temporary pubic art

Occupied Wall by Christian A. Prasch

Occupied Wall asks us to break down barriers in the hope of creating community. The installation consists of a wall of modular, moveable blocks that can be transformed from a barrier into a gateway that leads to a community gathering space available for all. Join the artist, TEMPOart Portland, and the public at August’s First Friday Artwalk to participate in the transformation of the Wall!

Occupied Wall will be temporarily installed in Post Office Plaza during the month of August. The artist and TEMPOart Portland thank Bard Coffee for their additional support of this privately-funded project.

Prasch’s Occupied Wall is the third project in TEMPOart’s summer series UNDER REVIEW: The American Dream, and follows John Sundling’s Ghost Fence in the Franklin Street Arterial and Christina Bechstein’s Now We Plant: Seeds for our American Dream at the Boyd Street Urban Farm. All three projects commemorate the one-year anniversary of TEMPOart’s inaugural installation in Lincoln Park, Judith Hoffman’s The American Dream. The summer 2017 projects respond to Hoffman’s sculpture by offering ways to understand the meaning of the “American Dream” today.

The Artist
Christian A. Prasch is an artist and design professional who strives to instigate constructive interaction and community relationships through his design, and treats play and experimentation as his most important tools for developing and realizing his work. He has worked in Los Angeles with Michael Maltzan Architects, ProtoHomes, Design Hunter LA, and Kim Lewis Designs, and earned his Master’s degree from Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. Prasch currently works in the Engineering and Infrastructure Group at the Portland Amec Foster Wheeler office.

#OccupiedWall #TEMPOartMaine

Now We Plant: Planting Seeds for our American Dreams by Christina Bechstein

Community Potluck
First Friday Art Walk, July 7, 5-7pm
Boyd Street Urban Farm
(at Cumberland and Franklin Street arterial)

Please join us in the garden at on July 7th for the launch of this project.

There will be free seed packages and a garden potluck.
Bring a dish to share if you like.

All are invited!

Now We Plant is a collaborative art installation led by Christina Bechstein that brings together gardeners, neighbors, and friends with the Boyd Street Urban Farm and Cultivating Community. Through yard signs, widely distributed seed packages, and community interactions, Bechstein creates a vibrant and diverse exchange of recipes as well as visions of the American dream. In a project rooted in partnership and interchange, the vegetables and herbs–grown here and from the seed packets–become the basic sustenance of community engagement, reminding us of the importance of tending to both our collective environment and dreams.

The Site
Boyd Street Urban Farm, corner of Cumberland and Franklin Street arterial, Portland Maine USA. The Boyd Street Urban Farm is a community garden in downtown Portland that serves nearby Kennedy Park neighbors. In the heart of Maine’s most diverse census tract, BSUF encapsulates the potential impact of agriculture in a culturally rich, economically challenged urban area. The idea of turning city spaces in very poor health into vibrant farms that support youth programs as well as individuals/families who want to work in the soil is essential to the vision of a local, sustainable food system. For more information about the garden, please contact Laura Mailander, Cultivating Community #207.761.4769 ext 855.

‘Now We Plant’ wishes to thank
The Boyd Street Urban Farm and the gardeners, Cultivating Community and it’s Youth Growers, Laura Mailander, Zainab Imran, Maher Al Asadi, Jennifer Muller, Sandrine Chabert, Dara Lestrade, Sarah Marshall, Sister Makings Group, Charles Schreiber, Papa Mendy, Tempo Art, Alice Spencer, Andrew Eschelbacher, Anne Marie Levine, Bonnie Norlander, Laci Hoskins, Skillins Greenhouse, Johnny’s Seeds, The City of Portland and The City of Portland Public Art Committee, friends and neighbors to the garden.

The Artist
Christina Bechstein is an artist and mother who has taught in art, design, and architecture programs across the United States. Bechstein’s record of international exhibitions and lectures include Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Spain; Bates Art Museum in Lewiston, ME; Harvard University in Cambridge MA and more. She has studied at Cranbrook Academy of Art and Skowhegan School of Painting and has been the recipient of fellowships and awards from places like the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the New England Foundation for the Arts, The Graham Foundation and Weimar Jena Akademie. Her creative practice is interdisciplinary and collaborative in nature, encompassing and overlapping such fields as public art, sculpture, textiles, community based art and activism. In her landscape based projects, she investigates the role of art in place-making and community-building. These projects, like ‘Now We Plant’, convene diverse neighbors of all ages and backgrounds around a creative project, food, sharing and imagining to co-create the places we call home.

#NowWePlant #TEMPOartMaine

Ghost Fence by John Sundling

TEMPOart Kicks Off Summer Artist Series with
Ghost Fence by John Sundling

Ghost Fence, a temporary artwork by Portland’s John Sundling, will debut in the Franklin Street median at the corner of Congress and Franklin Streets as part of the First Friday Art Walk on June 3, 2017. It will be the first of three summer projects by Portland artists commissioned by TEMPOart Portland, the non-profit organization dedicated to energizing Portland’s public spaces through temporary art installations.

Sundling’s piece utilizes the visual language of surveying and construction, using flagging tape, simple wood poles and plastic sheeting to create a “ghost fence” that outlines the original boundaries of Lincoln Park.

