Five Blocks Square – Andres Duany, architect, and proponent of livable cities, says that the average person won’t walk more than five blocks before getting in their car to go shopping, drop by a café for coffee, or go to the grocery store. Writer Rebecca Solnit, author of San Francisco, Infinite City, has shown that even small five blocks can hold tremendous allure – history, culture, botanical delights, art, food, comedy, tragedy, even murder. She’s invited other cities to chart their imagination and create maps of their own communities. We picked up the challenge.
Four artists will chart not just space, but place, people and time in four imaginative maps of their neighborhood, just five blocks square. The individual maps, photographs, and stories by collaborating writers, will be on display at ArtFox Gallery in midtown. An ArtTalk by the artists and their collaborators will be held at the California Stage.
Eventually, the maps will be recreated as a floor installation at a local coffee house. Anyone coming in for coffee or tea can walk on it, talk about it and pick up supplies to create their own 5 Block Square map of their neighborhood. We hope to eventually map the entire city and create a 5 Block2 guide to Sacramento.
This is just a teaser -- we've been working on a lot of new living history programs in partnership with the California Stage, the Sacramento County Historical Society and local libraries and will update you soon.
For more information: matrixarts@me.com
