We Are All Here

We Are All Here is a community-based interdisciplinary – poetry, visual art, music – art project.  In the spring of 2016, Path with Art students gathered weekly at the Seattle Art Museum. Together, they worked with public artist Kristen Ramirez and internationally acclaimed multi-disciplinary artist Martha Rosler, in partnership with the New Foundation Seattle, to write poems and translate those poems into visual art.  The poems were inspired by the understanding that we all play a crucial role in shaping the ongoing evolution of Seattle — that We Are All Here.  The result was a series of beautifully painted canvas banners that have been displayed in Occidental Park (Summer, 2016) and the Seattle Symphony (Spring, 2017).

 
 

We then turned to our neighbors to continue the conversation.  With the understanding that in order to solve any community problems, we must first come together as community, Path with Art invited the general public to contribute to a collective poem, inspired by the original prompt, We Are All Here.  Individual poems were submitted online, mailed to Path with Art’s offices, and deposited in poetry drop boxes hosted by our Pioneer Square-based community partners.  A central drop box was located at the Information Booth in Occidental Square.

Poems were published on our website and, throughout the course of the summer of 2016, a jury of local poets selected a handful of submissions to serve as inspiration for additional banners. To celebrate our collective poem, Path with Art hosted a community celebration, inclusive of a poetry reading, in Occidental Square on August 26, 2016. 

Throughout Fall 2016 and Winter 2017, Path with Art students participated in a 16-week residency at the Seattle Symphony. The students worked with Seattle Symphony Teaching Artists Jessi Harvey and Lena Console to create an original community composition drawing inspiration from the poetry and visual art created throughout the We Are All Here project. On March 8 at 7:00pm, a chamber ensemble of Seattle Symphony musicians and Path with Art students will premiere this community composition at the Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall at Benaroya Hall against a backdrop of the banners.

 

Community Partners and Drop Box Hosts

The Pioneer Square locations below held open a poetry submission drop box, where members of the public brought dozens of community poems in response to the prompt, We Are All Here.