La Reunion TX and the Dallas Museum of Art launched their design competition “Make Space for Artists: Design-A-Studio” on Thursday night inside the tech-savvy Center for Creative Connections (C3). Competitors from any corner of the arts can submit a plan for their ideal 16 cubic foot studio now through Feb. 12, 2009.

About 40 people shuffled into the C3 Theater for a video overview of the competition and its driving force, the North Texas arts residency La Reunion TX. Then the DMA’s Nicole Stutzman led the group into the Center’s Tech Lab. Design materials of every kind were available inside the lab, including decidedly low-tech paper and pencils. Nicole encouraged participants toward Google Sketc and will conduct workshops for that software on Nov. 13 and Dec. 11 during C3’s Open Lab nights.

Tyler Fields in the Tech Lab

“This is not as intimidating as I thought it would be,” said Tyler Fields, above, on his first attempt at Google Sketch-Up. Tyler’s art is software design, so his goal was to fit three team members – a designer, a developer and an idea man (which is Tyler) into that 16 by 16 foot space. “You don’t move until you’re sitting in each other’s laps.”

Photos by Jerome Weeks and Betsy Lewis