It’s Back On!

Love that poem, Jessica! Neighborhood Housing Services is lucky to have such a talented representative!

Am a self-proclaimed Philanthropist on a Budget. No Trust Fund Baby scratch, just my hard earned dollars. I donate annually to the United Way, so how is the Great Give different?

"When Doves Cry" on accordion & fiddle — sounds amazing! Thanks, Adam & Brian!

Site Projects got air-play on WNHH last night @ 8 pm. We were expecting to make a

pitch, give performance, and be interviewed. Tom Breen did a short interview --

thank you, Tom – and our very own Megan Miller did her sit-down, stand-up comedy

routine but I didn't get to make my pitch.

Here, then, is my pitch for Site Projects:

What makes Site Projects unique and uniquely worthy of your support?

Site Projects is the new kid on the block. At 13 years old, we are young with a small staff

of part-part- timers and a Board of 15. We are still finding our way, that is, finding the

best way to create stunning and iconic artworks in New Haven's public spaces.Our artworks and events are always free, open and physically accessible.

You've probably seen what we do.

The 110 ft tall red-orange mural in Temple Plaza; the 50 large Erector Set boats with the

blue decks in the Farmington Canal almost a decade ago; the balloon sculptures in the

Peabody Museum with the Dinosaurs in 2006; or the three SWOON murals: those are

just a few of our projects.

Site Projects doesn't do this for our own edification. We do this for the City and the

people of NHv. It isn't easy and it isn't cheap. When people give money to Site Projects, we give it back in the form of artworks and art-

related programs. To date, we have invested over $700,000 in commissioned artworks

and related events in New Haven's cityscape.

Our palette is the City's public spaces: parks, trails, streets and sidewalks, underpasses,

abandoned spaces such as the old Farmington Canal. We work all scales from big --

covering the City from NE to SW with Night Rainbow -- to very small with Whispering

Galleries, the interactive digital artwork run on off a computer using the LEAP motion

controller and that tells a real story of working life in New Haven in the 1850's.

The process of producing the pieces is quite complicated: the Night Rainbow was so

large that getting permission from the various Departments of the City resulted in a

blanket presentation with all the dept heads and related State agencies in one room. The

fire marshall, the building inspector, streets and parking, the Coast Guard, CONNDOT:

all had their concerns addressed.

Just adequately insuring some of these pieces has been a learning experience.

Our audiences continue to grow.

After Leo Villareal's digital light sculpture on New Haven Green in 2004 was taken

down from its 4 month exhibition, it happened that I would run into people who would

tell me they heard about the artwork and were sorry they missed it.

I didn't know what to say except: we don't keep it a secret when we are installing the

artworks. But you need to pay attention to what's happening around town.

By the time we exhibited Yvette Mattern's Night Rainbow in 2013, the audience was

huge. Site Projects originally contracted for 5 nights but we just didn't have enough

money to pay the production company except for 4 nights. Even so, people poured

through the city trying to get as close as possible to the origination point of the lights.

We now have a public artwork in digital space: artsitesnewhaven.com.

It is an archive, a digital database of public art in and around the City, currently with 33

listings each with original photographs, essays and interviews. We hope people will use

the public art database to roam the city and explore, to play games, to guide field trips.

Within the next 3 years, there should be 100 public artworks listed on artsitesnewhaven

to showcase a citywide collection of public art that rivals those of Boston and

Providence.Our goal is to turn the City of New Haven into an outdoor museum with public artworks

in every neighborhood and around every corner. The public art movement has definitely

caught on here.