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People in the Environment: An unusual art project Thirty contemporary molded mannequins in various poses have been donated to the Arts Festival by Dress Barn, the apparel company located in Suffern NY. The mission of the arts festival has always included at least two key elements. It seeks to build ‘community’ through the arts and second, it seeks to heighten awareness of the environment of Orange County, both its rural beauty and the need for attention to issues of land use, and the protection of water and air. The Mannequin Project offers artists an unusual opportunity to use the full-scale human form to explore issues related to Nature and Environment. Artists, individually or in pairs, will get to choose a mannequin and work with it in a way that reflects an environmental theme in our region. Liz Reese, director of the Arts Festival, is pleased with this addition to the Festival.“It’s exciting to see what will happen. I can see mannequins at the performances, in store windows, even on rooftops looking down.” The Mannequins will be debuted during the seventh Warwick Arts Festival, July 8-16. They will be placed around Warwick and then they are available for display at other places in the region. Warwick in Bloom, the town beautification project, has already requested a mannequin to include in their summer projects and teachers at area schools are discussing ways to use the Mannequin Project during the next school year. Arts Festival coordinator Susie Graf is coordinating the initial stage of the Mannequin Project with Charles DeCesare, VP Creative Director of Marketing / Visual Merchandising at Dress Barn. DeCesare is a painter and visual artist who lives in Warwick. He will be offering two orientation workshops for artists chosen for the Mannequin project. One is Friday May 5 from 7-8:30 and the other is Saturday, May 6 from 10:30 – noon. Preference will be given to artists working in pairs. The application is simply a letter of interest indicating what artistic approach and what environmental theme you are interested in. Please include a few pictures of related work. Applications are due April 21. Decisions will be made within a week and the mannequins will be distributed at workshops on May 5 and May 6. All mannequins must be finished and delivered back to Warwick by June 15. A mannequin will be made available to each of the area schools and local businesses and community groups concerned about environmental issues are helping to sponsor the Mannequin Project. Applications should be sent to Arts Festival, Community 2000, Box 2000 Warwick, NY 10990. Or call 845-987-9836 for more info. |