Floating Art Gallery Sets Sail at Burlington Waterfront
The Floating Art Gallery is the product of a shared vision to create a one-of-a-kind waterfront experience for the Burlington community. The eight month partnership between the Lake Champlain Community Sailing Center (LCCSC), Dealer.com and four local artists – Scott A. Campbell, Michael Sipe, Abby Manock, and Mary Lacy – unfurled sails several weeks ago displaying the first ever Floating Gallery – a collection of original artwork printed on sailboat sails.
(Photo by WCAX-TV)
“These are some of the biggest canvases available, certainly on the waterfront, they’re 24-feet tall, 11-feet wide and triangular, and so except for Mary Lacy’s hummingbird on a three-story building in Burlington, there are few places artists have an opportunity for a canvas of this scale,” ~ Mark Naud, Lake Champlain Sailing Center executive director.
Through this project, the two organizations have created a creative and innovative experience in tune with the cultural values of the local Burlington community. The artists involved were asked to create a piece of art that depicts their individual style that also represents the community. Their work was imprinted on four 24-foot Mainsails now on permanent display as part of LCCSC’s fleet. It is hoped that the Floating Gallery will grow each year as more sails are added to the fleet.
(Photo by WCAX-TV)
Combining Technology, Sailing, and Art to Create First-of-its-kind Waterfront Display
The Lake Champlain Community Sailing Center (LCCSC) is a non-profit organization that provides lake access to over 6,000 people each year, regardless of age, ability or income through its award-winning programs. The Community Sailing Center encourages the responsible use and long-term stewardship of Lake Champlain through educational and recreational programs.
“When we embarked on this project with Dealer.com and our local artists eight months ago, we weren’t sure what exactly to expect. At the beginning, we just had an idea – to create a truly amazing project that brings together the various members of the community and showcases our Burlington culture. What we got with this Floating Gallery is so much more. Through this artwork we have created a unique waterfront experience for all to enjoy, in a way that has never been done before,” said Mark Naud, Executive Director at the Lake Champlain Community Sailing Center.
Dealer.com, is a strong supporter of the local arts community and a long-time supporter of the LCCSC and their Floating Classroom Program. Dealer.com has made several grants over the past few years fusing art with a functional need for its non-profit partners. Jill Badolato, Director of Corporate Social Responsibility, concepted the first-of-its-kind Floating Gallery grant as a way to give back to the waterfront community on a multi-faceted front. Dealer.com’s P.E.A.C.E. Mission (Planet, Eat Local, Arts & Culture and Employees) represents the company’s unique approach to being a good corporate citizen.
“The CSC has a mission to celebrate and educate the community on stewardship of Lake Champlain. By using sails as a functional canvas for public art, we will bring much needed awareness to the revitalization initiatives happening on the Burlington waterfront, while paying local artists a living wage for their work. We believe that positive change comes from being a positive role model and contributor to the places in which we live and work, which is why these grants are so important,” ~ Jill Badolato, Director of Corporate Social Responsibility at Dealer.com.
Floating Art Gallery designs
About the Artists:
- Scott A. Campbell (http://www.luminome.com) was born in Portland, Oregon in 1973 to French and American parents, Scott A. Campbell has lived his life in two dimensions since being big enough to wield a pencil. Seeking to be a life-long art student, Scott has supported that ambition by doing commercial work in programming (backend, UI, whole systems) and graphic design (namely branding work and rock posters for Phish, Medeski Martin & Wood, Black Crowes, Hot Tuna, etc). Scott’s design work is driven and inspired by the analog art-making process and his large format mixed-media work carries many of the approaches and types of thinking involved in design. When asked about being fused with both, Scott said, “I used to feel that art and design were in competition for my attention but it’s all drawing at the root and I find the intersection of those worlds increasingly fascinating if not always approachable”. Scott brings an ultramodern, serial architectural and playful sensibility to his work. His latest work explores scale—working on a more immersive experience for the viewer.
- Abby Manock (http://www.abbymanock.com) is a multi-genre artist and designer splitting her time between her hometown of Burlington and Brooklyn, NY. Her work includes video and sculptural installation, drawing, large-scale mural projects, and interactive game-like performative sequences. All Abby’s undertakings possess a color/visual code that stamps each individual component as unmistakably hers. Abby received her MFA from Columbia University in 2007. Her work has been showcased internationally and in the US. Since December, Abby has moved her studio practice back down to Brooklyn and hit the ground running with a full load of new art and design projects. In addition to teaching, she works as an artist assistant, scenic painter, muralist, prop maker, and visual designer, all the while plotting her next “mammoth” undertaking, this time, involving good luck charms and a sting of glow in the dark jellyfish.
- Michael Sipe (http://www.michaelsipe.com) is a Burlington based photographer, is a resident artist who maintains a photography studio in The Hood Plant on King Street for the past 18 years. Michael specializes in primarily commercial and editorial genres of photography but is currently taking new direction into portraiture and fine art. Michael tries to bring beauty to all projects, regardless of subject, which inevitably highlights his technique and process.
- Mary Lacy (http://www.marylacyart.com) grew up in Jericho, Vermont. She started painting in high school and in her senior year she attended a small semester long art program in Napa City, California called The Oxbow School. She liked painting portraits. After getting her bachelors in history and politics, she returned to painting with a new community oriented take. Right now she is painting wildlife animals. Mary hopes to continue to paint murals in the public sphere, choosing species specific to each location. She is currently living in Jericho, having moved home last summer to pursue her art.
About Lake Champlain Community Sailing Center:
- A community-based non-profit organization, Lake Champlain Community Sailing Center (http://www.CommunitySailingCenter.org) encourages and celebrates the responsible use and long-term stewardship of Lake Champlain by providing the community with educational and recreational access to Lake Champlain. The Community Sailing Center (CSC) is a vital community resource on the Burlington Waterfront that serves over 5,000 people each year through award winning programs, which use human powered watercraft as a medium to instill a sense of ownership in one of Vermont’s most important natural resources. A cornerstone of the Burlington community for 20 years, the Lake Champlain Community Sailing Center inspires lake stewardship, provides universal access to the lake and is helping preserve the beauty of Lake Champlain for future generations.
About Dealertrack Technologies
- Dealer.com, a Dealertrack (http://www.dealertrack.com) solution (Nasdaq: TRAK), delivers integrated web-based tools, services and technologies that drive efficiencies and profitability for automotive retailers, including dealers, lenders, OEMs, third-party retailers, agents and aftermarket providers. Currently, Dealertrack hosts more than 60 million unique visitors per month on 20,000 dealer websites, and operates the industry’s largest online credit transaction network, connecting more than 20,000 dealers with more than 1,500 lenders. Dealertrack’s market-leading suite of integrated solutions include Dealer Management Systems (DMS), Inventory, Sales and F&I, Digital Marketing, Registration and Titling, CRM, Fixed Operationsand Independent Dealer solutions.
“If Lake Champlain’s a super highway, this is the off-ramp. We don’t provide gasoline, we don’t provide a ship store, we don’t provide a full service restaurant, we don’t provide a whole bunch of things that a normal marina might. We really just want to be the destination,” ~ Mayor James Calnon
