Local artist weaves community connection through Rondo library art project

Local artist Briauna Williams is working with children, parents and elders to create an art installation for the Rondo Community Library. Her project, part of Springboard for the Arts’ Artists Respond: Weaving Social Connection cohort, will compile community members’ artwork into a unified whole.

Williams, a self-described visual creative, is a painter, a published illustrator and a teaching artist. She often hosts workshops around storytelling and pain, offering prompts to help participants bring together art and healing. Throughout her artistic practice, connection is a cornerstone.

“I genuinely love connecting with community,” Williams said. “I feel like that’s where I thrive as an artist. That’s where I get my inspiration. That’s where I feel that [desire] to create.”

The Artists Respond project centers connection as well. Specifically, “the reciprocal relationship between artists and the communities that they’re coming from and part of,” said Sam Buffington, community organizer for Springboard for the Arts. “It is our way of engaging artists to do small projects around a pressing social issue.”

Springboard for the Arts, an organization aimed at supporting artists, has hosted Artists Respond cohorts in response to the pandemic, George Floyd’s murder and Operation Metro Surge. Williams’ cohort, “Weaving Social Connection,” responds to U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy’s 2023 report on the country’s loneliness epidemic. The report found that about half of Americans experience measurable loneliness, putting them at increased risk for mental and physical health issues.

“[Connection is] our lifeline,” Williams said. “Some of us really know how hard isolation is. When you are isolated, it’s easier for fear, hate, things like that … to manifest, or to just get lonely or sad. There’s something about human connection that’s necessary for our livelihood.”

For her Weaving Social Connection project, Williams is hosting monthly events in which community members paint on polytab in response to prompts like, “What would the best day look like?” At the events, participants connect with their own emotions and talk with Williams and each other about the art they are creating.

“It’s a therapeutic activity,” said Krya Christopherson, who participated in Williams’ July 11 art event. “Seeing different people’s [artistic] expressions and weaving it together is a really beautiful opportunity to embrace community.”

“It’s weaving connections visually, but also, when we are within the space, we’re connecting with each other,” Williams added.

In those connections, Williams is bringing together people of different generations.

“It’s something very valuable, being around young people and elders,” Williams said. “[They hold] the pieces of our being that remind us what matters.”

Williams said she draws on intergenerational moments for inspiration in her own art. She sometimes needs to play chalk with kids to remember the simplicity of life, or spend time with elders to hear the stories they tell.

Williams’ July 11 art event was mostly made up of kids and parents. Some art aimed to convey a message. Christopherson’s creation said, “You are worthy,” while other participants drew scenes, used colors that made them happy or illustrated the food or animals that would be part of their favorite day. Some kids said their favorite day would include talking to a turtle or hanging out with stingrays.

One of Williams’ favorite contributions to the project so far was a young girl’s painting of the planets, on which she wrote, “You are here. We all are here.”

“It made my heart really warm … [and] made me really reflect on a lot,” Williams said of the message in the girl’s painting. “It makes you reflect on how small we are and it makes me think about how often the world tries to divide us.”

After the final community art event, Williams will arrange the paintings participants have made, along with her own art, into a mural or other large art piece. The final product will be permanently showcased at the Rondo Community Library when its main location reopens following renovations.

Community members have two more chances to contribute to Williams’ project: Aug. 8 and Sept. 12 from 3-5 p.m. at the Hallie Q. Brown Community Center, the library’s temporary location.

Soon after the Sept. 12 event, “I’m gonna start puzzling and tinkering and painting and creating [the final art piece],” Williams said. She said there will be a community celebration for the artwork at the end of September or in October.

For more information, visit https://springboardforthearts.org/stories/artists-respond-meet-the-cohort-of-weaving-social-connection/.

Ella Stern is a contributing writer for the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder. She welcomes reader responses at erstern10@gmail.com.