About the Box: Philip's Room

Curator's Note: As part of extending the "Looking for Loci" exhibit, I'm gathering additional stories from the participants, and putting them online. Philip made a dynamic box for the exhibit, and was one of our youngest participants.
This is Philip's box, he is 5.

His Genius Loci is his room, and here he is at the Opening with his piece. He worked on it with his mom, shown below with a picture of Philip and a friend:

Philip states that he chose this as his Loci because:

" You can find all this great toys in my room to build something with."

About the box: Alan Disparte's Crows

Curator's Note: As part of extending the "Looking for Loci" exhibit, I'm gathering additional stories from the participants, and putting them online.

Alan Disparte is a professional artist who participated in Looking for Loci. A potent influence in his work is his childhood home from Southern California. It’s been represented in his paintings (see below) and was the inspiration for his Looking for Loci piece.

Looking for Loci, By Alan Disparte

I was surprised at how easy and fun it was to recall the areas or energies that embody my personal “Genius Loci” two primary triggers are Orange Blossoms and Crows, these sounds and fragrances transport me back to my childhood citrus farm in Southern California. These memories for me are special in that Disparte Ranch is still standing and my 86 yr. old mom still tends to her chickens, goats, geese, and garden:

Unfortunately the groves that surrounded our home have been torn out and replaced with tract homes, strip malls and parking lots. My childhood home is now a living 3 acre island in a sea of urban / suburban development:

Surprisingly the crows still hang out there and although their favorite 100 year old Deodar Cedar trees have been recently removed to widen our street and accommodate the busy traffic which now runs along the once dirt road in front of our house, the crows still find refuge in the trees that surround my mothers home. Through out the years the crows have demonstrated tremendous resiliency and like my mother who has fought very hard to keep her ranch they have truly made the best of what could have been a devastating situation.

The other great thing about the Looking for Loci project was having the opportunity of showing in the same venue as my niece Marielle Butters (my niece lives in Colorado) and since the first part of this project began in Denver and because Marielle is a great artist I had a feeling that she would make an excellent participant. The other interesting thing is that both our Loci pieces used birds as the central character and symbolic icon.

Detail from Marielle's box:

I’m glad we were able to participate, it was great fun. - Alan Disparte

DCM Founder & Looking for Loci Co-Curator Reflects

By Jaime Kopke - Curator, Denver Community Museum

The best part about the Denver Community Museum had always been making connections; with each other, memories, imaginations, our community. Meeting Maria Mortati was one of those random occurrences that happened almost everyday at the DCM. She wrote a post for Museums Now, I read it and we started emailing. Soon she visited. Then over the next several months we kept in touch, she saw several more DCM exhibits in action and we brainstormed.

Meeting neighbors, creating participants

I met Doug Robinson (a frequent DCM participant and Looking for Loci maker) because he often rode his bike by the museum windows. One day I waved and he came in. Two little boys ended up taking a liking to my 800 sq. ft. space and would stop by almost every weekend with their dad just to hang out. Many of the participants were visitors first, intrigued by the objects and inspired to create their own.

You too can be an artist

One of the things I almost always heard while Looking for Loci traveled around Denver was, “I want to do one.” I would tell people there were still ways they could participate - take one of Becky’s cards and go to the library, call in to hear Nina’s treehouse tour...and in SF you can add your own Loci.

Hopefully this won’t be the last installment and the connections keep growing... Denver, SF - where should we go next? The museum is mobile now!

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PS: you can keep up with Jaime via her blog: Design Klub
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Above image: Looking for Loci exhibiting at CTA Architecture offices during a Denver First Friday Artwalk.