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Photo Gallery |
| Elizabeth Jabar, Bookmaker, Printer Department of Health & Human Services City of Portland Maine |
My books and printed assemblages are informed by ideas of legacy, identity, kinship, and faith. Through the process of printmaking and drawing, I recall and record memory, creating a personal language for exploring notions of ethnicity and heritage. Using cultural motifs from textiles and folk art, my pieces express a powerful emotionality and desire to document forgotten traditions. I was born in Waterville, Maine, the granddaughter of Lebanese immigrant mill workers. My work is greatly influenced by this history and cultural lineage. I currently reside in Portland and chair the printmaking program at Maine College of Art.
THE ARTS & EQUITY INITIATIVE: In working with the Public Artists
in Residence with the Department of Health and Human Services of the City of
Portland, I will use potent and provocative questions to draw out memory and
sense of self. Some of these questions might be What do we possess of the
culture that was passed down? What parts of us live on in our descendants,
and for how long? What aspects of my culture are meaningful and important to
share, to know? Using these questions to stir dialog, and bridge barriers,
city employees will respond to images of their own cultural traditions, and
their coworkers, such as pattern motifs, or iconic symbols, exploring their
own heritage as a dynamic tradition, and at the same time, learning about
the cultures of their co-workers, sharing the journey, excited for
themselves and for each other as they build a deeper understanding of who
they are together and how that brings them closer and more effective as a
team.
It is through the art making that the difficult territory of cross-cultural
dialogue is approached in a new and powerful way. City employees will build
trust and strong relationships, acknowledge and respect their coworkers’
cultural identity, and celebrate one another’s traditions, as their artwork
and insights are shared within the department, municipal government,
communities they serve, and eventually the public at large.
Each employee will explore new interpretations of their cultural motifs through drawing, collage, printmaking, and written reflections, ultimately creating books to allow longer stories to be told. The materials used in the art/books may include work documents, newspaper articles, journal entries, paystubs, historical photographs. I will work with these city employees to create hand printed books of their images and writing. The finished books will be editioned and exhibited in various departments at City Hall and on the City’s website for the public and other city workers to access. As we continue, the workshop assignments/projects will include interviewing co-workers about their heritages, asking our original questions and adding ones we develop as a group, as well as original topic-specific research on the part of the participants into Portland’s past. New prints and books will be created representing a wider and wider number of employees, generating a cultural map of the department that recognizes diversity as the strength and asset it is in reality.
My residency in the Health and Human Services Department is particularly exciting as it has the most diverse employees of any city department. The work we make will play a distinct role re: reorienting city workers, politicians, and citizens to the reality of Portland’s diversity. My years of work in community arts has confirmed my hypothesis that changing perceptions is a key element in creating new possibilities; the kind that a city can leverage in ways that benefit the health - psychological and economic, and quality of life for all its citizens.
Elizabeth A. Jabar is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Printmaking Department at Maine College of Art in Portland, Maine. In her studio art courses she has collaborated with many students and artists over the last five years working with middle schools, high schools, and non-profit and public agencies creating community art projects. Her service learning projects utilize the citizen artist model, using the arts to engage the public in dialog about local history, site, process and community building. Elizabeth also co-chairs the Creative Community Partnerships Committee at Maine College of Art, where she works closely with the program director and other faculty to educate and expand service learning at the college.