After 2 years of masks, smiles make comeback
100 faces from ‘2 towns, 1 community’ pop up as part of giant art project
After more than two years behind masks, smiles have reemerged in a big — and creative — way in Homewood and Flossmoor, with the help of some area high school students.
“Smiles are Contagious,” a temporary art installation that is part of the international Inside Out Project, went up around the beginning of the month in both villages. Homewood originally displayed 55 portraits of residents in the downtown area, while Flossmoor has another 50 portraits at its Village Hall.
“To be able to put smiles on display and to highlight our wonderful community members just brings so much joy, I think, to the village,” Flossmoor Mayor Michelle Nelson said.
J.R. Willard-Rose, the fine arts instructor at Homewood-Flossmoor High School who teaches the senior level Media Visual and Performing Arts Academy, said that idea was a major reason for the theme.
“Now, we’re finally able to start life again and smile again and connect more as people,” he said.
All of the portraits are of residents of Homewood and Flossmoor, but they display wide ranges in age, racial diversity, sexual identity and socioeconomic circumstances, Willard-Rose said. Resident portraits are also mixed between both towns, rather than split by hometown.
“The whole idea behind all of these projects is it’s bringing humanity together in a unique way, highlighting different types of people,” Willard-Rose said. “Our villages are unique in that we’re very diverse and have a lot of community spirit. … Even though we’re two towns, we’re one community.”
The portraits went up at the perfect time for Homewood’s Artisan Street Fair and Flossmoor’s 60422 event, also known as the ZIP code Party, both held the first weekend in June. Willard-Rose said he was at both events and received a lot of positive feedback as well as good questions. The message spreading naturally the way it has is a “great way of community building,” he said.
The Inside Out Project is a global initiative created by a French artist who goes by JR (no relation to Willard-Rose). Over the past 10 years, more than 446,000 people across 138 countries have taken part. Willard-Rose said two of his Design Thinking and Collaborative Arts classes started talking about the project following units on social justice/activism and community art projects.
The high school’s MVP Academy finishes each year with a capstone project designed to marry community art and activism. At the end of Willard-Rose’s first year teaching MVP in the spring of 2020, the plan was to get involved in the Inside Out Project.
“Then, the pandemic hit and everything got put on hold,” he said.
But it finally came together this year. Both villages were on board, so 28 students
got to work, Willard-Rose said. They came up with an action statement on the people they wanted to photograph, narrowed it down to 10 ideas, presented those and ultimately got to the final concept.
Nelson said the results are a great cross-section of the communities the portraits represent.
“Quite honestly, we loved all of the different ideas that were presented for this project and folks to highlight in our community, from doctors and teachers and young children and seniors, members of the LGBTQ+ community — people from throughout our community that make Homewood and Flossmoor a great place to be,” Nelson said. “We decided to combine all of the themes and not just focus on one group of people, but to combine and feature everybody.”
The students also organized the photo sessions and handled project management and communicated their needs and timelines to the villages. They carried it all out with professionalism, joy and excitement, which made it a fun project, according to Willard-Rose.
“I’m extremely proud,” he said. “It’s great to see it come to fruition.”
Justine Bruno, assistant village manager for the village of Homewood, said it was a “really organic collaboration” between the high school and villages.
“It was really easy for the village to get on board with the intent of this project, which was public art — hopefully a place people will visit, stop, have a conversation,” Bruno said. “Hopefully it will make them smile.”
Allisa Opyd, Homewood’s events manager, added her daughter just graduated from H-F. To be able to collaborate just before she wrapped up at the high school was something special. All the better that it was a project that is making people smile.
“This is a wonderful opportunity to bring people out to view these very positive pictures,” Opyd said.
Inside Out printed everything on biodegradable paper, and wheat paste (also biodegradable) was used to install the portraits on buildings. They are designed to come down naturally with the elements, and whatever is left can be power washed as they start to fall apart, Willard-Rose explained.
“That’s sort of the point that it’s very temporary and is meant to make an impact for a short period of time, get people talking, and then it’s done,” he said.
Willard-Rose said he anticipates another capstone project at the end of next school year, and he hopes to involve both villages again. Activism and art are likely to play a continued role, he said.
The portraits are posted at Flossmoor Village Hall, 2800 Flossmoor Road, and Homewood “Smiles are Contagious” portraits have been displayed at 18065 Harwood Ave., 18102 Martin Ave. and 2059 Ridge Road. Though, some portraits have stood up better to the weather than others, and Mother Nature ultimately decides how long the gallery will remain.