YoungArts Debuts New Installation by Alum Daniel Arsham

The National Young Arts Foundation has a very cool new installation by local artist and YoungArts alumni Daniel Arsham. Starting on September 24, he walls of the YoungArts Gallery’s first floor will be painted in pitch-black chalkboard paint and the floor covered with nearly 2,000 white objects made of chalk.  The pieces range from body parts like hands and faces, to outdated technology like old computers, corded phones, Polaroid cameras, and vintage video game controllers. The installation is a part of the foundation’s second annual YoungArts Awareness Day. In Arsham’s interactive and evolving installation titled, The Future was Written, the audience can use any of chalk items to write, draw or trace anything they like and add them to this evolving, interactive exhibit. Use of the social media hashtags #becauseofyoungarts and #KeepArtsAlive is encouraged by visitors as they share how the arts have affected their own communities.

Architecture is a recurring theme in Arsham’s contemporary art works, which sometimes include motifs of walls and staircases eroded by nature. This is idea is mirrored in his new exhibit by the chalk objects as they gradually change and waste away when more and more visitors cover the gallery’s walls with their own markings. The exhibit has been curated by the new Director of Perez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), Franklin Sirmans. For the opening, the new PAMM director will be video-conferenced into a live chat with Arsham, and the two will talk about the installation that will be on view through December 11, the end of Miami Art Week (aka Art Basel). Daniel also has an ongoing exhibit in Los Angeles called A Special Project for Leica at the Leica Gallery that runs through February 2016.

YoungArts Awareness Day is a nationwide initiative to encourage emerging artists to pursue their dreams of becoming professional artists. Multiple events will be held on the same day in Miami, New York and Los Angeles. Including a live Q&A hosted by Josh Groban about arts education and his own Find Your Light Foundation on the YoungArts Facebook page. The Miami-based National YoungArts Foundation was founded in 1981 to raise appreciation for the arts in American society. Do you know a talented young person? They are accepting applications for 2016 now!