Submit a Project
CALL FOR PARTICIPATION NOW OPEN!
FIGMENT BOSTON 2013
JULY 27-28 ON THE ROSE KENNEDY GREENWAY
CALL FOR PARTICIPATION OPEN FRIDAY, MARCH 1 – MONDAY, JUNE 17!
Founded in 2007 on New York City’s Governors Island, what began as a few thousand enthusiasts enjoying a handful of participatory art projects on a sunny July afternoon has ballooned into a multi-day, multi-city event that drew over 30,000 participants in NYC and Boston in 2011. FIGMENT Boston 2012 was an amazing success, with approximately 6,000 participants interacting with nearly 100 art projects.
In 2013, FIGMENT seeks to continue its mission to offer free, inclusive and participatory art to entire communities, removing the barriers of museum and gallery walls and entrance fees and blurring the lines between those who create and those who enjoy art. This year, FIGMENT Boston will take place during the weekend of July 27 and 28.
We are excited to announce that we have created a new Artist Portal to submit and maintain artist submissions. FIGMENT asks that you create an account on the FIGMENT Artist Submission Portal to begin your process of submission. This is your account to keep, so please document your username and password.
Once you’ve created your account, you’ll log back in and you can choose the city you’d like to create a project for.
As if the new portal couldn’t be more exciting, you can now incrementally save your project! This allows you to begin a project proposal and come back to it another day. Remember though, once you’ve clicked the ‘submit’ button, you’ll no longer be able to make changes to that project.
Additionally, should you choose to take the project on the road to one of our other cities, you may reuse the project and apply it to other cities.
It is our hope that this new portal will create an easier submission process, as well as a way to archive all the wonderful info FIGMENT needs to produce FIGMENT and support our artists.
Before you submit, please take a moment to read the information on this page—it’ll give you the necessary guidelines to submit your project as FIGMENT-worthy as possible!
Please note that some pieces—especially large structural pieces—may need to go through permitting from various departments of the City of Boston. Please consult us as early as possible at BOSTONcuratorial@figmentproject.org if you wish to build any kind of project that includes walls, mazes, tents, structures, or anything else that people need to physically enter, walk through or under, climb on, etc., so that we can advise you on the process and help you with permitting. We work hard to help artists design projects that will not require permits and want to help you build a successful piece! If the City of Boston determines that your project must be permitted and we cannot secure permits for your project you will not be able to participate. Permits may need to come from multiple departments, including Boston Fire, Inspectional Services, and Buildings.
To Submit a Proposal:
1 Submit your art project by 11:59pm ET on Monday, June 17, 2013, using our artist portal.
2 We will start notifying registered artists from June 1, 2013 if their project has been selected to be part of FIGMENT Boston 2013. Projects will be selected in the order they are received until we fill the entire space, so don’t wait until the last minute to submit! Our goal is to accept ALL of the projects that meet our criteria.
3 Once accepted, you can begin work on your project immediately! Our curatorial staff will be available to answer your questions and we will check in with you several weeks before the event.
Entries are encouraged from individuals or teams of any age or experience level, provided they are prepared to carry out the project.
Proposal Criteria:
In 2013, FIGMENT has a new artist portal. We hope that this portal will be easier to use than our previous system. It will allow artists to save their work and come back, reduce duplicate entries, make it easier for artists to participate in multiple FIGMENT cities, and archive past submissions for use in artists portfolios.
Projects can include but are not limited to: installations, games, workshops, (roving) performances, multimedia, electronic art, and music.
Your FIGMENT Weekend project can be submitted by an individual or group of individuals. Projects will be selected based on creativity, interactivity, structural integrity, context and impact, sustainability, feasibility, and community involvement.
We are excited to have a night-time component to FIGMENT Boston! A small portion of the overall FIGMENT site will remain open until 11PM on Saturday, July 27, for participants who wish to bring light-based pieces. Please bear in mind that this is a public park in the middle of the city, so true darkness is hard to find. Your light pieces must not interfere with traffic or public safety (including very bright pieces that would distract drivers or pieces that could be mistaken for traffic lights).
• Creativity: Your piece should be visually or sonically stunning and wildly innovative. Your proposal should state a clear concept, theme or central idea.
• Interactivity: Your project MUST provide for ongoing interactivity and participation from visitors to FIGMENT Weekend. This could be as simple as a way visitors can move, influence, or play with your art, or simply involving the audience in your performance. It could also involve transforming, adding to, or fundamentally altering the art project over the course of the weekend, or having the audience actually influence the course and content of your performance. In the questionnaire, please be sure to fully explain how your project will be participatory and engage visitors at FIGMENT.
