The new, improved SoundStation, with 6 more sounds, remixed Acorn Woodpecker & Western meadowlark loops, and record/playback capabilities. This was debuted the weekend of April 19th in Oakland Museum’s we/customize gallery.
The new, improved SoundStation, with 6 more sounds, remixed Acorn Woodpecker & Western meadowlark loops, and record/playback capabilities. This was debuted the weekend of April 19th in Oakland Museum’s we/customize gallery.
Oakland Stock #2, April 28th. Proposals by Sara Biel & Karla Brundage, and Kari Marboe & Erin Johnson. The winner was Biel/Brundage’s proposal Temescal InSitu.
Welcome! Bienvenue! Vitám Vás!
Welcome to Lexa Walsh’s current website/blog, highlighting projects from 2009-forward. To see older projects, please go to lexawalsh.com. To see more about specific project blogs, click on the links next to each project post (i.e. Portland Art Museum residency, Librarification, etc).
Artist Statement:
I work as anthropologist, archivist, collaborator, experience maker, explorer, facilitator and participant, engaging in hospitable democracy. The essence of my work is situated in performance and direct engagement. I do interactive public art projects, which bring together members of the public to share in conversation, cheer, song, play, dance and food. Most recently, I have done this in the context of the Museum.
Through these and other social interactions, observations and interpretations (sometimes misinterpretations), I make site-specific projects that investigate elevating everyday activities into tools for community and relationship building, place and space making, resource sharing and institutional critique, offering new lenses for interpretation. The work addresses subjects such as the radical nature of positivity, generosity and reciprocity, ritual and inclusion, and scholarly play.
Music, food, play… are all tools to empower, enliven, to give a voice, to promote conversation, understanding, hospitality, belonging, to create community and relationships. They break hierarchies, de-alienate, foster education, bliss, utopia, motivation. They enhance emotion and are powerful triggers for discussion and calls to action.
Bio:
Lexa Walsh is an interdisciplinary socially engaged artist based in Oakland, CA. Walsh has lived, worked, exhibited and toured internationally. She was a recipient of Southern Exposure’s Alternative Exposure Award, the CEC Artslink Award, Meet the Composer Award, and the Gunk Grant. She has participated in exhibitions at Apexart, The Lab, Oakland Museum of Californa, Portland Art Museum, and Smack Mellon, and has done several international artist residencies and projects in Europe and Asia. Her work is informed by her upbringing, extensive travels, community work and experimental music and performance projects. She was an independent cultural worker in the Bay Area and worked for many years as a curator and arts administrator at CESTA, an international art center in Czech republic, whose mission is to foster cross-cultural tolerance and understanding through the arts. She co-founded and conceived of the all women, all toy instrument ensemble Toychestra and is a member of the Czech-American a cappella group Kačkala. These projects have been realized at venues such as Cité de la Musique, The Exploratorium, The Lab, Mills College Art Museum, Oakland Museum of California, SFMoMA and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. She is a graduate of PSU’s Art & Social Practice MFA program and was recently Artist in Residence at Portland Art Museum. In the fall of 2013, she will be the Community Artist in Residence at Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach, FL.
Oakland Stock #2, Sunday April 28th
Oakland Stock is a micro-granting dinner that supports local artists’ projects.
Food. FUNding. Feedback. Follow-up.
Here’s how it works: Diners pay $10 to eat a dee-lish meal and to listen to up to 10 artists pitch their projects. At the end of the meal the ballots are cast and counted—diners vote for the project they want to support. The winning artist takes all! The winning artist returns to the following event to present on their progress. Why? Because you have the power to decide what cultural work is important, and here’s a chance to share a meal, discuss artists’ projects, and elect or be a winner of the dinner’s proceeds.
Winner of February’s Oakland Stock, Charity Ellis, will share her progress on the film “Hero”, about Oakland’s own superman.
When Sunday, April 28
6pm*-8:30pm (*please arrive by 6:15 to ensure seating)
Where Ratto’s Market & Deli
821 Washington Street/9th
Old Oakland in Oakland, CA 94607
Menu Soup, of course! Salad & bread will accompany the meal.
Chef + Host Lexa Walsh
Invited Soup lovers, artists and those interested in supporting them.
PLEASE RSVP by emailing oaklandstock@gmail.com, including the name of each attendee. Reservations are strongly encouraged. Please arrive by 6:15 or your reservation may be forfeited. Please bring a $10 cash donation ($5 for children 12 & under).
Sometimes success in the art market and world seems pretty random. Sunday Soup is a way for artists and communities to actively engage in what they feel is important in cultural production.
Oakland Stock is part of the Sunday Soup series of meals that supports artists’ projects. Support for Oakland Stock is provided by Southern Exposure’s Alternative Exposure Grant Program.
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Apply as an OAKLAND-BASED ARTIST:
Submit a proposal following the directions below to oaklandstock@gmail.com
Deadline: Sunday, April 21st.
