BRAF Newsletter – July 2012

Black Rock Arts Foundation Newsletter – July 2012

In this issue:

– Event Calendar
– BRAF receives a second N.E.A. grant!
– BRAF’s new website!
– Grantee Updates

Event Calendar – Save the Date!

– BRAF at Burning Man – Monday, August 27, 2012 – Monday, September
3, 2012

– BRAF Playa Meet and Greet – Thursday, August 30, 2012, 4:00 PM –
6:00 PM, Black Rock City, NV
(blackrockarts.org/events/braf-playa-2012)

– The Artumnal Gathering – Saturday, December 1, 2012, The Bently
Reserve, San Francisco, CA
(blackrockarts.org/events/artumnal-gathering-2012)

– Check out our list of all BRAF projects currently on display at
blackrockarts.org/current-projects

Announcing Big Art for Small Towns

Exciting news! BRAF proudly accepts our second grant from the
National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), for the amount of $75,000. As
an NEA Our Town grant recipient, BRAF will collaborate with the
Burning Man Project and the City of Fernley, Nevada, to develop and
install big art in this small Nevada town to promote arts-led
economic and civic development.

The Our Town grant is a matching grant, and many of our devoted
supporters stepped up to match the NEA’s award of $75,000. Many
thanks to The Burning Man Project, Amber Marie Bently, Crimson Rose,
Nancy Fennell, KPS3 Marketing, and in-kind support from The City of
Fernley and the Fernley Foundation.

This grant will kick start a pilot initiative we’re calling Big Art
for Small Towns. Through this new initiative, over the next two
years, two pieces of large-scale sculpture will be installed in a new
city-owned park in Fernley. One of the artworks will be an existing
piece of sculpture, selected by the Fernley community for temporary
display. The second artwork will be an original piece created by
local residents working with a competitively selected lead artist to
reflect Fernley’s character, heritage, and culture. We’ll also host a
series of public lectures, workshops, and youth learning
opportunities focused on the community-building benefits of public
art.

Big Art for Small Towns is the latest project produced through our
Civic Arts Program. Our Civic Arts Program – the same program that
brought Bliss Dance to Treasure Island, Homouroboros to San Jose,
Spire of Fire to Reno, and so many more projects. This new project
rigorously enacts BRAF’s vision of bringing community-building,
extraordinary arts experiences to everyday lives.

We hope this is just the beginning for Big Arts for Small Towns. If
this program is as successful as we anticipate, we’ll replicate it in
other small towns in Nevada and across rural America.

Help manifest this dream and make a donation to our Civic Arts
Program today at blackrockarts.org!

New BRAF Website!

BlackRockArts.org has been completely redone! It’s more than just a
facelift: check out the interactive map of all our projects, new
blog, and new donation form, to name a few improvements.

We would like to thank everyone whose hard work and support made the
new site possible:

– Michael Barbarino, Silvia Stephenson, and Heather “CameraGirl”
Gallagher of the Burning Man Web Team.
– Christopher and Amber Marie Bently and the Bently Holdings web
team.
– The entire BRAF board, especially Freddy Hahne and Drea Lester for
their work on the site.
– Jared Gutekunst, Artist/Designer/BRAF Volunteer

Also, it’s time to update your blog subscription. The new RSS feed is
feeds.feedburner.com/BlackRockArtsFoundation

Grantee Updates

2012 Grantee – PERSPECTIVES

On view now! If you’re in London, stop by the Southbank Center and
see this playful installation in a bustling urban setting.
Perspectives, first shown at Burning Man, is a collection of
oversized children’s blocks, varying in size from 18 inches to 10
feet tall. If viewed from the proper perspectives (i.e. two specific
spots) the blocks align to appear to be the same size and to reveal
hidden messages. These messages will change throughout the summer.

Perspectives at the Southbank Centre
June 1, 2012 – September 9, 2012
Belvedere Road
London
SE1 8XX

Visit www.onemandown.com/Perspectives.htm and
www.southbankcentre.co.uk for more information and photos.

2012 Grantee – FLOAT BEIJING

FLOAT BEIJING is getting ready for its first set of workshops in
Beijing, in the Dongcheng area. The project is also now the center of
a documentary by Joshua Frank for the Asia Society/China Green, which
is especially timely considering the recent media attention to the
Chinese and U.S. feud over air quality readings. Recently, Xiaowei
Wang helped out with an air quality-monitoring workshop at Tongji
University, in conjunction with the Air Quality Egg folks and
Parsons.

For continued updates visit www.f-l-o-a-t.com

2012 Grantee – THE POOL

THE POOL by Jen Lewin is in production. Lewin and her team are
finishing up their rotational molds, and will start rewiring and
rebuild the Pool internals this September. Lewin is working with the
Colorado University Art Museum as wells as The Clews Center for Arts
in France to show the final re-worked Pool in spring of 2013.

In July of this year, Lewin will also begin working with John Taylor
at Techshop and his amazing team to build a new more dynamic software
interface and gaming system for THE POOL. This will include an iPpad
controller, where participants can not only interact with the pool by
playing within it, but also by using a remote iPad app!

For more information visit www.jenlewinstudio.com.

2012 Grantee – OMEGA MART

“From the first thing you want, to the last thing you need. Alpha
products, Omega savings-guaranteed!”

OmegaMart now in Santa Fe!
Grand Opening July 5th, 2012!
1605 St. Michaels Dr.
In the St. Michaels Village West Shopping Center
“Make a Brand New Start at OmegaMart!”

For more details visit www.omegamart.us

2009 Grantee – LIVE DEBRIS

Taylor Cass Stevenson is taking her project LIVE DEBRIS to Bhutan
this summer, where she will spend three months teaching reuse and
helping the Samdrup Jongkhar Initiative with their new zero waste
initiative. Taylor’s work, which explores waste and social rejection
through art, will investigate the impact of stigma on waste systems
in an effort to promote social integration and waste reduction
through creative reuse.  For more information, please visit
www.livedebris.org.

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Don’t forget, you can always show your love of art by making a
donation to BRAF at blackrockarts.org. Thank you!


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