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Monday, January 19, 2009

As the WOrMS Turns

After four years of organizing the Windows on Main St. project, Karlos Carcamo and I are passing the torch to whomever may want to pick it up.
KC and I instigated the project in 2005 as a way for artists to interact with the local environment, merchants and inhabitants of Beacon's Main St. We also envisioned the exhibition as an artist driven open source project that would shift in its form according to whomever is involved in developing the current incarnation of it.
In these four years, we've received an incredible level of interest and participation on behalf of our local merchants. We've also enjoyed the financial support of BACA, the Dutchess County Arts Council, The Community Foundation, and Rhinebeck Savings Bank.
We've been able to facilitate some great moments for the participating artists and, I believe, for street bound viewers. I have very much appreciated the ways in which my experience of Main St. has been altered or informed by the projects that been done. I've said several times before that my perception of this project is that it's an intimate endeavor. For me, the exhibition is summed up in the singular chance encounter between passerby and artwork at that very moment in the viewer's day in that very spot along the viewer's path. WOMS is also about the artist and business person who may become just a little more familiar with one another through the host/collaboration experience.
Karlos and I have spoken about taking the project into a fifth year, but at this moment, we feel that the moment is beyond ready for some new custodianship. I think these four years have been a good start and I hope someone will be willing to pick it up and explore new aspects of engaging our immediate surroundings in creative exchanges.
If anyone is interested in rolling WOMS forward, shoot me an email.

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