Open Call: Guardians of Flushing Bay Artist Workshop Series
Image Credit: Cody Herrmann
02.23.23
Guardians of Flushing Bay (GoFB), in partnership with the Queens Museum (QM) and artist Julia Norton, is producing an artist-led workshop series to culturally daylight Flushing Creek in Flushing Meadows Corona Park (FMCP). Three Queens-based artists will be selected through this open call to develop and lead a public workshop each.
About the Project
Bringing Water to Light: An Artist Workshop Series for Flushing Creek introduces the concept of the cultural daylighting of Flushing Creek. Half a mile of Flushing Creek, which flows through the center of FMCP, was artificially forced into underground pipes for the construction of the 1939 World’s Fair grounds. Daylighting, or restoring buried creeks and streams into above-ground habitats, has immense benefits for social-ecological health and climate resilience. Cultural daylighting reveals the buried water while it’s still underground—bringing attention to the underground path of the water through art interventions and cultural practices.
Proposal Guidelines
Artists: Queens-based artists or collaborator teams of any discipline are encouraged to apply by submitting a workshop proposal.
Location and length: Each workshop will be 3 hours long, beginning and ending at the Queens Museum. Workshops may move through any section of the park (Meadow Lake, Fountain of the Planets, etc.) to examine Flushing Creek or remain in the museum for the duration of the program. The workshops may incorporate the examination of QM’s permanent collection, such as QM’s Watershed Model.
Outcomes: The goal of each workshop will be to produce creative visual materials or content that reveals Flushing Creek, and that can be used to engage local park users in the future possibility of daylighting Flushing Creek.
Successful open-call applicants will propose a workshop that accomplishes the following:
1) Teaches participants about how Flushing Creek moves through Flushing Meadows Corona Park.
2) Centers ecology or uses earth-based materials.
3) Engages in questions of ecological justice, land use, and preservation.
Commitment
Selected artists will participate in a GoFB-led Flushing Creek walking tour to understand the path of the creek, prior to the realization of the workshop.
Artists must be available for one of the four workshop dates.
GoFB and Julia Norton will support artists in adjusting their workshops as needed for QM approval prior to realization.
Artists will be compensated $700 for leading a workshop and $250 is provided for workshop materials. Professional photographers will document each workshop.
Deadline
Applications will be accepted until Friday, March 10, 2023 at 5pm.
Selected applicants will be notified by Friday, March 17, 2023.