Winner's Announcement Party : 3.1.08

The esteemed jury met last weekend. We announce the winner tomorrow and will post them all here by Monday. Above? Mark Gunderson and Rick Lowe. More pics of the jury deliberating here.

See ya tomorrow at the party! PanAmerican ArtProjects. 1615 Dragon in Dallas. 6-8PM.

Looking at La Reunion from outside Dallas

A few weeks ago, I had the honor to hear Robert Hammond speak about the amazing High Line project in NYC.  He was in town as a guest speaker for the Dallas Architecture Forum's 07-08 season at the Magnolia Theatre.  Listening to his experience in dealing with an artifact from another era and trying to do something interesting with it for the benefit of a city sounded awfully familiar.  The vision revealed to him and a co-founder was to create a super long park on the western side of Manhattan.  Why not, right?  It was awfully inspiring and exactly what I needed to hear at that moment in time as LRTX was heading into it's own ideas competition that wrapped juried deliberations just this past weekend...  WHEW.  Anyhoo.  After his talk, I had to introduce myself and share a little about the vision for Dallas we at La Reunion have with our own little plot of land and a trestle...  Check out Robert's post on LRTX on the High Line blog.  

Live Blogging from the Jury Room

Well.  The jury deliberates.  Rick Lowe, Rick Brettell, Louise Harpman, Max Levy, and Mark Gunderson made the first go through of entries.  We then had a site visit and broke for lunch.  After a nice meal the fabulous Cliff Cafe in Oak Cliff, we are now back in the room and the deliberations continue....  A very exciting day in the life or our young organization. Public announcement on March 1 at PanAmerican ArtProjects.  Ok, back to showing slides....

Winner's Announcement Party + other goodness

Well, the stellar jury for Make Space for Art is meeting in about a week or so and there's tons to do in the meantime. A handful of us are working over time to prepare the files for a slide show for the jury to view. Shout outs to Allison V Smith, Jessica Stewart, Chance Miller, and David Traylor for camping out at La Reunion world headquarters (Murray Street Coffee) and helping me sort gobs of cd's. Having a sneak peak at plans is just one of the awesome perks of managing La Reunion.

Speaking of the Winner's Announcement Party... We are having a fantastic get-together on March 1 at PanAmerican ArtProjects from 6pm-8pm. We'll announce the winner, show a slide show of all the entires and have a fabulous time listening to the Tim Burtonesque sounds of Escalator Maintenance Society. I ran by the gallery this very afternoon and artist William Cannings was there installing his show which will be on display during our party. Fabulous.

Last, check out this article on the KERA blog about one of the Make Space for Art jurors, Rick Lowe of Project Row Houses in Houston. It's thrilling to have the honor of meeting him in a couple of weeks and getting his input on our project. Stay tuned.

Tree Carving!

Our first annual Tree Carving was this past Saturday.  About 75 people attended over the course of the day and toured the site and learned a little about native flora from Melissa Martin and Randy Johnson with Texas Discovery Gardens.  Attendees watched artists transform non-native (weed), dead and dying trees into site specific works of art.  Thank you to local artists Brad Ford Smith, Kevin Obregon, Allan Arp, Tyler and Molly Sharp, Cindy Thomas, and David Carapeytan (and CREW!) for being such sensitive and adventurous artists.  Pictures abound. Local photographer Erica Felicella shot some amazing portraits that can be seen here. Attendee Steve Rainwater also took some pictures.  Mine are here.  More are coming!  

A special thank you to volunteer Lisa Z for bringing hot and cold drinks for the artists. Thanks to CityGallery for a donation to defer costs.  Thanks to Preservation Tree for being there in full force and educating us all on trees. Thanks to everyone who attended and spent a lovely day outdoors.   We look forward to next year!  

If you'd like a tour of the site, please contact Executive Director Sarah Jane Semrad at sarah@LaReunionTX.org.