PLAY/GROUND , an annual series featuring curated, site-specific installations by contemporary artists, is back to bring audiences on an immersive journey through the arts. Today the annual art festival announced that it will be held at Buffalo RiverWorks from October 7-10, 2022 and officially opened their annual call for proposals. The festival, which is organized by The Buffalo Institute for Contemporary Art and Resource:Art is made possible thanks to the generous support of the event’s presenting sponsor, M&T Bank.
“Buffalo is a diverse, creative community—thanks in large part to our vibrant arts culture,” said Eric Feldstein, M&T Bank regional president. “At M&T, we are dedicated to fostering the arts in all of our communities and we are proud to play a role in creating these original installations for our Western New York community to enjoy.”
In its fifth year, the festival also has a new partner site in Buffalo RiverWorks and the historic GLF grain silos.
“We’re thrilled to have landed an iconic site for PLAY/GROUND at Buffalo RiverWorks. Already a destination and meeting point for people from all over Western New York and beyond, this promises to be a great place for first-timers to find out how engaging visual art can be and for old hands to gain new perspectives,” said Emily Reynolds, director of the Buffalo Institute for Contemporary Art. “RiverWorks has provided an incredibly rare opportunity for artists to engage with a unique site that is quintessentially Buffalo.” Spanning the weekend of October 7-10, PLAY/GROUND 2022 will include an opening night party, daily exhibition hours, art workshops for kids and families, and more.
PLAY/GROUND 2022 will take place in the silos and surrounding grounds of Buffalo RiverWorks over the weekend of October 7-10. The PLAY/GROUND team is looking for proposals for engaging and immersive art installations that can excite and unite visitors around the power of art. Selected projects will receive a production budget and artist stipend to make their work. Projects will be selected by the PLAY/GROUND team and partner site and will be evaluated on the following criteria: strength of the proposal and potential engagement with a Buffalo audience; feasibility of proposal within budget and timeline; and connection to the unique site. Collaborations, performances, and events are welcome for proposals. The organizers are seeking a diverse applicant pool and welcome proposals from artists of color, indigenous artists, the LGBTQIA community, youth, elders, and artists based in Buffalo and beyond! This year it is free to apply to PLAY/GROUND thanks to a generous application sponsorship from Cornelia Magazine, a visual arts review for Western New York and Southern Ontario.
Proposals will be accepted starting today by visiting the application hosted on the PLAY/GROUND website www.artplaygroundny.com. Applications will close at midnight on August 14, 2022. The organizers will hold a virtual information session Wednesday, July 13, at 6:30pm over zoom and two in-person site tours at Buffalo RiverWorks on Saturday, July 9, 2022, from 10 am–2 pm and Thursday, July 21 from 5:30 pm–7:30 pm.
For high-resolution images, please email Emily Reynolds, emily@thebica.org.
More information about PLAY/GROUND 2022 is available at www.artplaygroundny.com, including images from 2018 through 2021 PLAY/GROUNDs. Follow PLAY/GROUND on Facebook and Instagram @artplaygroundny.
Resource:Art is a unique partnership that brings together the talents of two independent WNY gallerists: Elisabeth Samuels (Indigo Art) and Emily Tucker (Benjaman Gallery). Samuels, & Tucker each have extensive curatorial experience and professional relationships with artists working in a wide range of media, including painting, printmaking, photography, sculpture, fiber, and mixed media works. Resource:Art also manages the execution of site-specific fine art and considers every project as a unique collaboration between the artist and the site, navigating aesthetic, formal, and functional concerns. Resource:Art opened a new contemporary gallery space called Raft of Sanity in September of 2021. The gallery’s mission is to connect WNY based artists with collaborators, critics, and collectors from around the globe, through the use of international marketplace websites and the participation in art fairs across the country.
ABOUT THE BUFFALO INSTITUTE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART
The Buffalo Institute for Contemporary Art (BICA) is an art and education project for Buffalo founded by Nando Alvarez-Perez and Emily Ebba Reynolds. Through innovative exhibitions, cross-disciplinary skills-based programming, and arts ecology development, BICA aims to model the ways culture can sustain communities through focused, practical engagements with contemporary art. Learn more at thebica.org.