ABOUT THE ARTIST:​ Jessica Arias is a landscape architect based in New York City.  She enjoys all the technical and creative aspects of public space design, and she supports public art as a tool for community-building.  Jessica is inspired by earthworks, Minimalist sculpture, and Romantic-era landscape​ painting.

https://www.instagram.com/j_l_arias
http://www.artandthepublic.com​  ​​

DESIGN CONCEPT: Jessica Arias’ artwork, titled Reflections on Sunnyslope, will mimic Sunnyslope Mountain, which is easily visible form the park. Members of the public will contribute to the artwork by adding their own drawings and notes to colorful flags, made of UV resistant material, that will later be attached to the underside of the canopy, creating a mirror image of the mountain outline. 

The structure will be approximately 23’ X 14’ and will be located adjacent to the basketball courts.​

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:​ REGGIE CARRILLO, DJ ARMENTA, MONIQUE FRANCO, ELIZABETH MENDVIL: AZ(LAND) is a non-profit venture dreamed up by people living in the heat of the Sonoran desert. We bring together barrio innovation to provide educational, ecological, and innovative resources and research insights for communities of color. Our work gets inspiration from the nopales, our ancestors and elders on this land to collectively engage in the work of future making so that we may continue to survive on these lands for the next thousand years.

https://www.instagram.com/azlandorg
https://www.facebook.com/AzLandorg​
https://www.az​​lnd.org​  ​​

DESIGN CONCEPT: At Steele Indian School Park, AZ(LAND) has created a series of interrelated structures that will pay homage to Indigenous and Mexican American cultures. By integrating ancestral knowledge, artistic engagement, and sustainable design, the installation offers a temporary space for refuge and a permanent source of inspiration for collective growth and community empowerment. 

Titled Shades of Resilience, the structure is approximately 35’ x 25’ and will be installed in the Phoenix Greens section of the park.​

ABOUT THE ARTIST:​ Shomit Barua is an intermedia artist specializing in ecoacoustics, responsive environments, and emergent narratives. His work is rooted in poetry and architecture, and reflects the shared tenets of contained space, economy of materials, and movement that is both physical and emotional. Combining everyday technologies with esoteric programming languages, he blurs the line between installation and performance, weaving together sound, object, and image. Digital and analog techniques are fused to investigate his principle subject: the presence of the mind and body in a physical space.  

Having collaborated with sculptors, dancers, musicians, architects, and visual artists, he believes that exploration of a motif is amplified - made "robust" and "thick" - through dialogue between disciplines. He holds an MFA in Poetry from Bennington College and teaches at Arizona State University while completing doctoral research at ASU’s School of Arts, Media, and Engineering.​

https://www.instagram.com/shomijah
https://www.facebook.com/shomijah
https://www.shomitbarua.com​​ ​​

DESIGN CONCEPT: Standing Wave by Shomit Barua is an immersive installation that uses synthesized sound to create a communal space to exercise “environmental listening”—an established practice through which we ground ourselves in space through our attention to sound.  It is the only project to have a sound component. In the image on the left, you can see components of the sound equipment that will be solar powered.​​

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:​ Jose Benavides, an artist, and engineer based in Chandler, AZ, has showcased his work in diverse exhibitions, spanning from the White House in Washington DC to Burning Man, an international art experience in the Nevada Desert, and numerous other venues. By seamlessly integrating both artistic and engineering perspectives, Jose's sculptural art, which involves the upcycling of materials, addresses social justice issues in a highly relevant and impactful manner.   

Joe Ray is a visual artist (painter, printmaker, sculptor) and illustrator living in Scottsdale, AZ. Joe’s work reflects a colorful bi-cultural perspective formed by the Arizona and Mexico regions. Joe’s work has been exhibited and published throughout the U.S. and Mexico. His work evokes color and passion, much of his subject matter includes cultural iconography such as corazones filled with love, passion, and emotion. In addition to being a visual artist, Joe is a presenter at regional and national conferences. Joe weaves storytelling into his topics, crafting word pictures to evoke a strong sense of place and emotion for the audience.   

