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Welcome Volunteers!

As an entirely volunteer-run event, FIGMENT NYC is people-powered by folks just like you. We NEED your help! Whether you have a few hours, a few days, or want to become part of the team that makes FIGMENT NYC happen year-round, we hope you'll consider giving some time to this incredible event.

Now that the FIGMENT NYC weekend is closing in, there are opportunities to help every day!

If you want to come out and lend a hand this week fill out this form with your availability, skills, and interests and we'll connect you with a project that can use your help.

If you have any questions or just want to say hi, email [email protected] 

If you'd like to keep abreast of volunteer opportunities in the future, fill out this general volunteer form. 

F.A.S.T. VOLUNTEERS

The FAST (Figment Art Support Team) volunteers are the team that works directly with our curators and artists during the weekend festival. We're looking for a few more friendly faces to handle tasks like artist check-in at Headquarters, roaming with curators to check on artists all over the island, and generally making the artists' experience more pleasant. If you have wondered what it's like to be one of our curators or even considered joining the team, this is a good place to start. Contact Lisa at [email protected] to get more information or to sign up!

CITY OF DREAMS PAVILIONS

For 2015, the City of Dreams Committee selected TWO winners: Organic Growth by Izaskun Chinchilla Architects and Billion Oyster by BANG Studio. The Pavilions are being built in many stages on and off the island, all of which need helping hands along the way. Below find the volunteer sign-up forms for each individual pavilion. The links also have info about schedules of work calls and descriptions of the tasks needed. For more general info about these incredible works of art, click here.

Our F&C team will be on the Island every Friday in May as well as some other dates TBA. Fill out this sign-up form if you are interested; we are particularly looking for volunteers who have at least a little experience with (or a lot of enthusiasm for learning) construction skills! 

TREEHOUSE

©2013 Tom Egan. TreeHouse by Benjamin Jones, FIGMENT NYC

The structure is built, and now we need people who want to paint! Contact [email protected] to sign up, and also fill out our general treehouse volunteer form to keep up to date with future volunteer opportunities!

DRIVERS

FIGMENT NYC is always looking for drivers. Please contact volunteers at [email protected] to make your interest known (or for more info). 

©2014 Alex Taferner, FIGMENT NYC

Project submissions for FIGMENT NYC Weekend have been extended to Thursday April 30, 11:59PM ET.

Now you have a little more time to get your project in for the 2015 event, but it's still only 9 days away! We want YOU, your creativity, your energy, your fun and your imagination!

The curators of FIGMENT NYC invite proposals for interactive art of all mediums. Interactive, or participatory, art blurs the lines between the artist, the art, and the people engaging with the art. We look for projects that encourage people to play, dance, sing, create, engage, experiment, and explore their environment. Theatre, dance, music, performance art, games, creative costuming, workshops, activities, three-dimensional sculptural installations are all common genres found at FIGMENT.

Get in your proposals and join us!

Want to support FIGMENT? Our annual kickoff / benefit event is happening May 4th at DROM in the East Village. A celebration of participatory, community-based creativity featuring special guests, surprise performances, exclusive raffle and auction items, dancing and honoring lower manhattan participatory art leaders Matt Goldman & Renee Rolleri, founding members of Blue Man Group and Blue School.

Buy your tickets today!

Bid in our online auction!

What: FIGMENT NYC Groundbreaking 2015: Below 14th Street

When: Monday May 4th 2015 from 6:30pm – 11:00pm

Where: Drom, 85 Avenue A, New York, NY

Tickets: Tickets available here ($50 / advance tickets; $150 / "Bowery" Premium package; $250 / "Broadway" VIP package; $75 / door, if available)

RSVP on Facebook: Find us, and invite your friends, on Facebook!

This year we selected two incredible Architectural Pavilions to be installed on Governors Island. Billion Oyster Pavilion by BanG studio of New York City and Organic Growth by Izaskun Chinchilla Architects of Madrid and London. Both projects have recently launch Kickstarter campaigns to fund the creation of their pavilions. Click here to see both campaigns and to learn how to get involved. 

