STREET WORKS
Image: 2024 Street Work Earth. Photo by Derrick Seymore.
Street Works is a community of artists, activists, and neighbors using art to build relationships and drive civic action. We create events, often in public spaces, for people to collaborate in making beautiful art that introduces community issues in unusual ways. These gatherings turn into long-term collaborations, where neighbors co-organize on projects that matter to them.
Tickets for Street Works Earth, 9/21
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Tickets for Street Works Earth, 9/21 •
STREET WORKS EARTH
Public-space galleries for participatory art, by and for artists dedicated to making justice normal. Sister to the street action and block party, Street Works Earth centers co-creation in public space, one way civic action can become part of our lived wisdom and joy.
Sunday, September 21, 2025, 11am - 5pm, 34th Ave & 77th Street, Queens, NY 11372
WHY
Image: 2024 Street Work Earth. Próxima Tierra. By Kaleidospace. Photo by Brentton Wilson.
An incredible amount of creation happens in our public spaces, our streets, parks, plazas, and more. Some of the most powerful street art is co-created with passersby — made with people, not just for them. It sparks conversation, invites participation, and connects to bigger social and civic issues.
In a time when democracy feels fragile, we’re building a home for this kind of art, where neighbors shape something beautiful together. Over time and scale, we think this is one way for democracy to become personal and joyful, while helping artists learn what it takes to show up, create, and care for public spaces.
We're also building mutual aid for street artists like us who know that museums and galleries don’t often embody justice. Together, we’re more than the sum of our parts.
PRINCIPLES
We co-create with audiences and commit to authentically sharing power with audiences as an embodiment of democracy.
We are place-based, see relationship as art, center our “audiences,” — not only self-expression — and center joy as fundamental.
We aim to spark hopeful, concrete co-actions that our communities can take to transform frustration, fear, sorrow, confusion, unknowns, or uncertainty into solutions.
STREET WORK ARTISTS, ADVISORS, & TEAM
Latest News
STREET WORK SUPPORTERS & PARTNERS
FAQs
Image: 2024 Street Work Earth. “Rising. Curtains.” By Ernest Verrett & Anjali Deshmukh. Photo by Cindy Trinh.
When Make Justice Normal was founded, we initially wondered: was the name too big? Were we setting ourselves up for failure in a world in which injustice is normal? Could we embrace the emergence of it all?
For values to become group norms, we must embody in souls. For values to become to lasting norms, we must embody in the systems we control. For embodied systems to scale, we must test and transfer them. (Image by Anjali Deshmukh).
MJN sees narrative as the stories and facts told to us and we tell ourselves, including beliefs and ideas formed from words, pictures, sounds, & more. Narratives don’t sit on the surface of content. Instead, they shape how we think, what we think, and what we do — on our own and together.
Why we need new national platforms for social practice artists and BIPOC-led micro-organizations that advance diverse narratives, present art differently, take about climate change in different ways, and embody different business models.
Why arts have an impact, and why we think today's models of quantifying impact do a deep disservice to the systemic, non-linear nature of human transformation.
How mountains of data, at the intersection of art, climate, and justice, have led us to design programs the way we have.
How we’re structuring our collective to embody our values of loving care, justice, and solidarity in every thing we do.
Can our public spaces be electrified with the energy of people exploring and co-creating solutions that match their community priorities? We say yes!
Why the wild creative spirits of artists matter, and how to think about effectively working with them towards aligned goals.
An art discipline that aims to create social and/or political change through collaboration with individuals, communities, and institutions, often in the creation of participatory art.
Yes. Street Work is in itself a social practice project by social practice artists. It is not an “arts presenter.” It is centered in mutual aid.
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"Nature surrounds us, from parks and backyards to streets and alleyways. Next time you go out for a walk, tread gently and remember that we are both inhabitants and stewards of nature in our neighbourhoods."
—David Suzuki
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"The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned."
—Maya Angelou
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"If we wish to rebuild our cities, we must first rebuild our neighborhoods."
—Harvey Milk