SF0 / smedly / Public Art Opportunities

20 + 23 points

Public Art Opportunities by [smedly]

October 10th, 2008 6:41 PM

INSTRUCTIONS: Create public art opportunities.

I complete this task every day, so I had to find a way to actually make the effort to do it as a Task this time.

A bit of background: I work part-time at a cafe that I designed for my parents. We renovated a property in Baltimore, and as an architecture student, I had free reign of the design of the new cafe and apartment. Among the design features of the cafe is a 30 ft long chalkboard wall. A small part of the wall is take up by the menu which changes daily. The rest of the wall is a public tableau of free expression. It is always filled with interesting doodles and writing.

So, my challenge was to make a Public Art Opportunity in an even more explicit way than just the normal chalkboard.

Every first friday we participate in the Fells Point Art Loop, which is an organized event hosted by various art galleries in the area. We featured two artists the first friday in October and displayed their work in the cafe.

As you can see below, I found a way to encourage The Public to participate in the Art Loop and contribute their own work to the displayed art. I think the photos can tell the rest of the story.

http://sf0.org/media/smedly/square_img815469197.jpg

(just to let you know, we also always encourage people to express themselves in many ways, frames or no frames. to see hundreds of more drawings, writings, etc. from the Smedly's Chalkboard Wall over the past 2 years, you can visit the full album here)

- smaller

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this is a badly taken photo of part of the chalkboard wall, looking towards the kitchen

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here's a tiny piece of the chalkboard wall near the entrance. i think you can fill in the space in between in your imagination.

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i had a bunch of empty picture frames...

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...so i hung them on the chalkboard wall, spaced all along the wall.

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empty frame

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empty frame

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empty frame

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another empty frame...

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now, a PUBLIC ART OPPORTUNITY. ["draw inside a frame to be featured in the october art loop"] people are also encouraged to draw outside the box, but i wanted them to know that the frames would be a little more special.

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