Calling all Engineers, Architects, Designers, Sculptors, Builders, Chefs, Agriculturists, Videographers, Technologists, Artists and Makers of all kinds
BEAM SEEKS PROPOSALS FOR 2013 PROJECTS
You supply the vision and plan. We’ll supply 100+ energetic campers and staff and 700+ acres of forest, mountain and lakes as studio, canvas and workshop.
Submit your Beam Project Proposal now.
THE PROJECT
Every year Beam commissions unique large-scale collaborative Projects that serve as centerpieces of each Beam session. Our Project Team works with the Project Masters to “translate” the Project blueprint into the camp context. Beam Campers and Staff work together to make the Project happen.
THE CAMP
Beam Camp is a 8-week summer program comprised of two sessions for kids aged 7-17 in Strafford, New Hampshire. Beam Campers cultivate hands-on skills while exploring innovative thinking, design and the creative process. They transform ideas into artifacts and personal achievement into community success. Teams of campers work on different aspects of the Project each morning. In the afternoons, they participate in unique, in-depth, hands-on explorations in the arts, sciences, athletic or cultural fields.
PROJECT IDEA SCOPE
Take a look at our first ten Beam Projects (below). Think about how your Project will introduce Beam to new materials, media, techniques, tools, methods and concepts.
Each camp session is 25 days long, with six, three hour work days per week. Projects should therefore be of a scale large enough to busy 108 campers supervised by 20+ adults for approximately fifty hours.
Project Ideas should be big and result in a unique, ambitious and spectacular product.
You and/or your team should be able to tell us exactly how a group of adults would execute the kind of idea you propose. Our expertise is “translating” Project Ideas into the Beam context, but you must be the expert in the field(s) involved in executing your proposal.
Your idea should take advantage of Beam’s outdoor space and rural location, but it need not be about camp or children or nature.
PROJECT TIMELINE
October 15, 2012: 2013 Beam Project Call for Proposals opens
January 11, 2013, 11:59PM EST: Deadline for submissions
January 18, 2013: Semi-Finalists Selected
January 21-28, 2013: Discovery meetings/calls with Semi-Finalists
February 11, 2013: Final Projects Selected
March – May, 2013: Weekly Project Development Calls
May 17, 2013: Project Prototype Due
June 3, 2013: Project Detailed Plans/Blueprints Due
PROJECT DELIVERABLES
- Beam Camp will pay Project Master stipend of $2,500.00.
- Beam Camp will allocate $10,000.00 for the development, prototyping and execution of Beam Project.
- Beam Camp will reimburse Project Master’s reasonable travel costs.
- Project Masters will participate in bi-weekly calls with Beam Project Staff April-June
- Project Masters will participate in 3 in-person meetings with Beam Project Staff March-June
- Project Master will be present at Beam Camp in New Hampshire for at least 4 days during the session at which Project is executed.
Beam Project Gallery:
2012.1 In “Creature Quake,” Rachel Kunreuther and Douglas Stookey design reshaped the camp’s landscape to reveal enormous creatures in earth, sky and lake. Beam campers and staff constructed an array of large-scale forms and structures imbued with their own kind of life and movement.
2012.2 In “Navigating Dreams, Matthew Springett Associates proposed that Beam campers and staff construct a new night sky of LED constellations controlled and navigated by a boat-machine.
2011.1 The Story of Machines that Never Flew: An aerial installation of fantastic aircraft dreamed up by thinkers and dreamers, ancient and modern. Beam campers and staff constructed and documented their building of a collection of distinct mechanical and sculptural inventions to tell the stories of the designers whose imaginations soared but whose creations never left the ground. Project Masters: James Wignall & Bradley Moore
2011.2 The Habitats of Parker Mountain: Beam campers and staff collaborated with architecture students at the University of Kassel, Germany to build pragmatopia’s “The Habitats of Parker Mountain,” human-sized interpretations of animal habitats. The international team designed and worked with the campers in building animal abodes to suit the needs and nature of the native wildlife of southern New Hampshire but for the use and enjoyment of all Beam Camp’s inhabitants, human and animal.
2010 A Trip To The Sun: One century after the first science fiction movie, George Melies’ A Trip to the Moon, we’ll tell the story of a journey to the sun – powered by the sun; a Science Fiction film with emphasis on the Science with special effects, sets, lighting, costuming, acting, and blue-screen work. Project Masters: Daniela Kostova & Mike DeSeve
2009 Float With The Flowers: two extraordinary structures, part puzzle and sculpture, comprised of wooden balls and dowels, that stand on land and blossom on water. An exploration of how simple elements combine to form complex systems and represent natural contours and forces. Project Masters: Christine Baumgartner & Manuel Kretzer
2008 Jungletopia: three tree-houses ring a 16-foot armature to form a play/contemplation space that bridges (metaphorically and physically) Beamers’ imagination and craft with the forest environment. Project Masters: Jan Drojarski & Jon Bocksel
2007 The Beam Micro/Macro Domes: five geodesic domes based on the forms and structures of virus proteins, that became shelters, sculptures, playspaces and activity centers. Project Master: Caitlin Berrigan
2006 The Beam Fleet: seven wooden vehicles, designed, and built by the campers, equal parts kinetic sculptures, simple machines and rolling canvases. Project Masters: Steve Gerberich & Nathaniel Leib
2005 The Nexus Canopy: a raised, 42′ x 36′ grid of wood and fabrics that the campers transformed from shelter to maze to movie theater to art installation to banquet space. Project Master: Fabian Jabro/Standard Architects
Find out more about previous Beam Projects.
FAQs
HOW DO I SUBMIT A PROPOSAL?
Submit your Beam Project Proposal here.
WHAT’S THE DEADLINE?
Proposal submissions are due January 11, 2013.
WHAT’S THE PROJECT BUDGET?
$10,000 for Project-specific materials including prototyping costs.
For further inquiries and to submit supplementary materials to your proposal please email: projectproposals [at] beamcamp.com