ArtSake

Now, I can’t vouch for whether the bus will look like the one depicted below – I suspect it’ll be larger, and not made of pixels – but a group of art dealers has announced an interesting way to solve the “how to bring lovers of art to the art they’re sure to love” quagmire: The Art Bus.

The Boston Art Dealers Association has announced that The Art Bus, a free shuttle service, will begin running between the Newbury Street and South End Art Districts in Boston, on Saturday, April 3, 2010.

The Art Bus will take gallery visitors between the Back Bay and South End free of charge from Noon to 4 PM on the first Saturday of each month from September to June. Bus riders can pick up an Art Bus pass by visiting any BADA member gallery and catch the bus as it runs a continuous loop making stops at Thayer Street at Harrison Avenue, Newbury Street at Berkeley Street (in front of the Church of the Covenant), and Newbury Street at Dartmouth Street (in front of Fitz Inn parking lot). Riders can pick up passes for the return trip at any BADA gallery.

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April 2010

We compile a monthly list of presentations, honors, publications, and events featuring past and present MCC Artist Fellows & Finalists. As you’ll see, the news is good – not just about these award-winning artists, but also about the breadth and vitality of contemporary arts throughout the Commonwealth.

Three MCC Fellows/Finalists are featured in an exhibition of Artadia Boston’s recent awardees at the Mills Gallery in the Boston Center for the Arts. Work by Claire Beckett (Photography Fellow ’07), Ambreen Butt (Drawing Finalist ’10), and Eric Gottesman (Photography Fellow ’09), along with that of Caleb Cole, Raúl González, Amie Siegel and Joe Zane, will be on exhibit through April 25, 2010.

Steve Almond (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’08) visits the Brattle Theatre (hosted by Harvard Bookstore) on Friday, April 16 for a musical celebration of his new book, Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life, an ode/confessional for the musical superfan in all of us.

Congratulations to S. Bear Bergman (Playwriting Fellow ’05). Bear’s essay collection The Nearest Exit May Be Behind You is a finalist for a 2010 Lambda Literary Award.

David Binder’s (Photography Fellow ’01) documentary Calling My Children is screening at the Sacramento International Film Festival on April 19. The film recently screened at the Bermuda International Film Festival on March 24.

Martha Jane Bradford (Drawing Fellow ’85) is creating an exciting educational exhibit for the Cahners ComputerPlace at the Museum of Science, Boston, on digital and virtual art. The exhibit, an immersive installation with sound and video projections that emulate the environments Martha creates in Second Life, will further visitors’ understanding of digital images and of making virtual art. You can find more information, as well as a video tour of Martha’s Second Life creations, on her blog. Incidentally, the Museum is currently accepting applications for a Technical Designer Internship for this exhibit.

Alicia Casilio, Sara Casilio, Kelly Casilio, and Cary Wolinsky, aka TRIIIBE (Sculpture/Installation Fellows ’09) will have a solo show at Gallery Kayafas in Boston, April 15-May 29, 2010. Dates to know: Saturday, April 17, opening reception, 6-9 PM; Friday, April 30, Crime Night, 6-9 PM; First Friday, May 7, Multiples Night (for look-alikes and like-a-looking), 6-9 PM; Friday, May 28, Last Chance!, 6-9 PM.

Michael Downing (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Finalist ’08) wrote an essay for Huffington Post about his experience as an “embedded reporter” in the healthcare debate.

Kurt Cole Eidsvig (Poetry Fellow ’04) is taking part in x/o: a visual/sound/spoke word installation on Saturday, April 24, 7 PM, at the Fort Point Theatre Channel, Fort Point, Boston. The free event, created by Kurt, Martin Cockroft, and Brendan Murray uses art, sound, poetry, and projected imagery for a 90-minute performance on opposites, building blocks, and the relationships between things. The event will include the premiere of X-and-O.com, an Internet installation created by Eidsvig, Murray, and Claude Keswani.

Vico Fabbris (Painting Fellow ’06) will have a solo exhibition of watercolors and works on paper, called Floralies, at Gurari Collections in Boston. The exhibition continues Vico’s exploration of the precariousness of the natural world through invented botanicals. The exhibition runs April 2 through May 2, 2010, with an opening reception April 2, 6-9 PM.

