Did you say fingerboard skate park orchestra?
Designed by a group of skaters in Greensboro, NC who were asked to envision and create a blueprint for the ideal skate park, the Fingerboard Skate Park Orchestra invites local skateboarders to ride tiny scaled-down replicas of skateboards with their fingers, rather than their feet!
In doing so, “skaters’ will perform a live outdoor sound work, spotlighting and centering the expertise of the Syracuse skateboarding community.
Presented by the Everson Museum of Art and Light Work UVP, sponsored by M&T Bank.
When can I try it out and talk with the artists!?
July 29
8:30—10:00pm
The Fingerboard Skate Park Orchestra: Performed by Flower Skate Shop followed by Open Community Skate—Live Feed Projected on the Everson’s Façade in Collaboration with UVP
Everson Community Plaza
July 30
10:00am—Noon
The Fingerboard Skate Park Orchestra: Open Community Skate
Find us at the Everson’s booth at the Syracuse Arts & Crafts Festival next to the Mission building!
1:00—2:00pm
Lee Walton and Derek Toomes Artist Talks
Everson Community Plaza
Hear Lee and Derek talk about how they came up with concept and what it has been like working with skaters to build it and bring it to life!
2:00—4:00pm
The Fingerboard Skate Park Orchestra: Performed by Taire Mentus followed by Open Community Skate
Everson Community Plaza
Taire Mentus is a gifted skate boarder and fingerboarder. To learn more follow him on Instagram and TikTok.
I don’t get it…how does it work!?
The Fingerboard Skate Park spotlights and centers the expertise of the skateboarding community. In this way, the artists invited a group of skaters to envision and create a blueprint for the ideal skate park. They then built the park to their specificities.
The underbelly of the park terrain is flush with contact microphones connected to a powerful speaker system that amplifies the unique sounds of shredding and grinding – showcasing the ability of tiny skateboards to make gigantic sounds. Additionally, the Skate Park has 3 built in devices to stabilize mobile phones for live streaming to social media platforms and projections.
Skateboarders are invited to enjoy the Fingerboard Skate Park, hear the syphony of sounds, and see their experience projected onto the Everson’s façade on the Everson’s outdoor Plaza, creating an unforgettable visual and audio experience for skaters and audiences.
Meet the Artists
Lee Walton is a globally recognized experientialist with an expanded practice that includes drawing, performance, new media, and social practice. Lee invents systems and structures to re-imagine new ways of living, create meaningful human connections, and reveal the aesthetics of the everyday.
Lee received his MFA from the California College of Arts (2000) and is currently a Professor of Art at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Learn more about Lee by visiting leewalton.com.
Derek Toomes is an artist based in Greensboro and Raleigh, NC. Derek is drawn to the iconic imagery of popular culture, as he is equally interested in societal location as a culture inundated by imagery. His sourcing as well as appropriation of images allows Derek to create work that is aesthetically and anthropologically situated within culture, while also commenting on that culture.
He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Interior Architecture at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Learn more about Derek by visiting derektoomes.com.
The Fingerboard Skate Park Orchestra is a nomadic socially engaged project that brings together local skateboarders to fingerboard and simultaneously perform a live outdoor sound work.
Whether you are a skateboarder or just a fan, anyone is welcome to try fingerboarding on the park for an unforgettable audio and visual experience.
Left to right: Kaiden Manning, Hank Hanson, Jackson Summey, Noah Rothermel, Alex Mulgrew, John Martin
For project information and interest in hosting Fingerboard Skate Park Orchestra:
[email protected]
(336) 254 6553
