Let Me Tell You About The Dream I Had will present a newly commissioned installation throughout the galleries of the Philadelphia Art Alliance along with musical and theatrical performances, and a mobile outdoor component with events that will be held prior to the exhibition. While the project does relate to previous work by the Armada and their first organized project on the Mississippi River, it does focus specifically on Philadelphia and what is unique to the City. The outdoor events will address the unique features of the waterways, the communities that they engage with during their performances, and the gallery space at the Art Alliance.
The project and its three components focuses on issues that appropriately mesh the mission of the PAA with the impetus behind the activities of the collective. First, the exhibition will be specific to Philadelphia through continual engagement local communities through the process of completing their project. Secondly, the project by The Miss Rockaway Armada will be exemplary of the new grass-roots approach to craft that has re-surfaced within the last decade, which has deep roots within craft history.
With a focus on community and political activism, this movement has ties to the earliest goals of the Arts and Crafts movement of the 19th century. William Morris hoped to create a brotherhood of designers and makers who would pursue the ideal of creating “utopian communities” by creating “art made by the people and for the people, a joy to the maker and the user.” This social reform aspect is the driving force behind such collectives as The Miss Rockaway Armada. Equally significant, theater and musical performances are always considered during the process. This community interaction is a natural extension of their artwork and mission as a group and will be reflected in the outdoor activities planned for this project.
Based upon the planning process, which was supported by a planning grant from PEI, the project for PAA was conceived to include three overlapping components. The first component will be the construction of a flotilla for the traveling aspect of the exhibition, which will begin with an outdoor launch along the Schuylkill river. This will be followed by two events that include traveling the flotilla through the streets to Clark Park in University City and the local artist collective Flux Space in Kensington. Two themes, fire and water, will be presented through costumes, hand made banners, the repainting of the flotilla as a land float and will be expressed through music. The culmination of the construction and these performances will evolve into the final component, which will be the exhibition in the Art Alliance building.
Specifically for the parades, the collective will work with Spiral Q Puppet Theater and FLUX Space to reach the residents who are served by these organizations directly in their neighborhoods. At each event, various improvisational performances will take place, including Shadow Puppet theater events and musical performances. To expand the audience for this project, the procession and event at Clark Park will be scheduled as part of Philly Fringe, which is an annual performing arts festival that features performance art events free of a selection process.
The final stage of the exhibition will be the installation that will take place at the Art Alliance building. Using the materials from the land boats, the collective will then reshape these materials to create an installation for the PAA galleries. This installation will be accompanied by documentation from the outdoor performances. While certain portions of the building will be designated for the installation, other galleries will contain the documentation in a format based on traditional late 19th century museological practices of display, stemming from the period in which the Art Alliance was built.
Melissa Caldwell, Director of Exhibitions
Curator of Let Me Tell You About the Dream I Had
This project is supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative.