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VIVA Brooklyn! at the Brooklyn Museum

About 30 people outdoors standing and crouching in front of a green armored truck. The street, passing cars, pedestrians and residential buildings are pictured in the background.

VIVA Brooklyn! | April 2, 2022 | 5 to 8:30pm | Brooklyn Museum 

S.O.U.R.C.E. Studio and the Brooklyn Museum co-presented VIVA Brooklyn! (Value, Individual, Voice, Action), a celebration of the finale of the 14-year long Fundred Project on April 2, 2022. Founded by MacArthur Fellow and internationally acclaimed visual artist Mel Chin, this artist-led initiative has connected hundreds of thousands of kids, communities, and policymakers from across the country to advance actions to end lead poisoning.

Featured as part of the Brooklyn Museum’s popular First Saturdays program, VIVA Brooklyn! brought together an intergenerational community of Fundred artists and allies for a dynamic event that featured on site Fundred art-making to enter the museum collection, special guests and performances on the museum’s plaza, and the final Fundred drop-off by the iconic Armored Truck. Find footage of the full program below, along with the event’s schedule and presenter information.

Video by Ben Premeaux courtesy of S.O.U.R.C.E. Studio

5-6pm | Performance: VIVA Brooklyn! | Brooklyn Museum plaza

VIVA Brooklyn! kicked off with lively performances, in an outdoor presentation on the Brooklyn Museum’s plaza featuring Brooklyn’s Blue Angels Drumline, award-winning poets, and Fundred artists and organizers from different stages of the project’s 14-year-long history, plus the Fundred Armored Truck made a final delivery of newly hand-drawn Fundred Dollar Bills collected from from across the country. 

Many of the collaborators and operatives of the project were in attendance and presented as part of the program:

Mel Chin (artist, founder of Fundred Project – Egypt, NC)
Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn (42nd District of the New York State Assembly)
Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon (52nd District of the New York State Assembly)
Amanda Wiles (executive director S.O.U.R.C.E. Studio – Los Angeles, CA)
Fabiola R. Delgado (cultural worker – Washington, DC)
Terrance Hayes (poet – Marfa, TX)
Jonah Mixon-Webster (poet – Flint, MI / Atlanta, GA)
Tabitha Williams (parent health activist – Grand Rapids, MI)
Melissa Mays (parent activist – Flint, MI)
Hawley Hussey (teaching artist – NYC)
Tech Nix (student activist – Chicago)
Students from P.S. 29 in Castleton Corners on Staten Island (NYC)
WE ACT (Sonal Jessel, Director of Policy – NYC)
Michaelangelo Rodriguez (Fundred artist – Washington, DC)
Tory Tepp ( Artist and Fundred Armored Truck Driver)
Blue Angels Drumline (Brooklyn, NY)

Read more about the presenters.

Photos by Laura June Kirsch courtesy of S.O.U.R.C.E. Studio

6-8pm | Hands-On Fundred Making | Education Gallery, 1st Floor

Attendees participated in the Fundred Project and saw their Fundred Dollar Bills become part of the Brooklyn Museum’s permanent collection of the Fundred Reserve! This 14-year long artist-led initiative invites people across the country to reinterpret $100 bills in order to call attention to the danger of childhood lead poisoning. Newly created Fundred Dollar Bills entered the Fundred Reserve on view in the special exhibition, The Slipstream.

Two people indoors wearing masks and holding up Fundred Dollar Bills.
Photo by Laura June Kirsch courtesy of S.O.U.R.C.E. Studio
A person indoors standing in front of a glass display containing stacks of Fundred Dollar Bills. In the background, a plaque reads “BY THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA FUNDRED RESERVE.”

Photo by Laura June Kirsch courtesy of S.O.U.R.C.E. Studio 

8-8:30pm | Ceremonial Presentation + Special Remarks | Fundred Reserve on view in The Slipstream exhibition galleries, 1st Floor

Special remarks with the Fundred community and the adding of the new Fundreds to the Fundred Reserve.

Featured image by Laura June Kirsch courtesy of S.O.U.R.C.E. Studio