Spiral Wetland is an outdoor eco-art project by artist Stacy Levy that was inspired by Robert Smithson’s famous outdoor sculpture Spiral Jetty. The project is supported by the Walton Art Center as part of the Artosphere Festival in Fayetteville Arkansas.

Levy created Spiral Wetland with one specific goal in mind: to improve the water quality of Lake Fayetteville. The project consists of a 129 foot long spiral floating wetland that is made with native soft rush, Juncus effusus, growing in a closed cell foam mat, anchored to the lake’s floor. The plants help remove excess nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus from the lake water, and add shade for fish habitat. The installation will remain until the summer of 2014 at which time sections of the wetland will be adopted and transplanted into other wetlands and retention basins in the region.

Last year, Levy unveiled a Straw Garden at the Seattle Center in Seattle, WA. Additional information about the artist can be found on her website.

All images courtesy of the Fayetteville Flyer

The route will begin at a location TBD in North Park and will conclude at Art Produce (3139 University Ave, San Diego, CA 92104). Participants must be able to walk, run, and/or roll the entire route. The route will not exceed 1 mile in length.

The Green Art Parade will occur on two dates, Saturday, July 13, 2013 and Saturday, August 10, 2013 from 7:00 – 8:00pm. An artist’s reception at the Art Produce gallery and garden will immediately follow each event. The parade will coincide with North Park’s Ray@Night (www.northparkarts.org/).

To extend the ephemeral nature of the parade, Green Public Art Consultancy intends to exhibit a number of Green Art Parade entries in the Art Produce gallery and garden space from July 8, 2013 – August 18, 2013. Art Produce is a unique, artist-run, storefront exhibition space and public art experience in North Park, San Diego. The gallery, entirely visible from the sidewalk, is designed to accommodate sculptural installations, cross-disciplinary works, digital media, and performance events. www.artproduce.org/

ELIGIBILITY: This call is open to all artists residing in Southern California. Artists living in San Diego are especially encouraged to apply.

CRITERIA: Selected artists / teams will have experience creating artworks that express green design theories, utilize green materials and techniques, or express a significant
environmental concern; have previously demonstrated a successful collaboration on a
project; and are available to participate in a minimum of two public art parades.

DEADLINE: Submission materials are due May 15, 2013 by 5:00pm via email to:
info@greenpublicart.com. Selected artists notified on May 20, 2013 with an official
invitation to participate.

ABOUT THE CURATOR: Rebecca Ansert, founder of Green Public Art Consultancy, is an art consultant who specializes in public art project development and management, artist
solicitation and selection, and creative community involvement for private and public agencies. She earned a master’s in Public Art Studies at the University of Southern California and has a unique interest in how art can demonstrate green processes or utilize green design theories and techniques in LEED certified buildings. She founded her Los Angeles-based firm in 2009 in an effort to advance the conversation of public art’s role in green building. For more info: www.greenpublicart.com

TO APPLY: The following materials must be received by 5:00pm, Wednesday, May 15, 2013:
1. Submit all materials to info@greenpublicart.com in one pdf document labeled:
ArtistName.ProjectName.2013
2. Cover page: Name, Organization (if applicable), Address, Phone, Email, Website, and Narrative bio/artist statement (100 words or less)
3. A one-page letter of interest describing your proposed project / performance / spectacle
4. Five digital work samples of similar past projects. Identify each project with a title, dimensions, location, and year. Video clips should be no more than 5 minutes long each and included as links to YouTube, Vimeo, or your website.
5. Resume and website (limit to one-page please)

SCHEDULE
May 15, 2013 Artists submit application materials listed above
May 20 Artists notified of selection; Artists begin working with Green Public Art Consultancy immediately upon selection
Saturday, July 13 Artist participates in Green Art Parade #1
6:00pm Artist arrives at parade start route
9:30pm Artist removes artwork from Art Produce
Saturday, August 10 Artist participates in Green Art Parade #2
6:00pm Artist arrives at parade start route
9:30pm Artist removes artwork from Art Produce
August 18 Exhibition closes

BUDGET: While Green Public Art Consultancy believes in paying all artists for their time, this project is strictly voluntary and does not have funding available for artist fees or materials. Green Public Art fully supports artists who wish to find outside funding to realize their project.

