Jessica Williams
By Tunde Wey
March 21, 2012
Huge painted dots are a prevalent theme of the
Heidelberg Project, making up the vivid landscape of Tyree Guyton’s outdoor art installation on Detroit’s East Side. These dots are an invitation to think about Detroit in the context of relationships -- relationships between blight and beauty, education and success, poverty and crime, and so much more.
Connecting the dots between youth development and art is the work of the
Young Adults / Activists / Artists of Heidelberg (YAH). Under the appropriately youthful leadership of Jessica Brooke Williams, YAH strives to show young people how they can use art to improve their communities, and to understand that art is an extension of themselves.
Young artists who have projects usually approach YAH with their idea, and work together with the organization to develop and execute it. The flexibility of this approach means that authentic and self-started art is supported. Williams sees YAH as “a space for young adults in the city to create their own platform to use art as a space for change.”
This “platform,” Williams believes, is the beginning step on the walk to neighborhood revitalization. She says that empowered and inspired action will “attract Detroit natives to stay, to revitalize their own neighborhoods through art.”
Williams, a graduate of the University of Michigan, majored in art history with a focus on modern art. Her classes exposed her to the Heidelberg Project in a different context from her previous experiences. As a younger girl she had visited Heidelberg with her parents, and on many occasions passed by it on her way to school. However, the full force of its meaning really dawned on her after watching the documentary film “
Come Unto Me: The Faces of Tyree Guyton” and learning about Guyton’s vision to recreate a blighted community space riddled with drugs and violence.
In light of this new awareness, Williams wanted to become a part of the Heidelberg Project. After graduation she spoke to Jenenne Whitfield, Heidelberg’s executive director, and started volunteering.
Williams’ belief that empowered and inspired action can make a difference in the city’s efforts is evident through her own experience. She believes the earlier disconnect -- being so close in proximity to the Heidelberg Project, while still divorced from its intent -- is not unique to her. Many of the city’s youth are unaware of the city’s rich cultural identity.
It is more difficult to leave a place when you are connected to it, observes Williams, and you begin to see “the positive things art could do.” As a way to overcome this ambivalence, YAH engages young Detroiters, ages 18-35, as volunteers in the programming.
YAH is comprised of three main programs. There is Detroit Arts Immersion, an annual, week-long event where young adults facilitate workshops for their peers in the visual arts, dance, music and comedic arts. Then there is the Emerging Artists Program, culminating in a quarterly exhibition for these artists to showcase their work in a gallery space, with mentorship in the many nuances of art event production. There is also a Sponsorship Fund, instituted by YAH to support young adult artists to execute their projects.
Through these three avenues, YAH promotes its intent of providing creative and professional development, as well as forging links between art and community. Williams may not have connected these dots as a child, but she hopes YAH will be instrumental in creating bonds for other young Detroiters that will stay with them throughout their lives.
Portrait by Marvin Shaouni Photography.