About
Love Notes is a community art project that celebrates and affirms LGBTQIA+ youth in the Roaring Fork Valley and creates a bridge of connection between community members and LGBTQIA+ youth.
The Love Notes project is funded by a state of Colorado Creative Industries grant and the National Endowment for the Arts, along with local support by Aspen Out, Anderson Ranch Arts Center and Carbondale Arts. Lead Artist Brijetta Waller initiated the project and applied for the state grant out of concern for the mental health of LBGTQIA+ youth during the pandemic. Brijetta’s work uses art and storytelling to create connections and build bridges across divides through love, positivity, and hope.
“Art can open doors, surprise us, and offer an opportunity to engage and connect in unexpected ways. I love that each Love Notes box begins as a blank slate and then becomes a unique expression created by youth. Every message left in Love Notes boxes by community members becomes a response to that offering. There is a dialogue occurring that did not exist before. The final mosaic becomes a powerful and affirming outcome of the conversation that is shared between LGBTQIA+ youth and their community.” - Brijetta Waller
There are three phases to the Love Notes community art project, described below.
Phase 1: Building and Designing the Love Notes Boxes
Sixteen Love Notes boxes were designed and fabricated by artists at Anderson Ranch Arts Center for the Love Notes youth art workshops. LGBTQIA+ students and their peers at eight Roaring Fork Valley schools worked with local artists and community mentors in January 2022 to design Love Notes boxes to be placed in their own communities.
Each school received two boxes to design. Local artists invited students at each workshop to explore different themes using prompts such as “I am…” and “Words that we need now.” Some boxes feature line drawings inspired by AIDS activist and artist Keith Haring, while others use weaving as a metaphor for the interconnectedness of our communities. Each box emerges as a unique piece of art.
Phase 2: Community Participation/Love Notes Messages
Love Notes will kick off on February 11th and 12th from 5:00-7:30pm at Carbondale Arts’ Light the Night with Love event in Carbondale where a large-scale Love Notes installation created by artists Esther Macy Nooner and Zakriya Rabani will be hosted at True Nature Healing Arts.
During Valentine’s week, from February 12-20th, community members will be invited to participate in the Love Notes project by visiting boxes at specified partner locations in the Roaring Fork Valley. At each Love Notes box, people will be invited to select a rainbow-colored card and to draft a note of love and support for valley LGBTQIA+ youth.
Phase 3: Final Mosaic and Education
Love Notes messages will be combined into a mosaic to be printed and displayed in eight schools and four valley libraries beginning on March 14, 2022, preceding LGBTQ Health Awareness Week. Library partners will host a virtual education event for communities from Aspen to Parachute to learn more about how to support LGBTQIA+ youth.
The public will be able to view the final mosaics at:
Pitkin County Library, Aspen
Basalt Regional Library
Carbondale Branch Library
Glenwood Springs Branch Library
Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Snowmass Village