Our 5×5 is coming up on October 30, and it’s making us a little nostalgic. So, we reached out to our presenters from last year to see what they’re up to now and what advice they have for future 5×5 participants. (Submissions for 2014′s final 5×5 due September 30.)
First thing, what was your idea for last year’s 5×5?
ink.love is a street tattoo consisting of a vintage tattoo patterns of vines, thorns, and hearts. We (Vishant Shah and Aaron Story) proposed to have it painted 5 miles east of downtown on East Washington Street in Irvington.
The work would celebrate Historic Irvington and serve as an invitation to Millennials to celebrate and inspire a shared vision of urban renewal in Indianapolis.The street tattoo would be a welcome mat inviting people, especially younger people, to slow down and look around Irvington.
There’s more to presenting at a 5×5 then just winning, right? What would you say you learned from participating?
Marketing. IndyHub emphasized the importance of good marketing. It is one thing to come up with a good idea. Selling is completely different. Lacking marketing expertise, we focused on marketing the street tattoo as a narrative.
We talked to people working along East Washington Street and asked about their tattoos. And we took pictures too. Their stories about lovers, kids, Moms and even pets were fascinating. The #What’sYourStory campaign was created with these stories on social media and t-shirts. It also helped that Aaron’s last name is Story!
Even though your idea didn’t win the cash prize, how would you say you’ve benefited from your participation?
We got such great support from people from Irvington and other neighborhoods on the Eastside – folks who were completely unaware of 5×5 until we brought their attention to it. People continue to talk to us about the street tattoo and want to know when it is going to happen.
After 5×5, we created Foundation East, a grassroots public art group committed to transforming the Eastside of Indianapolis using artists who live in our neighborhoods. Because we took the risk of competing in 5×5, we earned the trust of artists, funders and most importantly local residents.
As a 5×5 veteran, what would you recommend to someone participating in a 5×5 challenge?
Anticipate. Anticipate. Anticipate. Think about every detail of your project, presentation and execution. Have someone not close to you read your proposal, review your plans and think through implementation. They should ask you tough, uncomfortable questions. Doing art-inspired work is hard. Even if you don’t have all the answers, this type of vetting will make your project even more awesome.
It’s been about a year since our last 5×5, and we want to know what you’re working on now.
Besides our quite popular traffic signal box art project, the Magic #8 Bus encourages neighbors to take the bus together to downtown events. Photographer Jena Steele and writer Mark Latta are documenting the experiences of neighbors celebrating St. Patrick’s Day at the Golden Ace, to the Zoo, the State Museum, and an Indians game together.
The project does a good job of capturing the fun and challenges of trying out the bus. The photos and narratives will be used during the Spirit and Place Festival #spindy to explore changing attitudes about mass transit. The show opens on IDADA’s First Friday at the Hall, November 7.
We are just starting CitySelfie, a project which will ask Indianapolis citizens to use different technologies, from mobile phone cameras to drones, to snap a picture of ‘their’ Indianapolis. This patterned topographic image of the city, created by its citizens, will be showcased on social media, online, and at the Harrison Center’s City Gallery.
