Space Savers Project

Artists include:
Piper Brett, Thomas Buildmore, Michael Konrad, Chris Landau, Jebney Lewis and Maria Möller, Isaac Tin Wei Lin, Christopher P. McManus, Benjamin Monette, Brent Wahl and Oscar Wahl, Linda Yun

Public Reception Friday, January 20, 2012 5 – 8PM

The Space Savers Project is a citywide public arts project, inspired by the Philadelphia custom of “saving” on-street parking. Saving public parking spaces, while technically illegal, is widely practiced throughout the city. Items like recycling bins, upturned garbage cans, cinder blocks and broken furniture are traditionally used as space savers. While the objects effectively “save” spaces, they can be visually crude and imply threat/ possession. We called on artists to design and create alternatives to the objects traditionally used to save spaces. This is public art project as well as an environmental and social experiment. We wanted to re-imagine what space saving in the city can look like. We wondered: Can a change in the aesthetics change the message of space saving? Or is the act of space saving immutable? Perhaps by replacing traditional space savers with art, we can transform the practice of saving spaces and begin new community dialogues.

Is saving a parking space with a work of art different than saving one with a cinder block tethered to a street sign? The Space Savers Project may reveal an answer.

The creative goals for The Space Savers Project are:

·      To re-imagine a Philadelphia custom;

·      To transform environments and social customs;

·      To engage viewers outside of traditional gallery spaces.

Contact: thespacesaversproject@gmail.com

The Space Savers Project is supported by Breadboard and Temple Gallery. The Project responds to the Vision Plan of the City of Philadelphia Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy, which encourages more temporary public art programming in Philadelphia including projects that utilize temporary public art to illuminate or address critical civic issues and promote civic engagement and dialogue.

You can also find details about the process at the SPACE SAVERS PROJECT website.
All email inquiries should be directed to thespacesaversproject@gmail.com

The Space Saver Project consists of:
1) Artist Proposal Submission Period
August 1, 2011 – 5:00PM September 4, 2011
2) Artist Selection
September 07, 2011
20 artists will be selected to create their Space Savers and participate in both the On-Street-Exhibition and Esther M. Klein Gallery exhibition.
3) Space Savers Teaser at Temple Gallery
November 09 – December 07, 2011
One of the artists selected will be asked to display his/ her work in the Temple Gallery during its focus on Urban Spaces.
4) On-Street-Exhibitions and Tour
November 12 & 13, 2011
5) Gallery Exhibition at Breadboard’s EKG Gallery
December 9, 2011 – February 3, 2012