Wanda Aikens is the executive director of the Ward 7 Arts Collaborative, a 25-year-old organization based in Deanwood.
Are you an artist?
I am a third generation artist. I’m a visual artist, but I’m also an instructor and a craft artist. My parents and grandparents were artists. It gave me at an early age a sense of what art does not only for the individual but also for the people around you.
What is the purpose of the collaborative?
We create opportunities for artists as well as individual residents, businesses and organizations to enjoy what art does for its community. We create community art stewardship — the cultural identification of the individuals who live here.
You’re an educator?
We do art education. We just completed our first DVD, which historically documents our oldest artist, who is 91 years old. It gives a sense of local history.
How is art important to the community?
Art does impact development and growth. We deserve a better standard of life and one of the ways you do it is through smart-creative growth. We fuel it.
What is the benefit to individuals?
It makes you become a whole citizen, an effective person. It makes you think about problem solving, how we live, where we came from and where we’re going. It has all kinds of implications. All great civilizations were known by their art.
The collaborative is behind a new mural in Deanwood?
It’s in a very drug-infested area, but it’s still in downtown Deanwood.It’s brought a sense of beautification and a message that we care about the store [it’s painted on] and that we like beautiful things. The message is, there is hope in the most unresourced, low-income, poverty-ridden community.
What will the mural accomplish?
We’re trying to shift people’s perspectives and give them something to talk about. Hopefully it’s something positive.
– Michael Neibauer
