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"City of Champions: A Portrait of Brockton" by Mary Beth Meehan
Inaugural walking tour of "City of Champions: A Portrait of Brockton, Massachusetts," an outdoor photography installation by Mary Beth Meehan.Video by Jim Gabriel, Boston Visuals.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6pmXy6TYJ-A
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Common Ground
Steph here!I've just ordered a few publications from Common Ground, a UK based charity dedicated to helping residents explore and appreciate their own local distinctiveness:
"Places, like people, do not need to be rich, famous or beautiful to have dignity. Identity is bound up with understanding yourself. A place that is self assured, confident and proud, is a place that has control over its destiny. A place which is losing its own identity because of pit closures, crowds of tourists, or huge new developments, is in danger of losing its integrity. It is at its most vulnerable, easily sold a line, easily seduced into short-term decisions which might further degrade it. It needs to build its morale and to face the future."
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Make Your Own Damn Art
Cath here!While Iain and I have been chatting we have discovered a shared love of the work of Bob and Roberta Smith. Find out more about him on his website.
Iain introduced me to the page for 'Learn to speak Bob'. Go there and play, for it is great.
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Indigenous Coffee
Marco Dessardo's strategy for submitting a proposal for a commission:
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| download pdf version here |
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Martina Coyle: In Your Own Words
Whilst most of Ireland was being covered in Public Art that was often monuments to dead councillors or purchased because the County next door had one...., Martina Coyle was creating one of the most intimate and ephemoral collaborative projects I have ever been involved with: In Your Own Words*
*unfortunately we only have the print proof of the book
_______________________________________________________________________The Role of Dialogue in Socially-Engaged Art: Grant Kester
An interesting essay which refers to some practitioners based in East Lancashire: Littoral. This essay is oft cited in much discourse on 'Socially Engaged Art' ...worth a read: Dialogue in Socially-Engaged Art.
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Sandford Coop's Bike Shed
A housing cooperative in London came up with a unique way of storing their bicycles:
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The People Speak | Home Sweet Dome
Artist collective, The People Speak, were commissioned to work with the residents of Craylands and Swan Housing Association to influence the master planning of the Craylands Estate in Basildon. ‘The People Speak’ set to work finding out about what happened on the estate, the types of activities held and the ambitions and interests of the people who live there. Over the course of two years events and activities ranging from live, commentated Five-a-Side football tournaments to Talkaoke street-corner talk-shows took place and a pilot internet café was opened, all as a way to gather information that would help shape the end product (the Public Artwork) that would result from their time at Craylands. It became clear to the artists that a focal point was needed – something and somewhere where people could meet, where groups could practice and events could take place; and so the seedling idea for “The Hacienda” – a pop-up inflatable public space was born. Incorporating ideas and feedback from the community architects Penttinen Schöne came up with the design for “The Hacienda” and presented the finished piece to the people of the estate in September 2010. At this event the people of the estate had the opportunity to vote for a new name for the inflatable structure. The winning name was Home Sweet Dome.
Home Sweet Dome is a distinctive, welcoming, multi-functional shelter allowing easy access through the large entrances. Coloured Perspex windows provide views onto the activities taking place inside the homely interior with its curious wallpaper design. The inflatable is now being used by groups on the estate to hold meetings and events and performances and is also available for hire to other organisations and for a wide variety of events.
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Michael Fortune | The Kitchen Sessions
The project which began in 2008 had two strands and centred on the housing estate of Fána Burca in Knocknacarra, Galway City. The main strand saw the artist produce a new body of photography work which features in a new publication, while in the second strand he worked with five families from the estate on a participatory arts and training project. As part of the participatory process, the residents of Fána Burca were invited to join the artist in learning digital video, photography, animation and web-based media, and in turn to share and articulate their personal experiences of their home on the estate. Following this open call, a group comprising of five families and friends came together to work alongside the artist. Due to the commitments, demands and time restraints faced by many families, Michael devised a model of working to fit around each household’s timetable, and in their own homes.
"The domestic private setting of the kitchen as both workshop and production
space rephrases arts making as a shared human capacity intimately connected to
everyday life. This localised strategy of engagement provided for an alternative
model of ‘community’ - a model based on affinity rather than location and place."
Excerpt
from the essay ‘The Kitchen Sessions - Public Art and Domestic Space’
by Sarah Tuck, Director of Create (the national development agency for collaborative arts)
www.thekitchensessions.ie 