The Global Story Project

The Global Story Project aims to increase cultural empathy through storytelling.  In 2015 I traveled to Sri Lanka with Bianca Anderson and Dominica Zhu, where we partnered with the country's largest rural development organization, Sarvodaya.  We conducted and recorded interviews with community leaders in a rural village affiliated with Sarvodaya.  Through these interviews we gathered bits of wisdom with which we planned to educate our own community back in the United States; a kind of international development role reversal.  

We created large artworks from printed photographs and paint, which were the centerpieces of an interactive gallery event we held in Fort Collins, Colorado called the Cultural Collidescope.  Attendees were led through sensory depictions of Sri Lankan culture (video, photography/paint, music, food, and scent), and were asked questions which encouraged them to think about their own culture.  They were then asked to have a dialogue with people around them.   

This project seems to be increasingly relevant given the current state of cultural empathy in the United States, and the world.  I believe that society can make forward progress in the fight against xenophobia through public art and creative expression.  The Global Story Project's idea was to reduce "fear of the unknown" by making it "known" through an experiential cultural exhibit.  

Painting was done by Taylor Clay, photographs were taken by Bianca Anderson.

Series of four artworks are photographs on cotton rag with acrylic paint and ink