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Community Art Project Deep Atlas

WITH COMMUNITY ARTIST IN RESIDENCE
LIZE MOGEL

January–May 2015

Deep Atlas, a collaborative art project organized by the Whitney Education Department and Community Artist in Residence Lize Mogel, brought together teens, community organizations, and schools to explore mapping and mapmaking in the context of the Whitney's new site. 

  • PS 33, February 2015. Photograph by Filip Wolak

  • People drawing on a map with markers, with scissors, tape, and other materials on a table.

    LGBT Center, February 2015. Photograph by Filip Wolak

  • Village Community School, March 2015. Photograph by Filip Wolak

  • Youth Insights Leaders walk around the Meatpacking District to collect data for their mapping project, January 2015. Photograph by Filip Wolak

  • ELESAIR, February 2015. Photograph by Filip Wolak

  • Penn South senior center, March 2015. Photograph by Filip Wolak

  • PS 33, February 2015. Photograph by Filip Wolak

  • LOMA, March 2015. Photograph by Filip Wolak

  • MS 260, February 2015. Photograph by Filip Wolak

  • Housing Works, March 2015. Photograph by Filip Wolak

  • SAGE senior center, March 2015. Photograph by Filip Wolak

  • Greenwich House senior center, March 2015. Photograph by Filip Wolak

  • ELESAIR, February 2015. Photograph by Filip Wolak

  • LOMA, March 2015. Photograph by Filip Wolak

  • Greenwich House senior center, March 2015. Photograph by Filip Wolak

  • Lize Mogel works with a student at Harvest Collegiate High School, February 2015. Photograph by Filip Wolak

  • LGBT Center, February 2015. Photograph by Filip Wolak

  • PS 33, February 2015. Photograph by Filip Wolak

  • Village Community School, March 2015. Photograph by Filip Wolak

  • PS 41, February 2015. Photograph by Filip Wolak

Mogel introduced project participants to the ways that maps can be used to represent diverse experiences and histories focusing on the neighborhoods around the Museum’s new home. Not surprisingly, the project revealed that mapping these neighborhoods took on different meanings for each of the participating groups, from seniors aging in place and public housing residents who have seen the area change around them; to LGBTQ teens and seniors who come here from all over the city to find community; to K-12 students who have various personal connections to their neighborhood. 


Deep Maps

Participants made what Mogel calls “deep maps.” Viewed together, they represent a collective “deep atlas” that draws from the community’s own histories, experiences, and observations that complicates standard maps of the area. These counter-mappings challenge the dominant contemporary representations of the Meatpacking District, which have been largely shaped by the forces of real estate development, commerce, and high culture (from art to food to fashion). 


LIZE MOGEL ON COUNTER-CARTOGRAPHY

Mogel’s work is a form of “counter-cartography,” an approach that involves looking beyond a map’s surface to uncover the politics of place. As the artist explains, “If maps have long been used as a tool of political power, representing the dominant perspective of places, spaces, or people, then the practice of counter-mapping challenges and pushes back against this history, bringing stories to the surface that are not being told, and need to be heard.”


WHO WE WORKED WITH

Community Organizations
The Door
ELESAIR at the YMCA
Fulton Youth of the Future
Housing Works West Village Health Center
Hudson Guild Beacon SchoolBridge Program
The LGBT Community Center

Senior Centers
Greenwich House
Hudson Guild at Fulton House
Penn South
SAGE Center (Services and Advocacy for LGBT Elders)

Schools
Chelsea Prep (PS 33)
Clinton School for Artists and Writers (MS 260)
Harvest Collegiate High School
Lab Middle School
Lower Manhattan Arts Academy (LoMA)
PS 3
PS 41
Village Community School

Whitney
Youth Insights Leaders






In February 2015, Whitney Education's Community Artist-in-Residence Lize Mogel worked with students from The Clinton School for Writers and Artists/MS 260 on a mapping project.

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In March 2015, Whitney Education's Community Artist-in-Residence Lize Mogel worked on a colloborative art project with participants from the Penn South Program for Seniors.

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In February 2015, Whitney Education's Community Artist-in-Residence Lize Mogel worked on a mapping project with participants in the LGBT Community Center's mentor-mentee program located in the West Village.

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