Art in the Park: progress to date

In the latter half of October, I blogged about taking on a new role in Second Life as curator of the Holly Kai art park. Since then things have been progressing slowly, as I’ve been contacting artists I’d like to see participate in the park’s re-lunch exhibition, and have been working out how best to change things around at the park without undoing all the hard work already put into it.

That said, things have now reached a point where I’m comfortable in revealing progress to date, and to say that all things being equal, the first exhibition will be launching in early December. I’ll be contacting the artists who participating with details on arranges a little later this week, so they’ll have plenty of time to prepare.

For those used to mooring at the park, you’ll find things have changed a lot; there are new slips on both the east and west sides of the park to accommodate more boats coming alongside. Auto-return is set to 60 minutes to allow people time to explore the park, and re-rezzing of boats is allowed.

In addition, some tweaks have been made to the beach area behind the west side slips to give a little more room for those simply wishing to spend time on the beach; there’s still more work to be done with this, but it’s not an immediate priority.

Within the park itself, new wooden decks have been installed to offer artists more formal spaces for displaying their work. Most of these are up on the hill in the centre of the park. The park walls connecting the east and west sides have new lighting which should provide soft illumination during the SL night. There’s also a new stone pavilion where visitors are welcome to rest for a while.

The biggest change, however, is on the west side of the park. As well as altering the moorings here, and at Caitlyn’s excellent suggestion, I’ve added a small venue, the Caitinara bar. Over time, this will hopefully become a place for regular music and dancing for smaller groups.

In talking things through, Nber and I have also decided to add a further arts venue to Holly Kai, which will probably be up and running ready for the 2016. Borrowing a leaf from Windlight Magazine’s book, the new Holly Kai Art Garden will be available free of charge for periods of 25 days to any artist who wishes to use it, with both indoor and outdoor display spaces. In addition, those apply to use it will also be able to book either the Pavilion or the Piano Bar for any associated opening / closing events they might wish to hold.

To help manage everything, there will be a new website launching at the time of the first exhibition in the park, and this will include application forms for those wishing to join in the group exhibitions in the park, or who wish to apply to use the new Art Garden.

I’ll have a further update as the work progresses through the rest of November!

SLurl Details

• Holly Kai Park (Rated: Moderate)