In this Issue:

• The Raygun Gothic Rocketship takes off!
• Bike Bridge – Opening Celebrations April 5^th!
• Partner Organization News:
  • Maker Faire 2013 – Call for entries
  • Third Friday Night Lights event
• Grantee Updates
  • The Temple for Christchurch
  • Wind Playground
  • Ludale – French CORE project
  • Burning Baskets Project
  • Swap-O-Rama-Rama

The Raygun Gothic Rocketship Takes Off

Ground Control to…all citizens of the Bay Area!  Alert! Alert! The Raygun Gothic Rocketship is ready to blast off!

Celebrate the departure of our brave cosmic explorers for the Centauri system from the launching pad on San Francisco’s waterfront. Friday, March 15th, 2013 is your last chance to visit the Rocketship at its current location before it takes off. Stop by around 5:00 p.m. We hear the crew has some surprises in store for you!

Stick around for the the first Third Friday Night Lights bike ride event at 7:00 p.m. See below for details.

 

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Oakland’s Bike Bridge Installed! Come Celebrate With Us April 5^th!

It is up and it is beautiful! The stunning Bike Bridge project is now on display at the Uptown Art Park at 19th and Telegraph. Call it a dress rehearsal.  While this fantastic artwork is ready for prime time viewing, the surrounding terrain is still in preparation and the City of Oakland has scheduled the Uptown Art Park Grand Opening on Friday, April 5^th. See you there!

Bike Bridge Opening Reception and Uptown Art Park Grand Opening

Friday, April 5, 2013
19^th Street and Telegraph Avenue
Oakland, California
6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Also, the Bike Bridge is already getting attention from the press!  The San Francisco Bay Guardian has a nice write-up as a part of its story on temporary vs. permanent public art.

 

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Get involved with some of our partner organizations!

 

Get Ready for Maker Faire!

Creators, tinkerers, performers, presenters, and dreamers: don’t forget! The deadline to submit an entry to Maker Faire Bay Area 2013 is Friday, March 15! For details on how to participate visit makerfaire.com/bayarea-2013-callformakers

 

Third Friday Night Lights

Join us in participating in the very first Third Friday Night Lights event! Inspired by the dazzling display of the new Bay Lights project, this new, monthly gathering and nighttime bike ride will be a place to showcase your blinkiest and sparkliest get up. That human discoball costume isn’t just for Burning Man anymore!

This month, the TFNL crew will gather at the Raygun Gothic Rocketship’s launch site, on Pier 14, at 7:00 p.m.

For more details visit: 3fnl.org

 

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Grantee Updates

 

2012 Grantee – The Temple for Christchurch

Our New Zealand friends have sent in the following update:  The Temple for Christchurch has found a site! They are currently moving into their new home at 99 Kilmore St, the former Convention Centre site that has recently finished being demolished. They aim to unveil the temple in early June. The construction process is already underway.

As this project kicks into high gear, the Temple for Christchurch crew are seeking a number of interns. Get involved with a large scale project that will deepIy effect people’s lives. Check out their internship listings here.”

For more information visit www.templeforchristchurch.org.

 

2011 Grantee – Wind Playground Unfurls in Australia

Wind Playground, the kinetic sculpture that allows people to play with and understand wind, is on display on the shores of Australia! Congratulations to artists Maia Marinelli and her crew!

For more information visit www.windplayground.com

 

2011 Grantee – Ludale (of the Mobule project)

Past grantee, artist Ludale, has teamed up with the crew of the French C.O.R.E. project for Burning Man 2013, and gives us this sneak peak of their project, Stairway to Heaven.

 

Stairway to Heaven will be “a wooden spiral staircase, in the harmonious proportions of the golden ratio, emerges from the surface of the playa. The sculpture is the summit of the Tower of Babel. By day, participants that approach the structure will see images drawn on the exterior of the structure in the style of prehistoric cave paintings, telling the stories of experiences that the artists seek at Burning Man.  It is an allegory for the hopes of primitive cultures that celebrate the cargo cult…”

Sounds beautiful! We can’t wait to see.

