BULBFEST 2019
at Albany Bulb Landfill Art Park, Albany, California
Open Call for Art
Deadline for submissions: February 8, 2019
Open Call for Dance Performances
Deadline for submissions: February 8, 2019
RESILIENCE is what people and ecosystems need to respond to challenges with strength and flexibility. RESILIENCE is what our communities demonstrate in the face of social, economic and environmental disruption. RESILIENCE is what habitats require in order to respond robustly to climate change.
Love the Bulb, a community-based arts and stewardship organization, is seeking proposals for outdoor art and dance projects at the Albany Bulb.
The 31-acre former construction debris landfill and public park on San Francisco Bay will host an open-air festival on May 5 and an art exhibition to run from May 5 through the end of July 2019
Applicants are invited to attend 2-hour site walks before submitting.
LOCATION
The Albany Bulb presents a unique location for examining questions of RESILIENCE. As a former construction debris landfill, it is a place where humans have caused severe damage to the Bay ecosystem through the dumping of debris. However, nature has responded with the emergence of abundant vegetation, rich salt marshes and dynamic intertidal zones. Moreover, with its long shoreline, the Bulb has a front-row seat to observe sea level rise and other impacts of climate change.
The Bulb is also a complex human ecosystem. For decades it was a place where otherwise homeless people sought refuge, building both homes and community spaces until they were evicted in 2014. The Bulb has many other long-time users–dogwalkers, birdwatchers, artists, water recreation enthusiasts and urban explorers. These overlapping groups have developed a remarkable ethos of collaboration and stewardship.
INTENTION
Aiming to advocate for a future of creative informality, our goal is to build community, to create knowledge, and to work collaboratively to get to know this unique place, its history, its materiality, its natural systems, and its existing users (human and non-human) in order to contemplate the future both of the Bulb and of other vulnerable waterfront locations and human communities.
GENRES
Sculpture, painting, acoustic, urban/environmental prototopying, land art, social practice, and storytelling are welcome, as well as interdisciplinary proposals and science-art partnerships.
We seek thoughtful art, design, and human and environmental interaction pieces that are created for the specific location where they are installed or carried out and that engage the questions raised by the geographic location, materials, and economic, physical, human, and natural history of the landfill. The purpose of the exhibition is to continue to build a community of knowledge around the Albany Bulb that uses this unique site to ask larger questions.
PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT
Because the Albany Bulb is a public park, there are many opportunities for your work to engage both art lovers and casual park-goers. You are welcome to propose an interactive project that takes place with your facilitation on the festival date of May 5; or art that interacts on an ongoing basis without the presence of the artist. Of course, art that interacts with the viewer simply by being seen or heard is also very welcome.
REQUIREMENTS, SCHEDULE & FUNDING
Deadline for submissions: 2/8/2019, 11:59 PST
Notification in late February
Art installation by May 4, 2019
Event May 5, 2019
Applicants are invited to attend one of several optional 2-hour site + history walks on January 10, 12, and 13. Details and signup in online application form or via e-mail.
ART
1. Read instructions and guidelines
2. Fill out art online form and submit online; then also save as a PDF
3. Assemble all materials into a single PDF and email to albanybulbinfo@gmail.com
DANCE
Fill out dance online form and submit online.
As a volunteer-run non-profit organization working to secure a free-spirited future for the Albany Bulb, we are able to offer modest stipends of $500 each to 10 artists and 10 dance groups selected. Other proposals will be invited to participate, but unfortunately we cannot provide funding for all. Submissions will be considered by a distinguished jury of Bay Area art leaders. You can count on an audience of hundreds at the opening, thousands of park visitors and thousands of others on social media and the web; see #albanybulb on instagram
Love the Bulb is grateful to the Zellerbach Family Foundation, the Albany Community Foundation, and our many individual donors for their support of Bulbfest.
For more, visit our webpage / Facebook page / Facebook group / Instagram
FAQ
Who owns the Albany Bulb?
The City of Albany owns and manages the Albany Bulb. The adjacent Neck, Plateau and Beach are managed by the East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD) and owned in parts by EBRPD and in parts by the California State Parks. (See ownership map in pdf).
Where can I get information on wildlife, vegetation and sea level rise at the Bulb?
Please see the Albany Neck and Bulb Transition Study, which has extensive data and maps. the open call pdf file linked above lists many other sources of information about the Bulb.
What is Love the Bulb?
