ARt at Grand Park

Project Description

Problem

Grand Park, downtown LA’s metropolitan public park space regularly hosts activations designed to promote public interest in the arts and promote visitorship. Costs, however, both for artists to present their work, and for Grand Park are incredibly high, and prohibitive, and slow. Furthermore, there are no calls-to-action for visitors to share digital stories on normal park days, when no special art exhibit/activation is present. Art installation is expensive, slow, complex, requires after-installation protection, security, and maintenance, and remains relatively static and unchanging during its stay. On top of all of this 33% of CA artists make less than 15k a year, and many don’t even recoup their costs.

Insights

Displaying Art, even at temporary galleries, can cost upwards of $3000+ for artists, but multiple local artists would be willing to contribute art to public space pro-bono. Apps exist that allow orgs to easily create AR environments using uploaded images, and Art Gallery visitors come to support the artists they have a personal connection to. Finally, material and maintenance costs for art installations can easily get out of hand.

Solutions

Our final prototype uses AR galleries to share and tell Artists' stories. Additionally, it helps visitors connect with local artists in a way that engages and encourages sharing of both GP and artists' work through social media. It simply requires visitors to use their phone camera to scan a QR code, download an AR app called Hoverlay, and open a location-based AR space which the team and I had setup earlier using public domain images as a proof of concept.The app's functionality allows for text placement and link redirects, which enables the park to increase conversion of Social Media followers and Survey-takers.