Phillip Espinoza Day

MID-CAREER PROJECT GRANT | $50,000

The Lowrider Garage Project

Phillip Espinoza Day was awarded Forecast’s seventh annual Mid-Career Project Grant. Previous grant awardees include Sam Gould, Marcus Young, Seitu Jones, Mankwe Ndosi, Melisande Charles, and Randy Walker. “Mid-career” artists are defined as being recognized by their peers and arts professionals, having produced an independent body of work, and having a record of commissions, projects, or exhibitions.

For his Mid-Career Project, Phillip Espinoza Day will undertake “The Lowrider Garage Project” (TLGP). TLGP will teach 10- 15 Twin Cities youth the discipline of the Chican@/Latinx art car form known as the Lowrider! TLGP will take place in community-shared garage spaces in St. Paul and Minneapolis over three different 16-week sessions starting in January 2018. Day will work with youth ages 15-19 to build a lowrider car/truck, and youth ages 8-14 to build lowrider bicycles. TLGP is partnering with Cycles for Change, a non-profit bike shop, which will serve as the site for the lowrider bicycle shop; and Soundset, a Minnesota music festival where the art car and bicycles will be unveiled to an audience of over 30,000 attendees in 2019. Beyond youth being engaged in helping to preserve this struggling cultural art form, they will also be exposed to trades in custom auto body, mechanics trades, and entrepreneurship through art.

 

The McKnight Foundation generously enables Forecast to provide Professional Development Grants for mid-career artists seeking to expand their work in the field of public art. Forecast mid- and early-career grants are designed to support independent projects, leadership development, professional development, risk-taking, multidisciplinary approaches, and collaborative problem-solving in the field of public art.