Contest to Spiff Up Construction Sites
The urbancanvas Design Competition recently asked professional artists and designers to envision construction structures as blank slates for artwork. The temporary art will liven up construction fences, sidewalk sheds and support scaffolding. Finalists in the competition will be decided in a public vote, all of which you can find more about here. The contest reminded…
The urbancanvas Design Competition recently asked professional artists and designers to envision construction structures as blank slates for artwork. The temporary art will liven up construction fences, sidewalk sheds and support scaffolding. Finalists in the competition will be decided in a public vote, all of which you can find more about here. The contest reminded us of the murals that sprang up last month on three stalled construction sites in Downtown Brooklyn (pictured). It’s great to see artwork like this pop up!
It doesn’t look like the artists work for free if they win… The winning designs each pay $7500. And wouldn’t it be great if Celebrate Brooklyn did the same thing and got better T-shirt art next year?
Look, if I had to enumerate the times people have asked me to buy into that “Lust for Life” crap, expecting I should do artwork because of “love”, I’d be counting all day. Nobody asks a plumber to work on spec because of passion, but it’s easy to imgine an artist’s time is worth nothing.
Another line on your CV is worthless unless you can turn it into rent. WPA for artists would be great. Hell, I’d be happy if I could just collect unemployment now and then.
Could we not pay them? WPA for artists 2010.
Love it. I always admired the lovely construction fences in Madrid, London and Paris. Downtown Alliance has been doing this for a while also, the Walking Men fence at 99 Church St. is very cool ( http://www.downtownny.com/reconstruction ). And I am sure the artists who agree to take on these projects are happy to get the exposure and a new line of their CVs.
It sounds like a wonderful project. What a great idea–to take some of the ugliness out of the many construction sites all over the city, and turn them into pieces of art that just might brighten up the day of crabby, cynical pedestrians who have to walk past them on their daily commute.
Explain to me why it’s ok to ask professional artists to work for free? I’d love to see a contest asking RE Brokers to do anything for free.
orrrrrr… you could just kick it old school under the cover of night.