Belonging through Art with Tyler Jones Part Two (Episode 11)
Charlotte talks to Tyler Jones about art and belonging.
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Why It Matters: In a time when empathy and human connection are under pressure, art stands as a vital force for repair, remembrance, and justice. This episode with Tyler Jones highlights how descendant-led arts initiatives, such as the Wallace Center for the Arts and Reconciliation, utilize creativity to reclaim erased histories, foster healing, and model genuine belonging—even in places marked by cultural misunderstanding and loss. Supporting the arts is not just about aesthetics; it’s about sustaining the very things that make us human.
Tyler Jones argues that supporting human creativity and the arts is essential for preserving our capacity for empathy, critical thinking, and meaningful connection.
>>> Tyler’s work with the Wallace Center’s “Out of Whole Cloth” exhibit shows how art can be a powerful medium for communities to reclaim space, honor difficult histories, and do the hard work of repair. In Alabama, descendants of enslaved people and of enslavers come together through the arts to build a shared future, demonstrating that art can bridge even the deepest divides.
>>> The conversation addresses how empathy and human intelligence are increasingly under attack in today’s culture, especially with the rise of AI and the politicization of compassion.
>>> Tyler shares a quote from Sonya Renee Taylor: “Art allows us to invite people in through love, making transformation and change not just possible, but irresistible.” Art humanizes what feels out of reach and gives us ways to practice solidarity and collective care.
After Listening to This Episode, You’ll Walk Away With:
A deeper understanding of how art can serve as both a mirror and a doorway: reflecting our hardest truths and inviting us into new ways of belonging.
Encouragement to support and participate in creative, justice-oriented work—knowing that even in challenging contexts, art can help communities heal and thrive.
Inspiration to champion empathy, human intelligence, and creativity in your own life, recognizing that these are essential tools for collective flourishing and resistance to dehumanization.
This second mini-season features conversations with three individuals who are doing significant work in ways that promote ideas connected to belonging through art. I hope you enjoy hearing from them. Thank you for your support!
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About Tyler Jones
Tyler Jones is a writer, filmmaker, and experience designer from Florence, Alabama. He is a founding member of 1504, where he has directed over 40 multimedia projects worldwide. Today, he leads the studio’s narrative strategy and place-based work in The South.
Learn more about Tyler Jones and his work with 1504 here.
Episode Transcript:
Charlotte Donlon:
Welcome to all of this and more. Thanks for joining us for part two of my conversation with Tyler Jones as we continue this mini-season on belonging through art. If you joined us for part one, you heard Tyler reflect on how art and place shape our sense of belonging, how creativity can anchor us and connect us to our histories, how it helps us find community even in challenging times.
Tyler is the director of 1504, a narrative studio in Birmingham, Alabama, and he brings a unique perspective to this work blending storytelling, design, and collective memory to create spaces where people feel seen and valued. In this episode, Tyler shares about his latest project with the Wallace Center for the Arts and Reconciliation in Harpersville, Alabama, a descendant-led initiative where people are coming together to reclaim space, heal, and do the hard work of repair through the arts. Their upcoming exhibit “Out of Whole Cloth” is a powerful example of how art can preserve memory, foster justice, and model what real belonging looks like, even in places where cultural erasure and misunderstanding are daily realities. We also talk about the broader cultural climate, how empathy and human intelligence are increasingly under attack, and why it's more important than ever to champion human creativity and connection.
Tyler reminds us that supporting the arts isn't just about aesthetics. It's about sustaining the very things that make us human. As we wrap up our conversation, Tyler offers a moving reflection on the role of art as a cultural conduit, a container for hard stories, and a softening force that invites us into broader understanding.
He reminds us that art allows us to invite people in through love making transformation and change, not just possible, but irresistible. In times of uncertainty, art gives us ways to humanize what feels out of reach and to practice solidarity. I hope this conversation inspires you to see art as both a mirror and a doorway, a way to belong and a way to invite others in.
Welcome to All of This and More. I'm Charlotte Donlon, and I'm excited to talk to Tyler Jones today for our second mini-season on Belonging through Art. Tyler, it's so good to see you. Thank you for talking with me. Before we get started, can you share a bit about yourself for those who aren't familiar with you and your work?
