Proposal: Family Printmaking Day

Tamar Etingen

Describe your project.
I am submitting a grant proposal to Feast Mass to present a Gelatin Printmaking Workshop for 6 adult/child pairs (parent, grandparent, caregiver or volunteer adult and child). The workshop would be presented on a week end day at Gallery 263, for children from the Morse School K–2 Afterschool Program. This program has 21 children enrolled, of which 11 receive vouchers or some type of financial aide. Participation will be determined by a lottery. Gallery 263 is located 3 blocks up Pearl St. from Morse Elementary School.

On May 21, I presented a workshop to 12 children at the Morse K–2 Afterschool Program with the help of classroom aides and volunteers. The workshop was very enthusiastically received by the children and the parents were delighted and impressed with the prints. Offering the workshop free to participants would provide a wonderful opportunity for parents to spend some creative, quality time with their children. If parents were unable to attend, volunteers would be available to work with the children.

The workshop lasts for 2 hours. All tools and materials are provided. No prior printmaking experience is required. Gelatin plate printmaking is a non-toxic, low-tech method for making one-of-a-kind prints (monoprints). It requires no press and is accessible, fast-paced and spontaneous. Images are made using recycled found objects and plant material. The resulting prints are luminous, multi-layered images.

I have presented printmaking workshops at the Boston MFA, Curry College, Gallery 263, Morse Elementary School Afterschool, Lynn Arts and Arlington Center for the Arts.

How will you use Feast funding?
My usual price is $50 per adult/child pair. With this grant, I would be able, for $300, to present the workshop free to the participants.

If you win, what is the expected status of your project by the time of the next Feast?
The workshop should be completed by the next Feast. I will be able to share the results, maybe some examples of prints, photos of the workshop, and stories of how it went for me and for the participants.

Proposal: Spectacle on Bumpkin!

Maria Molteni

Describe your project.

Given my interests in object performance and public space as well as the absurdist and activist approaches to the “unreasonable side of Puppetry” (as it’s been called by Peter Schumann of Bread and Puppet), I will attempt to recreate an American myth and social spectacle in the form of a 20-30ft inflatable Montauk Monster on the banks of Bumpkin Island. The original cryptozoological phenomenon washed ashore on a popular Long Island vacation spot in 2008 and became a scientific and pop-cultural mystery upon it’s disappearance and suspicioned connections to the nearby Plum Island Animal Disease Center. Such a modern day beast conceptually manifests a mutation of information modes, as blogging accelerates or replaces storytelling; and history as it evolves and contorts through reenactment and replication; It also represents the what-IS-it-ness of our rapidly changing American societal, cultural, and political climate. The creation of this inflatable will draw from the physical form and communal performative context of Tony Sarg’s Inflated Sea Serpent of 1937, that rested on Nantucket. The artist was an illustrator, puppeteer and creative mind behind the first Macy’s Day parades but this particular New England hoax had no strings attached. This will be a community event, created for the bewilderment of the masses, and will hopefully appear in scrapbooks from our era as Sarg’s Serpent was an historical marker and marvel. I would like to situate this reenactment on the banks of Bumpkin Island because the mysterious connotation of island folklore pairs appropriately with the reality of environmental abuse that islands such as Moon and Spectacle have faced. The ambiguity of both public and private communication and performance as it relates to Island venues or the Art world is also noted.

How will you use Feast funding?

I would plan to use money from Feast on materials. The correct fabrics for inflatable functionality can be quite expensive. Also, printing processes, paint, paper, etc used for mysteriously distributed “advertising” will also need to be financially accounted for. My current estimate for the project is about $500-$700. I am willing to put some of my own money toward the project, but would struggle to afford the entire endeavor. The Berwick Research Institute may be able to contribute up to $100.

If you win, what is the expected status of your project by the time of the next Feast?

The piece must be finished before June 14. My project will be affiliated with the following events: Sweat Lodge: An Inflatable Intervention (Friday May 21–Sunday May 23); and the Berwick Research Institute’s Bumpkin Island Art Encampment public visitation (Saturday, July 31–Sunday, August 1).

Proposal: Common Build: A community design-build competition

Valerie Fontana

Describe your project.

I represent a local volunteer-based organization called Common Boston. For the last 4 years, the organization has hosted a festival week that celebrates community and architecture in the many neighborhoods of Boston.

The mission: “Expanding public awareness of the Boston area’s built environment through interactive programs; encouraging collaboration between design professionals and the people who use those designs; promoting good citizenship and action towards a better, more sustainable and equitable urban environment.”

This will be Common Boston’s second annual design-build competition, and will be presented in partnership with LostInBoston (lostinboston.org) and the Center for Future Civic Media at MIT. The 3-day event will take place from June 17 to June 20, at a to-be-announced site in Boston.

Design/build teams will be challenged to improve wayfinding within and between neighborhoods and to make our communities more pedestrian-friendly. By encouraging participants to design and implement projects that will raise awareness of the built environment, improve way-finding, and inspire connections across the urban fabric, the competition will challenge questions related to orientation, “place-making,” and connectivity between Boston’s neighborhoods.

How will you use Feast funding?

We would use it to support the competing teams and awards them for their participation. Teams will fund their own projects (materials) and will rally to meet with community “partners,” come up with a design, and build & install it on their site—all within 72 hours. We hope to offer the “grand prize” of funding the permanent installation of a winning design for the community and we would dedicate the Feast funds to that end.

If you win, what is the expected status of your project by the time of the next Feast?

These projects will remain on-site (a prominent, high traffic site downtown), for the duration of the Common Boston festival week. The public will be invited to watch for free and tour them and even “vote on their favorite.”

“Our project” will be complete June 25th, 2010, when the winners of the competition are announced at an evening awards ceremony. There will be a lot of documentation of the whole process to share with guests at the next Feast.

Proposal: Boston Food Truck Festival

Christine Liu — 1st place $320

Describe your project.

I would like to organize a Food Truck Festival in Boston this summer to highlight the breadth of delicious street food that the Boston area offers, as well as bringing together adventurous and hungry community members to commingle in a festive space. Hot dogs, ice cream, falafel, tea, sandwiches, whatever. Other cities have vibrant food truck scenes—Los Angeles, Austin, Portland Oregon, to name a few—and Boston should deserve to be on that map. The invitation would definitely be open to anyone—so a one-time event, daytime hours during a weekend—with free entry (or a nominal suggested donation), and each truck selling their specific wares. The point is that not all the trucks are in the same place at the same time. We could have some trucks that would sponsor free samples—such as Wheeler’s Ice Cream—and beverage sponsors (Honest Tea? Polar?). It would also be a huge incentive for the food trucks, who can promote their usual hours and site.

How will you use Feast funding?

envision the money would go toward getting the requisite permits and licenses to have all the trucks serve food legally for the one-time event. Additionally, promotional materials like postcards, signage, coffee for the gophers, etc.

If you win, what is the expected status of your project by the time of the next Feast?

Hopefully completed or just about! I think it would be a fabulous thing to do in the thick of July or August.