Jenna
Alstad
performance artist
HECUA
(Higher Education Consortium for Urban Affairs)
Arts for Social Change
"HECUA provides college students experiential and community-based academic programs that offer pathways to understanding and supporting inter-generational movements for social justice, human rights, decolonization, and environmental sustainability in the U.S. and abroad. Infused with a radical ethic of care and deep respect for the knowledge of communities most impacted by injustice, HECUA’s programs challenge systems of oppression, speak openly of justice, and envision students, teachers, and community members as co-learners and co-creators."
Truth Project
The HECUA Truth Project was designed to have students confront their personal truths in a global context. Students were allowed to utilize multidisciplinary arts in an exploration of themselves and greater systems that silence us in our pursuit of social justice. Students explored concepts around privilege, race, indigeneity, gender, and power in their own lives as well as in the lives of those around them. Each piece contained some element of participation from the audience. The pieces were presented at an artist open house at Pillsbury House Theatre on March 22, 2018 which was attended by community members and artists alike.
Community Gathering
In the conclusion of the HECUA semester, all of the national Minneapolis based programs came together to share their work with each other, the HECUA community, and the general public. At this event, students performed or presented a piece of their choice, bringing some of the arts based semester to the greater community to share what had been worked on over the semester.
