Creamery District Funds Placemaking Art Projects
Creamery District leaders, artists and benefactors gathered at the Old Creamery/Arcata Playhouse today to celebrate the artists’ funding. KLH | Eye
Playhouse Arts and the Creamery District award $7,200 to local artists.
Five local artists received a total of $7,200 from Playhouse Arts as part of the Creamery District’s creative placemaking arts initiative.
Many creative people have brought their vision to The Creamery District over the past 30 years and their passion and groundwork have paid off. The District is made up of a multitude of creative enterprises, from music, theater, dance and visual arts to kinetics, fiber art, jewelry, stained glass and more. We want to carry on this grassroots movement – that itch to be creative, innovative and take risks that brought us this far.
As part of this regeneration, Playhouse Arts is offering a stipend to five local artists to contribute their work to the District.
The projects were selected by a committee made up of community members, Mary Lou Bertollini of the Art Center, Libby Maynard of the Ink People Center for the Arts, Holly Hosterman of Holly Yashi, , Melissa Finnigan, property owner of the Creamery Building and Jacqueline Dandeneau of Playhouse Arts. The Artists were contacted on May 10, 2013 and the artworks must be completed by August 23 to coincide with the Creamery Festival Aug 23-25, 2013.
“These awards are just the seeds of the rich landscape to be created in the Creamery District.” says Jacqueline Dandeneau, executive director of Playhouse Arts and Committee member, “ The committee has a strong interest in continuing to work together to celebrate the arts in this area, to pay artists a competitive fee and support our local artists.”
The following artist received funds:
Maila Penhall: Title TBA
In the instillation I will create many knit art pieces located within a cluster of trees . Using yarn and roving I will make punches of color to decorate the trees and varying sizes of rocks scattered on the ground. I will also hang multicolor handmade pom-poms like fruits from the trees. I will wet felt stumps with some wool roving to create seating with in the instillation.
My hope is viewers to become intrigued by the larger knitted and then take the time to relax in the green space located in the Creamery District. I want the art instillation to break up the industrial mechanical objects in the district and change the landscape with handmade items. I feel that this personal touch and interaction symbolizes what we as a community are doing in the Creamery District.
Susan Bloch: Title: Zephyr
The Zephyr is a colorful, rainbow-generating mobile hanging on a building out of reach yet viewable from inside. It will delight the senses and appeal to all ages as copper clinks and ribbons of light through the crystals cause heads to turn upward, and perhaps lips as well.
I am a mixed media Sculptor with a focus on glass. I have done extensive commission
work primarily in glass, as well as other materials. For example I sandblasted the Declaration of Sentiments into the 150’ blue stone wall for the Women’s Rights National Historical Park. I’ve created enumerable commission sculptures, etched and stained glass windows as well as art for exhibit. What I see going on in the Creamery District excites me into participating. I’d love to share with the community the magical nature of glass.
Tim Gray: Title TBA
I am proposing an interactive soundscape to accompany a visitor’s walk through the Creamery
District. I will compose a series of pieces that will consist of music and or sound to create these soundscapes. The total duration of this soundscape will be forty minutes consisting of eight five-minute interchangeable sections that will take the listener on a journey through the district.
This installation will make use of the smartphone, iPod, iPad and other portable listening devices found ubiquitously in our culture. The participants will be given a link in advance where they can download the soundscape into their portable device (smartphone, iPhone, Droid, iPod, iPad or other portable mp3 player) with brief instructions on suggested ways to interact with the soundscape and the environment around them. These pieces could suggest a guided walk, each piece created for a particular location in the Creamery District, something could exist in the music/sound that prompts the participant to move to the next segment of the journey. These pieces could also be mixed up and played randomly during this stroll for a completely different experience. This installation might allow for the purchase of one or two portable devices (small iPods) that could be checked out from the Arcata Playhouse or other participating member of the Creamery District for interested participants who don’t own a portable device.
Robert Pabst: Urban Art
This proposal is a request to sanction one or more locations for legal urban art murals in the Creamery District. Humboldt County is lacking in a formally sanctioned location for urban artists to complete projects and the Creamery project is a perfect opportunity to sanction at least one location for my team to maintain on a regular basis.
My Team will be working with the highest quality spray paint available, German Brand Montana-Cans (www.montana-cans.com). This paint has been specially formulated to hold up under extreme outdoor conditions, rain, snow, sleet, UV rays etc. . Our artwork is always vibrant and many people, even those who have a negative impression of urban art, usually compliment the work we do because of our color selection, attention to detail and stylistic elements. Some of my work can be found at www.cinoone.blogspot.com . There you can see the HOBART tribute my team did, which was on the route of the kinetic sculpture race in 2012 and an inspiring element to the racers in one of the most downtrodden areas on the race route. Many of the racers stopped to take photographs with the work the artists did.
Lori Goodman: Title TBA
As I walked around (the Creamery District), I saw many wonderful sites that inspired my imagination.. Kozo, the bark of a Japanese mulberry tree, is the main substance of my mixed media sculptures and installations. For thousands of years this bark has been harvested annually (the tree is cut leaving a base that grows back quickly), and made into an extremely strong and beautiful paper. The natural beauty of the white paper is exciting and mysterious in itself. Sometimes I pigment or dye this characteristically long, shiny, translucent fiber, which creates an intense and integral color. Often the paper is stretched like skin over an armature of reed, cane or bamboo. The ancientness of this process continues to be seductive. The structures and installations are the result of looking intimately at and absorbing parts of life; the small things can be astonishing and overlooked. Often this analysis results in dissecting and exaggerating observations. Making the work then becomes intuitive. Hopefully the exaggerated components inspire scrutiny and thought in the observer, which will bring the forms out of the realm of any specific reality. I will create a sculpture made of paper, wood and bamboo that would be fiber glassed for strength and durability.
Funding for these awards are made by possible by the support of The Julie Willows Memorial Fund and Dorothy Egan Memorial Fund, both funds of the Humboldt Area Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts: Our Town and The Art Store.
For more information please call Jacqueline at (707) 822-1575 or e-mail jackied@arcataplayhouse.org.
