Center for Folk and Community Art (CFCA) is a Florida-based organization made up of writers, artists and community activists. CFCA's mission is to use visual art as both a tool of intervention and as a method of education to impact community issues and improve the human condition.

CFCA lead artists, Dena Stewart and Stewart Stewart, have created and use an art intervention program called "Telling Stories Through Visuals." This two-part program consists of writing/art workshops and public mural exhibitions. At the workshops, participants are guided through a process in which they visualize an issue and how it affects their lives, write a story or description of that visualization, and then illustrate the narratives with pictures. These stories and artwork then become part of a movable, montage-style mural, displayed in large public venues to enlighten the greater community about the issues. CFCA artists have successfully utilized "Telling Stories Through Visuals" to address important social issues such as what it feels like to grow older; getting along with neighbors; trauma from natural disasters; growing up in the '90s; crime; LIVING with HIV/AIDS; and tobacco use, highlighting the thought process and creativity of children as young as five and senior citizens as old as 106. All CFCA projects are on-going.

In addition to the mural exhibits, Dena and Stewart continue the educational process by speaking before public audiences and through the media about different issues. Because of their personal interaction with the many and diverse workshop participants and the lessons they are learning along the way, they are very aware of the problems and feelings involved, and, as artists, they have created a way to share that information with various groups. For example, for their AIDS project, as guests of the State of Florida, Department of Health, Disease Intervention Bureau Training Conference, they conducted a "Telling Stories Through Visuals" workshop, added mural panels to the "What It Feels Like to LIVE With HIV/AIDS" mural, and then addressed an audience of approximately 500 Professional HIV/AIDS Care Providers about the particular issues that surfaced during the workshop session.

CFCA has created a very new and cutting edge approach to reaching people in a non-threatening way, and getting them to respond positively. As part of the permanent artwork, each mural has special panels listing all of the project's sponsors and supporters to celebrate the individuals and groups who have joined in this effort to make the "community" a better place for everybody. To replicate the program in your community, addressing any social issue.

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CFCA and its "Telling Stories Through Visuals" program have received extensive public recognition.

"Telling Stories Through Visuals" was selected by the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities as a model program, one of eight in the nation that successfully combines visual art with social services to help change people's lives. The program is being featured on a web site. The web site materials were created in consultation with the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, and the Institute for Museum and Library Services, under a grant from the U.S. Department of Education.

"What It Feels Like To Grow Older" is a collaboration of more than 100 senior citizens, ages 50 - 106, and a group of youngsters ages 10 to 13. This 60 foot mural project was debuted at the White House Conference on Aging. A video documenting the making of this mural has been featured on local and national PBS stations.

"Telling Stories Through Visuals is one of six programs featured in "ART WORKS! Collaborations That Change Lives," a publication of the Miami Coalition for a Safe and Drug-Free Community.

"Telling Stories Through Visuals" has been featured as a model program in "National News Reports" and "AIDS/STD News Reports," both nationally subscribed newsletters published by CD Publications, Silver Springs, MD.

President Clinton and Mrs. Clinton used the "Love Can Build Anything" Hurricane mural as a backdrop for their nationally televised town meeting held in Homestead, FL, Labor Day, 1993. Both the President and the First Lady signed the mural in support of this community project. 

Mrs. Clinton used "The Pledge: An Earth Anthem" mural as a backdrop for her nationally televised address at the Summit of the Americas held in Miami, December, 1994. 

The "All About Crime" mural was previewed for Attorney General Janet Reno at a national Crime Watch Conference held in Miami, June, 1996.

CFCA projects have been featured on the nationally syndicated television show "HARD COPY" (11/22/96), on NBC News (10/1/96), on CNN and C-Span stations (9/3/93), and on all the network evening news programs; Because of the national exposure and success achieved in helping diverse groups of people express themselves about difficult personal and community situations, CFCA programs have become a model for local involvement in national issues.