5 Years of Community Building |
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A Journey of Play Full Ground - Past, Present and Future! |
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On May 20th, 2017 It was the very beginning of Play Full Ground! “Play” and being playful is essential for creativity. “Full” describes the sense of satisfaction and fulfillment. “Ground" comes from playground and also where we stand. |
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Play Full Ground was born as an evening of interactive and participatory art exhibit and community event with food, drinks and live music at the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History with a grant from the Arts Council for Monterey County. It was also a collaborative project for which I formed a collective with creative members of the Monterey community who were visual, performance and culinary artists as well as local small business owners and students. |
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The art exhibit consisted of soft sculptures of marine animals living in the Monterey Bay, which the guests were invited to touch, punch and sit on. Happy Monterey Sardines were born as a part to represent culture and history of the Monterey Peninsula community. |
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However, this project was not initiated by my happy and positive motivations to create such a place. Instead, it was born out of my isolated and unsatisfactory feelings as an artist who creates experience as art, not objects. “Why am I not interested in the art that I’ve seen here? What’s missing?" |
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It was a sense of community that I was missing as an artist and also, an individual from outside of the community. I first moved to Monterey in 2002 as an international student at Monterey Peninsula College. Over the last 5 years, other community members also shared similar feelings and today, after the long 2+ years of expanded distant/virtual communications and limited in person/face to face interaction, the feelings might have been shared among more community members. |
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I am working on ideas for a gathering to start building a community again at Play Full Ground and beyond! I would like to use this opportunity to listen to and learn your stories, have a series of dialogues and brainstorm ideas for creation of a joyful, supportive and connected community. Please let me know if you are interested in creating such a community together. I'm planning to send an invitation to a gathering this summerto those who care. |
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Thank you so much for your participation and support in the creative community building! |
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