From the Classroom: The FRUITBELT Project

VISUAL MEDIA SEED PACKAGE DESIGN
ROCHESTER COMMUNITY PROJECT with SHAWN DUNWOODY

The FRUITBELT Project
by Laurie OBrien

Last year, students in my Elements of Visual Media Class PHVM-204 teamed up with Rochester Community Leader and Artist — Shawn Dunwoody.  Shawn is known for his community-led text murals that you see all over Rochester.  At the time when I approached Shawn, he was working on a community project to revive the JOSANA neighborhood of Rochester, once a thriving fruit tree and agricultural area.  Shawn created community gardens in the area to encourage the neighborhood to grow food, fruit and also grow metaphorically speaking.   He named this project “The Fruitbelt Project”.

Elements of Visual Media students worked with Shawn and designed seed packages (containing free seeds inside) that were distributed for free to people living in the neighborhood.

About Laurie


Laurie O’Brien is an artist working in video, installation, animation, and performance. She is interested in hybrid forms of expression that combine and defy categories. In 2013, she created the “Peephole Cinema” in three cities where short films are screened through a dime-sized hole available to the public 24-hours-a day. Her animations and video installations have been exhibited in numerous galleries nationally and internationally