Art in the neighborhood

So this place is in a neighborhood we can afford–an eclectic sort of place. And there is a middle school right across the street. There has been tagging, but not recently. We want to promote art and give back to the community. So… we work with the school to get them to paint a teacher-approved design on our 8 foot high back fence. We host a pizza and paint Saturday and provide the materials to paint with and the pizza and pop. This way, kids can see a pretty art piece in the alley and can take pride in their neighborhood.

We then figure out zoning and building and permits to see what we can do in the front yard. IF we can do it, then we get the school/boys and girls club to do a mural for the front, which overlooks the school. Kids could then point to it and say “we did that.”

We would ask the school and the local boys and girls club to host an art mural contest and the winning design gets put on that front fence. We ask someone at the Denver Art Museum, someone in the local arts culture, and teachers at the school and the boys and girls club to judge the art contest. We put all entries into a really nice book or a gallery in a local art gallery or… so that all the kids who participate can see their artwork shown somewhere.

We can have 3 sections–one for each grade of the school, and do this on a regular basis–every year, every 3 years…

This would help get the kids interested in art, give them self-esteem, and promote pride in the neighborhood.

Remember the bit about art?

Well, we really do want an “art” house– or more something with visual interest that we could both live with and be happy. We could walk up to the front of our tiny hut and smile.

Dragons are important to both of us in deeply personal ways. And we love the idea of stained glass and love the gutter gardens. And of course, we are both into multi media. So what if we had a dragon literally growing and glowing from our house?

It is a rough photoshopped sketch, but enough to get the idea…

This would be the north side of the house (the one with the high windows) and a stained glass window to let in north light but that can also be shaded.

Pricing seems to be: Multiply the width and the height in inches and then divide by 144 for square footage, then $70 – $100 per sf. And $150 for design (so a 3′ by 4′ window would be $1400 or so…

Visions stained glass is incredible.