Doors to Your Future
Location
About You
Location
Project Street Address
Project City
Pittsburgh
Project Province/State
PA
Project Postal/Zip Code
Project Country
United States
Innovation
What is your idea? What makes your project innovative? Why is it important?
Doors mark a transition between two distinct places: inside and outside. Symbolically doors can be a metaphor for transition, such as between childhood and adulthood. The public art piece "Doors to Your Future" plays with doorways as a passageway from one part of our lives to another.
The installation will consist of a circle of ten steel doors, each 18 feet high. The doors will be permanently fixed open at 90 degrees, encouraging members of the public to walk through and symbolically enter a new phase of their lives. The doors will be modeled after original sculptures and drawings created by local teens. This unique piece will be visually pleasing and satisfying to those who choose to interact.
On the corresponding website, people will post personal messages about what they are leaving behind or walking towards and transitions they have been through in the past. Workshops run in Pittsburgh area schools will explore these ideas in more depth.
Impact
What will be the impact of your idea?
Part of growing as a person is learning to accept the things about ourselves that we can't change and taking steps to change the things we can. There are times each of us would like to "close the door" on an aspect of our lives and move on. Walking through "Doors to Your Future," can be a powerful self affirming gesture.
The piece will have a lasting impact on workshop students, exploring ideas of transition and change and enabling them to think about their lives in a new way. The local teenagers who help design the doors will feel a sense of pride and achievement for having contributed to a lasting work of public art. Moving forward, "Doors to Your Future" will become an enduring attraction in Pittsburgh and the public will enjoy revisiting for an interactive experience.
What will it take to launch your idea? How will you secure community support and youth participation?
This project will cost approximately $25,000 to come to fruition. The doors will be made from recycled, stainless steel, a nod to Pittsburgh's steel industry. Participating youth will be selected based on recommendations from local high school art teachers. Pittsburgh-based sculpture artists and metalworks artisans will be hired to teach youth about creating with metal as well as assisting with the physical creation of "Doors to Your Future" based on students' designs.
Throughout the process, members of the community will be invited to view mock-ups and models of the project at the main branch of Pittsburgh's public library. It is our hope that this project will garner community support as an innovative public art piece for the beautification of Pittsburgh.
This Entry is about (Issues)
Sustainability
We are looking for ideas from people who can make them happen. Tell us about yourself or your team.
I am a 29-year-old writer and visual artist. I have traveled extensively throughout Asia and Europe and have long been fascinated by art in public spaces and its emotional impact on people. I am currently writing my first novel which deals with themes of childhood transition and change, which are also explored in the public art piece, "Doors to Your Future". I taught crafts, English and Health to teenagers in Jodhpur, India in Fall 2008 while volunteering at the Sambhali Trust (www.sambhali-trust.org/), a grassroots non-profit which empowers “untouchable caste” girls and women. I worked as the Assistant Commissioning Editor in Lonely Planet's London office for four years, prior to recently returning home to the US. I currently live in Washington, D.C. a city famed for its public art in the form of grand monuments.
If my idea is selected, I will bring together a dynamic team of Pittsburgh-based sculpture artists and metalworks artisans, educators and creative teenagers.
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 | jsinatra updated this Competition Entry. - 983 days ago |
| Fayette updated this Competition Entry. - 984 days ago |
| Fayette updated this Competition Entry. - 984 days ago |
| jlawrence said: Fayette- This is an interesting idea. I like the use of local materials and the emphasis on the door as a metaphor for transition. ... about this Competition Entry. - 1001 days ago read more > |
