Stories on Stories: Promoting Healing, Connection and Safety Through Art

June 21, 2021

The Stories on Stories project recently completed its second art installation in Wyandotte County. But this initiative began as a purely hypothetical project back in 2017.

Tiffane Friesen, Program Coordinator at ArtMakers, was in Health Forward Foundation’s Healthy Communities Leadership Academy when her group was asked to come up with a community project focusing on built environment. Vanessa Crawford Aragon, Community Prevention Coordinator with MOCSA, was also in that group. That was when the seed for the Stories on Stories project took root.

“We came up with this imaginary, hypothetical program and I was like ‘I think we could really do this, though,’” says Aragon.

The goal of the Stories on Stories project is to create trauma-informed community environments.

“Trauma-informed public spaces promote safety, connection, equity, collective healing, and serve as a hopeful reflection of the community that houses them,” says Friesen.

To create trauma-informed spaces, a group of community agencies is working together to install artwork on vacant, boarded-up buildings owned by the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas. Project partners include Wyandot BHN, Metropolitan Organization to Counter Sexual Assault (MOCSA), Wyandotte County Sexual Assault Prevention Coalition and the Unified Government.

The project follows the principles of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) theory. The theory focuses on how you can change behaviors in a space by changing how the space looks and feels.

“Part of the reason why a vacant building makes people feel unsafe is because it feels like nobody cares what happens there,” says Aragon.

That thought process can sometimes lead to unsafe activities, including assaults and break-ins. The Stories on Stories project hopes to change those behaviors by creating a more beautiful space that neighbors feel invested in.

But it isn’t just the art itself that transforms how the neighborhood looks and feels. By bringing neighbors together through the art-making process, the Stories on Stories project promotes community connection and instills a sense of ownership of the space.

Stories on Stories project leaders worked with neighbors in the Clifton Park area to curate the art that now adorns the old bath house. Once finalized, the designs were wheatpasted onto boards and then installed on the building.

“This project aims to bring people together to create neighborhood-specific visual stories that honor the beauty and diversity of the community itself,” says Friesen. “When someone has contributed art or stories to this project, they are more likely to look out for the park and care about what happens there. They are more likely to talk to their neighbors who they met though the art-making process.”

The most recent Stories on Stories installation at the old Clifton Park bath house is now complete. Project leaders spent time working with residents, neighborhood groups, businesses and churches to collect stories and pictures that inspired the art for the Clifton Park installation. All of the visual content came directly from the community. Children in the neighborhood helped develop the messages that now adorn the old bath house.

However, neighborhood involvement didn’t end once pictures and stories were submitted. The Stories on Stories team continually sought out feedback as the artwork changed and evolved. Project leaders say that with every new iteration of the art, they received increasingly positive feedback from the community.

While the images that go up on the buildings are meant to be beautiful and inspiring, they also pay tribute to the sometimes difficult history of the neighborhood. Leaders with the Stories on Stories project say it was important to include the history of the Clifton Park bath house in the artwork.

“We wanted to tell that story because it was a turning point in Wyandotte County history,” says Shelby Woodward, Prevention Specialist - Community Services with MOCSA. “We didn’t want to leave out the fact that this pool house wasn’t always for everyone. But this neighborhood and park are for everyone now.”

The bath house is the second Stories on Stories project. The first installation was smaller and happened in the Rosedale neighborhood on Southwest Boulevard. The art that went up on that building recently came down as the building is being rehabilitated.

“The idea is never that the art is going to be there forever,” says Aragon. “The idea is that it stays up until something better can happen.”

A decision hasn’t been made yet on where the next Stories on Stories installation will be. But project leaders say there will be another installation. And they hope this effort will create safer, healthier, more connected neighborhoods in Wyandotte County.