Neu Kirche Contemporary Art Center is inviting national and international artists to develop a community engaged work for the annual Spring and Summer of 2016 FALLOW GROUNDS for Sculpture (FGS). Fallow Grounds is a creative urban regeneration initiative that temporarily activates vacant land located in East Deutschtown and Spring Garden in Pittsburgh’s Northside. FGS is committed to developing community agency and urban-renewal through a holistic approach towards contemporary art practice. We aim to forge connections with people and place by exploring the potentiality of vacant lots within our neighborhood.
Our endeavors promote critical exposure for the artists we support while fostering an inclusive environment in which artists and the public can engage in a meaningful exchange of art and ideas. NK is interested in commissioning imaginative and innovative projects that promote positive community-infrastructures and generate creative-economies. We welcome works which engage with critical local and global issues. Artists are required to produce a public work that remains on site from the project period until October 2016. Artists must be comfortable working in public, with communities and be self-sufficient in production. A major component of these programs is community programs that took place throughout the neighborhood over the five months, such as hands-on workshops, luncheons and artists talks that were held in partnership with community groups. A shared mission for the program is to make the processes of artistic production both visible and accessible to all while creating a new cultural vibrancy for our neighborhood. NK staff is available for support, resources and organizational partner coordination. Artists are encouraged to design environmentally conscious and sustainable projects which will engage with the local residents; people. Additionally, the artists’ projects should aim to generate workshops and modes of discourse which create opportunities for cultural and social exchange.

DEADLINE TO SUBMIT PROPOSAL: December 18, 2016 at midnight