The Sky Room will be open at Pack Square Plaza until October 30th. Also, don’t miss Our Caring Care, a traveling show taking place at the Square on October 15th from 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm.
Continue to see photos of completed projects and more opportunities to comment and contribute to artwork.
The selection committee considered many incredible entries, but the items listed below came out on top. With the removal of the Vance monument and the start of the Pack Square Plaza Visioning and Improvement project, the square is about to enter a new era. Art of the Heart is a way to unite, heal and strengthen a community. Installations, artwork and performances over the next 6 months will help spark important conversations about how to make this public space a place that reflects Asheville’s diverse community and history.
Project type: interactive experience. Sponsors and co-authors of the project: working with sculptor, puppeteer and founder of the Street Creature puppet collective Jen Murphy and Lydia Nicole, a multimedia artist whose work spans various art forms, including: decoupage, ink painting. , poetry, woodcarving, dolls, time-lapse photography, mosaics and sculpture. There are spaces and spaces of grief that bridge the dark and painful past and present, and all are asked to create a common space that respects justice and promotes our collective well-being. There will be three people in black robes, with large paper masks, with simple and peaceful faces, and reciting healing verses. The other five will lead the way with lanterns, lighting the way forward. About the Artist: Tiffany Narron: https://tiffanynarron.com/ and Instagram @tiffanynarron by Jen Murphy: www.jmurphyarts.com and Instagram @truffulatuft Lydia Nicole: Instagram @whaledance
Project type: Sculpture Project sponsors and co-authors: Among the sponsors are the Dave Steel Company of Asheville and Sailrite Enterprises Inc. from Indiana. About the project: The room in the sky will consist of twelve nylon flags of different colors suspended around a steel structure. The aesthetic and dynamic qualities of the finished sculpture will make the viewer walk around it to feel the whole work. The sculpture will be seen as a plus sign or a cross, a shape that is both a symbol of inclusion and healing. Twelve sides of the structure, each with a one-color banner fluttering in the wind. Solid colors were chosen to cover pride and indigenous peoples. The twelve colors chosen include the six typical iridescent colors of the original Pride flag designed in the 1970s, the black and brown of the later progressive flag, the light blue and pink of the transgender flag, and the gray flag of the genderless flag. The official seal colors of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians are red, yellow, green, and blue. The artist acknowledges that dozens of colors are used around the world to represent diversity, and this sculpture can only accommodate twelve, but the meaning of the work embraces a harmonious and heterogeneous society. About the artist: https://www.jacksonmartin.com/
Project Type: Installation, Interactive Experience Project Description: Katt’s temporary installation will use prisms, mirrors and polychromatic lamps to create an atmosphere that celebrates all the colors of the spectrum in collaboration with nature. It will be a festive, photogenic event that will appeal to locals and tourists alike. Pack Square Plaza is a place with unlimited potential to become a beacon of hope, leaving its tainted history behind and continuing to forge a new history of inclusion, creativity and community. About the artist: Instagram: @hausofhues.xp Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ArtbyKattNaz/
Project type: Exhibition and interactive experience. Project sponsor and co-author: Empowering Young Artists (YAE) partnership Project brief: Empowering Young Artists in partnership with Tepeyac Consulting and supported by the City of Asheville’s Office of Sustainability to create a “Changing Faces” climate. Justice project. The project informs young artists from affected communities and gives them the opportunity to share their vision of the world around them through digital photography. In this project, they share tools, information and resources to energize and engage youth in global conversations through the arts. With the help of climate data maps, forecasts of future climate crises, and local and regional demographics, these young people are informed about current climate change in Asheville. The collection offers the community a glimpse into the artist’s response to ethical, environmental and social injustices. The installation will include large-scale weatherproof images collected from student communities, as well as a 3-by-5-foot collage. A digital short film by YAE student and director Cielo Vera will also be screened for one night.
Project Type: PerformanceProject Sponsors & Staff: Producer/Curator Aaron Snook and American Mythology Center. Mikayla Wilson will be Leah’s puppeteer, and Stephanie Hickling Beckman will voice Leah. About the project: Leah and the Rabbit was originally staged for the Historic Site where Vance was born. The show tells the forgotten stories of slaves owned by the Vance family. Leah Ervin is one of 27 known slaves owned and living by the Vance family. Leah’s story joins that of Brer Rabbit, a popular fairytale character passed down by enslaved people but appropriated by racially biased white storytellers. Many blacks were brought to Asheville as cheap or slave labor to support tourism during the pre-war period. Now blacks must compete with a system that favors the rich or privileged. This story aims to question those who have been displaced from Asheville and are in a position to stay. About the artist: https://www.americanmythcenter.org/
Project Type: Sculpture and Interactive Experience Project Name: Homesickness Project Sponsors & Staff: In collaboration with BeLoved Asheville and the 12 Baskets – Asheville Poverty Alleviation Initiative Project Description: Homesickness will consist of 12 large houseboats. The houses will be tightly packed, staggered in height, up to 30 feet. At night, these whimsical large homes will be illuminated by dynamic video projections that play in tandem with audio samples, including testimonials from Asheville residents talking about their housing experiences. There will be blackboards to welcome community conversations about how Asheville is home: “What defines a home?”, “What memories does a home evoke?”, “What is it like when you are home?”, “Where? Are you home? ” About the Artist: Leslie Rosenberg: https://www.theartofbelonging.org/ Liz Trader Williams: https://makemesomeart.com/
Project Type: Sculpture/Interactive Experience Project Name: TBD Project Description: This project is in development and will build on the themes explored in the monumental model exhibited at the Black Mountain Academy Museum + Arts Center earlier this year. About the artist: https://larrypaulking.com/
