The Springfield Museums have received a $5,000 grant from the Xeric Foundation to present Art Picnic, a public arts project designed to beautify Springfield and give local art students from Distinctive Art Studio the chance to collaborate with established artists. The project will help to boost the creative economy of Springfield by providing a vehicle for local artists to display their work, while also allowing local art students to expand their skills, build their resumes and feel motivated to pursue a career in the arts. Art Picnic was first launched in the summer of 2013, when over 24 artists and students worked to create unique artwork on tables at the Museums.
For this year’s project, four picnic tables on the Quadrangle green will be transformed into unique works of art through a selective process that is scheduled to begin later this month. Phase one of the project involves a call to local artists to submit original mural designs for consideration by an advisory panel led by Heather Haskell, Director of Art Museums and Collections, Rosemary Tracey Wood, owner of Art for the Soul Gallery, Evan Plotkin, arts advocate and president of N.A.I. Plotkin, and Don Blanton, former Art Picnic participant and winner of the People’s Choice Award. The advisory panel will select the four designs, and the winning artists will receive a stipend of $1,000 to cover the cost of their time and materials. The deadline for submitting designs is July 11, 2014 – complete information is available here.
Announcement of the winning designs will take place on July 18. Work on the picnic tables will take place on the Quadrangle grounds from August 4 – 15, allowing visitors to view the project’s progress and the interaction between the artists and students. Completion of the project is slated for August 24, when the picnic tables will be revealed to the public during a community picnic at the Springfield Museums.
Funding for Art Picnic is provided through the Xeric Foundation.