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Art & Civic Experience

Come to Your Census: Who Counts in America?

A Digital Art & Civic Experience   |  

April 1–October 1, 2020

What does it mean to be counted? What does it mean to belong? How do we stand with those who are not seen, heard, and included?

The United States Census—a count of our national population—is the only fully-inclusive act our democracy offers to assess and meet the needs of each person living in our country. Everyone, citizen or not, has the right to safely participate. When you fill out the Census, each person in your household brings $20,000 into your community over the next ten years for affordable housing, healthcare, education, essential emergency services, infrastructure, job training, and more. You also protect your voice, voting power, and equal representation in government.

With the belief that art has the capacity to move people to act, YBCA partnered with Art+Action—a cross-sector coalition for civic participation—to explore how artists can inspire all communities to ignite the 2020 Census as an opportunity for agency, belonging, and resistance

The 2020 Census saw historic obstacles to a safe and accurate count. Significant threats such as escalating anti-immigrant rhetoric, language barriers, digital literacy, and cybersecurity concerns put all of our communities—and especially those most vulnerable—at risk of not being counted.

YBCA engaged Bay Area artists working across a range of disciplines to offer ruminations on identity, visibility, and citizenship against the backdrop of a region that many marginalized and undercounted communities call home. Ranging from site-specific and participatory installations to paintings, films, ceramics, and photographs, the works interrogated the social, political, and cultural implications of being counted.

Pivoting to an online presentation at the onset of the COVID-19 crisis, YBCA reimagined the physical opening for a virtual space, in the hope that we could all strengthen our communities and secure our collective future. The Come To Your Census digital engagements took a variety of forms, including interactive video games, virtual gatherings, and newly commissioned written and filmed artist responses, to underscore the Census as an essential service which ensures our communities’ long-term health and strength.

Census Digital Experience

Come to Your Census on the YBCA Zine

2020 Census

Coming to Our Census

By Deborah Cullinan

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Bijun Liang, Omens in Chinatown, 2018, installation view, Come to Your Census: Who Counts in America?, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 2020. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photographs by Charlie Villyard.

Come to Your Census: Who Counts in America?, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 2020. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photographs by Charlie Villyard.

Come to Your Census: Who Counts in America?, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 2020. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photographs by Charlie Villyard.

Works by Micah Bazant, installation view, Come to Your Census: Who Counts in America?, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 2020. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photographs by Charlie Villyard.

Lukas Brekke-Miesner, Yueqi Chen, Chris Hamamoto, and Takeshi Moro, Breaking ICE: A Community Response to a Citizenship Test, 2017/2020, installation view, Come to Your Census: Who Counts in America?, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 2020. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photographs by Charlie Villyard.

Lukas Brekke-Miesner, Yueqi Chen, Chris Hamamoto, and Takeshi Moro, Breaking ICE: A Community Response to a Citizenship Test, 2017/2020, installation view, Come to Your Census: Who Counts in America?, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 2020. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photographs by Charlie Villyard.

Works by Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo, installation view, Come to Your Census: Who Counts in America?, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 2020. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photographs by Charlie Villyard.

Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo, Who Gets Counted?, 2020, installation view, Come to Your Census: Who Counts in America?, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 2020. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photographs by Charlie Villyard.

Rodney Ewing, Who are you? / How do you want to be counted?, 2020, installation view, Come to Your Census: Who Counts in America?, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 2020. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photographs by Charlie Villyard.

Mark Baugh Sasaki, Between Memory and Landscape, 1105-D, 2017, installation view, Come to Your Census: Who Counts in America?, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 2020. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photographs by Charlie Villyard.

Jerome Reyes, Pharos (Anonymous), 2012, installation view, Come to Your Census: Who Counts in America?, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 2020. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photographs by Charlie Villyard.

Works by artists with Creativity Explored, installation view, Come to Your Census: Who Counts in America?, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 2020. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photographs by Charlie Villyard.

Works by artists with Creativity Explored, installation view, Come to Your Census: Who Counts in America?, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 2020. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photographs by Charlie Villyard.

Gerard Wiggins, Slick the Man with Sunglasses and a Tropical Shirt, 2017, installation view, Come to Your Census: Who Counts in America?, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 2020. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photographs by Charlie Villyard.

Daniel Green, Golden Gate Bridge, 2013, installation view, Come to Your Census: Who Counts in America?, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 2020. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photographs by Charlie Villyard.

Camille Holvoet, Shotgun, 2013, installation view, Come to Your Census: Who Counts in America?, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 2020. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photographs by Charlie Villyard.

Kate Thompson, Untitled (I am a Man), 2019, installation view, Come to Your Census: Who Counts in America?, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 2020. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photographs by Charlie Villyard.

Cece Carpio, Actual Enumeration series, 2020, installation view, Come to Your Census: Who Counts in America?, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 2020. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photographs by Charlie Villyard.

Works by Arleene Correa Valencia, installation view, Come to Your Census: Who Counts in America?, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 2020. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photographs by Charlie Villyard.

Works by students with First Exposures, installation view, Come to Your Census: Who Counts in America?, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 2020. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photographs by Charlie Villyard.

