Dear Artists, Community Members, and Whittier Parents:
We’d like to invite you to participate in a collaborative community design event (charette) on March 9, 2013, 8:30 am – 1:00 pm.
Background: Ada County Highway District begins construction of a ¬5-lane boulevard adjacent to Whittier Elementary School, beginning Februrary 2013. Whittier is a Title 1 school with students who speak more than a dozen different languages and come from all over the world. The school’s playground backs onto the new road, anticipated to be named Whitewater Park Boulevard.
Project: A group of neighbors, parents, artists and other community members are leading an effort to create an artful boundary between the schoolyard and the new boulevard. The charette is a half-day brainstorming activity to source and modify ideas for this project. Community members and artists from multiple disciplines are invited: landscape designers, glass artists, metal artists, architects, painters, sculptors, mixed-media artists, graphic designers and those with knowledge of the neighborhood and school. Did we leave out your expertise? We still want you there!
Project Components: The proposed project/art piece will combine art and function to reflect the character of the diverse neighborhood known as The 30th Street Neighborhood. The boundary-to-be is anticipated to be funded by a series of grants to be written in 2013. Installation is projected to begin June 2014. We anticipate a call for artists to design and install the selected artwork.
Reasons to participate:
• Brainstorm ideas for a new public art project
• Get involved with this grass-roots effort in Boise, Idaho to create a work of art in the 30th Street Neighborhood, a neighborhood on the cusp of great change and prepped to blossom creatively, socially and economically
• Find out more about the neighborhood cultural arts plan which identi¬es public art opportunities and de¬nes the neighborhood voice
• Blow your mind with participants who will step up your creative thinking early in the morning
• We will provide breakfast and plenty of snacks
When: March 9, 2013 | 8:30 am to 1pm
Where: Whittier Elementary School, 301 N. 29th (At Je erson)
Who: You and representatives from Boise School District, Ada County Highway District, Whittier Elementary School, Veterans Park Neighborhood Association & City of Boise
If you can join us, please RSVP to Elizabeth Rodgers by March 1st by emailing her at emailerodg@gmail.com. We’ll send an agenda in late February to those who respond to this invitation.
Thank you for your involvement in the cultural life of Boise!