Role: Project Manager
I identified artist Julia Goodman for the commissioned Up in the Trees environmental installation for Children's Discovery of Museum's Out on a Limb exhibit at Educare, Silicon Valley. We began our planning before the building was built and the final exhibit was finalized. I worked closely with Goodman to identify where the art would be installed and with consideration for the exhibition footprint at Educare. I negotiated and developed a new artist contract and developed the educational content for the exhibit signage. I coordinated all of the volunteers who cut each t-shirt into small squares for her to make into pulp that eventually became these beautiful pieces. I served as the artist liaison between Educare staff and Museum exhibits staff.
Project Description:
Up In The Trees is a permanent installation commissioned by the Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose at Educare, Silicon Valley, highlighting different trees and animals that inhabit the Santee, San Jose, neighborhood community. Hanging throughout the space you will see goldfinches flying by a London plane tree, squirrels snacking next to a ginkgo leaf, a raccoon hiding between cottonwood leaves, a silkworm ready to munch on a mulberry leaf, and monarch butteries smiling from behind clusters of eucalyptus leaves. The paper animals are based on collaborative graphite drawings between four-year-old Mabel O’Hara-Hardy and artist Julia Goodman.
All of the hanging animals and leaves are handmade paper composed of pulp from different colored, used, 100% cotton t-shirts, donated by Savers, San Jose. All of the colors are repurposed color. No additional pigments or dyes were used in this project.
