ART TUNNEL SMITHFIELD

Please see: http://www.arttunnelsmithfield.com/ and also https://www.facebook.com/arttunnelsmithfield

for current updates and information about this project

 

SADLY THE ART TUNNEL HAS TO CLOSE IN IT'S CURRENT LOCATION AS THE LEASE FOR THE GROUNDS HAS NOT BEEN EXTENDED (FEBRUARY 2014) WE ARE LOOKING FOR A NEW LOCATION AND HOPE TO REOPEN SOON. BARE WITH USFilm about the Art Tunnel the day before closing party by Bryan O' Brian for the Irish Times website :http://bcove.me/yggegs7a "

 

Wasteland Regeneration

Dublin’s Inner City is full of wasteland. These are rarely publicly accessible ,often in private ownership and there sole purpose seems to be collecting rubbish and debris.

 

Fieldwork & Strategies believes that these sites can be used, not only to relieve the public realm of depressing eyesores but also to provide local havens for citizens, flora and fauna. 

In doing so the local sense of pride and ownership as well as the biodiversity can be improved and the potential of disused sites around the cities is demonstrated.

 

The Art Tunnel, an outdoor art gallery is a pilot project, showing that it is possible to ‘turn around’ a derelict site for very little money financed simply through fund raising.

 

Having successfully gathered support from the local communities and businesses as well as the Council, F & S tested very cheap and innovative building materials chosen for the Art Tunnel,when building a test -outdoor gallery at Bloom Garden Show 2011 where it won a silver- gilt medal ( Photos below)

 A cost- free lease for 3 years  was negotiated and building works began in March 2012. The Art Tunnel was opened in July of this year. However the planting of the native and colonising plants will only be finalised this autumn when bare- rooted plants are available. Windows will be placed into the existing fencing during the next building phase in February 2013.

F & S hopes that the Art Tunnel will inspire other Inner City wasteland regeneration projects, serving the needs of the City and the local inhabitants.

 

Outdoor Art Gallery

The Art Tunnel is an exhibition space for emerging artists and community groups. It is also a public space for the none commercial creation and production of community artwork.

Through the Community Exhibition Area we show that creative productivity is not the domain of artists only but a universal talent accessible and useful to everyone. 

This public art gallery will become a platform for expression and exchange and allows for a paradigm-change: a town is not made solely by town planners, architects and other trained professionals but is also a produce of it’s inhabitants.

The Art Tunnel is at the same time political and poetic as it aims above all to ‘create relationships between worlds’. It responds to presentiments and unease towards galleries twofold: in formalising the gallery through placing it under the open sky surrounded by lush planting and through encouraging locals to exhibit.

 

Richer City

The “Art tunnel” is a platform for creativity which catalyses activities at a local level: A collaborative project, an infrastructure for urban participation and showcase of local skills, the art work exhibited is viewed by the Luas passengers as well by passing by pedestrians. 

Crossing the physical boundaries: exhibiting in public open space will fill the city with images which makes it richer, denser and more exciting to live in.

 

Pocket Park

The Art Tunnel is an intimate, densely planted pocket park, accessible to local key holders, it fulfils needs that compliments Smithfield Market: a vast and very public urban plaza, dominated by hard materials with very few plants.

 

Landmark

The Art Tunnel is a landmark and helps to create a distinctive urban identity for Smithfield.

Art Exhibitions

Artist and landscape architects from Fieldwork & Strategies work as curator with emerging artists and local artists’ studios such as the Complex and Block T, commissioning them to produce site specific art installations.

F & S also works with and encourages local schools, youth groups and residents to show art work to encourage spatial re- appropriation amongst the local community. All artists are encouraged to express their relationship with the Smithfield area. 

The produced Art will expose sociological movements and local desires.

 

A garden 

The art tunnel will- well in the nature of a garden- always be a work in progress as well as a civic act and activate further place making processes. 

It is also in the nature of this garden- gallery to look good and be a relaxing space to spend time in, even during the exhibition installation phases.

 

Maintenance

The Art Tunnel is low maintenance and the planting is biodiverse with a 100 sq metres natives only area. All maintenance works are done by locals who enjoy being part of the Art Tunnel and also sitting out in it in the evening sun.

 

Significance on micro- scale

This is a gallery, but its main achievement will be introducing people to different ways of working and thinking and articulating through creative processes. Trying to encourage citizens to appropriate and interact with the public realm.

Local interaction with the city through an intimate act like creating a piece of art with site-specific resonance encourages spatial appropriation.

 

Significance on macro- scale

A case study to encourage residents to obtain access to and critically transform temporary misused or under used spaces, it acts as example for the variety of activities that open space can be used for. The tunnel does not need to be physically accessible; in our climate we have a great tradition of enjoying scenery from a vehicle, protected from the elements.

It promotes cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue for locals and Lewis commuters, offering a richer variety of experiencing the City.

Check out The Art Tunnel facebook page to find out what's happening at moment:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Art-Tunnel-Smithfield/259531604062131?sk=wall