Chicago-Based Sound Artists To Transform Elsewhere’s Museum Into An Architectural Music Box This Summer

"(Greensboro, NC) - Elsewhere, a living museum and artist residency set within a former thrift store, is pleased to announce Museum : : Instrument, a curated sound art residency produced by Elsewhere and ThreeWalls of Chicago, IL. During a month-long special residency, artists will create new installation and performance based sound works that transform the museum’s 100-year old building into an architectural music box.

The works will premiere on July 3, during a First Friday opening event where performers and the public "play the museum," by using the building as amphitheater, music box, instrument, and speaker. A limited edition vinyl LP will collect and document the work made throughout the residency. This special residency offers museum audiences a unique opportunity to engage in sound art production, which is gaining public attention and recognition.

Artists Jon Brumit, Michael Milano, David More, Troy Briggs, and Jeff Kolar and Meredith Kooi of Radius will be in residency at the museum from June 10 - July 5. This group has been curated by  Shannon Stratton--an Independent Curator and Executive Director Emeritus of ThreeWalls-- and Joe Jeffers--musician, producer and Director of 8550 Ohio. While in residence they will produce new sound works that feature electronics, found-objects, interactive instruments, field recordings, and experimental radio broadcasting that alter, enhance, and draw attention to the sounds of the museum as a resonant architectural chamber. Their building-wide sound art interventions will invite audiences to consider the museum as a comprehensive and interconnected artwork, using electronic and auditory media to connect architectures seen and unseen.

Elsewhere will also host free, artist-designed public workshops on June 27-28. These 'hacker-workshops' will bring to life the tangible and creative aspects of sound art production, introducing workshop attendees to new skills and ideas for working with electronic materials, found objects, and toys to explore and create sonic environments.

Now in its 11th year, the residency program at Elsewhere offers creatives and researchers from around the globe opportunities to create projects on site that further their personal practices and engage Elsewhere’s core concepts of creative collaboration and working from at hand resources. Residents evolve their projects to meet the spaces and social ecologies of the museum and its communities, working with our enormous collections of textiles, toys, books, consumer technologies, thrift store shrift, and rooms full of vintage clothes and our ever-changing inhabitants. Museum : : Instrument is the first in a new series of intra-city curated residencies dedicated to providing in depth exploration of the methods and media of contemporary art production at Elsewhere for artists and the public. 

About Elsewhere
Elsewhere is an artist-run, non-profit living museum and artist residency, set in a former thrift store in downtown Greensboro, NC. Utilizing the massive 58-year inventory, Elsewhere’s environment of art and everyday objects invokes new modes for creative response, living, doing, and exchanging in our downtown neighborhood and across the world.

Elsewhere is funded in part by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, ArtPlace America, The National Endowment for the Arts, The North Carolina Arts Council, ArtsGreensboro, the Fund for Democratic Communities, the Future Fund of the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro, the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation, the Kresge Foundation, Tannenbaum Sternberger Foundation, Guilford Green Foundation, the Harpo Foundation, the Gallucci Creative Fund, Lincoln Financial Foundation, The Phillips Foundation, The Carol & Seymour Levin Foundation, Art Matters & friends like you."

- A Press Release

Visiting artists begin new public art works next week as part of South Elm Projects artscaping series

"(Greensboro, NC) - Elsewhere--a living museum set within a former thrift store--is pleased to welcome the next visiting artists commissioned for South Elm Projects, Carmen Papalia and the MILAGROS collective. As part of South Elm Projects, both Carmen and MILAGROS will be in-residence from May 13 through June 10 at Elsewhere to work with members of the community and Elsewhere curators to create their projects. Once onsite, the artists will research the sites and propose public art projects to be realized throughout the South Elm neighborhood. Elsewhere will host a series of events, tours, and dinners with the artists, neighborhood partners, and the public throughout the duration of the residencies.

Based out of New Orleans and Miami, the MILAGROS collective is led by Felici Asteinza and Joey Fillastre. They create vibrant abstract murals in collaboration with communities to transform architectural facades and infuse urban environments with new energy and vitality. MILAGROS’s playful style is based in a love for the transformative potential of decorative patterns and color. Their previous mural commissions can be found throughout Florida, New York, and Arizona. The public is invited to an Artist Talk with MILAGROS on Thursday, May 21 at 8:30pm. The event is free and open to all. Images from their past work can be found at, www.milagroscollective.com.

Carmen Papalia designs tours and experiences that invite participants to expand their sense of perceptual mobility and claim access to public and institutional spaces. Papalia’s work makes visible the opportunities for learning and knowing that come available through the nonvisual senses. This work is rooted in his own experiences with visual impairment and access to public space. On Thursday, May 28 at 7pm, the public is invited to "Taste and Texture", a special meal designed by Papalia and Elsewhere’s Housepitality Curator, Emily Ensminger, that emphasizes the relationship between taste and texture. An Artist Talk with Carmen will follow at 8:30pm. Dinner is $10-$20 sliding scale and $5 for Elsewhere Members. Seating for dinner is limited, please RSVP to kitchen@goelsewhere.org by Monday, May 25.

