YWCA St. Paul will display an interactive art piece celebrating the City of St. Paul’s People’s Prosperity Pilot, a guaranteed income pilot initiated in 2020. Titled Altitude, “this joyful art piece represents the idea of lifting each other up while reducing economic hardship for families in our city,” said Mayor Carter.
As part of the People’s Prosperity Pilot, the City of St. Paul Office of Financial Empowerment partnered with Springboard for the Arts for Artists Respond: People, Place, and Prosperity, a cohort of five St. Paul artists creating work around the impact of guaranteed income. The selected artists include Dr. Nicole Mary Milligan and The Milligan Studio, with artists Alan Milligan and Mohamad Mohamad, whose work Altitude is a joyous celebration in glass, metal, and sound, consisting of kiln-formed glass panels inspired by the dreams of laughing children and a tight-rope walker’s parasol.
The artwork will be on display at YWCA St. Paul throughout 2022 in the window on the second floor, allowing people to view the sculpture as they walk through the neighborhood. The Milligan Studios, which creates Public Art for communities worldwide, commissioned Ireland’s Danny Diamond, formerly of Slow Moving Clouds, to compose and play an original work for the installation. The soundscape will be available through a QR code that invites viewers to listen to the piece, based on the laughter of children whose families took part in the People’s Prosperity Pilot.
“When considering the People’s Prosperity Pilot,” Dr. Milligan said of the Studio’s process, “We asked ourselves—what would society look like if we had a basic income that provided Altitude for all—what if we were all each other’s safety nets? Like tightrope walkers, would our children dream the impossible and make it happen? We hope so. And so Altitude celebrates the dreams, and laughter, of children.”
YWCA St. Paul looks forward to unveiling Altitude December 7 at 11:30 a.m. in the parking lot at YWCA St. Paul, 375 Selby Ave.
Artists Respond: People, Place, and Prosperity is a project of the City of Saint Paul and Springboard for the Arts, supported by Mayors for a Guaranteed Income, Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation and The Kresge Foundation. See more: https://springboardforthearts.org/artists-respond-people-place-and-prosperity/
Dr. Nicole Mary Milligan (www.themilliganstudio.com) is a fiscal year 2021 recipient of a Creative Support for Individuals grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature; and by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.