Community Art Installation

I'm still on cloud nine.  Today was SO FUN.  I was in the planning process with the Saskatchewan Craft Council to help come up with ideas to beautify Broadway while the street undergoes major construction ALL summer.  That will no doubt hurt local and small businesses.  Broadway is a pretty artsy street here, lined with restaurants of all sorts, local giftshops, a threatre, LIVE music pubs and bars, as well as an art galleries, bakeries, etc.  Broadway is also the location of many street fairs including Art Fest, The Fringe Festival, Cuture Days...  This year?  Detours and road crew and diggers and trucks.  ;(

And so, today I helped dream up and create the first of 7 ten foot long 'fabric bombed' construction fences.  !!!  We used donated scraps and unwanted old bedding / curtains / shower curtains, etc.  My daughter spent most of the weekend just tearing them up into 2.5 " strips.  Today, the first fence was delivered!  So, out in the rain on a blustery day, a small team of us made some BIG colourful art.

click image to view larger

We had only a little sketch to work from.  I did it with a pink marker on some scrap paper during a planning meeting last month.  haha!  You know - those are the best ideas sometimes!?  This was far beyond our expectations.  Well.  To be honest, we didn't know what to expect.  None of us had done this before.  The four of us pictured below worked it out in just over an hour.  This will be the prototype.  The idea is that each of the other panels will be available for public fabric bombing this Saturday at Broadway Artfest.  Each panel will have the same horizon line meeting up with the next.  In the end, all the panels will be side by side, across the entire width of the street as the road is torn up and underground pipes are replaced.  Pretty sweet!

We have lots and lots of fabric.  If you are around on Saturday, come down and help them 'tie one on' (haha punny).  I'll be off to Olds, Alberta to teach &speak at the Fibre Pot Pourri gathering this weekend.  I tell you though, I can hardly wait to see how the whole project turns out!!  : )

Team one - Ferron Olynyk, Wendy Sharpe, Me, Sydney Luther (l to r)  Photo by Steph Canning

Thanks to everyone who donated fabric.  We have PLENTY of great colours.  Thank you to the SCC for knowing I'd be all over this idea.  : )  Thanks to my 10 yr old daughter for spending her long weekend ripping up fabric.  I think she worked harder than all of us.  And to all the folks who help with this installation - GOOD ON YOU!

Okay - one more day of kit building, and I'm outta here!  : )  See you all soon.  Keep up with me on instagram if you like.  Monika_Kinner on IG HERE.

xo