VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITY: SOCIAL MEDIA POSITION AT ART IN ODD PLACES 2012

There are currently open volunteer positions to join the Art in Odd Places team.

http://www.idealist.org/view/volop/WKB4TNH579h4/



SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATOR / INTERN


Art in Odd Places (AiOP) presents visual and performance art in unexpected public spaces. AiOP also produces an annual festival along 14th Street in Manhattan, NYC from Avenue C to the Hudson River each October. Art in Odd Places' mission is to stretch the boundaries of communication in the public realm by presenting artworks in all disciplines outside the confines of traditional public space regulations. AiOP reminds us that public spaces function as the epicenter for diverse social interactions and the unfettered exchange of ideas.

We are seeking a dynamic and creative social media coordinator who can assist our PR strategy and further our branding within the NYC arts community. Ideal candidates must have a strong interest in arts and/or public art; have flexibility and the initiative to work both independently and as part of a team, have demonstrated familiarity across different social media platforms and possess excellent communication and writing skills. This opportunity will allow you the freedom to create/implement strategies and establish digital relationships to boost the organization's online presence. Check out our past festivals and press at www.artinoddplaces.org

AiOP is a grassroots organization with no office so candidate must be prepared to work from home and have computer/cell phone availability. Ideal candidate must commit until the end of the AiOP festival in mid October 2012.


HOW TO APPLY
To apply please send an email and your resume to artinoddplaces@gmail.com

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Art in Odd Places 2011 Kickstarter campaign

Watch the video of the Art in Odd Places Festival Kickstarter campaign to publish a catalogue of the upcoming festival. Listen to our Festival Director, Ed Woodham, as he narrates  his vision for this campaign

To make a pledge, click this link


We appreciate all your help!

Andrew Demirjian's "Scene from Last Week" is looking at you

"Scene from Last Week" ended its run in Midtown East last Thursday. Unbeknownst to everyone,  another element of this piece was the"surveillance" portion, where the work of art was watching you watch it. How meta indeed! The artist, Andrew, shared a couple of videos seeing people react with his piece. Truly interesting.

In collaboration with Art in Odd Places, "Scene from Last Week"  will move to a new place along 14th street ( 218 and 225 W.14th) starting July 15 to August 8.

Enjoy the video and happy fourth of July!

Art in Odd Places at SVA's "Reconfiguring Site" summer intensive (July 11 - August 19)

We are excited to announce that a few  people from the Art in Odd Places team will be a part of SVA's "Reconfiguring Site" program happening this summer. Reconfiguring Site is a six week intensive program looking at interdisciplinary approaches to public art. Our very own Ed Woodham (AiOP Director), Lucia Warck Meister (AiOP 2011 Festival producer) and Erin Donnelly (previous Art in Odd Places curator) will participate as guest lecturers discussing the revitalization of public art.

For more information about the program, visit the SVA website http://reconfiguringsite.sva.edu/

Art in Odd Places in the Press

Read all about Art in Odd Places in the news during the Festival of Ideas NYC ...

Time Out New York

If you’re looking for a design smorgasbord

StreetFest
There’s no way to see everything at this massive street fair, featuring projects from more than 100 artists and collectives (including Broadcastr, Art in Odd Places  (Read more)

Being in Public

StreetFest Success

Last weekend hundreds of organizations participated in The New Museum’s Festival of Ideas- StreetFest, turning the Lower East Side into a dynamic platform for artists, architects,  (Read more ...)

NYC Pix

Art in Odd Places

If you didn’t make it to this weekend’s excellent Festival of ideas for the New City, you’ll have another chance to see the group Art in Odd Places during their annual “ritual” this October.  (Read more ...)

Inhabitat New York City

PHOTOS: The Festival of Ideas...

StreetFest extended into Sarah D. Roosevelt Park where Art in Odd places displayed some odd art in public places. One woman, who could only be described as the Trash Queen, wore a gown create from refuse and proudly strolled along Chrystie Street. (Read more ...)

NYC Arts

Gretchen Vitamvas

Boris Rasin from Concerned New Yorkers



The Gothamist

This past week, we took a look at five architects' futuristic renderings of NYC in the year 2030, which included quite a lot of algae. The project is part of the Festival Of Ideas For The New City, (Read more ...)

Art in Odd Places mention in the Gothamist

Click here to read the Gothamist's coverage of the Festival of NYC mentioning Art in Odd Places

Urban Festival 2011 List Of Performances Revealed.

