Relationships and programming ideas include :
• Boston Children ’ s Museum : music and sea life exploration for young children
• Boston Harbor Association : rising tides awareness event
• Fort Point Arts Community : channel art walk
• Common Boston Festival ( BSA / BSA Foundation ): harborwalk tour
• Green Academy : high school student project
• ACE Mentoring : rising tides workshop with architecture / engineering / construction-focused high school students and mentors
• Hull Lifesaving Museum : row to Tidraphone event
• Friends of Fort Point Channel : community liaison
Additional publicity partnerships have been discussed with the Boston Society of Architects and the BSA Foundation .
Realities of public art
In our experience moving Tidraphone from concept to reality , we encountered many unexpected barriers and difficult city processes . While the design competition we initially entered was intended to help young Boston artists create innovative , quick , low-liability installations , our path to installation was fraught with red tape and required a great deal of invention and research on
our part . This complex system ultimately engenders an art scene where the creation of publicly-funded public art is reasonably accessible only to existing non-profits , foundations , or artists with deep pockets .
As practitioners , we learned we ’ d be spending most of our pro-bono time managing relationships , and legal and permit issues . While some knowledge of management and logistical constraints are essential to good design , we believe that there is a balance . A better logistical support system for public art that helps artists navigate these issues will result in less stress for the ( often unpaid ) artists , better quality work , and encourage diversity in the field of artists who consider entering competitions .
Funding structure
One organizational hurdle proved especially difficult for us . Our team had to take on the risk of personally fronting the entire $ 9,000 in grant funding . Our two grants are disbursed on a reimbursement basis , backed by receipts . The repayment of our expenses can take anywhere from one to two months . One ramification is that we were unable to start purchasing materials for the project fabrication immediately , as we would have been able to do if all awarded grant funds were disbursed outright . The financial situation left us operating under added anxiety , stressed over whether and when we would be repaid or left standing with debt if support for the project fell through , all the while working diligently
Boston Society of Landscape Architects Fieldbook
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