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City Studies

Air Fair?

One in 4 children who live in the Bronx has asthma. Why are there such high asthma rates in the Bronx? Is it something in the air? What triggers asthma? What is the cost of living with asthma?

In 2014 and 2015, CUP collaborated with The Bronx Museum of the Arts and three groups of high school students to examine the high asthma rates in the Bronx.

To investigate, students interviewed medical professionals, community health workers, environmental justice advocates, and Bronx residents. Students broke down complex information visually through collage, paper cutting, drawing, painting, marbling, sculpture, and mixed media artwork. The students enhanced their graphics with videos and audio recorded sound effects. They created the three separate zines What’s in the Air that Causes Asthma in the Bronx?, Our Neighbor Asthma, and Catch Up with Asthma with interactive digital elements to share what they discovered. The series of zines was then packaged together as the set Air Fair?