A look back on twenty years of Think Round, Inc.
About Think Round
Think Round, Inc is a non-profit founded in July 2004 to expand the award-winning community benefits programs and public art projects nurtured by artist Heidi Hardin since 1992. Its mission is to demonstrate life's fullest potential through the arts and sciences, especially where environmental concerns meet family homes and neighborhoods.
Think Round’s programming and art installations reflect the core concerns that guide our artists and their artwork, exploring ideas about environmental awareness, universal spirituality, cultural self-definition, the pervasiveness of the American dream, and the universality of the human family. Working with city and federal agencies, public schools, community groups, and artists, Think Round has created enrichment programs that give voice and active roles to residents in the San Francisco community and provide youth with hope for vital, happy, healthy and productive futures, demonstrating the power of creativity to transform people’s lives.
About Heidi Hardin
Heidi is a fine artist whose experience as an original member of San Francisco’s Hunters Point Shipyard artists’ community and as an arts educator working with children in the Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood shaped her vision of creating art that tells a multifaceted story of family, faith, community, and culture.
In 2004 she founded Think Round, Inc. to accomplish her vision both as arts educator and as a fine artist. Her teaching and artwork celebrate this message: “Earth is Home. Humans are Family.”
Key achievements of the last 20 years
Think Round has worked over the years with scores of San Francisco artists, public school administrators and teachers, thousands of children and their families, as well as innovative partners in local state and federal government agencies, to create award-winning public art projects and art-based programs. This includes the creation of the Children’s Mural Program bringing together elementary schools in Bayview Hunters Point, which expanded to KEEP! (Kid’s Environmental Education Program) providing workshops and field trips to create hands-on experiences in visual art techniques as a basis of a curriculum to explore various environmental issues of concern to the community. One notable example of this was the signature artwork created for Hunters Point Shipyard’s Hill Point Park “Stream of Consciousness”, commissioned by the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency as part of the Cultural Historic Recognition Program. After six years of development, the piece was installed at Hillpoint Park in January 2016. During this time, Think Round moved to expanded facilities to reflect its need for a larger office, gallery, studio, teaching space and library. Visitors can now enjoy rotating exhibitions in the studio space - take a look at our events page for the current listings. Events Think Round — Think Round, Inc. Home Page
In 2019, this studio along with other local spaces was the site of a major exhibition “Families of Abraham”, a multi-destination art exhibit demonstrating unity in diversity. The concept and art show were 20-years in the making by Heidi Hardin and featured a selection of 234 portraits of four Jewish, four Muslim, and four Christian families of different ethnicity who immigrated to America to make their homes, and start a new life. The paintings offered an unexpected window into the shared human experiences that bridge the personal and the universal experiences we share within our own families, regardless of faith, culture, or ethnicity. They were exhibited at the Calvary Presbyterian Church, Sherith Israel, and the Islamic Society of San Francisco, and The Think Round Fine Arts demonstrating interfaith camaraderie, respect, and admiration. This exhibition was one part of the broader, ongoing Paradise Project: Paradise Project Think Round — Think Round, Inc. Home Page
Think Round has also expanded its message beyond the local community. For example, we were delighted to be included in CARAVAN’s Smartphone Short Film Festival in 2019. The festival was focused on what it means to be a “global citizen” in today's world of challenges, conflicts and complexities and how to be a responsible member of the global family by working toward making our world more equal, compassionate, fair, peaceful and sustainable. Think Round’s film about how immigrants contribute to a healthier America was chosen as one of the top 30 films from 526 submissions; all of which can be viewed on the festival website: GLOBAL CITIZEN: Smartphone Short Film Festival (oncaravan.org)
Additionally, in 2020 we were honored to be invited to visit the United Nations headquarters, New York City, in a program “Youth Leaders Visit” sponsored by the United Religions Initiative North America. During the two-day visit we met with leaders in the peacebuilding field and learned more about how organizations like Think Round can work at a grassroots level to support the goals of the UN working at a global level. Think Round particularly aligns with three of the UN’s global engagements: protection of human rights (of women and children), delivery of humanitarian aid (in homes, communities, cities, nations where toxic stress is pervasive), and promotion of sustainable development (through healthy air, water and soil that will mean healthy plants, animals and people). There is more information about the trip and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals in this video: Video: Connecting the Grassroots and Global Through a Visit to the United Nations | URI
Think Round has now moved beyond the global into the online realm. In 2020 we launched both the 3D virtual exhibition platform to enable people to explore past collections from home Think Round Fine Arts ONLINE Think Round — Think Round, Inc. Home Page, and the Think Round online shop allowing visitors to purchase art from local artists and past exhibitions Think Round Fine Arts Gallery
What’s next for Think Round - our twin visions
Over the last twenty years a significant focus for Think Round has been the creation of the Paradise Project. This collection honors similarities among families of diverse beliefs, cultures, and ethnicity through multi-media installations that include paintings and original music. When completed it will feature 546 portraits of 28 families practicing 10 world religions.
The artworks will be permanently housed at The Center for the Human Family, which will be a destination for families, either physically or virtually, to have an authentic experience of being human, of being a member of the Human Family. In addition, this center will provide facilities for people to study world religions, human spiritual evolution, consciousness, and creativity, and will provide programs to help establish happy, healthy, and sustainable living. More than seventy intern experts worldwide have contributed to building the virtual manifestation of the Center for the Human Family which launched in August 2023, and work continues to continue to develop this further.
At Think Round we also want to continue to create awareness of our work and mission so we can extend our community within San Francisco, across the USA and also globally to any people who might have similar visions to us, which is why we will continue to exhibit local artists both in person at the gallery and online for our global audience through the Think Round website.
We hope you will continue to participate in our story for the next twenty years and beyond.