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2010 Grant Recipients
Congratulations to our 2010 Grantees!
The Grant Committee of the Black Rock Arts Foundation is thrilled to announce the winners of our 2010 Grant Cycle. We received a record number of applications this year (over 300!) and awarded more grants than ever before, giving away a total of $50,500 to 12 projects.
Our 2010 Grantees represent diversity, both in their chosen media and strategies of bringing art into their communities. Each project responds to a community’s interests, needs and environment in an innovative and unique way. From a traveling, DIY shadow puppet theater in Chicago, to a derelict 18th century house in New Orleans, transformed into a completely interactive musical environment; from an opera inspired by and performed on public transportation in Santa Fe, to a hands-on expo of circuit bending and sound art in Brooklyn, these projects run the gamut of possibilities of collaboration, civic engagement and integration of art and everyday life.
Read on for inspiring descriptions of these works in progress...
1000 Pieces
ANIMUS Arts Collective (Annie Vainchenker, Preston Dane and David Ort)
Brooklyn, NY
$3000
1000 Pieces
was an interactive, evolving, beautiful public sculpture on New York City’s
Governors Island, in the seasonal sculpture garden, exhibited in conjunction
with the FIGMENT, an annual free, participatory arts festival.
The
sculpture's initial state was a simple, rectangular, gazebo-like wooden
structure, eleven feet in height and six feet in width, with seating around the outside
perimeter and a roof atop four posts. Passers by became participants, as they
were invited to attached pre fabricated notched squares to the structure. This
simple wooden gazebo appeared to be blossoming into color during the summer
months.
ANIMUS invited
two NYC public schools to participate in the project (Samuel Tilden High School
and PS 163's Learning Through an Expanded Arts Program [LEAP].) ANIMUS members
presented the students with different levels of creative control, collaborative
and individual, and were led in the creation of the centerpieces for the
gazebo. The students added color and decorations to the squares, and
collaboratively contruscted the ‘crown’ for the structure.
Bent Festival Interactive Art Installations
Bent Festival and The Tank
New York, NY
$6000
The Bent
Festival is an annual art
and music festival celebrating DIY electronics, hardware hacking, and circuit
bending. Each year, BENT invites artists from around the globe to perform music with their
home-made or circuit bent instruments, teach workshops to adults and children
alike, create interactive art installations and to come together to showcase
the state of the art in DIY electronics and circuit bending culture.
Highlights of
2010’s festival included:
- Phil Stearnsʼ Impulse Response, a sound, movement, and light reactive sculpture, which was visible from the street, and drew many into the space with its bright, flashing lights.
- Phillip Whiteʼs Four Panels allowed users to touch plastic sheets that sent input to 11 speakers, while 11 more created sounds that fedback into his own piece as well as activated Phil Stearnsʼ.
- Brendan OʼConnellʼs Listening Piece for a Selfish Ensemble was a favorite of children at the festival, who would hold the sensor / speaker boxes and crawl among the wire installation that produced variations in the speaker boxesʼ output.
- James Daher led users through Crystal Futures III, an interactive video installation with a narrative told through video projection, which grew and changed as users played with the various objects in the space, and whose input became “relics” in the story.
- Workshops that ranged from the always popular and free Introduction to Circuit Bending to the building of expert level synthesizers such as the Benjolin and Voice of Saturn Synth.
Bloom Town
Ellen Donnelly
Detroit, MI
$5000
BLOOM TOWN simultaneously remembers a once thriving American City and celebrates its re-birth by promoting it's potential for creative, social, political and environmental change.
Six monochromatic gardens, planted in unused city parcels of
land, are designed to reference recently razed houses. The planting plan of
each garden recalls the first floor plan of a standard one family house. The
gardens mark and map the passing of time and ongoing changes to the city by
building anticipation and temporal awareness through the bloom cycles of the
gardens. The gardens are planted such that their chromatic tones simultaneously
shift [from purple in spring to yellow in summer to red in fall] creating an
urban network of coordinated gardens.
The gardens, connected visually by their shifting bloom
cycles, act as landmarks and create routes through the neighborhoods. The gardens
are conceived of as being places of calm, places of community, and places of
activation. In spirit they are akin to the community gardens established in the
1970s in New York; these gardens became centers for activity, life and art in
then-impoverished neighborhoods.
