The inaugural Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival took place this past weekend at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. If you were there, you probably noticed that the six stages featured some pretty amazing artwork by Thomas Campbell, R. Pimple (aka Barry McGee), Jeff Canham, Matt Leines, Monica Canilao, and Rich Jacobs.

Rich Jacobs, who has curated large group art exhibitions under the “MOVE” moniker for over a decade, was responsible for curating the stage artwork and was kind enough to answer a few questions via e-mail.

Jeff Canham

How did you get involved with the Outside Lands ‘Outsider Art’ project?
rich jacobs: i was asked by them to curate the art part of the festival, and i said i would do it. i was recommended to them by someone they knew (an artist). but i guess - i also had done something similar for the first two virgin music festivals in baltimore - but that was more of a art on display type concept.

Thomas Campbell

Can you talk about how you ended up with these six artists?
i was trying to get a good core group of northern california based artists mostly, we made matt leines the exception because i liked  his work, i just chose the artists i thought were doing really strong work - that are from here - that i liked. it is not to say there isn’t more - but they only needed this amount. i tried to pick them based on how i imagined them turning out, as i have worked over the years as a curator - i try to imagine how they will flow and fit/go together, those normal kinds of concerns, and issues are there. in general, most of them (the artists)  are peers, and old friends as well. i like working with friends better - less unknown drama - but it is important to make new friends, and expose new ideas as well, so i try to mix it up and show a little bit off both newer talented folks with more established - it brings everything up i think that way. sharing ideas/and art is important to me. that is why i still do this kind of thing instead of just make my own work exclusively.

Matt Leines

Did the festival give any direction  as to what kind of artwork they wanted on the stages or was it open ended?
well i originally proposed doing 15 artists, and 5 local galleries so they could spotlight even more local art, we were gonna have almost a gallery type of situation and i was gonna ask people to create work for that, but it got turned into stage designs and there were only asking for 5, then they figured out that there were gonna be 6 stages so i did one as well since there was no budget left. so, i did my design for free actually. but i am friends with the artists and we have all shown basically a lot anyway in the past - so it made sense. i wasn’t trying to push my own thing - it just worked out that we needed another stage at the last minute, i felt strange asking someone else to do it with no notice, and they had used up the budget for this project so i did it.

Rich Jacobs

What’s the process for creating artwork for a stage scrim?
none of us had really done it before …. so it was a learning experience - i asked them all to make a drawing that would fit the  size and shapes given, but to blow up things that size they need to basically be vectorized - which can be tricky if one is unfamiliar - it is painstakingly  tedious work if you have complex line art - so if a designer is used to it cool, but it takes about as long to do it as it does the art itself otherwise …. most of us got help from friends with more tech skills than us. everyone created flat work and we blew it up - scrims are kind meshy see through screens - it is difficult to get something to pop off because of the transparent nature of them but i think it worked out well - i really like the work everyone turned in, and i feel it was positive, for sure … i have received lots of good feedback, people seemed to be really amped  to see nice art at a festival - if they weren’t expecting it too it was a nice surprise. getting local artists too helped set the mood, plus they are all really talented so it helps. i am glad, it worked out really well.

Monica Canilao

How does curating this event compare to other shows you’ve curated?
it is pretty much the same a little more instruction or details and really not too much different. being in communication and trying to make sure everyone has what they need - you are sorta the middle man in this case as a curator and just try your best to help with whatever people need. it was the same as normal curating basically just a little more co-ordinating at the end and at the start.

More photos after the jump. [Read more]