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Spotlight on the World

ARTISTS CREATING CHANGE

By Ann Maisel

For years I’ve been intrigued by the mean­ing­ful ways in which artists world­wide demon­strate their desire to cre­ate pos­i­tive change not only in their own lives but also in the lives of those around them. So, as I inau­gu­rate this fea­ture, I’m embark­ing on a quest to dis­cover, and share with the World Salon com­mu­nity, a wide vari­ety of sto­ries about cre­ative and per­form­ing artists who devote some of their cre­ative energy to ben­e­fit­ing their com­mu­ni­ties and sup­port­ing causes in which they believe.

In my expe­ri­ence, peo­ple who con­sciously cul­ti­vate their cre­ativ­ity are often gen­er­ous and uniquely attuned to the world around them, so I know that I will have a delight­ful time shar­ing with you inspir­ing and com­pelling sto­ries about artists in action. I hope you will join me in my quest and feel free to send me sto­ries to con­sider spot­light­ing for World Salon vis­i­tors and our grow­ing com­mu­nity. My e-mail: annmaisel@gmail.com.

Here’s an upcom­ing event that seems per­fect as my inau­gural piece for Spot­light on the World. On Sep­tem­ber 16, 2011, artists from all over the world will be par­tic­i­pat­ing in PARK (ing) Day. What’s it all about?

“PARK(ing) Day” is a annual open-source global event where cit­i­zens, artists and activists col­lab­o­rate to tem­porar­ily trans­form metered park­ing spaces into “PARK(ing)” spaces: tem­po­rary pub­lic places. The project began in 2005 when Rebar a San Fran­cisco art and design stu­dio, con­verted a sin­gle metered park­ing space into a tem­po­rary pub­lic park in down­town San Fran­cisco. Since 2005, PARK(ing) Day has evolved into a global move­ment, with orga­ni­za­tions and indi­vid­u­als (oper­at­ing inde­pen­dently of Rebar but fol­low­ing an estab­lished set of guide­lines) cre­at­ing new forms of tem­po­rary pub­lic space in urban con­texts around the world.

The mis­sion of PARK(ing) Day is to call atten­tion to the need for more urban open space, to gen­er­ate crit­i­cal debate around how pub­lic space is cre­ated and allo­cated, and to improve the qual­ity of urban human habi­tat … at least until the meter runs out!” Read more here.

I encour­age you to check it out, and if you end up par­tic­i­pat­ing either as a designer or a PARK(ing) site vis­i­tor, I’d love to hear about your expe­ri­ences. My e-mail: annmaisel@gmail.com