Mission Arts & Performance Project

WHAT IS THE MAPP?
The MAPP is a bi-monthly street-level improvised community arts happening, engaging an interdisciplinary field of more than 60 artists endeavoring to bridge the cultural divides of our communities. The MAPP takes place of the first Saturday of every other month. It Begins with Family Art activities during the day, as part of the "Family MAPP", and is followed by a full evening of improvised exhibitions and performances in 10-15 locations, spanning multiple disciplines, genres, and cultures.

By transforming garages and backyards into mini-galleries MAPP shows how ordinary spaces can be made extra-ordinary to bring people together to share in a diverse experience of fine art and performance. Garages are the quintessential MAPP location, unpretentious and open to the street they pose the possibility of welcoming new audiences to experience the arts when they might not perhaps ever enter a gallery or theater. This process helps take the art from the margins of our communities to where it may come to be more widely seen and understood as a vibrant and vital force necessary to the health of our society. It is our hope that residents and others attending the MAPP will be inspired to seek expression of their own experiences and feelings through creative means and join in sharing what they have discovered in future MAPP events to come.

HEALING CULTURAL DIVIDES

Art, and the creative process in general, have long been known for their regenerative capacity, for healing and transformation on both an individual and collective level. The MAPP is a project that places the arts at the center of our neighborhood as a means facilitating community interaction across cultural divides. It is apparent to us that our community is fractured into groups divided by race, national origin, economic status, educational opportunities, lifestyle and sexual orientation. We recognize that these groups can often have conflicting interests and/or are simply unaware of the actual realities that each face.
It is within this context that we set our intention to explore creative means of facilitating genuine human exchange in an intimate neighborly environment. At a time when impersonal urban existence has become the norm for city dwellers, the MAPP endeavors to invoke the feeling of a small village where greetings are exchanged, even among strangers, as they pass.

WHO MAKES THE MAPP HAPPEN?

Since the first MAPP happening in December 2003, there have been countless artists, organizers, curators, educators, volunteers, and community members, that have had a hand in forming this beautiful project. Literally a few hundred, we estimate at this point in time! Some come and go, some stay for a while, some never leave. Below are listed the names of many of whom made it all possible. If you have participated in the MAPP, but don't see your name here, let us know and we'll add you! There's just so many to keep track of.

The Mapperos, from 2003 to the present, we thank. . . .

(we're still developing this section. please send us your name if you have been involved in the MAPP in any way!)