Photo: Ricardo Barros.com

Artist-in-Residence

Artist residencies at Grounds For Sculpture offer members of the community an all-encompassing and immersive art experience. Working with an artist to help create and build a work of art gives the public a first-hand look into the creative world of a contemporary artist from vision to the product.

Mark Parsons
In the Summer and Fall of 2012, Grounds For Sculpture will host the next artist in its biannual Artist in Residence series.  This year's selected artist is Mark Parsons, an accomplished artist and professor at the Pratt Institute in New York City.  He is a FIPSE Grant recipient, a Jacob K. Javits Fellow, and honored as the International Fellow of VSA Arts.  Titled Red Line, Parsons' project will make a freestanding sculpture from large drawings made with the help of GFS workshop participants.  The sculpture will be composed entirely of recycled paper pulp.  Over time, the paper pulp forming the background will deteriorate and the pulp representing the line drawing will then appear to float in space.  As Parsons explains, "in that way, over time, a drawing eventually becomes the object it describes."

Members of the GFS community will have the unique opportunity to participate in this Artist in Residence project as workshop participants or installation volunteers!

Communal Drawing Workshop
Session 1: Friday, July 20, 2012, from 1 - 3pm
Session 2: Saturday, July 21, 2012, from 1 - 3pm
Join Artist in Residence Mark Parsons for a hands-on experience of drawing and visual mapping.  Attend one session, or both!  Parsons will inspire participants to map out spaces from their lives, such as their backyards, their grandparents home or other meaningful places.  These drawings do not need to be architectural or scientific, but will artistically demonstrate how the human mind connects relationships between memories and place.  Participants are encouraged to bring sketches with them to the workshops.  Each participant will use their own scale and own color working on communal surface, encouraging the individual maps to overlap and connect.  Ultimately, this communal drawing will become the basis for Parson's sculpture created in the Artist in Residence project.  This is a great experience for any age group.  Be sure to return in October to see your drawings incorporated in the sculpture!  Free with park admission.  Space is limited, pre-registration is required.  To register, please call 609.586.0616 Tues. - Sun., 10am - 6pm.

Volunteers are needed!  Volunteer to join Artist in Residence Mark Parsons for a hands-on opportunity to contribute to his sculptural creation.  If you would like to volunteer, please contact the Coordinator of Volunteer Services at 609.586.0616 to sign up, or for more information.  Volunteers are needed to participate in packing paper pulp into the framework of the sculpture.  This work will take place October 8-12, 2012 in two shifts: 10am - 1pm and 1:30pm - 4:30pm.  Formal artistic training or experience is not required for this position.

Past Artist Residencies Include...

Erick Schultz is an emerging local artist whose works focus on the reuse of discarded materials.  Schultz created an artist in residence project at GFS in 2010 entitled The Sleeping Giant.  Patrick Dougherty worked at the park to create an indoor exhibition from September 20-December 3, 2004. Over 200 community volunteers assisted the artist in constructing five site-specific sculptures for this exhibition by weaving tree saplings into large organic constructions. On October 22, 2004 Dougherty gave an artist talk and slide presentation, allowing visitors a behind-the-scenes look at the artistic process as well as an opportunity to talk with the artist.   New York artist Steven Siegel was in residence from September 11 through October 7, 2006. Siegel worked with students from Ewing High School, The College of New Jersey and residents of Anchor House to create three outdoor sculptural installations using indigenous post-consumer materials (recyclables). Siegel also gave an artist lecture on October 6, 2006 providing visitors with an opportunity to share and explore ideas about sculpture and contemporary arts through a discussion of his residency.