Sherri Tan

 

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

Ms. Tan has been actively involved in community projects throughout her career. In collaboration with artist, Joe Nicastri, Tan creates artist books and sculptures, which are used in participatory, community-based programs, nation-wide. In 1998, Nicastri and Tan created Arts for Humanity, (AH) a non-profit organization, which uniquely facilitates dialogue and understanding about diversity, conflict resolution, organizational development and team-building through the arts. Their recent workshops have included the Surplus of Memory workshop for the Board of Directors of the National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ), Orlando; the Art and Conscience workshop for the Miami NCCJ's Metrotown program for high school students, and a roundtable Questions of Tolerance workshop at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. Recently, they coordinated a multi-disciplinary arts series followed by interactive audience symposia on ethnicity and identity in Miami Beach, FL. The "Gyspy, Jew, Haitian", program, including classical music concerts, theatre, film events and community discussions, was presented in collaboration with the New World Symphony, Area Stage Company and Alliance Cinema.

Tan and Nicastri also conduct workshops for students of all ages, specializing in programs designed for high school and college students. They designed a week-long program for the Philadelphia NCCJ's Anytown Camp for teenage, non-art students, who would individually and collectively create multi-media productions, to explore dynamics of race, community, class, gender, sexuality, individual and group identities. Their program has been used as a model for other NCCJ camps.

In 1999, Nicastri's collection of art works, Surplus of Memory, with Sherri Tan's collaborations, was permanently acquired by the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, for nation-wide use in such programs. For this occasion, Nicastri and Tan launched a week-long series of art-making and dialogue-oriented workshops designed specifically for students of art and architecture, education, psychology, religious studies and political science at the University of Florida.