St. Elizabeth's Art and Humanities Festival

As I travel the journey of community design, I constantly look for a better understanding of makes a community. Though I can easily look the meaning of community in the dictionary, I want to understand it through experience. 

This past Saturday, August 17th, at the St. Elizabeth East Arts and Humanities Festival, I experienced what I have been looking for, community.  I intended to only be there for two hours but ended up staying the entire festival. I had so much fun watching community members dance, talk, eat, and laugh together. I even joined in the fun, grooving to the famous go-go music that I love. 

Love this mural. Silhouette of Chuck Brown "It don't mean a thing if it ain't that togo swing"

 Native American history in Anacostia

Audience participates in learning traditional hoop dance. 

These little ones know how to get down. 

Yep, he's doing the robot. 

D.C. GoGo!!!!

Lumen8 Finale

August 10, 2013 marked the finale of Lumen8's month long festivities. The finale kicked-off with presenting Luis Peralta Del Valle, a local Ward 8 resident and artist, the second annual East of the River Distinguished Artist Award, presented by ARCH Development Corporation and the Gautier Family. I have had the pleasure of knowing Peralta for the past year and witnessing his accomplishments in the art world. His artwork consists of more than what is painted on the canvas, there are histories that lie throughout each stroke.  I believe that the following words some up his values and work as an artist:

Art is to be used as a teaching top to help people understand each other's faiths and cultures. the ate have the power to influence any society and artists are responsible for spreading a message of hope.

Peralta Del Valle runs the Luis Peralta Art and Design Company where he helps other artists gain exposure for their artwork and connect art advocates and collectors with local artists. 

Make sure to visit : www.luisperaltagallery.com 

The future of a neighborhood

This blog is a tool for me to record my thoughts, ideas, and inspiration as I journey this year into my masters thesis project. The final product is a designed space that utilizes public art to bring people together, catalyzing dialogue and communication between users. 

I have been asked by many, why Anacostia? Over the years SE Anacostia has been asscociated with crime, drugs, and poverty, a picture that causes many outsiders to avoid this area at all costs. Though Anacostia and surrounding neighborhoods do hold some of the highest rates of crime and poverty in D.C. there is more to these urban neighborhoods that meet the eye.

This past year I have been immersing myself within the Anacostia community to gain a better understanding of the social and environmental relationships within the neighborhoods. In addition, I'm at the stage of design in which an inventory of the site (i.e. natural environment, built environment, amenities, materials, topography).

The following are pictures showing sites of interest for public art. What they have in common is: open space (public/private), high pedestrian and vehicular traffic, and at important nodes within Anacostia. 

To many it may be hard to see the potential, but I see a canvas ready to be painted on. 

I See the Light

Just another way of expressing ones thoughts or ideas. I find Jung Lee's execution of communication to engage the reader into a thought provoking dialogue with the site. Using light as his medium, Jung Lee stages these provoking words/statements within a site that provides an appropriate background for the message. 

May I sit there?

Sitting is a position for rest. A rest from the hustle and bustle of life. It is a time to be alone or in conversation with others. I have observed a significant shift in how we think about seating. A little imagination has transformed the tradition park bench into functional forms of artwork. We live in a diverse world, each of us having unique preferences; seating should allow for this fact of life. 

SWA 

What I love about this is the set up of chairs and tables within the semi-circle structure. There is a clear division of spaces, yet still permeability throughout the entire site. 

Tianjin Bridged Gardens/Qiao Yuan Park by Turenscape

Love the simple forms of the colorful benches, as well as how they conform to other design elements such a as the paving and the inlaid planters. 

Plaza-Euskadi-by-Balmori-Associates-08

Nap time.

MNLA

Hafencity Public Space

malpica harbour