Coming from a performing arts background, I’m always especially fascinated to read about cool stuff going on in the visual arts. Recently I’ve seen a couple of posts about “pop-ups.” Letitia Fernandez Ivins, a civic art project manager with the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, describes these as “artwork that ‘pops–up’ in unexpected places” in her ARTSblog post Emerging Ideas: Pop-Ups for the Populi. As I understand it, these are intentionally ephemeral visual art “happenings.” Short-term visual arts experiences, they often intentionally address an issue of importance in the communities where the “pop-up” takes place. Ms. Ivins had recently been to Art Basel Miami Beach and described “Transformer: Display of Community Information And Activation led by LA-based artists Olga Kouramoros and Andrea Bowers. . . . Invited by Christine Kim, curator of Art Basel’s Art Public, Koumoundouros and Bowers engaged three local social justice nonprofit organizations in dialogue with the Art Basel fair-goers and led political t-shirt printing and sales. . . . [T]his living artwork was aesthetic, civically minded, functional, and shielded from commoditization . . . .” She sees the phenomenon of pop-ups as being, at least in part, a pragmatic response to economic conditions:
During these lean art market times, I’ve observed many artists direct their creative prowess toward the democratization of art. Many work in the realm of social practice, play the role of community catalyst and in doing so, “set up shop” and spend time in dialogue with a community so that they might create a work that responds to a need or simply speaks directly to the community’s beat.
Connecting with the community is then attractive to these artists for practical reasons. She cites a Los Angeles-based artist collective, Fallen Fruit, that organizes “nocturnal forages in which participants pluck and share public fruit” often culminating “in a ‘jamming session’ in which the fruit is converted to jam and given for free to participants. . . . The artwork flourishes as it is passed along and consumed.” Ms. Ivins concludes with three observations about these phenomena: they emphasize accessibility, they are temporary and mobile, and this is how many artists are working today.
One of my favorite sources for information on engagement and the visual arts world, Nina Simon, has written about pop-up museums (A Radical, Simple Formula for Pop-Up Museums). She defines these as either (or both) 1) a short-term institution existing in a temporary space; or 2) a way to catalyze conversations among diverse people, mediated by their objects. Here are her illustrations to explain the concept:
There was Jaime Kopke’s Denver Community Museum, which existed for nine months in a Denver storefront in 2008-9 to celebrate visitors’ creations. Maria Mortati runs the wonderful SF Mobile Museum, which roams the Bay Area showing mini-exhibits on evocative themes. The never-quite-opened National History Museum of the Netherlands created an innovative vending machine for historic objects, which traveled to festivals and urban centers for people to add their memories.
Of particular interest is Ms. Simon’s mention of Michelle DelCarlo, whose work is in designing participant-centered history pop-ups. In her Fool-Proof Guide to the Pop-Up Museum, she presents basic principles:
1) Choose a theme
2) Invite people to bring an object that is meaningful to them, based on the theme
3) Invite them to write a label describing why their object is meaningful, or a story they want to tell about their object
4) At the pop-up, people mingle with others, view objects, have conversations
The pop-up is a vehicle for encouraging interaction among attendees based on things (museum-speak would be, I guess, artifacts) of importance to them. Ms. DelCarlo described her second pop-up on “the theme of ‘Favorites.’ People could bring anything they considered their ‘favorite.’ One man brought his skateboard, as it was a favorite gift from his French friends. A young child brought in two drawings of his favorite dog, Leory.” The event was then the conversations and relationships that developed as a result of this framework.
These ideas flow from an understanding that not only are the visual arts (and with Ms. DelCarlo’s examples, museums) entities with important content, they can also be vehicles through which things, in this case relationship-forming/building, can be accomplished. Push-back to these concepts is going to be based on the question of “What good is that?” If the art or the object is more important than the audience or participant, then the answer would probably be “None.” If people are more important, then the answer is “Vitally important.” And, if is likely the case, the answer lies somewhere between–that both art/historical object and the viewer/participant/perceiver are important–then the pop-up is an interesting tool for expanding the art/museum world connection with the community.
What might this look like in the performing arts? I think the flash mob arts experiences I’ve discussed earlier are in the ballpark. I also think that participatory practices (e.g., community choirs and programs like the Baltimore Symphony’s Rusty Musicians at the Meyerhoff) are of like intent and, perhaps, result.
The point is, ultimately, to be seen as vital to the community. To that end,
Engage!
Doug
Jack in the Box: 
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Hmm, Doug in my experience ‘pop up’ is a term used by garage bands, curators, art galleries and food trucks to suggest a temporary site for a cultural experience. Many artists working in public do not ‘pop up’ overnight but are deeply considered responses to civic and commercial spaces. Artists often work outside the studio and commercial gallery and collection context. That’s what separates the Lab from the Market.
I agree that “pop-up” may not be the best description for the sort of work many artists working in the realm of social practice. These artists look to embedd themselves in the community, or at least spend substantial time at a given community to build the trust, attract interest, and ultimately affect change. In an age of growing isolation, social capital has growing importance to our communities’ health. Artists are great catalysts for this work! Thank you for your post Doug! Always learning from the exchange.