Join us Wednesday, June 30 for a Town Hall conversation about big projects at Beam. Moderated by a Beam staff member, Project Designers Shervone Neckles and Ye Qin Zhu will explore the process of designing, fabricating, and collaborating with Beam. Following the conversation with Neckles and Zhu, Beam staff will announce this year’s Open Call for three project sites:
Beam Project NH (Beam Camp)
Beam Project GI (Beam Camp City on Governors Island)
Beam Project NYC (Public Art in NYC community)
Beam encourages artists and designers who are considering proposing projects for Beam’s Open Call to attend this Town Hall. Staff will be on hand to answer questions and give an inside look at the project proposal process.
Shervone Neckles is an interdisciplinary artist, educator, and community worker. Neckles draws inspiration from the duality and transitional nature of her Afro-Grenadian American identity. Her work embraces collage, alternative printmaking techniques, book arts, sculpture, and social investigations. She has participated in residencies as diverse as the Youlou Arts Foundation in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, WI; The Elizabeth Foundation's SHIFT Program, NY; The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, ME among many other residency programs. Previous awards include grants from The Queens Council on the Arts, Foundation of Contemporary Art, Puffin Foundation, Joan Mitchell Foundation, and fellowships from Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop and Manhattan Graphic Center. Her award-winning work has been shown worldwide in both group and solo exhibitions and the 2019 Venice Biennale's Grenada Pavilion.
Ye Qin Zhu was born in Taishan, China, to farmers who met in the factories of Shenzhen city. Swept by the promises of modernity, his family immigrated to NYC in 1990. He grew up in a house with a village-style vegetable garden in the cosmopolitan neighborhood of Sunset Park, Brooklyn. These histories propel him. Their currents—manufacturing and gardening, modernity and displacement, anarchy and citizenry, spirit and material—are split modes that fold over, burrowing and resurfacing. Through art-making, Zhu is in conversation with their movements.