Have a story about the night sky? Houston artist Erika Blumenfeld is collecting star-gazing stories for her SkyScrolls:Houston project, part of the Insta11ations initiative. The public artwork hopes to illuminate our relationship with the stars and will include personal stories from 30 individuals in the Houston area that are marked by the experience of seeing the night sky.
Participants are encouraged to use their native language in a way that will help others “visualize your experience vividly,” and can submit their stories here. Submissions are open to all ages, and are due by March 16th, 2020. You can submit more than one story, but there is a 300-word limit. Skyscrolls will be created in Houston city council district D, and submissions coming from residents of that district will be given priority. (Unsure of which district you live in? Here is a map.)
The opening date for Skyscrolls: Houston is yet to be announced, but the artwork will be on view from the spring through the fall of 2020.
A recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship and Smithsonian Fellowship, Erika Blumenfeld is an independent, research-based artist focused on the wonder of natural phenomena and the human relationship with the natural world. She works frequently with scientists and research institutions like NASA to produce art across a variety of media, from sculpture to video installation and painting.
Visit Insta11ations’ website for an interactive map of the projects, and for more information on the artists, please go here.
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Insta11ations is a series of 11 public artworks, each placed in a different district of the city of Houston. The initiative is a pilot project of the City of Houston Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs and Art League Houston, with funding made available through Houston Arts Alliance.
Eleven artists were selected based on how they visualize public art and experiment with the idea of public spaces. The selected artists were also chosen for how they approached the topics of social justice and equity in their work. Engaging and empowering communities through their stories, and finding a platform for those stories and histories, were all part of the criteria for selecting the Insta11ations artists.
