Although we at ArtBridge aren’t proponents of illegal street art, we certainly are impressed with this one graffiti artist’s approach to “cleaning” this sooty fence. Think of it as a wildly inventive riff on the “wash me” plea, seen finger-painted on cars and trucks in need of a good bath all across the country. Happy weekend!
Last Thursday morning at 11:30am, Rodney and I made an unlikely national television appearance on Fox Strategy Room (with a viewership of over 10 million). The purpose? To let as many people we possibly could know about ours: beautifying the transitional city landscape with the work of emerging artists. Our host, the gracious Kimberly Guilfoyle, gave us plenty of time– a whopping 15 minutes, nearly unheard of in the world of network television– and we covered the whole gamut- from the economy’s effect on City construction progress (it’s slowing down and in some cases, altogether stalled) to our Call for Entries to our fabulous Urban Samaritan Tote Bags. Click on the image below to view a part of the segment.
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And in other news, JUST THREE DAYS LEFT TO SUBMIT YOUR WORK to ArtBridge for our 2010/2011 Exhibition Year Portfolio! Click HERE to submit your work. Keep the entries coming!
Good Luck to All!
Jordana
from Curbed NY:
“Even before condo development Griffin Court arrived at 800 Tenth Avenue, developer Alchemy Properties was thinking about how to decorate the place. Their answer to this question? Giant murals on two of the complex’s exterior walls, with the artist chosen in a contest. And now, a few months after Griffin Court’s sales began, Alchemy has found its winner: Brooklyn artist Corinne Ulmann, whose design “depicts a pattern of trees using variations of light and shadow intended to evoke the building’s 8,700-square-foot private courtyard and the nearby DeWitt Clinton Park.” Painting starts this week and will take about 10 days. Will anyone look away from their new iPads and flat screens long enough to catch a glimpse of this thing going up?”
Griffin Court’s Mural Competition Specs:
Corrine Ulmann’s Winning Entry:
This week has been a busy one in the world of Public Art. Not only have we launched our Call for Entries for the 2010/2011 exhibition year, but Creative Time’s Key to the City project opened on June 3rd and the Public Art Fund unveiled their new exhibition, Statuesque in City Hall Park.
Whew!
I’m a sucker for Art that asks question (think Key to the City‘s, “how public is public space?”) which is why I feel particularly excited about the Public Art Fund’s latest offering. When I think of a statue, Rodin’s “The Thinker” and Michaelangelo’s Pieta come to mind. Statue-making is an art form steeped in tradition which raises the question, what does it mean for something to be “statuesque” in our modern times? Is it inextricably linked, a reference to, a bygone era to which we no longer have access? With Statuesque, the Public Art Fund has brought together six artists to create works that tip their hats to classical sculpture both through their use of traditional materials and the depiction of the human body while simultaneously subverting the form. Sculpture is brought out from the realm of the purely representational and into one of “myth, dream and fantasy.” Interesting stuff! Please drop us a line telling us about your experience with Statuesque down in City Hall Park.
It’s June 1 at 12:01AM and the ArtBridge 2010/2011 Exhibition Year Call for Entries is now open! It’s been just over a year since our debut exhibition and now that we have several more exciting projects in the pipeline we need art for our exhibitions, your art. We’ve streamlined the entry process since last year and made it even simpler to submit. After you’ve read over the Submission Guidelines PDF (read it thoroughly– submissions that don’t adhere to the guidelines will unfortunately not be considered), create a username and password, and begin to make your submission through our online entry form.
There was a tremendous amount of innovative work submitted for ArtBridge: First Exposure, 2009 and our curatorial team (members of which will be announced in the coming weeks) is looking forward to the imaginative, boundary-pushing, and just plain beautiful work artists will be submitting.
You may direct all questions to submissions@art-bridge.org. Submissions will be accepted until July 1 at 11:59PM. Good luck to you all!
On April 27, New York State Governor David Paterson proposed a 40% cut in funding the New York State Council on the Arts‘ (NYSCA) local assistance grant funding, a program responsible for the approximately 2500 grants each year given out to New York-based arts organizations with the goal of “preserving and expanding the rich and diverse cultural resources that are and will become the heritage of New York’s citizens.” Paterson’s proposal does not make for good news.
As city agencies across the country are tightening their purse strings with the hopes of bouncing back from last year’s economic collapse, they need to know that cutting back on the Arts is not the way to go.
In response to the proposal, the New York Foundation for the Arts has teamed up with NYS Arts and their Save the Arts campaign, an initiative created to fight the cuts and to show Albany the potentially devastating effects of a reduction of Arts and cultural programming in New York State. Want to get involved? Find out what you can do by visiting the Save the Arts website.