QUESTIONS: Please contact Rebecca Ansert, rebecca@greenpublicart.com or 424-229-2257

On Sunday, April 7th the United States Green Building Council Los Angeles Chapter joined Green Public Art on a tour of architecture, public art and nature at Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park, 10700 W. Escondido Canyon Drive, Agua Dulce, CA 91390.

The day began with a tour both the Vasquez Rocks Interpretive Center and the accompanying green public artwork. The building, designed by Gruen Associates, is Los Angeles County’s first LEED Platinum building and the artwork, by artist team Didier Hess (Jenna Didier and Oliver Hess), is the Los Angeles County Arts Commission‘s first “green” art project.

At noon, we met for lunch under the trees in the outdoor amphitheater for a brief presentation from one of the Vasquez Rocks docents about the animal sanctuary on-site. Around 1:00pm we gathered for a Vasquez Rocks ranger-led hike and history presentation along the geology trail.

Speakers bios:

Rebecca Ansert, founder of Green Public Art Consultancy, is an art consultant who specializes in public art project development and management, artist solicitation and selection, and creative community involvement for private and public agencies. She earned a masters in Public Art Studies at the University of Southern California and has a unique interest in how art can demonstrate green processes or utilize green design theories and techniques in LEED certified buildings. She founded her Los Angeles-based firm in 2009 in an effort to advance the conversation of public art’s role in green building. Rebecca consulted as a Civic Art Project Manager for the Los Angeles County Arts Commission from 2008-2013 and oversaw the Vasquez Rocks project from inception through completion.

Craig Biggi, LEED AP BD+C, is a Principal Associate at Gruen Associates, a Los Angeles-based firm which focuses on architecture, planning and interiors. He brings nearly 20 years of experience as a lead designer for a wide variety of award winning project types including commercial, education, civic and public architecture. His design experience includes multiple LEED certified projects throughout Southern California. Craig is a National Member of USGBC as well as USGBC Los Angeles.

Michael Colton, LEED AP BD+C, is an architectural and urban designer at Gruen Associates. While at Gruen, Michael has worked on a wide range of architecture and planning projects including Vasquez Rocks Interpretive Center, 710 Freeway Corridor Urban Design and Aesthetic Treatment Guidelines, the Lake Elsinore Key to Downtown Plan, and Redlands Passenger Rail EIR. In addition, he has worked on a number of sustainable master planning projects in the U.S. as well as Australia.

Artist Oliver Hess, is interested in the hidden infrastructures that support our world; the implicit heirarchies, natural and manufactured that create the reality that sustains us. His projects attempt to identify and recast these forces through technology and alternative sensual modalities. For 8 years, Oliver worked with Jenna Didier to develop Materials & Applications, a center for landscape and architecture research in Los Angeles where they also designed several public art projects. The artwork at the project site, Orit Haj, is the result of their curiosity with rammed earth, erosion, and sculpture of social use.

The sculpture evokes the shape of the unique formations at Vasquez Rocks and is inviting to the human hand to touch it and visitors to climb on it. As people return to the Vasquez Rocks at various points in their lives, the sculpture, like the rocks, will be changing, their contours and the artifacts they contain altering in response to both human and natural forces.

Join us for a FREE WORKSHOP on August 18-19 from 9AM-5PM. This unique opportunity is a rare moment to get your hands dirty and participate in the creation of an original work of art. The program is designed for ANYONE (artist, architect, designer, community member) interested in learning the ancient sustainable craft of rammed earth.

The workshop series invites the public to make a giant rammed earth time capsule and work on the construction of a new public art sculpture for the new Interpretive Center at Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park (10700 West Escondido Canyon Road, Agua Dulce, CA 91390). The series is free to the public; no experience is necessary. To register please contact Jenna Didier at jenna@emanate.org or 323-913-0915.

The series is led by Didier Hess (Jenna Didier and Oliver Hess), creators of the sculpture, and rammed earth expert Andreas Hessing of Scrubjay Studios. who will offer hands-on teaching of this ancient sustainable building technology in which earth is combined with a small amount of concrete. Participants will learn what applications are appropriate for rammed earth, how to test soil to see if it is feasible for use in construction, how to amend soil, build forms and tamp soil into load-bearing walls and benches in the production of a permanent public artwork.

