13/10/2004
Linda Price-Sneddon
Mass MoCA, North Adams
Pipe Cleaners and Pom-poms take over Kidspace in Wonder Worlds Exhibition. In her work, Price-Sneddon creates richly colored and densely textured environments using familiar craft materials like pipe cleaners, pom-poms, colored tape, yarn, and putty. She creatively organizes details she has observed in the world around her to create dense landscapes which evoke natural ecosystems such as coral reefs, mountain ranges, thickets, and the earth's topography.
Pipe Cleaners and Pom-poms take over Kidspace in Wonder Worlds Exhibition
Exhibition featuring work of Linda Price-Sneddon opens October 14, 2004
(North Adams, Massachusetts) From October 14, 2004 through February 5, 2005, visitors to Kidspace at MASS MoCA will find the gallery filled with fantastical new worlds created by Boston-based installation artist Linda Price-Sneddon. In her work, Price-Sneddon creates richly colored and densely textured environments using familiar craft materials like pipe cleaners, pom-poms, colored tape, yarn, and putty. She creatively organizes details she has observed in the world around her to create dense landscapes which evoke natural ecosystems such as coral reefs, mountain ranges, thickets, and the earth's topography. By using materials that are familiar to children, Price-Sneddon challenges kids to think of these craft materials in new ways, forming new symbols and unusual abstract representations.
The front half of the Kidspace gallery will be an installation that jumps from the floor to ceiling and onto the walls, creating varying patterns, lines, and abstractions. Video images that have been processed to reveal simple forms and patterns found in nature will be projected onto a wall midway into the installation. The back half of the installation will be dedicated to visitor and school group participation. There will be the opportunity to add to a “community garden†of pipe cleaners and pom-poms. Studio space will end the installation, where visitors and students can create take-home pieces of sculpture using the same materials as Price-Sneddon and employing techniques inspired by artist.
Price-Sneddon’s thematic focus on systems, both natural and human-made, suggests how careful observation expands awareness and understanding of a wide variety of ecosystems. As the artist assembles the installation, a live-feed camera will project her progress onto the Internet and into classrooms. Price-Sneddon will work with all classes (Pre-K – 10th grade) to extend the gallery installation into the three North Adams elementary schools and offer a teen after school program during a 21-day artist residency.
Price-Sneddon, trained at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, has organized several similar projects at smaller galleries in the Boston area. The Kidspace exhibition marks the first time she has put together a project on this scale and she will use this experience to learn how to bring her art to the masses, and especially, how it will impact the lives of children.
About Kidspace:
Kidspace at MASS MoCA is a joint program of the Williams College Museum of Art, the Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute, and MASS MoCA. Additional funding has been provided in part by the Massachusetts Cultural Council (a state agency), the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency), the Howard Hughes Medical Institute grant to Williams College, and the Brownrigg Charitable Trust in memory of Lynn Laitman.
During the exhibition, Kidspace’s public hours will be Saturdays and Sundays, noon to 4 P.M., plus additional hours on holidays and during school vacation weeks. Art classes will be offered during Christmas break and in February Kidspace will celebrate its 5th anniversary with special programs over February break. Please call Kidspace at (413) 664-4481 x8131 for more details on hours, programs, and exhibitions. Admission to Kidspace is free.
MASS MoCA, housed on a 13-acre campus of restored 19th-century factory buildings, is the largest center for contemporary art in the country. MASS MoCA’s galleries are open every day except Tuesdays, from 11 A.M. to 5 P.M. Admission is $10 for adults, $4 for children 6-16, free for children under 6 and free for members at all times. For additional information, call (413) 662-2111 or visit the website.
In the image an installation's detail.
Lenora Farrington
Marketing Coordinator
MASS MoCA
413.664.4481 x8111
Massmoca
87 Marshall Street
North Adams