Pasadena Arts Council (PAC) / Knowledges
Fund: $35,000
Through its EMERGE Projects PAC incubates new organizations, collectives, and artist projects, allowing them to seek funding through fiscal sponsorship. Under the PAC umbrella, the 2017 iteration of KNOWLEDGES, an artist-led curatorial initiative, will invite artists to develop site-specific temporary installations at the Mount Wilson Observatory located 33 miles from Downtown in the Angeles National Forest. Working directly with Observatory staff during special-access tours of the complex, invited artists Scott Benzel, Jeff Cain, Krysten Cunningham, Erik Frydenborg, Channing Hansen, Gregory Michael Hernandez, Alice Könitz/Los Angeles Museum of Art, Karen Lofgren, Rosha Yaghmai, and Margaret Wertheim/Institute for Figuring will spend a year developing works in various media for sites throughout the Observatory grounds. The public will access the installations over a full weekend in June 2017. Along with programs, performances, lectures, screenings, tours of the Observatory, and telescope viewing sessions, the event will offer a rare opportunity for both artists and the public to experience this historic site in depth.