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Sep 15, 2020
Welcome! We're excited for you to experience a new free, flexible, mixed-use space we are piloting this fall that will include a microcinema, a community resource lounge, and a place for convening. Free Space emerged as an effort to respond to the extraordinary conditions of 2020 and manifold of needs expressed by community members in Columbus and at Ohio State. The initiative endeavors to provide support, resources, and simply space for conversation and connection. This experimental locale will occupy the Wex’s first gallery September 17 through December 27 (just look for the hand-painted "Free Space" sign by Columbus artist Lisa McLymont).
In addition to daily film screenings and programs organized by Wex staff and community partners, Free Space may be reserved for class discussions and other small gatherings. (We hope to extend the invitation to book the space to student and community organizations if the university’s current policy on gatherings is lifted, so please check back for updates!) To find out if a day and time is available, and to reserve the space for your group, please contact education@wexarts.org at least one week in advance. This is also the contact email for general questions and feedback.
More information on Free Space can be found below. Feel free to share! And at the bottom of this post, you'll find info on how to submit your own visual art or video to be included of the project.
Free Space is a cross-departmental collaboration generated by the Wex’s Film/Video and Learning and Public Practice Departments and created in dialogue with local artists and educators. It is organized by Dionne Custer Edwards, Dave Filipi, Jennifer Lange, Layla Muchnik-Benali, Jean Pitman, Alana Ryder, Jo Snyder, Chris Stults, and Lucy Zimmerman along with contributions by guest curators NO EVIL EYE (Rooney Elmi and Ingrid Raphael) and Cameron Granger and advising by Learning and Public Practice’s Community Artist Group: Tala Kanani, Bobby T. Luck, Claudia Owusu, and Jonna Twigg.
Hours
Free Space is open Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday through Sunday from 11 AM to 4 PM, as well as Thursdays from 11 AM until 7 PM. It is available for reservation by appointment only on Mondays, but the other galleries are closed Mondays.
Film programs
Tech and other gear for public use
Resources and art supplies
We look forward to seeing you!
The wall that will be home to Residue; Photo: Lucy Zimmerman
Free Space: Community Reel
How do you feel about the world? What’s on your mind? What feels important to you right now? We want to see things from your perspective! Youth and young adults (ages 25 and under) are invited to submit short videos in response to current events as part of Community Reel, an ongoing collection of short videos that will be presented online and in Free Space from September 17 to December 27. What Free Space and the Community Reel will become depends on you!
Questions to help get you started
Submission Guidelines
Please submit work appropriate for all ages to view. We intend to show all videos submitted but will not show work that promotes or includes racist, sexist, homophobic or other discriminatory or explicit views, images, or language. Selected videos will be screened on our website and in the galleries at the Wex on a rolling basis through December 15. Participants do not need to have previous filmmaking experience to submit an entry. Films made with smartphones are not only acceptable, but encouraged. Group or class entries are permitted.
How to submit
Free Space: Residue
Free Space’s Residue wall is a surprising, living, changing community paper wall of images and text, vision and words. Anyone is invited to share their perspective with an image, which we thoughtfully cut/collage/layer together with other submissions in Free Space, resulting in an ephemeral, organic, ever-changing collective work by members of our communities both near and far. Wex Community Artist Group members Tala Kanani, Bobby Luck, Claudia Owusu, and Jonna Twigg, along with our Learning and Public Practice staff Jean Pitman and others, will add new entries at least once every two weeks.
Submission info
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