COMMUNNITY ART
New Folklore: Community Art & Society Shifts (An interview with Tia Richardson)
Tia Richardson is a Community Artist. As 2018 Milwaukee Artist of the Year, Tia is making a change. With creative application, hopeful but still tangible practices of engagement, and absolutely breathtaking work, this artist is doing exactly what capitalistic tradition says cannot be done: create spaces, moments, and legacies that place people over product and make the product a direct reflection of its people. CopyWrite sat down with this community artist to gain insight on why everyone we know (in high places) see’s the New Folklore she is creating, and she just doesn’t know it yet. TR: “The art that I do is usually done in partnership with people and requires their input and their collaboration. It’s not just art I’m doing for myself in a studio to hang on somebody’s wall.”
TIA RICHARDSON Shooter: Elijah Sebastian
Tia’s community art can be seen all across the City of Milwaukee. Her large-scale murals are always symbolic of the space in which they dwell, and the process in which they are made is just as significant as the final product. Concept, design, and application are all part of the narrative that Tia shares with others. From brainstorming sessions to painting on-sight, Tia takes what is often a stagnant form of Urban beautification and turns it into space where stories are told, truths are heard, and change can be made. But the ability to apply collaborative acts that produce creative products that are striking in view, meaningful in creation, and deeply embedded in hope, have to start somewhere.
Unlike most artist we have talked to, Tia has not had time in the past few years to do her own personal art. Making a living off of her passion, and more importantly, working with people to make a communal impact, is higher on her list of priorities.
CW: “How did you start doing art?” TR: “When I was younger my dad was doing a lot of portraits, and I was just exposed to it because it was around the house. I picked it up naturally . . . It was always something I loved to do in my spare time. [I would] write, illustrate, and create stories. It’s been something that has been nurtured in me all along.”
TR: “Because I’m working with [other] people, they dictate a lot of what comes up [in the art] . . . the kind of art that it is, is meant to share people’s voices and make a space for people to work together in a way that’s new for them. It requires participation . . . So I often get different perspectives that I wouldn’t of otherwise.”
As early as elementary, not only had Tia been drawing, but her parents had enrolled her in art classes outside of school. She also attended two years at Milwaukee Highschool of the Arts, MIAD Pre-College program, and a year of college at MIAD as well. With a constant shift in her environment, pushed by family dynamics and her father’s constant shift