ARTx: Art + Ideas Experience Arizona invites the creative contributions of artists, thinkers, and organizations to create a current, experiential, and interactive festival each May in Flagstaff, AZ. The 2023 pilot event launched with three days and 20+ demonstration events, presentations, and art-centered experiences. ARTx grant-awarded projects are always free and open to the public. $40,000 of grant funding by the City’s Beautification and Public Art Commission supported participant projects. Bryan David Griffith’s visual art installation “Envision” was one such grantee.
Envision was featured at the pop-up Nackard Gallery. The temporary gallery space is a historic warehouse located off South San Francisco Ave in downtown Flagstaff, owned for generations by the Nackard family, the local Pepsi distributor. In Envision, Griffith invited community members to materially contribute their dreams and concerns for Flagstaff’s future. In the center of the warehouse turned gallery, a cloud of thousands of aspen leaves rose from a shadow of charcoal and stone gathered from recent fire and flood sites. Envision was a stunning display which asked – will our community transcend these threats, adapt, and form new connections, just as aspens spring new shoots from their roots when a tree dies in a fire?
“Aspens have underground root stems, so they regenerate immediately after a fire,” Griffith said. “That’s a metaphor for our community. We generate, rise and adapt from these environmental and social challenges that our community is facing. This [aspen] cloud is all of the people and ideas that we have–can we forge new connections and relationships within that? This matrix of leaves is exploding outward, as you move around it, you’ll see different groupings of leaves. Those are the possibilities within our community if we can see those through and work together in new ways.” – Bryan David Griffith on his installation and how it tells the story of Flagstaff’s past, present and future.
Nackard Pepsi’s warehouse transformation demonstrates the vision of ARTx – to collaborate across the community, activating underutilized spaces and creating accessible art experiences for Flagstaff residents and visitors. Festival organizers are looking forward to 2024, continuing the partnership with Nackard Pepsi, and connecting more businesses, neighborhoods, and organizational partners to transform spaces across the city.
