Announcing Modular Art Pods 2019 at Nashville’s Fort Houston for July 13th – 20th. Please share this event with friends!
Featuring Art Pods by:
Amanda Lomax, Pepper Sims, Beth Reitmeyer, Dylan Pew, Eric Mason, Libby Michael, Kay Kennedy, Matthew Kinney, Madeleine Hicks, Cassie Hamilton, Kara McLeland, Nico Magee, Megan Kelley & The Inbound Lands, Lauren Michelle Ballejos, Claire Ramage, Sophia Gordon-Stevens, Teddy Gordon-Stevens
Hosted by Abbey Skojec and David Hellams at Fort Houston
This MAPs event is organized by artists Abbey Skojec and David Hellams, and will take place in the gallery at Nashville’s Fort Houston in July 2019. We expect this to be an intimate and experimental show with 15 or fewer pods. These MAPs will be on display 2 weeks total, but with special opening and closing weekend events. Special thanks to MAPs creator @tonyyoungblood for advice, support, and the gift of MAPs!
Submitting your proposal is simple! Link to the application here: https://goo.gl/forms/lXRyYEqPotJ6E1DN2
Link to Pod Rules for MAPs @ Fort Houston 2019:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gg9Bye221NqwD0W3m-j8G_raDkzH3uOdprmi7AI7UNA/edit
Pod Building Guide (helpful instructions from the official MAPs website):
https://modularartpods.wordpress.com/pod-building-guides
The Crappy Magic Experience is a multi-volume art event by Nashville artists David Hellams and David King. In 2016, Crappy Magic hosted two shows at Seed Space. The first featured bins full of discarded consumer goods that attendees were encouraged to play with, reconfigure, and reconsider. At the second event, artists donated reconfigured consumer goods to be auctioned off. Then they made infomercials to induce people to buy stuff.
Crappy Magic will return on Saturday, April 1 at abrasiveMedia, and they want your weird stuff!
As the contributing artist guidelines state, your item “can be a hand-crafted artwork; or it can be a ‘found’ object.” If you like, you can make an accompanying sales video. You can even borrow an item already donated to Crappy Magic and make a video for that.
The deadline for submissions is March 5. Learn more at CrappyMagic.com
The Crappy Magic Experience
3pm-10pm, Saturday, April 1, 2017
@ Abrasive Media (Houston Station), 438 Houston St #257, Nashville, TN 37203
MAPs @ Queen Avenue, setup in progress.
Produced by Tyler Blankenship, Modular Art Pods at Queen Ave will be the first independently-curated MAPs show. I’ll be bringing my electrical box pod, but I (Tony Youngblood) was not otherwise involved with the curation or production. What the heck are Modular Art Pods? Learn more here.
The show takes place Friday, November 11 through Saturday, November 12, 6pm to 10pm each night. Saturday’s event will coincide with the East Side Art Stumble.
Detail, Abby Coppage’s pod in progress
Admission is FREE! You can support the show by donating to the IndieGoGo campaign.
Tyler told me about some of the amazing pods and performances going down, and I’m incredibly excited! You’ll get to wade through a mini ball pit, explore a world made out of clay, witness an artist performing in a dress made out of barbed-wire and chicken-wire, and so much more!
Janelle Bonfour-Mikes will perform in a dress made from barbed-wire and chicken-wire
The show will feature approximately 14 pods and 10 performances. Participants include:
Jenn Deafenbaugh’s mini-dome pod in progress.
Here’s the performance schedule:
7:30pm: Marlos E’van
8pm: Fat Turbulence
9pm: Janelle Bonfour-Mikes
7pm: Kyle Neumann
7:30pm: The Dead Springs
8pm: Rebekah Alexander
9pm: Gardening, Not Architecture
7pm: Fat Turbulence
7:30pm: Marlos E’van
8pm: RabbitxRabbit
9pm: Janelle Bonfour-Mikes
6:30pm: Ashley Lawless
7pm: Kyle Neumann
7:30pm: The Dead Springs
8pm: droneroom
9pm: Gardening, Not Architecture
7pm: Dustin Hedrick live painting
Travis Weaver and Brandon Greer’s pod in progress.
