COMMUNITY PROJECTS

"Birth of Change", PA Migrant Education Mural Camp 2024

Seed Project Murals

Pershing Avenue Project

Transcendence was completed in October of 2023 and was initiated by neighbors in the Winter of 2022.This project was made possible by the seed project which is funded in part by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Creative Communities Initiative and the Wells Fargo Regional Foundation.
The process: Salina Almanzar-Oree, Claudia Rojas, and Josh Graupera. The neighbors meet weekly with SACA’s Jack Howell to discuss various community improvement projects. In the winter of 2022, seed project began a series of creative workshops to tease out ideas and imagery to include in the final design of the mural. Throughout the year, neighbors expressed an interest in seeing something bright that told parts of the history of the neighborhood, depicted a sense of unity, and included butterflies and native plants especially Mountain Laurel. Almanzar-Oree presented several drafts of the mural and solicited feedback throughout the Spring of 2023. By the summer of 2023, neighbors decided on the final design and gave their stamp of approval for the production of the artwork to begin.
The meaning and content: Transcendence means to have an existence or experience beyond the norm. It also implies a rising above despite what might be holding someone or something back. Butterflies are a symbol of transcendence, transformation, hope, migration, resilience and mental health. As neighbors settled on the butterfly as a theme. Salina, who typically depicts nature in a larger than life style, proposed the idea of having a swarm of butterflies and using the segments of the wings as a frame for vignettes. This direction was approved quickly and together the group settled on historical and future visions as elements to be in the wings. Here are the images that appear in the wings from left to right and top to bottom:

Two images of General Black Jack Pershing circa 1917: General Black Jack Pershing is the namesake of Pershing Avenue and an anti-segregationist who included, and lauded Black soldiers as equals during his time serving for the US Military.
Boys Club members playing volleyball during summer camp (provided by Gerald Wilson)
Boys Club members learning archery during summer camp (provided by Gerald Wilson)
A child holding an elder’s hand
A Sanborn Fire Insurance map depicting Freiburg Avenue the former name of Pershing Avenue (pre-1918)
The re-dedication of Freiburg Avenue as Pershing Avenue circa 1918
Community member’s from Centro Hispano playing Bingo (based on photograph by Claudia Rojas)
Lucy Molina’s hands holding a Potho’s plant as a symbol of growth and hope (based on photograph by Salina Almanzar-Oree)
Image of community member’s from Centro Hispano playing Dominoes

Each image was deliberately chosen as a snapshot of what this community had experienced together and hopes to continue to build together.
Along the small wall, is the image of Jesus Molina’s hand releasing the butterflies. As a group, neighbors expressed an interest in using male hands as a symbol of contrasting hard and soft imagery, something that is not often shown. The hand emerges from a few sprigs of Mountain Laurel, the state flower of Pennsylvania, and one of the native plants requested by neighbors to symbolize their childhood memories of being able to go outside and enjoy nature.

Beaver Street Project

“RISE” was created during the spring and summer of 2021 with lead artists Salina Almanzar and Eleazar Jimenez. The artists worked with the 300 block of Beaver Street by hosting workshops and conversations about what the community would like to see represented in their neighborhood. From conversations on Liberty and Justice, to discussions of historic neglect and prejudice, the artists worked through several different designs before settling on this artwork. The sunflower fields symbolize longevity and growth, the monarch butterflies symbolize migration and freedom, the rose symbolizes the resilience referenced in the quote by Tupac Amaru Shakur that was selected by the community, the golden halos elevate the community members represented in the mural and symbolize the inner light we all carry, and the colorful background and portraits of community members represent the diversity present in the Beaver Street community. “RISE” asks us to consider, what and how do we rise up for ourselves and for our community? How do we practice holding each other up? How can we continue to rise in spite of the challenges and obstacles in front of us?
Special Thanks To: PennStone for the generous donation of material, Lancaster City Alliance, Lancaster Equity Community Development Corporation, Community Action Partnership of Lancaster County, Manicato Taino Cultural Center, all of the neighbors, artists, and volunteers that painted with us, and especially neighbors of the 300 block of Beaver Street.

