Yvonne Shortt's Tiny House Goes to Queens Museum:

October 2016 social practice artist, Yvonne Shortt, embarked on her boldest project yet; a mobile tiny house design and build involving over 250 women. The goal of the project started as away to learn to use tools collaboratively. "This was not a 'you 'sit and I teach deal," says Ms. Shortt. "I am sick of people trying to empower me I need to empower myself and I wanted women to come on this learning journey with me." And so they did. On the way they learned how to design and build a tiny house. And, it turned out the biggest win was the empowerment gained by learning collaboratively around other women.

From October until May women attended collaborative learning sessions at the artist's studio one Saturday a month. As part of taking part in the project, each woman had to join a team where she could share her expertise. There were several teams: fundraising, marketing, outreach, design, skill building, research, and sourcing. Each team had a coordinator from Ms. Shortt's studio and women who had expertise in that subject matter. "Women were suppose to go on teams where they thought their expertise could be of use," said Ms. Shortt. Once the women decided to build a tiny house to practice what they were learning each woman was asked to raise $50.00. As a group they raised close to $17,000.

The build happened behind the artists studio in her yard. The build lasted 5 weeks and went each week from Thursday-Sunday. " I learned to use a miter saw, jig saw, circular saw, drill, driver and so much more," said the artist's daughter Rebecca West. She also helped many women learn during skill building and the build. When the build was finished the house was turned into an incubation lab to incubate projects to build community and promote connectedness. "It took so long to build and involved so much effort that in the end I wanted something many could benefit from," says Ms. Shortt.

The first installation is a tea and Zen garden. Women were invited to email the artist and come for tea and conversation around feminine dwelling. "I have connected with so many women over the last few months," says Ms. Shortt.

On December 16th 2017 from 2-4 you can go to the Queens Museum to learn about the conversations and 11 other projects Ms. Shortt commissioned around dwelling that happened on the streets of Queens September 23, 2017 to inspire the community and bring artists out of their studio into the streets.