• Structural Integrity: If you are bringing an installation to FIGMENT, keep in mind that this is not a traditional art event. When you design a piece for FIGMENT imagine that it will be climbed on by 15 children at a time, kicked, walked on, etc. – for 6-12 hours a day, for 2 consecutive days. If it rains, there is no shelter. Keeping that in mind, build for the apocalypse and consider a modular design for ease of transport and installation and de-installation. Although we have not had acts of intentional vandalism, anything that moves, is shiny or removable will be played with and pulled on in ways you did not imagine.
• Context and Impact: When thinking about your submission, especially when you are bringing a performance to the event, think about how your project will affect other projects. Is it noisy? Does it require quiet? Does it have the potential to be messy? All artists must adhere to the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy’s park use guidelines, with regard to environmental presentation and general safety.
• Sustainability: Please consider your materials carefully. Where do they come from? Where will they go after the weekend is over, or when your performance is done? Given the temporary nature of any installation or performance, if possible please consider creating your work from found waste materials, or using materials for your performance setup that can be temporarily appropriated and then reused after your performance is done. One of FIGMENT’s main principles is Leave No Trace. We are committed to leaving no physical trace of our activities wherever we gather. Be prepared and committed to clean up your art project after FIGMENT by 9PM on Sunday night, and to leave the Rose Kennedy Greenway in a better state than you found it.
• Feasibility (only applicable to Installations): All projects will be reviewed by FIGMENT Boston and Greenway officials to make sure they meet context and impact guidelines. Please note that you will be responsible for the design, construction, maintenance, installation, execution and de-installation of your project. All weekend projects will be installed on The Rose Kennedy Greenway between 8AM-10:30AM Saturday, July 27, 2013. Projects must be designed to be disassembled. De-installation will occur between 5-9PM Sunday July 28 – immediately after the event has ended but no sooner. Artists are solely responsible for the successful installation and de-installation of their projects. Artists are solely responsible for the security of their projects. General Park security is provided 7AM–11PM but neither Greenway Conservancy nor FIGMENT Boston will take responsibility for any damage to projects by force of nature, vandal, or willful neglect of artist. Accepted artists will be asked to sign a hold harmless agreement for damage caused by willful neglect and name the City of Boston, Greenway Conservancy and Greenway property owner (Massachusetts Department of Transportation). Please see the note above about permitting.
• Community Involvement: FIGMENT is a large-scale participatory arts project that is created by a large community of volunteers. We look forward to your being a part of this community, and to volunteering to help make the FIGMENT event and exhibitions happen.
Please address any questions to BOSTONcuratorial@figmentproject.org.
We encourage you to consider the following before submitting your project proposal:
• Drawing inspiration from other community-based arts events, the development, production, and experience of FIGMENT are guided by 11 principles, one of which is DECOMMODIFICATION. FIGMENT seeks to create social environments that are unmediated by commercial sponsorships, transactions, or advertising. We will not substitute consumption for experience. For all 11 Principles of FIGMENT, click here.
• What type of location would suit your project? A grass space? Pavement? Please realize that The Rose Kennedy Greenway has no indoor space. You may request a type of location; however, precise placement of projects and performances is at the discretion of the FIGMENT planning team.
• Artists who bring an installation must plan to personally be on site during any days in which their project is on site.
• Artists are responsible for any volunteers or additional performers needed during the weekend, or for installation or de-installation. FIGMENT staff will work with you to try and assist with volunteer needs, but we cannot promise anything. Remember that FIGMENT is about radical self-reliance.
• Artists who are bringing an installation are responsible for transportation of all materials to site. Consider collaborating with other artists on ways to share materials and transportation needs/costs. We cannot guarantee free parking.
• Budget: Think carefully about the materials that you will be using to create your installation or enhance your performance. Since FIGMENT is a completely volunteer run organization and event, we are unable to supply materials and there is no funding available for material stipends. We encourage artists to seek outside sources of funding. Artists will be asked to agree to a waiver before they submit their project, signifying that they understand what will be asked of them from FIGMENT to install and de-install.
Project Timeline
• Submissions open: March 1
• Project submission deadline: June 17 (11:59pm ET)
• Notification of acceptance/rejection/how to fine tune your project: no later than June 30
• Installation: 8-10:30AM Saturday July 27
• FIGMENT Weekend: July 27-28
• De-Installation begins: 6PM Sunday July 28
• De-Installation completion: by 9PM Sunday July 28
Please address any questions to BOSTONcuratorial@figmentproject.org.
See you at FIGMENT in July!
About the Greenway
FIGMENT Boston is produced with support from the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy, the designated stewards of the Rose Kennedy Greenway and site of FIGMENT Boston. The Conservancy is delivering on the promise of a beautiful, vibrant, innovative city park.