The first 10 proposals that meet all the requirements (below) will be included in the running. Please prepare to pitch your project with a brief powerpoint presentation (assembled by Stock staff with your application materials). If funded, you will be responsible for making a presentation to the Oakland Stock community regarding your progress on this project at the next Stock dinner, approximately 4-6 weeks after receiving the grant.
Requirements: Submit by 11:59pm Sunday, April 21st, 2013.
1. Name of Project
2. Briefly (100 words) describe what your project is
3. Briefly (200 words) describe the cultural, historical, aesthetic, etc. context of your project. Why is this work important here and now?
4. What will you do with the winnings? i.e. “I will buy editing time at the local video lab…”, etc.
5. Write a brief slogan for your project to make it memorable to the audience electorate!
6. 3 images (as individual jpegs, 72 dpi, no larger than 1000 pixels in any direction)
“The Machine”: a work in progress for Oakland Museum’s We/customize show. The Machine is an interactive instrument that has samples and loops of toy instruments, the museum’s natural history sounds, and other quotidian museum sounds. In its third iteration, it allows participants to record improvised theme songs for the Oakland Rover. Please join me April 19-21 to activate it!
The Living Cookbook-Busting Silos One Meal at a Time. Museums and Social Issues.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/rfjl4720094o432/Walsh—-MSI-7-1-9.pdf
Monthly Micro-granting Sunday Dinner Series Funds Local Art
Oakland, CA -Announcing a new dinner series called Oakland Stock. Join us for the first micro-granting meal Sunday, February 10th2013, graciously hosted by local artist/chef Lexa Walsh. Each month Oakland Stock will select a new venue. This month Ratto’s Market lends its historic charm to this international Sunday Soup Series.
Here’s how it works: $10 for 10 artists to pitch their projects while you enjoy a fantastic home cooked meal. At the end of the meal the ballots are cast and counted—winner takes all! Dinners and Winners will be posted on the Oakland Stock site and artists return the following month to present on their progress. Why? Because you have the power to decide what cultural work is important, and here’s a chance to share a meal, discuss artists’ projects, and elect or be a winner of the dinner’s proceeds.
What Oakland Stock, a micro-granting dinner supporting artists’ projects.
When Sunday, February 10
6pm-9pm
Where Ratto’s Market & Deli
821 Washington Street/9th
Old Oakland in Oakland, CA 94607
Menu Soup, of course! Salad & bread will accompany the meal.
Chef + Host Lexa Walsh
Invited Artists and those interested in supporting them.
PLEASE RSVP by emailing oaklandstock@gmail.com
Support for Oakland Stock is provided by Southern Exposure’s Alternative Exposure Grant Program.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Apply as an OAKLAND-BASED ARTIST:
Submit a proposal with 3 images to oaklandstock@gmail.com
Extended Deadline Thursday, February 7th
The first 10 proposals that meet all the requirements (below) will be included in the running. If funded, you will be responsible for making a presentation to the Oakland Stock community regarding your progress on this project at the next Stock dinner (approximately 4-6 weeks after receiving the grant).
Requirements: Submit by 11:59pm Thursday February 7th, 2013.
3 images (72 dpi, no larger than 1000 pixels in any direction)
1. Name of Project
2. Briefly (300 words) describe what your project is
3. Briefly (300 words) describe the cultural, historical and historical context of your project.
4. What will you do with the winnings? i.e. “I will buy editing time at the local video lab…”, etc.
5. Write a brief slogan for your project to make it memorable to the audience electorate!
More information can be found at http://oaklandstock.tumblr.com and on the organizations’ Facebook page.
Meal Ticket III, 2012
International Studio and Curatorial Program, Brooklyn, NY
Luncheon and facilitated recipe exchange to promote community among artists in residence and staff. Cookbook forthcoming.
Recipe for a Protest, 2012
Custom fortune cookies to foster conversation in the coffee lounge at the Creative Time Summit.
“What is a recipe for successful protest?”
“Where is the line drawn between tolerance for other’s beliefs and defending your own?”
“What role does militance play in protest?”
“What is a recipe for a protest gone awry?”
The Meal, Hospitality and Art 2012
This panel & meal was presented at the Open Engagement conference in Portland, in May 2012. The panel included some Portland Art Museum staff who had participated in Meal Ticket, a monthly silo-busting meal, as well as OE visitors and fellow presenters. This was a result of research I did for Meal Ticket, including a brief history of artists working with food, and a Q & A with museum staff. The coinciding text is being published in the next issue of Museums and Social Issues, published by Left Coast Press.
The Meal Ticket Cookbook is the culmination of a yearlong series of silo-busting lunches and recipe exchanges with the Portland Art Museum staff. It’s hot off the presses!
Museum Tour Remix, 2012
A series of alternative tours through Portland Art Museum that make you re-think what a museum tour can be. Including Singing Tours, Personal Companion Tours, Hair Tours for Families, Cheer Tours, and Ted’s Tour- a tour led by security guard Ted Smith.
