Brookside Wanderlust | A SEEK Raleigh Project

The Brookside Wanderlust Neighborhood Artwalk is an initiative by artist Athena Wollin to bring passive exploration right-of-way spaces, helping residents learn about Raleigh's backyard stormwater creek ecosystems. Sidewalk murals of local flora and fauna guide the curious along Brookside Drive, with a feature installation by artists Annie Blazejack and Geddes Levenson alongside the Oakwood Cemetery.

About the Artwork

Welcome to Brookside!

Join the wanderlust to celebrate our neighborhood stormwater creek, Cemetery Branch, and the diverse wildlife habitat and robust ecosystem it quietly nourishes within Raleigh's urban bustle. The Brookside Wanderlust Neighborhood Artwalk brings passive exploration from public right-of-way spaces, offering everyday ways for residents to reconnect with our backyard wildlife habitats and to educate about stormwater creeks as flourishing ecosystems, essential utility systems, and precious keepers of neighborhood environmental resiliency.

By weaving together observations of our natural world with meandering sidewalk art, we create a perpetual invitation for the curious wanderer, inviting folks to discover or rediscover small, everyday joys by stepping outside.

More info:

Visit the Artwork

The Brookside Wanderlust project begins at the intersection of Brookside Dr and Watauga St. Starting in March with the first of three installations, stormwater creek ecosystem-themed artwork will begin dappling the sidewalk along Brookside from Watauga down towards Holden (final destination being Vale Street). This segment will highlight where Cemetery Branch first crosses under the pavement with a feature installation by Annie Blazejack & Geddes Levenson.

Brookside Wanderlust artwork will be implemented in phases and naturally fade at varying rates to echo the ephemerality of seasons and time. Embracing impermanence while introducing a litany of ways to seize moments with nature throughout the year, we learn to identify how our backyard stormwater creek habitats can provide joy, calm, and inspiration that resonate with our evolving lives. Throughout the artwalk's duration, Brookside will have an assortment of community events to help emphasize the seasonal highlights/changes of flora and fauna along the corridor, including hosting an iNaturalist area-specific bioblitz to summon upon citizen scientists for data gathering goodness.

Athena Wollin

Growing up in the high desert of Central Oregon, Athena Wollin instantly became enchanted by the lush biodiversity that Raleigh readily bestowed with unique seasonal fluctuations that quietly mark the passage of time. With a background in traditional hand-drawn animation, Athena finds fascination in analyzing life’s movements with two-dimensional lines and conveying a story through illustration. Athena believes life is what happens between the keyframes. The in-between frames are steps that carry us from one clear, defined place, through the muck and the mess, into another clear, defined place. She also believes small observations often resonate the most.

Website https://www.athenawollin.com/

Annie Blazejack + Geddes Levenson

For the past ten years, artists Geddes Levenson and Annie Blazejack have been collaborating. Together they experiment with painting as a way to conjure up impossible places. The world of paint is infinitely malleable, and they set loose a series of industrious explorers to manipulate their painted environment, opening portals, eating brush strokes, and merging with cosmic landscapes.

The partially obscured or dissolving figures in their paintings are almost always women, and generally engaged in some kind of mysterious work. Perhaps only a foot or hand is in view, or perhaps the figure is camouflaged with her background, but she is still an agent of action, a portal through which the viewer can enter the painted plane.

The environments of the paintings are often fractured or distorted, developing a tension between recognition and confusion. Their fragmented nature raises questions of scale and solidity. Blazejack and Levenson’s vivid color pallet and confident brushstrokes lure viewers into the unfamiliar; a painted space with it’s own system of rules and physics.

Website https://annieandgeddes.com/

SEEK Raleigh

SEEK Raleigh is an experimental public art program by Raleigh Arts that engages the community through public art in City of Raleigh Parks, greenways, and/or community spaces. The program provides an opportunity for artists to introduce the public to new, unusual, and thought-provoking experiences through temporary public art.

Learn more and apply to the SEEK Raleigh artist call

About Raleigh Arts

Raleigh Arts, a part of the City of Raleigh’s Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Resources Department, fosters and promotes the arts in Raleigh by administering the programs of the Raleigh Arts Commission and the Public Art and Design Board and supporting the Pullen and Sertoma Arts Centers.

About Raleigh Stormwater

Raleigh Stormwater implements programs, projects, and services to maintain stormwater infrastructure, protect water resources and aquatic life, prevent streambank erosion, mitigate development impacts, and manage flooding. We collaborate with internal and external stakeholders to identify, communicate, design, and construct stormwater projects, programs, and policies to serve the Raleigh community.

SEEK Raleigh Projects

SEEK Raleigh Artist Call

Contact

Jenn Hales
Public Art Project Manager
Jenn.Hales@raleighnc.gov

Department:: Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources

Service Categories:: Raleigh Arts

Related Services:: Public Art Arts Programs

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