Hello Wood Art and Architecture Camp

This past week, Neal V Hitch and Neal Lucas Hitch attended and taught at the Hello Wood art and architecture camp in Budapest, Hungary. This camp brings together architecture students from around the world to build architectural installations using wood.

Dr. Hitch, our museum director, was selected as one of six team leaders to build an installation. The selections were based on a call for proposals submitted last March for the development of art installations based on the theme "Project Village."

Neal Lucas Hitch, who has served as a visiting artist at the museum and built the Ocotillo Observatory, designed a structure called the Alt-Cathedral. Following the theory of "Adaptive Use,"   the installation was intended to be a habitable sculpture to serve as a flexible space for human scale fellowship and interactions. The pictures included here show the design that was submitted and the project as built.

Twelve architecture students joined Neal and Lucas as part of the building team and constructed the installation during the nine day camp. As part of the art project, during the week the installation was "activated" with a cello concert and a wine tasting event. Dr. Hitch also presented two lectures, one on the subject of desert sized art, which has been a theme of the Imperial Valley Desert Museum.

The project was extremely successful and we will follow up with additional information if articles or reviews are published on the project.