HISTORY—On to Summer 2011
As the preparations intensified for FIGMENT’s summer events, the fundraising team noticed that foundation grants seemed to getting harder and harder to secure. It seemed like, hurt by the recession, many arts-oriented foundations were giving only to organizations they had previously supported, and were not considering funding from new organizations. The FIGMENT fundraising team intensified their efforts around soliciting donations from individual donors, and started looking for more opportunities to raise funds from community efforts like the Gratitude event and the NoLita Mardi Gras event that Wylie Stecklow had organized for several years. In 2011, FIGMENT also received contributions from the Burning Man Decompression events in Boston and New York City, and the Burning Man Regional camping event in New England, Firefly.
The Groundbreaking fundraiser in New York City was more successful than ever in its third year, raising approximately $10,000 under the leadership of Anna Martin and Sheila Garson. The event took place at 320 Studios in New York City, and received a proclamation from New York State Senator Daniel Squadron.
FIGMENT Boston identified a new location for its event: Rose Kennedy Greenway, the new ribbon-shaped park in the financial district, created when the flyovers were taken down following the completion of the Big Dig. Jason Turgeon began a partnership with the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy. FIGMENT Boston doubled in duration to a two-day event in its second year, on June 4-5, 2011. Mayor Thomas Menino of Boston issued a proclamation that named June 4, 2011, as “FIGMENT Boston Day” in the City of Boston. The event featured nearly 100 participatory arts projects that were enjoyed by approximately 5,000 participants.
Despite some challenging weather, the FIGMENT NYC event welcomed nearly 20,000 participants and 400 arts projects. The event was kicked off on Friday, June 10, with a press conference featuring New York State Senator Daniel Squadron, who read a haiku he had written for the occasion. Leslie Koch, the President of the Trust for Governors Island, and David Koren also spoke. After the press conference, Daniel Squadron and David Koren played a few holes of minigolf, and then the entourage rode back to the ferry on the Electric Bubble Bus.
Following the model of the 2010 City of Dreams Pavilion Competition, FIGMENT worked again with ENYA and SEAoNY to issue a call for proposals for the 2011 pavilion. Approximately 100 proposals were received, and were reviewed by our invited jury: Yolande Daniels, Principal, Studio SUMO; Vanessa Kassabian, AIA, LEED AP, Design Director, Snohetta; Jing Liu, Principal, SO-IL; Milton Puryear, Co-Founder of Brooklyn Greenway Initiative; Ada Tolla, Int’l Assoc. AIA; Robert Otani, PE, LEED AP,Vice President, Thornton Tomasetti; Kristin Marting, Artistic Director, HERE. The jury narrowed the field down to five finalists, and asked them to revise their proposals based on jury feedback. After meeting one more time to review the resubmissions, the jury selected Bittertang’s Burble Bup submission as the winning entry. Project Manager Rocket Osborne worked with the Bittertang team to supervise the nearly 150 volunteers who worked to build and install the project. Team members Michael Loverich and Antonio Torres spent a great deal of time on the island over the summer making sure that the Burble Bup stayed inflated and looked great throughout the season. (Burble Bup is here: http://newyork.figmentproject.org/long-term-exhibitions/2011-city-of-dreams-pavilion/the-2011-city-of-dreams-pavilion-burble-bup/.)
The FIGMENT minigolf course, under the leadership of Jacquelyn Strycker, returned for its fourth year, and the FIGMENT sculpture garden, under the leadership of Jen Upchurch, returned for its third year.
FIGMENT NYC received press attention in 2011 from a number of publications and media outlets that haven’t really covered FIGMENT in the past, including the New Yorker, WNYC, WCBS, Bloomberg, and the Huffington Post. The press attention culminated with FIGMENT being named the Best Art Festival in New York by the Village Voice.