Funded by ArtPlace America, South Elm Projects brings 15 national artists and collectives together with neighbors to create public artworks that further civic engagement, public commons and urban wilds in advance of and with development. Artists will be onsite and working in the community from April through November to realize their projects. For more about South Elm Projects please visit, goelsewhere.org/southelmprojects.


About Elsewhere
Elsewhere is a non-profit living museum and artist residency program set with a three-story former thrift store. Since 2003, Elsewhere has been transforming its former store and its vast material collection into a living museum that serves as a hub for local and global collaborations. goelsewhere.org

Elsewhere is funded in part by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, ArtPlace America, The Kresge Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, The North Carolina Arts Council, ArtsGreensboro, Tannenbaum Sternberger Foundation, The Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro, The Fund for Democratic Communities, The Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation, Guilford Green Foundation, The Harpo Foundation, The Gallucci Creative Fund, Lincoln Financial Foundation, Art Matters & friends like you."

- A Press Release

Elsewhere To Host Process Talk With Southern Constellations Fellows Hillerbrand Magsamen

GREENSBORO - Elsewhere— a living museum and artist residency set within a former thrift store on South Elm in downtown Greensboro — will hold a process talk entitled “Constellations and Conversations” with current Southern Constellation fellows, Hillerbrand Magsamen, on Friday, August 8 from 5:30-7 p.m.

Hillerbrand Magsamen are a collaborative husband and wife visual artist team made up of Stephan Hillerbrand and Mary Magsamen. Based in Houston, Texas their work draws upon the rich Fluxus practice of incorporating humor, performance, video art and everyday objects. Expanding their personal family life into a contemporary art conversation about family dynamics, suburban life and American consumer excess which they call “suburban fluxus”.

Funded in-part by the National Endowment for the Arts, Southern Constellations embeds fellowship artists into Elsewhere’s artist residency for the production of site specific projects and participation in dialog on the conditions of experimental art production.

Now entering its second year, the program seeks to bring in artists specifically from the South to create experimental site-specific artwork using Elsewhere’s extensive “Collection” of materials. There are six 2014 Southern Constellations fellows who will participate in process talks, exhibitions, member events, public studios and First Friday events at Elsewhere. The program will culminate with a gathering of regional curators, artists and returning fellows to discuss connections between art and experimentation in the South. This year’s program was collaboratively designed and curated by Jina Valentine — an artist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Art at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill — and Elsewhere’s Production Curator, Jennie Carlisle.

Constellations and Conversations is open to the public and free with $1 museum admission. Attendees are invited to stay for dinner immediately following the event; the cost of dinner is $5 for museum members and $10 for non-members.




via email
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Elsewhere Receives a 2014 ArtPlace America Grant for South Elm Projects

GREENSBORO—Elsewhere announced today that it is among 55 grantees selected out of 1,270 applicants for ArtPlace America (ArtPlace) in 2014. Elsewhere received a $200,000 grant to activate four alleyways and green-spaces in the vibrant, naturally occurring cultural district of its South Elm neighborhood in downtown Greensboro, NC. This ‘artscaping’ project will connect downtown’s core with surrounding neighborhoods, advancing creative partnerships, social access, and walkability in public passages. Projects will be commissioned from more than 20 national and local artists, designers, and collectives.

"In 2003, when we first entered my grandmother's store in what was then a very sleepy downtown, we knew that Elsewhere's success was intimately tied to the growth of South Elm as a neighborhood," said George Scheer, Elsewhere’s Co-Founder, Director, and grandson of former store proprietress Sylvia Gray. "From day one we worked to be a catalyst and anchor for a creative evolution. Artplace marks the next stage in that transformation. In advance of mega development, we have an opportunity to grow and secure the collaborative character and inclusive spirit of our neighborhood."

Linda A Carlisle, Former Secretary, NC Department of Cultural Resources, remarked, “Elsewhere demonstrates the power of visionary arts and grassroots culture in revitalizing our city. Elsewhere is putting Greensboro on the map for creativity and innovation.”

"Greensboro is endeavoring to utilize art to spur economic development in the city. The value of this project is that it utilizes art to affirm and increase the life of the city" said Robert L. Powell Jr., Assistant Professor at North Carolina Agricultural & Technical University and advisor on South Elm Projects.

“Investing in and supporting the arts have a profound impact on the social, physical, and economic futures of communities,” said ArtPlace Executive Director Jamie L. Bennett. “Projects like these demonstrate how imaginative and committed people are when it comes to enhancing their communities with creative interventions and thoughtful practices.”

