:: For updated listings of Spurse Events
Public Art/Moving Site is an innovative traveling public art project that stretches the
concept of site. Artists DeWitt Godfrey, Michael Oatman, and Spurse are creating installations
and companion exhibitions presented as a public art series in three New England communities:
Cambridge, MA; New Haven, CT; and Bellows Falls, VT.
Whereas site-responsiveness or site-specificity in the context of public art usually
refers to a fixed public space, Public Art/Moving Site assumes the language of
public art to be malleable, defining site as simultaneously stationary and moving.
Godfrey, Oatman, and Spurse have been asked to respond to the unique characteristics,
as well as the common attributes, of three New England towns. Each community will be
given sequence of three six-week presentations from winter through the spring of 2006.
Each artwork will retain its integrity while responding to, expressing, and
accumulating the experience of three sites.
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Public Art/Moving Site aims to expand awareness of public space by
revealing layers of the City that are normally obscured by the habitual
activity of urban life. This public art series offers opportunities to address
the relationship between art and site, and to consider public art in its
ability to make geographic and cultural connections through a variety of
forms and activities.
 Michael Oatman will investigate collections of local model makers in a project entitled
Model Citizens: 42° 22 12.11 N, 71° 06 11.45 W. After seeking out and studying local makers of dollhouses,
model railroads, dioramas, and scale models, Oatman will re-present their work in an
exhibition about curiosity of the world in miniature. Oatman will also present a video of
his project at the end of the three-state tour.
:: Slide show "Model Citizens" opening reception
 Spurse artist collective presents The Public Table, a six-week provisional restaurant that designates food as a site for public art. Spurse assembles this site using supplies and equipment gleaned from donations while walking around Cambridge. Throughout the process of collecting, preparing, and eating meals, food becomes a common interest around which participants gather, and amorphous communities are created. Spurse will lead public gleaning walks, costless cuisine servings, and educational demonstrations as part of an exploration of the culture, practices, and role of food within the Cambridge community. A related exhibition Of(f) the table - everything must go transforms CAC Gallery into a free store stocked with food and supplies gleaned from the previous New Haven and Bellows Falls sites for The Public Table.
DeWitt Godfrey will install a monumental sculpture of flexible steel forms at Cafι Pamplona
in Harvard Square, pressed between a two buildings. His artwork will exert a presence to be
discovered, sought and explored. This system of steel cylinders, measuring two to seven feet
in diameter, is made expressive by its interaction with gravity, load, weather, urban activity,
and architectural context.
:: Slide show "Pamplona"
Public Art/Moving Site will include a gallery exhibition created by each artist at the
CAC Gallery, as well as related events free and open to the public.
Cambridge Schedule:
January 9th February 17th - DeWitt Godfrey
February 27th April 7th - Michael Oatman
April 17th May 26th - Spurse
New Haven Schedule:
January 21st February 17th - Spurse
March 1st April 7th - DeWitt Godfrey
April 17th May 26th - Michael Oatman
Bellows Falls Schedule:
February 27th April 7th - Spurse
April 17th May 26th - DeWitt Godfrey
June 8th July 21st - Michael Oatman
Public Art/Moving Site is a collaboration of the Cambridge Arts Council,
Rockingham Arts Museum Project in Bellows Falls, VT and Artspace in New Haven, CT, and
is made possible by support from the City of Cambridge, the Massachusetts Cultural Council,
the Greater New Haven Arts Council, the Vermont Arts Council, and by the Expeditions Program
of the New England Foundation for the Arts, which receives major support from the National
Endowment for the Arts with additional support from the State Arts Agencies of New England
and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
For more information on Artspace in New Haven, CT please visit:
www.artspacenh.org.
For more information on Rockingham Arts Museum Project in Bellows Falls, VT please visit:
www.ramp-vt.org.
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