Love the Bulb is a community organization dedicated to protecting and enhancing the creative spirit of the Albany Bulb. Since 2016, Love the Bulb has presented 30 art, performance, stewardship, and environmental education events. Love the Bulb is a project of Malcolm Margolin's California Institute for Community Art and Nature, which is a project of Earth Island Institute, a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization. There's more on Love the Bulb facebook page.
Are there people living at the Bulb now?
No, the encampments were removed in 2014. Love the Bulb is in contact with some of the former residents. Some have found housing while others are still unhoused. Background on the encampments is available on Boom California and Ground Up Journal.
Behind the Scenes
Organizers and Jury
Susan Moffat
Love the Bulb Founder; Bulbfest Artistic Director
Susan Moffat is an urbanist, curator, and writer who creates meaningful conversations in public space through art, performance, and community dialogue. Her research and practice focuses on the natural-urban interface as a highly productive zone and on self-managed commons and user-designed parks. She has worked as a journalist in Asia and the U.S., has managed the creation of hundreds of units housing for low-income people, and has worked as a coastal zone environmental planner. Susan has been invited to lecture on the Albany Bulb at SFMOMA, Stanford, UC Davis, San Jose State University, Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous and Nerdnite. She is Project Director of the UC Berkeley Global Urban Humanities Initiative, an interdisciplinary program that studies cities through the lenses of the arts and humanities as well as of architecture and city planning. She teaches courses at UC Berkeley on the physical and emotional experience of urban life and has collaborated with people experiencing homelessness to map and document their communities. Susan has an A.B. from Harvard College, a Master’s from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, and a Master in City Planning from UC Berkeley.
Malcolm Margolin
Publisher; Advisory Board Chair
Malcolm is the founder and for more than four decades was executive director of Heyday Books, an independent nonprofit publisher and cultural institution in Berkeley, California. Through Heyday, he published hundreds of books and oversaw the creation of two magazines, News from Native California (1987) and Bay Nature (2001). His classic book The Ohlone Way remains influential while East Bay Out is one of the best-loved books on California parks.
Richard Ambrose
Executive Director, RIchmond Art Center, Juror
Ric brings his extensive experience in art administration and strategic planning which includes fundraising, donor cultivation, marketing, facility operations and program development to the Art Center. In more than twenty-eight years, Ric has managed or curated more than 200 exhibitions in art, science and history in a variety of multimedia formats. He is a practicing artist and has taught studio art at several colleges. Ric is represented by Hespe Gallery in San Francisco. His only unchanging part of the workday is having a can of soup for lunch, as Andy Warhol reportedly did throughout his life.
Chelsea Boyd Brown
Dance Juror
Chelsea Boyd Brown is a dancer, choreographer, teacher, nature-enthusiast, and social justice advocate. Chelsea moved from the Chesapeake Bay to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2017 because she was drawn to the rigorous, norm-defying art-making happening here. Chelsea has worked with PearsonWidrig DanceTheater, Heart Stück Bernie, Stephanie Miracle, Molly Rose-Williams, pateldanceworks, and Suzanne Beahrs. Chelsea also creates her own work, which has been presented at the John F. Kennedy Center, Dance Place DC, SAFEhouse for the Performing Arts, LEVYstudio, and Shawl-Anderson Dance Center. She holds a B.A. in Dance and Psychology from the University of Maryland, College Park.When she is not in the studio, Chelsea can be found in the woods, buried under craft supplies, or on a sailboat.
Justin Ebrahemi
Dance Juror
Justin Ebrahemi leverages creative content to dismantle barriers between artists and audiences. In his role as Communications Director as CounterPulse, his work highlights artistic processes while increasing arts accessibility to the Tenderloin community. Justin advocates for food and environmental justice as an activist, spoken word artist, and environmental journalist. His publications range from investigative reporting for The Sierra Club to groundwater management case studies to LGBTQ college zines. He is the author of a book of poetry entitled Ecdysis, and host of Open Stage at CounterPulse. He holds a B.A. in Journalism from CSU Monterey Bay and M.A. in Environment & Community from Humboldt State University.
Dudley Flores
Dance Juror
Dudley Flores was born and raised in San Francisco and has been active in the Bay Area dance community for almost twenty years. As a dancer he's performed nationally and internationally with Garrett+Moulton Productions, Robert Moses KIN, the Printz Dance Project, ODC/Dance, and and regularly choreographs large-scale public dance events and parades for SF Pride, Bay Area Dance Week and Carnaval San Francisco. Offstage, he sits on the Isadora Dance Awards committee, works on the production team for the SF Ethnic Dance Festival and is the Artistic Director and Master Trainer of Rhythm & Motion.
