Tuesday
September 26, 2023 
ArtYard offers the “Order of Everyday Humans Distinguished Medals Project,” its latest collaborative artistic intervention, in which the public is invited to create a medal honoring whomever (or whatever) they feel moved to express gratitude to at this moment.
The can be a grocery bagger, delivery driver, medical personnel, DJ, dance instructor, poet, beloved book, favorite vegetable, cookie recipe, song, movie, toothbrush, friend, or someone or something else.
The project is inspired by the medals that John Kearney, artist and father of ArtYard’s founder and executive director Jill Kearney, made for her mother during their 61-year-long marriage.
A sculptor, jeweler and veteran, John Kearney came back from World War II with a handful of medals, and after his marriage to Marilyn (Lynn) Haigh in 1952, began acknowledging her with handcrafted medals honoring her contributions, injuries and idiosyncrasies.
ArtYard invites people interested in creating a medal and submitting it to the collection to create one(or more) out of cardboard, paper, metal, wood, found objects, or any other media; photograph it on a neutral background, if possible in natural light, centered with enough space around it; and email it to medals@artyard.org.
The body of the email should include the name of the creator of the medal, the title of the honor (ex: Heroism in Pandemic Combat Zone), a brief description of the recipient of the medal, the reason for the honor, and the creator’s Instagram handle if they have one.
This is not a call for antique or collected medals, but rather medals conceived and created at this time. There is no deadline for submissions. This project will remain open indefinitely. ArtYard will post a selection of medals every Wednesday on its Instagram feed and website.
ArtYard also has created “The Imaginary Museum of Obscure Objects,” a virtual museum of beloved intriguing, peculiar, obscure and mysterious objects aggregated from the public.
Every Friday, ArtYard features a selection of three objects in the imaginary collection, shared on Instagram and the museum’s page on ArtYard’s website.
ArtYard invites people who have an object they would like to submit to photograph it on a neutral, clean background, if possible in natural light, making sure to center the object and leave space around it and email the photo to objects@artyard.org.
The body of the email should include your name, the name of the object, a brief story if you have one about the context, where you found the object, or what it means to you, and your Instagram handle, if you have one.
There is no deadline for submissions. This project will remain open indefinitely. This is not a call for artworks, but rather found or collected objects.
