[3] At the center of TTR are 100 fiberglass and resin Buddha sculptures, each weighed down with a few hundred pounds of concrete, designed by Indira Johnson and installed in sites in 10 Chicago area neighborhoods.
[3] Guided by a city-wide advisory council, TTR uses an innovative approach that engages entire communities and brings together people from various sectors in pursuit of transformational, sustainable change.
[6] While communities were different in composition and dynamics, each had vibrant local organizations that embraced this activist art project as a demonstration of their vision and commitment, especially while many faced chronic underfunding and understaffing.
[1] The idea for TTR was formed over five years ago, when artist Indira Johnson had an exhibit of emerging Buddha sculptures on display at the Chicago Cultural Center.
[8] In 2010, a leading grant from the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation helped seed the project’s development and launch a planning process to explore how this inspiring sculpture could impact public spaces and communities.
[10] The planning process began with Johnson inviting leaders from arts, social service, community, and educational institutions to form an Advisory Council to help shape the TTR project.
In addition, Johnson solicited input from residents of each area on where to place the Buddhas, and further encouraged community groups to start discussions around a theme related to peace.
Despite these differences, the common element was using the image as a creative catalyst to bring people together to engage in conversations about contemporary social issues, promote peace, ignite new ideas for artistic and community programming, and coalesce entities that would not have otherwise come together.
In addition, a great diversity of people in communities from Albany Park to South Chicago have created works of art, dance, literature, film, and photography in response to this project.
This work recalls popular initiatives such as Chicago's "Cows on Parade," albeit taking iconographic imagery from non-Western cultures and appropriating them [by Western audiences] into a commodity.