Montalvo Art Center’s Art on the Grounds commissioning program provides artists with opportunities to develop and present new art works in the context of a 175-acre public park. Montalvo is home to a diverse range of native and non-native plant and tree species, and includes a redwood and live oak forest, an expansive grass lawn, and a succulent garden. Its diverse buildings encompass a Mediterranean-style villa built in 1912, outdoor and indoor theatres, and the Lucas Artists Residency Commons building and studios. Artists are encouraged to experiment with innovative models of art-making in the public sphere and consider novel ways of engaging with Montalvo’s varied grounds and publics. 

New works produced through this program include:

• Durational projects developing out of community engagement activities and workshops, such as Andrea Blum’s community picnic and photoshoot, My American Pantry Montalvo; Lawn Games- a kit of games and activities for visitors to play with on Montalvo’s grounds designed by Benjamin Laramie and Leah Rosenberg, and featuring playful activities created by Miguel Arzabe; Ana Gallardo’s A Place to Live When We Are Old, which brought  together people of all ages together through dance, and created a community gathering space modeled after the traditional Mexican plaza; and Tiffany Singh, The Bells of Mindfulness, an exploration of the role of sacred space in contemporary life involving an installation of 1000 handmade bells on a persimmons tree in Montalvo’s historic Italianate Garden.
  
  
• Sculptural objects, site conditioned interventions, and functional  design, including Allison Wiese’s Untitled, a text based sculpture featuring appropriated language taken from mid-20th-century pop culture, movies, and novels; Justin Lowman’s Untitled (Belvedere Temple), an architectural intervention inhabiting an existing structure that forms part of Montalvo’s historic property; Christopher Loomis’s Twisted Heart and the Eucalyptus Muse, a semi-permanent seating element for Montalvo’s historic Italianate Garden constructed from reclaimed Blue-Gum Eucalyptus; Susan O’Malley’s A Healing Walk, a guided walk through Montalvo’s forest trails with text-based signage reminding us to practice mindfulness; Jeffrey Miller and Amy Trachtenberg’s Creekside Studio, an art-making studio and education classroom in the woods, featuring Counterpoint by Trachtenberg, a series of patterned shed doors constructed from repurposed lumber and patchwork shade cloths; and Robin Lasser and Adrienne Pao’s Edible Dress Tent, a hybrid sculpture blending architecture, performance, landscape gardening,  and photography. 
  
  
• Time-based events and experiences, such as Daniel Canogar’s live participatory video projection over Montalvo’s historic Villa, Asalto Montalvo; Art on the Grounds 2015: Performance in the Park-which included new performance works around Montalvo’s property by such artists as Pamela Z and Joanna Haigood; Christine Wong Yap’s Irrational Exuberance Flags, which involved a parade, pep rally, and members of Montalvo’s community periodically selecting a brightly colored flag and hoisting it up a flagpole in front of the Lucas Artists Residency; and sound-based works like Kianga Ford’s You are here. man. mountain. valley. sky, a site-specific audio experience with a four-channel musical intervention by Mamoru Okuno.

For a complete listing of all Art on the Grounds installations currently on view, please click here.