Ralf Yusuf Gawlick (Music Composition Fellow ’09) will premiere Kinderkreuzzug, his dramatic cantata for children’s voices and small chamber ensemble, on Saturday, April 10, 7:30 PM, at St. Ignatius, Chestnut Hill and again on Sunday, April 11, 3 PM Trinity Episcopal, Concord. The cantata, which takes as its source material Bertolt Brecht’s extraordinary and grim anti-war poetry, will be performed by two New England choirs and a German boys choir sponsored to fly to the region specifically for this piece. The choirs will record the cantata for the label Musica Omnia. Read more about Ralf and Kinderkreuzzug in an ArtSake profile.

Congratulations to D.M. Gordon (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’08), who won first place the Glimmer Train Short Story for New Writers Prize!

Liza Johnson (Film & Video Finalist ’03, ’07) has won a Cinereach Grant for her film Return, which follows a female soldier home from a tour of duty.

Masako Kamiya (Painting Fellow ’06, ’10) has a solo show at Gallery NAGA in Boston: “Masako Kamiya: New Work 2009-2010,” running April 3-May 1, with an artist reception on April 2 (6-8 PM) and an artist talk on April 10, 2 PM. The show is presented in conjunction with the mid-career retrospective of Masako’s work at the Danforth Museum of Art, Masako Kamiya Outspoken: 2002-2010, through May 16.

Yanick Lapuh (Painting Fellow ’10) is among the local artists whose work will light up a gallery at the Boston Children’s Museum with “their yellowy best.” The Yellow Show will run April 22-June 20, 2010.

Melinda Lopez’s (Playwriting Fellow ’03) play From Orchids to Octopi: an Evolutionary Love Story runs at Central Square Theatre through May 2, 2010. The play was commissioned by the National Institutes of Health to celebrate the 150th anniversary of “On the Origin of Species.” From Orchids to Octopi is a project of Catalyst Collaborative@MIT – Underground Railway Theater’s science theater initiative with MIT. Read an interview with Melinda on ArtSake.

Julie Mallozzi (Film & Video Finalist ’07) wrote a fascinating essay on The Public Humanist, a blog of Mass Humanities, about her documentary-in-progress Lalita.

It won’t be your average artist talk when Jane D. Marsching (Photography Finalist ’03) presents 7 Stories & a Dance: Feeling Data at Upgrade! Boston on April 6, 7-9 PM, at MIT-ACT. Jane will “weave together an evening of storytelling, dancing, and conversation as part of her talk about recent projects that seek to translate abstract climate data and depressing climate news into sensory experiences.”

Anne Neely (Painting Finalist ’10) has a solo show of paintings called Waterlines at the Danforth Museum in Framingham. The show runs through May 16. Anne will give an artist talk on May 9 at 3 PM.

Mary O’Malley (Drawing Fellow ’06) has a solo show, called Super Natural, at Sam Lee Gallery in LA, through May 13.

Jim Peters (Painting Fellow ’08) is among the artists in an artSTRAND exhibition at Fort Point’s FP3 Gallery. Jim Peters’ mixed media piece of oil on canvas, photo and glass, “Blue Bath,” is part of a new series of works done in Paris and Provincetown and is inspired by French poetry and fiction. The show runs through April 30.

Monica Raymond (Playwriting Finalist ’07, Poetry Finalist ’08) will be participating in the Cambridge Poetry Festival in Jill Rhone Park (Lafayette Square, Cambridge, corner of Main and Columbia). The festival runs 12-5 PM on Sunday, April 18.

Evelyn Rydz (Drawing Fellow ’10) was featured on the website Artist a Day.

Vaughn Sills (Photography Fellow ’09) is among the artists in Shoot’n Southern: Women Photographers, Past and Present, at Mobile Museum of Art April 30 – July 18, 2010. The show will feature photographs from Vaughan’s series “Places for the Spirit: Traditional African American Gardens.”

Peter Snoad (Playwriting Fellow ’09) has two short plays, The Greening of Bridget Kelly and My Name is Art, in the “American Bytes” series by Liminal Space Productions at the New Wimbledon Studio in Wimbledon, London, UK. There will be four performances the week of April 5, 2010. My Name is Art will also be produced by Edgemar Theater Group in Santa Monica, CA April 23-May 16 as part of their “Acts on the Edge” series. And two of Peter’s other short plays are being staged this month: Apple Pie by the Boca Raton Theatre Guild in Boca Raton, FL April 23-25; and Resistance by Actors’ Refuge Repertory Theatre in Boston April 23-24.

