My values as a community based artist are to build and create in community settings that engage community members in a dignified and holistic manner. I believe in authentic collaboration and the autonomy of every individual to envision and build the future they see fit. My tools have been: storytelling, pencil, paper, brushes & paints, and a surface that is accessible to many people.
LiberateMKEBlock Party
In collaboration with the African American Roundtable and Metcalfe Community Bridges, I hosted an art build and screenprinting popup for the LiberateMKE Block Party.
Participants were able to engage through art and participatory activities to redistribute the city of Milwaukee's 297 million dollar budget from the Milwaukee Police Department to areas in the community they deem most necessary and important. Community members also answered the question, "Who Keeps You Safe?" through a community banner.
Beauty Opens the Door to Join Us
This mural was completed with neighborhood engagement on the east-facing wall of El Rey foods overlooking the newly opened "Butterfly Park'. Facilitated by Tia Richardson and Jeanette Martín. Formerly a vacant lot at the busy intersection of S. 13th and W. Forest Home Ave, Program Director Juanita Valcarcel of Southside Neighbors Helping Neighbors (SNHN) helped organize this initiative with support from staff and volunteer community leaders. (Milwaukee, WI)
Our first and second sessions were creative, visualizing, and storytelling workshops. They were designed to both create a space for neighbors to learn new things they could appreciate about each other, and to decide together what was most important to them as a theme.
Stitch Community Mural Project
THE UNFINISHED WORK OF THE ANCESTORS IS THE BLUEPRINT FOR MY LIFE
Artist statement: "This STITCH mural is about combating segregation, giving voice to our struggles,
healing through storytelling and using art as an act of resistance... art as an act of liberation!"
Acrylic on plywood panels. 16'x8' (2013). Installed in two locations: Alice's Garden on 20th and Brown and Aztek Inc Tattoo Shop on 1230 S. Cesar Chavez.
Full Project Website: stitchmilwaukee.com/community-mural
La Raza Unida Party - Photo Installation
Martin did archival research on the Raza Unida Party that existed in the late 60's through the 70's. Martin enlarged photographs from the archives and installed them outside one of the oldest buildings of Chicano activism in the state of Wisconsin as a way of bringing archival research to the community.
Lopez Bakery & Café Murals
Opened in the winter of 2015, Martin and her father opened up a Mexican Bakery and coffee shop at the previously existing Lopez Bakery on 16th and Lincoln Avenue. Murals wrap the bakery to bring a vibrant and inviting environment for patrons. Through Martin's influence, they offered a Mexican vegetarian menu to provide a healthy alternative to southside residents.
El Futuro Maya - Documentary Film
The original El Futuro Maya: Voces del Presente was produced in 1998, shortly after the signing of the Guatemalan Peace Accords. The documentary focused on Maya voices – on what it means to be Maya, on the role of language, on hopes for the future. In 2015, a sequel was filmed, interviewing thirteen of the original participants and six new individuals. Photography by Jeanette Martín and Videography by Jeanette Martín and alida cardos whaley. Full documentary website here.
Community Healing Mural Project
The Community Healing Mural Project was a collaboration with CORE/El Centro's Mujeres con Poder program and STITCH. The aim of the mural project was to gather members of the Mujeres con Poder program to be in conversation regarding traditional healing modalities that they remember from their hometowns as well as how to advance community transformation in our families and neighborhoods. The conversations then informed the concept and mural design. This project was all in Spanish.
Assata Shakur Mural
In collaboration with the Alpha Kappa Alpha Marquette University Chapter, Jeanette Martín worked with a group of students to design a mural for the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center. After a month of conversations regarding themes of empowerment, feminism and its intersections with race, students decided on uplifting the story and work of Assata Shakur.
Erie Neighborhood House Youth Mural
Proyecto Cuidate, is a trauma-informed, violence prevention and intervention program where Erie Neighborhood House provides youth groups, youth mentoring, parenting groups, women's groups, family counseling, and individual counseling in the Little Village neighborhood in Chicago, IL. To create a more trauma-informed space, a community-based mural project was facilitated by Martin with a group of 10 youth in which personal narratives and consensus informed the mural design.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Commissioned Painting
The Gender & Sexuality Campus Center (GSCC) remodeled and rebranded their space. To create a welcoming environment for all UW-Madison students, the GSCC commissioned Alumna, Jeanette Martin to create a piece of artwork for the center. Due to COVID, Martin could not hold community painting sessions. Instead, she held a session with students and alumni that utilize the GSCC to hear a bit about their stories in order to inform the painting design.