Project Type: Interactive Experience Project Name: Vance Tangram Obelisk About the Project: The 12 x 4 foot obelisk representing the former monument to Vance will be divided into colorful geometric wood blocks that the public can use to create a new form of wonder. This interactive event will look at how hate symbols can be recreated to represent a better future. There will also be a small paper activity that users can play live or take home to continue trying on their own. About the artist: https://www.edwinsalas.com/
Project Type: Mural, Interactive Experience Project Name: Strong Hands About the Project: Lara’s mission as an artist, teacher and mother is to encourage others to feel more and suffer less. Lara’s artwork is a letter from her daughter Moon over a large DiBond photo her daughter took in the summer of 2019, a year after Lara was diagnosed with uLMS cancer. She intends to leave the letter in her daughter’s box for the end of the world, but she thinks it’s better for the world while she’s still alive. She believes Pack Square should be a place to socialize, so she plans to sit with her while her job lives on the square to encourage any potential conversations with passers-by. Lara believes that communication is the key to creating a more inclusive, fair and empathetic society, and she hopes people can feel something by experiencing her work in this public space. She hopes to empower people to feel and experience empathy, and she hopes this experience will continue to have an impact on people’s private and public lives. Art in all its forms, at its best, is used to connect people through their differences and sometimes across space and time. This is the power of art. About the artist: https://stonecloudstudio.com/
Project Type: Performance Project Title: Playability Project Sponsors & Contributors: Working with dancers in a new dance studio affiliated with the Asheville Contemporary Dance Theater (ACDT). Musical collaboration with musician Elizabeth Long. ACDT will provide additional funding. About the project: PLAYability recognizes that Pack Square Plaza is owned and used as a central gathering place for Indigenous peoples, departing soldiers, new black voters, demonstrations and celebrations. This land has been and can be used for various human interactions and gatherings. Playability is a choreographed three-part piece performed over three weekends that celebrates key moments in the history of Pack Square Park: the veneration of the nearby ancient Aboriginal cemetery, the remembrance of the start of black voting in Asheville, and the celebration of this ceremonial piece of land. and celebrations. Playability will include built-in impromptu constructions that can be accidentally interrupted at any time. Dancers of all races, genders, ages, sizes and abilities will interact with each other and with the environment with reverence, courage and fun, creating an open and safe environment for all who can join and take part. Connecting with each other and space will create an atmosphere of confluence, not dividing walls. Community members and visitors will be invited to join the movement as it develops and moves through the park. About the artist: https://www.acdt.org/
Project Type: Sculpture Project Name: 2523: Speculative Monument About the project: Speculative fiction and science fiction are genres that use the imagination to explore the future. They asked, “How do we live differently?” Briar’s sculpture will also be a monument commissioned in 2523, five hundred years from now. They plan to install a 9-foot-tall transparent obelisk that will be filled with swirling mist that slowly dissipates into the atmosphere through small holes at the top of the obelisk. Through the walls, text and images will be projected into the mist, imagining what the monument might have been, and said in 2523. The text will be taken from extensive interviews they will conduct with leaders in Asheville’s black and indigenous communities. In the interview, they will discuss the future together and present Asheville’s vision for the year 2523. Together, Brier’s project will envision a future for Asheville reclaimed from the past, not only fair, but remarkably prosperous. With the removal of the Vance monument, we are at a crossroads of memory and we have a unique opportunity to learn, grow and heal from this history and history. It’s time to tell these untold stories. About the artist: Instagram @oikos_umbra
On May 25, 2022, the city announced it was accepting artists in partnership with Friends of Bancom County Special Collections and the Asheville Public Arts and Culture Commission. A selection committee made up of external stakeholders and City staff conducted several rounds of review to narrow down the scope. The City of New York will support the production/installation of temporary public art projects and/or tours of Pack Square with artist stipends ranging from $500 to $1,500.
With the removal of the Vance monument and the start of the Pack Square Plaza Visioning and Improvement project, the square is about to enter a new era. Participating artists and creatives will facilitate critical dialogue about the past, present and future of Pack Square Plaza. The program will include a range of temporary works of art, including: traditional, non-traditional, experiential and performance art.
Public spaces and monuments are dynamic and should be a comprehensive reflection of the people and the history they represent. The projects will focus on the themes of social justice and inclusion and will answer the following questions:
Art of the Heart is a way to unite, heal and strengthen a community. Our goal is to use art to spark conversations and ideas about how to make Pack Square Plaza the region’s central gathering place and hub of activity, a place that reflects Asheville’s diverse community. This plan will help inspire and inform the Pack Square Vision and Improvement Project’s (www.ashevillenc.gov/packsquare) ongoing larger plan to create a public vision for the future of the area.
January 28, 2022 – The New York City Public Arts and Culture Council (PACC) hosted its annual retreat on Pack Square Plaza’s vision process and upcoming temporary public art program. The link to the minutes of the meeting is here.
February 17, 2022 – The PACC reviewed discussions on the Pack Square vision process and planning for the upcoming inventory of existing public art and monuments on Pack Square. Link to the discussion log is here.
PACC also received an update from staff on a temporary public art program developed in coordination with the upcoming Vision process. A recording of this update is available here.
Schedule necessary appointments before applying for Tier II, Tier III, Conditional Zoning, and Major Unit Verification.
The Department of Planning and Urban Design provides comprehensive, professional land use planning, zoning, urban design, and historic preservation services to create livable and sustainable communities for all. The Department is committed to working with our community to achieve the vision of equitable growth and development in line with the Asheville Comprehensive Plan. Internet Business: Click
Post time: Oct-18-2022