Here are the street performances along 14th street happening during Urban Festival 2011 to commemorate the bicentennial anniversary of the Commisioner's Grid of Manhattan. We hope to see you around 14th street. Performances starts at 5 pm and ends at 8 pm.

PLATFORM
BroLab Collective
143 west 14th Street

PASSING TIME
Joanna Clark
on the M14 Bus Stop on 7th and 14th, and 77 7th ave (Grocery Store)

NO SHOES, NO PROBLEM
Julian Donahue
roaming performance

URBAN FURNITURE
Dylan Entelis
120 W. 14th Street, between 5th and 6th red and green standpipe about thigh high

SOUL ON A ROLL
Amber Keyser
roaming performance

QUOTATIONS
Laura Oconnor
various subway stations

CAUTION ON 14TH STREET
Michael C. Mangan
multiple temporary signage

SUBWAY ETIQUETTE
Courtney Moore
subway stations on 14th and 6th ave, 14th and 7th avenue

WELCOME TO THE FUTURE!
Eli Rosenbloom
14th @ 7th avenue phone booths

ACCUMULATE RISING HORIZON
Catlin Web

HYDROPHONY
Heather Dewey-Hagborg and Thomas Dexter.
Either the Hudson River or the East River and 14th street

GRID SCENES
The students of "Cinemetrics" and Harmattan Theater
Victoria Marshall, Brian McGrath, Jean Gardner, Jose Dejeus, Ashley Ahn, Atalay Harrison, Kimberly Tate, Ana Maria Ulloa Garzon. Ute Besenecker, Carmen Bouyer, Monica Hofstadter
7-8 pm , 14th street between 5th and 7th Avenue

OPEN CALL FOR ARTISTS: Art in Odd Places 2011

Art in Odd Places 2011: RITUAL

OPEN CALL FOR ARTIST SUBMISSIONS

Art in Odd Places (AIOP) invites artists working across disciplines to propose projects for its seventh installment. Taking place from October 1 to 10, 2011, along 14th Street from Avenue C to the Hudson River in New York City, we encourage proposals that explore this location's rich history, configuration, and heterogeneous communities. The theme for the upcoming edition of AiOP is RITUAL including Ceremony, Habituation, Myth, Obsession, Superstition, Liturgy, and it will be informed by propositions on the sacred and profane in everyday actions of people in public space.

In the contemporary moment, the idea of ritual is a highly provocative concept. It is most commonly linked to the set of actions in religious ceremony or cultural celebrations, but the notion is also applicable to the socializing behaviors performed among individuals in the daily engagement with the social environment and civic space. This edition of AiOP seeks proposals that subtly disrupt the procedures of the everyday or emphasize the ritualistic character of small gestures or acts in both religious and secular life, to establish temporary moments of ecstatic contemplation in the public realm.

AiOP 2011: RITUAL offers artists the opportunity to make art outside formal spaces by reconfiguring their artistic practice as public actions or urban interventions without the confinement of a gallery or museum space. AiOP 2011: RITUAL wants to engage passers-by, providing them with a new perspective of an otherwise familiar environment through site-specific installations, social and spatial interventions, video and audio projects, performance, new media, and other inventive practices. In addressing the distinct manifestations of ritual, the festival aims to broaden the public’s outlook on art, city dwelling, and social conventions.

To apply visit artinoddplaces.org (submit proposal) for full guidelines and application forms.

Proposal Deadline: May 8, 2011

AiOP 2011 Guest Curators: Trinidad Fombella, El Museo del Barrio and Kalia Brooks, MoCADA

AiOP Founder and Director: Ed Woodham

AiOP Festival Producer: Lucia Warck Meister

We look forward receiving your applications!

A video of Art in Odd Places 2010: Sideshow

Once upon a time, the circus freaks decided to infiltrate New York City's 14th Street to kick off Art in Odd Places' festival. It happened on June 22, 2010 at TheaterLab. A video managed to surface documenting the craziness. Video credit goes to Alex Gaylon.

Watch and be mesmerized

Money can't buy you happiness, but you can find it on Jan Sokota's coins

I told you!
Our featured artist this week has a very special place in Art in Odd Places' heart. She has been part of the festival for not just one, not two, but four consecutive year since its 2005 inception. If there is one person aspiring artists should listen to regarding becoming part of this year's festival, that person is Jan Lynn Sokota. Jan is enough of a veteran to impart wisdom on how Art in Odd Places has grown through the years and impacted not only 14th street but the New York Art scene in general.


