Arlington Arts Individual Artist’s Grant Project FY27:
“We Are BYB!” - An Artful History
A mixed-media installation and Handmade Storybook by Sushmita Mazumdar
A Community Art Project
I have worked with various communities in Arlington, and it has helped me learn the histories of the place I call home, and the everyday lives of people who live here. I have had residents do art to tell their own stories and then shared these with the wider county through community engagement, curated exhibits at my Studio locations, and through pop-up exhibits at new spaces and events.
In 2015, the affordable housing company AHC invited me to bring my studio there to work with their Gates of Ballston (GoB) apartment community in historic Buckingham. As I did that work, I was also introduced to Saul Reyes, Executive Director of BU-GATA, and their Buckingham Youth Brigade (BYB) an after-school K-12 program for the neighborhood youth.
From 2016 I started working with BYB youth who came to my Studio. We explored visual art, book arts, stories, painting, and more. I also learned about the Buckingham Multicultural Mural done by BYB in 2001 from Marlene Oronao of Arlington’s Historic Preservation program. It was up on the wall of Glebe Market. She asked me to help restore it but it was quite damaged. We had it professionally photographed before it was taken down.
For the project “We Are BYB!”- Ann Artful History I will explore the full story of how the BYB have been using art to tell their story since 2001. The current class of BYB will help me gather the stories and make the art, and create social media interest in the project. It will culminate in 2 elements:
A large mixed media artwork, which will include old and new art created by BYB and myself, and
A Handmade Storybook which will tell the full story and include the art in it.
These will be presented as pop-up exhibits at various events around Arlington County in June 2027.
Photo: Saul Reyes (left) with BYB on their visit to the Studio on Columbia Pike to see the exhibit Hope Without Boundaries/Esperanza sin limites, celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month 2025. The exhibit included the Buckingham Multicultural Mural. The students met some artists and made an artwork inspired by their work.