Just in time for the opening on June 1st of our 2010 Call for Entries, we’ve given www.art-bridge.org a makeover. On the new site, you can find detailed information about the history of the organization and its participating artists, make a tax-deductible donation, upload and submit your artwork for consideration for our 2010 installations, and soon, shop! Click here to join our mailing list and keep abreast of new developments…!
This Saturday morning I awoke to find a press release from Creative Time in my inbox. CT is an organization behind some of the most innovative Public Art projects in NYC but I was particularly impressed by their latest offering: artist Paul Ramírez Jonas’ interactive project, Key to the City. Although it seems a somewhat antiquated tradition, every now and again you’ll here about so and so or “hero x” being awarded the Key to the City. What does this mean, anyway? Is it a purely symbolic gesture or is the recipient given a physical key that actually unlocks secret doors which remain closed to most of the city’s inhabitants?
In Ramírez Jonas’ piece, it’s the latter, although this time, it’s the everyday citizens that are gifted the keys. And not by some high ranking government official but by a colleague, friend or lover. It’s a key gifted to an everyday citizen by an everyday citizen who wants to honor whatever it is that he or she feels makes the recipient worthy of such an accolade. Want the “Press” present for the ceremony? Bring your friends with their point and shoots and iPhones…And now, from Creative Time:
What if a government ceremony, like the bestowal of the key to the city, suddenly became a civic artwork? And rather than a formality between Mayor and visiting dignitary, you personally could award this key to anyone of your choosing. The Key to the City, by artist Paul Ramírez Jonas, invites New Yorkers and visitors to our City to recognize each other with a key that will lead them on a citywide scavenger hunt of backdoors, front gates, community gardens, and cemeteries that suggests the simple question: how public is public space?
…Members of the public will award thousands of these custom-made keys to each other in one-to-one ceremonies. The keys will be distributed from a kiosk in Times Square, open daily from June 3 to 27.
What’s most exciting for me about this project is the fact that whatever happens during each ceremony and the subsequent adventure throughout the city itself becomes “art.” And then there are the interesting questions it raises about the nature of private and public space. Fascinating stuff.
I know I’ll be there in June to bestow a key or two upon the people in my life for whom I want to show my appreciation (and share in the resulting excursion). Will you? Please email me at jordana@art-bridge.org or leave a comment on the blog about your experience taking part in this revolutionary project.
For more information visit www.creativetime.org.
The Art Production Fund‘s WOW (Works on Whatever) project has just launched a new product: dinner plates, featuring the work of Rudolf Stingel, the same artist who collaborated with the APF back in 2004, covering the floor of Grand Central Stations Vanderbilt Hall with floral carpeting. Read a bit about his latest creation HERE on the New York Times style-forward T Blog. Tres chic!
We at ArtBridge have also been taking our Art off the walls (or in our case, off construction scaffolding) and re-purposing the vinyl upon which our exhibition art was printed into…Tote Bags! Just in time for beach season, eh? We’ll be launching at Etsy store in the coming days where they’ll be available to purchase for a cool $55 but if you’re dying to get your hands on one early, drop me an email: jordana@art-bridge.org. This weekend is supposed to be mighty beach-y…!
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Summer Streets: a Guest Post by ArtBridge Intern, Alina Bachmann
“Play Me, I’m Yours” is a piece by British artist Luke Jerram which was recently presented here in NY by non-profit arts group, Sing For Hope. 60 pianos throughout the city’s five boroughs, brought music to streets, parks and other public spaces. From June 21 to July 5, the pianos could be played by anyone who passed by in a festival of music open to all (day or night!). Upon conclusion of their public service, the pianos were donated to schools, hospitals, and community organizations.
From June 24 to September 3, a project by the Fashion Center Business Improvement District called “Sidewalk Catwalk” merges fashion and public art. Mannequins wearing one-of-a-kind creations by 30 of New York’s leading designers and two student design teams from Parsons and FIT can be seen all along Broadway from Herald Square to Times Square. Such noteworthy designers include Tommy Hilfiger, Betsey Johnson, Donna Karan, Michael Kors, Nanette Lepore, and Isaac Mizrahi. The creations will be auctioned off at the end of the summer with proceeds going to Materials for the Arts, a non-profit that supplies creative groups and public schools with recycled arts materials.
So if you’re tiring of the beach this summer, take a look (or listen!) at what the City streets have to offer.
Enjoy!
-Alina