She chose to talk about her work during Art in Odd Places 2008: Pedestrian, where she used minted "happiness" coins displayed in "random" places along 14th Street. The concept of randomly placed coins is such a great topic to discuss since it definitely oozes this year's theme of "CHANCE". Perhaps this should spark creativity among artists still currently working on their proposals as the deadline of submission approaches (May 14).

Without further adieu, I give you Jan Sokota

Aiop: Tell us about you?
JS: I was born and raised in NY where I received my MA from NYU Gallatin School and BFA from SUNY Purchase. For twenty years I have worked full time in television while spending the other part of my life making art. Each informs the other and it is a very interesting mix of endeavors. I studied photography all my life but my current work, since 2005, is minting coins.
Aiop: How was your Art in Odd Places experience?
JS: I began showing work with Art in Odd Places since its inception in 2005. Thereafter, I was included in the 2006, 2007 and 2008 shows. Ed Woodham is a pleasure to work with as are the curators he chooses for each show. The curators concepts for the shows are always interesting, providing a platform for creative inspiration. Since 2005 I have watched Art in Odd Places grow significantly in many ways. Each year I look forward to this art event whether I am a participant or a viewer.

Aiop: Where did you place your coins along 14th street?
JS: For Pedestrian in 2008, Find Your Happiness 2008e coin was shown at the South West corner of Union Square in the park as well as on 14 Street between Broadway and University.









Aiop: Walk us through your thought process in creating your piece for Art in Odd Places.
JS: My work for each show depended on the concept created for each show. For instance in Pedestrian 2008, I considered how people interact with art on the street. I saw this as a meeting place between them. From there I had to figure out a way to integrate my coins within this space and determine what kind of exchange could take place. There were various incarnations of the final piece which when finalized included visual, auditory, interactive and hidden devices within the exchange between the viewer on the street and the art I produced. For this show I created the Find Your Happiness 2008e coin. The figure on the coin was based on international symbols that instruct people as seen in airports, bathrooms and parks. The text was a short poem of sorts announcing that perhaps a bit of happiness had come their way. The piece included three elements: finding a coin on the street which is fairly commonplace in a large city, secretly disbursing the coins to passersby who would then casually find a coin at a later time in their shopping bag or pocket and having people watch me place the coins in the environment for them to pick up or not. I wanted to use the idea of happiness as something you chance upon in an ordinary day, as in finding a lucky penny.



I receive responses from people all over the world who have found my coins. One email that was particularly interesting stated that finding the coin helped them to make a decision
to go to another country and do volunteer work to help another community. This made me very happy.



Aiop: Any words of wisdom for artists who are interested in becoming part of this year's Art in Odd places festival?
JS: I think the most important ingredient in making art is to be true to your vision or idea and then be objective about what it is that you are making. Try to put yourself in the place of the viewer and see what different perspectives are contained in that alternate view. I think perspective is a very important element when making public art as the general audience who happens upon it is a vastly diverse population of people.

Aiop: What projects are you currently working on?
JS: Currently, I am working on N-DENT (Nix-Dubious Exchange of our National Trade) 2009d which is a series of 50 Statehood Quarters plus D.C. and U.S. Territories totaling 56 quarters that I have engraved with graffiti commemorating a slightly different perspective of each state. I love working on this new piece and the first 6 can be seen at Fuse-Works:




Aiop: I am sure a lot of people would love to contact you. Where can you be reached?
JS: I can be reached at the contact page on my website: http://www.coinartist.com/

Aiop: Any final words?
JS: Art in Odd Places is great! I love the show and hope it continues as an annual art event in New York City for many years to come.

Thank you, Jan! Your responses definitely brought everyone happiness. We hope to see you on this year's festival.

Just a reminder: The deadline to submit artists' proposal is on May 14. Here at Art In Odd Places, we hope that featuring artists who were previously part of the festival on our blog help inspire and motivate people as they go through the application process. Good luck everyone!

As always, the application can be found in the Art In Odd Places website.

Visit the blog for more artists!

Featured Artist: Olek

Art in Odd Places is very pleased to announce its "Open Call for Artist Submission" for the upcoming festival, CHANCE, in October. In lieu of such announcement, our blog will be featuring artists who were part of Art in Odd places in the past to share their experiences and catch up with their latest projects.


First stop, Art in Odd Places recently caught up with artist Agata Oleksiak, or Olek for short. She was one of the artists during the 2009 festival with her dynamic work called "Thank you for your visit, Have a Nice Day". Olek has been featured in The New York Times, CNN, Washington Post, Village Voice and Fiberarts Magazine for her work on mixed media, creating sculptural environments using her amazing crocheting skills. Olek was kind enough to share her thoughts about being part of Art in Odd places.



