Hambidge Creative Hive - 2017

For three months in the spring of 2017, the Hambidge Center re-imagined Atlanta’s bustling city center into a creative enclave of working studios, installations and experimental projects. With a major renovation planned later in the year, Colony Square partnered with Hambidge to provide inspired artists and thinkers a unique opportunity to explore and share their work.

With the support of presenting sponsors, Colony Square, PNC, and SKYY Vodka, the Hambidge Creative Hive brought Hambidge's unique communal cross-pollination experience to twelve collaborative teams, providing them with their own studio/project space in Colony Square, which is in the heart of Atlanta at the corner of Peachtree and 14th Streets and just across from the High Museum and Woodruff Arts Center. Available spaces varied widely, from a 12,000 sq. ft. former work-out gym, to an 855 sq. ft. former barber shop, as well as former restaurants, a yoga studio, and more. The spaces opened up to the food court/atrium, which welcomed three thousand lunch-goers each day.

The teams were selected from a jurored open call for proposals which encouraged individuals and groups to propose experimental, evolving projects with a component of public interaction. Each project was paid a $1,000 stipend and was included in a variety of promotional outreach.

The twelve teams were a selection of artists, aerialists, ecologists, potters, dancers, healers, weavers, musicians, poets & performers and, in addition to transforming and working in their spaces, they presented over 150 performances, shows, and events inside and outside Colony Square during the three month period.

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Creative Hive Projects

Queen of the Field
Zipporah Thompson

Through the creation of a conceptual landscape, Zipporah Thompson used giant looms to weave together objects foraged in Midtown with objects donated by the public to produce multiple, ongoing, and ever-changing sculptures and installations, with the underlying goal of fusing together our personal histories and collective contemporary experiences.

Hive Mind Arise
Charlie Watts, Emma Alley, Narinder Kaur, Kelly Blackmon, Flight of the Swallows

Through workshops, meditations, yoga classes, and creative interactive installations including dance, sound, and painting, Hive Mind Arise sought to activate positive social change through an emphasis on meditation and self-care.

You are Welcome, You’re Welcome
Erica Jamison, Sarah Nathaniel, MINT Gallery Artists + other invited artists

Taking over a former doctor’s office, MINT Gallery curated 15 artists to each create a room installation using light as their primary medium. This culminated in an installation of a slowly shifting spectrum of light, bathing the space in an otherworldly glow. This newly transformed ”artist’s office“ offered regular office hours to the public with performances and “artist’s visits.”

The Untamed Parlor
Matt Haffner, Laura Bell

Beginning as an orderly Victorian-style sitting parlor, The Untamed Parlor was slowly invaded by wild things, giving way to disarray and the unexpected as the artists cultivated an infiltration of nature into an urban world.

Studio 515
Bojana Ginn, Brian Ginn

Creating immersive installations of light, fiber and sound, the Ginns embrace technology in their work. This project combined light drawings on the walls created by public, collaborative sound performances, moving image environments, and a sculptural island of natural fiber.

The Rivalry of Your Elements
Katie Troisi, Olivia Rado

In an ongoing performance and installation that focused on a life philosophy supported by raw elements including air, water, fire, and earth, the artists used potter’s wheels to create vessels from 1,000 pounds of locally sourced black and white clay. When a vessel was complete, it was smashed by the artist into a pile in the center of the room. The public was invited to create vessels and contribute to the clay pile by using the same process.

Midtown Players Club
Kris Pilcher, Elizabeth Jarrett, Miranda Kyle, Priscilla Smith + other invited artists

The Midtown Player’s Club transformed a former gym into gathering and incubation spaces for numerous young and mid-career artists, activists, and entrepreneurs to explore their craft and share their experiments and results. The various installations included rotating gallery shows, performance art exhibitions, music, immersive theatre, workshops and discussions. Each day manifested a new experience in which the public was invited to participate.

Breath of the Compassionate
Erin Sledd, Ahsan Bari, Shannon Frye, Will Griffin, Amir S. Hamer, Michael Garvey

With a sense of playful, yet reverent cycle of creation, all artwork in this project originates in and then departs from the classic Breath of the Compassionate pattern of Islamic sacred geometry and art. The artists will transform their space repeatedly, including turning it into a deconstructed Islamic Garden that will feature a musical performance by prominent Pakistani musician Ahsan Bari. The artists will also offer multiple workshops for both adults and children including embroidery, miniature painting, and mosaic paper lanterns.

FREE ART!
Forest McMullin

Forest McMullin took photographs of overlooked spaces in Colony Square, portraits of visitors, and the transformations wrought by the Creative Hive artists. He will then posted the photos outside his space and encouraged everyone to take a print with them - for free.

World Wide Art Federation
Fabian Williams, Kimberly Binns, Horace Williams, Grace Kisa, Maurice Evans

Taking a cue from the theatrical performances of the wrestling world, this group held World Wide Art Federation Art Battles. The live figure-drawing battles were promoted by artists trash talking each other as their costumed alter egos. A crowd member was chosen to be the subject, and the battle commenced. Afterward, the audience judged the winner. The WWAF was developed to bring attention to the multiple dimensions of the fine artists’ personae and abilities. Its mission is to inspire all art patrons, giving them an unforgettable, interactive, multimedia experience through creative competition and performance, setting the standard for a new and exciting art viewing experience.

Fly On A Wall
Nathan Griswold, Nicole Johnson, Sean Nguyen-Hilton, Jesse Tyler

Embracing experiments with technology and structures within dance, Fly On A Wall concentrated on two main projects: Hz, centered around binaural beats and the states of mind these frequencies inspire; and Prism 2, featuring a platform suspended by harp strings, which both supports the movement of the dancers and is played as a gigantic instrument. For their final performance, Fly On A Wall collaborated with Dorothy O’Connor - another Hive artist - to create a performance within her constructed room scene. Dance and movement classes were also offered to the public.

Scenes
Dorothy O'Connor

O’Connor created a fantastical, life-sized living room scene, constructed and transformed over a three-month period, culminating with tableaux featuring a live model and a flying flock of paper red-winged blackbirds. Near the end of the Creative Hive, O’Connor collaborated with Fly On A Wall - another Hive artist group - who created a performance within her constructed room scene.

Thanks to our presenting sponsors