Elaine Spatz-Rabinowitz (Drawing Finalist ’06) was recently featured in The Art Institute of Boston at Lesley College’s Five from Around exhibition.

Jeff Warmouth’s (Sculpture/Installation Finalist ’05) solo exhibition, Food Court, was recently featured at UMASS Lowell’s University Gallery (closing April 2, 2010). The show consisted of three video installations — two of them interactive food stands that battle for your media-starved attention: JeffuBurger and the brand new Il Jeffuria Pizza. For a sense of what a JeffuBurger entails, visit Jeff’s website.

Past Fellows Notes
Mar. 2010
Feb. 2010
Jan. 2010

Are you a past fellow or finalist with an event, honor, or other bit of news you’d like to share? Tell us about it.

Image: TRIIIBE, PAINT BY NUMBERS, 50×42 in; images from FLORALIES by Vico Fabbris; Anne Neely, SURPRISE (2009) Oil on linen, 45×60 in (photo by Clements/Howcroft).

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I was blue, just as blue as I could be
Ev’ry day was a cloudy day for me
Then good luck came a-knocking at my door
Skies were gray but they’re not gray anymore

Blue skies
Smiling at me
Nothing but blue skies
Do I see
from Blue Skies by Irving Berlin

Call to Artists: APOCALYPSE FOOD, an exhibition from the University of West Florida Art Department with a 20-year timespan, is holding an open call to all artists for food items and contraptions. From the call: “For this Exhibition we are looking for food items that discuss the possibilities of sustainability and shelf life while being creative with elements of design and structure. Contributors should have a curiosity in the manufacturing of food. We will accept any medium but encourage artists to work with food or closely related substances.” After the exhibition, all works will be locked in a time chest for 10 years, after which they will be unlocked and exhibited again. Then in for another 10 years in the time chest. Deadline is April 19, 2010. More info here.

The New Horizons Band program has chapters all over the country, for seniors who want to make new friends and share their love of music. The band is for those who have never before played an instrument and would like to learn in a group setting or who used to play but haven’t in some time. The band rehearses at the Cultural Center of Cape Cod every Monday at 3:30. If you’re interested in joining or would just like to learn more about the band, stop by on a Monday afternoon or call for more information. New members are always welcome. The Cultural Center of Cape Cod is located at 307 Old Main St., South Yarmouth. Call 508-394-7100.

Call to Artists: The Society for the Encouragement of the Arts (seARTS) invites artists to develop and implement public art projects for Partner With an Artist 2010, seARTS’ signature artist grant program. Artists are invited to submit proposals for Partner With an Artist 2010. Artist grant: $1,000; three grants will be awarded. The heart of Partner With an Artist is artists partnering with businesses in new and creative ways to develop public art. A different theme, or focus, is chosen for each cycle of the program. The focus for Partner With an Artist 2010 is the New Deal’s Works Progress Administration (WPA) murals located in Gloucester City Hall. Innovative and bold ideas are welcome. For an application, click here.  Questions, contact seARTS.pwa@gmail.com or call 978-281-1222.
Deadline: Proposals due April 5, 2010.

Seeking Proposals for Exhibitions: The Northampton Center for the Arts is accepting proposals for upcoming monthly exhibits in its East Gallery. Submissions for individual and group shows will be considered for exhibitions to be scheduled from October 2010 to June 2011. The Center for the Arts is committed to showing the works of community artists from the greater Pioneer Valley area. Questions, contact: Penny Burke at ncfa@nohoarts.org or 413-584-737
Deadline: April 15, 2010

Call to Artists: Participate in FIGMENT BOSTON 2010
In collaboration with the Cambridge Arts Council, FIGMENT, an arts event featuring participatory arts projects in every conceivable medium, including interactive sculpture, performance, music, social experiments, games, and lectures, will take place alongside the Cambridge River Festival on Saturday, June 5 along Memorial Drive. Artists are invited to submit project ideas.
Deadline: Submissions due Saturday, May 1, 2010.

Call to Artists: The Cape Cod Fine Arts Festival will be held on August 28 and 29 on the Hyannis Village Green. Go here for more information.  Questions, call Elizabeth Wurfbain, Interim Executive Director, Hyannis Main Street Business Improvement District, 508-775-7982 x 2.

Image credit: photograph by Paolo Neo

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This Saturday, March 27 is SWAN Day.

That is, Support Women Artists. Now. Day. (Italics and punctuation added for emphasis. By me. ‘Cause, you know, it deserves some oomph, and punctuation/italics is how you do it in blogs.)

