The city of Nashville is growing at a rapid rate but the development boom is causing certain communities and neighborhoods to destabilize. The various locations where residencies were established and temporary art activations took place represent some of the most vulnerable communities and ones most in need of advocates and allies. The M-SPAR residency is located within the McGruder Family Resource Center, a former school building turned emergency resource center run by Catholic Charities. Most people who visit the McGruder Center are there seeking help to feed their families or pay basic utility bills. The residency was established in hopes of changing neighbors perception of the center from one of destitution to a friendly place were community comes together to support and uplift one another. The other residency, The Pottery Studio at Old School Farm, is located at the Old School Farm, which is a non-profit dedicated to producing quality farm-to-table food while providing employment for individuals of all abilities. Old School Farm was founded in 2013 on the belief that creating a sustainable farm can also produce sustainable jobs while giving back to the community at large. The Nashville’s Kurdish Gardens project took place in south Nashville, which is home to some of Nashville’s largest immigrant communities. The project was developed and piloted at the Salahadeen Center of Nashville, which is a non-profit membership organization that provides cultural, social and religious services for the Muslim community specifically Nashville’s large Kurdish community. Artist Elizabeth Williams collaborated with a Kurdish ethnobotanist named Chimen Mayi who served as a subject matter expert and helped Williams coordinate a number of events at the center during which Williams and Mayi collected community stories and traditional recipes that became the content for the printed guide Williams designed. Xavier Payne’s Don’t Treat on Me! billboards were located along the Jefferson Street bridge, a highway overpass that severed its way through one of Nashville’s oldest neighborhoods – North Nashville – in the 1960s causing a domino effect of economic and infrastructure issues that continue to plague the community. North Nashville has long served as the epicenter for black culture and commerce in Nashville and is home to Nashville’s four HBCUs. Due to its proximity to downtown and surplus of affordable housing stock, the neighborhood has rapidly gentrified in recent years pushing out longtime residents, churches and businesses. LeXander Bryant’s Guns & Butter: The Art of Public Manipulation was also located in the North Nashville neighborhood as well as in East Nashville where the artist plastered posters featuring existential questions for the community to ponder and messages of love and self-worth in unexpected and everyday places. Locations included the front of an abandoned building, exterior wall of a laundromat and on the side of a small neighborhood market. Constellation by Robbie Lynn Hunsinger was an interactive public artwork set up at several community events around town including an art crawl, a swing dance festival that took place in a large public park and an immigration advocacy event inside of a non-profit community center called Casa Azafrán. Casa Azafrán serves Nashville’s large Latino community through various education programs and advocacy programs around immigrant rights.