Leslie Lopez
Artist; Art Juror
Leslie Lopez, known as "DIME," is a Xicana graffiti writer, ARTivist, mother of two, and fourth- generation artist in her family. She began painting murals on the walls of East Oakland at the age of 10 and tagging graffiti on them when she was 12. Through her politicization with the Xicana Moratorium Coalition and EastSide Arts Alliance she developed into a educator, organizer and public artist for community empowerment, healing, and self determination.DIME is part of the collective core of EASTSide Arts Alliance Cultural Center. A member of BSK Bomb Squad Kingz, one of the first graffiti crews in Oakland put together by Style, Phresh, and West who were part of the first dozen of original graffers of Oakland to ever put paint on the walls of the city in the early 80's. She is also part of Few and Far Women since it originated in Oakland in 2011, a collective of women artist, skaters, and photographers from around the world. Her work bridges graffiti and fine arts, as a Muralist, Print-Maker, and Mentor passing down teachings of her ancestors to all generations. Her passion and goal is to use art not only as a tool for social justice but as a tool for violence prevention, to reach young people and entire communities and to use art and Muralismo to cope, create change, empower and love!
Sarah McDonald
Project Coordinator
Sarah is program coordinator for Love the Bulb and a bookseller at Pegasus Books on Solano Avenue. Born and raised in Berkeley, Sarah fell in love with art practice, research, and critique in high school. She studied the intersection of museology and colonialism with professor Zaixin Hong at the University of Puget Sound, where she earned a BA in Art History and Gender and Queer Studies. Her work at the Albany Bulb grows out of her ongoing research on the necessary movement away from traditional gallery and museum settings in favor of publicly accessible and community oriented arts practice. Sarah has volunteered with Arts Access Aotearoa, a New Zealand nonprofit that advocates for people who experience barriers to participation in the arts as creators, audience members, and gallery and museum visitors. Additionally, she wrote grants to raise resources for people experiencing homelessness in Wellington, New Zealand. She also painted her first mural in Waihi, NZ. Sarah recently returned home where she is delighted to assist in the creation of public art spaces and conversations with Love the Bulb.
José Navarrete
Dance Juror
José Navarrete is a native of México City where he was first exposed to theater and dance, choreographing and performing in parks, hospitals, and children's parties as a clown and dancer. He is a co-founder of NAKA Dance Theater, which creates experimental performance works using dance, storytelling, multimedia installations and site-specific environments. NAKA builds partnerships with communities, engages people's histories and folklore and expresses experiences through accessible performances that challenge the viewer to think critically about social justice issues. José currently curates and produces the Live Arts in Resistance (LAIR) initiative at Eastside Arts Alliance, which provides residencies and performing opportunities for artists of color in East Oakland.Jose studied dance at the National Institute of Fine Arts in México, and has a B.A. in Anthropology from UC Berkeley and M.F.A in Dance from Mills College. He has been awarded numerous residencies in programs including the Djerassi and the Yard.
Maisha Quint
Philanthropy Professional; Juror
Maisha Quint is the Fellow for the Anchoring Communities pathway at The San Francisco Foundation. A Bay Area native, Maisha’s 20-year career has been as a social justice organizer, cultural worker, arts and policy manager, and communications director. Most recently, Maisha served as the Community Programs Director at EastSide Arts Alliance, where she led efforts to advance place-based equity and develop a Black Cultural Zone (BCZ) in East Oakland. The focus of BCZ is to combat the disparate impact that decades of disinvestment and displacement have had on the East Oakland African American community. A key achievement of her work was to complete a memorandum of understanding among over 40 public, business, community, faith, labor, and philanthropic institutions to commit to improve equity outcomes over the next 10 years in East Oakland. Prior to her work at EastSide, Maisha was the Communications Director and Family Advocacy Coordinator at Legal Services for Prisoners with Children in San Francisco. She holds a Masters in Fine Arts in Poetry from Mills College and a BA in African American Studies from Columbia University.
Kathryn Reasoner
Arts Administrator; Juror
Kathryn Reasoner has won awards and recognition for her advocacy on behalf of artists and the arts in society, and for her transformational leadership at Bay Area institutions. She served as Executive Director of the Di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art in Napa Valley, leading the development of a private estate and nature preserve in Napa Valley into a respected contemporary art museum and public sculpture park. As Executive Director of the Headlands Center for the Arts, she led site stewardship in partnership with the National Park Service and directed an acclaimed international artist residency program located in ten historic buildings in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Her professional activities have been wide-ranging, including work on international, national and regional arts boards and award panels for the visual and performing arts. She has taught for two decades in the US and Japan, and continues to pursue varied interests, advising, and lecturing on alternative support for artists and cultural institutions locally and abroad. She has a BA in Art from UC Santa Cruz and an MA in Arts Administration from Golden Gate University.
