Le Petit Versailles
Open Call for Proposals

We’ve Got To Get Ourselves Back To The Garden. 

The urban botanical landscape is similar to country conditions in many ways. Soil replenishment, fertilization, weeding, and watering are essential to growth. Le Petit Versailles also grows culture. With recent changes in government we feel it more important than ever to continue our mission to unify art and social engagement. The call is made for projects and activities that have direct impact and relationship to the physical site in rebuilding and maintaining a green space for urban gardening. Be creative. Propose what it means for you to grow and develop vegetation and community. Investigate tools, architecture, and social interaction that support green, open, public space.

LE PETIT VERSAILLES remains a site for both activation and exploration.

Be creative in regards to the specifics of the site as it is positioned in the surrounding neighborhood; how your actions and presence affects and is affected by the locality and the history of the Lower East Side. Consider the global aspects of community gardening as it is manifest in other cultures, and the current and historical relationships that are engendered by community management and creative maintenance of public space. What are the natural and intrinsic correlationships of art and labor? What are the materials that give structural functionality to building new concepts and actual realization of what the relationship of art and environment can be? Consider how your chosen creative medium/mediums connect to actual gardening by becoming a Garden Member.

Send your proposal via email in a single PDF (no larger than 5 MB) that includes the following (IN ORDER):

NAME / GROUP NAME

PHYSICAL ADDRESS (where applicant lives)

EMAIL

PHONE NUMBER

PARTNERS/COLLABORATORS

MEDIUM (Film/Video/Theater/Readings/Word Art/Music/Dance/Movement/Workshop/Combined Forms/Interdisciplinary/Visual Arts/Other)

PROJECT DESCRIPTION (less than a page)

SUPPLEMENTALS (links for any materials to review in consideration of your work)

PREFERRED DATES

ARTIST/MISSION STATEMENT

BUDGET

RESUME

WORK SAMPLES (5 pages or less)

Le Petit Versailles (LPV) is a public garden located in New York City’s East Village. Created in 1996 by the artist organization Allied Productions and other neighborhood members, it is part of New York City’s GreenThumb community garden program. LPV is dedicated to preserving the vitality of NYC green space through the arts, broadening & enriching the general public with performances, screenings, workshops and similar activities.

The garden is located at 346 East Houston St. @ Avenue C. in the East Village, on a lot that is approximately 22 x 60 feet, between two buildings that border 2nd St. and Houston St. It has a formal unified design that includes an arbor with areas designated for seating and gathering, plus a small stage platform and additional bench seating.

We are looking for events and projects across a wide range of artistic disciplines. Preference is given to unusual ideas, as well as more traditional presentations, that address environmental, social, and progressive issues, as well as those that take into consideration the site-specific nature of the garden itself. Temporary installations, performances, films, and workshops in any discipline are desired. Programs, exhibitions and other public activities are primarily scheduled seasonally from spring to fall. In rare circumstances, winter projects are programmed. Exhibitions must include works that can withstand the rigors of both nature and public space in an urban setting. LPV will coordinate some logistical elements, however artists must possess a high level of self-sufficiency and embrace the DIY (Do It Yourself) ethos of the garden. LPV is entirely artist-run, and as such we have limited administrative and technical capacities.

Although LPV often provides artist fees and other administrative and technical support, LPV is unable to fund all approved proposals. Please indicate if your proposal can be realized without financial support from LPV.

Additionally, it is strongly recommended you view past examples of LPV projects. Please view the following links before you apply:

LPV PROGRAM VIDEOS

LPV BLOG