Art Harvest
2020
A cooperative art drop installation distributing more than 300 art prints to the university community.
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Curated and coordinated by Angela Budden, in collaboration with participating student and staff creators. Art Drop was one of three projects that I delivered for CREATE, a festival celebrating creativity at the University of Newcastle, Australia.
Participating creators: Keighley Bradford, Harsimranjeet Singh Brar, Angela Budden, Sophie Elinor, Bea King, Alice Kjoller, Tara Louis, Phoebe Metcalfe, Beau Preston, Wayne Thompson -
CREATE, Callaghan and Newcastle campuses, University of Newcastle, Australia
About the project
Art Harvest, a collaborative art drop installation, provided a platform for student and staff creators to share printed copies of their work with the University of Newcastle community during the 2020 CREATE festival.
Inspired by the success of the previous year's project, Blind Lucky Charms, Art Harvest aimed to spread positivity through the generous distribution of free art. Inspired by the educational context of the festival, I chose a gardening concept as a symbol of how the university nurtures and guides its students' growth and development.
The installation involved blind-box packaging individual art prints, arranging them in field rows, and relocating the installation to a new spot each day over the course of 5 days. This allowed people to discover the display, wander among the rows, and 'harvest' a random artwork to keep for free.
Emphasising Collaboration:
Recognising the diversity of creative talents within the university community, Art Harvest was designed to enable various artists to participate in the CREATE festival without them having to initiate a full-scale project. To facilitate this, I created an online form soliciting digital artwork donations, which was widely distributed to university staff and students. Art Harvest garnered 15 unique digitised artworks from 10 different artists, including myself. Each artwork was limited to 20 reproductions, professionally printed on A4 card, and credited with the artwork title, artist name, and their social media or website details.
Installation Design:
A total of 300 prints were produced, individually packed, and sealed in unmarked black envelopes. The sealed artworks were randomly allocated and arranged in four 'field row’ displays which were floor-mounted and back-lit with green light to symbolise growth. Placed strategically in high-traffic pedestrian areas on campus, by the end of each day, all the artworks had been eagerly collected.
