Pockets Of Light
CONCLUDED (though web pages are still live)
This free, interactive public art experience along the Delaware River Waterfront Trail was a collaboration with mixed media textile artist Julie “Juicebox” Woodard. On four public piers, Julie installed hand- and machine-stitched artworks that were made from post-consumer materials. Each one depicted a native flowering plant found along the Delaware River and was accompanied by site-specific activities created by me that invited you to forge a deeper connection with your surroundings. Visitors could discover the waterfront, learn about plants and plastic pollution, and win prizes by participating!
Thank you to Delaware River Waterfront Corporation for sponsoring this project!
Read WHYY’s article about this project, or listen to their radio piece about it.
Read Green Philly’s article about this project.
Read City Cast Philly’s interview with us about this project.
Where:
Along the Delaware River Waterfront Trail, various site-specific puzzles and activities could be accessed by QR code at four public piers where Julie “Juicebox” Woodard installed native plant artworks: Race Street Pier, Cherry Street Pier, Washington Avenue Pier, and Pier 68. Additional “wayfinding waterscapes” served as a bonus scavenger hunt along the trail, with each one guiding you to nearby plant installations by providing a link to the map of the project.
When:
This activation was available from July 21st, 2023 through approximately the end of October. Different pieces were de-installed at different times due to degradation.
Time to complete:
You could visit as many installations as you liked, and complete as many puzzles and activities as you liked, so the time commitment was up to you. If you were on foot, visiting all four piers (without accounting for time spent on the puzzles and activities) took about 1.5 hours; on a bike, it was more like 20 minutes. For the completionists out there, doing every puzzle, every bonus puzzle, and every activity would probably have generated about two and a half hours of entertainment in addition to the travel times above.
Difficulty:
◉◉◎◎◎
Price:
Free!
How to participate:
The activity pages that were associated with the artworks are still available here: Race Street, Cherry Street, Washington Avenue, Pier 68. The window for winning prizes has passed, however. The installation inside Cherry Street Pier will remain indefinitely, so you can still go see it in person and complete the puzzles there!
Prizes:
If you posted a photo of your visit to the Waterfront on Instagram, you could win a ticket to an exclusive art and ecology tour that Julie and I gave.
Each installation included a puzzle and a bonus puzzle, and each bonus puzzle you solved entered you into a prize drawing for one free ticket to my signature event series, Philly Street Art Hunt ($45 value).