Tyler Jones:
Hello everybody. It's great to be here. My name's Tyler Jones. I am the director of a narrative studio called 1504. We are in Birmingham, Alabama. That's where I'm today. And 1504 works at the intersection of culture and community, we mixed media storytelling. We work with and writers and filmmakers and strategists all over the world, and they're really just grateful to be able to do this. Weird thing from Alabama, which is an endlessly inspiring challenging place.
Our next project, which is also very, I think at this intersection of art and belonging is an exhibit that's opening up in June for Juneteenth, and it's at the, the Wallace Center for Arts and Reconciliation, which is a nonprofit in Harpersville, Alabama, about 45 minutes outside of Birmingham. Are you familiar with their, with their, their story? Charlotte, have we talked about this?
Charlotte Donlon:
I am not super familiar, but I learned about it a couple of days ago and I have read about it. Please tell me more.
Tyler Jones:
I'll give listeners kind of a quick synopsis. People can do a deep dive, but essentially this is a an organization that is descendant led in Shelby County. And this is one of the most conservative counties in, in the state of Alabama and, and therefore in the country. and what's happening here is, descendants of formerly enslaved people in. Shelby County are working with and coming together with white descendants of the enslavers to do reparative work, healing work, justice work through the arts. And so they have essentially reclaimed this house from 1841 and are using it to host workshops, host exhibits, host performance and really kind of dedicate this land and this space to repair. it's a remarkable thing that this is happening anywhere especially in Alabama. , We're producing one of the first public exhibits that will be opening. In June and running through November, 2025 called Out of Whole Cloth.
So if you're curious to come see this, it's a really incredible space. And the descendant community, we're really gonna honor or attempting to honor their stories in the face of a lot of the cultural erasure that's happening. And I think that the one thing I'll say about just national climate is for so many, you know. Activists, artists, organizers for those folks who are doing that in Alabama, in many ways that's always been the somewhat of the reality, right? To do this type of work in Alabama, to be in a position where you're kind of having to move upstream, culturally. And so while it's, it's heartbreaking and there are so many people in our community that are, facing job loss or funding cuts, or they've lost their grants. I do really believe in the resiliency of, of artists in the south and in a place like Alabama. In some ways maybe to, to show people what it's like to work in, in a context like this where your work is maybe often misunderstood or you're having to work with, with very little resources.
And so if there's anywhere that I think artists can kind of show , a way forward, I think it's Alabama. And I really think that the work of the Wallace Center is doing some of the best kind of modeling this incredibly well and in terms of preserving memory, preserving cultural heritage and yeah. Any, any ways that we can support that we're, we're in.
So the other thing I want to say on the cultural current front briefly is I think there's two other kind of attacks, cultural attacks that I, that I think we should all be concerned about. And this doesn't have to do with, necessarily the, the political climate, but I think we're seeing an attack on empathy that's emerging, where things like empathy and compassion are being politicized and are being seen as, some type of woke agenda. So I think when we start hearing attack on empathy like , that to me makes alarms go off. And then the other is just the attack on human intelligence. In the climate of AI, we're, really devaluing, I think, individual and human intelligence. And we're just beginning to see, I think some of the, some of the effects of that.
And that's what, again, as a parent thinking about how AI will proliferate all of our devices and everything. Like that's a dynamic, that's new territory for all of us. I think it's all the more reason to support human creativity and human brilliance and really human-centered work.
Charlotte Donlon:
Yes. Thank you so much for mentioning those things. And it does kind of shine a light on this new challenge in parenting and living in this world regardless of what age you are with AI and the attacks and empathy. And briefly, did you hear about the book review article that was published?
Tyler Jones:
Yeah, I read that, I saw that today. Yeah. There was what was it? A summer, a summer book list. And most of the books were totally fabricated by AI because AI can't fact check itself.
Charlotte Donlon:
I'll be honest, I have not read the article yet because I am going to have to brace myself.
As a writer who would love to write for the Chicago Sun or whoever these, you know, 10 books you should read this summer. Like I would write a real article with real books, you know, and to
Tyler Jones:
Yeah. We're, we're just making up fake books . But yeah. Really I think that's a dystopian milestone here.
Charlotte Donlon:
well, it is such an embarrassment for the editors and the publishers and humans like, I had nothing to do with it, and I feel embarrassed a little bit. You know, it's like embarrassed, infuriated, like lots of complex emotions.
