Studio in the Park is a residency program developed by the Queens Museum and ArtBuilt which provides an artist or artist collective use of a 150 square foot mobile studio space situated on the lawn between the Museum and the iconic Unisphere in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. Selected artists carry out a public art project over the course of 4-6 weeks.
The second resident artist of 2017 will be Nick Kozak who will be working on Citizens of Earth, a social art performance, this autumn in Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens. Through this piece, both performers and participants are able to generate a mutual understanding of their collective global heritage.
Citizens of Earth is a social sculpture, focusing on a dialogue of immigration and ancestry stories. Upon interacting with the piece, participants are encouraged to share their stories through the creation of a global passport. This is done with the assistance of New York City public school students who serve as diplomats, many who are first-generation Americans or immigrants themselves.
The mobile studio parked in front of the museum will serve as a passport-processing booth for the duration of the project. Local student diplomats will be there to provide documentation for anyone who needs it, asserting each human’s freedom of travel throughout the globe. Participants will also be encouraged to share their own immigration and ancestry stories in a sonic library, which will eventually be shared as a multilingual resource with residents of Queens and beyond.
Nick Kozak is an artist educator based in New York. He attended the State University of New York at New Paltz, where he studied Art History and Art Education. Later, he completed a Masters at New York University in Arts Education, where he also teaches. He has been a New York City public school teacher for nine years at Hunter Science High School, focusing on Art History and general awesomeness. In addition to Citizens of Earth, he is currently developing a body of work related to living in the Anthropocene. More than often he makes food for people. Also, he makes art.
Schedule of Public Engagements:
Studio in the Park at the Queens Museum is made possible by Surdna Foundation and The New York Community Trust. Additional support is provided by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
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