The 100 Families Oakland Art & Social Change project enlivens the creative spirit and celebrates the power of families and neighborhoods in Oakland, through the transformative process of creating art that promotes hope, action, and beauty.

Envisioning New Possibilities Brings the City Together
Families envision new possibilities, environments, and types of relationships through the process of imagining and creating.

As new possibilities are envisioned, the neighborhood groups around the city build stronger connections among themselves and with community leaders, increasing the capacity of these groups to jointly solve problems facing their communities.

We really wanted artists that were passionate about collaboration, understood Oakland, live and/or work in the Oakland community. We interviewed some really fabulous artists, but I think the ones that shone for us were the ones that were really speaking from their heart about why they wanted to be part of 100 Families Oakland, and it was really about giving back. 
-- Sonia Mañjon, director, Center for Art and Public Life

Art Creates a Special Dialogue
In all the neighborhoods, participants are finding that their involvement is opening a special dialogue between family members.

Children, parents, and grandparents come together for art sessions held in local community centers. Here all the participants connect with each other in a supportive and friendly atmosphere while gaining artistic skills. Young children meet elders, families work together, and neighbors meet each other, which promotes the family as a unit and the neighborhood as community.

In a lot of these families that are coming together, there is a widening intergenerational gap. Sometimes, as time goes on the various generations don't even speak the same language. So to utilize art to connect the different families together, it's been a very empowering experience. 
-- Anne Huang, executive director, Oakland Asian Cultural Center

Building from the Family Up
The power of the program is building the community arts experience from the family up, by providing support on all levels—material, social and artistic.

From its debut in East Oakland, through programs in Chinatown and Fruitvale, to finishing the initial year in West Oakland, 100 Families is gaining momentum. Communities around the country have expressed interest in bringing 100 Families to their neighborhoods.

Hopefully, the long-term impact of 100 Families will be a lasting impression of ways for family to come together even if it's not them coming together around the art again. But just ways of dealing with one another, remembering how they talked with each other. 
-- Russell "Eesuu" Albans, 100 Families artist