OZ ARTS NASHVILLE AND TONY YOUNGBLOOD ANNOUNCE ARTISTS SELECTED FOR MODULAR ART PODS INSTALLATION IN JUNE 2016 - OZ Arts Nashville

December 10, 2015

As Part of Its TNT Local Spotlight Series, OZ Arts Will Present Second Edition of the Acclaimed Project, This Time Featuring 50+ Pods Curated by Youngblood, June 21-25, 2016

Pod Sponsorship Program Provides Unique Opportunities to Support Local Artists

NASHVILLE, TENN. – Dec. 14, 2015 – June 21-25, 2016, as part of its TNT local spotlight series, OZ Arts Nashville will present the second edition of the sprawling Modular Art Pods (MAPs) installation, which will fill the contemporary arts center’s 10,000-square-foot warehouse venue with a tunnel comprising more than 50 cubed gallery spaces, each created by a different artist or group. Today OZ Arts and Tony Youngblood, who conceived the project, announced the artists Youngblood has selected to participate.

Each artist or group will design and construct a pod from cardboard, foamboard, canvas, conduit, PVC pipe, lattice or anything else they dream up. They will include Ashley Adkins and Leah Sawyer; Mika Agari, Alexine Rioux and Kayla Saito; Art & Soul Studio; Matthew Batty; Tyler Blankenship and Sarah McDonald; Chip Boles; Amanda Joy Brown and Kyle Jones; Jason Brown and the Postal Provocateurs; Paul Cain; Carla Ciuffo; Ben Clark and Matt Fox; Alexis Colbert; Sarah Cozort; Jenn Deafenbaugh and Monica Bolles; Jim DeVault; Zach Duensing; Patricia Earnhardt and Elizabeth Sanford; Dylan Ethier and Molly Lahym; The Full Scale Millennium Falcon Project; Osvaldo Gonzalez; Trey Gossett; Phillip Granke; Ben Green and Rebecca Steinberg; Brandon Greer; Zack Hall; Briena Harmening and Jaime Raybin; Emily Holt; Robbie Lynn Hunsinger; Beth Inglish; Isle of Printing; Travis Janssen and Alex Lopez; Megan Kelley and Stephen Zerne; Jennifer Knowles (Brown Dog Bindery); Mia Krout, Emily Sue Laird; Clayton Landiss; Ariel Lavery and Christopher Lavery; Sara Lederach; Jovanni Luna;

Ben Marcantel; Becky Fox Matthews and Dave Matthews; Middle Tennessee Robotic Arts Society; George Miller and Vivian Saxon; Mary Mooney; Joe Nolan and Antonia Oakes; Ryan Norris and Christine Rogers, Luke Rainey; Beth Reitmeyer and ELEL; Kit Reuther; Gordon Roqué; Liz Clayton Scofield; Abbey Skojec; Brian Somerville and Will Somerville; and Lain York.

The tunnel will be split into levels composed of four to eight pods measuring 8’x8’ each—twice the size they were in the inaugural edition. Audiences of all ages will be able to “choose their own adventure” in navigating a journey through and around the pods. Between every level will be open space, so attendees can enter and exit freely and choose a nonlinear path if they wish.

Live performances will take place over the course of the engagement, by artists including Rebekah Alexander; Andri Alexandrou; Big Guise; chatterbird; Aubrey Derryberry; Dig Deep Light Show; droneroom; Marlos E’van; Lindsay Goranson; Dustin Hedrick and Bethany Langford; Madeleine Hicks and Paul Kintzing; Ashley Lawless; MKAC (Mike Kluge Audio Visual); Ben Marcantel and Ryan Norris; Colleen Phelps; Sideshow @ Actors Bridge; and Brian Siskind.

OZ Arts is giving individuals, organizations and businesses the opportunity to support the Modular Art Pods installation and help participating local artists purchase the materials they will need. A 4’x4’ pod can be sponsored for $100, and an 8’x8’ pod can be sponsored for $200. The sponsor’s name will be printed on the outside of the pod they helped make possible.

Modular Art Pods made its wildly successful, one-night debut at Abrasive Media in February 2015. Thirty MAPs captured imaginations as each attendee crawled from one 4’x4’ cube to another, the interiors of which represented an immersive view into an artist’s mind. Reviewing the inaugural edition, Nashville Scene wrote, “When everybody’s talking about the crawl at the drinking fountain on Monday morning, they’ll undoubtedly be talking about the Modular Art Pods installation.”

About OZ Arts Nashville

As the newest 501(c)3 contemporary arts institution in the Midsouth Region, OZ Arts’ particular style of programming has begun to transform the cultural landscape of Nashville. Utilizing the venue’s flexibility, OZ Arts presents the work of leading artists from around the world, offering an intimate context for performing and visual art programs that challenge and inspire a diverse range of curious audiences.

OZ Arts also serves as a catalyst for local creativity through a program called TNT (Thursday Night Things). TNT is a quarterly series of unexpected collaborations with Nashville-based artists from varying creative disciplines. OZ Arts’ “blank slate” provides a platform onto which these artists can create, develop and present a one-time-only event that would traditionally not be seen in a visual art gallery or theatre.

OZ Arts is located in the former C.A.O. cigar warehouse owned by Nashville’s Ozgener family. Their generosity provided the seed money that breathed new life into the column-free, 10,000 square-foot space nestled amidst artfully landscaped grounds.

Since it opened in February 2014, OZ Arts Nashville “has fundamentally changed the creative landscape of Music City” (ArtsNash). Under the artistic leadership of Lauren Snelling, its first two-seasons have brought to the city luminaries such as Philip Glass and Tim Fain, Tim Robbins’ The Actors’ Gang, Peter Brook’s Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, the Trisha Brown Dance Company, Vijay Iyer, Laurie Anderson, Wayne McGregor’s company Random Dance, ETHEL, BANDALOOP, Kyle Abraham/Abraham.In.Motion, SITI Company and Bang on a Can. These programs have consistently played to sold-out audiences and local and national acclaim.

http://www.ozartsnashville.org/