Yvonne Shortt | |
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Born | |
Known for | Installation art, sculpture |
Movement | Her Own |
Website | www |
Yvonne Shortt (born December 5, 1972, in Queens, New York) is a visually impaired African American question based installation artist. Her work encompasses illustration, installation, sculpture, painting, and photography. Shortt's work has been shown in museums and public parks throughout New York City, and deals with various themes, including sustainability, equality, abundance, disability, community, and race. [1] According to a New York Times documentary short that featured her, she left her previous career in financial algorithm programming and chose to focus on the arts after being diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa. [2]
Shortt holds a Master of Science - MS, Mathematics from New York University.
In 2022, Shortt established a new kind of museum framework called Be The Museum. The framework consists of each artist being their own museum as they define the word, in this way the artist looks to take back the word museum from capitalists and wealthy people, re-centering it within the artist and community. [3]
In 2017, Shortt established the Elmhurst Sculpture Garden in an abandoned parking lot in Elmhurst, Queens, New York with the help of local community volunteers and artists. With additional funding by the Burning Man Global Arts Grant in 2017 and the National Endowment of the Arts Grant in 2018, the community garden was able to expand in area space. [4] [5] Under Shortt's leadership, the garden serves as an arts incubator for artists to exhibit their pieces, as well as receive guidance in obtaining grants to revitalize public spaces in their communities.
An Act of Civil disobedience dating back to 2016, African American Marbleization is a series of guerrilla sculptures by Yvonne Shortt. It is the artist's response to oppression and racisms of African Americans in art, history, and her country. The pieces are cast in marble dust and installed outdoors as installations or small sculptures. The fragment pieces are installed on underpasses or other cement structures while the busts are often coupled with natural materials like water, wood, and the earth. [6]
Yvonne Shortt became a member of A.I.R. Gallery in January, 2021. Soon after in 2021, Ms. Shortt Co-found A.I.R. Gallery's Research and Development Committee with Daria Dorosh, founding member of A.I.R. Gallery. The committee seeks to make, model, and introduce new frameworks for artists; allowing artists to disrupt the scarcity mindset and patriarchal systems commonly encountered in the art world.
Ms. Shortt began working on an artistic response project that speaks to the personal difficulties experienced as an African American woman at A.I.R. Gallery after an incident where another member cautioned her about using rope and natural materials linking the materials to lynching. [7]
In 2018, Shortt produced two pieces inspired by her retinitis pigmentosa condition. She was selected to display one of her outdoor art installation pieces, Peppermint Pieces, as part of the Art in the Parks: Active Open Space initiative, which is funded by the Public Health in New York, Inc. on behalf of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, in partnership with the City of New York Parks and Recreation. [8] [9] Peppermint Pieces is a multimedia piece made of wood and aluminum on display in Captain Tilly Park in Jamaica. Shortt's cement sculpture piece, Waking Blind, is also inspired by the artist's eye condition, which is displayed in Elmhurst Sculpture Garden. [10]
Shortt was among the recipients of the Art in the Parks: Alliance for Flushing Meadows Corona Park 2019 Grant to create an art installation that follows the theme, Flushing Meadows Corona Park: A Park for the Future. [11] Inspired by the 1964-65 New York World's Fair, Shortt created the sculpture piece, Pavillion Landing, with the aid of park goers and community members during several collaborative sculpting sessions at the park. [12] The piece, which features stranded intergalactic children, is on display at the David Dinkins Circle in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park.
In 2018, Friends of MacDonald Park in Forest Hills commissioned Shortt to create an outdoor piece that addressed the political, social, and economic systems in the United States, which resulted in the creation of the piece Rigged?. [13] The maze structure, with its accompanying cement rabbits and carrots, is continuously updated depending on the general public's feedback about the piece.
In 2016, Shortt led an investigative project that analyzed the role of women, or the lack thereof, in the construction industry. With funding provided by the Awesome Foundation, the Queens Council on the Arts, and Culture Push, with additional support from the Eileen Fisher Activating Leadership Grant, Shortt separated the project in two phases. [14] [15] The first phase involved a construction workshop series, where over 100 women were taught basic construction skills and equipment handling. [16] The first phase concluded with the creation of a tiny house on wheels, which is now used as a tea and zen garden.
In the second phase, Shortt commissioned 13 artists so that they can create various interactive installations that prompted community engagement and conversation over the housing crisis in New York City. Among the installations include performing art pieces, participatory embroidery, photography, and more. [17] All installations were then photographed and documented in the exhibition Dwelling at the Queens Museum.
In 2009, Shortt established Rego Park Green Alliance, an art organization that addressed community awareness of several important issues affecting the communities of Forest Hills, Kew Gardens, Rego Park, and other surrounding neighborhoods in Queens. [18] RPGA Studio, Inc. gained a nonprofit status in 2015, and has been a recipient of various grants, awards, and partnerships, including the Citizens Committee for New York City Grants, Burning Man Global Arts Grant, National Endowment for the Arts Grant, and others. [19] [20] [21]
Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, often referred to as Flushing Meadows Park, or simply Flushing Meadows, is a public park in the northern part of Queens in New York City, New York, U.S. It is bounded by I-678 on the east, Grand Central Parkway on the west, Flushing Bay on the north, and Union Turnpike on the south. Flushing Meadows–Corona Park is the fourth-largest public park in New York City, with a total area of 897 acres (363 ha).