BLOOM TOWN is based
on the interactions that happen during the creative act of constructing, during
the inhabitation of the project, between individuals and between people and
nature. This project seeks to engage in a transformative process that benefits
the current and future residents of the city. This project is about hope,
transformation, empowerment, beauty, memory and community. BLOOM TOWN is an artwork and architectural work that inspires
change. It is a community-based project that seeks to engage a wide range of
individuals in many capacities. It is a work that heightens ones awareness of
their surroundings: visually, cognitively, through its haptic qualities. BLOOM
TOWN finds its strength in pure optimism,
and sees these six gardens as one step in a new future for Detroit.
www.bloomtowndetroit.org
Community Art Makers
David Umlas, Marrilee Ratcliffe
Austin, TX
$6000
'Community Art
Makers' are Austin, Texas based community leaders offering work and meeting
space, guidance and assistance to artists endeavoring to engage their community.
Former notable projects have included recently showcasing the 32-foot tall fire
tornado from the BRC 'Fire of Fires' Temple for a public audience of thousands,
and the fist public burn, on New Year’s Eve in 2009, of the Resolution Clock in
the center of Austin, Texas for 100,000 people.
BRAF's
infrastructure investment allows the Community Art Makers to build upon current
resources and offer more structured resources and workspace for artists. Their
2010 projects were focused on artist empowerment and community building. Some
of these projects included partnerships with the City of Austin Library, Parks
and Art in Public Places Departments; production of the ‘Folk It Up’ stage for
the 'Art Outside' and 'First Night' events; and hands on classes and training
for trained and aspiring artists.
FIGMENT Boston
Boston, MA
$4000
FIGMENT is a
forum for the creation and display of participatory and interactive art by
emerging artists across disciplines. FIGMENT began in July 2007 as a free,
one-day participatory arts event on Governors Island in New York Harbor that
drew over 2,600 participants. Since then, FIGMENT has grown significantly each
year, in number of projects, duration, participants, volunteers, fundraising
capability, exhibitions, locations, overall level of commitment and
participation, and public support.
In 2010,
FIGMENT expanded to the Boston area, with its first event outside of New York. The
event included participatory art-making experiences, dance and music performances,
workshops, games and visual art. FIGMENT Boston was co-produced with the
Cambridge Arts Council to coincide with their long-running Cambridge River
Festival on Saturday, June 5, 2010 from 12 pm to 6 pm.
Hawthorne Lift 100
Tucker Teutsch and the PDX Bridge Festival
Portland, OR
$5000
The centerpiece of the 2010 PDX Bridge Festival was the Hawthorne Bridge, which celebrated its hundredth anniversary that year. In honor of this centennial of the nation’s oldest working vertical lift bridge, the festival transformed the bridge into a large-scale work of kinetic art. The lighting display made use of programmable and environmentally aware lighting technology to interact with the nightly vehicle and bike traffic on the bridge. The lights accentuated 48 panels of fabric installed in three spans of the bridge trusses, turning the structure into a wash of color and moving light, and marking the rhythm of commuter traffic as it moved across the bridge. The installation was visible for the 15 days of the festival and could also be viewed from neighboring bridges, both esplanades of the Willamette River and downtown buildings.
Illuminated Forest
San Francisco, CA
$4000
This piece was part of the month-long exhibition
for ME'DI.ATE's innovative biennial art festival, Soundwave. Soundwave brings
together inspired sound purveyors from across the sonic spectrum to produce
experiential performances that challenge the way audiences see and hear sound
and music. Soundwave’s fourth season, GREEN SOUND, focused on works that
explore the natural world, and environmental issues and sustainability.
The
Illuminated Forest was an
immersive multi-media, interactive exhibit and performance installation. The
ME’DI.ATE Art Group created an imaginary natural world inside the gallery walls
of San Francisco's preeminent experimental art space, The Lab. This
surrealistic environment was manufactured by projections, sensors, MAX/MSP,
sound, sculptural shapes and light/shadow. Visitors of the forest become its
inhabitants and part of its ecosystem, as their presence activated both visual
and auditory sensations. This experiential piece reminds visitors of their impact:
on their own lives, on others, and the world around us, both in the present and
the future.
The Forest hosted experiential performances by some
of the most compelling local, national and international artists and musicians.
The artists explored themes of reinvention and recycling, real and imagined
natural environments and creatures, endangered species, water, environmental
awareness and responsibility, plant and animal life, and other artist
imaginations.
