Art: Public Arts Activity Analysis and Implementation Planning – MSU
INSTITUTION
Michigan State
CLASS
Silver Class (2022 – 2023)
STUDENT TEAM
SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL GUIDANCE
ACADEMIC GUIDANCE
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
The Psyche asteroid mission will launch in October 2023, and will arrive in 2029. During this time, the Psyche team is interested in launching a community engagement program. This project creates a logistics plan for that program.
The logistics plan discusses how to promote the mission within the art community and plans an art exhibit composed of a curation of the public’s artwork. This exhibit is inspired by the Coral Reef Knit Exhibit previously featured in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and is aimed towards gathering artwork depicting imaginative textures that may exist on the asteroid. The logistics plan discusses how to market the exhibit to the public, curate and collect artwork created by the public, and create an exhibit of that art.
To engage the public, a social media campaign will be launched and organizations such as senior living homes, student organizations, and school programs will be contacted via an informational email. This email will contain a brief overview of the project and art activities that can foster imaginative reconstructions of the asteroid’s surface. The pieces will be submitted to the NASA Psyche mission project office at ASU via digital submissions. Several dimensions are considered when receiving submissions, such as weight of the package, medium used by the artist, and the artist’s personal information. The Psyche mission will then curate the submissions based on the submission guidelines and request they be mailed in for display. Some target mediums include knitting, crochet, clay, and paper mâché.
The success of this project will be determined by the quantity and quality of the submissions. The final display will include a wide variety of art mediums and may be exhibited to the public through the end of the Psyche mission.