Mass Creativity 2024

Mass Creativity 2024 is a collective art making and community building program for San Diego communities. For this year’s 12th annual Mass Creativity program, the Museum has partnered with collaborating artist, Chelle Barbour (she/her) to make this the most exciting year yet!

The theme of our Mass Creativity programming this year is Gifts For The Future inspired by the life and legacy of Octavia E. Butler and her vision of community, and storytelling of alternative futures rooted in Science Fiction.

Together we have developed a series of free community workshops in partnership with our 2024 Community partners that will take place at seven organizations throughout San Diego County. Workshops are an ode to the vibrancy of our communities and ultimately, are designed to encourage play, imagination, and collective art making.

Community workshops will take place in the months leading up to a joyful culmination on Mass Creativity Day which will be on Saturday, June 22, 2024 – and it is also the birthday of Octavia E. Butler! This event will be a grand celebration of the artworks created by San Diego communities and will include music and dance performances, food vendors, and free admission to The New Children’s Museum! 

This year, we are grateful to collaborate with the following organizations:

Casa Familiar – Join us at Casa Familiar on May 3 for a free Mass Creativity workshop for all ages!
Voices for Children
Skyline Hills Public Library – Join us at Skyline Hills Public Library on May 7 for a free Mass Creativity workshop for all ages!
Barrio Logan College Institute
City Heights Public Library – Join us at City Heights/Weingart Library on May 18 for a free Mass Creativity workshop for all ages!
Solutions for Change
SBCS

*Casa Familiar, the Skyline Hills Library, and the City Heights Library’s community workshops are open to the public. All other locations are by invitation only from the participating community center.  

Chelle Barbour (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist recognized for her diverse Afro-Futurist and Afro-Surrealist collages. Influenced by Romare Bearden, Barbour’s characters cast a broad net in their interpretation. From vibrant chameleons, goddesses, and agent provocateurs to commanding warriors and impassive spies, Barbour’s compelling collage portraiture conveys allegory, conviction, fantasy, and femininity. Her art aesthetic and process combine fragmentations, pieces of unexpected layers of elements that challenge viewers to read inferences derived from the black Diasporic imagination and culture. Barbour is a California Arts Council Individual Artist Fellow. She has participated in solo and group exhibitions nationwide, and her work is in permanent collections of art institutions and private collections.