ME'DI.ATE Art Group: www.me-di-ate.net
Soundwave ((4)) Festival website (launching April 10, 2010): www.projectsoundwave.com
The Music Box
The New Orleans Airlift, featuring
Swoon
New Orleans, LA
$6000
The
Music Box is an interactive environment built from the remains of an 18th century derelict cottage in New Orleans.
This imaginatively reconstructed, and ultimately livable “house”, will become a
musical instrument to be played by visitors. Instrumentation will range from
the rudimentary banging of wooden boards to more elaborate sounds mechanically
triggered by opening doors or pulling levers. In addition to visitors, a range
of local and national musicians, including a regional high school marching
band, will be invited to play the house for the project’s Block Party series,
which will be free and open to all.
The
installation will visually resemble works Swoon is best known for – a series of
intricate handmade boats that have floated the Mississippi, the Hudson river
and most recently the Adriatic Sea and the canals of Venice, Italy during the 2009 Biennale. As with these floating crafts, the
focus for The Music Box is on found materials, artistic and
community collaboration, functional environments and interaction that involves
sound and performance.
The New Orleans Airlift is a multi-disciplinary arts
organization that produces and facilitates innovative artistic opportunities
for New Orleans-based artists locally and around the globe. Bringing influential artists like Swoon from abroad to
participate in cutting edge collaborations with local artists at home in our
own community increases exposure, amplifies resources and aids the creative
development of our city’s unique and irreplaceable creative community that still struggles for
sustainability in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
The Music Box is the first incarnation of what will become a
permanent performance, exhibition and residency space for he New Orleans
Airlift.
Reclaimed Art: Community Art from Recycled Materials
Oxford, MS
$500
The Yoknapatawpha Arts Council, working with students from the University of Mississippi Student Art Association and volunteers from the community, hosted a series of community art days. The purpose of the community art days was to reclaim materials from a 1928 building, transform them into works of art, and utilize the work of art to create a focal point around the building, which is be renovated into a community arts center.
“We are excited that we have been able to reach several community goals with this project”, shared Wayne Andrews, Director of the Arts Council. “ The project will provide a demonstration of how art can impact a community both by providing beauty and economic development. The art, artists and volunteers will transform an industrial building into a community center with the “undesirable & unwanted” elements repurposed into a piece of community art.”
RUTA: A Sante Fe Bus Opera
Santa Fe, NM
$3000
RUTA is an interactive opera to be performed on city buses in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Created in collaboration with Santa Fe residents who live along and use public transportation, the opera employs live vocalists, choruses and musicians, recorded instrumental audio played over the radio, spoken word and poetry (delivered as casual conversation pieces with audience riders), sculptural costuming and sets, live and pre-recorded video, and choreographed movement. Interactive transfer stations will encourage unexpected and magical episodes that will complement the more scripted, scored or choreographed passages of the performance. RUTA has been designed to promote the integration of art and daily life, foster and restore connections within and across communities, create meaningful dialogue, and manifest real collaboration between artists and community residents.
Storyline Transports: Shadow and Light Festival
Chicago, IL
$3000
A mobile shadow puppetry festival, the Shadow and Light
Transports (converted automobiles) delivered a series of workshops and events
to low-income neighborhoods that would not otherwise have exposure to
interactive art experiences. Artists hosted shadow puppet and paper lantern
making workshops, and collaborated with the participants to produce shadow
theater installations and video screenings.
Storyline Transports connects
the diverse communities through the arts, gives voice to the stories of its
residents, and creates a unique opportunity for residents to gather in a spirit
of creativity and community.
The festival took place in the summer of 2010.
Jung A Woo: www.movablepublicspace.blogspot.com
David Prince: www.davidprince.org
Virtual Street Corners
Roxbury, MA
$5000
Virtual
Street Corners is a real-time,
24/7 interaction, digital media public art project by John Ewing, in
collaboration with Carmen Montoya, Kevin Patton, Christopher Robbins and
Minotte Romulus.
Though only
2.4 miles apart, and connected by the Route 66 bus, people living in Brookline
and Roxbury rarely visit the other. In June of 2010, a storefront in Coolidge
Corner, Brookline, and in Dudley Square, Roxbury was transformed into large
video screens, providing pedestrians of each neighborhood with a portal into
one another's worlds. Running 24/7, life-size screen images and AV technology enabled
real-time communication between residents of the two neighborhoods.
The two
neighborhoods are both transportation and cultural hubs with rich and
intertwined histories. Using technology developed to bridge geographical
distances, Virtual Street Corners instead traverses the social boundaries that separate two
important neighborhood centers with significant historical connections.