The Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) will be collaborating with artists to reach underserved communities with COVID-related public health messages, many of which will emphasize the importance of getting vaccinated. The MAPC chose nine artists out of a pool of over 30 applicants to distribute $45,000 in grant funding. The art projects will take the form of posters, videos, postcards, public art, comic strips, and other types of designs. According to a press release, priority was given to projects that “engage diverse ethnic, cultural and BIPOC communities, and many of the completed projects will be available in multiple languages.”
“The first inspiration is that we have a public health department at our agency. They were in regular contact with public health departments and folks who were working at health centers in our region. What they were hearing is that a lot of the messaging being put out by the Commonwealth was leading with English as the first primary language, realizing that when that language is translated into other languages, it doesn’t always land the same way,” said MAPC Arts and Culture Director Jennifer Sien Erickson. “We were thinking about it from an equity perspective – how do we ensure that the folks that are disproportionately impacted by injustice in the medical systems are reached? They approached us and asked if we could put out a call for culturally resonant COVID communications, that help address misinformation around the vaccine, that promote healthy and safe behaviors during the pandemic.”
The Chinatown Project, made up of creative individuals developing a digital archive of Boston’s Chinatown and led by one of the founders Aubrey Tang, was one group that was chosen. They have two different ideas that they are working on: a poster project, and a video.
For the poster, they plan on having members of the Chinatown Project interview business owners and feature these individuals and their quotes about COVID safety protocols or their views on the vaccination, urging other business owners to get it. Tang said that she hopes that visibly seeing members of the community will build trust in the messaging. The posters will be translated into simplified and traditional Chinese. As for the video, they plan on either involving a public service announcement or be a continuation of the Chinatown Project’s original work, and combining it with videography and photography to capture the stories of business owners.
“Having photos of these business owners will provide that connection and that level of trust,” said Tang. “A lot of marginalized communities, they still don’t trust the government in terms of vaccinations and health in general, because they have been betrayed so many times. How can we remedy that? This is sort of our solution to that.”
She added, “For me and other Asian American people, Chinatown is this hub of where you can go and feel comfortable. You see people who look like you. You’re surrounded by food that’s familiar to you. […] Sharing [the business owner’s] stories of not only their struggles but also their joy is super important.”
Lillian Lee, a Boston based cartoonist and illustrator of the comic “Empty Bamboo Girl” published by Sampan newspaper, will also be creating artwork for MAPC. She will be developing three pieces of digital art in Chinese, advocating for people to get vaccinated and providing information on how to do that. These will be sent to local community and health centers, where they can be printed out and posted, as well as disseminated through social media. Lee will also make a comic strip intended to dispel vaccine rumors, which she has encountered in her personal life.
“Promoting equity and representing the people in our community are part of the project,” said Lee. “If people see themselves in the artwork, that’s going to help as well, and I think that’s a big thing about representation.”
She added, “My comics for Sampan mostly talk about the immigrant family experience and celebrating that relationship. But it also touches on things that are happening in the moment. My recent, new comic strips have been talking about that, in terms of stopping Asian hate. My most recent one was talking about the small microaggressions that people don’t think about, that are the building blocks to what happens, how [racism] starts, and how it gets spread. I do weave that into my work, and things that happen in the news affect me, so they definitely affect the work that I put out there.”
According to Erickson, the artists are working on slightly adjusted timelines, with works expected to be released between late May into the month of June. Through the messaging of the projects, Erickson said that artists will convey important themes relating to the vaccination process.
“There are a few artists who are also interested in bringing in some imagery that helps break down what to expect when you do get vaccinated. Some people are feeling a little bit sick after the first or second vaccine. Helping people understand that that is totally normal, people getting sick for the first 24-48 hours – that’s totally a part that you can expect,” said Erickson. “Also addressing hesitancy – it’s real. Some of our artists are themselves experiencing that. So bringing that experience into what they’re producing, to communicate that to the public, is really powerful.”
