Treat relationship as art

Street Works applies MJN’s 3 values — justice, loving care, and solidarity — to make justice normal in the cultural asset ecosystem. (Read more here about why we're focused in this particular program on the cultural asset ecosystem.)

What it is

Relationship as art is a design principle that we apply to Street Works in service to multiple characteristics of loving care and solidarity.

This design principle is important to Street Works because we believe...

Loving, solidarity-guided systems center people — not products — and foster joy. Unfortunately, art is often prioritized over artists. So what if we are the art?

Relationships are beautiful, and systems are little more than guidelines for relationship. When relationships are nurtured with a creative eye, the possibility for system evolution is endless.

Goals

To treat relationship as art, all Street Works projects aim to the following with artists, community members, paid team members, members of other organizations, and volunteers:

• Design joy and self-expression into collaboration

• Nurture relationships, regardless of whether there's a project attached to it

To treat relationship as art, all Street Works artists will work to:

• Create artistic experiences uniquely designed to spark or deepen relationships, between passersby, participants, and organizers.

Why

It's hard to put relationships first when we have to do things we don't want to do on timelines that don't accommodate for our sickness, joy, and rest. Paying for rent and food is often the reason, and they inevitably cause us to neglect our relationships when our jobs aren’t designed to value them.

By reframing authentic and carefully designed relationship as a meaningful art form, we are starting to show how it can foster joy, belonging, and creative place-making in unique ways.