CONNECTThe Love Story Interactive Art Journal + Live Open Mic Show
We will interview 40 artists on how they have transformed the pain of loss into creative expression and produce those interviews into a New Media Art Journal. complimented by a live music/art show.
Are any other organizations collaborating on this proposal?
America Innovates Foundation
Please describe your project proposal.
This isn't about mental health--it's about transforming pain into creative expression. We will interview 40 artists on how they have transformed the pain of loss into art and produce the interviews into an interactive media art journal, complimented by two live music/art shows where Angelenos can engage in conversations surrounding grief, love and art while providing artists performances and open mic sharing of our journal entries.
Which of the CONNECT metrics will your proposal impact?
Social & emotional support
Cultural events
Public/open streets gatherings
Rates of volunteerism
Residential segregation
Total number of local social media friends and connections Angelenos have
In what areas of Los Angeles will you be directly working?
Central LA
East LA
South LA
Westside
LAUSD
Describe in greater detail how your proposal will make LA the best place to CONNECT?
When people experience the pain of loss, they often hide emotions like depression, anger, and anxiety associated with loss for fear judgement and the mental health stigma. Grieving is often a tough, lonely process but necessary process, though some individuals have a hard time reaching out and asking for help. The context usually is, 'Something is wrong with me,' 'nobody understands,' 'It's too painful.'
We are connecting people who have chosen creative expression to transform emotional states like depression, anxiety, and anger into art as a way to process their grief. By offering them a safe and personalized space in the form of a hardcover documentary art book designed by a community of artists sharing openly and authentically about their experiences in grief, The Love Story will be able to inspire our community to write, reflect, and share their personal stories in a digital and live platform. Using augmented reality technology through our partnership with Live Portrait, the artist illustrations inside the book will turn into videos when scanned through the Live Portrait app, allowing our journalers to write, paint, sketch, doodle, rant, and create directly inside the book. The journals will include 40 interviews and 40 journaling prompts.
By creating a book designed by artists, aggregated into one documentary art journal, we are able to not only connect the broken hearted with those who have transformed from it, but we are also able to change how we perceive the pain of loss.
By leveraging the power of art and expression to transform the mindset of loss and grief, those who are experiencing difficult times will view their circumstances as an artistic opportunity to discover their inner artistry rather than a mental health issue to be fixed. By journaling, writing poetry, painting, and expressing creatively, we will be able to bring Angelinos together to have open, honest, and authentic conversations about grief and share our creative expressions (music, poetry, spoken word, film, etc.) to transform our pain.
American Innovates Foundation will bring together a confluence of influential networks (education, small business, entrepreneurs, researchers, health and wellness interest groups) who have an interest in how art and music can heal us. We also have a network of people America Innovates Foundation can bring in to curate talks on the link between social and emotional health and art.
Please explain how you will define and measure success for your project.
We will track our sales of the journals,
We will look at how much engagement we have on our social media.
We will use Google Analytics to measure conversion and retention of our members on our digital platform.
We track event turn out to the two live shows.
How can the LA2050 community and other stakeholders help your proposal succeed?
Money
Volunteers
Advisors/board members
Publicity/awareness
Infrastructure (building/space/vehicles etc.)
Technical infrastructure (computers etc.)
Community outreach
Network/relationship support
Quality improvement research