// ABOUT //
The Neighborhood Postcard Project is a global participatory art project that fosters community connection through storytelling exchange. Residents share personal positive stories about their neighborhood on a postcard and those postcards are delivered to random people in different neighborhoods within that same city to break down stereotypes and build community.
The project was created by San-Francisco based artist Hunter Franks in 2013. He was inspired by youth in San Francisco’s Bayview neighborhood after working with them on a project to improve their neighborhood. Bayview faces challenges of crime, unemployment, and drug use — but what the youth expressed that they really wanted was to change was other people’s perception of Bayview. Franks found that extremely powerful. The youth had an opportunity to try to end violence or homelessness in their neighborhood, but all they really wanted was for people to not look at them and assume that they were poor and dangerous because they live in a certain neighborhood. So Franks set out to find a way to help them do this and change perception of San Francisco’s underrepresented neighborhoods in the process. The project was born.
Since then, the project has been replicated in communities around the world from Santiago, Chile to Chennai, India and continues to grow as residents in cities around the world see the power of breaking down neighborhood stereotypes and bringing people together to build better cities.
// CONNECT //
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A project by Hunter Franks
Contact: hunter@creativeinterventionists.com
// PRESS //
Zabel, Laura “Six creative ways artists can improve communities,” The Guardian, Feb 12 2015
“12 Bright Ideas for Better Cities,” Los Angeles Times, Sep 27 2014
“A mail-based community project gets neighbors talking,” United States Postal Service Official Blog, Aug 4 2014
Jenny Xie, “Postcards From the Neighborhoods You Only Hear About on the News,” The Atlantic Cities, Feb 12 2014
Utehs, Katie, “Experimental program hopes to change views on notorious neighborhood,” KTVU 2 News Jan 12 2014
Sydney Brownstone, “Greetings From An Unfairly Stereotyped ‘Bad’ Neighborhood,” Fast Company, Nov 25 2013
“How a Simple Postcard Can Build Community,” GOOD Magazine, Sep 26 2013