It has only been a month since our year-one update, but plenty happened in June. Thank you for sticking around to read more.
Bring your curiosity, respect the space, and leave with something beautiful.
-from “The Patron's Field Guide to Festivals”
Kabinet updates: The total number of pieces collected/entrusted so far for the inaugural Kabinet launch has reached 323, including 52 sculptures. Thank you to every artist and partner contributing to the Kabinet launch.
We finished a sculpted design for the doors after two months with Anatoly, only to find that this was completely impractical and would have tripled the cost of fabrication. This is the only time you’ll see the bas-relief trees. We’re going for function over form and the updated doors will have a natural-looking faux-leather panel of instructions and the charter information instead. Current launch projected for end of September.
The last UX steps are around ensuring that each Kabinet can endure half a million interactions without falling apart.
CDBG: In an extremely compressed timeline (less than 18 hours), we learned about, found a fiscal sponsor, applied for, and submitted a Community Development Block Grant application for a project we’d been considering on a much slower, self-funded timeline. We heard very early through the grapevine the project was liked and moving to committee review. Fingers-crossed, execution following this design and engineering Phase 1 project, if selected for funding, could accelerate delivery by more than a year. It is a mobile, physical infrastructure project meant to serve as a ‘test kitchen’ for up to 2,000 maker microenterprises every year. This original concept was created by Kairos Guild after listening to artists, patrons, and policy makers discuss their views on public art and spatial justice at the NEFA 50th Anniversary Celebration at the Zeiterion Theater in New Bedford, MA. We have already sent out a Request For Qualifications to four manufacturing facilities as we plan for the construction phase.
Discourses: We published a new web site section called “Discourse” which launched with 8 articles in a handful of categories. This is a free resource library for artists. Repeatedly we have found artists paying for business coaching and receiving poor advice, however well-intentioned. The resources here give artists agency in operating their microenterprise. All issues addressed include fixes and/or ways to independently measure when something is working and what to do when it’s not. As you build an arts enterprise, we don’t want you to be dependent on or paying for examples that don’t actually help you build a business. More articles are being added regularly. Topic suggestions are welcome.
Next project: We hinted at a new project coming soon. It is still a couple months away, but it involves rescuing abandoned artworks.
Here you can see the personally constructed photography setup to document the ‘as discovered’ artworks. Some half-inch plywood, very expensive and durable gallery gray paint, a hanging system that accommodates all sizes of artwork and doesn’t harm the wall, and balancing mechanisms that prevents a keystone effect in photographs, plus provides an actual drop-shadow.
Since the platform we’re using to showcase this new project has now revealed that their roadmap will not include features we requested, we’re moving ahead with a revised plan and not waiting for further software development before launch.