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Artist
Eric Lennartson
Biography
Artist, designer, and facilitator of TapeScape exhibit
Marketing, proposal manager, business development, and designer for architecture/engineering/design firms; LEED certification and documentation manager
Museum, Vespa, LEGO, music, VW, and curling geek
Artist Statement
When I joined the board of directors for an emerging museum in Mankato- the Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota- to help with analyzing suitable buildings and sites for the museum, who knew where it would lead me. We toured museums across the Midwest and all over the US to see how other museums were creating interesting experiences for both children and engaging with their adult caregivers.
One museum stood out over all the others, the City Museum in St. Louis. I was impressed by the creativity and surprises in every corner: slides, bridges, stairways, mosaics, artifacts, sculptures, and secret passages scattered in, on, and around a ten-story warehouse. It was a dream come true for our kids - and for me as well. What inspired me most was how this museum appeals to just about everyone- that no matter what age you are. If designed right and there are elements or details for everyone, you will be more engaged and interested in the museum.
As a board member and an artist, I left City Museum inspired to help create a unique museum, exhibit, and experience for my community that would be interesting to all ages. Soon after visiting St. Louis, I was paging through an Architectural Record Magazine, and stumbled across images of art installations by Numen For Use, the Slovenian architecture and industrial design firm, made of tape. It was a crazy visual of tape stretched projects across Europe: in an old building attic, between marble columns in a bank in Venice, or in a decommissioned air hanger in Berlin. I saw photos of people walking through them – some with kids – and I knew that I had to try to make one too.
This exhibit created a very unique museum exhibit and met our museum’s goals to have interactive, hands-on exhibits and engage children’s curiosity. It also filled the need for a large muscle exploration exhibit for a space our museum would only have for 7 months. The exhibit was a success. The attendance numbers for older children were the highest that we have ever had in three temporary locations and even got parents involved in play in the exhibit.
Since then I have multiple major installations of what I call TapeScape- a combination of Packing Tape and Landscape.
- Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota, prototyping exhibits at PlayLab – Mankato, MN in 2011
- Children’s Discovery Museum, part of a Holiday special exhibit – San Jose, CA in 2012
- Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, Winter traveling exhibit – Pittsburgh, PA in 2013
- Manitoba Children’s Museum, featured Summer exhibit – Winnipeg, Manitoba in 2014
- Science Museum of Minnesota, spring break/Spring installation – St. Paul, MN in 2015
- Liberty Science Center, installation themed with space exhibit – Jersey City/NYC
- Children's Museum of Southern Minnesota (second installation), temporary exhibit – Mankato, MN 2015
- Children's Museum of Pittsburgh (second installation), Fine Arts installation – Pittsburgh, PA 2016
- Wheel and Cog Children’s Museum, pop up exhibit for emerging museum – Hutchinson, MN 2016
- Meet D3 Art Exhibition for OliOli, an emerging museum – Dubai, UAE
- Children’s Discovery Museum (second installation), late Fall, holliday, and Winter installation – San Jose, CA 2016
- Ipswich Art Gallery, full gallery of arts immersion, part of their hands-on Construction Site themed exhibits – Ipswich, QLD, Australia 2016
- Wheel and Cog Children’s Museum (second installation), reconfiguration of original installation – Hutchinson, MN 2016
Awards
Info
United States
Minnesota
Exhibitions and Performances
Hillstrom Museum of Art at Gustavus Adolphus College- Ars Longa, Academia Brevis Exhibit (Alumni Art Show) December 2010 through February 2011
Work Experience
Education
Publications/Press/Bibliography
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Activity
- Eric Lennartson updated the Artwork Spiral Lawn Jetty
To break up the monotony of mowing week in and week out, I started just making patterns in the yard and alternating week by week. The spiral form stuck and is now visible in Google Maps. I like the spiral’s powerful symbolism of expansion and development and the pattern works very well for a non-lineal, continuous path motion of a lawn mower. - Eric Lennartson updated the Artwork TapeScape at the Science Museum of Minnesota
Slide, crawl, roll, and twist your way through an interactive play environment made completely out of plastic wrap and packing tape stretched over steel frames. Strong enough to handle thousands of energetic visitors every week, the smooth and springy surfaces will throw a few curves and twists into science exploration! - Eric Lennartson updated the Artwork TapeScape 2.0 at the Children's Museum of Southern Minnesota
- Eric Lennartson updated the Artwork TapeScape Installation- Children's Discovery Musuem of San Jose, CA
TapeScape San Jose was an installation for the Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose. The installation was part of the holiday exhibit called "Holiday's Unboxed- a Spectical of Cardbaord and Tape". The installation was installed in November 2012 and remained up until February 2013. The installation was the scene of a fashon shoot for a local magazine. - Eric Lennartson updated the Artwork TapeScape Space and Gemini at Liberty Science Center
TapeScape, with LED lighting added, was themed as a spiraling galaxy or wormhole to accompany another larger space exhibit at Liberty Science Center. Tape Gemini, a full-size replica of the space capsule made of tape and includes a command center and two seats. - Eric Lennartson updated the Artwork TapeScape at Ipswich Art Gallery
TapeScape is a hands on play art installation that provides multiple paths and experinces for all ages of museum visitors. The immersive experince challenges the ideas of what is a construction material or structural by using transparent packing tape materials to make tunnels that can hold multiple kids and adults. - Eric Lennartson updated the Artwork TapeScape Exhibit- Mankato, MN
TapeScape is a massive sculpture and indoor landscape, inspired by installations by European design firm For Use/Numen, made completely out of packing tape. The landscape is an indoor play area for children not just to explore and play, but also to spark a sense of wonder and thought about the unusual and unexpected use of materials and forms. The shapes and forms of the exhibit exist in nature, in spider webs or caves and also in the built environment in bridges and buildings. This exhibit uses… - Eric Lennartson updated the Artwork TapeScape Installation- Children's Discovery Musuem of San Jose, CATapeScape San Jose was an installation for the Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose. The installation was part of the holiday exhibit called "Holiday's Unboxed- a Spectical of Cardbaord and Tape". The installation was installed in November 2012 and remained up until February 2013. The installation was the scene of a fashon shoot for a local magazine.
- Eric Lennartson updated the Artwork TapeScape 2.0 at the Children's Museum of Southern Minnesota
- Eric Lennartson updated the Artwork TapeScape at the Science Museum of MinnesotaSlide, crawl, roll, and twist your way through an interactive play environment made completely out of plastic wrap and packing tape stretched over steel frames. Strong enough to handle thousands of energetic visitors every week, the smooth and springy surfaces will throw a few curves and twists into science exploration!