This Friday, May 11, 2018, 5 p.m. – 7:30 p.m., at Redwood Street Bridge, is the Launch Party of Art Float – Riverside!
Come for the 5:30 p.m. “ribbon-cutting” with Mayor Bailey and other dignitaries, and then take your complimentary wine glass on a wine-tasting, food-nibbling, music-filled walk while the sun sets on the Art Float spheres and creates a magical display.
$25/person (Sponsors of $1000 or greater to receive complimentary tickets.) Casual attire. Outside, in the evening, so please dress accordingly.
The Riverside Art Museum (RAM), in collaboration with the City of Riverside’s Parks, Recreation, and Community Services Department and the Riverside Unified School District (RUSD), will host a signature community art event that will involve hundreds of huge, floating, hand-painted spheres in Lake Evans at Fairmount Park. Called Art Float – Riverside, the project is patterned after one staged a few years ago by Portraits of Hope in Los Angeles. The Art Alliance of the Riverside Art Museum, the volunteer fundraising group of RAM, is spearheading the event that will take place May 11 – June 1, 2018. When complete, the floating artwork will feature over 350 hand-painted spheres that will float in Lake Evans for a three-week festival.
Each plastic sphere is six feet in diameter and will be brightly painted by schoolchildren at 48 RUSD schools. After being painted, the spheres will be launched in Lake Evans at Fairmount Park and will float as a huge piece of community art. During the time the spheres will be in the lake, there will be multiple events for the public to enjoy.
“This will be a signature event in Riverside,” says Lucile Arntzen, incoming RAM Board President. “It will allow everyone free access to a unique kind of community art.”
Art Float – Riverside chairwoman, Kathy Allavie, says that one of the unique aspects of the project is the involvement of thousands of schoolchildren throughout the city. Allavie, who also sits on the RUSD Board of Trustees, is excited to bring the art experience into the schools. “Our painting teams will be visiting each school and letting the children participate in the process,” says Allavie. “I know that when they see the spheres floating colorfully in the lake they will be thrilled to have had a hand in its creation.”
Art Float – Riverside is also a fundraiser for the museum. Allavie is hoping to have 350 spheres sponsored by community members for $350 each. After the event, the sponsors can keep the painted spheres or have them donated to a school, library, or community center. The money raised by the project will return to RAM’s mission-driven programs, including their award-winning art education program called Art-to-Go. Art-to-Go delivers art education directly to each classroom with age-appropriate projects and lessons given by qualified art instructors. RUSD has engaged the museum to deliver around 3,700 art classes in all their elementary schools, K-6th, this coming year.
