OMAi | Mapping Stories

Animated storytelling with Austrian artist collective OMAi, featuring local artists, musicians, and performers.

Last updated Oct. 25, 2018 - 1:06 pm

Raleigh Arts is pleased to welcome Austrian artist collective OMAi for a series of interactive animation projections on notable buildings throughout Raleigh from October 27 – November 13. OMAi Mapping Stories will include 4 session locations: Saint Agnes Sessions, Dorothea Dix Park Session, Downtown Raleigh Session and Medal of Arts Session. Each session will be complemented by artist workshops, community sessions and student programming in collaboration with local artists, musicians and performers.

SAINT AGNES SESSIONS (LINK: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/omai-mapping-stories-saint-agnes-sessions-tickets-51483855598)

Saint Augustine's University

1315 Oakwood Avenue, Raleigh

Oct. 27 / Nov. 3 / Nov. 10 from 6-10pm

Featuring music, performers & food trucks

DOROTHEA DIX PARK SESSION (LINK: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/omai-mapping-stories-dorothea-dix-park-session-tickets-51485345053)

the Silos at Dorothea Dix Park

60 Ruggles Drive, Raleigh

Nov. 9 from 6-9pm

Featuring music, performers & food trucks

DOWNTOWN RALEIGH SESSION

Popping up in Downtown Raleigh

Nov. 2 from 6-9pm

Animating downtown Raleigh on First Friday

MEDAL OF ARTS SESSION

Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts

2 E. South Street, Raleigh

Nov. 13 from 8:30-10pm

Celebrating Raleigh's Medal of Arts

OMAi is a digital artist collective from Vienna, Austria that created the Tagtool technology. Tagtool is a free app for creating and manipulating images in real time for projection onto urban or rural infrastructure. Blending visual art, technology, and performance, OMAi uses their technology to create public art in collaboration with artists, musicians, and other performers. The result is an experiment in improvisation, collaboration and audience participation. OMAi's work was recently included in the exhibition "You Are Here" at the North Carolina Museum of Art. OMAi Mapping Stories is made possible by City of Raleigh, Saint Augustine's University, Dorothea Dix Park Conservancy, Dorothea Dix Park, Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts and North Carolina Museum of Art.

Raleigh Arts is pleased to welcome Austrian artist collective OMAi for a series of interactive animation projections on notable buildings throughout Raleigh from Oct. 27 through Nov. 13. OMAi Mapping Stories will include 4 session locations: Saint Agnes Sessions, Dorothea Dix Park Session, Downtown Raleigh Session and Medal of Arts Session. Each session will be complemented by artist workshops, community sessions and student programming in collaboration with local artists, musicians and performers.

SAINT AGNES SESSIONS | Saint Augustine's University | 1315 Oakwood Avenue, Raleigh | Oct. 27 / Nov. 3 / Nov. 10 from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. | Featuring music, performers & food trucks

DOROTHEA DIX PARK SESSION | Silos at Dorothea Dix Park | 60 Ruggles Drive, Raleigh | Nov. 9 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. | Featuring music, performers & food trucks

DOWNTOWN RALEIGH SESSION | Popping up in Downtown Raleigh | Nov. 2 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. | Animating Downtown Raleigh on First Friday

MEDAL OF ARTS SESSION | Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts | 2 E. South Street, Raleigh | Nov. 13 from 8:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. | Celebrating Raleigh's Medal of Arts

Artists collaborating with OMAi include Tarish “Jeghetto” Pipkins, André Leon Gray, Lincoln Hancock, Finn Cohen, Anthony Kelley, Dare Coulter, DJ House, Eugene Taylor (Drum Prophet), Harriet Hoover, Napoleon Wright of Pan II Creative, Kaili Ingram, Cameron Philyaw, Justin Perry, Tyree Daye, The Flow (Nathaniel Key), William Paul Thomas, Victor Knight and Shaun Knight.

OMAi Mapping Stories is made possible by City of Raleigh, Saint Augustine's University, Dorothea Dix Park, North Carolina Museum of Art, Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts, City of Raleigh, Dorothea Dix Park Conservancy, as well as VAE Raleigh, Artspace and Envision partners Flight Raleigh, North State Consulting, Beaumonde and Envision Saint Agnes Hospital.

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Patrick McDonald, Diamonds are Forever (detail)

City Plaza features permanent public art including Jim Gallucci's 55-foot Light Towers and Horizon Line by Juan Logan, Susan Harbage Page and Peter Egan. The Office of Raleigh Arts, Artspace and Visual Art Exchange select three centerpiece sculptures every two years. Currently on view: Sculptures by Patrick McDonald. Image: Patrick McDonald, Diamonds are Forever (detail)

ART-ON-THE-MOVE

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Artist Bland Hoke's site-specific temporary public art is a popular addition to the annual IBMA World of Bluegrass event in downtown Raleigh, enhancing Bruno Lucchesi's iconic Sir Walter Raleigh sculpture with a bandstand created from hundreds of cast-off banjo parts. Public art support provided by Deering Banjos.

