If you’ve walked along Monterey Street between Jacksonia and Sampsonia recently, you may have encountered something unusual on the fence in front of the Alphabet Reading Garden. Since last fall, Northside artist Denise Mahone has been gathering anonymously submitted narratives of neighbors’ night dreams for The dreamplace Project, a public art project commissioned by City of Asylum Pittsburgh as part of the Garden to Garden Art Trail in collaboration with the Office of Public Art and funded by ArtPlace America.
These first 30 dreams will be up on the outer fence of the Garden through mid-September to increase awareness about the project and curiosity about the dreaming life of the community. Once the Alphabet Reading Garden officially opens in the fall, there will be a public reading of all of the neighborhood dreams, and all of the dream flags will be temporarily installed in the Garden as the larger work of public art. The final piece will be presented in conjunction with a digital dream map that will mark the streets where the dream stories originated, representing a psychic map of the place.
Neighbors can continue to submit dreams online or via the submission forms available at the Alphabet Reading Garden through Tuesday, September 1. Read more about artist Denise Mahone, The dreamplace Project, and City of Asylum.