Purchase Professor Uniting Communities Through Art

Christopher Robbins, an assistant professor of art and design at , uses art as a vehicle for both international and local social change.

"My work operates on the cusp of public art and community action, utilizing art as a way to expand the potential of everyday acts," Robbins said. "I do this by creating frameworks that lead people to question their assumptions about what a space can be, what a culture represents, how a journey is defined."

Robbins, a former Peace Corps volunteer in West Africa, co-founded the Ghana Think Tank in 2006 with fellow students at the Rhode Island School of Art and Design.

The project looks to reverse the traditional power structure that centers around the "developed" world sending its suggestions for solving problems in "undeveloped" nations.

"There are vested tensions when foreigners come into other countries and impose their will, and often there are unintended consequences," said Robbins.

The think tank includes members in Ghana, Cuba, El Salvador, Serbia, Mexico, Serbia, Iran and Wales, as well as a group of incarcerated girls in the U.S. prison system.

Last week, the Ghana Think Tank's Mobile Unit was parked outside the New Museum's Festival of Ideas for the New City in Manhattan, collecting personal and community problems from passers-by. The problems submitted will be sent to think tank members in other countries, who will send their suggestions and feedback for implementation.

"It's become a way to explore the friction caused by solutions that are generated in one context and applied elsewhere, while revealing the hidden assumptions that govern cross-cultural interactions," Robbins explained.

He said that residents of Westport, CT participated in the Ghana Think Tank, expressing concern that there was a lack of diversity in their community.

"They said, 'We're a very homogeneous white community. We want more diversity.' When our members in El Salvador saw the problem, they said, 'We bet there is diversity, but they're not being counted.'"

The El Salvadorians suggested that the community invite non-white people who worked in the community to their social functions, and when the Westport residents received that response, they decided to find people within different social groups to an art exhibit opening.

"It was uncomfortable for us at first, but it was amazing to have this uncommon thing create a new environment for people," Robbins said.

One American woman told the Ghana Think Tank that she was angry and stressed because her dog was barking all the time. Robbins said that the Ghana delegation suggested that the woman call the dog, "Love." When she tried it, she told Robbins that her stress decreased because "when you scream the word 'love,' it makes you feel more at ease."

Another suggestion from a Ghana Think Tank delegation revolved around residents of a halfway house feeling as though they had no voice.

"The solution given was to create a board where people could write what they wanted on it. We used brightly colored plexiglass and gave the residents an anonymous way to talk to people, but with the benefit of knowing it was seen by everyone," Robbins explained. "It worked out well in creating a conversation."

Robbins teaches an introductory sculpting course at Purchase College, as well as an upper-level course called "Art for Social Change." The class consists of art, sociology and new media students and often is held at a location in Port Chester.

While Robbins said that his students inevitably can't make huge social changes over the course of one semester, they have taken on some important issues in Port Chester.

For instance, students are working on bringing Port Chester's many ethnic groups together using food as a common interest. Robbins said that students on the class's "Multi-Ethnic Bread Team," have promoted the mixing of cultures by joining two bread stores—one that caters to English-speaking customers and the other to Spanish-speakers—that are across the street from each other.

"The students said, "Let's use this bread to bring us together".

Robbins and students from his "Art for Social Change" class will be hosting a free community art exhibit at 233 Westchester Ave., Port Chester on Tues., May 17 from 5-7 p.m.

More information about the Ghana Think Tank can be found at www.christopher-robbins.com and www.ghanathinktank.org.