ArtSake

Gretchen Romey-Tanzer (Crafts Fellow ‘05) is one of the painters and weavers who created works to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the anthem “America the Beautiful.”

The exhibition, curated by Cape Cod painter Shawne Nelson, pairs teams of painters and weavers together to interpret the lyrics of the anthem (from a poem by Cape Cod writer Katharine Lee Bates, incidentally).

America the Beautiful runs at the Massachusetts State House in Boston July 19-30. Read more about the exhibition.

And check out Fellows Notes for other current news of MCC fellows/finalists.

Image: Gretchen Romey-Tanzer, AMBER WAVES - GOD SHED HIS GRACE ON THEE (2010), weaving, 50×36 in.

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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.

MCC Painters in Cape Cod Exhibition: The Massachusetts Cultural Council is proud to partner with the Cultural Center of Cape Cod for a small works exhibition featuring 2010 fellows/finalists in Painting, on display at the Cultural Center of Cape Cod in South Yarmouth, July 13 - August 8, 2010. This exhibit will celebrate the work of artists Liza Bingham, Christopher Faust, Rebecca Doughty, Yanick Lapuh, Scott Listfield, Joshua Meyer, Anne Neely, Monica Nydam, Harold Reddicliffe, Matthew Rich, and Michael Zelehoski. There will be an opening reception Saturday, July 17th from 5:00 - 7:00 PM.

Three past fellows/finalists are participating in Pioneer Women in Wonderland at the Paper City Project Space in Holyoke, Mass. The exhibition includes work by Cynthia Consentino (Crafts Fellow ‘07), Karen Dolmanisth (Sculpture/Installation Finalist ‘03), and Sandy Litchfield (Painting Fellow ‘06), and is on view through July 31, 2010.

Steve Almond (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ‘08) presents Rock & Roll Will Save Your Life: The Musical, billed as “An evening of words, music, drinks, dancing, and bad hair,” on Thursday, July 8, at 8 PM. The event takes place at Club Oberon in Harvard Square, and will feature Steve reading from his new book and music by Dayna Kurtz. Buy tickets and/or check out the event’s Facebook page.

Congratulations to Claire Beckett (Photography Fellow ‘07), selected as the Magenta Foundation Flash Forward 2010 Award Winner! Her work will be featured in the Flash Forward 2010 book, and in the Flash Forward Festival, scheduled for October. Meanwhile, see Claire’s arresting photography in the show In Training: Soldiers Before War at the Gallery 303 at The New England Institute of Art in Brookline. The show runs July 19-September 8, with an opening reception Monday, July 19, 5:30-7:30 PM.

Liza Bingham (Painting Finalist ‘10) is in a three person show with Alice Denison and Cathleen Daley at the Alden Gallery in Provincetown. The show opens Friday, July 16, 2010 (reception 7 to 9 PM) and shows through July 29.

Kristin Bock (Poetry Fellow ‘06) joins fellow poet Lee Sharkey for a reading on Thursday, July 1 at 7 PM, as part of the Collected Poets Series. The reading takes place at Mocha Maya’s Coffee House in Shelburne Falls.

William Ciccariello (Painting Fellow ‘06) joins artists Eileen Wagner and Robin Winfield for a show of new works at Rice/Polak Gallery in Provincetown, July 2 - July 15, with a preview Thursday, July 1, 9-10 PM and an opening reception Friday, July 2, 7:00 PM.

Patrick Donnelly (Poetry Fellow ‘08) joins Laura Williams McCaffery and M. Evelina Galang for a reading at the Solstice MFA Program at Pine Manor College in Chestnut Hill, MA.

Rebecca Doughty (Painting Finalist ‘10) is among the artists in a group exhibition of new work at the Schoolhouse Gallery in Provincetown. The show runs July 16-August 4, 2010.

Michael Dowling (Playwriting Fellow ‘09) will have a staged reading of his new play Tamarack House at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington. The reading, which is presented by the Berkshire Playwrights Lab in association with the Atlantic Theater Company, will take place on Wednesday, July 14, at 8 PM. The play is about a boarding house – run down but harboring potential - in a bucolic New England town. As developers encroach, the house’s residents need to act, and quick. Recently, the film version of Michael’s play Speck’s Last screened at Boston International Film Festival and the Berkshire International Film Festival. In other work as a theatre artist, Michael is directing Molly Sweeney, performing this month by the Chester Theatre Company in Western, Mass.

This coming year, Pagan Kennedy (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ‘10) will be in residence at MIT as a Knight Fellow in Science Journalism.

Kathryn Kulpa (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Finalist ‘10) is the editor of Newport Review and has organized upcoming reading events at Barrington (RI) Public Library on Wednesday, July 28, at 7 PM and Baker Books in Dartmouth, MA on Saturday, August 14 at 7 PM.

Dawn Lane (Choreography Fellow ‘10) choreographed and directed “common ground” at the Harmon Center for the Arts in Washington, D.C., in June. Dawn’s Moving Company, a troupe of Community Access to the Arts in Great Barrington, was selected to perform at the International VSA Festival, which showcases the accomplishments of artists with disabilities. The Moving Company, the only Massachusetts performing arts group selected to appear at the D.C. event, also recently performed at the She’s Got Moxie Awards and Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival.

Work by Scott Listfield (Painting Finalist ‘10) is included in Crazy 4 Cult at Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles, CA. The show, which features artists re-interpreting cult classics, runs July 9-30. An opening reception on July 9, 7-10 PM, will feature an appearance by Kevin Smith!

Anne Neely’s (Painting Finalist ‘10) work is included in the Northeast competition edition of New American Paintings. Juror Monica Ramirez-Montagut, Curator of the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, writes of Anne’s work: “Her paintings imagine an environment that goes beyond the human surface into the underground, exploring the possible colors and textures of sediment and strata. They depict wonderful surprises, like large bodies of water, yet the richness and possibility evident in these invented landscapes exist on planes not accessible to us.”

Nancy K. Pearson (Poetry Finalist ‘10) will join novelist and short story writer Heidi Jon Schmidt for a reading at the Wellfleet Library, Thursday, July 29, 8 PM (CANCELLED: due to unforeseen circumstances, Nancy has had to cancel this appearance).

Cynthia Morrison Phoel’s (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ‘04, ‘10) new book Cold Snap: Bulgaria Stories is now available. She’ll read from the book as part of the Summer Salon at the Salem Athenaeum in Salem, MA, on July 16, 5 PM.

Evelyn Rydz (Drawing Fellow ‘10) has work in The Pencil of Nature, a group exhibition exploring the dialogue between drawings and photographs, at Julie Saul Gallery in NYC. The show runs July 1-August 20, 2010, with an opening reception on Thursday, July 8, 6 to 8 PM.

Sarah Slifer (Choreography Fellow ‘10) joins U.K.-based interdisciplinary performer Vincent Cacialano for Plex at the Essex Shipbuilding Museum, July 9th, 7PM. On August 11th, she will perform a new duet with dancer Jimena Bermejo in a group evening of pieces that play with perception, at Club Oberon in Cambridge.

My Name is Art, a short play by Peter Snoad (Playwriting Fellow ‘09) will be performed at the Short and Sweet Festival in Singapore July 21-25, and at Salem Theatre Company in Salem, MA in its “Moments of Play” festival July 22-25. Peter’s new full-length play, Identity Crisis, a comedy about race and identity, is one of four finalists in the annual new play contest of Centre Stage-South Carolina and will receive a staged reading in Greenville, SC in October. More information at: www.petersnoad.com.

Julia Story (Poetry Finalist ‘10) will read from her book of poems, Post Moxie, as part of the Deep Moat Reading Series. The reading will take place on July 24, at 7 PM, at the Pierre Menard Gallery in Cambridge.

Poetry by Daniel Tobin (Poetry Finalist ‘10) is included in the most recent issue of Salamander.

Rachel Perry Welty (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ‘09, Drawing Fellow ‘04) is featured in the June/July/August 2010 issue of Art New England (pictured above), is participating in the exhibition Incognito: The Hidden Self-Portrait, July 15 - August 27, 2010, at the Yancey Richardson Gallery in NYC, and is showing new work in the group exhibition At the Edge at the Portsmouth Museum of Art, in Portsmouth NH, through July 11, 2010. More good news: the Baltimore Museum of Art has acquired one of Rachel’s fruit sticker drawings for its permanent collection. You can follow Rachel’s near-daily performances on Twitter.

Judith Wombwell (Choreography Fellow ‘10) recently joined with Kathryn Alter to present Intersect/Integrate, an evening of works that explore different stages and phases in life and relationships, at the Dance Complex in Cambridge. Both choreographers presented new work, and Kathryn Alter (a NYC-based dancer working with the Limón Company) danced in Judith’s work “Shed.”

Kevin Young’s (Poetry Fellow ‘10) poetry collection Dear Darkness will be published in paperback in July 2010.

Jeff Zimbalist’s (Film & Video Fellow ‘05) documentary The Two Escobars has been getting ecstatic reviews, including an A grade from the hard-to-get-A’s-from-people at The Onion’s AV Club! Check out more on the film’s Facebook page.

Past Fellows Notes
June 2010
May 2010
Apr. 2010
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.

Images and media: Scott Listfield, GRAND CANYON (2008), Oil on canvas, 24×48 in; Rebecca Doughty, FETCH (2010), acrylic on wood, 5×5 in; Cover of June/July/August 2010 issue of Art New England, featuring work by Rachel Perry Welty; excerpt of GRASS, choreographed by Judith Wombwell.

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A new Scott Wheeler composition in a new performance center; local artists go Threadbare

Last night (Thursday, June 11), Rockport Music celebrated the launch of its Shalin Liu Performance Center with a stirring concert that included the world premiere of Piano Trio No. 4 Granite Coast by Scott Wheeler (Music Composition Fellow ‘05), specially commissioned by Rockport Music to celebrate the new performance space.

Anytime a Massachusetts composer premieres a new piece or a vibrant new performance space has its inaugural tones, it is, in our humble opinion, a prime occasion to high five. But the evening is notable, too, because it was part of the Rockport Chamber Music Festival, which runs through July 18 and will also include performances by contemporary Massachusetts composers Michael Gandolfi (Music Composition Fellow ‘03) and Gunther Schuller.

Rockport Music received a grant from MCC’s Cultural Facilities Fund for the construction of the Shalin Liu Performance Center. No doubt this new performance space (which you can learn the origins of in a YouTube clip) will host many a note, rest, and crescendo care of contemporary composers in future flutters of the baton. So welcome to the world, Shalin Liu Performance Center! We’re pleased to meetcha.

Threadbare

Three fiber artists and a photographer, all with local ties, present a show called Threadbare, about the history and process of fiber art. The show runs at the A.P.E. Gallery in Northampton through June 26, with an opening reception on Friday, June 11 from 5-8pm.

Among the creators is Northampton fiber artist Kathryn G. Swanson, who co-curated the show and contributed the installation “Coat of Many Colors” (pictured above). The show, which is funded in part by the Northampton Arts Council, takes crafts traditionally considered “women’s work” and explores their boundaries.

Later in the month, Threadbare welcomes the enigmatic theatre company The Missoula Oblongata, another boundary-exploring group that visits for a performance of their new play The Daughter of the Father of Time Motion Study, on Saturday, June 26, at 8 PM.

The Rockport Chamber Music Festival runs through July 18, 2010 at the Shalin Liu Performance Center in Rockport, MA. Threadbare runs at A.P.E. in Northampton, MA through June 26, 2010.

Images: Scott Wheeler, photo by Susan Wilson; Installation view of COAT OF MANY COLORS by Kathryn G. Swanson, part of THREADBARE.

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June 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.

Two past fellows are featured in Solstice: a Magazine for Diverse Voices. Poetry by Ben Berman (Poetry Fellow ‘08) and short fiction by Grace Talusan (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ‘02) were included in the Winter/Spring 2010 issue.

Patrick Donnelly (Poetry Fellow ‘08) joins stage/screen writer Sinan Ünel (Playwriting Finalist ‘07) for a reading at the Lesley University MFA Program summer residency, in the Marran Theater in Cambridge, on Sunday, June 27 at 7 PM. The full reading series schedule also includes Rachel Kadish (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction ‘08) on June 28 at 7 PM, and later, NPR writer David Rakoff.

Two past fellows/finalists recently received funding from The LEF Foundation’s Moving Image Fund. Marlo Poras (Film & Video Fellow ‘05) received a $15,000 production grant to work on The Mosuo Sisters, about two sisters who lose their jobs in Beijing and return home to a remote Himalayan village to help keep their family afloat. Jeff Daniel Silva (Film & Video Finalist ‘09) was awarded a $25,000 post-production grant for his film Ivan and Ivana, about a couple from war-torn Kosovo, now making a life in the US. Congratulations!

Irina Rozovsky (Photography Finalist ‘09) is among the artists exhibiting in Familiar Bodies at Carroll and Sons Gallery in Boston. The exhibition, which includes the work of photographers who focus their cameras on the nearest people in their lives, also includes Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison (Photography Fellow ‘01), Camilo Ramirez (Photography Fellow ‘09), and Sage Sohier (Photography Finalist ‘05). The show runs through June 26, with an opening reception June 4th, 5:30-7:30 PM.

Brian Corey (Painting Fellow ‘08) has a solo show at Kingston Gallery in Boston, called The Terrain That Remains. The show runs June 2-27, 2010, with an opening reception Friday, June 4, 5-7:30 PM, and an artist’s talk Saturday, June 12, 4 PM.

Denver Office of Cultural Affairs: we applaud your good taste in public artists. They recently commissioned Janet Echelman (Crafts & Sculpture/Installation Fellow ‘09) to create a Biennial of the Americas installation.

Ralf Yusuf Gawlick (Music Composition Fellow ‘09) premiered Kinderkreuzzug, his dramatic cantata for children’s voices and small chamber ensemble, in April (read about it on ArtSake). Boston College has put together a fabulous audio slideshow about the performances.

Michael Hoerman (Poetry Fellow ‘04) will read on June 17 for ThoughtCrime, a reading series at Khon’s Wine Bar and Darts, 2808 Milam in Houston, Texas. He joins the roster of the 5th Annual Word Around Town Tour for a weeklong series of readings around Houston in July. On September 10 and 11 he will be a featured performer at Houston Fringe Fest, an annual performing arts festival presented by FrenetiCore at Frenetic Theater in Houston’s East End.

Lisa Kessler’s (Photography Finalist ‘05) solo exhibition Seeing Pink is at the Davis Orton Gallery in Hudson, NY. The show, which explores the idea of the color pink in American, runs June 3-June 27, with an opening reception Saturday June 12, 6-8 PM.

Yanick Lapuh (Painting Fellow ‘10) is among the artists in Eye Spy: Playing with Perception at the Peabody Essex Museum, June 19, 2010 to June 1, 2011.

Jane D. Marsching (Photography Finalist ‘03) has a host of Spring/Summer exhibitions and events. She’s part of Resurrectine at the Ronald Feldman Gallery, NYC, through June 28, a large-scale group show that embraces the notion of transformation. In April, Jane opened a dual photo exhibition (with Andrea Juan) called Tribute Phase II: Polar Encounter. Sites for the exhibition, which was curated by Veronica Willenberg, CEO of Art in Lobby, include the International Book Fair, the PanAmerican Hotel, and Botanica Gardens, all in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Jane will also take part in an alumni exhibition of art at Hampshire College’s Johnson Gallery (June 11-July 30, 2010, reception June 12, 4-6 PM).

Tara L. Masih’s (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Finalist ‘96) Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction was awarded a bronze medal from the 2009 ForeWord Book of the Year Awards in the writing category.

Congratulations to Cynthia Maurice (Drawing Fellow ‘02), who received the Jurors First Prize from the Danforth Museum 2010 Off The Wall Juried Exhibit. The prize was selected by Jen Mergel, Senior Curator of Contemporary Art, MFA and Helen Molesworth, Chief Curator of the ICA.

Nathalie Miebach (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ‘09) is among the artists exhibiting in The New Materiality: Digital Dialogues at the Boundaries of Contemporary Craft at the Fuller Craft Museum, through February 6, 2011. Artists in this show use new technologies in tandem with traditional craft materials – clay, glass, wood, metal and fiber – to forge new artistic directions.

Liz Nofziger (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ‘05) has a solo show, Underwater, at the Melle Finelli Studio, June 4-July 16, 2010, opening reception: June 4, 5 - 8 PM.

Monica Nydam (Painting Fellow ‘10) has a solo show of new paintings at LaMontagne Gallery in Boston, through June 19.

Linda Price-Sneddon (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ‘01) has a solo show at HallSpace in Boston, Soon… Our Salvation. The show, which opens Saturday, June 5 (reception 3-6 PM) and runs to July, is inspired by the UFO Mythos, Armageddon evangelism and small town parades.

Monica Raymond’s (Playwriting Finalist ‘07, Poetry Finalist ‘08) radio play The Telemarketer will be performed on Shoestring Radio Theater on KUSF 90.3 FM in San Francisco. The performance will air at 6:30 PM Eastern time, June 30, and listeners outside the San Francisco area can access a live Internet stream. The performance will also stream for one week following the live broadcast, on Shoestring Theatre’s Web site.

Salvatore Scibona (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ‘06) was named as one of The New Yorker’s 20 Under 40 fiction writers to watch.

Leslie Sills (Crafts Fellow ‘95) has a mixed-media sculpture in a furniture exhibition at the Mobilia Gallery in Cambridge. The exhibition runs June 15-July 31st, with an opening reception June 17, 6-8 PM.

Orbiting Mars, a full-length comedy by Peter Snoad (Playwriting Fellow ‘09), will receive a staged reading at the Penobscot Theatre in Bangor, ME June 23 in its Northern Writes New Play Festival. The play recently won the annual new play contest of Santa Cruz Actors’ Theatre in Santa Cruz, CA. Several of Peter’s short plays have been staged recently or are slated for upcoming productions. The Greening of Bridget Kelly and My Name is Art will feature in the London Fringe August 11-14, part of a repeat of Liminal Productions’ “American Bytes” series by emerging American playwrights that was first produced in April at the New Wimbledon Studio in Wimbledon, London. Stone’s Soup Theatre in Seattle included The Greening of Bridget Kelly in its short play festival in May, and My Name is Art can be seen at the Raconteur Theatre in Columbus, OH through June 12. Boston Actors’ Theatre produced Either Or in its SLAMBoston festival on May 19. Peter has a new website where you can check out his work: www.petersnoad.com.

Cam Terwilliger (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ‘08) was featured in a recent Boston Globe article by Danielle Dreilinger about a memoir writing workshop he ran for seniors living at the Somerville Home. Cam was supported in the effort by a Somerville Arts Council grant.

Debra Weisberg (Drawing Fellow ‘08) is among the artists in By Hand at Brickbottom Gallery, Somerville, June 6-26, opening reception Sunday, June 6, 6-8 PM.

Rachel Perry Welty (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ‘09, Drawing Fellow ‘04) was commissioned by the Museum of Fine Arts Boston to create a limited edition benefit artwork.

Deb Todd Wheeler (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ‘03) has a solo exhibition, BLEW, at the Miller Block Gallery in Boston. The show, which runs through June 26, features blown film polyethylene – aka plastic. Read a nano-interview with Deb on ArtSake.

Tracy Winn’s (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ‘08) short story collection Mrs. Somebody Somebody comes out this month in paperback, and she’ll be reading at the Salem Athenaeum on June 11 at 5 PM, at Newtonville Books on June 17 at 7 PM, at Barnes & Noble in Lowell on June 18 at 7 PM, at The Book Rack in Newburyport on June 19 at 3 PM, and at Gibson Books in Concord, New Hampshire on July 1 at 7 PM.

Jeff Zimbalist’s (Film & Video Fellow ‘05) documentary The Two Escobars, a film about the convergent stories of murdered soccer star Andrés Escobar and Columbian drug baron Pablo Escobar, will have a Hometown Screening in the historic Academy of Music in Northampton on Sunday, June 20 at 7:30 PM, followed by a post-screening Q&A. The film, which was commissioned to celebrate ESPN’s 30th anniversary with 30 documentary films, will have its ESPN premiere on June 22. It also premieres in Florida and screens at the Los Angeles Film Festival this month (on Friday, June 18th and Sunday, June 20th) and recently screened at the Tribeca Film Festival and the Cannes International Film Festival.

Past Fellows Notes
May 2010
Apr. 2010
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.

Images: Linda Price-Sneddon, drawing from the SOON…OUR SALVATION suite; Brian Corey, COORDINATES UNKNOWN (2010), Ink, Acrylic, on Paper,7×8 in; Lisa Kessler, CODE PINK, from SEEING PINK; Deb Todd Wheeler, image from BLEW.

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Call to artists and writers: Vermont Studio Center awards a number of fellowships to artists and writers for 4-week residencies throughout the year. In addition to VSC Fellowships, a variety of special fellowships are also available for full or partial funding. You can find more online. Upcoming Fellowship Deadline: June 15, 2010.

Call to artists and artisans: Two upcoming community fairs are encouraging artists, artisans, and craftspeople to vend their wares. The Noche de San Juan Party, at Heritage Park in Holyoke on June 27 from 3-7pm, is a festival of traditional live music and arts. Artists/craftspeople with roots in the community can display and sell their work ($20 fee, vendor brings own tent or table). Contact Nancy Howard for more information. And, the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole is seeking vendors for summer craft fairs at Waterfront Park on July 16 and August 13 (8:30 AM to 4 PM, both days). There is a $35 space donation for each date, payable in full with registration. Past fairs have included photography, jewelry, pottery, and sculpture. Information and vendor applications available by contacting Ann Woolford, MBL Human Resources Office.

Call to would-be Washington Post cartoonists: Sketch, write, and humor your way to the top for a chance to win a one-month stint in the Washington Post Style section. The paper is looking for six original, unpublished single- or multi-panel cartoons. A panel of judges will narrow the field to 10 and the voting audience will choose who moves on to become America’s Next Great Cartoonist. Send your funniest funnies by June 4, 2010. More details.

Call for 2D art: Concrete and Steel, an exhibition sponsored by Alternate Currents and WorkBar Boston Gallery, is calling for 2D art by Boston-area artists, under 4′x4′, influenced by the urban landscape, street art, inner-city subjects and conspicuous construction. There’s an entry fee of $10 for up to 3 works. All works on paper should be properly prepared for hanging. Deadline: May 30, 2010. The show runs June 9-August 30, 2010. Heidi Kayser, Founding Director of Axiom Center for New and Experimental Media Show, will curate. More info at Alternate Currents.

Call to filmmakers: Cinereach Grants Program supports feature-length nonfiction and fiction films that possess an independent spirit, depict underrepresented perspectives, and resonate across international boundaries. Grants range from $5,000 – $50,000 and are awarded to films at any stage, including development, production and post-production. Next letter of inquiry deadline is June 1, 2010. Past recipients include Liza Johnson (Film & Video Finalist ‘03, ‘07) and Marlo Poras (Film & Video Fellow ‘05).

Call to poets: The Frost Place Resident Poet Award is a prize of $1,000 and a six to eight week residency at Robert Frost’s former home in Franconia, New Hampshire. The prize is given each year to a poet who has published at least one poetry collection. Email the organization or visit Frost Place online for more. Deadline: July 2, 2010.

Image: Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, VT.

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When the ceramics artists and artisans of Potters Place in Walpole, MA open their doors to the public for a Spring Show and Sale on April 30-May 2, they’ll be paying tribute to a singularly influential figure: Mom.

The cooperative, non-profit pottery studio has an open studios twice a year, and the current theme is “Mom’s Favorite Dish” – a way to celebrate Mother’s Day as well as the 90th birthday of the mother of Potters Place co-chair Carol Bradley.

How are members interpreting the theme? Sue Brum of Walpole is making beautiful ceramic water cans (her mother is an avid gardener). Susan McFarland of Norwood is using her mother’s dishes for molds and also making little black purse vases for her daughters. Lisa Walker of Westwood has adorned her vase with some of her mother’s favorite flowers. Jane Wojick of Westwood makes chip and dip bowls because she’s a mom, and that’s her favorite dish.

There will be a free artists’ reception on Friday, April 30, 6-9 PM. The show continues on Saturday, May 1st from 9am – 5pm, and Sunday, May 2nd from 10am – 4pm. Both functional and non-functional pottery will be available for purchase directly from the 22 Potters Place artisans. See more images here.

Check out the Potters Place website for more info, as well as details about the organization’s upcoming workshops and class schedule.

Images: Ceramics featured in the Spring show and sale at Potters Place (top to bottom): group shot; Susan Leblanc Brum; Susan Shields McFarland; Lisa Walker. Photos by Dave Bradley Photography.

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Around the Webs
A Very Martha Engagement: when Crystal Hanehan, a Boston-area artist specializing in handmade, vintage-inspired, spun cotton creations through her business Vintage by Crystal, appeared on The Martha Stewart Show, it was already shaping up to be a propitious day. Then she was proposed to by her boyfriend. On air. (I’ve heard of using Martha designs for your special occasions, but adorning the moment with the actual Martha – now that’s good style.)

From the Boston Globe: a local architectural firm wants to transform an abandoned T tunnel into a subterreanean art space. The proposal, called TUTS (Tremont Underground Theater Space) won the ShiftBoston Ideas Competition 2009 for “provocative wild visions for the City of Boston.” The proposed space would be multi-use, and best of all, wouldn’t be overrun with vicious Morlocks for another 800,000 years!

The Art21 blog talks to Laura Thompson at Kidspace, which has incorporated the work of dozens of individual artists during its 10 years providing young museum goers with creative awesomeness at MASS MoCA in North Adams.

A new online publication, Defunct Magazine, collects essays about things that have gone – or are going – bye bye. AGNI editor Sven Birkerts contributes musings on the rake – “not yet a relic, but a technology on the verge.”

Congratulations, Massachusetts
Bravo to Paul Harding of Georgetown, Mass., whose novel Tinkers won a 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. His debut novel, no less. The New York Times Paper Cut blog calls the novel “one that got away” - as in went under the paper’s radar when it came out, but one will no doubt get its due now.

The Berkshire Taconic ART Fund has announced over $150,000-worth of smiles/grants to New England artists and arts organizations.

I need a hero. Had Bonnie Tyler meant, in her classic 1980s ballad “Holding Out for a Hero,” a hero of the theater, in the Boston area, the next line could’ve been, “More specifically, Michael Maso, Managing Director of the Huntington Theatre Company, who was just named Theatre Hero by the theatre service organization StageSource!” (Would’ve changed the nature of the song a bit, but still.)

Congratulations to writer Brendan Mathews of Great Barrington, whose short story “My Last Attempt to Explain to You What Happened with the Lion Tamer” was selected by Richard Russo for inclusion in Best American Short Stories 2010. Brendan has been published all over the place, including Glimmer Train, Virginia Quarterly Review, and The Southwest Review, and teaches at Bard College at Simon’s Rock. (Incidentally, does anyone know about other Massachusetts writers who have been selected for the upcoming Best American collection? Leave a comment and spread the love!)

Getting Strong Now
On New England Film, the Screenplay Doctor answers some screenwriters’ questions, mostly about agents: the need for, and the locating of, the writing to.

Fractured Atlas, a national artists’ services organization, has online courses – free, gratis, and fer nuthin’! Courses on marketing, fundraising, working with agents, and more are available to members (and it’s free to become a Fractured Atlas “Community Member”).

Interested in finding an agent/publisher for your novel? Boston-area writer Dell Smith gets down to the basics of that most basic effort of the would-be published author: the Query Letter.

Image: Crystal Hanehan of Vintage by Crystal, Vintage Style Spun Cotton Birds in a Tree Wedding Cake Topper. See more of her creations at her Etsy store.

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Free Marketing and Community Building Roundtable: In partnership with the Boston Center for the Arts, ARTmorpheus presents The April Artists’ Roundtable with Jessica Burko, artist, independent curator, and arts marketer. Tuesday, April 13, 2010 from 5:30 pm to 7 pm at the Mills Gallery, Boston Center for the Arts, 551 Tremont Street, Boston. RSVP to beer@artmorpheus.org or 617-456-113.

Curator proposals: Bridge for Emerging Contemporary Art (The BECA Foundation) is now accepting exhibition proposals from professionally affiliated and independent curators. Proposal summaries are being reviewed for consideration with regard to the exhibition planning for the months May - December 2010. Exhibitions will be held at the 1,100 sq ft. BECA gallery space located at 527 St. Joseph Street, New Orleans, LA across from the Contemporary Arts Center. Questions, email@thebecafoundation.org

Call to Pioneer Valley Artists/Curators: Porter-Phelps-Huntington House Museum in Hadley is interested in exhibiting the work of Pioneer Valley artists at the Corn Barn. Wednesday Folk Concerts and Saturday Perfect Spot of Tea bring in a number of people who will see the artwork. This is also an excellent opportunity to curate an art exhibit. The Corn Barn venue can also incorporate poetry and dance. Questions, contact John Romanski at Artist152@charter.net.
Deadline: Ongoing

Call to Artists: ART in the PARK is an annual juried art event sponsored by the Artists’ Group of Charlestown, in cooperation with the Friends of City Square Park. ART in the PARK 2010 will be held in City Square Park, Charlestown, MA on Saturday, September 11, 2010 (rain date Sunday, September 12). Art in the Park provides exhibition space of 10 feet by 10 feet per artist who shall represent their original work only and be present for the daylong event. All proceeds from sales at Art in the Park event are the property of the artist and no commission will be taken. Questions, contact the Artists’ Group of Charlestown, Inc., 617-241-0130.
Deadline: June 15, 2010.

For crafts artists who have faced emergencies, bes sure to visit the Craft Emergency Relief Fund organization’s web site.

Image credit: photograph of paper mache sculptures at the Essex Arts Center by ArtSake.

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Professional success in the arts is about creating pathways - creatively and in one’s career. Organizations like ARTmorpheus, a Boston-based nonprofit that promotes a vibrant artistic community and economic revitalization for working artists, help artists forge those paths.

We recently received an email announcement from ARTmorpheus listing a number of upcoming professional development opportunities for artists. This post re-posts some of those opportunities (and also re-re-posts some opportunities we’ve previously listed but thought could use another “re-”).

Free talk on making a living as an artist
The Arts and Business Council of Boston will host Jackie Battenfield for a free talk on Artists Making a Living. Battenfield, the author of The Artist’s Guide: How to Make a Living Doing What You Love, will speak on the fundamental skills artists need to develop and sustain a professional life. It will cover tips on how to plan, promote, fund, organize, and build community, with half of the time reserved for audience questions. The event takes place on April 6, 6-8 PM, in the Function Room at Suffolk University Law School in Boston.

Upcoming ARTmorpheus roundtables
There are two upcoming events hosted by ARTmorpheus for artists working in any media: April 13 at the Mills Gallery at the Boston Center for the Arts, Artists Roundtable featuring Jessica Burko on social media marketing for artists; and on May 4 at the Calderwood Pavilion, BCA, Artists Roundtable featuring Susan Dupuis, of Dupuis & Co, LLC, an income tax consultant and licensed attorney, on recordkeeping and taxes. Both events take place 5:30-7 PM. Both events are free, but attendees are encouraged to bring a food item to share. RSVP (and/or send questions) to Liora Beer.

PRIME Program from the International Institute of Boston
Offering free guidance and resources for small businesses (including artist-entrepreneurs). A free business class begins April 20, with a few spots still remaining. Visit the program’s website for more info.

Artist Business Training
One-and-a-half day workshops led by the UMass Arts Extension Service to address business basics and key issues that artists confront in the current economy; free to resident artists.

• April 21-22 Petersham, Petersham Town Hall (contact Sarah McMaster at North Quabbin Woods for more info or to sign up)
• April 28-29 Springfield, Schibelli Hall, Springfield Technical Community College (contact Tracy Woods at Art for the Soul Gallery)
• May 5-6 Northampton, Dynamite Space (contact Julia Handschuh)

Disaster Aid for Small Businesses and Individuals Affected by Flooding in Mass.
President Obama declared Massachusetts a federal disaster area, which will give victims of the recent floods - both residents and businesses - access to Federal Disaster relief, including grants and low interest loans. Individuals and business owners who sustained losses in Essex, Middlesex, Suffolk, Worcester, Norfolk, Plymouth, or Bristol Counties, can register for aid online or by calling the FEMA Teleregistration number: 1-800-621-FEMA (3362) or 1-800-462-7585 (TTY) for the hearing and speech impaired.