In the late 1960’s, the City of Portland razed existing communities to create the Franklin Street Arterial and make the area more “functional” and “modern”. Sundling is interested in this lost physical and social space and wants to “create a simple and effective reminder of both past and present, as well as a place to envision the future.” “My goal is to create an awareness of the past and a place in the present to gather, share stories and create positive memories,” said Sundling.

Sundling’s June project will be followed on July 7th by Christina Bechstein’s Now We Plant: Seeds for our American Dream at the Boyd Street Urban Farm, and Christian Prasch’s Wall.., opening August 4th (pending City of Portland Permit) in Post Office Plaza. All three commemorate the one-year anniversary of TEMPOart’s inaugural project, Judith Hoffman’s, The American Dream, the Lincoln Park sculpture that will remain on view through the summer, and each new installation responds to that first sculpture by offering ways to understand the meaning of the “American Dream” today.

The Artist
John Sundling is an artist and designer, working in diverse disciplines including floristry, set design, sculpture, curation and custom fabrication. Recent work includes miniature sets for puppets in a feature film, and co-directing a “no-profit arts disorganization,” the Institute for American Art. His sculptural work has been primarily large-scale, often outdoors, with an emphasis on the effects of time and nature. The artist’s set design work has grown to become more environmental and sculptural in response to this exploration. Sundling is most interested in the blurry edges of his practices and how they inform each other.

TEMPOart Portland
TEMPOart energizes Portland’s public spaces through temporary art installations – engaging residents and visitors, enriching its creative community and enhancing Portland’s reputation as a world-class city. We provide opportunities for artists to experiment with new mediums, highlight current issues and engage a wide public audience. We partner with other on-profit educational and cultural institutions, using each project to inspire innovative learning opportunities for all ages. TEMPOart is a privately-funded 501-c3 non-profit organization and is administered by a Board of Directors.

#TEMPOartMaine #GhostFence

TEMPOart Receives Horizon Foundation Grant to Support Educational Programs Inspired by “The American Dream” Sculpture

The Horizon Foundation, based in Portland, Maine, has awarded TEMPOart a $10,000 grant to support public programming associated with “The American Dream” by sculptor Judith Hoffman. The 14-foot-tall steel and enamel sculpture representing typical American homes of different scales, stacked and inverted one on top of another, will be unveiled at 6:00 p.m. on June 3, 2016 as part of Portland’s First Friday Artwalk.

Horizon Foundation supports non-profit organizations that aspire to create and maintain sustainable, vibrant, and resilient communities by enabling children and adults to lead their communities in creative, healthy, and thoughtful ways.

The American Dream is the inaugural project of the privately-funded non-profit group TEMPOart, which selected Hoffman’s work because of its provocative questioning of what the idea of HOME means to our diverse community. The sculpture and TEMPO’s outreach programming are expected to stimulate reflection and dialogue about the fluid meaning of home within the context of the Portland community.

The Horizon grant will help fund TEMPOart’s plans to partner with other arts, education and cultural groups in Portland to reach a variety of audiences over the next twelve months. Collaborations will include:

Oak Street Studios’ “Side X Side” program will feature artists leading 160 third graders at East End and Reiche Elementary Schools who are studying Portland history in the fall of 2016. Field trips to see the sculpture will be a jumping off point for reflections about home and map-making that is part of the curriculum.
Mayo Street Arts will conduct a Sculpture Study Workshop at the Portland Public Library to connect 40 East Bayside children aged 7-11 with Judith Hoffman’s sculpture as part of its RAD (Reading, Art, Dance) program during June, July and August.
Greater Portland Landmarks will offer several walking tours, one aimed at youth that will explore the totemic nature of the sculpture through a hunt for unique architectural features along Congress Street, culminating in art-making projects at Oak Street Studios.

Countdown begins for “The American Dream” installation!

This just in: Judith Hoffman’s beautiful and fascinating sculpture is on its way to Portland. Here are a two photos of the disassembled, finished artwork before it was packed and loaded for shipment.

Mark your calendar to attend the unveiling in Lincoln Park on Friday, June 3rd, during the First Friday Art Walk.

“The American Dream” fabrication update!

TEMPOart has received some amazing progress photos from artist Judith Hoffman for the sculpture to be installed later this month in Lincoln Park—at the corner of Congress & Franklin Streets. Mark your calendars to attend the unveiling on Friday, June 3rd—and celebrate First Friday with us.

Engineering expertise on board for “The American Dream” installation

Ziggy Drozdowski is a designer and engineer who recently moved to Portland from the NYC area. With over ten years of experience working in custom mechanical sculpture and adaptive architectural systems, he has recently co-founded the company Common Kinetics, which is dedicated to providing design, engineering and fabrication expertise to large scale sculptural installations. He was initially contacted by TEMPOart at Judith Hoffman’s request for local engineering support and has been working with her, the sculpture fabricator in Detroit, The City of Portland and TEMPOart to ensure that the collective vision for The American Dream is realized. Get more info about Ziggy and his company.

Common Kinetics construction drawing American Dream 2016

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