We’re excited to announce that, in partnership with our good friend Jill Downen, we have been chosen from a field of sixty national and international artists to create a permanent sculpture installation to be housed in the Center of Creative Arts’ (COCA) two-story atrium in University City, Missouri.

Our design, entitled “Currents,” will transform the COCA atrium wall into an undulating sculpture whose subtle, elegant movements call to mind the currents of a river and suggest the impact the creative arts have on diverse communities. Original soundscape compositions and coordinated theatrical lighting will be activated by visitors in the space, washing the installation in sound, color, and light.

“‘Currents’ captures the spirit of COCA” said project manager and former COCA education director, Kathryn Adamchick. “The ripple-like forms suggest the impact COCA has had on the St. Louis community since its inception 23 years ago, and the Downen/act3 team celebrates interdisciplinary collaboration.”

act3 has been collaborating with sculptor and visual artist Jill Downen on creative projects since 2003. We designed Jill’s original website that year, and designed her new site, which launched in 2009. Last year, Jill transformed one of the walls at the act3 office into an installation piece, “Five O’Clock Shadow.” act3 captured the installation process in a short film, titled “Jill Downen: Five O’Clock Shadow,” which includes an original soundtrack composed, produced, and recorded by act3. Jill now uses the piece in talks to help audiences better understand how she turns a flat wall into a piece of three-dimensional art.

Each of these collaborations has sparked swells of creative synergy, so when Jill and act3 both received the Call to Artists for this installation separately, our first thoughts were to contact the other about working together.

Downen, who was recently named a 2010 recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, said of working with us, "Every time we collaborate, something special happens. And I sincerely believe that act3's help in telling my story played an important role in my receiving the Guggenheim Fellowship."

This project was particularly interesting to us because of COCA’s amazingly diverse artistic legacy, and its ongoing impact in the St. Louis community. We are excited by the opportunity to contribute to the evolution of a building that is itself already a work of art, and to help honor Stephanie Riven, whose leadership has helped transform COCA from an idea into an institution whose impact reaches more than 50,000 area residents each year.

We also felt our work was appropriate for this project because we too focus on transformation. Jill transforms ordinary spaces—walls, floors, beams—into artwork that lives and breathes with a human personality. act3 transforms ordinary media—music, film, web—into memorable experiences that make a human connection. We’re excited that the selection committee agreed.

We help organizations of all sizes discover and give voice to their stories.

We leverage the insight and influence of those stories to design solutions, strategies, and deliverables that reframe and address the complex problems faced by companies, organizations, and individuals, helping them to:

• Articulate value
• Cultivate advocates
• Capitalize potential

Drawing on an extensive background in documentary filmmaking, investigative journalism, experience design, university-level teaching, and organizational development, we gather the insight needed to identify organizational core stories, and overcome the challenges in telling them.

Note: This site is but a prelude to a better, more awesomer website that will launch in late summer of 2010.