Weekend Workshops: August 18-19, 9:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. both days at Vasquez Rocks Interpretive Center construction site, Agua Dulce, CA: full-scale construction of rammed earth project, participants can bring objects of their own to place in the rammed earth / time capsule.

Bag lunch Noontime lectures by experts, August 18-19, 12:00 p.m., on local pre-history, ancient rock art and geology. The public is welcome to attend these, bring a bag lunch, see the progress of the sculpture as it is being constructed on-site and bring an artifact to drop into the rammed earth time-capsule!

BRING: sunhats, water, sunblock, notebook, close-toed shoes and artifacts to add to the rammed earth time capsule

The sculpture, designed by artist team Didier Hess (Jenna Didier and Oliver Hess) and commissioned by the Los Angeles County Arts Commission’s Civic Art Program, reflects, on a small scale, the geological forces that shaped the monumental formations of Vasquez Rocks. Encased within the earthen sculpture will be a bronze sculpture that will gradually be revealed over time as the softer rammed earth erodes away.

“We hope through our work to not only shift the scale of the geological forces to a more comprehensible size for visitors,” say Didier and Hess, ”but also to show that just beneath, or even on the surface of our surroundings, there are traces of people who were here before us.”

Under the Civic Art Program, one percent of construction costs of all Los Angeles County capital projects over $500,000 are set aside for the incorporation of civic art. Since its inception in 2004, The Los Angeles County Arts Commission Civic Art Program has implemented scores of projects for a variety of County facilities and manages the growing number of artworks that are included in the County’s collection. Rebecca Ansert, Founder of Green Public Art Consultancy, is the project manager for the Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park Interpretive Center artwork. For more information about the Civic Art Program: http://www.lacountyarts.org/civicart.htm.

As a sculptor, Stacy Levy uses art as a vehicle for translating the patterns and processes of the natural world into the language of human understanding. Her projects are designed so that the site tells the ecological story of itself. Meshing the clarity of maps and diagrams, and the accessibility of science with the visceral sense of the site, Levy tries to create an instant wonder and understanding for the viewer.

Straw Garden is a six month project at the Seattle Center in Seattle, WA. The piece is made of erosion control wattles, in the shape of a baroque garden that spools out into a watershed form; all planted in native species of perennials and shrubs. At the end of the exhibition and the growing season, the garden will be divided and delivered to other landscapes in need of restoration and erosion control.

Straw Garden uses modern landscape restoration materials in a baroque garden configuration. The symmetrical parterre are based on Le Notre’s design for Versailles. The straw wattles are most commonly used for sedimentation control while the coir (coconut fiber) wattles are used for erosion control, on slopes and stream banks. The baroque garden relied on two views, from within the garden and from high above in the manor house. This new garden also has multiple vantages: the lawn, and the elevated views from the monorail and space needle. This temporary work will have a second life as a plant source for landscapes that need restoration and native plant diversity. In several years the wattles will biodegrade, while the native perennials continue to take root and thrive.

Straw Garden is part of The Next Fifty Seattle Center 2012, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair, exploring critical issues affecting the Pacific Northwest and the world, and creating synergies that inspire a shared future vision.

Lessons from Social Entrepreneurs: How to Add Value to Your Organization and Career

Emerging Arts Leaders/Los Angeles presents its day-long 2012 Creative Conversations Event

Tickets Available Now!

Social entrepreneurs seek to satisfy unmet needs within the community by growing an organization that often has a heartfelt and unprecedented mission that aligns with the founder’s personal values. At Emerging Arts Leaders/Los Angeles, we represent a groundswell of young professionals coming up in established organizations or looking to start our own. Often our members have a young, fresh perspective on social/community needs that no one else is addressing. Indeed, many older arts organizations often find themselves behind the curve when it comes to spotting new trends or opportunities for growth in the community.

April’s Creative Conversation will give us insights from entrepreneurs as to how we can identify unmet needs in our community or organization, and show us how we can shape our work to meet those needs. We will explore challenges our speakers have faced and the creative and logistical know-how they drew upon to face those challenges. By looking at our work through an entrepreneurial lens, even if it’s just an exercise for those who do not seek to build our own organizations, we will make ourselves and our points of view invaluable to our organizations and community, and find opportunities to advance our careers.  We’ll have the opportunity to join one another in group discussions and activities – who knows, you could meet your next collaborator on an entrepreneurial venture!

