We commission artists to help us design and deploy social interventions. We tend to work with artists that are adept with public art / social practice.
OPEN ART COMMISSIONS: Making Planning Processes Public
Call to Artists / Request for Qualifications
We are pleased to announce two new art commissions in conjunction with our work with Upham's Corner ArtPlace. After the success of Public Kitchen, we are bringing another interactive pop-up exhibit to the Upham's Corner neighborhood. This exhibit, to open in late April or early May, is called "Making Planning Processes Public." Each commission will pay $2,500.
Art Commission 1: Exhibit Development (PDF with full description)
The commissioned artist / art team will work with our core content team to create an interactive exhibit that will:
- enable visitors to understand the planning going on for their neighborhood (transit-oriented development related to the Fairmount Indigo Line, etc) as well as its possible repercussions
- support visitors in seeing themselves as able to step into and impact planning process and knowing what their options are for this
- enable DS4SI to easily collect data about what Upham’s residents want for their community so that we can share it back to them and to planners
Art Commission 2: Public Signage (PDF with full description)
The Design Studio for Social Intervention seeks an artist / art team to collaborate with us on creating unexpected signage in Upham’s Corner in conjunction with our pop-up exhibit entitled “Making Planning Processes Public.”
The corresponding public signage is aimed at integrating the invisible planning processes into everyday life. For example, if a resident knows the local bus schedule, could they know the local planning schedule? If they can read the menu in the window of a local restaurant, can they read the menu of planning options there too? Click the link above to see more information on the commission.
Interested in partnering with us through either of the above commissions? We'd love to hear from you! Applications are due on February 28th. And please spread the word...
Many thanks to our ArtPlace lead partners--Upham's Corner Main Street and Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, and to our funder, The Boston Foundation.
2 examples of our past work with artists include:
Gestures Feelings Memories That Aren’t Our Own
In this commission, the artist developed a social intervention that engaged 200 or more young people in performing or investigating a gesture, an idea, or a feeling that they use, yet inherited from somewhere or someone else. This intervention is connected to our larger social campaign against violence, Let’s Flip It. (Photo above is part of this intervention.)
Kelly Sherman, Artist
School Lab
School Lab is a design research project and an interactive installation. It investigates ways everyday school objects, rituals and settings shape students’ experience of school. The point for this look into student experience is threefold:
- to surface less explored ways of thinking about what makes school “school” for students
- to function as a fresh way to speculate about school change and improvement
- to support the capacity of students and youth organizers to imagine the kinds of schools they want, even as they engage in struggles to keep the schools they need
James Schaffroth, Artist
Future Art Commissions
We will post future art commissions on this page as well as on our blog. If you would like to propose an art commission to us, please contact us at: art [at] ds4si.org