Both Jose and Joe are long-time artist members of Xico: Arte y Cultura, located in downtown Phoenix.​

https://www.instagram.com/joseart0
https://www.facebook.com/jose.benavides.35977
https://joseart.com​​ ​​

DESIGN CONCEPT: For Jose Benavides and Joe Ray’s project, Rinco de Color, four 8-foot Alebrijes, or vibrant Oaxacan folk animals, will stand at each corner of the shade structure, creating the illusion that they are supporting the canopy. Made from composite panels, the Alebrijes will be painted, in part, by local high school students. The structure will include solar-powered, motionactivated misters for added comfort, with a 95% UV-rated shade fabric for sun protection. 

The artwork is approximately 20’ x 20’ and will be located near the multipurpose fields.​​

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:​ Josie Davis and Jenny Boehme are long-time collaborators, known for their innate and boundless creativity, deep comprehension of conservation and climate, and never saying no to a challenge. Where Josie tackles all areas of production, from creative development through to multi-disciplinary execution, Jenny’s versatile and distinct approach to design brings concepts to life in ways that are as unique as the communities being served. They are driven by curiosity, collaboration and culture, approaching each project with the passion and determination needed to execute big ideas through outstanding designs and emotive, authentic storytelling.    

Jenny Boehme is an award-winning graphic designer, art director and illustrator. Alongside her two sisters, she co-founded Amelia Street Studio, serving women-owned businesses, before joining Curmudgeon Group as the lead Art Director. Josie Davis is a producer, creative director, copywriter and conceptual artist. She has spent over 20 years living and working across the US, Europe and Latin America, and is the owner and principal of Curmudgeon Group, a creative production agency for clients investing in a climate-resilient future. ​​​​

https://www.instagram.com/jedaviswilderness
http://www.josieelizabethdavis.com

DESIGN CONCEPT: From the coloring of its shell to the ability to retain water for months at a time, the iconic desert tortoise is uniquely adapted to the desert heat. The Burrow, by Josie Davis and Jenny Boehme, imagines the desert tortoise as a visually interactive experience and welcome reprieve from the summer he​​at; sharing the shade while encouraging people to “think outside the shell” when it comes to community-based, heat-ready solutions. 

This artwork for Roesley Park is approximately 20’ x 14’ and will include solar lighting, community made seating and Enkoat – a paint product that reduces radiant heat.

ABOUT THE ARTIST:​ Kira Dominguez Hultgren is a U.S.-based artist, weaver, and educator. They studied postcolonial theory and literature at Princeton University, and studio arts and visual and critical studies at California College of the Arts. Their research interests include material and embodied rhetorics, re-storying material culture, and weaving as a performative critique of the visual. Dominguez Hultgren weaves with the material afterlife of a so-called multiracial family: Chicanx-Indigenous-Indian-Hollywood Hawaiian-Brown-Black. Instead of being passed down, weaving and textile processes are brought up, resurrected from family stories and fabrics. Questions about cultural appropriation and codeswitching, exoticism, and performing cultural misrecognitions occupy their practice. 

Dominguez Hultgren has exhibited their work broadly including shows at Lehmann Maupin Gallery, Ballroom Marfa, the Museum of Arts and Design, the Roswell Museum, and Eleanor Harwood Gallery in San Francisco. Their work has received critical attention including reviews in the New York Times and Architectural Digest; and is in the de Young Museum of Fine Art’s permanent collection. Dominguez Hultgren is an assistant professor in Fiber and Material Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. They are a 2024 Center for Craft Research Fund recipient, 2024 Illinois Arts Council Fellowship recipient, and a 2024 United States Artists Fellow. ​​

https://www.instagram.com/kiradominguezhultgren
https://www.kiradominguezhultgren.com

DESIGN CONCEPT: Nana’s Garden by Kira Dominguez-Hultgren is a site-specific fabric wall D5 stretched along the ballfield fence at Maryvale Park. The design will consist of a geometric-floral crochet pattern, known as a “granny square,” designed, in part, by the community.  The material will be woven from a durable UVresistant, bonded polyester and nylon thread. 

The fabric is approximately 6’ x 24’ and will be installed 8’ off ground.  It will be attached to the fence with steel cables.