The Unisphere is a spherical stainless steel representation of the Earth at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in the borough of Queens in New York City, New York, U.S. The globe was designed by Gilmore D. Clarke for the 1964 New York World's Fair. Commissioned to celebrate the beginning of the space age, the Unisphere was conceived and constructed as the theme symbol of the World's Fair. The theme of the World's Fair was "Peace Through Understanding", and the Unisphere represented the theme of global interdependence, being dedicated to "Man's Achievements on a Shrinking Globe in an Expanding Universe".
Corona is a neighborhood in the borough of Queens in New York City. It borders Flushing and Flushing Meadows–Corona Park to the east, Jackson Heights to the west, Forest Hills and Rego Park to the south, Elmhurst to the southwest, and East Elmhurst to the north. Corona's main thoroughfares include Corona Avenue, Roosevelt Avenue, Northern Boulevard, Junction Boulevard, and 108th Street.
Elmhurst is a neighborhood in the borough of Queens in New York City. It is bounded by Roosevelt Avenue on the north; the Long Island Expressway on the south; Junction Boulevard on the east; and the New York Connecting Railroad on the west.
The Queens Museum is an art museum and educational center at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in the borough of Queens in New York City, New York, U.S. Established in 1972, the museum has among its permanent exhibitions the Panorama of the City of New York, a room-sized scale model of the five boroughs originally built for the 1964 New York World's Fair. It also has a large archive of artifacts from both the 1939 and 1964 World's Fairs, a selection of which is on display. As of 2018, Queens Museum's director is Sally Tallant.
Queens Botanical Garden is a botanical garden located at 43-50 Main Street in Flushing, Queens, New York City. The 39-acre (16 ha) site features rose, bee, herb, wedding, and perennial gardens; an arboretum; an art gallery; and a LEED-certified Visitor & Administration Building. Queens Botanical Garden is located on property owned by the City of New York, and is funded from several public and private sources. It is operated by Queens Botanical Garden Society, Inc.
East Elmhurst is a residential neighborhood in the northwest section of the New York City borough of Queens. It is bounded to the south by Jackson Heights and Corona, to the north and east by Bowery Bay, and to the west by Woodside and Ditmars Steinway. The area also includes LaGuardia Airport, located on the shore of Flushing Bay, LaGuardia Landing Lights Fields, and Astoria Heights.
Kew Gardens Hills is a neighborhood in the middle of the New York City borough of Queens. The borders are Flushing Meadows-Corona Park to the west, the Long Island Expressway to the north, Union Turnpike to the south, and Parsons Boulevard to the east.
Donald Harcourt De Lue was an American sculptor, best known for his public monuments.
Marco Polo di Suvero, better known as Mark di Suvero, is an abstract expressionist sculptor and 2010 National Medal of Arts recipient.
The Queens Community Board 3 is a local government in New York City, encompassing the neighborhoods of Jackson Heights, East Elmhurst and North Corona, as well as LaGuardia Airport, in the borough of Queens. It is delimited by the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway to the west, the Grand Central Parkway to the north, Flushing Meadows Corona Park on the east, and Roosevelt Avenue on the south.
Mary Mattingly is an American visual artist living and working in New York City. She is the recipient of a Yale University School of Art Fellowship, and was a resident at Eyebeam Art and Technology Center from 2011 to 2012.
The Queens Community Board 4 is a local government in the New York City borough of Queens, encompassing the neighborhoods of Elmhurst, Corona, Corona Heights, Newtown, and also includes LeFrak City, Queens Center Mall and Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. It is delimited by Roosevelt Avenue to the north, the New York Connecting Railroad to the west, the Horace Harding Expressway to the south and Flushing Meadows Corona Park on the east.
Community boards of Queens are New York City community boards in the borough of Queens, which are the appointed advisory groups of the community districts that advise on land use and zoning, participate in the city budget process, and address service delivery in their district.
Boeing Galleries are a pair of outdoor exhibition spaces within Millennium Park in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The spaces are located along the south and north mid-level terraces, above and east of Wrigley Square and the Crown Fountain. In a conference at the Chicago Cultural Center, Boeing President and Chief Executive Officer James Bell to Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley announced Boeing would make a $5 million grant to fund both the construction of and an endowment for the space.
The Flushing Meadows Corona Park Aquatics Center and Ice Rink, also known as the Flushing Meadows Corona Park Aquatics Center or Flushing Meadows Natatorium, is a 110,000-square-foot (10,000 m2) facility in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, Queens, New York City, with an Olympic-sized pool and an NHL-standard rink. Built in 2008, the $66.3 million project is the first indoor public pool to open in New York City in four decades. Initially, the building was intended to serve as the venue for water polo events during the 2012 Summer Olympics, but when the city's bid was lost to London, the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation proceeded to build the pool anyway. The result is an innovative building with 130-foot-high twin masts and a swooping roof form. The masts are an architectural feature extending up into the Queens skyline as well as the structural supports for the cable-stayed roof. This design provides the clear spans necessary to house an Olympic swimming pool along with an ice skating rink.
Horse Brook is a buried stream located in the neighborhood of Elmhurst in the New York City borough of Queens. Its historic course flows beneath Queens Center Mall, Rego Center Mall, LeFrak City, and the Long Island Expressway, before emptying into Flushing Creek in present-day Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. Flushing Creek is a tributary of the East River.
Cecile Chong is an American artist based in Brooklyn, New York, whose work addresses the process of cultural assimilation and the development of individual identity. For many years she has contributed to New York City public school art programs as a teaching artist.
Elmhurst Sculpture Garden is an outdoor community garden where artists can exhibit sculptures, multimedia installations, musical and dance performances. The garden is located one block away from the Queens Center Mall and near the Long Island Expressway in the neighborhood of Elmhurst, Queens, New York City. In addition to providing an arts exhibition space, the garden offers a community art program in collaborative sculpting.