Central resident Gwendolyn Garth has lived near University Circle her entire life—she grew up living in Hough, Central, Glenville and Fairfax. And as a longtime community member, she has paid close attention to the relationship between the institutions in University Circle and the residents who live in the surrounding neighborhoods.
“In the past, organizations have said that they wanted to help with change, but then, there’s not always been the support and the resources to implement it,” Garth says. “But today, the community is participating in change. We’re not just being presented with a plan and asked what we think of it. Now, we’re helping to create the plan.”
Garth now lives in the Central Neighborhood and is a multimedia artist and community activist. She founded Kings & Queens of Art, a grassroots collaborative of artists, many of whom are currently or formerly incarcerated. She has a passion for identifying opportunities for those who work with her and bringing them along.
“I bring creativity and community to the NAC,” she says. “We have a lot of good ideas and good leadership on the NAC. It may take a minute to make change, but the NAC is there for the long haul.”
As she works toward change, she seeks inspiration from the February 2008 words of then Sen. Barack Obama, who, while campaigning for the presidency shared, "Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek."