ArtSake

THE ROYAL FROG BALLET is an amoeba of collaborators, a producing body, a shouting household of households, and an aspiring dance team in search of parade.

- from the troupe’s website (do you, too, get the feeling its audience is in for an interesting time?)

The Royal Frog Ballet is a cross-disciplinary group that blends performance, visual art, music, movement, and a sensibility that’s equal parts Vaudeville and avant-garde. And that encapsulation undoubtedly leaves out important facets of the RFB, because it’s just one hard-to-encapsulate group.

So we asked Sophie Wood, co-director of the troupe (which is based in Northampton but includes members from elsewhere on the East Coast), to elaborate, in advance of an appearance in the upcoming HONK! Festival in Somerville (October 8-10) and a Surrealist Cabaret and Pumpkin Walk in Amherst (October 22-24).

ArtSake: I’m interested in a recent collaboration by The Royal Frog Ballet, The Leaving Nest at the A.P.E. Gallery in Northampton. Can you talk about the interdisciplinary nature of that project – it was billed as “an installation, performance series, and window garden” – and how it relates to the identity of your troupe?

Sophie Wood: Our original idea for using the gallery was to expose our art making process, as well as a product or performance, as part of the showing. The A.P.E. Gallery (as a space) is aesthetically very different from the spaces that we were used to performing in and creating installations for: usually we’re in a barn or a field or a community center or someone’s living room. I think that we were all a little unsettled by the idea of being in a very classy, clean, professional gallery space, and have spent lots of time intentionally creating art that isn’t meant for galleries. But we also wanted to try something different, and were really intrigued by the giant window that is the front of the gallery space which is right on Main Street in Northampton, and generally the down town location as a way of reaching new audiences.

The desire to present our process is part of our aesthetic and identity, I suppose, in that we want to create art that is accessible, that feels down home, that feels like you could make it too, without compromising the quality or the vision. We try to use materials that are cheap or reused, to use spaces that aren’t traditional performance venues, singers that have never sung before. I think part of that is a desire to create art that inspires other people to make art, and part of that is a desire to inspire ourselves to try anything that we want to, regardless of whether or not it’s the ‘art’ that we study or practice. We want to make encouraging art, not untouchable art.

The Leaving Nest was a three week installation. The week before the gallery opened, two muralists started painting on the big walls opposite each other, a team of builders started building a giant boat/house like structure (on wheels) in the center of the room, some gardeners put 30 amaryllis bulbs that had been started a month before in pots in front of the window on Main Street, a pin hole camera was set up with props, and the dancers and writers and costume makers wandered around making little messes in the corners.

The first week we had a gallery opening, and at that point the murals and sculpture were all in a state that could be called finished, the bulbs were poking up in various stages, headed towards blooming, and there were about 8 costumed living human statues amongst the plants and on the boat, and the visitors were being photographed by the camera.

After the opening, we were in the gallery each night after hours, changing the installation, adding to the sculpture, watering the plants painting more on the murals, adding more props, but each day when the gallery opened, all of the art was “finished” and ready for gallery viewing. At night people were always peering in the windows, watching us work or rehearse; we did a lot of singing and dancing in the space at night also.

The second week we performed a costumed and performative singing show from on top of the boat/house, that had been rehearsed and created that week in the space, and the third week we presented a performative choreographic spoken word show that had also been created in the space. The changes made to the murals and the sculpture reflected and added to the performances. Characters from the first show appeared in the murals by the second show, writing from both shows inspired additions to the sculpture and murals, images from the gallery appeared in the writing.

It was an incredibly exhausting, challenging, intensive experience for us as a collective and as individuals. It was extremely educational and thought-provoking and opened up a lot of discussion in the collective about how we present work, how we advertise it, how we structure our decision making. We’re just figuring it out as we go along, following what excites us.

ArtSake: Artists in the Royal Frog Ballet have been creatively collaborating for a long time (you call it an “ever-extending collection of housemates, friends, loves, siblings, classmates, co-workers, neighbors, and networkers”). What are the benefits of a deep and sustained creative partnership?

Sophie: We’ve all been developing our individual art heavily influenced by our surroundings, which, for many of us, for a long time, has included each other. We read lots of the same books, see lots of the same shows, hear lots of the same music; Our thought patterns have become similar, but our brains and how we process ideas, images, organization, are still very much individual. We introduce each other to new concepts, images, sounds, and pick them apart or build off of them together. The benefit is never having to explain yourself and who you are before you explain your idea. The benefits are similar to the benefits of family; Sometimes they drive you bonkers, but their confidence in you is irrationally solid, their support is unending, and their understanding of who you are is inexplicable.

We know what each other’s abilities are and what our weaknesses are and where we struggle and where we excel and when and how to push and when to encourage and make tea, and when to stop. We know how we tick. We can usually read each other, for better or worse, as whole humans, not just as artists. If someone is struggling with an idea or at a rehearsal, we can often read or feel comfortable asking if it has to do with the art or with something unrelated. We know what to expect, and also we know what wonderful, creative, irrational, unexpectable beings we all are. We have a lot of minds to help us create that know us well, that live in our same world of place and of image and idea, but don’t see or process the world in the same way.

ArtSake: I love the premise behind the Surrealist Cabaret: an open studio for performance artists. Can you offer a few snapshots of what an audience visiting your “studios” might experience?

Sophie: That’s top secret. Or, maybe the studio hasn’t even been opened yet.

Could be that they see moving sculptures, a dance number or two, unexpected instruments, extravagant pumpkin art made by lots of ‘pumpkin artists’, magical landscape occurrences, unusual tree fruit, beasts of all shapes and varieties, and masked story tellers of questionable quality.

Couldn’t rightly say.

ArtSake: The Royal Frog Ballet is participating in the HONK! festival for the second time. Can you talk about how your troupe’s aesthetic jells with the spirit of HONK?

Sophie: I think our ‘aesthetic’ as a group is based whether or not it’s going to be a good time, satisfying, joyous, magical, or cathartic. HONK! is an unbelievable event. To me the most radical part of HONK! is how much pure fun it is, how inclusive that fun is, and that the inclusivity doesn’t make the fun lose any of its grittiness or edge. So, when we had the opportunity to bring our clowns (who follow no rules or choreography) to the streets with our ‘instruments’ (sculptures), it was too much of a good time to pass up.

ArtSake: Sophie, do you create your own solo work? And if so, how does it differ and/or crossover with the work of the troupe?

Sophie: I do, I have, I will, it’s complicated. I write poems and little books for bad days, I make exotic pinatas for weddings, paintings and collages for birthdays, papier mache sculptures, I dance, I perform, I make puppets and masks and costumes, I write plays, I dream of mastering the spoons. I co-direct a Shakespeare and physical comedy program for young people in Vermont. I make and do whatever strikes my fancy. Since a fair amount of my time goes towards the organizational and secretarial aspects of the Ballet, and setting up events in which to share work (which I then share work in), the difference between my work and Ballet work sometimes feels murky. I think the bulk of work that I make that seems most clearly my own is work that never gets shown, (or isn’t meant to be). One of the main reasons that working together was so appealing from the beginning is that it’s intimidating and exhausting to show work by yourself. It can lead to a lot of lonely artistic doubt. Support and encouragement to show and put art out in the world, regardless of how ‘ready’ it is, is one of my favorite aspects of working with the RFB.

ArtSake: What’s up next for The Royal Frog Ballet?

Sophie: A nap. A meeting. A bowl of french fries. A winter full of of individual touring and art making. A street performance event in Northampton in April, featuring members of our collective and other companies and artists from New England.

The Royal Frog Ballet will participate in the HONK! Parade in Somerville, Sunday, October 10, 2010. They present the Third Annual Surrealist Cabaret and Pumpkin Walk at 5:30 PM (rain or shine) on October 22, 23, and 24, at Old Friends Farm on Bramble Hill in Amherst, MA.

Sophie Wood co-directs the Royal Frog Ballet and the Get Thee To The Funnery! Shakespeare Program and several other theater workshops for young people in Central Vermont.

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Joseph Krupczynski aims to bring fresh fruits and vegetables to low-income communities in Western Massachusetts using a “green” service vehicle through the public art project called the Moveable Feast.

What inspired you to create the Movable Feast Project?
Loretta Yarlow, the director of the University Gallery at UMass asked me if I was interested in putting together a public art project (with community engagement) as part of their contribution to Museums10 Fall 2010 exhibition theme of “Food.” Since I have been working in the last few years with Nuestras Raices in Holyoke (on the design for an educational/restaurant structure for their farm), I thought that they would be an excellent collaborative partner for such a project since their work is “food” and “community” focused. So I started a conversation with the director of Nuestras Raices and asked what projects they were developing that I might contribute to in a public art context. In those conversations I learned that, through their work with the Holyoke Food and Fitness Policy Council, they had identified the development of mobile markets/kitchens as one of the outreach priorities (whose primary objective is to reach low-income neighborhoods in the region with poor access to fresh fruits and vegetables) and they were planning on purchasing a food trailer for that use. Once we knew that the food trailer would be the subject/object of this project, “Moveable Feast” was born.

Where do the fruits and vegetables come from?
All the primary ingredients of all the food served from the trailer are sourced from local farms, including farmers from Nuestras Raices, La Finca.

What do you say to people who might say “how can this be art”?
My definition of art is that it should catalyze a renewed perception of our world –and it is my hope that “Movable Feast” is a visual (as well as a culinary) catalyst to re-vision how we see our local food system. I also believe that a public art project such as this can creatively transform local conditions and build uncharacteristic forms of associations among a diverse group of community residents—establishing and elaborating a unique alternate form of sociality. This process allows for the production of “things” (conversations, meals, performances, effects) that are transformed into “artworks” within this broadened framework. The project is an artistic production that also works as a collective learning project—promoting internal reflection, horizontal exchange, and vertical collaborations and partnerships. For me, the project is inspired by the idea that art can expand conventional notions of people, place and the art-making process. It is part of a broader effort to create works through participatory processes where the work’s visual and physical characteristics grow out of a reflective engagement with the community. So the work seeks not to simply “beautify” a site, but to use art and the art-making process as a means to bridge the gaps between the aesthetic, social and everyday perceptions of art and life.

What do you hope to achieve by undertaking the Movable Feast Project?
See above… but, also: One of the social issues/conditions that this project seeks to address is the disparities in access to healthy food –which remain an important challenge today, contributing to obesity and other related health problems. Yet, there are strategies being implemented across the country to address this issue. By providing a context for discussing, highlighting and disseminating information about healthy community-based food practices in Western Massachusetts’ diverse communities, this project seeks to become part of this growing movement (in a small, humble way) that provide realizable solutions.

Is there any fruit or vegetable you are not fond of? (Disclaimer, this ArtSake writer is a vegetarian).
Kiwi! …for some reason it makes me break out.

All dates and locations for the Moveable Feast are subject to change so be sure to check for updates.

Sunday 10/3 1:30 – 3:00 PM & 4:00 – 5:30 PM
Holyoke / Toepfert Apartments, North Summer Street &
Beaudoin Village, Leary Drive

Tuesday 10/5 4:30 – 7:00 PM
Amherst / Food for Thought Books / Panel Discussion
106 North Pleasant Street

Saturday 10/9 10:00 – 2:00PM
Springfield / Mason Square Farmers Market
11 Wilbraham Road

Tuesday 10/12 3:00 – 5:00 PM
Holyoke / El Arco Iris
561 South Canal Street

Image credit: All images courtesy of Joseph Krupczynski.

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Nine Boston-area artists are currently exhibiting in the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston’s 2010 James and Audrey Foster Prize Exhibition. The artists (six of which are past MCC fellows!) are finalists for the prestigious $25,000 prize, which will be announced January 2011.

We thought it would be interesting to peek inside the workspace of these exciting, innovative artists. Here, Evelyn Rydz (Drawing Fellow ’10) explores the making of her intricate, entrancing drawings.

Over the last few years I have been making regular visits to coastlines to document objects that have washed ashore. I am interested in the stories these found objects tell of relocation, transformation, and the suggestions of past events that have made them castaways in foreign landscapes. A selection of drawings from two related bodies of work inspired by my coastal visits are included in the Foster Prize Exhibition.The first group of drawings, Castaways, maps out items the sea has rejected, as I have found them; while the second group, Drifting Islands, creates places where they exist together.

My work always begins with photographs. I photograph objects and places that have undergone significant change or that are in a process of transformation. I categorize, reorganize, and often times collage these images into new landscapes. A main component of my work is in exploring the details. I learn about the objects as I draw them, investigating each part completely. I think of the details in the objects like scars and wrinkles that contain endless information about the past.

The Castaways drawings, chart washed ashore objects that have been lost, abandoned, or possibly defeated at sea. I am intrigued by how these objects come together and become camouflaged in their new environments. Some examples of this can be seen in the piece of bright blue insulation foam with barnacles growing along its side or in the rusted beer can covered with algae and shells. This catalog of flotsam is drawn from an intimate eyelevel perspective with the found object; the sea is a faint line in the distance. These drawings focus on each detail of the found object, including its texture, altered surface, color, and size, giving them unique identities, while the settings are minimal black and white summaries of the space. Each object becomes like an actor spot lit on stage.

The second group of drawings, Drifting Islands, which stems from this flotsam catalog, merges these found objects with fragments of disparate places into unexpected islands. From early sea explorers, to Homer’s seascapes, to Darwin in the Galapagos, and TV shows like Lost, there are endless stories of our lure to the sea. Working from both observation and imagination, these drawings are based on adaptation, possibilities of new environments, and questions of how future landscapes will evolve.

Evelyn Rydz‘s drawings, along with work by the other eight 2010 Foster Prize finalists, will be exhibited at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston through January 17, 2011.

All images by Evelyn Rydz: DRIFTING ISLAND #3 (2009), Pencil, Color Pencil, and Acrylic on Two Sheets of Duralar, 21×32 in; studio materials; Evelyn Rydz, at work in her studio (photo by Meredith Pierce); RED GLOVE (2010), Pencil and Color Pencil on Duralar, 11×14 in; PINK BALLOON (2010), Pencil and Color Pencil on Duralar, 11×14 in; DRIFTING ISLAND #5 (2009), Pencil, Color Pencil, and Acrylic on Two Sheets of Duralar, 22×52 in; detail of DRIFTING ISLAND #5 (2009).

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Musicians and Visual Artists The Barnstable Senior Center is looking for artists and musicians to share their talents and passions to visitors to the center. Classes are offered year round and there is a small stipend for teaching. Contact Susan Griffin at 508-862-4761 or susan.griffin@town.barnstable.ma.us.

Call for Art The Open Door Gallery at Very Special Arts Massachusetts is looking for artists & crafters for a gallery exhibit: A Holiday Affair. Open to all media, including 2-D, photography, mixed media, crafts, and experimental works. All works must be “original” and have been completed within the last five years. Deadline: October 1, 2010

Call to Artists Caladan Gallery presents a juried exhibition entitled “From Darkness to Light: Rites and Rituals of Transcendence.” This exhibition will focus on the search for meaning as reflected visually through the influence of ancient tradition. All mediums except video are eligible. Contact 617-838-8929 or director@caladangallery.com.
Deadline: October 25, 2010

Filmmakers Call for Entries for the Boston Independent Film Festival.
Deadline: October 29, 2010

Masters of Fine Arts Candidates The Open Studios Press sponsors a juried competition for students enrolled in a US-based MFA program. Winners receive full-color spreads in New American Paintings. All styles and media are welcome, as long as the work is singular and two-dimensional. Candidates must be currently enrolled in a school located in the US. Contact 617-778-5265.
Deadline: October 31 2010

Call to Artists Abington Arts Center seeks artists for their annual juried show December 11, 2010 to January 29, 2011. Each artist may submit two entries of any medium created in the last three years. Learn more.
Deadline: December 3, 2010 (10am-5pm) and December 4, 2010 (10am-3pm)

Image credit: Photograph by ArtSake.

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Alexandria Marzana-Lesnevich is writing her first book, a personal narrative about a Louisiana death penalty case, and she recently received some conspicuous encouragement. She won a 2010 Rona Jaffe Award, a $25,000 grant given to emerging female writers.

Alexandria lives in Jamaica Plain, and it turns out the prestigious award she’s just won has a nice, ongoing relationship with Massachusetts literature. Past local awardees include Sarah Braunstein (2007), Carin Clevidence (2004), and Ploughshares editor-in-chief Ladette Randolph (2002). And when Alexandria is formally honored for her achievement tonight at the NYU Lillian Vernon Creative Writers House, the evening’s guest will be Jane Brox, a past MCC Artist Fellow.

Alexandria, who will read at the popular Four Stories series in Cambridge on October 18, was kind enough to check in for an ArtSake nano-interview (presumably using a computer newer than a Commodore 64 – see answer 3).

What’s the best/worst day job you’ve ever had?
Best and worst are actually the same: I was a balloon girl at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago. The job involved the holding of thirty large, animal-shaped mylar balloons. I loved the serenity of it: strolling the zoo’s winding paths, watching the animals, watching people smile at the sight of so many balloons. One summer afternoon, a preschool summer camp walked by me, each kid holding hands with a buddy. One of the counselors said, “There’s the balloon girl! Let’s get her!” The kids dropped hands and piled on me. I lost every single balloon. I radioed headquarters and told them I’d been mugged by midgets.

Were President Obama to create a cabinet post in the arts, whom should he appoint as Secretary?
I think we’ve all agreed that Marilynne Robinson should basically win everything.

Computer, longhand, or typewriter?
Computer. I wrote a novel on a Commodore 64 as a kid, and the combination of screen and keys feels the closest to a conduit for thought. Having said that, I mourn the loss of the typewriter’s aesthetics. For example, who gets a tattoo of a computer keyboard?

Do you secretly dream of being a) a pop icon, b) an algebra teacher, and/or c) a crime-solver/writer a la Jessica Fletcher?
I spend enough time reading court transcripts that it ought to be (c). But it’s (a), as any regular at my local karaoke bar (the Midway) can tell you. Specifically, I would really, really like to be Springsteen.

Share a surprise twist in the Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich story.
I feel like the surprise twists keep coming, most recently with this award! But let’s go with my mother’s response when I informed her that her daughter planned to take a perfectly good, freshly minted Harvard JD and use it to become an unemployed writer: “Thank God, I never thought you’d be happy as a lawyer.” I’ll always be grateful she said that. (Though I do sometimes wish she’d spoken up before I racked up three years of law loans!) I should add that my mother’s a lawyer, as is my father, one sister, and one brother-in-law. They know from whence they speak.

How many revisions does your work typically go through?
I’m a tinkerer, sometimes for better and sometimes for worse but almost always for annoying, I imagine. Between the time Kim Stafford chose my essay “In the Fade” for the Annie Dillard Award at Bellingham Review and the time Bellingham actually published it, I think I sent them four new drafts – and they obviously liked the first submission well enough! I’m always happy when I see an author’s note in a collection that stories previously appeared somewhere “in different form.” My brethren!

Alexandria reads as part of the Four Stories Reading Series at the Enormous Room in Central Square, Cambridge, on Monday, October 18, 7 PM, with music starting at 6 PM.

Alexandria Marzana-Lesnevich received her JD from Harvard Law School in 2005 and her MFA from Emerson College in 2009. Her prose, both fiction and nonfiction, appears or is forthcoming in Bellingham Review, Fourth Genre, and Southeast Review, among other publications. She has received the Annie Dillard Award in Creative Nonfiction, the Ragdale Foundation’s Alice Hayes Fellowship for social justice writing, and a Millay Colony residency fellowship. Currently, Alexandria lives in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, and teaches creative writing at Boston’s Grub Street.

Image: Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich, photo by Caleb Cole.

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Today’s glimpse from our gallery of past MCC fellows/finalists is from Lisa Olivieri‘s (Film & Video Finalist ’09) stirring documentary Helen Keller Had It Easy, about a woman living creatively despite losing her sight and hearing.

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Salem Theatre Company is about to launch an intriguing season of theatre on the North Shore: five plays, all by living, working female playwrights. We asked storyteller and playwright Judith Black, whose play Bittersweet Midnight is about to premiere in Salem, and STC Artistic Director John Fogle, to delve into the details of their work as theatre artists. Here, they elaborate on storytelling and history, the arts as a tool for humankind, and contemporary voices in theatre.

ArtSake: Judith, can you tell us about Bittersweet Midnight – what are the origins of the play? And can you talk about the decision to connect the story of Wilmot Redd, a victim of the Salem witch hysteria, with contemporary tales of women?

Judith Black: I do a lot of work with teenagers in my town through a volunteer program, Bridging Lives. It’s a big brother/big sister program that Dr. Jack Welter and I started ten years ago. When you see how profoundly affected a life can be by one human being to the ill or the well, you know that little has changed in this world. In Old Towne, the piece about Mammy Redd, it is an opportunity to explore how two lives, that of a “grouty” old woman and a young orphan girl, are impacted by one another and the immediate world in which they dwell. Teenagers can have their lives destroyed by cyber bullying. One cruel word or misunderstood picture is suddenly the providence of their entire world. In 1692 all one person had to do was call out “witch,” and a woman’s world was destroyed. I hope that in exploring the ancient we will have a clearer vision of the present. Also, when one’s world is locked into a theology where you are born in sin, work a plot of land all your life, then die and go to Hell, one wonders where redemption might be. This piece attempts an answer.

The second act is simply raucous fun and terror as I explore women’s compulsive relationships with food, sex and their mothers. This is a sacred trilogy!

ArtSake: What does it mean to premiere this work, so steeped in local history, in Salem?

Judith: It means that the authentically historic parts had better be correct! I did most of the research at the Essex Institute, but have run the story for folks at the Marblehead Historical Society and for the history diva of Marblehead, Bette Hunt. Bette was brilliantly helpful. Who knew that Brown’s island was known as Charles Island in 1689? Bette Hunt does!

ArtSake: How does your background as a storyteller inform the way you created this play?

Judith: When you are working with a piece of history the facts are given, but never the human motivations. It is those that enable humans to identify with another time and place. As a storyteller it is my job to discover and make those motivations available to listeners so they are on a journey of the heart.

The tales about women’s passions emerge right out of my life. After a 4 day retreat at Kripala for women with eating disorders that was charmingly called “What am i hungry for” the one issue that was never addressed would not go away. That was the relationship, or lack of it, between the svelts and zaftigs, or in common parlance, the fats and the skinnies or the bulimics/anorexics and compulsive over eaters. Exploring that was the root for the story Hungry. The Window Washers is the middle aged woman’s version of her husband going to the cheerleader car wash. The final story, about disappointed mothers and disappointing daughters, is simply the stuff that our lives are made of, and you will laugh till you weep.

ArtSake: John, the current Salem Theatre Company season has a heavy emphasis on contemporary plays by current working playwrights. What draws you to new and contemporary work?

John Fogle: This answer may ramble a bit… and this is perhaps a bit bookish… but I see all arts as humankind’s unique problem-solving tool. The well-made play – be it a tragedy, comedy or something in between – usually presents a troublesome situation and shows us a resolution – happy, sad or bittersweet. Because we, as the audience, have no moral responsibility for what occurs onstage, we can absorb these “lessons in life” with our defenses down. The theatre – and the arts in general – is where we tackle the dangerous stuff. So, I look for plays that promise to fill this role. Plays which relate.

And these are the type of plays I like to work on, to spend my time with.

I made a list of all the female playwrights I could think of, wanting the gather some of the strongest, best-known artists out there. Because audiences tend to respond to plays or playwrights they have some familiarity with, I zeroed in on the award-winning playwrights and on plays with a reputation for success.

(An aside: in my salad days, I worked for the Orson Welles Cinema Complex in Cambridge – first as cinema manager, then as Adv/Promotion Manager. We were in the cinema art & revival business – old movies – and we often quipped that you could get folks to see the new movie or the old play but not the old movie or the new [read unknown] play. True still, I think.)

Then I had to be concerned with finding plays which would work well in our small, rather basic theatre space. Also, I tried to consider “balance.” A mix of pure drama (Wit by Margaret Edson) and comedy (The Long Christmas Ride Home by Paula Vogel), realistic (Painting Churches by Tina Howe) and impressionistic, cutting-edge (Dead Man’s Cellphone by Sarah Ruhl) and more traditional narrative styles. Plus something from an established but local playwright/performer… which is what my long-time friend Judith Black brings to the party.

Finally, the plays had to “speak to me” (cliche!) about something that mattered.

ArtSake: I’m interested in the variety of STC’s programming, too, with a music calendar as well as cross-over events with artists from numerous disciplines – flash fiction writers, improv performers, even an “original theatrical bellydance.” What does this blend of styles and disciplines add to your identity as a theatre troupe?

John: Variety is the spice of life and we want to appeal to the broadest possible audience in our community. Our theatre space is an excellent small venue for music, stand-up, readers’ theatre, and the like – so we are eager to provide entertainments to these market segments and to introduce as many people as possible to our space. Getting “on the map” in the local consciousness is a long process. We hope that our diversity of offerings will advance that process.

Bittersweet Midnight by Judith Black, directed by John Fogle, will be performed at the Salem Theatre Company September 30-October 16, 2010.

John Fogle is a director, designer, and actor, and is Artistic Director of the Salem Theatre Company.

Judith Black is an nationally recognized professional storyteller.

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Crowdfunding (fundraising through a network of individual donors, often using the Internet) is a model with increasing potential for artists looking to realize creative projects. Some projects – usually those with a DIY ethos – are natural fits with the self-driven crowdfunding model. Recent success stories like The Big Hammock project in Boston’s Rose Kennedy Greenway and Dresden Dolls chantreuse Amanda Palmer producing/recording a young musician (whom she literally discovered on the sidewalk outside Berklee College of Music) share an ambitious, more-with-less flair. Both were done through Kickstarter, a NY-based organization that encourages industrious folks to offer creative rewards to donors who support their projects.

Recently, perusing the Boston-area projects currently active on Kickstarter, I came across the Boston Composers’ Coalition. Their project is innovative in its simplicity: a diverse group of individual composers works directly with music ensembles to produce evening-length concerts of new work. The BCC Kickstarter campaign seeks funds to support a season of three concerts, each featuring a different ensemble, and each comprised of new music by the Coalition’s members written specifically for that ensemble.

Justin Casinghino is director and one of the founders of Boston Composers’ Coalition, and here, he discusses the origins of the group, the Kickstarter campaign, and a composition/performance model that’s both inventive and steeped in the history of music composition.

ArtSake: How did your unique, collaborative performance model come to be the mission of the Boston Composers’ Coalition?

Justin Casinghino: The idea behind the BCC first started with wanting to ensure that my colleagues and I would have ample performance opportunities after having completed our doctoral studies. So I knew I wanted to form a composers’ group, but also knew I wanted it to have some special characteristics in order to set it apart from similar organizations in the area. The collaborative element came into play through my discussions with both composers and performers. The one common thread that I found was that composers tended to be unsatisfied with how performers interpreted their work, while performers seemed to expect a piece to have complete perfection from the start, holding the composers incompetent if it didn’t. Each party was faulting the other, while doing their part of the project wholly in a box, separate from one another.

In truth, composers and performers do not exist without each other. We have so much evidence of the great masters of the craft, Brahms being an excellent example, working closely with musicians to create the strongest pieces of music possible. The two parties functioned together in a creative yet collaborative manner. The goal of the BCC is to continually have our composers and performers working on a collegial, positive level. I came to realize that the best way to go about this was to have all the composers work with a single ensemble; writing specifically for a group that we knew was interested in our ideals. Our first step for each concert is a meeting with the ensemble and all of our composers, where we discuss the specifics of that particular group, rather than just writing for a general make-up of the given instruments. Through this, we hope to ensure that each party has an equal interest in offering the best presentation possible.

ArtSake: So far, two ensembles are listed as collaborators for your first season. The Fourth Wall Ensemble blends music with dance and acting, and The Arcadian Winds is a wind quintet founded at Boston University. What drew you to these ensembles? And can you talk about the process of composing for a specific group of performers?

Justin: Our connection to the Fourth Wall is actually through BCC co-founder Brett Abigaña. Brett’s sister Hilary is the flutist for the ensemble. When she heard about our plan, she wanted to be a part of it. We felt that the Fourth Wall would be an excellent group for our inaugural concert for several reasons. First, they are in similar professional states as our BCC composers, being early in their professional careers, yet trying to connect with wider audiences by being willing to do something different. The musicians in this ensemble are amazing performers who want to diversify what they do, keeping creativity an active part of their artistic presentation. With all this in mind, they just seemed to fit the bill perfectly to get the BCC out of the starting gates.

As for The Arcadian Winds, all the composers in our group also have a BU affiliation. We put out some feelers to several area ensembles and Arcadian was very interested. We as a composers’ group are certainly excited to work with an ensemble of Arcadian’s caliber, and all felt that our shared collegiate affiliations were one that was an exciting backdrop to the collaboration. We do have a planned third concert with a flute and harp duet and are already receiving a good deal of interest from a host of area ensembles for future seasons. In general, performers have been particularly receptive to the fact that our group wants to work with an ensemble, not just have them play pieces that were composed prior. We have also had a wealth of positive feedback when ensembles hear that we will be presenting some performances in non-traditional venues, including live web-streams.

As I mentioned earlier, out first step in each concert is a meeting with the given ensemble. This meeting allows us to hear about the strengths of each group as an ensemble, and as individual members. There is something special about writing for someone in particular. To know that you are not writing for a trombonist, but for this trombonist is exciting. At least for me, it adds a whole level of inspiration to the work that I am doing. As for the ensembles, this meeting gives them a chance to discuss their particular needs with us as composers. For instance, a percussionist can speak to us directly about his set-up and notation likes. Further, a group like a brass quintet can be actively involved in the development of a program, which helps them ensure that the full concert is one that won’t be too physically demanding. In other words, they can make sure not everything is a high, fast ripping piece. When an ensemble chooses their programs, they keep these things in mind. With our composers’ group, the ensembles can have this luxury with a fully new program, which was specifically composed for them.

ArtSake: I’m intrigued by the creative rewards you’re offering in your Kickstarter campaign: those who pledge $250 or more will have a one-minute piece of music individually composed for them; pledge $500 or more and you can add on a 30-minute composition lesson. Why did crowdfunding appeal to you as a way to support your first season?

Justin: We needed to come up with our initial funding in a relatively quick manner. Kickstarter is an innovative funding model that is making a lot of waves right now, and seemed like a great way for us to simultaneously generate funds and get the word out about the group. The Kickstarter campaign, if successful, will fund a portion of our first season, and then we will continue with more traditional funding methods. As far as our donor awards are concerned, after speaking with the Kickstarter team (who were great to work with), we wanted to come up with some initiatives that were specific to us. Unlike many of the projects on Kickstarter, we are not creating a physical product like a CD. So, we decided that these upper level prizes would be an exciting way to get back to what art funding once was; if you can help us in a significant manner, we will sincerely dedicate a portion of our artistic output to you. To add to the prizes that you listed in your question, another donor level that we think is particularly exciting is the $100 reward, where we take a recording of the donor’s voice, which can be done over the phone, and create a fixed-media electro-acoustic composition from it. In any event, writing and teaching music is what we do, we are happy to share it. I think this type of funding makes sense in today’s market, and also gives those who can only contribute a small amount the opportunity to be part of the endeavor. I really feel that this model is a way to open the arts up to the wider populace, allowing a group like the BCC to be out in the community from its inception.

ArtSake: The composers in your coalition introduce a wide range of elements into their music, from chamber music to jazz and pop, gamelans to robotic glockenspiels, video games to electro-acoustic. Is there any one common attribute that links you all as composers?

Justin: The one attribute that we all share is a love and inner need for the creation of music. The beauty of the BCC is that we all approach composition form very different styles. I can assure you that our concerts will not feature piece after piece that all basically sound the same. We didn’t want members with one aesthetic, that’s not what this is about for us. We all want to learn from each other and hear everything that is out there. Many of us in the group have been friends for a number of years and have wonderful arguments about aesthetics and style. There is such a wide range of legitimate musical voices today, and we are happy to welcome to all of them. Through this, we hope to connect to wider audiences than new music concerts tend to have these days. We of course invite everyone to listen, and further hope to generate an audience/composer discourse through our website. We would like to be connected to our times in conversation about music. All too often, a piece is played, the audience claps, the audience leaves, and the event is over. We would like to keep discussion of the pieces open. This why we are also offering several performances of each program, including one concert from each weekend that is streamed on the web. This way, if an audience member chooses, they can experience the piece more than once, and begin to form a true opinion of a new work. In essence, what we all share as composers is a desire to embrace a wide breadth of musical styles, and to share these with our audiences via our compositional efforts.

ArtSake: You note on your website that all concerts will feature a composition by a pre-college aged artist. What do you try to instill in the emerging composers you work with as a teacher and now in your role at Boston Composers’ Coalition?

Justin: As a teacher, I have two primary concerns. I want my students to stay open minded about everything they hear and everything they create, keeping them unafraid to go out on a limb and try something they are unfamiliar with. At the same time, I am particularly concerned with teaching composition as a craft. In other words, it is important to me that my students be aware of and study what and how the past masters of the craft have done. I think that allowing students to explore their own path, while also keeping them in touch with the lineage of composition, is the most beneficial method of study for the young composer. As far as the BCC is concerned, I want to use it as a vehicle for young, talented composers to try out the two areas I discussed. A composer does not truly know their work until they have heard it. Hearing it is the greatest way to learn if your artistic vision came through, and if you used the craft in a way that allowed it to do so. Offering this experience to young composers is one of the aspects of the BCC that I am most excited about. I would have loved to have had the experience of hearing professional level ensembles play my works at that age, and am incredibly excited to offer that opportunity to some young students. I personally do not consider pedagogy as a means to fund what I do as a composer, but truly view it as an art onto itself. Thus, having an educational component as part of the Boston Composers’ Coalition was as important to me as having the group itself.

The Boston Composers’ Coalition will have its first concert on Saturday, October 23rd at 7:00 PM, at the Boston University College of Fine Arts Concert Hall.

The Boston Composers’ Coalition members are Brett Abigaña, Justin Casinghino, Ramon Castillo, Davide Ianni, Jeremy Van Buskirk, and Po-Chun Wang.

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To see a world in a grain of sand…
-William Blake, Auguries of Innocence

In October, the Provincetown Art Association and Museum will be exhibiting a twenty-year photographic survey of the work of Daniel Ranalli, MCC ’10 Drawing Fellow. He has a long standing comittment to the creation of conceptual environmental work encompassing the Outer Cape. This is an extraordinary opportunity to see the breadth of his vision, reflect on the power of nature, and comtemplate the balance between order and chaos here on planet earth.

ArtSake: How did you arrive at creating environmental work?
Daniel: For a decade or so before I began this work, I had been doing very abstract work in photography (large scale photograms). I had started spending time on the Outer Cape and realized that I wanted to react to that environment in some way – yet I didn’t want to reproduce the history of Provincetown art still again. I just began walking the beaches and tidal plain in Wellfleet and Truro – it felt like a devotional exercise and I began to gather materials and make things. Piles of seaweed, rows of clam shells, arrangements of rocks – began to emerge from these walks.

ArtSake: What it the biggest challenge to creating a site-specific piece?
Daniel: I think it is probably the need to work on a larger scale than one often expects is necessary. In some of the works – the constructions are 60 to 100 feet long. Anything less out there and they seem too small to matter. Of course the tides just erase most all of them in a day or two and I like that.

