Art From Your Heart
Show Us How COVID-19 Affects Communities of Color
Photos from left to right by Alina Rosanova, kataylorg, damircudic and Alex Liew / Getty Images
With school and events often canceled because of COVID-19, it became harder for people to connect in meaningful ways. But some communities found ways to come together instead of growing apart—and this project collected their stories.
Art From Your Heart called on high school artists and photographers from across America to tell stories from communities of color for a nationwide art project. The goal was to share with other communities their experiences with COVID-19 and how that has influenced a sense of inclusion and belonging. In other words, how you have made a difference! The competition was open to students in Grades 9–12 in selected communities.
Entry Categories
Art From Your Heart sought submissions in two categories—belonging and inclusion. Belonging means feeling like you are a part of something. That you matter. Inclusion is taking steps to make others feel like they belong. Feeling like you matter and belong can make you stronger, braver, and more likely to help others. Taking steps in your community to include others can make your whole community stronger and more just.
A Sample of Artwork Entries
Belonging
These artworks show us how COVID-19 has made young people feel more or less like they belong in the community, whether COVID-19 provided new opportunities to be part of the community, made them feel more or less respected and accepted, and why.
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GoldView Art“This painting encourages self love, and no matter how strange you are, don't change for anyone.”
By a 9th grade student
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SilverView Art“My art portrays the way people of all races and ages in my community have come together.”
By a 10th grade student
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BronzeView Art“…one side is what I see and the other side is what the community sees.”
By a 10th grade student
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View Art“... I always say pictures are the best memories we can have.”
By a 10th grade student
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View Art“This happening brought the neighborhood together because we were all worried …”
By an 11th grade student
Inclusion
These artworks aim to show how COVID-19 has changed the way people of different races in the community come together, what relationships in the community looked like before COVID, and how they have changed.
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GoldView Art“… the black community is struggling to be included in America's community …”
By a 9th grade student
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SilverView Art“We saw the need in our community and we began to do something about it.”
By a 12th grade student
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BronzeView Art“How people were interacting with each other before covid-19 and how they interact with each other now.”
By a 10th grade student
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View Art“The children can't go out and play and have fun.”
By a 11th grade student
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View Art“... things got so bad that we even closed down everything.”
By a 10th grade student
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View Art“We started caring more about our health as well as our community.”
By an 11th grade student
Selection Process
A panel of reviewers, drawn from the participating communities and project partners (RAND; University of California, Berkeley’s Othering & Belonging Institute) evaluated entries for creativity and responsiveness to the prompt.
The competition was open to students from Albuquerque, New Mexico; Anchorage, Alaska; Birmingham, Alabama; Detroit, Michigan; Fayetteville, North Carolina; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Rochester, New York; and San Bernardino, California. These sites were selected with consideration of other components of a larger project. Winners and other selected submissions are displayed in the gallery.
About the Contest
This nationwide art exhibit is sponsored by the Wal-Mart Foundation [PDF], which is working to help people live better every day, and conducted by RAND, a nonprofit research and policy organization based in Santa Monica, CA with U.S. offices in the Washington D.C. region, Pittsburgh, and Boston, and University of California, Berkeley’s Othering & Belonging Institute. Read the Institute's report on phases 1 and 2 of this project.
Contact Us
Or, email questions to ArtFromYourHeart@rand.org.