The ‘Art Free-Play’ Pop-Up transforms an empty office building in a revitalized area of downtown Memphis as an act of tactical urbanism.

The Art Play Pop-Up

The Art Project
Memphis, Tennessee

Dominique Price, Architect
Colin Billings
Maeliosa Barstow

Overview

The Art Play Popup structures an Art Free Play experience by intersecting child-led action painting with The Art Project’s unique spatial strategy. The Art Project concept collects children and caregivers in the same domain, while providing the children with a network of focal nodes that opens the sense of exploration and discovery and creates the secure environment necessary for the child’s immersion into wonder and play.

A continuous easel and canvas assembly is both scaled and inclined to accommodate an age range that spans from crawling infants to groups of seated adults.
The pop-up kit includes a planned network of focal nodes that can be freely distributed at each new venue to describe the territory of play.
  • Mobile components enable re-appropriation by users.
  • Traces of former events elaborate the components of the pop-up installation.
  • A field of floor paneling designates the central painting area while providng protection for the permanent floor below.
  • Various age groups can participate simultaneously, with access to a variety of surfaces that encourage free-expression.
  • Young artists are able to exercise creativity while reflecting on their art as witnessed by a larger public audience.
  • With layers of additive paint, the final state of the canvas is designed to be removed, a record of the achievement of the event of participatory art.
Creative license of the informal infrastructure is represented and reinforced through breaks in the formal order.
The Art Project, Jamie Harmon, Jenn Brandt