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The Traveling Porch is a mobile art installation that serves as a gathering place and invites all to enjoy a unique experience in an environment designed to encourage connection. Complete with custom woodworking and creative steel fabrication, this engaging structure offers it's guests a unique way to relax in four seating options: benches, hammocks, hanging platforms, and porch swings.
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The structure offers seating for 30 in four relaxed seating options to allow for many different comfort levels:
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Sturdy, deep seated high backed porch swings.
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Hanging platform bench swings.
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Single and Double occupancy hammocks.
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Benches with backs and bar-tops within the trailers main structure.
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Shade covering of bamboo roof.
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Customized lighting, with Solar Powered Options.
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A place for event goers to relax and connect with one another.
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A modular footprint! With both or single wing assembled.
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Full footprint is 20' nose to tail x 32' wingspan.
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Or, smaller space setup, one wing extended is roughly 20' x 20'
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One wing is 12' x 12'
~Let me tell you why I designed this two and a half ton piece of art..
An important aspect of my love for art is the inclusive nature of it. I love to create artifacts with the ability to bring people together in a shared experience, transforming viewers into participants and strangers into a connection and community. A front porch is a special place, where we all feel welcome and relaxed, I hoped to evoke those same feelings in a public setting, for all to enjoy.
The idea for the porch project arose during the summer of 2017, while working as a fellow and lead builder with the local chapter of the national group of artists the Akron League of Creative Interventionists. Our mission was to create community through creativity, leading meetings focused on listening to peoples thoughts, needs and social hopes for their neighborhoods and communities. From the wonderful ideas shared in our meetings, paired with my affinity for hammocks and welding, the spirit of the Traveling Porch was born.
For rental interests and opportunities click the button below.
If you'd like to learn more about me, and the art I make, check out my bio here
Thank you for visiting the Traveling Porch Project!
-Megan Shane
Let me introduce you to Kai Wick. A wonderful friend and fellow builder on this project. Her brilliant woodworking was just what the porch needed.
Kai is a community artist and maker in Akron, Ohio. She graduated with a B.F.A. in Sculpture in 2015 and now runs her own studio in downtown Akron. Kai’s work focuses on communities looking to make the next step in their revitalization process. This includes creating park benches, garden planters and parklets. She also works directly with community members in designing custom projects that focuses on their neighborhood’s needs and values.
You can find her recent works in outdoor installations around Akron in the Northside Marketplace downtown, in the Kenmore Live Music Now courtyard as well as the interior, in the Downtown Akron Innerbelt National Forest on the closed portion of Rt 59, and in Project Three Gallery on Kenmore Blvd. in Akron.