SWAN Day is organized by WomenArts (formerly known at the Fund for Women Artists) a nonprofit org founded by Martha Richards in Northampton, Mass., now operating out of San Francisco. According to its mission, WomenArts is a “worldwide community of artists and allies that works for empowerment, opportunity, and visibility for women artists.”

One of the ways it does that is through SWAN Day, an international holiday celebrating and supporting women artists.

To support said supporting, WomenArts has inspired participation by a host of artists throughout the country, including such names as Famke Janssen and Isabel Allende.

March 27 SWAN Day Events in Massachusetts include:

• Women Connecting Through Art, an event featuring visual artist Ekua Holmes and poet/performance artist Radiant Jasmine at the Henson Jackson Art Gallery in Stoughton (6 PM).
• Eleven Boston area women playwrights will have their plays/monologues read at the 4th Annual MARCH MADNESS SWAN Day at the Boston Playwrights Theater (2 PM). A scene from Monica Raymond‘s (Playwriting Finalist ’07, Poetry Finalist ’08) play A TO Z will be among those performed. A talkback hosted by Lydia Diamond will follow the event. Refreshments  prior to show at 1:30.
• in vivo Productions presents The Gecko in Winter series, with readings of exciting new works by award-winning Boston-area playwrights, at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education (8 PM). The program tantalizingly promises a “surprise guest artist.”

For more SWAN Day events, visit WomenArts.

Image: Ekua Holmes, FREE TO BE.

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Robyn Love in collaboration with the Simmons College community have created Unconditional Yes, a mixed-media installation and performance.

Artist Robyn Love seeks answers to the question, “Have you ever made a decision with an unconditional yes?” Combining her knitted and crocheted aphorisms with text, objects, and artwork contributed by faculty, staff, students, and alumnae, the exhibition is both inclusive and provocative. Transforming the gallery’s center into a temporary “living room.”

A knitted trail pieced together from communal donations leads visitors to the “living room.”

Love explains, “I am hoping to encourage people to look a little deeper at some of their ideas about themselves. I think if we really consider why we make our choices, we can take responsibility for them and that gives us a lot of freedom. Also I hope that the process of creating this exhibition together will generate a renewed sense of community at Simmons.”

Simmons Arts Administration majors collaborated with Love on many aspects of the project, suggesting the knitted trail (inspired by Love’s The Knitted Mile), developing publicity, encouraging community participation, knitting, and creating and maintaining a blog and Facebook page. One Arts Administration student noted, “We wanted to have the trail be all different colors and textures, representing the diversity of Simmons as a whole.”

Unconditional Yes
Opening Reception: Thursday, March 25 from 5-7 p.m. at the Simmons College Trustman Art Gallery, fourth floor, Main College Building, 300 The Fenway, in Boston. The Simmons Choir will perform beginning at 6 p.m.
Exhibition dates : March 20 – April 18. Gallery hours:10 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.The gallery is free, open to the public and wheelchair accessible. For more information, contact Marcia Lomedico at 617-521-2268.

Robyn Love will be in the gallery – in the living room – from Monday to Thursday, March 22 – 25, working and talking with visitors about the idea of Unconditional Yes. Love will also host periodic knit-togethers during the course of the installation.

Unconditional Yes is curated by Michele Cohen, Director of the Trustman Gallery and Assistant Professor, Arts Administration Program and the students in class AA390 who have been integral to the development of this project.

Image credits: All images courtesy of Simmons College, Trustman Gallery

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Jane Gillooly’s (Film & Video Fellow ’07) film Today the Hawk Takes One Chick was a 2008 pick for the Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival, a documentary film festival hosted by the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Now it’s your turn: the 2010 festival is currently accepting submissions. The Mead Fest considers a range of documentary films and videos, including: experimental films, essay films, animation, and new media. Productions must have been completed within the last three years. Early Deadline: March 31, 2010, Final Deadline: May 3, 2010.

If you’re a chamber music ensemble looking to commission new chamber works: First, thank you – you are awesome. Second, Chamber Music America, a national service organization for the chamber music profession, is accepting applications for its Classical Commissioning Program. The program provides support to U.S.-based classical/contemporary ensembles, presenters, and festivals that commission American composers to create new chamber works. Applicants must be organization-level members of CMA. Funding is available for the composer’s fee, the ensemble’s rehearsal honorarium, and copying costs. Deadline is April 9, 2010.

For Berkshire artists: don’t miss the upcoming Tricks of the Trade events sponsored by Berkshire Creative. April’s topic: how to secure an artist residency so you have time and a space to create new work. Artist and Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts professor Melanie Mowinski will host three different events to discuss residencies: Tuesday, April 13th, 6:30 PM, MCLA Gallery 51 (Guest: Heather Phillips, Director, Contemporary Artist Center at Woodside); Wednesday, April 14, 6:30 PM, Lichtenstein Center for the Arts (Guest: C. Ryder Cooley, Artist); and Thursday, April 15, 6:30 PM, IS183 Art School (Guest: Calliope Nicholas, Residency Director, Millay Colony for the Arts). Events are free but require registration; contact Jessica Conzo at the Berkshire Cultural Resource Center to register.

For Asian American short story writers: Hyphen Magazine and The Asian American Writers’ Workshop present the 2010 Asian American Short Story Contest. The national, pan-Asian American competition will name 10 finalists and one grand prize-winner who will win a cash prize of $1000 and have the winning story published in an upcoming issue of Hyphen. There is a $20 entry fee. Deadline is March 31, 2010.

Video: an excerpt from TODAY THE HAWK TAKES ONE CHICK by Jane Gillooly. The film has upcoming screenings at the Addis International Film Festival (March 31) and Festival International de Films de Femmes (April 2-11).

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It takes a sure hand (and, quite possibly, a blown mind) to craft the stuff of science into engaging theatre.

For a new play about Charles Darwin and evolution, the CatalystCollaborative@MIT, a partnership between MIT and Underground Railway Theater, looked to playwright Melinda Lopez (Playwriting Fellow ’03). In recent years, Melinda’s plays have been performed locally and at the Laguna Playhouse in California, Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago, and the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Florida and – talk about a natural selection – have earned her Elliot Norton and IRNE awards, a Huntington Theatre Playwrighting Fellowship, residencies from Sundance and The Lark Playwrights Center, and more.

The result of Melinda’s commission, From Orchids to Octopi: an Evolutionary Love Story, approaches evolution by way of a muralist beset by hallucinations (and pregnancy), and an “evolving theatrical mural” created by artist David Fichter. The play premieres at the Central Square Theater in Cambridge on March 31 and runs through May 2.

Melinda spoke to ArtSake about science in art, writing for (and by) actors, and why a playwright needs to “break” character.

ArtSake: I’m curious about the writing process of From Orchids to Octopi, which was commissioned by the National Institutes of Health to commemorate the 150th anniversary of On the Origin of Species. Did having some elements already established complicate your writing process?

Melinda: This piece has been hugely ambitious from the git go. Just thinking about how to frame ‘evolution’ as a dramatic narrative — it’s insane. From the initial conversation, I knew I had to keep bringing it back to the question, “what does this have to do with me? why should I care?” I may have stuck too literally to that idea, but without a really strong concept, you just go on these tangents about genetics, and fossils, and court rulings, and you can’t remember how you got there (well, that metaphor is also a good one for evolution, I guess).

Once I had a loose frame (pregnancy inspired fantastical journey through time with circus acts and mural) I read a million books, and interviewed scientists, doctors, muralists, etc. (plus ridiculous amounts of support from Debra Wise & Roxy Myrrhum, who also read, talked, interviewed, fact checked, et al.) The fantasy aspect let me go wild with having dinosaurs as characters, and gave me a reason to have Charles and Emma Darwin show up. I’m a stickler for consistent logic, even in a fantasy. Every universe has its rules.

ArtSake: This is not your first “science” play (Melinda created Girl Meets Boy: A Comedy about the Universe in conjunction with the Boston Museum of Science). Certainly, there are challenges that come with writing about science, but has anything pleasantly surprised you about these projects?

Melinda: I have loved meeting with the scientists in both cases, and most especially with the young women in science who are breaking new ground with their research, and who are Einstein level geniuses — Mary Dussault, at the Harvard Center for Astrophysics & Pardis Sabeti at the Broad at MIT. It’s incredible to live in this area surrounded by this IQ level. My dad and sister are both scientists, and I love the milieu, the questions, the challenge for me to stay coherent. I’m not afraid ever, to say, wait, go back, I don’t understand that. But mostly the concepts are so simple, so beautiful and clear that really, a little kid can follow. And then your head explodes.

