Justin DeereService Area: Hunger and Homelessness
with an emphasis on art
Year: 2012
Major: Business
Minor: Religious Studies
Hometown: Sikeston, Missouri
Current Service Project: Unsheltered:Unseen
Hey, I'm Justin and I would like to briefly share with you my latest service efforts as a Bonner here at Rhodes. In order to describe the Unsheltered:Unseen project, I feel I should describe its fundamental inspiration and long-term purpose. The inspiration for Unsheltered:Unseen was fostered through More Than Art, a program started by Rhodes Bonners that is based on empowering people in our community through artistic expression. By offering an environment to the Memphis community that encourages personal expression with art, this program enables those who may not normally have the means to create things and express themselves to do just that, with no strings attached.
Unsheltered:Unseen extends the aims of More Than Art, acting as a literal application of the basic idea of putting yourself in someone else’s shoes. It is an artistic endeavor offering different and provocative perspectives on the Memphis community. We passed out over 80 disposable cameras to people all over the community and asked them to capture how they see the their community. The cameras were passed out to people who may not have the opportunity to express their views otherwise and together, those individuals have collected a powerful group of photographs that we are now working to display in order to raise awareness on poverty and injustice in Memphis.
We are hosting a gallery show in downtown Memphis in order to share these artist's perspectives with the community and to open a floor for discussion on homlessness and panhandling legislation here in Memphis. The gallery is an exciting and unique service project for those who have contributed and for myself and we eagerly anticipate the conversations and changes that could be stimulated through our efforts.
If you are interested in what we are doing, please feel free to contact me with any questions or if you’d like to get involved with More Than Art or anything else we’re involved in!
deejt@rhodes.edu
Unshelterd:Unseen site
