Archive for the ‘good idea’ Category

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Lee Mingwei

Friday, October 28th, 2011

Artist Lee Mingwei recently installed his latest participatory artwork, ‘The Moving Garden’, at the Brooklyn Museum in New York. Located in the museum’s lobby, the piece includes a 45 ft. long table filled with roses. The purpose of the piece is simple, and yet really powerful. Mingwei asks that if you take a rose, you fulfill two missions. One is to take a detour on the way to your next destination and the second is to give the rose to a stranger along the way. I love projects that get visitors interacting, but also extend beyond the gallery walls.  Incorporating projects into the public realm is exciting and I see it is as a vastly untapped method for cultural institutions to reach new audiences and have an impact on their communities.  Lee Mingwei is new to me and browsing through the amazing projects on his website is inspirational – take some time to explore his work.

You can follow participants’ stories of giving and receiving through Twitter at #mygardengift.

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Blu Dot Swap Meet

Thursday, March 3rd, 2011

I’m not usually into re-posting something from my other site, Designklub, over here, but this campaign is genius.  Blu Dot, the cool furniture company from Minnesota, is hosting a Swap Meet on their website.  People select an item from the Blu Dot collection that they would like to own and post a reasonable trade.  If Blu Dot likes the offer, they will swap them for it.  Easy and awesome.

I would love to see a museum or cultural venue try this: why not swap some memberships for volunteer time, or art skills, or merchandising help in the shop, or landscaping assistance, or anything?  Why not up the ante and swap off the deaccessions for some serious skills or goods (event planning services, chairs for your lobby)?  Swap a day at the museum for you and 30 friends for carpentry work. Libraries always have book sales.  Maybe they should try some swapping instead to encourage some civic engagement.

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The Work Office

Thursday, March 3rd, 2011

The Work Office, located in NYC, was a temporary art project, “disguised as an employment agency.”  Organized by Katarina Jerinic and Naomi Miller, the project was inspired by the 1930’s Works Progress Administration (WPA) which employed thousands of people during the Depression.  Jerinic and Miller translated the idea of “making work” by setting up an art gallery/work center to hire local artists to complete certain tasks.

Challenges such as ‘giving a concert for your houseplant’ or ‘recording an oral history’ were issued weekly to utilize the artists’ skills while offering them a small wage.  For each completed task, artists were given a paycheck in line with Depression era salaries.  At the end of each week, the Work Office hosted Payday parties that served to issue checks and share the artwork produced by each challenge.

This is the best kind of community art project, one that spins and spreads to encompass a web of participants.  The project started in 2009 and ran again in 2010.  I hope they get funding to continue their work this year as well.

Artist Credits

Top Image: Sarah Nicole Phillips: Curbside Object Status Tag, Challenge: Document a Need for Repairs

Bottom image: Lori Nelson: Souvenirs of a Recession, Challenge: Record and Oral History

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Makerbot Residency

Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011

I recently saw a headline about an upcoming project with the amazing 3-D printing machines called Makerbots.  I got really excited about the story, then realized I completely misunderstood it after reading the actual article.  The real story is that Makerbot is hosting an artist-in-residence to use the machines and make useful/beautiful/awesome things.  That’s cool.

I had thought the Makerbot was the artist-in-residence and I was already imagining all the incredible opportunities for people (as in everybody) to learn about 3-D printing and design.   After all, it may not be too long into the future before every home has a Makerbot to fulfill its household design needs.  Why can’t a tool have a residency and let visitors become the artists/designers and activators?  I would love for a museum, school, gallery or any public space to host Makerbot for a residency and let people interact and create with it.   OK, there’s the idea, what institution wants to collaborate to host it?

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Feed the Library

Monday, January 17th, 2011

As part of the recent NY Art Book Fair, Dutch masters program Werkplaats Typografie invited visitors to participate in a special swap shop.  The project, called Feed the Library, asked visitors to bring in a book related to art & design that would enhance the school’s reading collection.  In exchange, people were allowed to select an item from an array of products, specially designed by WT students and staff.  Options included everything from font packages to wax rubbings from hidden parts of the WT studio.  In total, around 200 books were collected.

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Golden Hook

Tuesday, December 14th, 2010

It seems like more and more people want to know the story behind the products they buy, not only for environmental concerns but also to feel personally connected in a sometimes anonymous virtual world.   After reading books like The Mesh and Collaborative Consumption, these kinds of business ideas make so much sense to me.

The Golden Hook is an example of a business capitalizing on this craving for personal interaction.  Customers choose from a variety of hat designs, which they can customize by color and yarn type.  Then they go on to select the grandmother they want to knit their design.  Golden Hook has an arsenal of grannies that are expert knitters and are also looking to earn some extra income.  It’s a mutually beneficial relationship; the kind that I think so many businesses are trending towards.  I also like to ponder how these types of projects can be applied to our cultural institutions.  I’m having visions of stories about museum acquisitions and personalized curatorial stories…slightly different than dancing sugar plums.

