East Bay Nonprofit Launches Community Art Project About Identity, Belonging

ALAMEDA, CA — An East Bay nonprofit has launched a new art project about identity and is seeking teens to take part.

MARU — a community-centered East Bay organization dedicated to amplifying diverse voices — launched the "Belonging in America" art project earlier this month.

The organization is seeking teens ages 13 to 18 from the East Bay who want to share how they claim space, share truth and "imagine an America where we all belong," through art, according to Alameda city officials and the nonprofit

The organization will seek art on paper only for the inaugural exhibition, as it is a versatile material that bends, folds, carries names, preserves history, and is resilient and structural, just like the community, according to MARU.

"In many ways, paper reflects the experience of becoming American — adapting while holding identity, transforming while preserving memory, standing stronger together than alone," according to MARU. "Through this material, we invite young artists to explore belonging as something shaped, marked, and continuously formed."

Artwork can be submitted to MARU through April 15. Work can be done with pencil, charcoal, pastel, watercolor, ink and acrylic, according to MARU.

Artwork size must be no larger than 36 by 36 inches, including mounting or framing, according to the nonprofit. For more on the submission process, click here.

MARU, formerly the Korean Community Center of the East Bay, was established in the 1980s. It provided services for people arriving in the United States, including job skills training.

Maru is a Korean word meaning "gathering place where conversations start, ideas spark and people share joy in the process," according to the nonprofit.