Art Street, a Boston-based organization aimed at using art to bring communities together and inspire social change, held a recruiting meeting Monday night in the Lower Blue Room.
Although there were only about a dozen attendees - most women - Robert "Sidewalk Sam" Guillemin said he was impressed by their creativity and enthusiasm.
Guillemin, a graduate of Boston University who also attended Boston College, became "Sidewalk Sam" after being a copyist at the Louvre, where he said reproducing "Mona Lisa" made him feel like he "climbed Everest." Since then, he has traded the world of the studio for the sidewalk so he can use art to connect with ordinary people.
"Something is wrong when artists become egomaniacs. Art needs to be there in order to serve others. ... Artists have to sink down to day-to-day meetings with people and let art become a way to find solutions for society's ills. I'm here to help kids launch their own careers (by doing) astonishing things with art," Guillemin said.
Guillemin hopes students at Brown will be involved with Art Street's summer programs in Boston, and possibly implement similar community initiatives in Providence.
Art Street's projects range from environmental advocacy and promoting racial harmony to simply making art more accessible to local communities, Guillemin said.
During the third week of August, Art Street holds "Chalk One Up," an event where various corporations get together with Boston non profit organizations and create chalk drawings together on the sidewalk.
"We give hundreds of corporations the most gorgeous box of pastels and have (their) accountants, lawyers, secretaries, CEOs and interns get down and draw on the sidewalks. These are the quiet people who do not get to express themselves, but they get a chance to just create. The sidewalks just ruminate with energy," Guillemin said.
This is just one of the projects this summer for which Guillemin was recruiting Brown students. With help from the city of Boston and sponsorships from various companies, Gullemin hopes to see this project spread to cities outside New England.
"The city of Boston helps to get these ordinary persons to celebrate their own creative genius. That's what we need. We need to shift art's focus from a few high priests as creators to where everyone can create," Guillemin said.
Guillemin, whose work has been featured on the "Today" show and "Good Morning America," has also gained international attention. Art Street Warszawa in Poland was inspired by the Boston-based program and "creates multilingual community art and music projects to bring together our growing global world," according to their Web site.
The American Embassy in Warsaw also helps to organize the American Days Festival with Art Street Warszawa, when hundreds of people turn out to draw stars on the city's sidewalks.
"Students need to read the newspaper and ask 'What can I do?'" Guillemin said. "We need to go to Third World countries ... and troubled spots like Northern Ireland and Palestine and find a place in the community to create artwork and show what is possible."
Guillemin also encouraged the use of art in bridging the ideological gap between "red states and blue states."
"This kind of problem has existed before in America in the 1780s after the Revolutionary War. ... We need a band of artists that can show the common spirit of America (through art)," he said.
Guillemin suggested going into "one-silo towns in Iowa" and inspiring people to recreate Michelangelo and Van Gogh.
"We could make videos of how people respond to art and prove once again (art's) power to just bring different parts of our country together."
A dynamic aspect of the discussion centered on the role of art in our society, and the risks today's artists are willing to take.
"Artists were once rebels. ... They found problems in society and disrupted the status quo. It's time artists went into the toughest parts of town and created murals that expressed positive values, (inspiring) solutions that police departments can never come up with."
One student suggested the use of public art in upcoming spring events at Brown on the Main Green.
Herald cartoonist Mirele Davis '07, Brown's liaison for Art Street, expressed the need to expose disadvantaged children to art.
"We need to get inner city high school students involved with Shakespeare," Davis said.
Guillemin said he has encountered "visceral responses" from students in Boston-area schools working with Art Street.
"So far we've worked with students from Boston College, Boston University, Brandeis, Emerson, Simmons, Emmanuel, and even Wellesley, Smith and Harvard," Guillemin said. "The power will come by organizing new, young, creative energy that understands the viability of (using art for change). We have to discover in ourselves this inner voice and shout it for all to hear."