ArtSake: You also worked with Underground Railway Theater in 2001 for How Do You Spell Hope? How does an ongoing relationship with a group of collaborating artists impact your writing?

Melinda: It’s a huge part of it. I started work with URT as an actress touring a million years ago. Then writing the first commission, I knew what they could accomplish with puppets and theatre magic. For this play, the concept of the mural came straight from the fact that I knew David Fichter could do it. It’s such an astonishing piece of work. It’s much more beautiful than the play! Also, one of the first questions I asked Debra was, how many actors can I have? She said three, but I begged for one more. So I have four actors, but they play 17 characters. I know URT could handle that.

ArtSake: Your work has been performed by some high-profile actors, including Lea Thompson, Matt McGrath, and Lucie Arnaz (daughter of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz), as well as many of the Boston area’s best. What’s more, you’re an Eliot Norton Award-winning actor yourself. As a playwright, how do you balance your awareness of the actor’s process with your goals as a writer?

Melinda: Derek Walcott, one of my teachers, always stressed that if an actor doesn’t understand the line, you’ve got to change the line. Actors are my inspiration. Everything I write, I think, will an actor have fun with this? It’s how I teach writing as well. You’ve got to hear the words in the mouth and body of a sensitive performer. On the page, it means almost nothing. So in rehearsal, I’m a pain because I’m changing up ’til the last minute, and if you ad lib and you’re funny, I’ll also totally steal your words. I assume, by the middle of rehearsal, that the actors know more about the play than I do.

You asked about working with ‘names.’ I have found for the most part that an actor has a name because they have big talent. To be fair, I have worked with unknown actors who had impossibly huge egos and destroyed the room. I haven’t had that experience with anyone whose name you would recognize.

ArtSake: You teach at a number of universities, including playwriting at Boston University. What do you try to instill in emerging playwrights?

Melinda: Wow. You should ask them! Break your characters. Don’t protect them. That’s the number one thing I see — a playwright has everything lined up, beautiful words, great characters, and killer story, and then they can’t follow through because they love their characters too much. You have to break their little spines, and leave them in the dirt and see if they can get up. If they can, then it’s a comedy.

ArtSake: What are you working on now?

Melinda: I have a 10 minute play that’s part of GRIMM at Company One in June — I based my play on the Grimm Fairy Tale “Stories About Snakes” which no one has ever heard of. Also, Boston Theater Marathon. Then there’s also a big play I am avoiding writing: Spanish American War. I think it’s time for me to go back to Cuba. I’ll work on that this summer.

From Orchids to Octopi by Melinda Lopez runs from March 31 to May 2, 2010, at the Central Square Theater in Cambridge, MA. Many of the performances will include pre- or post-performance discussions by artists and scientists.

Melinda Lopez was the first recipient of the Charlotte Woolard Award, given by the Kennedy Center to a “promising new voice in American Theatre.” Her plays have been produced by the Williamstown Theatre Festival, Huntington Theatre, Coconut Grove Playhouse, the Laguna Playhouse, the Boston Playwrights Theatre, and elsewhere, and have been broadcast on NPR’s “The Play’s the Thing!” Her play Sonia Flew won the Elliot Norton Award for “Best New Play,” and the IRNE (Independent Reviewers of New England) for “Best Play” and “Best Production.” Melinda is also an actress; she has appeared at regional theatres across the country, and is featured in the movie Fever Pitch.

Images: Promotional image for FROM ORCHIDS TO OCTOPI; Melinda Lopez, photo by Ethan Backer; mural created by David Fichter for FROM ORCHIDS TO OCTOPI.

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This Monday, March 22, at 7:30 PM, Sue Murad (Choreography Fellow ’08) and a group of artists will perform Buried in the Park Street Church overlooking the Granary Burial Ground. It’s a work of performance art that culminates three years of research (or rather, begins to culminate, since Sue plans to continue creating new performances).

Sue is one of those artists – and she’ll tell you this herself – that’s really hard to categorize. The same applies to “Buried” and Sue’s ongoing project. The project has its immediate origins in a series of 30 “word themes” that Sue sent to 40 different people last year. Sue asked for their responses to words like harbor, hymn, government, and those responses could be in the form of anecdotes, poetry, or… you name it.

“There was a nice blend of written response,” says Sue. “Some writers were incredibly short and literal. A friend typed me a nice long letter on a single sheet of paper for each word.” Other respondents were less literary. There were sound files, drawings, and collages (such as the collage above, by artist Jessica Gath). Sue read the words to her art group, and observed the movements they made in response.