Saturday, April 21, 10:15am-3:30pm
Plaza de la Raza
Cultural Center for the Arts & Education
3540 North Mission Road
Los Angeles, CA 90031

PARKING: Use the lot directly in front of Plaza de la Raza or nearby street parking.

A catered lunch from Panera Bread is included in your ticket price. Within your purchase confirmation email you will be provided with an email address in case you need to indicate any dietary restrictions.

Finally, we hope you’ll join us afterward for Happy Hour at: Barbara’s at The Brewery
620 Moulton Avenue #110
Los Angeles, CA 90031

Driving directions to our Happy Hour location will be provided at the event.

10:15-10:30am: Registration

10:30-10:45am: Opening Remarks

10:45-11:45am: Keynote

Terence McFarland, Chief Executive Officer, LA Stage Alliance

11:45am-12:45pm: Lunch & Youth Mariachi Ensemble Performance

12:45-2:05pm: Your Arts Career Through an Entrepreneurial Lens

• Rebecca Ansert, Founder & Principal, Green Public Art Consultancy
• Edgar Arceneaux, Executive Director, Watts Tower Project
• Molly Cleator, Owner/Founder, A Place to Create
• Judy Tatum, Independent Non-Profit Consultant

2:05-2:45pm: Applying Entrepreneurial Thinking to Your Personal Goals: Small Group Discussions

2:45-3:15pm: Right Brain Entrepreneurism: Creative Collaborative Activity

Molly Cleator will lead us through a fun and energizing creative activity.

3:15-3:30pm: Final Wrap-Up & Depart for Happy Hour at Barbara’s at The Brewery!

Tickets Available Now!

Over the past 6 years the students at the high school, under the guidance of Tammy Bird, have transformed a neglected lot on school grounds into a thriving educational garden. The project has been fully funded by small grants or donations. Organizations like Tree People donated over a hundred fruit trees to the neighborhood, many of which found homes in the Carson High School Garden. The organization has also hosted tree pruning events to teach the students how to maintain their orchard. Kellogg Garden Products has donated soil and organic fertilizer.

Tammy likes to operate under the radar which allows her a certain amount of freedom. She encourages the students to take ownership of the projects that take place in the garden. Some recent inventions include re-purposing discarded industrial materials (AC fans, trash cans, a tractor, many of which are found in their schools “graveyard”, a place adjacent to the garden where discarded materials remain until they are taken to the dump) into planters, functional wind machines, and a slow roast pit. Tammy and the students proudly showed off their newly installed windmill (the first in the neighborhood!), functional solar panels (recycled from CAL Trans) to circulate the pump in their micro-climate pond, composting bins, and plans for a green wall and mosaic art wall.

Thanks to maverick teachers like Tammy Bird a population of children in Los Angeles is being introduced to nature in a meaningful way. I am hopeful that there are more stories like this one out in our broken education system. **I failed to take any pictures during my tour (big fail!) but have included these which I found in a google search.

The second edition (scheduled release unknown), will include pros and cons, lifecycle carbon costs, and more detailed diagrams of the technologies.

The competition is free and open to everyone. Designers, artists, engineers, architects, landscape architects, university students, urban planners, scientists and anyone who believes that the world can be powered beautifully and sustainably are encouraged to enter. Download the RFP here. Deadline: July 1, 2012

Robert Ferry & Elizabeth Monoian conceptualized the Land Art Generator Initiative in the fall of 2008 shortly after moving to Dubai. The project was strongly founded by the spring of 2009 and they continue to work tirelessly to nurture and promote the concept of aesthetics and renewable energy with the goal of seeing to the construction of the first large-scale public art works that generate utility grid electricity in clean and sustainable ways.

In January of 2010 LAGI put out an international call to artists, architects, scientists, and engineers to come up with both aesthetic and pragmatic solutions for the 21st century energy crisis. The 2010 LAGI design competition was held for three sites in the UAE and received hundreds of submissions from over 40 countries. View entries from the last competition.