Susan D. Ryan
Communications Manager
Susan is an urban explorer, grant writer, and marketer who has a passion for transforming abandoned or underused spaces into community resources. She is the Program Manager for Playland at 43rd Avenue in San Francisco’s Outer Sunset neighborhood, a formerly blighted school district property with an empty asphalt lot of approximately 1.5 acres and an abandoned school building. With the support of he San Francisco Planning Department's Groundplay program, and through community engagement and ongoing activation, the site is now a thriving neighborhood resource with a community garden, mini-skate park, opportunities for art making and exhibition, workshops and classes, and a gathering space for all. Susan is now working in the nonprofit sector after a career in corporate marketing, where she managed user experience and communications projects. For nonprofit organizations, Susan serves in a fund development capacity, including writing grant proposals, conducting prospect research, and executing fundraising plans. She is thrilled to be involved with Love the Bulb’s efforts to preserve a former construction debris landfill as an art park and wild place for creative exploration.
Anna Sidana
Artist and Arts Leader; Art Juror
Anna is an artist and arts leader who currently serves on the board of the Djerassi Resident Artists Program and of ZERO1, a global nonprofit creating social change through art and technology; and on the advisory council for Root Division, a San Francisco based arts organization. Anna is the founder of the TAS Talks [where?] that focus on exploring value at the intersection of Technology, Art and Science. In the past Anna was executive co-chair of the ArtBites program sponsored by the Modern Art Council of the San Francisco Modern Art Museum (SF MOMA).
In her previous career, Anna has held executive marketing roles with companies at the forefront of eCommerce and digital marketing including: Netscape, eBay, Paypal and BrightEdge. She has contributed to the Huffington Post, Forbes.com and other publications. Anna holds a bachelor's degree from the British Computer Society (BCS) and she is currently studying for her Masters in Fine Arts (MFA) at the San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI).
Robert Ungar
Urban Designer; Bulbfest Art Manager
Robert Ungar is an Oakland-based architect, urban designer and a lover of informal public life. He researches adaptation of cities to climate change at Calthorpe Associates in Berkeley and at the Studio for Urban Projects in San Francisco. He co-founded the Tel Aviv-based collective Onya, an interdisciplinary group developing innovative urban interventions and runs community and art events in the field of urban ecology. The group designs with communities to propose new ways to use urban nature and public space as tools to make life in public better. Robert has a Bachelor in Architecture from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem, where he also taught infographics and civic architecture and a Master in Urban Design from University of California, Berkeley.
Lisa Wymore
Dance Juror
Lisa Wymore is Associate Professor and Chair of the UC Berkeley Department of Theater, Dance and Performance (TDPS). She is Co-Artistic Director of Smith/Wymore Disappearing Acts with Sheldon B. Smith, a dance company that creates multimedia dance theater works and experimental performances. Their work has been presented and hosted by numerous national and international festivals. Professor Wymore is deeply engaged with dance as a means of community research and participation, and was part of the Urban Bush Women Summer Leadership Institute in New Orleans on the theme of Soul Deep: Why are People Poor? Demystifying the Opportunity Gap in America. From this experience, she worked with Amara Tabor-Smith and Paloma McGregor to create a five-week long residency within the department. The residency culminated in a series of performances entitled From the Field to the Table. The project centered on food justice issues and community art-making practices.
Hannah Young
Dance Juror
Hannah Young is a California transplant by way of Idaho. After completing her Bachelor of Arts in Dance at Pomona College, she moved to San Francisco where she’s found a home in the dance community and a fundraising job at the San Francisco Ballet. She has recently shown work at SAFEhouse, The Tiny Dance Film Festival, and Bulbfest 2018. She has performed with Stephanie Unger and Jocelyn Reyes in the Bay Area, and with John Pennington at Pomona College. She is currently pursuing collaborations as a dancer, choreographer, and filmmaker. Her interests lie in the intersections of dance, technology, and local community. Through her work at the SF Ballet, and prior to that at ODC, she has witnessed firsthand the effect dance can have in sustaining and healing communities. She is passionate about continuing these efforts--whether through her commitment to fundraising or to creating work.
