SEE POTENTIAL uses documentary photography as advertising for community led revitalization projects on the South Side of Chicago
SEE POTENTIAL is a public art and community engagement project. We create large-scale installations of photographs to visualize community-driven development plans for Chicago's South Side. Our primary goal is to empower residents, community leaders, and elected officials to envision the potential for sustainable, positive transformation and to mobilize community support behind great ideas. SEE POT
ENTIAL is organized collaboratively by, Center for Urban Transformation, Photographer Emily Schiffer, and Magnum Foundation. Follow SEE POTENTIAL on Twitter @See_Po #SeePo
For more information please visit our website: www.SeePotentialChicago.org
For Press Inquires and other questions please write to [email protected]
SEE POTENTIAL’s contributing photographers include: Jack Bridges, Eunice Carson, Jack Delano, Cyrus Dowlatshahi, Cyrus Dowlatshahi, Nicole Harrison, Robb Hill, Dave Jordano, Andre Lambertson, Russell Lee, Brent Lewis, Jon Lowenstein, Wayne Miller, Carlos Javier Ortiz, Emmanuel Pratt, Joseph Rodriguez, Edwin Rosskam, David Schalliol, and Emily Schiffer. SEE POTENTIAL is partnering with the following organizations:
The Bronzeville Community Garden (BCG) engages Bronzeville residents by providing a fun, safe, accessible gathering place and destination. BCG is committed to beautifying their community, celebrating Bronzeville’s cultural heritage, and promoting healthy eating and a sustainable environment. Kusanya Café aims to provide a place of empowerment and encouragement for the residents of Englewood through a high-quality, comfortable, coffee establishment. Kusanya seeks to be so much more than a business within the community. It hopes to provide a gathering place, an artistic outlet for youth and adults, that offers valuable community programs and to assist existing ones. Imagine Englewood If (IEI) is the ONLY free afterschool community center in Englewood. IEI seeks to address the needs of the Greater Englewood community by offering a safe space and providing resources and information via workshops, classes, forums, professional development, community meetings, and trainings. Urban Juncture is a community development firm based in Chicago’s historic Bronzeville neighborhood. Urban Juncture utilizes distinctive community assets to create the amenities and jobs that are critical to vibrant and sustainable neighborhoods. SEE POTENTIAL is working with Urban Juncture to help revitalize The Forum.
06/25/2016
Ms. Jean changed so many lives by channeling her boundless love into action. It was a privilege to work and learn from her!
It is with a heavy heart that we send condolences to her family all all the people she touched. May all of us honor her legacy with by channeling her love and kindness.
08/05/2014
SEE POTENTIAL year two is here! An intergenerational team of photographers is producing work about the potential and issues in their communities. Please comment on the content of their images, the photographs and dialouge created will be featured in our next round of physical See Potential installations. http://instagr.in/t/seepotential
11/24/2013
It's a packed house today at the Kusanya Cafe. Come join us for your afternoon coffee, or later on, grab yourself a Souppa Fly for a dine-in dinner!
10/24/2013
SEE POTENTIAL partner, Kusanya Cafe is getting ready to open for business!
A week from Friday, we will have our pre-opening celebration Nov 1st....Tickets can now be purchased in advance online. To pick-up tickets in person contact Demond Drummer or Rashanah Baldwin at Teamwork Englewood (815 w. 63rd Street 2nd Floor phone:773-488-6600) or Phil Sipka 773-675-4758 https://www.eventbrite.com/event/8974016525
10/04/2013
Dear SEE POTENTIAL Friends:
Thanks to all of your Facebook “likes” and cross-sharing of our project, we have a total of 409 Friends! For the SEE POTENTIAL Team, this means that people are paying attention and show interest in community-driven revitalization projects. This is awesome and demonstrates a fundamental aspect of human nature: PEOPLE DO CARE about urban transformation! The question that lies before us as we look towards building on what has already been done is: How do we now MOBILIZE the support of all our Friends?
Supporting Bronzeville Community Garden’s Kickstarter initiative is one option; and, a very critical one at this juncture. They need to raise $1,960 by the close of business today in order to move forward with their campaign. We’ve done the math! If 100 of our Friends contribute $20 each, Bronzeville Community Garden stays in the game. We greatly request your financial support for the effort.
For the past four seasons, Bronzeville Community Garden has been a unique platform for creating community on 51st Street, while engaging residents from the broader Bronzeville community and visitors from beyond. They have facilitated many important connections and learned a tremendous amount about operating in their neighborhood.
Operating the garden has also been a great challenge. They've done it on less than a shoe string, relying on volunteers, re-tasked and re-used everything, and, when all else failed, providence. They've never sold a thing nor booked a dollar of revenue; and, they plan to continue - and to grow - in this fashion, as a community place.
To make it all work over the long haul, they'll need the ongoing support from folks who believe in what they're doing. The funding will support a broad range of garden-based initiatives, from our kids programming, to improved infrastructure (umbrellas for much needed shading!), and to our burgeoning Bronzeville Bikes program.
Making a pledge today will be doubly helpful because, as mentioned above, it will allow them to continue their Kickstarter campaign beyond today!
Thanks for your support! And please circulate within all of your networks!!!!
A Community Center Without Walls
A living fence, canopies and more events will advance Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood efforts in growing a healthier community.
07/25/2013
Thank you to all the dedicated residents of the South Side, activists, photographers, Kickstarter donors, friends, family, and beyond! All the love and support we've received has been truly inspiring. The installations are up, but this is only the beginning. Let's 'Bring Back The Forum', grow a garden in Bronzeville, and cultivate a community center in Englewood.
SEE POTENTIAL began as a seedling that Emily Schiffer and Orrin Williams planted and with your help, has continued to grow. Stay tuned for future updates!
Bronzeville Community Garden, The Forum - Bronzeville, Imagine Englewood If..., Kusanya Cafe, SEE POTENTIAL, Magnum Foundation
Video documentation by toni j photography
07/25/2013
Thank you to all 377 Kickstarter donors! Keep an eye out, your rewards are almost ready!
SEE POTENTIAL
Magnum Foundation
07/25/2013
Check out toni j photography's documentation of the SEE POTENTIAL launch celebration at Bronzeville Community Garden and see how the garden has grown!
07/24/2013
Didn't make it to The Forum - Bronzeville launch last month? Check out SEE POTENTIAL contributing photographer toni j photography's coverage of the event.
07/19/2013
"As a photographer, I'm interested in depicting essential details of life that are often overshadowed by larger, more newsworthy circumstances. For me the photographs are just the beginning, I'm constantly searching for new ways to expand the uses of photography, and to enable images to create tangible social change."
-Emily Schiffer
Co-Founder and Creative Director of SEE POTENTIAL www.emilyschiffer.com
07/18/2013
We're thrilled and honored to include Magnum Photos photographer, Wayne Miller's historical images of the South Side at The Forum - Bronzeville and Imagine Englewood If.....
SEE POTENTIAL
Large-scale prints from Wayne Miller's famous series on Chicago's South Side are being hung in the very neighborhoods they were captured in over 60 years ago as part of public art and community engagement project, SEE POTENTIAL-->http://bit.ly/15L1fUI