April 13, 2007
The Coleman Center for the Arts is pleased to announce a new project of the Public Artworks Program by resident artists Sue Mark and Bruce Douglas. The husband and wife artist team are visiting from Oakland, CA where they are known as Marksearch. During their one-month stay at the Coleman center they will be working as the CAlabama Peddlers. Starting on April 13th they will be riding their tandem bike in York and surrounding towns in Sumter County, hoping to listen to local stories along the way.
CAlabama Peddlers are looking for your stories about daily life in York: local history, interesting current events, local heroes, personal landmarks, railroad lore, and more. They want your help creating slogans that will promote York. They will travel through the region served by the old Alabama Tennessee & Northern Railroad displaying these slogans on a billboard towed by their tandem bike. In exchange for your stories, the Peddlers will gladly assist you with a chore: grocery pick-up, mail deliveries, or small odd jobs.
The artists will base their project out of the Coleman Center’s municipalWORKSHOP bike shed, which they will be opening to the public on Saturday April 28th, from 10AM to 1 PM. Kids can receive help fixing up their own bike, or in refurbishing a community donated bike that will be theirs to keep once repaired.
This project is in cooperation with the municipalWORKSHOP, and was made possible by funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Alabama State Council on the Arts, the Alabama Power Foundation, and the generous contributions of our individual supporters.
About the Artists
Sue Mark’s research-based projects cross boundaries between linguistics, urban design, sociology, history, and art. Exploration of the complexity of implicit power and social relationships is embedded within her research: Who controls public space and what sense of responsibility do community members feel toward one another? Conversation is her primary tool for urban investigations that examine themes such as: ‘Where is the center of the city?’; ‘How can a vacant lot become a landmark?’; and ‘How can a community commemorate aspects of local history?’. She has an MFA from the California College of Arts and Crafts (1994) and a BA in philosophy and linguistics from Oberlin College (1988). Bruce Douglas’ background is as a Mechanical Engineer and environmental educator. He designs and builds sustainable retrofits to buildings and teaches about environmentally sound solutions for transportation, energy, and building. He is an avid cyclist and advocate for bicycle friendly cities. He has come to community project work through a life long interest in creeks, water and connections in the world. Mark and Douglas have been collaborating on community-based projects since 2000.