More photos of the Opening here.

I just returned from the opening of the Ghana ThinkTank at the Westport Arts Center Optimism show (curated by Michael Connor). It was amazing for us. This is the first time the piece is actually interesting, rather than just appearing so.

We’ve created a sprawling, beautiful, haphazard construction of 2×4′s and plywood filled with twelve video screens of different sizes (one held together with duct-tape), pots of dandelions, brightly colored paper printouts, scores of emails, guidelines for re-planting dandelions, a poster of Boris Stankovic, marketing material from the Azotara Petrochemical plant in Pancevo, Serbia, photographs of speeding accidents in Westport, video from Ghana, Mexico, El Salvador and Serbia discussing immigrants, pesticides, and a dog named love.

We hired immigrant day laborers to attend the opening to add more diversity to the exclusively white and wealthy Westport crowd (based on El Salvador’s suggestion), distributed recipe books for cooking with dandelions (based on Mexico’s), and introduced Westport to the solutions for their problems, as proposed by our think tanks in Ghana, Mexico, El Salvador and Serbia (with a last minute entry from Ethiopia).

Here’s what was going on. Westport citizens submitted problems to the Ghana ThinkTank (a collaborative of Christopher Robbins, John Ewing, and Matey Odonkor) by anonymous mailboxes distributed throughout town, and from “man on the street” interviews conducted with video camera by Westport student Hank Weinstock. We then sent four of these problems to ad-hoc think tanks we formed in Ghana, Mexico, El Salvador and Serbia. The think tanks discussed these problems and sent us solutions, which we are now acting upon in Westport, CT.

Those problems were:

1 – Pesticides

“My concern for our area is the amount of pesticide use for our beautiful golf courses and our fancy lawns, which are hurting our wildlife, flora and fauna AND human life. There is a large incidence of cancer in the area…I wish we could all appreciate the beauty of dandelions!”

2 – Lack of Diversity

a) Lack of diversity in a sheltered community; homogeneity / Westport is not open, welcoming or interactive

b) Generation gaps – no place for generations to mix

3 – Speeding traffic

4 – Barking Dog

“My neighbors think my dog barks too much, but he doesn’t.

Solutions ranged from Ghana’s suggestion to rename the barking dog love (which Westport resident Julie Chandler did: her Brown Lab “Duke” is now named “Love”), to Serbia’s suggestion that the dog-owner provide mp3 players to offended neighbours which they can listen to whenever the dog starts barking, to bringing Immigrants to Westport (from El Salvador and Serbia). We placed photographs of accidents caused by speeding in Westport under windshield wipers of cars on streets Westport residents had complained about (based on Serbia and El Salvador’s solutions), replanted dandelions into flower pots, and prepared some dandelion leaf salad for the opening.

And this is just the start.

The structure and process are now in place, and over the length of the exhibit we will continue to act on the solutions provided, as well as collect more problems from Westport residents so that the loop can continue. Next up: delivering MP3 players to neighbors of barking dogs, taking a family on a walk to each of their neighbor’s homes, organizing a dandelion re-planting workshop with the Westport Gardening Club, proposing one of the solutions at the Westport Town Meeting, and contintuing to bring Immigrants to Westport events and community.

If you would like to help with some of these solutions, have Westport problems of your own, or would like to invite the Ghana ThinkTank to your community, please contact me.

More photos of the Opening here.