Using the concept and model proven in her 20 years of work in inner city North Philadelphia at the Village of Arts and Humanities in North Philadelphia and in other poor communities in the States, Yeh works on projects in Rwanda, Kenya, Ghana, Ecuador, China, and Rwanda, among others.

As the name implies, Barefoot Artists is a volunteer organization with few encumbrances of staff and overhead. Yeh raises funds for specific projects that pair volunteer expertise with local people to improve environment, advance health, education, and economic development. When funds are raised for a project, a call for volunteers is held and a group of volunteers and some paid staff are organized.

During the project process, participants learn Barefoot Artists methodology on community building and economic development through art. We aim to inspire the participants such that they will take initiative to start their own projects, bring other volunteers, funding sources and new opportunities to the communities in need. We intend that the various programs initiated by volunteers become multi-faceted and inter-connected so as to better serve the communities.

To read more about the Village and see photos of the projects, please click here.

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About Lily Yeh

From 1986 - 2004, Lily Yeh served as the co-founder, executive director, and lead artist of The Village of Arts and Humanities, a non-profit organization with the mission to build community through art, learning, land transformation and economic development. Under her leadership of 18 years, the summer park building project developed into an organization with 20 full-time and part-time employees, hundreds of volunteers, and a $1.3 million budget. The Village became a multi-faceted community building organization with activities such as after-school and weekend programs, greening land transformation, housing renovation, theater, and economic development initiatives. The center worked on local, national, and international projects, and was a leading model of community revitalizations throughout the country.

Yeh developed a unique methodology for using the arts as a tool for community building and personal transformation during her tenure at the Village. "Warrior Angel: The Work of Lily Yeh" by Bill Moskin and Jill Jackson, a paper on her methodology of using art to transform and build community, is available for download.

Experience
Lily Yeh's CV

Publications About Lily Yeh

2007	Jennifer Moroz, "'How do you find the will to live?'," The Philadelphia Inquirer
2006	Lynne Elizabeth & Suzanne Young, editors, "Works of Heart: Building Village through the Arts"
2006	Carol Pobanz, "The Rwanda Healing Project," World & I, Innovative Approaches to Peace, Jan. - Feb.
2006	Virginia K. Nalencz, "The Owl and the Phoenix," Temple Review, Temple University, Spring
2005	Abby Asher," From Abandoned to Beautiful," YES Magazine
2005	Mary Hufford & Rosina Miller, "Piecing Together The Fragments, An Ethonography of Leadership For Social Change in North Central Philadelphia 2004-2005," Center for Folklore and Ethonography, University of Pennsylvania
2005	Keith Knight & Mat Schwarzman, edited by William Cleveland, "Beginner's Guide to Community-Based Arts," New Village Press
2004	Bill Moskin & Jill Jackson, "Warrior Angel, the Work of Lily Yeh"
2004	Hu Pei, "Wen Ro di Li Lian (The Power of Tenderness," Art Weekly, China Cultural Newspaper
2004	Shin, "Fei Shu Shan Shen Zhen di Tong Fan Jei Xui (Eastern Philosophy Growing from Trash Piles)," VIP SINA magazine, Beijing
2004	Rosina S. Miller, "Unhaunting the Village: Critical Regionalism and 'Luminous Place' at the Village of Arts and Humanities," Journal of American Folklore 117(466):446-454
2003	Cristy West, "Lily Yeh, Filling the niches of North Philadelphia with creativity and hope," Orion magazine
2003	Sharon Abercrombie, "Inner City, Inner Light," Earth Light, Issue 49
2003	Barbara Dunn, "Sowing Seeds of Hope in Philadelphia Gardens," Pennsylvania magazine, Nov/Dec
2003	Liu Lin, "Yeh Lei Lei huo 'gai bian shi jie di lin hsiu jian' (Lily Yeh winning 'Leadership in a Chinaging World Award')," Shi Jie Ri bao (World Journal), October 13
2003	Lui Lin, "Lily Yeh's Village receives Governor's Award in environmental Excellence," (translated title), Shi Jie Ri Bao (World Journal), September 18
2002	Al and Tipper Gore, "Community," Joined At the Heart, the Transformation of the American Family
2002	Frank Rubino, "Pain and Possibility," Hope Magazine
2002	Chin Lian, "He Ren Cue li di Shan Sui Yi Shu Chia (Landscape Artist in an African American Neighborhood)," Ming Pao Monthly, Hong Kong
2002	Mat Schwarzman, "Crossroads Project for Art, Learning and Community," Louisiana
2002	Yang Xien Ren, "Lily Yeh, From the Village of Arts and Humanities to the World," (translated title), Mei Nan Zou Kan (Southern America Weekly), Houston, June 23
2001	Richard Wener, Emily Axelrod & others, "Placemaking for Change: 2001 Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence," Bruner Foundation publication
2001	Monica Yant-Kinney, "Risk and Renewal: Growing a Leafy Antidote to Decay," The Philadelphia Inquirer, November 29
2001	Gloria Blakely, "One Million Dollars Available in Grants from Philadelphia Commerce Department," Philadelphia Sunday Sun, November 25
2001	"76 Smartest Philadelphians," Philadelphia Magazine, November
2001	Stephan Salisbury "Art of Survival," The Philadelphia Inquirer, September 12
2001	Lise Funderburg, "The F Word: Lily Yeh," The Oprah Magazine, September
2001	Susan Hagen, "Solitary Assignment," Philadelphia City Paper, September 6
2001	Debra Auspitz, "Expanding Isolation," Philadelphia City Paper, September 6
2001	Scott Edwards, "A Chance To Be Heard," Bucks, Mercer, and Beyond: Happenings, InterCounty Newspaper August 16
2001	Alex Krieger, "Community Builders," Architecture, June
2001	"Arresting Art," Philadelphia Weekly, May 30
2001	Stephan Salisbury, "Troupe Movements," The Philadelphia Inquirer, April 24.
2001	"What happened to …?" Reader's Digest, February.
2001	Burt E. Schuman, "Arts Can Be Religious," Altoona Mirror, January 14.
2001	Liu Lin, "Double Happiness coming to Lily Yeh's Village, winning honor and a $30,000 grant," (translated title), Shi Jie Ri Bao (World Journal), June 6
2001	Yang Xien Ren, "Lily Yeh's art reaching new climax," (translated title), Mei Nan Zou Kan (Southern America Weekly), Houston, June 24
2000	Photographs by Reagan Louie, interviews by Barry Dornfeld, "Reimagining The City," Local Heroes Changing America, the publication of Indivisible Project, a project of the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University in partnership with the Center for Creative Photography, The University of Arizona. Funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts.
2000	Phil Leggiere, "Lily Yeh's Art of Transformation," The Pennsylvania Gazette, July/August
2000	Edited by Marie Cieri and Claire Peeps, "Lily Yeh," Activists Speaking Out, Reflections on the Pursuit of Change in America
2000	Chir Nung-shen, "Jai Huang Di Li, Shin Jian Yi Jua Hua Yuan (Seeing with delight a garden amidst Ruins)," Hsin Gu Hsiang (Homeland) magazine, Taiwan, Autumn

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