Jacobsville Gateway Enhancement

On behalf of ECHO Housing Corporation and the community of Jacobsville, we would like to present the selected finalists for the $15,000 public art competition.

w/purpose is excited to be inviting one of these finalists to collaborate in this unique community in Indiana.  The use of Art and Transit are techniques in place-making strategies that are social and economic stimulators to help neighborhood growth and identity.

Through  CDBG funding (Community Development Block Grant), w/purpose was invited to work alongside community partners to curate a Gateway Entry using transit and art projects. One of the finalists below will work alongside w/purpose to help co-author the art portion of this experience.

“This Gateway effort will spearhead a larger reinvestment effort for Main Street by increasing accessibility to area resources, cultivating pride, and rejuvenating business commerce” said Stephanie TenBarge, Executive Director at ECHO Housing Corporation. Jacobsville Area Community Corporation President, Joseph Easley has seen the areas momentum unfold over the last 12 years and said, “We are beginning to see many signs of renewal. This project will help provide some identity to a great area while inviting everyone to explore its multiple assets.”

Artur Silva | Indianapolis

Native of Brazil

www.artursilva.com

In 2009 I was invited to conduct a project in Sheboygan,Wisconsin, at the John Michael Kohler Art Center. I invited the community to bring their most valuable object to be photographed.We allow people to decide the kind of value the object carried, financial or sentimental value. That project was called What Matters Most.My work explores history, community and a connection with a broader world. For the project in Jacobsville I want to invite the community to bring their textile to be photographed. I will reach out to schools, community centers, and churches to inform and gather the community. I will create a composition that will combine their textiles with other patterns found in textiles from around the world. The textile could be already used in a garment or still unused. Once the composition is ready I will project and paint that on the wall. I have created a number of public art pieces including two commissions for the Indianapolis International Airport and the 46 x 46 Murals for the Super Bowl in Indy. I have shown my work at museums and institutions such as the Van Abbe Museum in the Netherlands, the Smart Museum at the University of Chicago, IL, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, among others. I have received awards from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation (NYC), Indiana Arts Commission grant, The Efroymson Contemporary Art Fellowship, among others.

Ana & Maria de Brea | Argentina

Natives of Buenos Aires

Maria de Brea (FLICKER)

Ana de Brea (LINK) (LINK2)

A new notion of geography_the STORY of a place is formulated by the people [COMMUNITY] that belongs to that place. Geography equals a modern understanding/feeling of a real sense of belonging. Belonging to be a member or part of physical agora, a public open space used as a thoughtful graffiti, as a wall of inscriptions: words inscribed on a monument or in a book.We [people] broadcast the narrative of the space we inhabit, as well as the relationships between those corporeal or intangible features and peculiarities. We [people] lay out, situate, order, identify, put a name to, shape, categorize, grade, invest, share, set, house with, detail, attribute, inform, form, shape, contextualize, record, and report the chronicle of the place…and more.

Shei Moreno | New York

Native of Cuba

My twenty plus years of experience painting public murals in top cities including Miami, Atlanta, Detroit, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York position me best to create a premiere outdoor experience in Jacobsville. As a professional artist, I have successfully conceptualized, pitched, budgeted, and executed large mural projects for Altoids, Cartoon Network, Epcot Center, Kawasaki, and Reebok. I also have experience working on “The Wynwood Walls”, a mural project in Wynwood Miami, Fl that revitalized its community.The main objectives of the proposed concepts are as follows: (1) create an aesthetically pleasing work of art which serves to communicate a message of inclusivity and sparks conversation, (2) engage the cities inhabitants by providing opportunity for involvement in the creative process, (3) create a beautified hub that invites people to visit and invest in its preservation and growth, (4) has a tangible economic, cultural, and social impact.To involve community members, all of the proposed design concepts include playful cues for engagement would invite people to take photos of the art, making the “Gateway to Jacobsville” wall a natural conduit for social sharing. This approach would organically amplify the number of people who see the wall.

 

Invited Jury

Stephanie TenBarge | ECHO, Executive Director

Anne Shoemaker McKim | Executive Director, Arts Council of SW Indiana

McKim is an Evansville native and Central High School graduate who lived in Oregon, Minnesota, Michigan and Pennsylvania before returning home with her husband to raise their children, she said.

She completed a degree in political science at the University of Southern Indiana in 2010, and has worked the last year as program director for the Public Education Foundation.

Wherever she’s lived, McKim has worked as volunteer for arts and community efforts, she said. Evansville organizations she has worked with include the Evansville Museum Contemporaries, Wesselman Nature Preserve, the Evansville Zoo and other organizations.

“Promoting the arts is not just a philanthropic issue,” said McKim. “It’s a metropolitan development issue and a community growth issue. The arts bring in dollars to a community in so many ways. Encouraging the arts is part of a wholistic way of raising up a city.”

Paula Katz | Curatorial Consultant

Paula is an independent curator and consultant. She previously served
as the Director and Curator of the Herron Galleries at the Herron School of Art  and Design in Indianapolis, Indiana, overseeing a diverse exhibition program in contemporary arts and related educational programming. With expertise in contemporary art in all media, she has particular interest in photographic history and techniques, community engaged art and collaborative practices.

Before her tenure at Herron she worked as the Assistant Curator of Art at the
Columbus Museum in Columbus, Georgia. While there she primarily curated and researched American Art and Design of the 19th and 20th Century in the Museum’s permanent collection and directed the visiting contemporary art program. Since 2006, Katz has curated, administered and jurored nearly 200 exhibitions throughout the Midwest and Southeastern United States.

Katz holds a BA in Art History from Tulane University, a MPhil in Modern and
Contemporary Art and Design from the University of Glasgow and a MBA in
Social Entrepreneurship from the Kelley School of Business, Indiana University.

Jon Siau | Art Educator

Jon Michael Siau recently, retired after forty-two years as an art teacher at Evansville North HS. He has been honored with teaching awards at local, state and national levels. One such national honor was The Robert Rauschenburg Foundation’s “The Power of Art Award” for Jon’s innovative work with students with learning disabilities. The award was presented at a formal reception at The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. He was recognized with a medallion as one of “Indiana’s Top Contemporary Artists”. Jon has created original Art for celebrities such as: Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Bob Knight, Bill Cosby and Steven Tyler (of Aerosmith). He was the first artist ever to be commissioned to create art for the United States Olympic Committee’s world-wide publication THE OLYMPIAN.

Garry Holstein | Director New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art

Garry Holstein is the director of the New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art.

Holstein comes to USI from Arkansas Tech University, where he was a visiting professor of art. He was the founding director of sUgAr, the outreach gallery of the University of Arkansas, and served as personal assistant to contemporary artist Donald Roller Wilson.

Before working as gallery director for sUgAr, he acted as an independent curator, installing and developing exhibitions for various art spaces and events. He has organized exhibitions on the local, regional, and national levels.

By spearheading invitational and juried shows in a wide range of media, Holstein “seeks to create an atmosphere that encourages diverse and exciting programming, fosters dialogue in the community, and provides opportunities for artists.”

He received his Master of Fine Arts degree in visual design and Master of Arts degree in organizational communication from the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville.

Todd Huber | Owner PG

Andrea Adams  | Gallery Director