Aryana Noroozi
Last month, the “Bloomington Speaks,” a community-led art project held a community art gathering, led by artist Tamara Cedré with support from community members Fernanda Durazo and James Dailey.
The event included a large-scale sculpture created by members of the community from cardboard packing boxes decorated with art and personal messages and reflections of Bloomington. In addition to the sculpture, the event included an exhibition of photographs and archival images from locals, displayed in a shipping container. Fernanda Durazo, one of the artists who helped organize the event explained that the intention behind inviting community members to decorate the boxes was to reflect upon and share their own experiences of living in Bloomington.
The art-based event held at Walter Zimmerman Elementary School used art to serve as a poetic gesture to highlight the impacts of the logistics industry on the region. The elementary school will soon be replaced by a warehouse development structure and rebuilt nearby, in close proximity to a truckstop.
The second part of the event, “Singing Into the Future!” began immediately after the art exhibit at Kessler Park Equestrian Area. The evening event included music and film, and a collective song workshop with Concerned Neighbors of Bloomington/People’s Collective for Environmental Justice (PCEJ), Huerta del Valle, San Bernardino Airport Communities and Safety Net for All with Warehouse Workers Resource Center.
This event was part of Live from the Frontline: 8 Neighborhoods Linked by the Long History of Logistics.
Currently, a 2.1 million square foot warehouse development project, the Bloomington Business Park, is under construction in Bloomington. Real estate brokers continue to contact homeowners about selling their homes for future warehouse developments.