Courtesy of Arts Council of Fort Worth
“New Stories: New Futures" will project art upon Pioneer Tower at Will Rogers Memorial Center.
No single person or the community is the same. Especially over the past year and a half, people have seen how powerful a tool technology and art can be for communicating those differences effectively, sharing experiences, and connecting people around the world.
The Arts Council of Fort Worth is taking community connection and engagement to the next level on Friday and Saturday with “New Stories: New Futures,” an outdoor new media art exhibition.
With the help of the Dallas-based public arts organization, AURORA, the free, two-day event at Will Rogers Memorial Center's Pioneer Tower will take place from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., simultaneously showcasing two sets of work. One, curated by New York City-based DooEun Choi, will project installations from internationally renowned artists Refik Anadol and Davide Quayola across the tower’s exterior; the other, curated by Fort Worth’s Dr. Lauren Cross, will take place at the base of the tower, featuring new media art from ten local and regional artists.
The project seeks to increase community engagement through art and social interaction, says Martha Peters, director of public art with the Arts Council of Fort Worth.
“This whole project really got started with this idea that Fort Worth really wanted to expand the public art program by creating significant works of art in key locations in the city where people gather,” Peters says.
As a part of the city council’s 2017 master plan, a team of consultants explored Fort Worth, informally surveying citizens, and found the Cultural District, downtown, the Stockyards, and the Trinity River to be the city’s hotspots.
“Our consultants recommended some sort of a lighting program or some sort of lighting piece to be associated with the [Pioneer] Tower,” Peters says.
The iconic tower was built in 1936 as part of the Texas Centennial, and considering its historical significance, Peters says a projection art exhibit is ideal to maintain its architectural integrity.
Seeing AURORA’s work with projecting art onto architecture in Dallas, Peters reached out to co-founders Joshua King and Shane Pennington to see how they could bring projection mapping to Pioneer Tower.
Projection art is a major facet of new media, which despite its name, has been practiced for quite some time. The art form uses technology, lights, performance, audio, and social engagement to supplement an artist’s message. Many of the artists at the exhibition are working with projection — so the late start time is crucial to foster an immersive experience.
“Even though it might be a different environment, the production team, AURORA, has worked exceptionally hard to ensure that everything is the optimum environment for you to enjoy the experience,” Cross says.
From there, the idea of new media as a means to execute the exhibit was born, leading Peters and her team to the process of selecting artists with the help of Choi.
“She then comes forward with a selection of artists that she recommended for our project, and not only because of the work they do, but in terms of aesthetics — how would they tap into Fort Worth, what our city is and who we are. How would they embed that into the artwork?” Peters says.
Choi handpicked Rome-based Quayola and Anadol, who hails from Turkey. In January 2020, the two artists and Choi came to Fort Worth to gather inspiration for their installations — and for a crash course in Cowtown culture.
For Quayola’s contribution to the exhibition, “Texas Surveys,” he put himself in the shoes of an “18th-century landscape painter.” He drew inspiration from natural landscapes like the Botanic Garden and the Nature Center, and mainstays of Fort Worth lifestyle like the rodeo at Dickies Arena.
“There are several areas and subjects that I sort of touched upon, but mostly it's natural landscapes and forests and trees, and then the movement of horses and riders themselves,” Quayola says.
Meanwhile, Anadol’s research for his installation, “Pioneer Tower Dreams,” focused mainly on archives and images of present-day Fort Worth, as well as historical images in order to capture a colorful celebration of “people, places, histories, and dreams of the city that have been woven together through interpersonal and social interactions over the years.”
Quayola and Anadol’s perspectives inspired Cross as she selected the 10 artists whose installations will support the artwork projected on the tower. Fort Worth representatives include Nick Bontrager, Jessica Fuentes, Huckaby Studios, and more.
“I learned that our local community and Fort Worth really valued works by local artists,” Cross says. “I felt like that was important to ensure that there was a nice representation of Fort Worth artists in the exhibition, along with artists outside of Fort Worth across the north Texas region.”
Although the event is inspired by and for the Fort Worth community, Peters says she hopes the exhibition will also show the rest of Texas and the U.S. that Fort Worth is a modern city growing with the times.
Leading up to the event, attendees can supplement their experience by attending an artist talk with Choi, Anadol, and Quayola at the Kimbell Art Museum at 6 p.m on Wednesday. On Friday, Anadol and Quayola’s installations will be publicly dedicated at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center front lawn at 8 p.m. The next day, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., Cross will moderate another artist talk featuring two panels of regional artists.
While admission is free, securing a ticket online is suggested for social distancing and crowd control purposes, and face coverings are also encouraged. Parking information, a full list of artists, and the event calendar are available online.
