Art from Habitat for Artists

October 7 – November 12, 2017

Reception: Saturday, October 7, 4-6 PM

YES GALLERY

The Art of Habitat for Artists (That great little studio in front of WAAM)

This month the YES Gallery is celebrating the WAAM Education Programs’ 2nd year of collaboration with Habitat for Artists. On display are works by Simon Draper, founder of HFA, works by some of the HFA artists residents, art from 2016 & 2017 by visitors to the HFA and community responses to prompts. WAAM has had over 20 resident artists with projects ranging from Chutney making to a community mosaic project. This collaboration has given WAAM the opportunity to activate the space in front of the building and invite the public to engage and participate in the process of making art.

What is Habitat for Artists?

“HFA is a collective project that uses the idea of the artist’s studio as a catalyst for mutual engagement between artists and communities. The studios are made from predominantly recycled or reclaimed material and are reused for each new iteration of the project. These “habitats” are small, temporary, 6’ by 6’ studios installed at a variety of locations: some highly visible to the local community; others, more unexpected venues for experiencing art or connecting with the process of artists engaging in creative work. HFA invites artists to work in these small, temporary studio”. And while exploring their own creative process, the artists engage in active dialogues with a new audience from that location. The public, meanwhile, is invited into a new interaction and discussion about art, the artist’s  role, as well as topics which are pertinent or relevant to that local community.

These intimate work spaces not only ask artists working in them to explore their creative needs, BUT also act as a metaphor for our OWN domestic needs. How might we be more creative about our consumption of materials, our use of energy and land? Could we be doing more with less, yet still create a vibrant, relevant society and culture? They are asked to consider the questions: How Much? How Little? The Space to Create.”

-Simon Draper

The Habitat will be up through October 31, 2017. We hope you feel inspired to support this program by participating  in one of the upcoming residencies.