READ MORE

Billion Oyster Pavilion

by BanG Studio (Babak Bryan, AIA; Henry Grosman; and Suzie Betts; with Sam Janis, Harbor School/Billion Oyster Project), New York, NY

BanG’s proposal for the Billion Oyster Pavilion joins two of Governors Island’s most exciting enterprises: FIGMENT/ENYA/SEAoNY’s City of Dreams Pavilion and The New York Harbor School’s Billion Oyster Project. The materials that form the woven canopy (steel rebar, nylon rope, and hose clamps) are used in their harbor restoration work. The base of the pavilion is comprised of custom-cast “Reef Balls,” a restoration device that the school will also use as part of their habitat creation effort. The pavilion will be donated to the Harbor School and its materials will be completely re-used on the island once the summer ends and the pavilion is decommissioned.

Support their Kickstarter campaign here! 

Organic Growth

 by Izaskun Chinchilla Architects (Izaskun Chinchilla Moreno, Sally Hart, Adriana Cabello Plasencia, Alejandro Espallargas Omedas and Alfonso Aracil Sánchez), Madrid and London

 Izaskun Chinchilla Architects’ design takes inspiration from nature to create an innovative and flexible solution that directly engages with local communities and familiar materials. Flower structures such as those found in hydrangeas have the ability to respond to the natural environment, growing and morphing to remain in balance with nature. Izaskun believes architecture must adopt a similar responsiveness, adapting to uncertain budgets, social change and ecological dynamics naturally, beautifully and intuitively. The proposed design employs commonly found materials, giving them a new life after they have become unfit for their original purpose. The design utilizes broken umbrellas, old stools and damaged bicycle wheels, which several institutions in New York are already recycling. As with mop-head flowers, the pavilion is composed of many smaller elements, all of which can be dismantled and re-used after the summer. Branches composed of several umbrellas and tripods, can be easily reused as sun, wind, and rain protection in outdoor spaces all around the city. Larger elements can be beautiful indoor chandeliers and can be useful for community centers or other public spaces. Izaskun Chinchilla is a Senior Teaching Fellow, Senior Research Associate and Public Engagement Fellow at Bartlett School of Architecture, University College of London.

Support their Kickstarter campaign here!

Join the FIGMENT team and community on Tues. Feb. 10 at Open House Club (244 East Houston) from 7:00-10:00 PM for our February Meet & Greet event.

The FIGMENT NYC team will be on hand to share exciting updates about our 2015 Sculpture Program and City of Dreams Pavilions (yes, plural!). Bring us your questions about submitting a proposal for FIGMENT Minigolf, the Treehouse, or FIGMENT weekend, and if you're interested in, or just curious about volunteering or getting involved in FIGMENT in any way, this is a great opportunity to learn more. 

We'll be joined this month by the team from ALPHA; FIGMENT's weekend camping event for creators.  Happening in Maryland, April 24th-26th, we use a bucolic space for workshops, skill-shares, building and burning (of art) too. Meet the ALPHA team and connect with other attendees to plan projects. Our effigy team, ALPHAGY, will be on hand as well and looking for volunteers. Learn more about the event at alpha.figmentproject.org and rsvp for the event at https://www.facebook.com/events/1539870592945929/ .

As always, the good company of our amazing FIGMENT/ALPHA community is assured, so join us to round out your Tuesday with a little creative energy and great people no matter whether or not you have questions.

Pleas RSVP to the Facebook event here, and please help us spread the word.

FIGMENT, the Emerging New York Architects Committee (ENYA) of the American Institute of Architects New York Chapter (AIANY), and the Structural Engineers Association of New York (SEAoNY) are pleased to announce that a distinguished jury has selected two winning designs in the fifth annual City of Dreams Pavilion Competition: Billion Oyster Pavilion by BanG Studio of New York City and Organic Growth by Izaskun Chinchilla Architects of Madrid and London. Pending approvals and fundraising, these pavilions will both be assembled on Governors Island and open to the public for the summer 2015 season.

Read the full story here.

2014 has been an amazing year... FIGMENT was in 10 cities in 3 countries, impacting some 250,000 people. We appreciate everything that you have done to get us here... your creativity, your volunteerism, your financial support.

We hope we can count on you to support FIGMENT once more before the new year.

You may have heard that last week FIGMENT decided to decline a donation for the first time in our history, from the Santacon event in NYC. It was a difficult decision, but we want to maintain our integrity focusing on free, family-friendly events that celebrate creativity and build community. 

To make up for this gap, an anonymous FIGMENT supporter has offered to match all donations we receive until 12/31. Your tax-deductible gift to FIGMENT today will be doubled. Please help us one more time before 12/31. Your contribution today will do twice as much to reach people with participatory art and build community around creativity.