Works by students with First Exposures, installation view, Come to Your Census: Who Counts in America?, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 2020. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photographs by Charlie Villyard.

Leah Nichols, 73 Questions, 2017, installation view, Come to Your Census: Who Counts in America?, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 2020. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photographs by Charlie Villyard.

Leah Nichols, 73 Questions, 2017, installation view, Come to Your Census: Who Counts in America?, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 2020. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photographs by Charlie Villyard.

James Hosking, Beautiful by Night, 2014, installation view, Come to Your Census: Who Counts in America?, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 2020. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photographs by Charlie Villyard.

Works by Guillermo Galindo and Richard Misrach, installation view, Come to Your Census: Who Counts in America?, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 2020. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photographs by Charlie Villyard.

Guillermo Galindo, Llantambores, 2015, installation view, Come to Your Census: Who Counts in America?, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 2020. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photographs by Charlie Villyard.

Come to Your Census: Who Counts in America?, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 2020. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photographs by Charlie Villyard.

Yesica Prado, Home Is Where Your Heart Is, 2020, installation view, Come to Your Census: Who Counts in America?, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 2020. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photographs by Charlie Villyard.

Lava Thomas, Freedom Song No. 5 (We Shall Not Be Moved), 2019, installation view, Come to Your Census: Who Counts in America?, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 2020. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photographs by Charlie Villyard.

Works by Guillermo Galindo and Richard Misrach, installation view, Come to Your Census: Who Counts in America?, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 2020. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photographs by Charlie Villyard.

Guillermo Galindo, Spiritual Release, 2017 and Two Spirit Release, 2019, installation view, Come to Your Census: Who Counts in America?, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 2020. Courtesy Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Photographs by Charlie Villyard.

Artists

 

What is at stake?

Every ten years, the Census count determines the population in all fifty states, the District of Columbia, and the five U.S. territories. This count of our national population determines national representation and federal funding allocations for essential programs for affordable housing, healthy food, healthcare, public schools, foster care, free meals, job training, emergency services, roads, preschools, and more.

The Campaign

Come to Your Census: Who Counts in America? is part of COME TO YOUR CENSUS, an arts-driven citywide campaign led by the Art+Action coalition—headquartered and incubated at YBCA and commissioned by the City of San Francisco’s Office of Civic Engagement and Immigrant Affairs (OCEIA)—mobilizing around the 2020 Census.
 

Art+Action

Art+Action—San Francisco’s first coalition for civic participation that spans art, creative, community, business, technology, philanthropy, activist, and government sectors—has launched a city-wide arts-driven campaign that positions artists as catalysts to humanize the issues around the 2020 Census. In partnership with trusted institutions and messengers, including Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA)—their Headquarters and a Lead Partner—and ignited by support from San Francisco’s Office of Civic Engagement and Immigrant Affairs (OCEIA), they’re galvanizing communities to participate in the 2020 Census to receive their fair share of resources and political representation. Although the movement is starting locally, the goal is to set off a national spark.

ComeToYourCensus.us →

Come To Your Census Toolkits & Resources from Art+Action

Check out the full list of open-source campaign assets for you to use to create powerful calls to action to your communities. Materials are available in multiple languages.

See more →

Come to Your Census: Who Counts in America? is presented by YBCA and Art+Action, and was developed by a coalition of curators including Martin Strickland, YBCA’s Associate Director of Public Life;Sarah Cathers, YBCA’s Director of Public Life; Amy Kisch, Art+Action Founder + Artistic Director of Social Impact ; Brittany Ficken, Art+Action Executive Producer + Project Director; Candace Huey of re.riddle, and curator Ashara Ekundayo. Its online and in-person presentation at YBCA was organized with the assistance of Fiona Ball, Curatorial Project Manager, and John Foster Cartwright, Chief Preparator.

Art+Action is supported by Funding from the Office of Civic Engagement & Immigrant Affairs, City and County of San Francisco (OCEIA), Heidy Braverman and David Skinner, Nion McEvoy and Leslie Berriman, Sushmita Subramanian and Theo Brower, Sonya Yu, and powerful communities dedicated to creativity + transformation. www.ComeToYourCensus.us

THANK YOU TO OUR SUPPORTERS

Come to Your Census: Who Counts in America? is made possible in part by Arline Klatte and Jonathan Ennis and an anonymous donor. Special thanks to Rainbow Grocery Cooperative.

Ana Teresa Fernández and Arleene Correa Valencia’s SOMOS VISIBLES (WE ARE NOT INVISIBLE) is made possible with the generous support of Levi’s.

YBCA Programs are made possible in part by Bloomberg Philanthropies, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and Kenneth Rainin Foundation, with additional funding from Grosvenor, the National Endowment for the Arts, Salesforce.com, and YBCA Members.

YBCA Engagement is made possible in part by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Bernard Osher Foundation, the California Arts Council, Walter & Elise Haas Fund, Institute of Museum and Library Services, The Kimball Foundation, Koret Foundation, The MCJ Amelior Foundation, Panta Rhea Foundation, The Sato Foundation, Wells Fargo Foundation, and Anonymous.

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts is grateful to the City of San Francisco for its ongoing support.