Queen Avenue is located at 178 Queen Ave, Nashville, Tennessee 37207. If you attend on Saturday, be sure to check out all the other participating galleries of the East Side Art Stumble.
More info on the Facebook event page.
“Gardening, Not Architecture” MAPs performance rehearsal.
Queen Ave
If you’ve been planning on submitting a pod-making idea to Modular Art Pods at Queen Ave, today is your last day to submit. The show will take place on November 11 and 12, 2016.
This edition is being organized and curated by Tyler Blankenship and Tyler Walker. They will consider both new pods and pods built for previous editions of MAPs. They are also looking for performers.
Find out all the details and apply here: MAPs @ Queen Ave Application.
Queen Ave’s address is 178 Queen Ave, Nashville, TN 37207.
It’s time for the second edition of the Poddy Awards, the contest where we ask pod artists to vote on their favorite pods. About half of the OZ Art Fest pod builders responded to our call. Results are below.
Winners of “Best Overall Pod” and categories other than best-in-each-level will receive a 3D printed award. Best-in-each-level winners will receive a certificate.
To see photos of the winning pods, have a look at the Artist Guide and the galleries.
And the winners are…
Winner: (tie) Big Guise (Alexine Rioux, Mika Agari, and Kayla Saito), Erica Ciccarone
Runner-up: (tie) Kit Reuther, Paul Cain
Winner: Abbey Skojec
Runner-up: (tie) Matthew Batty, Patricia Earnhardt and Elizabeth Sanford
Beth Reitmeyer and ELEL
Tony Youngblood here. This isn’t quite related to Modular Art Pods, but I thought it may be of some interest to site followers.
I’m happy to announce that I’ll be teaching one of the first workshops at Make Nashville‘s brand new space!
The class is called “Papercraft Automata” and is open to students ages 11 and up. (Younger students are welcome with parental accompaniment.) If the first class is successful, I hope to make it a continuing series.
Using Rob Ives’ wonderful paper automata designs, I will teach you the basics of mechanical movement. Each class will explore a different mechanical movement concept including crank sliders, scotch yokes, geneva cranks, gear boxes, worm gears, rack and pinions, and more
In the first class, we will learn all about cams by building the Hungry T-Rex Dinosaur! This is a great introduction to mechanical movement because the kit provides several sets of cams that change the dinosaur’s animation.
Cams have been around for hundreds of years. They are the main mechanical principal behind self-writing, self-drawing, and music-playing automata such as the one featured in the movie Hugo. There’s so much you can do with this one simple concept!
Date: Sunday, August 21 from 12pm to 4pm.
Location: Make Nashville, 947 Woodland St, Nashville, TN
Class fee: $7 for Make Nashville makerspace members. $12 for non-members.
We will supply all tools and components, however if you have a favorite cutting mat, pair of scissors, or Exacto-knife, feel free to bring it along.
Buy your tickets here. This class is limited to 18 students and is expected to sell out, so reserve your spot quick.
Learn more about the Hungry T-Rex here.
Tracy Nakayama’s Ceremony, part of TRIPLE FANTASY at Third Man Records
There are plenty of great art events this week in Nashville, including several featuring Modular Art Pods participants.
On Thursday, August 4th from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Third Man Records, Nashville Scene arts editor and friend of-MAPs Laura Huston is curating Triple Fantasy, a three-artist exhibition exploring the intersection between sex and magic. 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
From the press release:
Artists Elijah Burgher, Tracy Nakayama and Benjy Russell address themes of queerness, sexuality and the occult through their unique drawings, prints, paintings and photography. Burgher’s drawings, paintings and prints draw largely on sigils and an imaginary cult called the Bachelors of the Dawn that claims the supremacy of homosexual men. Nakayama’s paintings reference 1970s porn and, more recently, contemporary nudist colonies. She has created a painting specifically for this exhibit, and will have a limited edition print of another painting available. Russell uses photography to incorporate ideas of ritual and sexuality. His often surreal work eschews Photoshop in favor of absurdism and in-camera effects. Join us on the 4th for the opening reception, or if you can’t make it, stop by in the following 4 days to see this incredible show.
