This sweet installation, Sugar Metropolis, is a traveling project developed by professional sculptors Brendan Jamison and Mark Revels that promotes community collaboration through sugar cube constructions. Within designated space, the artists set up mountains of sugar cubes and invite visitors to collectively create fictional cities from the piles. People can create their own designs or build upon each other’s ideas using more than 500,000 pieces. The results are unique visions that come together in a fun display of collaborative art.
The purpose of the ongoing series is to “engage local communities to embrace the power of creativity to improve their physical surroundings and enhance social interaction.” The first successful city was constructed in Northern Ireland last fall and Jamison and Revels have recently announced plans for a New York Sugar Metropolis which will take place in the (appropriately named) Sugar Hill district of Harlem.
The artists are currently raising money through a Kickstarter campaign to help make this continuing project a reality. The plan is to create the exhibit on the ground floor of a new Broadway Housing development which includes a children’s museum, a childcare center, a roof-top garden, and new affordable apartments (targeting low-income or special-needs residents). Across four weeks, anyone in the community will be welcomed in to share in the imaginative process and symbolically build upon a positive future within the community.
Brendan Jamison’s website
Mark Revels’ website
via [Skumar’s]