Into the Streets: Festival Art Series

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Shanell Papp, "Fuzzy Macro Focus," 2017

yarn, Image courtesy of the artist

Curated by Jane Edmundson & Tyler Stewart

Into the Streets: Festival Art Series is an opportunity to embed art, creativity, livability, and social responsibility into public space; and to facilitate possibilities for creative, engaging experiences that are open to all. Throughout the summer and fall of 2017 this public art series will engage large and diverse audiences by combining new artistic experiences with successful local festivals. Temporary art installations, performances, and participatory artworks will be incorporated into events including Lethbridge Pride Fest, Love & Records, and Bright Lights Festival, to reach audiences beyond those who typically participate in Lethbridge's formalized arts programming. Through partnership and collaboration, Into the Streets aims to make downtown more inviting and inspiring by activating spaces and experiences with contemporary art.

For the Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Into the Streets presents an opportunity to engage artists who expand the field of contemporary art through performance, social practice, collaboration, and public art. They move beyond the physical boundaries of the gallery, bringing a sense of wonder, joy, and amazement to downtown Lethbridge. With contemporary art embedded in Lethbridge Pride Fest (June 24), Love & Records (September 16), and Bright Lights Festival (November 17 & 18), Into the Streets contributes to the vibrancy, openness, accessibility, and diversity of the heart of our city.

Shanell Papp: Fuzzy Macro Focus

June 24

Lethbridge Pride Fest  - Party in the Park  -  Galt Gardens

Lethbridge-based artist Shanell Papp's Fuzzy Macro Focus kicks off Into the Streets as part of Lethbridge Pride Fest's Party in the Park on June 24. This oversized flower garden will be installed over the archway of Galt Gardens' main stage. Giant flowers, leaves, and bugs are knit from yarn in many colours; some natural, others in bright neons, flesh tones, and glittery thread. The inflated scale and hyperreal palette plays with the tension between art and ornament and heightens the juxtaposition of the knit garden with the manufactured, "natural" park setting that surrounds it.  The work is over the top, absurd, but not heavy-handed or cliché - Pride is political, and the goal of this project is to emphasize the inclusive and celebratory aspects of pride.

The 2017 Into the Streets: Festival Art Series is organized by the Southern Alberta Art Gallery and guest-curated by Jane Edmundson and Tyler Stewart. Funding assistance from the Canada Council for the Arts, Alberta Foundation for the Art, the City of Lethbridge, and the Heart of Our City Activity Grant.

- See more at: http://saag.ca/art/exhibitions/0720-into-the-streets:-festival-art-series#sthash.kfPKLTUd.dpuf