Call for an awesome idea…The Awesome Foundation for Arts and Sciences awards monthly grants of $1,000 to people who do something awesome and awards passionate people who loves to create. The grant supports people doing awesome things around the world and acknowledges the individual that evokes surprises without the prospect of audience or profit. As stated on their website www.awesomefoundation.org, “awesomeness challenges and inspires”. There are no strings attached to the award. |
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Thoughts from the Director…Based on my interest in bringing people together through design of public art and objects. The idea is to design, build and install a big hammock in the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, a new 15 acres public parkland that replaced a mile long elevated highway connecting Boston’s most diverse neighborhood. The hammock originates over 1000 years ago in Central America with the Mayan Indians; they designed web-like hammocks for lounging and sleeping. Hammocks were generally made for one or two people but could be large enough to contain 5 children. The Mayans created these by weaving the bark of the Hamak tree. As material technologies changed, cotton cord was used as well as hemp rope and canvas.For stability, hammocks simply rely on the proper spacing between attachments and they are easily installed anywhere. The Big Hammock’s rope length is 2550 feet (warp) and 1728 feet (weft), with a total of 4278 feet–which makes it 5.5 times longer than the Boston Hancock Tower is tall. |
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General Information…August 11th: Materials delivered to the Greenway for assembly by volunteers August 12th-15th: Assembly and weaving on site. We plan on weaving the hammock on site to get the community involved. August 15th: Completion of weaving and soft opening of the hammock. August 20th, 1:30 PM: Grand opening party. August 21st, 3:00PM: Musical performance by Hunter Amabile Acoustic. August 26th, 27th, 28th, 29th, 3:00PM (rain check): Children’s story time by children’s book writer Antonia Better-Wirz. Readings in Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese) will be provided on August 26th and 27th at 3:00PM. The exhibition will take 14-30 days. Removal of the artwork will take 2-3 days. The hammock will closed in the evenings by 8:00PM or during a rainy day. During the opening hours, a volunteer will be able to observe the daily usage of the hammock, have future participants sign a Release Waiver Form and limit the number of people to 15. No children under 4 will be allowed to participate without parental supervision. |
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Contact ushbetter@risd.edu |
