traditional saris and a resident and friends makes the Rangoli (Nov 23)
4: Community PAUSE: Happy Holidays & Happy New Year where people shared stories of how they celebrated the holidays and Studio artists wrote Happy New Year in their languages, inviting the residents to join in (Jan 24)
5: Community PAUSE: African Americans and the Arts (Feb 24)
Enjoy our video of the Community PAUSEs below.
3. Telling their stories
The residents are getting ready to tell their stories through their art, dress, photos, poetry and more! Exhibit 3 at the Studio goes up in April-May and is called “Me, Here:” Stories of People & Place as told by the Barcroft Apartments Community.
Check out more about the exhibit here!
4. “We Are Barcroft”
A 60-acre History of People & Place
Oral History Videos
June 21- Sept 30, 2024
We have worked hard on creating relationships with the residents of Barcroft Apartments over the last year and helping create a sense of belonging for them at the Studio through art, writing, and community events. Eventually we asked residents and business owners if they would like to join our oral history project so we could share the stories of Barcroft Apartments with the rest of Arlington and the world.
Some agreed and were thrilled, others hesitated. Some were terrified of the camera and others were shy of their language skills. Of course, we understood it all! I have worked with people and their stories for the last almost 20 years so I know many of these issues. However, this is the first time I am working with video and YouTube so it brings new challenges.
We are very grateful to those who agreed to participate as we have uncovered some wonderful and powerful stories. We have also found that people are terribly busy and it has been a challenge to get schedules lined up. We are also so thrilled to work with Dewey Tron, director.
View Videos at Studio PAUSE:
Join us for a Community PAUSE June 21-22 and watch the films on the dedicated monitor at the Studio. You can also sign up for our Studio Tours in August/September and the screening will be part of the tour.
View Videos on YouTube:
You may watch the videos on our YouTube channel here! We have completed 4 as of July 2024 and are working on 4 more. Also, please sign up for our newsletter to learn of screenings near you!