Space 4 Art unveils Terra Infirma, a multimedia project about environmental degradation and climate change.
Get a Sneak Peek of Space 4 Art’s future Permanent Home on Market Street in Sherman Heights
San Diego— Space 4 Art presents Terra Infirma, a multimedia production that addresses the overwhelming existential threats that human action and inaction pose to the environment and future life on planet Earth. A collaborative project featuring live music, visual art, and original choreography, the event will take place from 6-9 p.m. June 9, 2018 at the site of Space 4 Art’s future home at 2529 Market Street in Sherman Heights. The event is free, and the public is invited to attend.
“As artists, we are highlighting and critiquing the ways in which the planet is at risk of environmental destruction,” said Space 4 Art resident artist Siobhan Arnold, who is curating and contributing her own work to Terra Infirma. “We’re at a critical tipping point for the planet.”
Terra Infirma is a creative collaboration led by visual artists Arnold and Robert S. Leathers; composer Chris Warren; and four local choreographers led by Justin Morrison. Joining these Space 4 Art resident artists for the project are student artists from San Marcos College, San Diego State University, and High Tech High, Chula Vista. A trio of woodwinds, led by Space 4 Art resident Ariana Warren, will also perform at the event.
A highlight of the evening will be a real-time community art project dubbed “Dump Trump,” which takes aim at administration policies that pose a direct and dire threat to the environment. Guests are encouraged to bring a choice piece of trash and/or message of hope to contribute to the project, which will be unveiled during the event.
“Trump is a disaster for the planet,” said Leathers, who spearheaded Terra Infirma after a summer trip to the wilds of his native Maine. “I want my grandchildren to know the beauty of nature. I want their grandchildren to have a planet to live on.”
The show also spotlights the site of Space 4 Art’s Permanent Home, set to break ground sometime between Fall, 2019 and Spring, 2020, and to open in 2022. After eight years of operating out of rented warehouses in the East Village, Space 4 Art is developing the Market Street site in Sherman Heights to house a 32,000-square-foot, centrally located, cutting-edge arts center and creative incubator where artists can come together to live, work, and share their work through artistic events, community engagement, and educational outreach to local schoolchildren.
“We’re really excited to take the next step,” said Jennifer de Poyen, Space 4 Art’s executive director. “We will have a permanent facility on Market Street with more than 40 artists living and working on-site, as well as an art gallery, amphitheater, event space, and multipurpose room to serve the community and support our educational outreach.”
Envisioned as a multidisciplinary center where artists can affordably live, work, exchange ideas, and share their work with the broader community, Space 4 Art’s Permanent Home represents a unique opportunity for San Diego to join the ranks of world-class cities that nurture artists and other innovators who form the basis of the creative economy, which produces dividends ranging from increased tax revenues to enhanced community engagement to increased opportunities and outcomes for residents of all socio-economic levels.
The new Space 4 Art will have 19 live-work units housing up to 30 artists, 19 work-only studios, a large indoor gallery, a covered outdoor 180-seat amphitheater, outdoor pop-up galleries, an indoor community event space with roof garden, two classrooms with extensive outdoor work space, and a wood and metal shop. Five of the artist units will open directly onto Market Street— a major transportation artery connecting downtown San Diego to surrounding mixed-use and residential neighborhoods —and provide high-visibility retail opportunities for those tenants.
“It’s vital that we as an arts community go forward, not backward,” de Poyen said. “San Diego will benefit tremendously from this new arts center.”
Doors open at 6 p.m., and the production will run from about 6:30 ’till sundown. For safety and security at this still-in-construction site, guests will enter at a checkpoint on the south side of the fenced property at 2529 Market St., which can be accessed from an alley off 26th Street. Due to limited parking near the entrance off the alley, please consider parking on Market Street or using a ride-share service.
For more information about Space4Art’s mission, programs, and Permanent Home project, visit us at www.sdspace4art.org, on Facebook @sdspace4art, or on Instagram at sdspace4art.
To receive hi-res images or set up interviews with the artists, students, and program coordinators, please contact Alexis Negron (619.269.7230 or alexis@sdspace4art.org).