Publicly Creative: A Public Art Workshop

with Kendal Henry

When and Where?
May 9 – 12, 2011, 2:00-6:00 pm each day
At CEC ArtsLink’s office in the West Village and various locations in downtown Manhattan.

Click here for the workshop schedule

Follow the workshop Blog

Who?
The workshop will be conducted by Kendal Henry, artist, curator and public art specialist with over 20 years of public art experience including work at Arts for Transit at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and Percent for Art Program at New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.
After receiving numerous applications from around the world a panel of arts professionals selected 20 artists, arts specialists, students, and interested members of the general public to participate in the workshop.

What and Why?
Public art is a fast-growing discipline with many unexplored opportunities for artists and communities. The workshop is a hands-on intensive introduction to the field, outlining resources, logistics, opportunities, and examples of successful collaborations.   How can I find a public outlet for my creative ideas? How can I influence my surroundings given limited resources and time? What resources are available? What is public art?

Recognizing artistic initiative as a valuable asset and a catalyst for a dialogue and transformation, this workshop will explore how site-specific collaborations in varied cultural, geographic and political areas can influence business, social awareness and economic development. Encouraging close inspection of the particular issues faced by a specific New York community chosen by the participants, the workshop and the resulting public art work will provide a unique platform for the participants and the public to explore and appropriate the city’s landscapes.

History
The project continues CEC ArtsLink’s commitment to promote the concept of public art as collaboration between the artists and the communities with a deep impact on the urban environment. Over the past seven years, through our VisArt Public Art program, CEC ArtsLink brought many visionary US artists - Sheila Levrant de Bretteville, Kendal Henry, Charlie Todd, Marina Zurkow, Clarina Bezzola, Mark Jenkins, Marisa Jahn, among others, to Russia and Central Asia.

The exciting and effective public art works created as a result of these collaborations introduced general public to the concept of public art and spurred many new local art initiatives. The strong model of the community interaction and collaboration developed by the US participants, Kendal Henry in particular, will be uniquely suitable for New York with its plethora of diverse communities.

Publicly Creative is made possible in part with public funds from the Fund for Creative Communities, supported by New York State Council on the Arts and administered by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.

Back to Home Page

Images clockwise from top:
Workshop in Yaroslavl, Russia 2010
Workshop in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan 2009
Workshop in Krasnayarsk, Russia 2007
Workshop in Kemerovo, Russia, 2010
Workshop in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan 2009
Workshop in Yaroslavl, Russia 2010
Workshop in Nizhny Novgorod, 2007