This is What a Community-Curated Open Studio Project Looks Like
The artist lineup for GO: a community-curated open studio project is up online, which means we can start planning our open-studio tours now. And while the event itself isn’t until the second weekend in September (September 8th and 9th), there’s plenty of planning to do: 1861 artists (!!!) are registered to duke it out for a slot in a group show at the Brooklyn Museum this winter, which means that there are 1861 (!!!) individual studios to visit. And 80 of them are in Park Slope alone.
You can start browsing here, narrowing your search by neighborhood, but also by medium, child-friendliness, and assorted accessibility options (wheelchair accessible? pets okay? strollers welcome?). You don’t actually have to register to browse, but you may eventually want to register, because setting up an account is the only way you can vote your favorite artists into fame and glory. But more on that later. In the meantime, consider redecorating your apartment exclusively with locally-painted watercolors and mixed-media collages.
After thumbing through the work of 30 or so artists (1.6% of the total participants — threshold for getting totally overwhelmed may vary), it’s time to start plotting a strategy. That’s when you register. Once you’re all signed up (easy), you can add artists of interest to your itinerary, which not only catalogues the studios you want to check out but also maps them by neighborhood. And because we are living in the future, there is an app to match (duh).
So now you have the next month+ to obsess. But when the big day(s) comes, what then?
Here’s how it’s going to go down:
By now, you’ve registered. You’ve planned your itinerary. If you’re a smartphone person, you’ve downloaded the app. Get yer walking shoes, because it’s time to hit the town.
Every studio is assigned a discrete number. When you visit, you’ll check in, foursquare-style, entering the studio’s code via text message, the GO app, or by writing down the number (with your hands!) and entering it later on the GO website.
Once you’ve checked in at five studios, you’ve established that your in this for real, and you get voting privileges.
Sleep on it. Obsess more. Then, between September 12th and September 18th, nominate your three favorite artists of the weekend for slots in the Brooklyn Museum exhibition. The ten artists with the most nominations over the course of the weekend will have their work included in the show (the specific pieces will be selected by the Brooklyn Museums curators — crowd-sourcing only goes so far).
The exhibition itself opens on December 1, a Target First Saturday. Can’t get enough? GO needs you — sign up to volunteer here.