Miriam Dym and Rachel Berger

HERE, HERE is a collaborative project by visual-systems artist Miriam Dym and graphic designer Rachel Berger. 

As Berkeley transitions from a devastating pandemic to an unknown future, HERE, HERE is a communal exploration of past, present, and possible futures for our city. Dym and Berger have partnered with three Berkeley middle schools to facilitate a series of creative workshops with students. Workshop participants have produced diverse statements and drawings reflecting on Berkeley’s recent past and imagining speculative future “histories.” Dym and Berger augment the students’ responses with research from Berkeley Public Library’s Berkeley History Room and interviews with community elders.

HERE, HERE results in a collection of statements and drawings, collages, archival and speculative maps, and other printed ephemera, temporarily installed in publicly accessible spaces around Berkeley middle school campuses. Installation components are drawn from a robust mix of sources, from historical archives to seventh graders, aiming to provoke curiosity about what used to be, and what might someday be, HERE.

March 2022

Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School

1781 Rose Street, Berkeley CA 94703

Willard Middle School 

2425 Stuart Street, Berkeley CA 94705

Longfellow Middle School

1500 Derby Street, Berkeley CA 94702