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Hatch Show Print

Tuesday, November 16th, 2010

During coffee today with Charles from the AIGA, I was introduced to the amazing Hatch Show Print workshop.  Started over 100 years ago, Hatch Show Print is one of the oldest letterpress shops in the US, specializing in posters for theater and music productions.  In the 1980’s the shop was purchased by Gaylord Entertainment (owners of the Grand Old Opry).  After reviving the historic workshop, Gaylord gave over operations to the Country Music Hall of Fame.  The result is a fully functioning print press (turning out 600 jobs a year) that is part of a museum.  The shop’s motto, preservation through production, celebrates country music history while still taking an active role in the industry today.   This kind of partnership is unusual in the museum world, but has so many possibilities.  It is supporting an important business, while showcasing its historic roots.  Perhaps there are other museums that could benefit from this form of active partnership.  Ideas?

(photos via bangback)

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Imagination Station

Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010

I have a growing fascination with Detroit.  Once considered a shining example of US industry and American products, it is now mainly known for its high crime rates and abandoned neighborhoods.  But it is also a city with amazing potential.  More and more frequently I am reading inspirational stories of re-building and community collaboration.

One such endeavor is the Imagination Station, a new non-profit founded by Jerry Paffendorf and Mary Lorene Carter, but made possible through the work of many many more in the community.  When two run down buildings in the Corktown neighborhood went up for auction, Paffendorf and local resident Jeff DeBruyn bought the structures for $500 a piece.   One is burned out and slated for demolition, but will be transformed into a public outdoor meeting/art space.  The building next door will be renovated to create a new community center, with room for artists in residence and other activities.

The Imagination Station successfully completed a Kickstarter campaign for initial funding and they are now working on the next phase.  But in the meantime, they are using every opportunity to document, create and share their work.  Before the burned structure is torn down, artist Catie Newell has made a stunning installation.   The organizers will be sharing their entire process, from fundraising to building, on their website with the aim of inspiring others to replicate the process in their own neighborhoods.  This concentrated community effort and support has resulted in a nimble operation that can make its own rules.  As quoted by the Metro Times, “If major foundations and nonprofits were involved in the Imagination Station, as they would have to be in a city like Chicago, there’d have to be 6,800 meetings before anything got accomplished,” Debruyn says.

When I created the Denver Community Museum I had the same feeling.  As an individual there were no grants to apply for and partnering with a local institution may have delayed the project (by several years).  I am intrigued by people/organizations who are making things happen using new models.   The Imagination Station is one amazing example.  Founder Jerry Paffendorf is also undertaking another project called Loveland, a micro financing platform that is both innovative and inspirational.  More to come on that one in my next post.

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Westminster Stories

Saturday, August 21st, 2010

While doing some research for a client, I came across a recent project called Westminster Stories, a temporary exhibition that shared the stories of the people and places found along Westminster St. in Providence, RI.  Created by a local group called the Museum Onsite, the organizers filled a storefront window with a diorama (above) and also placed labels on physical objects (and people!) along the street itself, turning the whole strip into a living museum.

One of the creators Andrew Losowsky explains, “By creating a museum in the middle of a busy street, we are encouraging a greater understanding about what and who is around us.  By sharing the information in an unusual way, we hope people will feel closer to the city and what’s in it.”  The project ran from December 2009-March 2010, but you can still read through the personal stories archived on their website.  These kinds of projects are so inspiring; challenging the notions of the traditional museum and creating an active space for people to get involved.

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Listening Tents

Thursday, July 29th, 2010

I think everybody loves a secret hideaway; there is something very special and almost magical about being in a tent.  I recently came across two projects that got me thinking about these kind of specialized spaces and the possibilities of using them in cultural institutions.

The first project took place at this year’s Port Eliot Literary Festival in Cornwall.  The organizers invited artist Dré Wapenaar to showcase his ‘Tent Village Revisited’ (middle), a series of rounded structures clustered like woodland mushrooms.   The tents were available throughout the event for, “…communal conversations and interactions as well as a place to chill out with fellow festival-goers.”

The Weisman Art Museum in Minnesota recently started Tent Services, a program where citizens can check out  ‘Expeditionary Conversation Tents’ (bottom) for use inside or out of the museum. The premise is simple; the tents are available for free, provided users share some information about what took place during their expedition along with some photos.  Designed by Peter Haakon Thompson, these tents create a lovely, focused space for personal interaction, something not always easily achieved in the hustle and bustle of larger buildings.

(top left image: The Paper Tent)

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