ArtSake: What’s the most surprising reaction someone has had looking at your work?
Daniel: There are the reactions from curious onlookers and then other reactions when they are in a gallery or museum space. Onlookers just tend to happen on them when I’m working and I always enjoy the conversation. Most everyone has built sandcastles or played with the same materials as kids and they have a fond memory of it. When I tell them I am an artist, they often ask me ‘What my real work is like?’

ArtSake: What environmental changes to the Outer Cape have you’ve witnessed over the last twenty years?
Daniel: The seashore is always changing – the beaches, especially on the ocean side are constantly being eroded – and not just by inches each year. Storms take away yards of dune in a single season. It makes you realize that it is a very fragile little finger of land protruding into an ocean capable of great power. Also, the dunes in Provincetown are becoming grassy hills. The National Seashore planted them with dune grass 20 or 30 years ago and now when one walks out to the Atlantic from Provincetown there is far less sand visible. I miss the sensuousness of those dunes.

ArtSake: What do you hope people will feel seeing this retrospective?
Daniel: For me the very idea of a ‘retrospective’ is difficult. Like most artists I am very prospective in my approach to my work. It is awkward to look backward. What I hope is that people can get a sense of the conviction that resonates in the work. Work that is conceptual or environmentally based still presents difficulty for many people. I hope to make some converts!

Traces: Daniel Ranalli, Cape Work 1987-2007
The Provincetown Art Association and Museum
Exhibition Dates: October 15, 2010 – January 16, 2011
Opening Reception: October 22, 2010, at 7-9 pm.
Curated by Leslie K. Brown

Image credits: All images by Daniel Ranalli.
Top image: Stone Alignment Piece, 1998, Tidal Plain Series, Gelatin silver print, 10 x 10 inches (20 x 16″ framed); Seaweed Pyramid, 1998, Tidal Plain Series, Gelatin silver print, 10 x 10 inches (20 x 16″ framed); Stone Column, 1999 Tidal Plain Series, Gelatin silver print, 10 x 10 inches (20 x 16″ framed); 100′ Stone Line, 1998, Tidal Plain Series, Gelatin silver print, 10 x 10 inches (20 x 16″ framed); Horseshoe Crab Triangle, 1991, Tidal Plain Series Photograph, gelatin silver print, 10″x10 image (20″x16″ framed); Rock Removal Piece, 1989, Tidal Plain Series, Gelatin silver print, 10 x 10 inches (20 x 16″ framed).

“Every Mark I Make Seems to Fade Away”, 1992, Photographic Triptych, 13”x40”

“Snail Drawing Series: Spiral #9”, 1995, Photographic diptych, 20”x28”

“Squid Returning”, 1995,  Photographic triptych, 12”x30”

“Zen Dune Series: Thalassa #6, 2007, 22”x34”

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Webinar - Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts of Massachusetts is sponsoring the webinar How to Electronically Register your Copyright on Thursday, Sept. 23, 2010 from 12-1pm. Contact Sheri S. Mason.

Artist Residency Ucross Foundation Residency Program (February-June 2011, Ucross, WY) – Residencies of 2-8 weeks for visual artists, writers and composers. Residency provides housing, studio space and all meals. Artists responsible for travel and materials. Ucross Foundation Residency Program, 30 Big Red Lane, Clearmont, WY 82835. Contact 307-737-2291 or info@ucross.org.
Deadline: October 1, 2010

Artist Residency The Millay Colony for the Arts (April-November, 2011, Austerlitz, NY) – Residencies of an average of one month for visual writers, composers and writers (including playwrights and screenwriters). Residency provides housing, food and studio. Artist responsible for travel and materials. Millay Colony for the Arts, 454 East Hill Rd., PO Box 3, Austerlitz, NY 12017. Contact 518-392-3103 or apply@millaycolony.org.
Deadline: October 1, 2010

Multi-Arts Production Fund – Provides project-specific funding to playwrights, choreographers, directors, composers and performers. Grants range from $10,000 – $45,000, with average awards of $25,000. Projects must contain a live performance and must not have premiered anywhere in the world before September 1, 2010. Applicants must be a 501(c)(3) organization or fiscally-sponsored project with 2 years of professional experience. The first step in the application process is an online letter of inquiry. Learn more. Contact 212-226-1677 or mapinfo@mapfund.org.
Deadline: October 15, 2010

Choreographers - Green Street Studios announces the winter 2011 cycle of its Emerging Artists Award Program. This program is designed to provide infrastructure for choreographers, to create new work with a focus on group work and to provide deep, ongoing mentorship between experienced and early-to-mid-career choreographers. Contact info@greenstreetstudios.org or 617-864-3191.
Deadline: October 22, 2010

Call to Artists - LA GALERÍA is now accepting portfolio submissions for solo and group exhibitions of contemporary art for its 2011-2012 season. Artists working in any number of mediums are eligible and encouraged to apply; suggested mediums include painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, digital media, video, new media and installation. Guidelines and application forms are available.
Deadline: December 31, 2010

Image credit: Photograph of the Painting of the James McCormick Family by Joshua Johnson, ca. 1805; ARC Identifier 593949 / Local Identifier DM-H-HN-JOHNST-1; Item from Collection H: Harmon Foundation Collection, 1922 – 1967.

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