Those responses, in all their variety, make up the raw material from which Sue created Monday’s performance. But where did the words come from?

To answer that, we need to look back four years, when Sue began reading Biblical stories with a new curiosity: What was happening elsewhere in the world at the same time? She bought a chronological Bible, in which a theologian had noted historical parallels to the stories – for instance, Buddha was born in the time of Daniel. “It threw me!” Sue admits. Prior to that, “the stories had seemed in the clouds. They were truth to my heart, but they didn’t seem like history.” For Sue, the chronology placed the stories “on the Earth.”

So began three years of research undertaken for “the joy of reading and the beauty of culture and the fascination of the planet being full of civilizations at shockingly different stages of development at the same time.” Sue knew the research would eventually lead to some kind of artistic performance, but hinging that performance on a timeline didn’t feel quite right, because of the discrepancies about dates that often accompany ancient history.

“I decided to look back at my notes and see if there were themes that I as an artist found interesting. That’s where this group of 30 words came from. It was hard to get it down to 30, but once I had this list, then I felt I wanted a contemporary collection of voices to respond back.”

Monday’s performance will begin in the Park Street Church lobby, overlooking the Granary Burial Ground, and will rove throughout portions of the church in site-specific responses to the word themes – which are in themselves responses to a study of ancient cultures. (See what I mean about being hard to categorize?)

Sue received her MCC award in Choreography for her work designing movement for the art rock band UV Protection. The award may not have resolved the “category” question once and for all, but it did validate Sue’s artistic work. “Because I was always in the band world, it felt far from art dialogue. So much art is about conversation. To know that I put something out there to other choreographers, to other people who love dance, and that they would award it, was wonderful to me.”

When she received the grant, she earmarked some for expenses like loans and new equipment, shared a portion with her UV Protection bandmates, and, curiously, set aside an amount to give to another artist she wanted to support and encourage. This choice, too, has its roots in ancient literature. “Biblically, it’s called a tithe,” she says.

Performance details:
Buried
Funerals and other formal arrangements. Please wear black. Performance art orchestrated by Sue Murad.
Monday, March 22nd
7:15 pm Doors open, 7:30 pm Service

Site specific location: Ockenga Lobby overlooking the Granary Burying Ground
Park Street Church (side entrance) in Boston

Developed & Performed by: Kat Callard, Jess Gath, Heidi Katz, Sue Murad, Mehran Namazi, Michal Shapiro, Cari Senefski, Sara Sussman, Liz Weir, Rita Wong, and others.

Image and video: A collage in response to the word buried by Jessica Gath; a video excerpt of DROP POP by UV Protection.

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For writers who long to be heard: A new literary magazine, The Drum, has been launched by Henriette Lazaridis Power (a 2006 Artist Fellow in Fiction/Creative Nonfiction). The Drum publishes, in audio form, short fiction, essays, and the occasional author interview. The inaugural issue comes out in May. Says Henriette, “We’re looking for work that pays close attention to language while never losing sight of the narrative drive. We want stories that really do tell a story. And essays that engage in the complexity of an idea. The Drum is a home for emerging and established writers who value the power of writing out loud.”

For filmmakers seeking composers (& vice versa): the Learning Center and the Film Scoring Department at Berklee College of Music will host the 5th Annual Music for Film networking event on Saturday, April 10, 2010 from 1:30–7 p.m. The event, free and open to the public, includes a speakers’ panel about the filmmaker/composer relationship, a presentation by film composer Mason Daring (Lone Star), a film scoring contest, and an exposition where students and professionals will have booths, exchange demos and business cards, and talk about their work. Register and find more info.

For emerging playwrights: The Princess Grace Awards Playwright Fellowship is given annually to a young American playwright, consists of a $7,500 grant and a ten-week residence, including paid travel, at New Dramatists, a playwright service organization, in New York City. The award is based primarily on the artistic quality of a submitted play and the potential of the fellowship to assist in the writer’s growth. Read the guidelines at www.pgfusa.org and apply by March 31, 2010.

For artists with disabilities: VSA, the International Organization on Arts and Disability, has announced the VSA Teaching Artist Fellowship Program, seeking to identify, engage, and support artists with disabilities through teaching artist fellowships in the visual and performing arts. This competitive fellowship offers a professional development retreat in Washington D.C., subscriptions/memberships within VSA’s teaching artist network, networking and teaching opportunities, enrollment in VSA Community of Practice, and the opportunity to serve as facilitators for VSA’s education programs. Fellows will also be profiled in VSA publications. Submission deadline: April 23, 2010. Find guidelines, application forms, and more information.