South Elm Projects will engage a dynamic process of community visioning and cultural imagination and extend Elsewhere’s 12-year legacy of re-purposeful design and collaborative partnerships into the streets, starting with the alley behind our building, and extending throughout our neighborhood. Scheer expressed excitement for the project, “We are so privileged to be on this amazing adventure with the opportunity to commission new artworks that will further connect our neighborhood.”

To learn more about South Elm Projects, meet our partners, and become involved, visit http://goelsewhere.org/southelmprojects.


About Elsewhere:
Elsewhere is an artist-run, non-profit art organization and residency program, set in a former thrift store in downtown Greensboro, NC. Utilizing the massive 58-year inventory, Elsewhere’s environment of art and everyday objects invokes new modes for creative response, living, doing, and exchanging in our downtown neighborhood and across the world.


About ArtPlace America:
ArtPlace America (ArtPlace) advances the field of creative placemaking, in which art and culture plays an explicit and central role in shaping communities’ social, physical, and economic futures.  To date, ArtPlace has awarded $56.8 million through 189 grants to projects serving 122 communities across 42 states and the District of Columbia.

ArtPlace is a collaboration among the Barr Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, The Ford Foundation, The James Irvine Foundation, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Kresge Foundation, The McKnight Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The William Penn Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, Rasmuson Foundation, The Surdna Foundation, and two anonymous donors.

ArtPlace seeks advice and counsel from its close working relationships with the following federal agencies: the National Endowment for the Arts, the US Departments of Housing and Urban Development, Health and Human Services, Agriculture, Education, and Transportation, along with leadership from the White House Office of Management and Budget and the Domestic Policy Council.

ArtPlace has additional partnership from six major financial institutions: Bank of America, Citi, Deutsche Bank, Chase, MetLife and Morgan Stanley.

The deadline for submission for a 2015 grant application will be announced later this year. For more information or to join ArtPlace’s mailing list, visit www.artplaceamerica.org.

For additional information about ArtPlace contact: Bow Bridge Communications, LLC, New York City, Libby Mark, Managing Principal, 917- 968-5567, info@bow-bridge.com.



A press release.

I Don't Do Boxes seeking youth editors

Last year, I worked with I Don't Do Boxes as a volunteer editor. The project, which runs out of the Elsewhere Artist Collaborative in downtown Greensboro, is looking for youth editors for its second issue. Here's the information they are circulating:

Magazine for/by queer Southern youth calls for submissions

A new publication based out of Greensboro and designed for and by queer Southern youth is calling for submissions. Below is the information from the press release for I Don't Do Boxes, a project that sounded rad enough that I volunteered to be the news and politics editor. The first issue is scheduled to be published this summer and submissions are open to anyone (though the focus, as stated above, is by and for queer youth in the South). Here are the details of the call:

Issue No. 1: School’s Out!

I Don’t Do Boxes, a magazine for and by queer youth is seeking submissions for our first issue. We’re looking for stories, essays, photos, drawings, videos, comic strips, poems, etc., exploring LGBTQIA southern experiences. The first issue will be published in June and the guiding theme is School’s Out, collecting stories about school, outside learning, and beyond.
We ask that you think back to experiences you had in or out of school: what it was like to deal with issues of gender and sexuality, experiences with teachers and students, issues of bullying, and strategies for organizing and intervention. If you don’t have a story about school you’d like to share, don’t worry — the issue is open to anything and everything, we’re just interested in your story!
Submission Guidelines

• Please send all works to education@goelsewhere.org
• Text-based submissions should be limited to 800-1000 words or less
• Media files should be 1-3 MB
• For video/sound work, please send a YouTube/Vimeo/Soundcloud URL link
• Once you submit, the editorial team will place your piece in one of four departments: (1) News & Politics, (2) Style & Culture, (3) Undercover Investigations and (4) Advice & Technique.
• Submission deadline, May 3, 2013

About
The I Don’t Do Boxes team meets every Thursday from 6-8pm at Elsewhere in downtown Greensboro, NC (606 S. Elm Street). Please join us to assist, work on projects and meet other queer-identifying people and communities in the Triad. We’re here to support you along the way with questions you may have, technical skills and however else we can help. For more info visit: idontdoboxes.org/submit
I Don’t Do Boxes is a project of QueerLab, a youth-led platform for digital storytelling at Elsewhere, a living museum in downtown Greensboro, NC. I Don’t Do Boxes is an Elsewhere collaboration with YouthSAFE and the Guilford Green Foundation. Visit goelsewhere.org/queerlab for more info.

Thanks from the Editorial Team!
Christopher Kennedy
Carrie Hart
Brent Simoneaux
Eric Ginsburg
Red Behnke
Jason Watson
Elijah Cameron