ABOUT THE ARTIST:​ Luke Haynes is an architect turned quilter with a love for creating tactile objects that have a history of utility and a future of self-preservation. After surviving a childhood of poverty and an Autism diagnosis, Haynes values using recycled textiles in his work and is passionate about using quilts to convey comfort, systems of support, and accessibility for all. Luke is recognized as a core pillar of the "modern quilting movement" for his projects that bring quilting techniques into public art installations and community activations. His quilts have been shown in over 150 shows and are in the private collections of multiple art museums including the Brooklyn Museum, Newark Museum, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and The Norton Collection.

https://www.instagram.com/entropies
https://www.luke.art​​

DESIGN CONCEPT: Luke Haynes’ Quilt Architecture at Sereno Park fuses traditional quilting techniques with modern environmental design to create functional and aesthetically powerful shade structures. By utilizing recycled textiles, clothing, and linens sourced from Phoenix, the work explores the boundaries of quilting as an art form, pushing it into the realm of public installation and environmental interaction. 

This artwork, like many others, will utilize ground screws to temporarily secure the main structure, which is about 80’ long by 30’, into place.  In addition to the main structure, the artwork will include smaller canopies stretched between existing trees.

ABOUT THE ARTIST:​ Feng-Feng Yeh is a chef and emerging multi-disciplinary artist who explores identity, feminism, and activism, under a provocative lens of sensuality, nostalgic camp, and comedy. She is the brainc​hild of the Chinese Chorizo Project, an Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts awarded project. October 2023 was named Chinese Chorizo Month by the Pima County Board of Supervisors thanks to the Chinese Chorizo Project's efforts in recognizing the contributions of immigrants in America. Yeh is the first recipient of the Tucson City of Gastronomy Food Visionary Award and was recently awarded the Downtown Tucson for Everyone Grant. Featured in Vogue and WWD for her NYC based womenswear line Savant, Yeh’s first exploration in multi-dimensional productions evolved to an art utilizing food as a vehicle to explore ideas of consumption and its related performance, spectacle, and response. Providing an intersectional perspective between the connections of collaboration, art, food, history, and humanity, Yeh hopes to uplift underrepresented communities across boundaries.​

https://www.instagram.com/chinesechorizoproject
https://www.chinesechorizoproject.com​

DESIGN CONCEPT: Phoenix's redlined, marginalized communities who have been affected by heat injustice will have their stories represented through silhouetted imagery adorned on two large-scale Chinese Chorizo shaped inverted canopies. As the ever-changing sunlight passes through the canopies, the imagery will be cast on the ground.  The structure is made of steel and will be painted with Enkoat, the paint that reduces radiant heat. 

The artwork, by Feng Feng Yeh, is approximately 28’ x 22’ and will have horizontal and vertical shading.  The black and red cloth will form the silhouetted imagery.

ABOUT THE ARTIST:​ Bobby Zokaites is a U.S. based sculptor skilled in a variety of materials with a wealth of experience producing large scale works for private and public spaces. His industrious work ethic and urban design sense enable him to create distinctive works of art that foster new and dynamic relationships between community, site, history and the natural environment. Blurring the line between fine art, public sculpture, and collaborative practices, his work engages diverse audiences, humanizes public spaces, and often encourages participation with larger-than-life-sized artwork. Zokaites earned his BFA at New York College of Ceramics at Alfred University (2008) and his MFA in Sculpture at Arizona State University (2014). He is currently commissioned for nine permanent public art sculptures underway in Arizona, Idaho, and Minnesota. It is integral to Zokaites' practice that his work connects residents to one another and their community in new ways, creating new and lasting experiences.​

https://www.instagram.com/bobbyzokaites
https://www.facebook.com/ZokaitesSculpture
http://www.bobbyzokaites.com​​

DESIGN CONCEPT: Bobby Zokaites will create a structure designed to resemble a colorful, abstracted plant to provide a whimsical shade experience for the bridge. Titled Botanical Canopy, the modular, leaf-like shade components will be made of nylon parachute cord, which will be woven onto the structure with help from the community. 

The structure will be anchored to existing steel and concrete bridge over the lake at Cortez Park.