AND you can continue your opportunities search at these great sites for finding artist grants, residencies, calls-to-artists, etc:

• Mira’s List (a labor-of-love blog just teeming with artist opportunities listings)
• ArtSource (an online resource of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts)
• NYFA Source (a search engine for artist opportunities, hosted by the New York Foundation for the Arts but with a national scope)

Image: TOWNSEND’S PATENT FOLDING GLOBE, created by Dennis Townsend (1869). From the Boston Public Library Norman B. Leventhal Map Center.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/boston_public_library/ / CC BY 2.0

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Ralf Yusuf Gawlick (Music Composition Fellow ’09) was born in Germany, of Turkish-Kurdish descent. He’s lived and worked in the United States and Europe, and through his wife, has become particularly connected to Poland (his “adopted country”).

With that breadth of personal experience, perhaps it should come as no surprise that his musical compositions seem to move with the sweep of many histories. His compositions are deep engagements of the conscience and mind, drawing on the poetry of Pope John Paul II, the tumult of the Berlin Wall, or the plight of Polish orphans on a children’s crusade.

Listen to an excerpt of Ralf Yusuf Gawlick’s Glocken-spiel for piano quartet

Berlin Suite and a new CD
I had the pleasure of meeting Ralf this past November, at a Massachusetts State House event to celebrate the 2009 Artist Fellows and Finalists. Gracious and deeply invested in his work, he shared how he’d been commissioned by Boston College and the German Embassy to write the music for the film Writing on the Wall: Remembering the Berlin Wall. The film has since screened at numerous venues, including the MFA Boston.

Ralf’s score will be performed as a concert suite by the Hawthorne String Quartet on Wednesday, March 17, at Gasson 100, Boston College, in Chestnut Hill. There’s a reception at 7 PM to celebrate Ralf’s new CD, Ralf Yusuf Gawlick: Solo and Chamber Works, from Musica Omnia. A free performance of the film score, called “Berlin Suite Opus 15,” is at 8 PM.

Kinderkreuzzug
Then next month (April 10 and 11), Ralf will premiere a large-scale work for children’s voices and  a small chamber ensemble, called the Kinderkreuzzug Cantata. Its text is the anti-war poetry of Bertolt Brecht, written after the playwright’s 1933 escape from Nazi Germany. The story follows 50 orphaned children who embark on an extraordinary crusade: they leave war-torn Poland in hopes of finding a land of peace.

The scale of the project’s vision is matched in performance: two New England children’s choirs will be joined by a choir from Germany, sponsored to visit New England specifically for this piece. They will perform the cantata twice, publicly, as well as offer a separate program of their own (see information below), then record the cantata for a future Musica Omnia release.

In a statement about the cantata, Ralf writes, “Brecht’s children still walk and suffer in our collective conscience. Although my music may not give bread, it may just harbor their hope, and ours, for the extraordinary.”

Performances of the Kinderkreuzzug Cantata
Saturday, April 10, 7:30 PM, Premiere of Kinderkreuzzug Cantata, St. Ignatius, Chestnut Hill

Sunday, April 11, 3 PM, 2nd performance of Kinderkreuzzug Cantata, Trinity Episcopal, Concord

Knabenchor der Chorakademie Dortmund, the German choir visiting for the premiere, will also hold a separate concert on Friday, April 9, 7-9 PM, at the First Lutheran Church, Boston

Tickets for the concerts on April 9, 10 and 11 are: $16 adults, $10 students, children.

Kinderkreuzzug features Knabenchor der Chorakademie Dortmund (conductor, Jost Salm), Treble Chorus of New England (c. Valerie Becker), Youth Pro Musica (c. Robert Barney); small chamber ensemble: Richard Shaughnessy (clarinet), Blanka Bednarz (violin), Elizabeth Kuefler (viola), Rafael Popper-Keizer (cello), Heinrich Christensen (organ).

The cantata and performances are sponsored by Goethe Institute in Boston, Goethe Institute in Munich, Newton Cultural Council, German Consulate General Boston, School of Arts & Sciences, Boston College Institute of Liberal Arts, Boston College Arts for Social Responsibility, Boston College Jesuit Institute, Boston College.

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