BXA Intercollege Degree Programs
Jules Mallis: Repairing the World through Creative Dialogue
written by
Cally Jamis Vennare
"Art for the sake of art isn’t interesting or important to me. Art that brings people together is."
Since graduating from Carnegie Mellon’s BXA Intercollege Degree Programs with a bachelor of humanities and arts degree in anthropology and art, Jules Mallis (they/them) has made a distinct mark on the national landscape as a multimedia artist, VJ, DJ and educator working with digital media, paint, installation, performance, sound and audience interaction.
As executive director of social justice-based organization, Repair the World Pittsburgh, Mallis uses their creative practice and tools of communication and media to "change the world, inspire, provide commentary and make connections" that measurably impact urgent community needs, such as food justice and its intersections. The collective impact of the national organization’s work is impressive: in 2021/2022, Repair the World mobilized 36,902 volunteers in 95,736 acts of service and learning through its 11 Service Corps locations, aligning with the Jewish values of repairing the world (tikkun olam) and providing $3.2 million in value of volunteer time toward the needs of service partners across the country.
"At Repair the World, we are working to quite literally repair what is broken and to support community initiatives in the ways that are attainable right now as an organization and as individuals," explained Mallis. "We organize to leverage our resources together to address urgent community needs … and are engaging in a practice of repair."
Did the BXA Intercollege Degree Programs at CMU — which integrates studies in the fine arts with studies in humanities or social sciences — influence Mallis’ current passion for advancing social justice through creative dialogue? "At Repair the World, I can apply the core foundational knowledge that I learned at CMU in a way that feels genuine to me. As a Jewish American, I’m working with the community in ways that feel authentic and relevant. As a leader in that space, I’m helping to shape and move part of the cross cultural dialogue — through creative expression and modalities — at a really interesting moment in our history," said Mallis. "Our work could lack meaning without contextualization. This is where I feel social justice intersects most with my creative practice. Both are an ongoing practice, a conversation between ourselves and the community, a response to what the world is saying, feeling and sharing, and a way to make sense of it all."
