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David Clayton, residing on 10th and Morris streets with his wife and 8-month-old son, is an individual artist whose broad interests have shaped his variety of work in Philadelphia.
Currently working as the head of programs at Breadboard in the University City Science Center, Clayton combines art and technology to form science-enhanced projects for children.
“I’ve always been interested in science and technology and engineering, I think a lot of artists are interested in many fields,” Clayton, who is also an organizer for Ignite Philly, a networking endeavor that highlights many diverse, interesting and innovative ideas coming to life in Philly, said.
His idea for a Philadelphia Art Boat was chosen as one of the 55 finalists in the Knight Arts Challenge, keeping his love for boating in his Michigan hometown a reality.
Clayton’s initiative is to, “take an older house boat and kind of retrofit it into almost like a floating workshop [and] live-space,” he said.
Essentially, the boat would be docked on either the Schuylkill or the Delaware River, and creative practitioners — whom Clayton described as artists, designers, performers or musicians — could come live and work on the boat, while exploring the surrounding waterways of Philadelphia.
“We always see the bodies of water from the land, and rarely do [we] get to see it from the perspective of the water,” Clayton said. “Being on the Schuylkill on a small boat, the city looks really massive because you’re looking up at it and there’s all these hidden things you can see that you wouldn’t see unless you were on the water.”
Although the idea is still very much developing, the creative practitioners could employ the boat for a day up to six weeks, to embrace their artistic abilities to the fullest extent, he said.
“It’s a project that I’ve had on my mind for a year or two and I think it’s something that I’ll continue to pursue,” Clayton said. “The nice thing is that if I get the Knight grant, it will really make it happen.”
Other finalists:
Contact the South Philly Review at editor@southphillyreview.com.
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