On Friday (Feb. 2), three days after the president's State of the Union address, University of California, Davis, students, faculty, staff, and community members will join a national movement. They will gather to exchange stories to help a Davis artist create a chalk mural expressing community feelings for a “2018 People’s State of the Union.” The mural creation will follow with storytelling circles on the state of Davis and the nation.

The community event is part of a national event held since 2015 in more than 300 locations. The event is being organized nationwide by the nonprofit U.S. Department of Arts and Culture and taking place at UC Davis this year through the leadership of campus-based Imagining America. Other locations throughout the United States will hold story circles, write poetry or invite people to share stories in other ways. 

When

Friday, Feb. 2, 3-4:30 p.m., mural creation

Where

Imagining America offices, 207 Third St., Suite 120, Davis 

Who

Artist Danielle Fodor, a UC Davis graduate, will create a chalk mural on a wall at the Imagining America location. Fodor is a painter and social practice artist, specializing in community-designed and community-painted murals. She has created work throughout the region, including on the UC Davis campus. She earned both a bachelor’s degree in plant biology (1999) and a master’s degree in community development (2012) from the university.

Background

UC Davis is the headquarters for Imagining America, a national organization that advances a vision of the world in which publicly engaged artists, designers, scholars, students and culture workers play critical roles in enacting the promise and ideals of a democratic society. The organization represents much of what the university has long embraced: interdisciplinary cooperation that is transformed into community action.