Lincoln Middle School Residency

SoWe Pocket Park Mural

PA Migrant Education Mural Camp 2022

Fulton Elementary Little Free Library

Culliton Park Phase 3

The mural honors what was lost through colonization of indigenous lands and the resilience of historically marginalized peoples as they behave like water: adapting and transforming their environments. The hands are referenced from two of elders and long-time residents in the Southwest community Sandy Drakeford and Marie King Linares The botanical motif that the waves transform into would have been referenced from native plants and flowers, to engage the community and foster a sense of ownership, I connected with youth in the community (through Boys and Girls Club, Water Street Mission, and SDOL) and neighbors to collect their drawings of flowers and plants that represent growth and hope.We then photographed the flowers and added them to the mural via projection and tracing. Images of the grand opening and progress shots can be found here. Zines outlining the project and ask from the community can be found here. The second phase of work (not pictured) involved using flags as a symbol of reclamation of the park. Reclaiming/Reclamando invites neighbors to write what they want to claim as the future of the park on white flags. Symbolically and literally staking the flags in the ground recalls acts of claiming land (rightfully or wrongfully) and claiming space. The act of many coming together to claim many different ideas, concepts, wishes, hopes, and/or dreams in one physical space complicates the colonial notion of land ownership thus recalling indigenous collectivism and community.

Like Water/Como Agua

Culliton Park Phase 2

From March-July I will be engaging neighbors and anchor institutions in three creative processes. Each project will culminate in a large scale collaborative piece that we will celebrate with a reception in the park. This is Phase Two of work in Culliton Park. The goal and vision is to cultivate the park as a crucial third-space or space where the community can gather, work through issues, share their stories, honor their history, and imagine new futures all through the process of creating together.

SCALE-UP!: Large Scale Ideation

Participants will be guided through a process of starting with a small sketch and scaling up designs. We will discuss how to communicate effectively through larger scale paintings of messages to share with the immediate community. I will help folks work through a design process that is about communication and collective discussion/critique. The driving question/prompt is: “How can my community be like water? How have we been like water?”. We will translate the small sketches and responses to plywood 12x12 or slightly larger plywood to hang them along the fence to create a collaborative mural-like installation. This was a big success last year (some of the 10x10 panels are still up!).

Community Tapestry

Looms and a variety of textile materials will be provided. Fabric markers will be available for participants to write their story on the textile provided. The driving question is “What memories or stories do I have of this community?”. After writing responses, participants will weave their stories into a textile square that will ultimately be about 10x10 inches wide (see example below). The squares will be assembled in a final quilt by me (the artist). The goals is to highlight the stories we share of this neighborhood and how unique our experiences are. Literally weaving them together shows us that we are all interconnected and dependent on each other and our diversity of experiences makes this neighborhood such a beautiful place. For longevity, the textiles will be sealed with a weather proofing solution and hung outside until the fence is removed.

Mind Map

The mind map is a creative way to collect input from neighbors in a collaborative way. A large roll of paper will be present at each community workshop and the content is generated from community input. The central question will be “What is the future of this neighborhood?” Smaller questions will be “How can I/we contribute to our ideal future?” and “What do we have now/What is happening now that is moving us toward this future?”.

Culliton Park Phase 1

The goal of this phase of Community Engagement is to facilitate creative and collaborative community meetings and actions to communicate the future vision of the Culliton Park neighborhood, create a sense of ownership in the redeveloped Park, ease the transition of redevelopment in the neighborhood, and create better communication/trust between Lancaster City authorities involved in the redevelopment process and residents of the Southwest quadrant of Lancaster City. Additionally, to creatively incorporate an understanding around the need for redevelopment of the park that includes improving management of storm-water while also being sensitive to the history of traumatic redevelopment and it’s after-effects that the community has lived through.
Due to construction delays, the park will not be renovated until Fall 2019,

love notes to a park (may 20, 2018-indefinite)

Residents will be invited to write a Love (or Hate) note to Farnum/Culliton Park. The notes will be written on recycled countertop and flooring chips and tied to a portion of the chain link fence around the park. Residents will be invited to decorate the fence with the chips, heart shaped cardboard for longer notes, and yarn.

