Artist Heather Hart builds community one porch at a time

Heather Hart’s Porch Projects  are a platform for community interaction and change

A new sculpture has emerged from the landscape of Josephine Sculpture Park (JSP), and at first glance, it might seem at home in your own backyard. Heather Hart’s Porch Projects take a familiar and inviting space and transform them into a stylized meeting ground, a platform for community interaction and change. In each location across the United States, a specificity to place also emerges through her research of local histories that are integrated into the overall layout.

 

The design of her porch-like structure is based on principles of sacred geometry and Dunbar’s Number, the ideal number of people to have at the table to maintain a cohesive conversation being five. The structure itself consists of five five-sided porches that are connected, each containing a five-sided table to encourage interaction. One of the tables is built to be wheelchair-accessible. 

It is also inspired by important events in the Civil Rights Movement, including the 1960 Woolworth's lunch counter sit-ins and the 1979 Greensboro Massacre. The Porch Project: Take it to the Bridge at JSP includes a wheelchair-accessible bridge that references the lynchings that occurred from the Singing Bridge in downtown Frankfort in the early 1900s.

Hart’s intentions are to connect people through shared histories that are sometimes difficult to speak about. Her works create a space and place to communicate and share ideas and perspectives. Her installations also host a variety of community events, from dance performances to speed dating. “This space is open to our community, for you to decide how you want to use it. We hope to see people using it in creative ways,” shares Melanie VanHouten, JSP Founding Director. “The artist wants people to feel safe in a familiar space, but also to challenge each other, to explore our individual and collective identities and communities.” JSP hopes The Porch Project: Take it to the Bridge will become a community gathering place and will serve as a catalyst for social change, community conversations, and personal transformation. 

The Porch Project: Take it to the Bridge at JSP is made possible through a very generous sponsorship from 84 Lumber and grants from the Onassis Foundation USA, the National Endowment for the Arts, HSG Foundation through the Blue Grass Community Foundation, Kentucky Foundation for Women, Snowy Owl Foundation, and Fund for the Arts in partnership with LG&E and KU Foundation. Additional support was provided by Expree Credit Union and advisory board members Art VanHouten of VanHouten Builders and Kristofer Nonn. Special thanks to Marshall and Company, Lee Colten, and Don Stosberg.

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