Artists At Work (AAW) is THE OFFICE performing arts + film's workforce resilience program created in the spirit of the WPA. It supports communities through artistic civic engagement.

 

Since it began with a pilot program in 2020, AAW has raised over $4 million dollars and added 62 artists to our payroll across 10 states with over 80+ cultural and community partners joining the effort. 

 

Artists At Work (AAW) leverages the power and creativity of artists to respond to local community needs across a range of issues including mental health, antiracism, environmental justice and climate resiliency, substance abuse recovery, and youth welfare. Each AAW Artist is paired with a participating cultural organization and paid a living wage salary to do two things:  1) continue to make art, and 2) be embedded in a local social impact initiative that will benefit from their skills and creative thinking.

 

The idea is to give stable employment to artists -- so they can keep being artists -- and simultaneously integrate their creative problem solving into the local ecosystem so that communities can move together towards a more sustainable and just future. 

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In partnership with Artful Life and the City of Albuquerque (with support from AAW's "Borderlands Region" initiative) artist Billy Joe Miller used art designs, community engagement and sculpture to encourage the public to reimagine the role aesthetics can play in healthcare, hospitals, and related sites.

 

By organizing public engagement opportunities and events, Billy Joe facilitated conversations and collaborations that challenge the idea of what healthcare can be.

 

Billy Joe’s focus was on the design and creation of sculptures to show at healthcare related sites and the Albuquerque Museum.

 

A central sculptural work, Moving Window, a mobile stained glass window designed for hospitals and inspired by the artist’s own experiences of illness, offers a comforting aesthetic in otherwise sterile spaces and brings healthcare into conversations of contemporary art.

 

Miller is also developing and hopes to include a mobile exhibit of works from his community engagements , contributing to the conversation surrounding comprehensive healthcare and art.

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Artful Life began working with Billy Joe Miller in 2014 with the "Stories of Rt. 66" project in the International District of Albuquerque. He led a community team in the visioning, design, and creation of "Morning Glory," a monumental work of public art that is located in the ID neighborhood.