This publication is an accompaniment to the 2004 exhibition that culminates Pepón Osorio’s three-year Artist-in-Residence at the Philadelphia Department of Human Services (DHS). A former social worker and 1999 MacArthur Fellow, Osorio (b. Santurce, Puerto Rico, 1955; lives Philadelphia) conceived of this volunteer project as a series of interventions aimed at opening up the traditionally closed system. Working closely with DHS social workers, administrators, and clients, Osorio focused on the foster care system to conduct an institutional critique at one of the most vulnerable intersections between private life and public policy. Osorio writes, “I have had the opportunity to navigate ‘the system’ and been involved in a first-hand exchange with a group of social workers, administrators, and clients that have privileged me by opening doors to the complex world in which they live and work. In return I have created art and brought to the department a different viewpoint.”