Open to the Elements - The Headlands Center for the Arts

In the Spring of 2010, I was invited to spend a week at the Headlands Center for the Arts in Marin, California as an artist-in-residence for the Open-to-the-Elements Intensive Residency Program. Led by Observatories, a Rotterdam-based artist collective, Open-to-the-Elements was a multidisciplinary colloquium comprised of selected artists, architects, landscape architects, ecologists, and philosophers. We engaged in the collaborative process of discussion, creative exercises, design mock-ups, and presentations for the purpose of imagining new possibilities of rehabilitation and repurposing for one of the Headlands' historic buildings: an early twentieth century army gymnasium. 

“Open-to-the-Elements explores innovative approaches for historic preservation, sustainable rehabilitation, and multi-use repurposing of space, using Headlands’ historic gymnasium as the case study. This former military gymnasium has long served as a venue for both artists studios and public events, but has the potential to be so much more. This workshop will re-imagine the existing building, bringing to light its potential uses for artists, visitors, and the Park Service, taking into consideration the surrounding wildlife, watersheds, and plant species.”