New Public Art Project in Dayton: 510project

Gallery 510 Fine Art and Involvement Advocacy announced 510project, a new public art initiative to take place in the front window of Gallery 510 Fine Art, appropriately located at 510 East Fifth Street in the Oregon Arts District.

Performance. Installation. Art Making… A window looking in… A window looking out… Artists engaging Community… Community engaging Artists… Transformation.

Each month 510project invites an artist and the community to a different kind of conversation about:

• the relevance of art in the society;

• the role of the artist and the audience;

• what it means to be a creator, viewer, participant and collaborator – and what it means to BE Dayton.

The genesis for 510project was a conversation between community catalyst Peter Benkendorf and artist Loretta Puncer. According to Puncer, who owns Gallery 510, “I think we both felt that artists who live in Dayton have much to contribute to addressing the challenges we face in the community. They just need a viable venue to begin the conversation. We are excited to have identified our first three artists, all of whom we agree have something important to say about our collective future.”

Opening Installation

November 27 – December 3, 2010, Seen/Unseen with artist Rodney Veal

Friday, December 3, 2010, live performances at 7:00 and 8:00 PM, followed by artist/community conversation

Seen/Unseen is a media driven performance art installation that allows the audience to observe and interact with the work from a multiplicity of angles. It challenges patrons to really “see,” taking their participation out of passivity into active participation and engagement. When we can only see through a portal that is no larger than a peephole, what do we become as artists and audience?

Using video/sound collage and performance, independent choreographer/media artist Rodney Veal, hopes to challenge the viewers to “see” the unseen power they posses to impact and change how the performance unfolds, and ultimately how they engage with others. Seen/Unseen, ruminations on life, death and race, will only exist in the ephemeral state in which all performances exist with only the documentation serving as the finished work of art.

Upcoming Artists

December/January: Issa Randall, Dayton

January/February: Leigh Waltz, Miamisburg

About the Collaborators

Founded in 2008, Gallery 510 Fine Art has developed into a showcase for contemporary art and fine crafts with a focus on local emerging and established artists.  The gallery collection features paintings, drawings, linocuts, ceramics, fiber, wood, art glass and jewelry.  We endeavor to attract and include those new to the contemporary art scene, as well as serve knowledgeable collectors.  The gallery is located in the heart of the Historic Oregon District in Dayton, Ohio.

Involvement Advocacy, a 501(c)3 not-for-profit corporation, is committed to strengthening the Dayton region by acting as a catalyst for imaginative, entrepreneurial, community-driven solutions to pressing social, economic and civic challenges. These collaborative solutions will include citizen, government, business, institutional, organizational and philanthropic players. Involvement Advocacy’s principle program is Blue Sky Project, (www.blueskydayton.org), a juried, international summer artist residency committed to producing ambitious and meaningful works of contemporary art. It includes a strong youth development component and an emphasis on art making as community-building. The organization was also the originator of the 2009 Ten Living Cities Symposium, a response to the Forbes America’s Ten Fastest Dying Cites list.