Public Art Training Camp 2023

Jasmine Hearn is an interdisciplinary artist, director, award winning performer, choreographer, organizer, doula, and teacher. They are committed to performance as an expansive practice that includes a spectrum of dance traditions and techniques, care, sound design, garment design, and the archiving of matrilineal memories. They give gratitude to Spirit, their mothers and aunties, and all the mothering Black people who have supported their moving, traveling, remembering body.

Hearn has performed their work at venues such as the Kelly Strayhorn Theater, Pittsburgh, PA (2021); New York Live Arts, New York, NY (2021); Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University, Houston, TX (2021); Danspace Project, New York, NY (2019, 2017); and BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, Bronx, NY (2016). They have also performed with the companies Helen Simoneau Danse, Urban Bush Women, and David Dorfman Dance, among others, and collaborated with many artists, including Holly Bass, Maria Bauman, Marjani Forté-Saunders, Gerard & Kelly, Vanessa German, Li Harris, Bill T. Jones, Solange Knowles, Ayanah Moor, Lovie Olivia, Staycee Pearl, Alesandra Seutin, and Alisha B. Wormsley.
Hearn is the recipient of a Cynthia Hazen Polsky and Leon Polsky Rome Prize in Design with collaborator Athena Kokoronis of Domestic Performance Agency (2023), a Creative Capital Award (2022), New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Awards for Outstanding Performer (2021, 2017), a Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship (2019), and Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grants (2022, 2017). They have been awarded residencies through Movement Research, New York, NY; Pittsburgh Foundation, Pittsburgh, PA; and the Camargo Foundation, Cassis, France.

Hearn, born and raised on occupied lands now known as Houston, TX, studied dance and sound with a multitude of teachers, including their sister, cousins, aunties, instructors, and friends at family events, church, and took class at the Houston Metropolitan Dance Center. They have also been greatly influenced by teachers, mentors, and collaborators, including Byronné J Hearn, Claudette Nickens Johnson, Joy KMT, Barbara Mahler, Pamela Pietro, Kendra Portier, Samita Sinha, Sandra Organ Solis, jhon r. stronks, Sherie van den Wijngaard, Charmaine Warren, Marýa Wethers, Bennalldre Williams, Marlies Yearby, and Jawole Willa Jo Zollar. Hearn received a B.A. from Point Park University.

Introduction

Speaker Presentation

Audience Questions and Conversation

For over 20 years Mark Salinas has served in public, private, and nonprofit sectors providing public art policy, curatorial content, and program management for organizations including the Municipality of Carson City, Pace Wildenstein, and Forecast Public Art.

Mark is a practicing public artist and founder of 7Train Murals, a nonprofit mural organization established in New York City.

As the new Public Art Program Lead for the City of Berkeley, Mark is responsible for the development and implementation of public art programming, policies and procedures.

Mark is the past Chair of the City of Reno Arts & Culture Commission as well as board member of the Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts and the Nevada Arts Council. He is a former contributor to PBS Reno Art Views, initiating in-depth essays amplifying BIPOC artists within Nevada and Northern California.

In 2022, Governor Steve Sisolak awarded Salinas the Point of Light Award in recognition of his volunteer service to the state of Nevada.

1. How can artists and cultural workers identify grant and sponsorship opportunities for funding line items such as project labor and materials?
2. How can a project leverage the time and value of volunteers?
3. How can artists identify and approach in-kind donations and/or labor for projects?
4. How can hours and other project data be tracked to estimate actual costs for projects, and be used for future grant applications and sponsorships?
5. What does a strongly pitched project look like to secure fiscal and in-kind resources?

Introduction

Speaker Presentation & Audience Questions

Interactive Workshop

Conclusion

Participants will be divided into breakout rooms on Zoom. Registrants will be responsible for bringing 1 – 2 questions and/or 1 – 2 items that pertain to their own project needs for finding resources (whether for a potential or actual project). Each room will be facilitated by an Office for Public Art staff member. The guest speaker will spend 10 minutes in each breakout room to answer questions and provide feedback before being rotated to the next room.

Elisheba Johnson is a curator, public artist, administrator, and disruptor. Feeling left out of the traditional art world, Johnson has dedicated her career to building bridges for artists of color to grow and thrive in our local arts community.

Johnson, who has a BFA from Cornish College of the Arts, was the owner of Faire Gallery Café, a multi-use art space that held art exhibitions, music shows, poetry readings and creative gatherings. For six years Faire Gallery Café provided space for Seattle’s young BIPOC arts ecology to create new work, meet future collaborators and experiment with new ideas.

After closing Faire, Johnson went on to work at the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture on capacity building initiatives and racial equity in public art.