Aiop: Tell us about Olek, creator of “Thank You For Your Visit, Have a Nice Day”

Olek: I was born Agata Oleksiak in Poland. My English teacher told me “Poland is not ready for you, move to NYC”. I was always a good student, so after spending 22 years of my life in a gray, industrial, close-minded city in the South of Poland I escaped to Brooklyn. I rediscovered my ability to crochet and my crocheted journey/madness started. I cover objects and people as I go or as they enter my space, my life. The crocheted connections are stronger as one fabric, as opposed to separate strands, but if you cut one, the whole thing will fall apart. I like choosing ephemeral materials as a statement of the limited life of an art object, as well as an art concept. Unraveling plays a major part in my performance pieces. I can’t really speak to what I want to reveal—to know that, you’d have to find the end of the string and unravel it.


Aiop: How was your Art in Odd Places experience?

Olek: Overwhelming, exhausting but, most importantly, rewarding and satisfying. I planned to present a one day, 3 hour action that grew into a 4 weekend crocheted full body suits public life installation. I am very pleased with the great publicity that followed the AIOP festival and, in particular, my artistic statement for this venue. I couldn’t have done it without help from my friends, friends of friends and… Joshua Suzanne. She invited my piles of signs and yarn to take over her “Rags and GoGo” store on 14th Street where I was able to outfit my species and store the “props” between the performances.

And I cannot forget about the very close and extremely helpful communication with the curator Radhika Subramaniam. Nothing gives you more energy than a curator that believes in your proposal…then the final product.


I wish AIOP festival had a budget for the artists. I am strongly against the fact that we are constantly asked to produce public art, actions without any artist compensation. Actions like “Thank You For Your Visit, Have a Nice Day” needs performers, suits, coordinators, photographers, videographers, food and drink, washing machine, materials, prints, transport…pain killers…
I wish this venue good luck with making it even more successful and powerful. Raising funds would be the next step!

Finally, as an artist I must say I am especially content with the comments I’ve received from viewers. It is a public work and without the strangers who enter the space of my actions, my work couldn’t be completed. All of the five senses are always heightened as the audience develops new means of interacting with the piece, realizing that their response greatly impacts the art and the ways my forms are moving over time. Their response is the art, and my work is a mirror.












Aiop: Any words of wisdom for artists who are interested in becoming part of this year's Art in Odd places festival?

Olek: Everything takes longer then you think. Weather is unpredictable. Count mostly on yourself. Everything is possible.


Aiop: What projects are you currently working on and where can people reach you?

Olek: I am currently participating in a show at ABC No Rio on the LES. I was able to accomplish my project that was on my mind for 5 years. Please go to 156 Rivington Street and enjoy it. It is a public installation and is waiting for viewers to complete it with their energy.
I am an artist in residence at AAI-LES Rotating Studio Program, where we will have open studio in May.

I am also going to need your clothes for an action “Bring Your Clothes” I am preparing for Brooklyn Museum on June 16th. If you are interested in being a part of my work there by donating your garments, cutting them with me or even crocheting a new piece out of “old”, please send me an email to olek@agataolek.com


And there you have it! Thank you Olek and we look forward seeing your projects.

To check out her show at the ABC No Rio, visit http://www.abnorio.org
To see more of her art work, visit her website at http://www.agataolek.com
To contact Olek or to participate in her upcoming piece for the Brooklyn Museum, email her at olek@agataolek.com

Greetings everyone!


Arts in Odd Places 2010 is in full swing preparing for its festival this October. The theme for this year's festival is:

"CHANCE: Proposition. Luck. Randomness. Risk. Opportunity"

We can't wait to see the submitted artist(s) projects. Please visit our blog for up to date information and artist's profiles.

Here is what's cooking:

a) Announcement of AiOP 2010: CHANCE curators
Currently, Arts in odd places is finalizing the selection of this year's curators. Announcements are coming soon, and we can't wait to introduce them!

b) Call for Artists
- Mark your calendars, everyone!! The call for artist(s)' proposals will post April 1, 2010. Check here for more details.


c) Follow AiOP
There are several ways to follow us:

1) Twitter
2) Facebook
3) Join our mailing list:
4) Click the "Follow" button for gmail users.

What is AiOP?
Arts in a Odd Place (or AiOP) is an annual festival exploring the odd, ordinary and
ingenious in the spectacle of daily life on 14th Street New York City. Visit us often at

http://www.artinoddplaces.org/