by Teresa M. Meléndez
The Museum of Contemporary Art of Puerto Rico (MAC), located in Santurce, one of the neighborhoods that make up San Juan, the island’s capital, organizes many events and projects that engage the Santurce community. One of them is El MAC en el Barrio, which, according to the MAC website, is an artistic program for action and social integration. The project was first brought to life in 2014, and has been done yearly since. Activities such as this offer communities the opportunity to engage with art, culture and each other in a creative environment. According to their website, their community outreach programs give the space and the tools for citizens to help them become more aware of their environment, strengthen their formative capacity and enrich their cultural and spiritual base. They’ve managed to power their outreach projects thanks to alliances with community and environmental protection organizations, and educational and artistic institutions.
El MAC en el Barrio is held during the summer, and is open to the public. After hurricanes Irma and María ravaged the island in September 2017, the MAC implemented an Emergency Creative and Educational Program (Programa Educativo y Cultural de Emergencia) directed at people affected by the storms. Part of this program was a special edition of El MAC en el Barrio, That edition had three main components: a School Program (Programa Escolar), which is geared towards 70 students between the ages of 4 and 16; a Creative Psychosocial Support Program (Programa Creativo de Apoyo Psicosocial) for families and the elderly; and lastly, artistic and cultural activities for the enjoyment of the general public.
The educational program ran from October 4 to October 21 2017, and was held at the museum. It was directed towards kids from poor nearby neighborhoods. It integrated the arts into the more traditional curriculum to keep the learning going while the schools were still closed. The Creative Psychosocial Support Program is being offered directly in various elderly people homes in communities in Santurce and Río Piedras, as well as Guaynabo and Cataño. Various known artists and educators participate as facilitators of these programs. The main goal of these efforts is to give community members concrete and direct help, as well as give them artistic outlets to help cope with the difficult situations that so many people faced (and are still facing) post-María. The final component of the initiative is offering cultural activities open to all. So far they’ve held two events, ¡Luz Verde a la Cultura! (Green Light for the Culture!), and a stage play titled Hij@s de la Bernarda (Children of Bernarda), which was penned and directed by playwright and educator Rosa Luisa Márquez, and had choreography by Jeanne d’Arc Casas and the dancers, as well as live music.
Previous editions of El MAC en el Barrio usually includes the presentation of projects commissioned by the museum. Previous projects include a “community sound ethnography” by artist Migdalia Luz Barens, who went to different Santurce communities and gathered stories from residents, and then mixed those recordings with recordings of local singers, and with passersby who agreed to be part of the sound experiment. Another project was commissioned from artist José Luis Vargas, who collaborated with participants and the directors of La Fondita de Jesús (an organization dedicated to serving the homeless community by giving them jobs as well as shelter). El MAC en el Barrio also has educational activities for schools, as well as walking or bike tours of different communities, and they offer various talks and forums about the communities that participated in the commissioned projects, and the artistic process.
The museum’s focus on community outreach has turned it into a cultural hub for both the people you would expect to be fans of contemporary art, as well as members of the tight knit Santurce community, who’ve been around since the creation of the neighborhood. Their commitment to artists, and their efforts to help them keep working and getting compensated for their work, even during the hard times the whole island faced after the hurricane is very commendable. This year’s edition of El MAC en el Barrio is currently in the works, and from the call for artists, it seems to be focused towards more community engagement and aid, not just in Santurce, but also in other towns. They’re looking to go to the barrios that still need help.
There is currently a fundraiser going for the El MAC en el Barrio program, which you can help here.