Tyler Jones:
Yeah, and, and I say that, I say all of this as someone who believes there are use cases for ChatGPT or AI that it, that it's it's not for me like a dualistic thing that it, but it is a tool that ,, we just don't really understand its limitations and it's really exposing itself now, so
Charlotte Donlon:
Yeah, agreed. Agreed. I think I was telling you about the podcast platform I use and I'm sure the only reason I can edit it the way I do is because of AI. So I'm, I'm a fan of responsible use, appropriate use, maybe. So I, I wish we had more time, but. We'll have to, I'll have to have you as a guest for another mini season soon.
Real quick, which film would you recommend to people if they want to understand more about you as a person and why? And then anything else you want to share before we wrap up?
Tyler Jones:
Yeah. So I think for me, you know, it's interesting thinking about films or, or books or, you know TV shows that have moved me. I feel probably most influenced by places. And I've really, I think, embraced that in my work doing site-specific work and work in especially like sacred space.
So if someone said like, what could I sort of do that would reveal a side of me or, or sort of be, be personally meaningful to me, I would say go to hotel Peter and Paul in, in New Orleans. I would say go to Mero in New York, I would say these go to Waffle House. Like it, it is sort of the, these sites that to me are thin places.
So for me, that's how I probably I think places may have imprinted on me more than specific maybe works of art. However one of those places, is Italy and a film called The Great Beauty. It's probably a film like of recent times that has been the most inspirational, influential.
It's from a filmmaker named Paulo Sorrentino, and the premise is basically a socialite kind of power broker in Rome turns 65 and starts to. Go on a quest to find like the deeper meanings of life and there's a real magical realism to the film and a dreamlike quality. So I don't know what this is about me or my life, but the great beauty is is a beautiful film with a, with a great soundtrack too, so,
Charlotte Donlon:
Wonderful. Thank you, and you probably are about to get kicked out, so let's wrap up. Thank you so much.
And I can, I can like relocate too if we want to do that, but yeah
Charlotte Donlon:
do you wanna relocate and then try to like, at least do a decent closing?
Yeah.
Yeah. Okay. Okay. I'll, I'll just, let's all stay connected.
So yeah, sorry about that. I just,
Charlotte Donlon:
It's okay. Okay, so I really appreciate this conversation and look forward to talking more soon in person on, a podcast or not? Is there anything you'd like to share before we wrap up?
Tyler Jones:
I just wanna thank you for doing this, Charlotte. I think these are, these are really, to me, generative conversations. I know that the intersection can be big and overwhelming, but these are, this is the moment to ask the big questions. I think in some ways, like the pandemic, probably feel in a moment that things are out of control and. I hope that one of the outcomes is that we we show up for each other, that we practice solidarity, that we check on our, on our people, and especially those who are working in culture and arts and that we don't shy away from the big questions.
I do, like I said, think the South has so much to offer by way of models and blueprints for collective action and resistance and all the things. and self care. I do want to end maybe with a quote if I can. This is from someone that we interviewed Sonya Renee Taylor. She founded a group called The Body is Not An Apology. And so it's part of some research we were doing, we, we had a conversation with her and she said something that I thought was really poignant for this. So I'll, I'll maybe we'll close with this message from Sonya.
She said, "Art is the cultural conduit. It creates a container that is accessible. Art allows itself for many people to find their way into a story and it softens the thing that is hard to look at. There's the quote that "it's our job to make the re revolution irresistible" and so there are tools like art that can invite people in to seduce people into freedom. Art is a way to do that. It's playful enough, confronting enough to get people to go to a place they wouldn't otherwise go. Art allows us to invite people in through love."
And , to think about art and the capacity of art to change and even the limitations of art I do think art gives us a way to humanize things that feel out of reach, or feel out of, feel unknown, feel scary, and can create openings for, for change.
So thank you.
Charlotte Donlon:
Yeah. Thank you for that quote what a beautiful way to end, and thank you for your work. And in my work around Belonging through Art, one thing I love about it is knowing that other people are doing this work already. Other people have been doing this work forever. And one thing I'm really interested in doing is highlighting some of those who are doing this work in ways that are meaningful and powerful, and you're one of those people. So thank you so much for your work and for promoting the work of others, also. it was so good to talk to you today.