More information is available at the French Core Project Website

 

2007 Grantee – Burning Basket Project

Mavis Muller’s Burning Baskets Project continues to resonate across time and space.

BRAF grantee Mavis Muller has once again followed the whales from her home in Homer, Alaska, to Maui where she created & directed the 6th annual basket burning for a fiery conclusion to the three day Source Interactive Arts Festival in February.  IMAGIC (Imagine Magic) – Basket of Wisdom & Wizardry was 26th in the Burning Basket series of community-based, interactive, and impermanent art that Mavis started in 2004. Her project has reached out to communities in Alaska, California, Oregon, New Mexico/Mexico border, Hawaii (Big Island, Maui, Molokai), and recently in Spain.

With partial funding from the Alaska State Arts Council, Mavis traveled to and was hosted by the Museum of Contemporary Art in Vigo, Spain, where she created a basket sculpture of a fractured heart. All were invited to tie colored ribbons to join the two halves of the heart in response to lingering wounds in the wake of Spain’s devastating oil spill ten years ago. Joining – Basket of Earth & Humanity was burned on the auspicious date of 12/12/12.  The ‘action of art’ was a dedicated to the Nunca Mais (Never Again) movement for the protection of the planet’s bodies of water, and for a future of humanity living in harmony with Earth.

Mavis Muller offers this reflection on the role of creativity and environmental awareness: “Ten years later, Spain’s Galician coastal community is still recovering from the devastating Prestige oil spill.  24 years after the Exxon oil spill in Alaska there are many wounds still to heal.  It was compelling to see how effective art can be in connecting communities separated by a far distance but having a traumatic environmental disaster in common. Art is communication, and a healing force.

Follow Mavis at www.mavismullerart.com.

 

2005 Grantee – SWAP-O-RAMA-RAMA

Swap-O-Rama-Rama will be at Maker Faire!

*Artist Open Call*

World’s largest clothing swap!
May 18 & 19, 2013
All day San Mateo Event Center, San Mateo, CA
Contact: Erin Scholl  mailto:erinescholl @gmail.com  (erinescholl @gmail.com)  

Join in the communal process of reuse and celebrate our collective creativity! You are invited to participate in Swap-O-Rama-Rama as staff. Swap-O-Rama-Rama is a giant clothing swap and series of do-it-yourself workshops in which a community explores reuse and creativity through the recycling of used clothing. At Swap-O-Rama-Rama, consumers are taught to be creators. This transformation takes place with the help of local talent in the community. (That’s YOU!)

Swap-O-Rama-Rama is seeking textile artists of all calibers, recyclers and creatives of all kinds for the following roles:

DIY Workshops: If you have a unique project or technique that transforms would be trash into a wearable item, or mods a wearable item into a new form (clothing/jewelry/handbag etc.) please consider bringing this to Swap-O-Rama-Rama as a DIY workshop. Small $tipend for sharing your creative skills.

Sewing Gurus: If you’re a whiz behind a sewing machine and work with reuse, consider being a Swap-O-Rama-Rama designer/teacher. You will guide people learning how to mod the clothing they find at the swap. Small $tipend for sharing your creative skills.

Fashion Show: Present your refound|reinvented|remade creations in the Swap-O-Rama-Rama fashion show and sell them in our boutique!

Textile Lounge Presentations: If you have something to say about reuse and/or fashion, wish to join a lively moderated talk, or have a presentation about a technique, method, or concept, sign up for a spot in our Textile Talk Lounge located at Swap-O-Rama-Rama.

Art Installations: Let us showcase your reuse and/or textile related art as setting for our event. At least 1,000 people will pass through and you are welcome to promote yourself and your art.

Boutique Manager & Staff: Get involved in community reuse by peddling some good stuff made and remade by our artists. Small stipend plus commission.

Sorters and general help: If you know pants from a shirt, you can sort clothing! No creative inclinations required, you get first dibs on clothes!!