HARVESTER ARTS is thrilled to announce the recipient of their inaugural “Local Artist Residency” to Wichita, KS artist: Robert Bubp. An open call for entries was announced on May 7 and after a thorough review process, Robert Bubp was awarded the residency on June 25. Bubp will have access to the Harvester Arts 3,000 square foot gallery and workshop space in Wichita’s Old Town as well as the art organization’s resources for two weeks in August, 2015. As well, Bubp will receive a $1,000 stipend while he creates new work during his residency. The residency will kick off with an artist’s talk on Tuesday, August 11th at 6 PM and include multiple public workshops leading up to a reception on Final Friday, August 28, 2015.
Kate Van Steenhuyse, Harvester Arts Co-Founder and CEO said, “Our mission and model are to use a visiting artist as a catalyst to spur critical thinking and creative action in our community. However, generative ideas do not always have to come from outside the community and it was important for us to be able to offer this opportunity locally. We plan to offer this residency every other year so that regional artists have the chance to experiment and exhibit.” Van Steenhuyse added, “We are very excited to have Robert’s work lead the community in a visioning process at our space as our inaugural Local Artist Residency.”
Community contributions and participation are the driving force for the content of this exhibition. Resident Artist Robert Bubp will act as a coordinator to compile ideas and help visitors realize visions for the future of Wichita. The exhibition asks what we, the community, would like to see develop in Wichita over the next 25 years? Answers to this question will take shape in the form of drawings, maps, and architectural experiments which will accumulate at Harvester Arts during the two weeks Bubp is in residency. The reception on August 28 will be a workshop for public exploration of the communal and collaborative ideas gathered. This will include drawings, renderings, projections, written comments, and interactive elements for visitors to envision and brainstorm Wichita’s future in real space while having the ability to add input to the works. A follow-up exhibition in January of 2016 will reveal the culmination of this community exploration.
Robert Bubp said, “I have always been a bit of a dreamer, intrigued by the idea that something existing may eventually become something else, as it relates to architecture, cities, history, the future, and the evolution of communities. My drawings are hypothetical proposals, mimicking the correctness and exactitude of architectural renderings while playing with “real,” “imagined,” “intended,” and “mistaken.”
Harvester Arts is an artist residency program in Wichita, Kansas. The mission is to provide a thoughtful platform for visual arts experimentation that engages the community through critical dialogue and the creation of new work. Visiting Resident Artists are partnered with local artists, student groups, and area creatives (Satellite Artists) to engage with each other’s ideas and processes. Aaron Vague and Megan St. Clair will create response work for Robert Bubp’s exhibition. The residency concludes with a reception August 28th at Harvester Arts at 215 N Washington. Interested parties are encouraged to stay tuned to Harvester Arts’ social media or sign up for email notifications at www.HarvesterArts.com for ways to be involved with this installation.