The Holding Project: A Community Art Installation

Write or draw your response to the questions “What makes you feel safe?” and “What makes you feel unsafe?” on a small card that will be incorporated into a large-scale community art installation.

We invite you to participate in The Holding Project by writing or drawing your responses on trading-card-sized papers. The cards pose the questions “What makes you feel safe?” and “What makes you feel unsafe?” Your cards will be collected and incorporated into a large-scale, concertina book structure that consists of multiple panels that hold your individual responses. This structure allows the book to expand infinitely as people add cards, cumulatively creating a community response. The final book will be exhibited at the Main Library in Spring 2022.

Artists Ashley Pryor Geiger, Barbara WF Miner, and Lee Fearnside created The Holding Project as a response to the rise of anti-AAPI (Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders) violence. Reflecting on the increasing polarization of American society that makes it difficult to share experiences with violence, as three white artists, they were aware that we could not “speak for” a community to which they did not belong. The Holding Project is their method of turning to the community to broaden the conversation. They believe that art can provide a space for community dialogue about feelings of safety and unsafety, and how these feelings about community shape individuals’ lives. That’s where you come in!