Hello Neighbor: - School of Architecture and Allied Arts Blog

Community Arts Project Case-Study
Hello Neighbor:
Susan Whittaker
Community Arts Praxis
February 10, 2011
What happens when a neighborhood undergoes rapid redevelopment?
…When urban planners come in to ‘renew’ and ‘revitalize’ an existing
community? …When flocks of new residents move in along with newly built
condominiums, refurbished housing, and growing commerce? What happens
to the mix of native on non-native residents? Gentrification is a controversial
outcome of economic development, and the North Mississippi neighborhood
is one of the most rapidly changing, growing, and gentrifying neighborhoods
in Portland. Today, if one were to look up information on North Mississippi
one would most likely find sentiments, as one website put it: “Pros: Formerly
grungy neighborhood that has bloomed; Vibrant and full of young people.
Cons: Still a few rough spots” (http://portlandbridges.com).
Artist, Julie Keefe, moved into this neighborhood in 1991 and over the
years witnessed the morphing socio-cultural character of the neighborhood.
The neighborhood still remains largely made-up of a committed sub-culture
of artists and creative-types that do participate in community-building
activities. But, it’s the newer consumer-type residents that typically
economically push-out the native residents and previous sub-cultures that
Keefe identified as her biggest concern. Following the Portland Development
Commission designating this district as an ‘Urban Renewal Area’ and the
subsequent financial incentives of doing so, families who had for generations

Community Arts Project Case-Study
lived in this community have since been displaced into cheaper
neighborhoods. As new residents moved in, Keefe witnessed a lack of
cohesion. Whereas fifty years ago it was custom for residents in this
neighborhood to gather in each other’s houses, share meals, for children to
play and grow up together—all of that was changing. The unification and
comradery that had once been, had significantly grown weaker.
Of course there are benefits to what is happening to Mississippi Ave.,
benefits that affect the city as a whole: reduced crime rates, an increase in
property values, increased tax revenues, and a tool for tourism and
destination marketing. But as stated on the Hello Neighbor website in an
interview Keefe had with her neighbor Charles, “He didn't mind the streets
being safer, the businesses returning, or the houses being fixed up. What he
did mind was that people didn't say hello anymore.” The Hello Neighbor
project idea thus came about as a response and way to address one
challenging aspect of living in a gentrified community. Through a community
arts-based project, Keefe saw a way for people to start saying hello.
Garnering support from Caldera, a non-profit arts organization, and
the National Endowment for the Arts, the Hello Neighbor project grew to
become a statewide initiative, encompassing ten communities across
Portland and Central Oregon. The 2008 project involved middle school
students who went into their communities, identifying diverse people of all
ages and asking questions such as: “How do you see yourself?”; “What
inspires you?”; “Can you tell me a story about the neighborhood you grew up
in?”; and “Do you feel safe in your community?”. The process was

Community Arts Project Case-Study
documented both by video and photographs, which then got turned into large
7x5 foot banners that now hang in public community spaces. The goal, in
Keefe’s words, was “to introduce the neighborhood to its children and
neighbors to each other." It is of amazement how seemingly simple and
obvious this project is, while simultaneously moving these testimonies and
images are, even out of context. Personally, I frequent Mississippi Ave., and
on numerous occasions have stopped and looked at these banners without
knowing their cause or purpose—regardless they are impossible to ignore
and incredibly thought-provoking. It becomes an important reminder that as
we step into communities, whether just for breakfast or as an incoming
resident, we remain aware of our surroundings, its past, it’s unique fabric
and become a part of it. And how simple that can be, as Keefe has shown: as
simple as taking interest and saying hello.
Since Hello Neighbor, similar projects have sprung up. One such
project is Boise Voices, a neighborhood oral history project in the larger
Boise district (in which the Mississippi neighborhood is a part of). Boise
Voices, created by Julie Keefe and fellow artist Apricot Irving while working
together in Boise-Elliot elementary school as artists-in-residence, shadows
Hello Neighbor in that process is everything. The process of connecting,
sharing, and learning to bridge gaps and foster understanding between
diverse groups, both native and non-native to a community, is powerful in
and of itself. The subsequent remnants: banners, audio and video clips, the
websites, interactive cultural maps, are permanent testimonials of civic
dialogue and connectedness that can surface through the arts.