Founded in 2001, the Urban Anthropology Project (UAP) is a youth cultural exchange program that celebrates the differences and commonalties of low-income urban children around the world. According to the Illinois Humanities Council, the inaugural program participants consisted of twenty-two children (ages 8-14) of the African Diaspora as they depict their lives in the housing projects of Cabrini Green in Chicago, USA and the Central American village of Portobelo, Panama through their poignant photographs and dynamic performances.
The Chicago children worked with noted educational anthropologist, Dr. Aisha Ray of Erikson Institute, to learn "ethnographic methods," including interviewing. In addition to communication through the Internet, the children of these two communities studied each other's cultures and produced videos and performances that integrated their cultural differences and similarities. The Portobelo children worked with noted professor and artist Arturo Lindsay and noted photographer Sandra Eleta to create their photo documentaries and performances about Congo culture and Carnaval, in collaboration with Taller Portobelo and Spelman College Summer Art Colony.
In 2002, UAP began to expand its forms of communicating by bringing in interns from high schools and colleges including Columbia College Chicago, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA), Wellesley College, New York University (NYU) and Stanford University. The kids were now using their photographs to create digital storytelling pieces using digital animation, short films and found-object sculpture.
UAP was one of the first and only programs to create an intercultural dialogue among youth through photography and digital storytelling. They provide their program participants with high quality equipment (video cameras, laptops, etc.) to give voice to their personal experience and way of life. UAP has connected children in classrooms and after school programs at Chicago Public Schools, Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the Urban League of Broward County in Ft. Lauderdale, FL and others with kids in Israel, Latin America, Jamaica, Japan and Germany to exchange cultural practices.
The program was founded by ethnographic photographer, Nahlyee Van Brunt[http://www.gapersblock.com/merge/archives/2003/08/#011046] and was initially housed at, and fiscally sponsored by, CYCLE Wiz Factory of Learning in Chicago, IL until late 2003 when the organization relocated to Los Angeles to become a Supplemental Educational Services (SES) provider. They created UAP Learning to focus specifically on SES and services learning programming and partnered with Apple Computer, Inc. to provide Apple® products to their U.S. program participants, partnering non-profits and supporters as an Apple Authorized Business Agent.
The Urban Anthropology Project is funded by contributions from individuals, corporations, and foundations including the Illinois Humanities Council and Polk Bros. Foundation, according to Catalyst Chicago[http://www.catalyst-chicago.org/guides/?id=81#polk2], an independent newsmagazine created in 1990 to document, analyze and support school-improvement efforts in the Chicago Public Schools.
In 2003, the UAP kids from Cabrini-Green met the late Katherine Dunham in East St. Louis and attend a professional dance and music institute based on her groundbreaking dance anthropology technique. The event was sponsored by the Illinois Humanities Council, according to their website.
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