photo credit to: Michelle Johnsen and Sara Code-Kroll

art pop: pop up arts and crafts

I will set up a tent and table with craft supplies to both finish the Love Notes to a Park mosaic and have Pop-Up Craft time. The tent and table will be vibrantly painted so that residents can easily recognize it from afar. As previously mentioned, families have expressed two key needs: an arts and crafts outlet for their children and wanting everyone to feel safe in the park. I believe that having pop-up crafting sessions throughout the duration of this pre-renovation phase will help establish a sense of community amongst all park attendees and will allow me some unfiltered conversation/conversation without a deliberate agenda. Making together, much like sharing a meal, has the capacity to break down barriers, open up new avenues for conversation, and reveal bonds that may not otherwise be exposed. Using a tent and table, I hope to create a visual presence that is inviting and non-exclusionary. I believe that as more residents from various backgrounds begin to occupy the park, we can start to see healing, community, and a sense of local pride emerge again.

LIKE WATER: COMMUNITY ZINE (JULY-AUGUST 2018)

LIKE WATER is a community zine that explores the resilience of a community through water as a metaphor. We discussed the history of the place (Water Street in Lancaster City) and how despite all kinds of human intervention, the stream still seethes beneath us and reminds us that it is unstoppable. What happens when a community is like water? Through this lens we asked ourselves: What memories have we had in this place? How did they makes us feel? How did they inform how we think about this place? What memories do we want to have in this place? How can we start to flow in that direction? We created pages for a collaborative zine that will be printed and distributed to the community and to city officials in the Fall of 2018.

this neighborhood is: portraits of culliton park neighbors

These portraits and phrases were collected during the summer of 2018. These are just a few of the folks that shape this community into what it is today. From folks that were born and raised on these streets, to the next generation of residents who call this neighborhood home, this is your collective vision reflected back to you. No matter how much a place changes the impact of the folks that have come before, that are here now, and are to come can shape and mold what that place is. This neighborhood is what you make it.

Photos of neighbors by: Osmyn Josef Oree
Painting, Design, and Wheatpaste by: Salina Almanzar
Documentation of installation: Larissa Ramey, David Parry, Michelle Johnson

Michelle Johnsen

keys for the city: somos semillas

the mix at arbor place

Keys for the City is an annual project sponsored primarily by Music for Everyone. Various community institutions and groups are invited to paint a donated piano to promote and represent their impact in the community. Local artists are invited to collaborate with the represented institution to create artistic pianos that will be on display throughout the summer. Salina is working with children from The Mix at Arbor Place, an after school program for youth in the Southeast and Southwest neighborhoods of Lancaster City. Most of the youth are Latinx and from the School District of Lancaster. Salina is creating a mural-like painting that includes original work by the youth (sketches pictured below) and artwork created by Salina to tie it all together. Their theme is the phrase (in English and Spanish) "They tried to bury us but they did not know we were seeds | Quisieron enterrarnos pero no sabian que eramos semillas". The youth were asked to create artwork that reflected something that made them feel happy or proud no matter how bad things got.
This collaborative project is now on view in Downtown Lancaster at Lancaster Square near Fulton Bank.

alza la voz

collaborative mural celebrating the adelante forum

lead assistant under Michelle angela ortiz

COMMUNITY Quilt

Fulton theater and opera house 2017

The Fulton Theater commissioned Salina Almanzar to create an interactive piece for their storefront property on King Street in Lancaster City. The quilt was created in collaboration with community members, elementary and middle school students, and various community groups. Images of folks from the community are pictured along with images created by folks in the community. Salina scheduled Pop-Up workshops in strategic neighborhood locations as well as made school visits and held after school workshops. The quilt was unveiled at the same time as the opening of In the Heights.

COMMUNITY SCRAPBOOK

LANCASTER COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION AND FULTON THEATER

The Community Scrapbook, created and maintained by Salina Almanzar, existed initially as a space in the Fulton Theater lobby where attendees would add scrapbook pages to a communal binder. Cameras were given to various community groups to document what their community meant to them. The final form of the scrapbook was curated by Salina and includes prints from the disposable cameras. This is now an ongoing project inspired by the musical In the Heights and managed/sponsored by the Community Foundation. Pages are added continually as the scrapbook travels around Lancaster County and City.