From everyone at FIGMENT, we want to wish you and your community a peaceful and regenerative holiday season!

David Koren
Executive Director

Photo (c) 2014 Anthony Collins, FIGMENT NYC

The first FIGMENT meet & greet of 2015 is coming up on Tuesday, January 13th.

We hope you'll join us to help us kick off the ninth season of FIGMENT NYC.

Join the team of doers, artists, volunteers, contributors, and participants that make both FIGMENT weekend and our summer long sculpture, treehouse, and minigolf courses happen. We'll be on hand to answer questions, share stories, and explore ways to make this year's event the best FIGMENT yet.

WHEN: Tuesday, January 13th, 7:00-10:00 PM

WHERE: Open House, located at 244 East Houston.

RSVP to our Facebook event here, and please share and help us spread the word.

Thanks for helping the FIGMENT community thrive; we hope to see you soon.

      -With gratitude, 

George Ingalls and the FIGMENT NYC team.

There have been recent inquiries into FIGMENT's relationship with Santacon. Unfortunately, none of the so-called media outlets that have published articles have asked FIGMENT for comment prior to publishing. Therefore, we hereby voluntarily give the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Happy reading.

FIGMENT was conceptualized about ten years ago by a group of community organizers who were interested in participatory arts. Some recent articles have suggested that FIGMENT and Burning Man are related. To clarify, we have been inspired to some extent by the artistic and communal effort ethos of Burning Man, but we are in no way officially associated with Burning Man.  

Santacon was originally an effort to bring participatory art into a public sphere, as illustrated by recent interviews with John Law from San Francisco's Cacophony Society. As such, many FIGMENT artists and organizers have participated in Santacon in the past, and many Santacon enthusiasts value the role that FIGMENT plays in bringing participatory art into a family-friendly public arena. FIGMENT accepted a donation from Santacon in 2013, and we were apparently one of four charities that were beneficiaries of the event. 

Santacon has evolved from its roots, however, in a way that is perceived by many to be out of control and even dangerous. FIGMENT cannot be associated with an event of this nature, and we have decided not to accept any donations from Santacon this year. 

As with our standing commitment not to accept corporate donations, we will make decisions on all future funders of FIGMENT with a priority of upholding the integrity of our work:  FIGMENT is a free, family-friendly celebration of creativity that builds community and invites everyone to participate as an artist.

We at FIGMENT have been aware that there is crossover between participants of our events and Santacon. FIGMENT is a transparent 501(c)(3) not-for-profit charity, but because Santacon organizers have remained hidden from the public and participants, there has been no way to know definitively of any potential overlap in current leadership. 

Jim Glaser, a founding member of FIGMENT's Board of Directors, has stepped forward in his contributions to Santacon, much as he is involved with many participatory culture events. Jim looks forward to continuing to participate in FIGMENT as an artist and as founder of Kostume Kult, which provides kid-friendly costume giveaways each year at FIGMENT NYC. However, recognizing a conflict of interest, Jim has resigned from FIGMENT's Board of Directors. We thank him for his formative role in FIGMENT's development.   

We value that there may be artistic and charitable intentions behind Santacon, and understand that individuals involved with FIGMENT may don a Santa hat for one day a year. However, we will continue to maintain that any conflict of interest between the leadership of the two organizations is unacceptable. 

Since its inception, FIGMENT has celebrated and supported creative expression by artists of all kinds, and invited every individual to explore his or her inner artist to create work to share. While we do not accept corporate donations to support our nonprofit mission, we have made it our policy in the past to accept donations from many community groups and events. 

This year, FIGMENT has decided to refuse a donation from a community event for the first time in our history in refusing any donation offered to it by Santacon. It has become clear to us that, while Santacon was originally a fundamentally creative and expressive event, it has become something else in recent years. Many residents in the neighborhoods that Santacon has visited have had extremely negative experiences, which have been well documented in local media. As an organization that values community, and that works to build, grow, and nurture local communities through art and creativity in 10 cities, FIGMENT cannot be associated with an event that so many people feel represents a danger to their neighborhoods.

FIGMENT creates free arts events in 10 cities around the world that invite everyone to create and share. We believe that everyone is an artist, that everyone has something to say, and that through creativity we can build strong and diverse communities. FIGMENT is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization entirely funded by grants and individual donations. We appreciate your support in creating free arts events and experiences that everyone is welcome to participate in as a creator.