ARTIST ENCLAVE IN MIDTOWN

Want to witness an artist weaving various objects with a giant loom? Perhaps you prefer to mold a piece of art on a potter’s wheel using some 1,000 pounds of locally sourced black and white clay, then smash the piece into a communal pile? How about “draw” with light on a wall?

Visitors to Colony Square have until June 3 to experience these and nine other arts installations and performances as part of Hambidge Creative HiVE, a temporary artists enclave created by the Blue Ridge Mountains based Hambidge Center artist sanctuary.

The former retail spaces of Colony Square, which will undergo a complete renovation later this year, currently feature 12 wildly different interactive and frequently evolving creative projects. A dozen artists were selected by local gallery owners, curators, artists and Hambidge staff to participate in the venture. Among the projects:

Queen of the Field: Artist Zipporah Thompson uses giant looms to weave together objects she has found throughout Midtown, along with donated pieces. She combines the items to produce multiple sculptures and installations, with the idea of weaving together personal experiences and that of a community.

The Rivalry of Your Elements: Artists Katie Troisi and Olivia Rado create vessels from 1,000 pounds of locally sourced black and white clay, then smash the pieces into a pile. The public also is invited to participate.

Studio 515: A technology based installation by husband and wife artists Brian and Bojana Ginn, this piece combines light drawings on the walls, as well as moving images and sound, created by the public. (pictured above)

You are Welcome, You’re Welcome: The curators of the former Poncey-Highland Mint Gallery have taken over a former doctor’s office in Colony Square, giving space to 15 artists who each created an installation in a room using different iterations of light, creating glow-in-the dark effects.

The Midtown Players Club in the Colony Square former gym features rotating art exhibits, music, theater, workshops and discussions for artists and the public. Also part of the Creative HiVE is artist Forest McMullin, who will take photographs of parts of Colony Square, visitors and the art exhibits and post them outside his space to encourage visitors to take a print with them.

hambidge.org

STORIES: Melanie Lasoff Levs