Friends of the Orphan Signs is a collaborative, public art and educational initiative that revitalizes abandoned road signs  in Albuquerque and along historic Route 66. FOS facilitates collaborations with local communities with the aim of designing new imagery to install in the signs as public art pieces that explore neighborhood identity.

Since 2009, FOS has created numerous public artworks and events, and has received funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the McCune Foundation, Black Rock Arts Foundation, the New Mexico Arts Commission, and the the PNM Foundation, among others. The FOS project, Revivir, a neon sign/artwork completed in 2012, received the Americans for the Arts Outstanding Public Art Project award.

Projects I've worked on:

The Highland Project

Role: Project Director and Teaching Artist

The Highland Project began in 2011, as a collaboration between local professional artists and high school students at Highland High School and the Media Arts Collaborative Charter School in the Highland District of Albuquerque, NM. Teaching artists are embedded into one high school art class to conduct a 6-8 week workshop series focussed around an overarching theme. The theme for 2017's workshop was JUSTICE, and 2018's theme will be SUSTAINABILITY. Artwork created in these workshops is printed and installed in one of the three orphan signs accessible to FOS in the Highland District. Recently, artwork made during the past 6 years of the Highland Project was printed and installed on lightposts throughout the neighborhood.

The 2016 Highland Project was funded by a New Mexico Arts Commission (NMAC) Learning in the Schools Grant, and a PNM Power Up Grant.

Revivir

Role: Teaching Artist

Under the direction of lead artist Ellen Babcock,  FOS members worked intensively with Highland High school students from January-June, 2011, to develop designs for a sign at 4119 Central Avenue. Forming an after school art club, the FOS team introduced digital graphic design skills, critical thinking exercises and exploratory field trips to the teens as part of a collaborative design development focused on this particular orphan sign. Funding by the Albuquerque Arts Board, support from property owner Matthew Terry, and expert production by Sign Art Co. of New Mexico came together to produce the backlit, neon-lined sign that showcases the artwork of Highland students Hilary Weir, Ellie Martin, Gabe Thompson and Desiree Marmon.

The Seedling Sign

Role: Co-Lead Artist, with Myriam Tapp

This Seedling Sign is the product of collaboration between the Harwood Art Center's Creative Roots program, Friends of the Orphan Signs, and the young artists of Albuquerque's Wells Park neighborhood. 

Friends of the Orphan Signs and Creative Roots held three Community Art Days in the summer of 2015. These weekend events were open to the children of the neighborhood and their families.  Artists Lindsey Fromm and Myriam Tapp led the art days and invited community members to generate imagery inspired by their experiences in our neighborhood. The participants shared their experiences and points of view through drawing, painting, photography and collage.

Designs by youth artists Jude Baca and Chloe Sanderson were selected for installation into the sign cabinets. Their magical, playful artwork now adorns the north-facing panels. Laser-cut panels depicting silhouettes of cottonwood leaves and butterflies adorn the south-facing panels.