Exploring the concept of family, Artists & Communities participants examined the traditions and meaning of "family" and the relationship between this primary social unit and the larger community.

Out North Contemporary Art House
Anchorage, Alaska
Gene Dugan, Artistic Director for Programs
Jocelyn Taylor, Videographer

The young people of Anchorage, Alaska who participated in the Out North Contemporary Art House Artists & Communities project created their own definition of family and community through the work that they produced with videographer Jocelyn Taylor.



Artist Jocelyn Taylor instructing student Alexis Baranov. Photo: Hal Gage
Drawn from Out North's O.N. S.T.A.G.E. (Out North Student Theater Artists Gaining Experience) theater arts program and from a university-based organization called The Family, the young participants represented a cross-section of the Anchorage population.

As the work progressed, Taylor found her initial notions of how "family" would manifest itself through the project changing. "I realized that family equals community, and…for the kids, their 'family' consisted of the people who supported them… The definition of 'family' really extended to the persons who were able to support them in their lives, and it wasn't necessarily at all a biological thing," she says. "Kids often struggle with their parents about things - that's obvious. If they're lucky, they stumble onto some fantastic mentor. The healthy thing is to gravitate to those places and people who listen to us and support us, someone who is going to give some encouragement for our ideas…Maybe just a place where they could find support and where their differences would not be stressful…For kids, the idea of 'family' has expanded to [mean] where they can get what they need."

Students in the editing studio. Photo: Hal Gage
The time commitment, the hands-on nature of the video training, and the opportunity to present their own view of their lives helped create a strong bond between the participants. "Video was a good tool for many of them…[because it] complemented some of the things - music, performance, writing - that the kids were already using, [and] because they want to be able to see themselves, to take control [of how they were seen]," declares Taylor. "I was encouraged by those who latched on to the project and got engaged…and who began to think about video as an art…These kids just wanted to say something about their lives in an interesting way. It is always exciting to see burgeoning art practice, and there were kids who were creating art for the first time…It was also really interesting to see [how] for some of the kids, this group became a kind of 'family'."


Video still

Additional samples of "Family" projects are included in the book, Artists & Communities: America Creates for the Millenium.