Legs, part of Sideshow Fringe Fest
Thursday, August 4 marks the kickoff of the 2016 Sideshow Fringe Festival curated by MAPs alum Jessika Malone. This multidisciplinary, multi-venue stage arts festival has been running strong for 6 years, and it gets better every year.
One can’t-miss show is the play Legs, directed by MAPs alum Madeleine Hicks.
From the event page:
When Cara Smart turns 16 years old, it’s time for her to answer the age old question that every young woman must face: which limb would she amputate first? Disturbing, hilarious, and poignant-Legs provokes important questions about how society constructs beauty and the struggles women face to conform to a world built against them. “After all, a woman without prosthetics would be just, impractical.”
Legs takes place Saturday, August 6, 8:30 p.m. at the Darkhorse Theatre. Check the Sideshow Fringe website and show schedule for the full list of events.
Chip Boles
Saturday’s Downtown and Wedgewood/Houston art crawls are shaping up to be spectacular.
At 40AU Gallery in the downtown Arcade, MAPs alum Chip Boles presents his first Nashville solo show. He’ll be there doing live drawing. Saturday, August 6 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Chip Boles’ Art Pod at OZ Art Fest
Tinney 10th Anniversary Show
Saturday at Tinney Contemporary we have A Decade in the Making, a two-part exhibition celebrating the gallery’s 10 year anniversary. The exhibition features a number of artists, including MAPs alum Carla Ciuffo. Check the Tinney Contemporary website to see the full list of artists. 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Pod by Carla Ciuffo + Stasis Universe; Sooner or Later w/ Tanya Butler & Dee Simpson, at OZ Art Fest
Jaime Raybin and Briena Harmening
Saturday at the Wedgewood/Houston crawl, a number MAPs artists are selling artwork in David Hellams and David King’s Crappy Magic Auction. The auction will take place at 9:15pm in the Silo Room at Track One. 18 artists are participating, including MAPs alums Jaime Raybin, Briena Harmening, Mika Agari, Sarah McDonald, Marlos E’van, and Tyler Blankenship.
Raybin and Harmening, who created the Peep Pods at OZ Art Fest, will be premiering an infomercial for a compact disc compilation of music from their pod.
All auction proceeds benefit the wonderful Track One gallery Seed Space.
Jaime Raybin and Briena Harmening’s Peeps Pod at OZ Art Fest
Emily Holt
Down the road at Julia Martin Gallery, Delia Seigenthaler and MAPs alum Emily Holt present new work in a show called Oil & Mud. Learn more at the gallery website.
Emily Holt’s pod at OZ Art Fest
Learn about what’s happening at the other crawl galleries via Nashville Arts’ August Crawl Guide.
Queen Ave
Queen Ave, the East-Nashville experimental gallery and venue, just announced their own edition of Modular Art Pods, slated for November 11 and 12, 2016. This makes me happy. My hope for MAPs was always that other people would take the concept and run with it. That’s exactly what the Queen Ave organizers Tyler Blankenship and Tyler Walker are doing. It’s is why we licensed the idea under Creative Commons – Share Alike.
That being said, I should be explicit in stating that I am not involved in the production of Modular Art Pods @ Queen Ave, although I plan on submitting a pod idea for the show. If you have any questions, contact Tyler Blankenship at jtblankenship@me.com.
Applications are open now through August 25, 2016. Queen Ave will consider both new pods and pods built for previous editions of MAPs. This is a great opportunity to re-use the pod sitting in your basement. They will also consider performers who don’t necessarily want to build their own pod.
Find out all the details and apply here: MAPs @ Queen Ave Application.
Queen Ave’s address is 178 Queen Ave, Nashville, TN 37207.
Tyler Blankenship works on his and Sarah McDonald’s pod for MAPs @ OZ
Here’s a handy reference to help match your favorite pods with their makers. If the map is too small, middle-mouse-click it to open it in a new tab.
Pod Levels:
Photo by Sarah McDonald
Photo by Jonathan Lisenby
Modular Art Pods 