Vaccine Confidence Arts Response Repository

Since the onset of COVID-19, artists and cultural organizations have played a critical role in helping to share essential public health information within their communities. CONTRA-TIEMPO is one of 30 organizations funded by the CDC Foundation to harness the power of the arts to engage audiences and participants of all ages to build confidence in COVID-19 and flu vaccines. Through this project, CONTRA-TIEMPO partnered with artists in 4 different states: Arizona, California, Georgia, and Florida. Through a collaborative creative process led by Artistic Director and Choreographer Ana Maria Alvarez and Filmmaker and Director Tiffany Judkins, Black and Latinx artists from across the country sharing their stories and experiences about the vaccine, exploring the fundamental question of: Who did you get vaccinated for? “Throughout our communities, an understandable distrust of governmental, medical and public health institutions exists. Through this series of dance films, we will explore the contradictions and nuances of what it means to work, parent, lead and connect inside of the pandemic and what led our collaborators to make the decision to get vaccinated. So many of the stories we are hearing are rooted in a deep belief in the collective good. It has given me a lot of hope for the future,” said Ana María Álvarez, Founding Artistic Director CONTRA-TIEMPO Activist Dance Theater. Move To Vaccinate uplifts voices of artists who are making a difference in their respective communities and moving money back into the hands of artists of color, who have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. Community Partners include (this list continues to grow throughout the life of the project): MUCE: Miami Urban Contemporary Experience (link to https://www.muce305.org)Ashlee Katrice Thomas (Cultural Liaison for Miami)Dorvilier Olivier (Miami) Kara Janelle (Cultural Liaison for Atlanta)Outcrowd (Phoenix) Paqo Colorado (Phoenix) Ruby Morales (Cultural Liaison for Phoenix) Amen Santos (Los Angeles) Brasil Brasil Cultural Center (Los Angeles)Funding for this effort is made possible through a subaward from the CDC Foundation and is part of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) financial assistance award totaling $2,500,000.00 with 100 percent funding from CDC/HHS. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement by, CDC/HHS or the U.S. Government. About CONTRA-TIEMPO: CONTRA-TIEMPO is a bold, multilingual Los Angeles-based activist dance theater company that creates communities where all people are awakened to a sense of themselves as artists and social change agents who move through the world with compassion and confidence. They create a new physical, visual and sonic vocabulary that collages Salsa, AfroCuban, hip-hop, and contemporary dance with theater, compelling text, and original music to bring dynamic multi-modal experiences to the concert stage. While their performances are consistently electrifying, what sets the company apart most is their unique relationship to their own community. CONTRA-TIEMPO takes an uncompromisingly radical approach to the ways in which artists function within communities and create their work. They intentionally engage diverse audiences, cultivate dancer leaders, and center stories not traditionally heard on the concert stage, using their engagement process to inform and continuously re-fuel their creative process, and vice-versa.

Since the onset of COVID-19, artists and cultural organizations have played a critical role in helping to share essential public health information within their communities. CONTRA-TIEMPO is one of 30 organizations funded by the CDC Foundation to harness the power of the arts to engage audiences and participants of all ages to build confidence in COVID-19 and flu vaccines. Through this project, CONTRA-TIEMPO partnered with artists in 4 different states: Arizona, California, Georgia, and Florida. Through a collaborative creative process led by Artistic Director and Choreographer Ana Maria Alvarez and Filmmaker and Director Tiffany Judkins, Black and Latinx artists from across the country sharing their stories and experiences about the vaccine, exploring the fundamental question of: Who did you get vaccinated for? “Throughout our communities, an understandable distrust of governmental, medical and public health institutions exists. Through this series of dance films, we will explore the contradictions and nuances of what it means to work, parent, lead and connect inside of the pandemic and what led our collaborators to make the decision to get vaccinated. So many of the stories we are hearing are rooted in a deep belief in the collective good. It has given me a lot of hope for the future,” said Ana María Álvarez, Founding Artistic Director CONTRA-TIEMPO Activist Dance Theater. Move To Vaccinate uplifts voices of artists who are making a difference in their respective communities and moving money back into the hands of artists of color, who have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. Community Partners include (this list continues to grow throughout the life of the project): MUCE: Miami Urban Contemporary Experience (link to https://www.muce305.org)Ashlee Katrice Thomas (Cultural Liaison for Miami)Dorvilier Olivier (Miami) Kara Janelle (Cultural Liaison for Atlanta)Outcrowd (Phoenix) Paqo Colorado (Phoenix) Ruby Morales (Cultural Liaison for Phoenix) Amen Santos (Los Angeles) Brasil Brasil Cultural Center (Los Angeles)Funding for this effort is made possible through a subaward from the CDC Foundation and is part of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) financial assistance award totaling $2,500,000.00 with 100 percent funding from CDC/HHS. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement by, CDC/HHS or the U.S. Government. About CONTRA-TIEMPO: CONTRA-TIEMPO is a bold, multilingual Los Angeles-based activist dance theater company that creates communities where all people are awakened to a sense of themselves as artists and social change agents who move through the world with compassion and confidence. They create a new physical, visual and sonic vocabulary that collages Salsa, AfroCuban, hip-hop, and contemporary dance with theater, compelling text, and original music to bring dynamic multi-modal experiences to the concert stage. While their performances are consistently electrifying, what sets the company apart most is their unique relationship to their own community. CONTRA-TIEMPO takes an uncompromisingly radical approach to the ways in which artists function within communities and create their work. They intentionally engage diverse audiences, cultivate dancer leaders, and center stories not traditionally heard on the concert stage, using their engagement process to inform and continuously re-fuel their creative process, and vice-versa.

