Anna Murphy on Community Engagement and Working in Public Spaces
Anna came into the Roots & Routes network in the beginning of the gathering spaces project when she applied with another artist, Andy Bellamo, to work on the Chinatown project. After working on murals in Ping Tom Park, she had built connections with Chicago’s Chinatown neighborhood. She applied for the RFP, and became one of several artists involved.
When working on Set in Stone, she worked closely with the Chinatown community and says she understands the importance of having community participation in public pieces like this and having a community partner to help usher that relationship can make a real difference.
At the end of the day, “[we] were just the makers of the art piece, they were kind of the spirit behind it and they were the people deciding what exactly it would be and what it would look like and the meaning behind it… it was almost like we were just the hand that made the piece”.
She advises artists who are working with community input to have as much structure as possible when going into design meetings in order to make sure she can take in as many additional elements as possible.
Working with the community is important to her because it adds a different experience and perspective to her art.
“The more people that are involved, the more joy it brings to people's lives. They get to feel like they're part of something important and then they see it every day, or they see it whenever they visit the public art. It just means a lot to people and so it's kind of like a gift that I feel like as an artist, I get to share with other people that I get to experience all the time as an artist by myself.”
The experience helped teach her the importance of building relationships with a community, and has grown accustomed to working in public where people can stop by and talk to her, “I like the human connection part of it and I've actually made a lot of friends that way”.
Anna stays busy with both public and private projects in Chicago and elsewhere. In 2023, she’ll be working on a live exhibition at the Chicago Cultural Center where you can watch her process as she creates a mural and works on a mural in Indianapolis. You can keep up with all of Anna’s projects on her website and Instagram page.