ArtsChange is proud to present the exhibitions Welcome to My Global Hood - What is Environmental Justice? at the Richmond Health Center and the RYSE youth center in Richmond. The exhibitions are the culmination of a seven month long artist residency project with renowned artist, Milton Bowens and fifteen Richmond youth from various Richmond schools and youth programs.


Bowens and the youth met bi-weekly at the RYSE youth center in Richmond where the environmental curriculum of Ma’at Youth Academy laid the foundation for the teaching and learning of complex science-based approaches to environmental justice. Community environmental activists including experts such as Andrés Soto of West County HEAL Collaborative at Neighborhood House of North Richmond additionally supported the classroom sessions. The art and environmental justice workshop employed hands on art making to dissect layered concepts of environmental justice; promote understanding, and stewardship of local resources and activism among Richmond youth; and illuminate the process of social analysis and public presentation for the group.


During this time, Bowens listened intently to the youth, to the presentations by environmental activists visiting his classroom and conducted his own research in order to create a new body of artwork. An intergenerational artistic exchange was occurring in the classroom. Milton was learning from his students as they learned from him.


The results of their efforts are the works represented in the exhibition, which transforms permanently the next generation’s understanding of environmental justice. For them, the art making process represents an opportunity to place themselves in the center of the formulation of a world they will inherit. With this growing sense of agency their readings of environmental crises move beyond political contingency to deliberate artistic interventions that include self in community, and community in world as the primary source for hope in the process of global rehabilitation.



A Special Thanks to our Environmental Justice Educators:

Sharon Fuller, Executive Director, Ma’at Youth Academy
Mecca Amen-Williams, Associate Director, Ma’at Youth Academy
Alma Mora, Environmental Health and Justice Project, Ma’at Youth Academy
Andrés Soto, Project Director, West County HEAL Collaborative

A Special Thanks to Our Funders:

Contra Costa Health Services, East Bay Community Foundation, The Marguerite Fund at East Bay Community Foundation, West County HEAL Collaborative, and the generous support of our individual donors.

Click here to read the complete Curatorial Statement
Click here to read Milton Bowen’s Artist Statement


Artwork by Milton Bowens and ArtsChange’s Down the Hall Youth Artists’ Collective