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Market Plaza Screen Sculpture - 'Sway' - ©2016 Matt McConnell video

Raleigh public artist Matt McConnell created a sculptural video screen for Raleigh Arts' Block2 Video Series. Titled "Sway," the painted aluminum screen, measuring over 27 feet wide and 12 feet tall, was commissioned as a part of a vision to redevelop and activate an originally under-utilized space at Market Plaza on Fayetteville Street. Cary-based audio-video engineering/design firm AVCON, Inc. provided the expertise and equipment for projecting large-scale imagery.

The City of Raleigh partnered with First Citizens Bank, an ardent arts supporter whose collaboration for this endeavor extends to use of their bank wall and programmatic input.

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The Raleigh Arts Commission, in partnership with the Raleigh Historic Development Commission, Duke Energy and Downtown Raleigh Alliance, developed the Art Along Blount Street public art project in celebration of the cultural history of the East Raleigh-South Park National Historic District. Ten artists created banners suspended on utility poles along Blount Street from Cabarrus Street to Shaw University, on view June–December 2015. The artists are Brandon Cordrey, Dare Coulter, Aaron Cracium, Debbie Crawford, Linda Dallas, Patrick FitzGerald, Rachel Herrick, Joyce Watkins King, Cindy Morefield and Robert Quinn.

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Before I Die...

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Love Across the USA, North Carolina

On Saturday, Oct. 21, international artist Olek installed a crocheted mural on the facade of the Raleigh Convention Center. Raleigh residents helped to create the mural, a 40 feet wide and 20 feet high depiction of musician Nina Simone, a North Carolina native who was recently nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

More than 140 volunteers attended a series of workshops with Olek, a New York-based artist known internationally for her large-scale crochet artworks. Participants worked with the artist to learn the techniques needed to create the artwork locally. More than 100 participants each completed a two-feet by two-feet crocheted section of the mural. Olek returned in October to stitch the individual pieces into a cohesive whole.

Sarah Powers, the director of Raleigh Arts, was thrilled by the community response.

"It’s exciting to not only bring in an internationally known artist, but it was just as exciting to work with such great volunteers and partners to create this mural," she said. "Raleigh Arts is also proud to be part of a national art project that will connect communities across the country."

Born in North Carolina, Nina Simone became famous for her musical talents, thoughtful lyrics, and advocacy of equality. Olek chose the quote "Here Comes the Sun," from the title of one of Simone’s albums because it exemplified hope and a brighter future.

Gene Davis, who chairs the City of Raleigh Arts Commission, felt the piece conveyed a sense of love.

"Olek’s selection of North Carolinian Nina Simone as the extraordinary woman celebrated in her immense crocheted community public art hanging from the Raleigh Convention Center serves to remind us not only of Dr. Simone’s vocal and lyrical genius but also of her use of music to advocate for civil rights for African-Americans and women," he said. "Olek’s Nina Simone piece is a fitting expression of Love Across the USA because it serves to remind us to love everyone – no exceptions.”

Olek enjoyed collaborating with residents to create the piece."

It was so inspiring to see how the community came together to pay tribute to this amazing woman. I hope the stories, debates, and conversations we shared will continue long after the project, and that we can spread a culture of empathy and positivity around the country."

Love Across the USA is a public art project with the goal of bringing the community together through open workshops and public art installations. To date, Olek and community members have created portraits of Susan B. Anthony and Harriet Tubman in New York State. The pieces celebrate women’s rights, equality, and freedom of speech by depicting the accomplishments of extraordinary women from throughout U.S. history.

This project is made possible by the Office of Raleigh Arts and the Raleigh Convention Center. Partners for this public art project include Optic Artworks and Emily Alexander, Red Heart Yarn, Artspace, VAE Raleigh, CAM Raleigh, Anchorlight, Rebus Works, McConnell Studios, Top Greene Community Center, Chavis Community Center, Black Girl in the Arts, Raleigh Murals Project, Habitat for Humanity, American Underground, Gridworks, HQ Raleigh, The Carrack, Deco, Arts Now NC, Black on Black, The Forge Initiative, Red Hat, and Lump. Special thanks to Kelly McChesney, Jenn Hales, Barclay Wiliams, and Kim Curry-Evans.

Moore Square Construction Fence

Raleigh artists Brian Gonzales, Cayce Lee, Shannon Newby, and artist team Peregrine Projects have been selected to create public art that will adorn the construction fence surrounding Moore Square's long-anticipated renovation through the City's Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources department. Scheduled to begin Spring 2017, the artwork will be up for the duration of the construction. Project partners include Artspace, Flight, Marbles Kids Museum and the Raleigh Urban Design Center. (Image of proposal by Shannon Newby.)

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OMAi | Mapping Stories