Johnson currently co-manages Wa Na Wari, a Black art center in Seattle’s Central Area that uses the arts to build community and resist displacement.

Johnson’s personal art practice examines the beauty and triumph of Black life in America through mixed media and poetry.

1. How can artists realistically pay themselves?
2. How can a budget help to map a project’s scope?
3. How are budgets structured?
4. How are estimates and actual costs accounted for?
5. How are budget failures dealt with?
6. What should be considered when preparing a budget for a project?

Introduction

Speaker Presentation & Audience Questions

Interactive Workshop

Conclusion

Participants will be divided into breakout rooms on Zoom. Registrants will be responsible for bringing 1 – 2 questions and/or 1 – 2 items that pertain to their own project budgets (whether for a potential or actual project). Each room will be facilitated by an Office for Public Art staff member. The guest speaker will spend 10 minutes in each breakout room to answer questions and provide feedback before being rotated to the next room.

Brian Peters is an artist, designer, and fabricator based in Pittsburgh, PA. Brian’s passion lies at the intersection of architecture, art and fabrication where his work ranges from large scale public art commissions to wall mounted sculptures. While Brian often works with advanced technology, he is not interested in the perfection of machine-made objects, but rather the art of integrating craft, technology, and contemporary aesthetics. Brian received an undergraduate degree in studio art, and a Master’s degree in Architecture.

1. How do artists begin to conceptualize a 2D design for a 3D space?
2. How does an artist identify a fabricator or recognize the need for one?
3. How can artists effectively communicate with fabricators to bring their ideas to fruition?
4. How can artists successfully collaborate with stakeholders during complex production processes?
5. How do artists factor in installation, weatherization, material selection, and maintenance?

Introduction

Speaker Presentation & Audience Questions

Interactive Workshop

Conclusion

Participants will be divided into breakout rooms on Zoom. Registrants will be responsible for bringing 1 – 2 questions and/or 1 – 2 items that pertain to their own project concepts (whether for a potential or actual project). Each room will be facilitated by an Office for Public Art staff member. The guest speaker will spend 10 minutes in each breakout room to answer questions and provide feedback before being rotated to the next room.

Estrella Esquilín (she/her) is a visual artist and independent cultural strategist with decades of experience working to support arts workers within large and small universities, local government and nonprofit organizations. Based in the Southwest, Esquilín is curious about how people interact with, relate to, and impact each other in built and natural environments. She embeds her values of integrity, compassion, candor, community, service and creativity into her studio practice, administrative processes, program design, and creative professional development to narrow gaps of inequity within arts and culture. 

www.estrellaesquilin.com

1. How can rookie artists showcase their ability in an application to take on “bigger” public art projects (essentially, leveling up)?
2. How can artists improve their own self-selection processes before applying to a project?
3. What are 3 – 5 main tips cultural workers and artists can use to improve their cover letters and statements?
4. How can artists select their best work samples?
5. How can artists demonstrate the importance of professional experience outside of the art world as useful for public art commissions?

Introduction

Speaker Presentation & Audience Questions

Interactive Workshop

Conclusion

Participants will be divided into breakout rooms on Zoom. Registrants will be responsible for bringing 1 – 2 questions and/or 1 – 2 items that pertain to an application they are working on. Each room will be facilitated by an Office for Public Art staff member. The guest speaker will spend 10 minutes in each breakout room to answer questions and provide feedback before being rotated to the next room.

Rob Long is a professional artist and Principal of Clear Story, a Pittsburgh-based design and consulting firm he founded in 2007. Rob’s creative practice bridges the disciplines of architecture, theater and fine art—working with light and technology to create dynamic and memorable experiences. Rob and his Clear Story team design illumination for many of Pittsburgh’s iconic public spaces, restaurants and landmarks, including Sally’s Path, Pusadee’s Garden and Highmark’s Fifth Avenue Place.

Rob’s abstract photography practice exists at the intersection of his work as an artist and architectural lighting designer. His photographs are held in private and institutional collections.

1. How can applicants create a narrative with their work samples that best displays their artistic range and style?
2. How do work sample narratives apply to specific project applications?
3. How can applicants improve the image quality of their documented work?
4. How should applicants write work sample descriptions?
5. How can applicants label their work samples and develop a personal archive to easily retrieve documentation?
6. What do selection panel members look for in work samples?

Introduction

Speaker Presentation & Audience Questions

Interactive Workshop

Conclusion

Participants will be divided into breakout rooms on Zoom. Registrants will be responsible for bringing 1 – 2 questions and/or 1 – 2 items that pertain to their own work samples. Each room will be facilitated by an Office for Public Art staff member. The guest speaker will spend 10 minutes in each breakout room to answer questions and provide feedback before being rotated to the next room.