By Susan Jedrzejewski, McColl Center for Visual Art McColl Center for Visual Art is pleased to welcome Mel Chin as a Knight Artist-in-Residence from September 23 to December 31, 2012. Both analytical and poetic, Mel Chin’s art evades easy classification. Known for the broad range of approaches in his practice, his work is largely motivated by political, cultural, and social circumstances. Investigating how art can provoke greater social awareness and responsibility, Chin utilizes uncommon space for his work, and insinuates art into unlikely places including destroyed homes, toxic landfills, and even popular television.

The Fundred Dollar Bill Project is raising nationwide awareness of the environmental threat of lead-poisoning by collecting the funds necessary for a model remediation effort in New Orleans. Students and community members across the country are currently creating Fundred Dollar Bills — original, hand-drawn interpretations of $100 bills.

The Fundred Dollar Bill Project aims to collect three-million, hand-drawn interpretation of the $100 bill.

Completed Fundred artworks are sent to regional Collection Centers that are securely holding the valuable drawings. In Charlotte, McColl Center for Visual Art is an official Collection Center, serving as a repository for Fundred Dollar Bills created in the region.  In 2010, an armored truck, retrofitted to run on waste vegetable oil, began an 18,000-mile cross-country trip to pick up the bills from the Collection Centers. By 2014, the armored truck will deliver the Fundreds to Washington D.C. where a request will be made of Congress for an even exchange of the value of the art currency for actual funds and services to support the implementation of Operation Paydirt, a citywide landscape recovery program targeted for several cities in America. The Fundreds created and deposited at McColl Center for Visual Art will be picked up by this special armored truck as part of the 18,000 mile pick-up event.

To participate in the Fundred Dollar Bill project, visit the 2nd floor gallery to create your own interpretation of the $100 bill, now through November 3, 2012, during gallery hours.

Learn more about Mel Chin and the Fundred Dollar Bill Project by joining us at an upcoming program: 6 PM, Thursday, October 4 during Artist to Artist; Saturday, October 13 during Community Day; and Saturday, October 27 during Open Studio Saturday. Mel Chin will be in residence at McColl Center for Visual Art from September 17 through December 30.

Mel Chin’s work has been documented in the popular PBS program, Art of the 21st Century, and has received numerous awards and grants from organizations such as the National Endowment for the Arts, Art Matters, Creative Capital, Pollock/Krasner Foundation, Joan Mitchell Foundation, and The Rockefeller Foundation.