Mpls. Group Repurposes Guns As Art To Combat Violence
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Art has always had the power to change society and show us the path to a better place.
Now a group of community leaders hopes to use art in the fight to end gun violence.
"Guns in the Hands of Artists" aims to start the conversation about an epidemic that is plaguing many inner city neighborhoods.
Artists are given guns turned in during gun buy backs to use in works of art.
Gathered at this table are people who live or work in north Minneapolis.
"The number of people around the table that have been impacted by gun violence is real," Pillsbury United Communities CEO Chanda Smith Baker said.
Their close connection to gun violence has forced them to look for ways to stop the violence and begin the healing.
"There are a lot of ways we can creatively come together. There is a lot of need and there is a lot of opportunity," Smith Baker said.
Smith Baker believes art can help change the dialogue around guns.
She helped bring what was collected from a gun buy back program to artists to create "Guns in the Hands of Artists."
"It's drawing awareness through the power of art, through the lens of art, through the emotion art can generate. It's drawing awareness to a critically important issue that affects communities across America," artist and author Jonathan Ferrara said.
Ferrara says this artwork creatively brings people together and sparks conversations.
"The kids think this is the answer and it's not. A bullet is a permanent solution to a temporary problem," Sa'Lesha Beeks said.
Beeks lost her mother in a senseless act of violence.
It was art, a project with photographer Nikki McComb, that gave her the will to keep going after her mother died.
She says the healing art brings is powerful and it also gives insight on how you can be a part of the solution.
"As a community coming together to say you're worth it, you have a reason to live, don't live to die, live to live," Beeks said.
Words this group will take to the people who need to hear them, those who are causing the violence, and people who have vowed to fight it.
"When people get involved where they live and where they work and have influence on making this community safer we all win," Smith Baker said.
Pillsbury United Communities will distribute the decommissioned weapons to local artists Saturday.
They will then create artistic expressions about gun violence in our community.
