By Pam RuBert
Updates
Birdcalls, fragmented art, homeless teens, origami, and the essence of life energy are some of the themes of idea eXploration installations and events sponsored recently at ideaXfactory. These diverse projects merge creative placemaking, community, and art in unique ways to involve a broad mix of participants, as well as bringing together new or unexpected collaborations.
“Qi” – Cloud of Vital Energy
The Chinese concept of “Qi” -- the natural energy, life force, and active principal part of every living being--can also be translated literally as “breath” or “air.” This concept formed the core of Art of Space’s installation covering the ceiling of the ideaXfactory during April and May.
Plain white paper was folded into balloons and inflated through paper straws; photo by Pam RuBert[/caption]
Countless origami balloons were folded from paper and inflated by the breath of participants from Drury University Hammons School of Architecture, students from Ozarks Technical College, at-risk youth from Rare Breed and community members at large.
First Friday visitors make origami balloons to the jazz tunes of Jin J X-Shabazz; photo by Pam RuBert[/caption]
Internal LED diodes and additional external colored lighting illuminated the 2,000-square-foot installation. Some balloons bore identifying fingerprints or other personal marks made by participants using paint during construction. The collective “cloud” became a physical testament to the vital energy of our community.
Qi” – Cloud of Vital Energy being installed by Art of Space; photo by Art of Space[/caption]
RETROfutures Beaux Arts Ball
Working to revitalize the annual Beaux Arts Ball on its 20th anniversary, a large committee of student, faculty, and alumnae collaborators from Drury University School of Architecture chose the ideaXfactory to host the annual event and charity art auction.
Seventy-five artworks were donated by artists and throughout the silent auction were displayed on paper walls illuminated by continually changing colors; photo by Pam RuBert[/caption]
Artist, professor, and now "art auctioneer" Todd Lowery raised money for Rare Breed; photo by Pam RuBert[/caption]
The silent and live art auctions combined raised over $3000 for Rare Breed, a not-for-profit organization serving homeless and high-risk disconnected youth through a street outreach drop-in center and transitional living apartment program.
The dance portion of the evening featured live music of jazz-folk band Smokey Folk and food by Metropolitan Farmer, and the entire evening was well-attended and fun.
The Creative Potential of the Fragment
Visiting artist Alec Shepley’s artistic practice explores urban spaces, the presentation of fragmented work and notions of the unfinished project. Dr. Shepley, who is the head of the School of Art and Design at University of Lincoln, UK, gave a community artist talk at the ideaXfactory presenting the progression of his installation work, moving the studio of the artist into the public realm and involving the public as a participant.
Morning Song / Evening Song
A sound sculpture installation designed and led by architecture professor Gerard Nadeau started with an Audubon workshop about identifying birds by their songs at the ideaXfactory.
Participants were given bright orange ideaXfactory lanyards with wooden Audubon calls, and they dispersed on Park Central Square between other First Friday events to create an improvisational song of birdcalls at sunset.
Community members participate in Evening Song on Park Central Square; photo by Pam RuBert[/caption]
The following morning, some of the volunteers re-assembled before dawn at ideaXfactory and walked through industrial neighborhoods to a site planned for a future center city park development. After a short poetry reading, the group created another improvisational bird chorus as the sun rose over the West Meadows.
Gerard Nadeau leads group for Morning Song sound installation; photo by Russ RuBert[/caption]
Recent Wins
-- Inspired by the charge to build creative placemaking as a field, ideaXfactory co-founders have been active in outreach beyond our local community. Artistic director Russ RuBert and I attended the Sculpture City Saint Louis 2014 Monument/Anti-Monument conference, giving us a chance to learn from and network with artists and creative placemakers from the New Orleans Music Box, Pittsburgh’s Waffle House, and the Socrates Sculpture Park to name a few. My visual sketch-notes were featured on the sculpturecitystl.com website and review of the conference published in our Springfield Business Journal.
Visual sketch notes from “Artists reclaim the commons” session at Monument/Anti-Monument conference; photo by Pam RuBert[/caption]
-- ideaXfactory co-founder Gerard Nadeau presented as part of a panel “Realizing the Right to the City: Architectural Methodologies as Agents of Change" at the Globalizing Architecture national conference in Miami.
-- Our collaborative partner Art of Space was featured at the Drury University Engaged Learning Summit, in the Springfield News-Leader article “Drury students embrace community engagement,” and on KOLR-TV’s show “Ozarks Live.
-- The Cultural Policy Class from Drury University Arts Administration presented the assessment of perceived artistic, environmental, economic and social value of two ideaXfactory projects in a series of oral and graphic reports. This collaborative project started in March. We were surprised by some of the data collected, and especially pleased to see that out of 63 people surveyed, 94% said they would return for another event at the ideaXfactory, 6% said maybe, and zero said no.
Also for the Beaux Arts Ball, which was moved to the ideaXfactory in hope of reviving the annual event, out of 30 people surveyed, 48% were new to the event, and 52% said they felt the event was a lot better than the previous year.
Insight/Provocation
Leah Hamilton, the Drury University Director of Arts Administration, assigned cultural impact assessments for the ideaXfactory to students. Using criteria based on the ixia public art think tank and OPENsource Evaluation Toolkit (Birmingham, UK), the class met with the ideaXfactory to identify prioritized values. Students were asked to select indicators to measure both quantitative and qualitative data and encouraged to be creative in their methods of interacting with participants and audience members to collect data.
Team Four Star assessed Morning Song / Evening Song sound installation for their assessment. Community development, social activation, and aesthetic enjoyment ranked high on their value matrix. Their data collection process included personal surveys, photographic records, and website statistics analysis.
Team HufflePuff assessed The Beaux Arts Ball. Aesthetic enjoyment, community development, marketing and place identity ranked high on the value matrix. Data collection methods included personal surveys, a mood box, photographic records, counting bidding sheets, and outside car traffic count.
The students’ assessments and presentations were creative and professional. Following assessments, both student teams suggested potential partnerships, future improvements, and positive elements to build upon based on their observations. For a full set of the assessment process and graphics, please visit our website.
The project has given us a better understanding of how this process could be refined and used in the future. Multiple assessments could be recorded and compared over time. Perhaps more questions are raised than answered by the project.
What are your value priorities?
This is important to determine before attempting assessment. For instance, currently in our city, measuring tourism is a topic of conversation for economic development. But at the ideaXfactory, we value creative placemaking as a way to invest in and improve the local community for artists, creatives, students, and other local residents as a way to retain talent and young professionals. Our ArtPlace grant has given us a great platform to build this value into our community.
And perhaps a more difficult question: How do you measure your impact?
Is it event attendance, audience mood, ticket sales, money raised? How do you measure social or aesthetic impact? At ideaXfactory, we feel that we are creating a change in local attitudes about public art, community involvement in the arts, and even what people perceive as art. We feel that artists and the arts are bringing positive energy and community development to center city and our local neighborhood. But to measure and present this to others is another project!