"Remote Control" at the Figge Art Museum -- July 10 through August 30.

Friday, July 10, through Sunday, August 30

Figge Art Museum, 225 West Second Street, Davenport IA

Interactive exhibits don't get any more interactive than Remote Control, the new, community-created exhibition at Davenport's Figge Art Museum. On display from July 10 through August 30, this response-driven collection is part game, part art showcase, and all celebration of our local collective imagination – the rare exhibit that literally doesn't exist without the participation of its viewers.

Remote learning and working remotely have become the new way of life for many over the past several months. To continue this trend, the Figge has created an interactive exhibition – one located in the venue's second-floor Mary Waterman Gildehaus Community Gallery – that encourages participation by people of all ages to engage by simply sending an e-mail from a phone, tablet or computer. All participation is electronic whether you are in the museum or at home.

Remote Control allows for remote play through a variety of activities and games, but participation from the public is needed in order for this exhibition to work. All are invited to play, discover, add to the conversation and stitch a story into the fabric of the community. Ways to play are divided into five games in the exhibition space – WordUp, FAMlibs, FAMily Photo Album, MASHup, and Community Painting – and each area will include instructions on how to take part. As participants send in their responses to any and all of the games, Figge staff members will update the exhibition daily, resulting in a community collaboration in which the public has literal remote control the gallery space.

In WordUp, participants respond to the prompt using just one word that will be hand-written by a staff member and posted anonymously in a wall collage, with the prompts changing every two weeks. In FAMlibs, nonsensical stories will be created with eight words of your choice in this order: thing, action, thing, describe, describe, action, action, thing. FAMily Photo Album will share images in response to one-word prompts that will be added to a digital album, printed, and placed on the wall in the exhibition space. For MASHup, patrons submit drawings based on the changing themes – your dream home, a favorite animal, a elf-portrait – and e-mail them as scans or photos; the drawings are subsequently cut up and put together with other people’s drawings to make new creations. And in Community Painting, community members follow online directions to submit directives for the Figge staff to paint.

“There is no experience quite like visiting an artwork in person, but now more than ever it is also important to connect with each other and with our community,” says the Figge's Education Programs Coordinator Heather Aaronson. “We hope this exhibition serves not only as a way to play and to connect, but also to be a record and reminder of our shared existence, even though we are apart in many ways.”

Museum hours are currently Tuesdays through Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m, museum admission is $4-10, and face masks and safe-distancing measures are required. Reservations are strongly encouraged for access to the venue, and more information on the July 10 through August 30 Remote Control exhibit – as well as information on how to contribute electronically – is available by calling (563)326-7804 or visiting FiggeArtMuseum.org.

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