Monday, January 31, 2011

Improvement

Home Improvement centers across the country are host to dozens of sheds. They are all lined up just so, waiting to find a home. These sheds are for sale. They stand in the parking lots all year as mere displays, empty and unused.

I propose using the sheds by inviting artists to occupy them for performative pieces that have to do with 'improvement.' This could take many forms from makeshift medical sheds, sleeping sheds, advice sheds, cooking sheds, free stuff sheds, "how to" sheds leading classes or workshops on a plethora of topics from how to build a sandbox, planting heirloom tomatoes, twisting balloons or any contribution in which the community benefits.

This shed haven becomes a way in which to exchange knowledge through the collective practice of artists working with the community, one parking lot at a time. Interactivity and social practices can impact a community through strengthened relationships - reaching a much broader, more diverse group of individuals as the environment for learning and sharing shifts into the parking lot of a big box store.