the nea big read project

Gallery One and CWU Libraries seeks an artist or artist team experienced in illustration, typography, and/or printmaking to facilitate a community art project and develop an illustration to be used as a map in response to the themes of Ross Gay’s Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude in conjunction with the National Endowment for the Arts Big Read Grant and associated programming.

 About THE NEA BIG READ and Ross Gay’s Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude

From NEA

The National Endowment for the Arts Big Read—a partnership with Arts Midwest—broadens our understanding of our world, our neighbors, and ourselves through the power of a shared reading experience. Showcasing a diverse range of themes, voices, and perspectives, the NEA Big Read aims to inspire meaningful conversations, artistic responses, and new discoveries and connections in each community.

Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude is a poetry collection by Indiana poet Ross Gay that celebrates life and goodness and that which nourishes us, fleetingly and forever, through love and loss, from everyday living and gardening and noticing what we often take for granted. https://www.arts.gov/initiatives/nea-big-read/catalog-unabashed-gratitude

The artist or artist team will illustrate a walking map of sites pre-identified by a writer and a naturalist in preparation for two public workshops on April 29 and May 6, to be reproduced on a tri-fold brochure. Prompts will be provided to the artist mid-February for art to be completed by mid-March. Participation in workshops is encouraged but not required.

The artist or artist team is invited to work with the community to create artworks incorporating the themes community, resiliency, connectivity. The public art project will take place at the Ellensburg Public Library on May 6 as part of other planned programming. The project may be temporary, may result in individual artworks given to community members, or may result in a permanent public piece but should be able to be displayed at Gallery One between May 5- July 29. The exhibit space can also be a site for continued engagement of the piece.