NASH Artist Residency | Ben Kinsley

So Ben has worked with us for 2 months.  We have generated dozens of ideas, worked on several and completed four projects thus far.  (See project page)  Art, Music, Writing and Multimedia classes, students and teachers have participated and collaborated.  Reactions to the work by participants and audiences have been enthusiastic.  We need your response and thought about your experience with this artist residency.

Please leave a comment below to let us know how you were involved, ways that this residency was beneficial, things that could have been done differently, challenges you faced and overcame.

Thank you for your participation, thanks to Ben for his hard work and enthusiastic leadership and thanks to the Mattress Factory Museum and the SURDNA Foundation for supporting this program.

We will be touring the Mattress Factory Art Museum On April 12th and April 13th.  The Museum supported by the SURDNA Foundation is sponsoring our artist residency with Ben Kinsley.  The grant also supports these free trips to the Museum.

More Info….

Ben will be back at NASH on Thursday, March 17th to meet with the Multimedia Arts, Advanced Electronic Music, AP Art and Music Classes.  We will begin to choose and focus on projects that will center in these classes.

Other projects can be created by any class or working group,  please leave your ideas here as a comment and/ or contact us by clicking the contact link above.

Here are the notes I took during March 9th’s school tour. In BOLD are things I am particularly excited by:

Potential sites / spaces of interest

auditorium (during study hall?)
grills inside fences (outside). Food art?
Ticket Booth in front of auditorium (fortune teller? tickets for mundane activities?)
enclosed vestibule (what a weird space!)
trophy room / trophy cases (one is empty!)
art gallery / glass enclosure
commons / lunch room (surprise flash mob?)
surveillance cameras (synced performance for each camera?)
unused lockers? (see Locker 50b)
bleachers in Gym (when closed spells “Tigers”. can it be altered to say something else?)
Pool. Canoes! Diving boards! Pirate performance? Walk the plank? Naval battle? (see Duke Riley’s Naval Battle at the Queens Museum)
TV studio / hijacked broadcast (think War of the Worlds Radio Broadcast). Fake news? Performance art? Puppet show?
elevator (human elevator operator?)
library (hidden books? fake books? scavenger hunt?)
smart boards (interactive art installation in unexpected places / classrooms?)
greenhouse
stairwells. acoustic step! reactive musical installation or performance?
parking lot (social space. before/after school. events for cars / in cars / with cars?)
bathrooms  (sound installation? video? animated graffiti?)

Potential events/contexts to respond to and/or within

Prom (themes of memory, aspiration, looking to the future)
End of year art exhibition
Lunch room
study hall
class changes (mini performances or installations that take place within 2 minutes?)
parking lot
traffic jams (found audience)
sports games
morning announcements

Hi all,

I’ve created a YouTube page for this project which you can find in the menu above. This will be a home-base for media for the project as we are developing ideas. Our after-school discussion and site-visits (from March 9th) were captured on video, so be sure to browse these as many ideas were generated and potential sites identified.

Also, I’ve added an “inspiration” page with links to the projects I presented in my original presentation and MORE! Take a look.