Out of Hand Theater’s Vaccine Confidence Program, Time Has Chosen Us, is a community engagement program that is inspired by the message from the late Congressman John Lewis that “we may not have chosen the time, but the time has chosen us”. It is our time to come together against the pandemic. Time Has Chosen Us brought together artists, doctors and a public health evaluation team to create a cinematic narrative and educational film developed from one-on-one interviews and insights from community focus groups around concerns and barriers that citizens of Southwest and North Central Georgia, and parts of East Alabama, faced when accessing the COVID vaccine. These areas were chosen because of their low vaccination rates within the community, and because they contained a majority population of African-American citizens. This reflected Out of Hand's mission of combining theater and film with information and conversation to advance social justice and anti-racism. Many of the community members in this area, no

The UGA Willson Center for Humanities and Arts, along with College of Education professor Melisa Cahnmann-Taylor and representatives from the UGA Arts Council, is working to help increase vaccine confidence through community participation in the arts. To incentivize community engagement, we hosted a contest offering $1000 in cash prizes to any TikTok users creating such videos, the criteria being: presenting accurate information (25%), attracting viewership (25%) and original, entertainment value (50%). To increase participation and visibility, we hosted three TikTok tables on campus where we recorded brief interviews, asking passersby "how do you feel about vaccines?" Between February 1st to April 1st, 2022, 394 videos were posted on our #bestshotuga TikTok page, 278 of which were new, nonrepetitive content. 124 of the videos (45%) were interviews (46 on February 12th; 57 on March 14th; and 21 on March 21st). Less than 3% of videos were made by creators who were not funded artists or solicited at campus...

In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month and those who selflessly lend their well-respected voices to advocate for critical issues surrounding health, we are excited to launch Inmunidad Comunidad, a Spanish-language extension of Community Immunity – our rap anthology about vaccines.

David Hassler, director of the director of the Wick Poetry Center in Kent State's College of Arts and Sciences, which is in collaboration of the Global Vaccine Poem Project, says "We know that poetry is a powerful tool to connect us across division, to remind us of both of our individuality and our shared humanity". The Global Vaccine Poem uses creative healing through poetry to encourage all people to re­flect on both the pandemic and their vaccination, and to imagine a safe and thriving future. The project is an effort to support both large-scale vaccination efforts and personal, individual responses to the historic challenges brought on by COVID-19.

Since March 2020, an international collective of university students, artists, and healthcare advocates has been working to “Free the Vaccine for COVID-19.” In other words: to make sure that publicly-funded tests, treatments, and effective vaccines are available to everyone, everywhere, not just those with the ability to pay. Guaranteeing this access is crucial for ending the pandemic. And, from an ethical standpoint, it’s simply the right thing to do. The campaign uses artistic activism to bolster calls from around the world for a “people’s vaccine.” Methods are based on research and history.

Coming Through COVID-19 Art Contest is an opportunity for high school students from the US Virgin Islands to create artwork on their reflections and feelings of the pandemic, such as how they personally dealt with isolation or quarantine, a friend or family member getting the virus, or a personal loss. The artwork can also include messages to build COVID-19 vaccine confidence and how it can help the USVI to achieve a safe, new normal. Students may choose from a variety of mediums, such as drawing, painting, or mixed media/collage techniques, to create their artwork. Winners from each island, will be selected by a panel of judges (local artists and teachers) and by votes from the people through a virtual gallery on the website [ http://www.comingthroughcovidusvi.art/ ]

The Arts Alliance Illinois is encouraging all of their members and the whole creative sector to get involved encouraging their communities to get vaccinated as a method of safely returning to arts activities. The campaign, called #VaxToGetBack, is targeting arts organizations and enthusiasts throughout the state of Illinois. They invite their partners to participate in the campaign by posting on Instagram and Facebook about how they are ready to get back to in-person arts appreciation — whether that’s hosting gallery openings or shows, plays, concerts, or any arts-focused activities.