$30K grant will bring interactive art to Sulphur Springs, Tampa

An interactive art project called the Echo Quilt has been selected for a $30,000 grant from the Gobioff Foundation as a part of its Treasure Tampa initiative.

Proposed by LiveWork Studios, the immersive installations will be built along the Hillsborough River at Community Stepping Stones in Sulphur Springs in the spirit of creative placemaking, which uses public-private partnerships to bring impactful art into communities.

The Echo Quilt combines a large on-site installation with an interactive component, including audio recording equipment that allows visitors to store and disseminate their own stories. The project is meant to share and contribute to the neighborhood's history.

“As a piece of sculpture, the physical structure is designed to provide viewers with a beautiful, quiet, contemplative space that engages both its pristine site along the banks of the Hillsborough River and the unique, and often overlooked community of Sulphur Springs,” Devon Brady, LiveWork Studios co-founder and Echo Quilt organizer, tells 83 Degrees. “Our preliminary designs for the structure reference old gramophone horns and the architecture of the inner ear as a nod to the speaking and listening functions of the piece.

“The interactive component of the project consists of a telephone interface that allows participants to record their own stories, as well as listening to the stories of other participants and pre-programmed audio provided by artists, historians, and anthropologists,” he adds.

As a part of the grant, LiveWork will coordinate with students from Community Stepping Stones, the University of South Florida, and local residents to further conceptualize and construct the project through a series of community meetings. 

Through the Tampa Treasure initiative, the Gobioff Foundation aims to inspire businesses to engage in public-private partnership in support of community-minded art projects. Last year, the initiative awarded a $30,000 grant to the University Area Community Development Corporation for an installation called Art in the Park at the Harvest Hope Park. Foundation president, Neil Gobioff, explains that these grants are meant to both beautify a community and communicate the principles of creative placemaking.

“Beyond just being a grant for creative placemaking, what we wanted was the education part of getting people to understand what creative placemaking is, how simple it can be … and how it can positively transform a community,” he says. “The idea is that the community is actively involved and engaged in the process, ideally from the design to the implementation. That helps to create a sense of ownership and sense of pride from the community’s point.”

The Echo Quilt is scheduled to be finished in May 2019.