Floraffiti is creative placemaking and community engagement.
For the past 3 years, it has delved deep its facet of artistic self-expression. Floraffiti aims at creating a safe, inclusive space for vulnerability in which each participant is seen, heard, and valued. Floraffiti®, which was founded in 2013 by Carter Hubbard, is a practice that provides a platform for various project applications. In this iteration, Carter has partnered with Sonny Kelly. He has lead participants through a workshop that combines thoughtful, critical group conversations with fun, engaging writing exercises to facilitate a respectful inclusive community of individual voices and perspectives, in which all present explore dissimilarity, divergence, and commonality. Out of this workshop, each person learns to modify his/her/their written piece for a performance style that befits each individual and coached by Sonny Kelly. One word is selected that each author finds intriguing and valuable to his/her/their respective piece.
During the middle of this project, Floraffiti was halted at the time of the emergence of Covid19. The full scope of Floraffiti was unfortunately unfulfilled as planned.
Should it have been completed, each participant, along with other volunteers on campus, would have planted their word in a variety of locations: The Love House, The Ackland Art Museum, and the Department of City & Regional Planning. At a later date upon the words sprouting and clearly visible, a public event was to be held for the purpose of each person to perform their piece and have the opportunity to meet audience members and have deeper discussions about their piece, their life and essence as they move through the world and communities close by that live in tandem with the university life at UNC and as it currently exists in its deeply experienced impact; relationship building in its most powerful form. Additionally, each person would have had their piece recorded and uploaded to a geo-location app that would play when activated by the user who was standing close to the sprouted word. This would expand the accessibility to the full scope of the project outside of the planned performance event allowing the materials to further be archived at the Center for the Study of the American South. As it stands, a digital form of the project will be presented on the Center website and what has transpired this far will be archived at the Center.
Project Team
Carter Hubbard and Sonny Kelly
Carter is a mid-career visual linguist, reflecting to society the current times through various practices and media. She works with municipalities, non-profit organizations, and educational institutions. Partnering with local creatives infuses and grows the collective capacity. Her practice is rooted in continually learning about the human condition, facilitating awareness, and how to collectively flow with community relationships to move forward in a positive direction.
Sonny is a Ph.D. Candidate in Communication, actor, writer, and facilitator
Sonny, leading a Floraffiti workshop, 2018. Photo: Carter Hubbard
Additional Team Members
- Kathy Atwater (Community Advocacy Coordinator at Marian Cheek Jackson Center): coordinating and procuring
- Anna Gustines (Masters Candidate in City & Regional Planning, UNC): Placemaking Co-Chair project partner coordinator
- Lauren Turner (Ackland Art Museum, Assistant Curator for the Collection): project partner coordinator