Disaster Aid Grants for Artisans from the Craft Emergency Relief Fund (CERF)
CERF would like to make sure that any professional craft artist who has been seriously affected by the flooding is aware of the disaster relief assistance available from CERF. If, as a craft artist, you have suffered loss, contact CERF when able. Programs include grants up to $1500 and loans up to $8000, booth fee waivers at craft shows, discounts on materials and equipment from suppliers and manufacturers, and assistance with business development through referrals to consultants and other low or no-cost resources. For eligibility requirements and more detailed information, visit Craft Emergency Relief Fund (CERF).

Image: Christopher Faust (Painting Fellow ‘10), TUNNEL (2009), Acrylic on canvas, 28×36 in.

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For Nathalie Miebach, the mysteries of art and science are best engaged by their individual components: colors and temperatures, reed and wind speeds. Through a time- (and hands-) intensive weaving process, she creates sculptures that visually interpret scientific data. The resulting sculptures - intricately crafted yet curiously natural - invite new understandings of astronomy, ecology, meteorology. Nathalie’s work, recently seen in a solo show Sarah Doyle Gallery at Brown University, is now on exhibit in 185th Annual Invitational Exhibition of Contemporary American Art,  at NYC’s National Academy Museum (through 6/8). Locally, you can see her work in Transformations in Wellesley College’s Jewett Gallery (through 4/4).

Her explorations of art and science go one step further in her latest project, which first translates weather data into musical scores, and then into sculptural forms. The project will reach a peak this Sunday, March 14, 3 PM, at the Lily Pad in Inman Square, Cambridge, when the Axis Ensemble performs “Hurricane Noel,” one of Nathalie’s weather data musical scores, and she’ll present sculptural work from the same score.

We asked Nathalie about this project, the pull of the sciences, and her relationship with music composition.

ArtSake: Your recent works - including those that won you a 2009 Artist Fellowship - are woven sculptures derived from weather data. What sparked the addition of musical scores?

Nathalie: It’s a hard question for me to answer, because I’m still trying to figure it out myself. It has to do with nuances that are embedded in numerical behaviors that scientific instruments don’t pick up, but the human mind does. In that lies an imperfection/perfection of the human mind I find incredibly fascinating and beautiful. I’m becoming more interested in the way humans understand weather as opposed to how instruments record it. Musical notation has been a type of mediator in helping me give these nuanced, idiosyncratic ways of understanding weather a larger voice.

It was, in part, my growing interest in the nuances of behaviors I was observing in weather. After looking at meteorological data collected from weather stations and my own daily observations collected from a specific environment, I began to notice how I was relying and beginning to trust my own observations more than my instruments. Observing weather by looking at a computer screen versus daily observations taken from one’s own backyard yields a completely different understanding of the environmental interactions of weather. While I think both are important, I began to notice that my own observations were a lot more nuanced by the things I was observing in the environment around me. Weather never happens in isolation, but always in the context of an environment. Thus, observing weather is about observing an environment reacting / influencing weather.

That nuanced reading wasn’t coming through in my translations from numbers to sculpture. This is how I came to reach for musical notation, as a vehicle to allow me to integrate and give voice to that little glimmer of nuance that was creeping into my observations. Just like a composer can tweak and shape the notes of a melody, I can use tempo and rhythm to nuance the musical translation of the data into musical notes. The notes themselves are still based on actual numbers I collect.

I am beginning to realize how important it is to me to feel a little naive about what I’m working on. I seem to constantly gravitate towards that stage in learning where you don’t really know what you’re doing, cross your fingers and somehow intuitively hope for the best. I certainly feel that way about music and have been lucky enough to work with such patient (and polite) musicians who are both very forgiving and honest about my musical inabilities.

ArtSake: The sound clips from the project you’ve posted on your website are fascinating. What has surprised you about the musical performances? And how have you found the process of collaborating with musicians?

Nathalie: The biggest surprise to me is how it all comes back to sculpture. I got into musical notations because the sculptural language I was using was no longer reflecting the way I was interpreting and understanding the data. Translating scores into sculptures and listening to musicians interpret the data has made me rethink sculpture in so many ways. After sitting in on a rehearsal with the Axis Ensemble, I went back to my studio and just stared at my sculptures for two hours. I was blown away by the ease at which music can express so elegantly nuances of behaviors. Rather than feeling discouraged, I feel my respect for sculpture has been deepened because of music.

There is something very liberating about inviting other voices into the translation process. When I give musicians the score, I tell them what it’s about, what portions of the score are flexible and those that aren’t. Then I pretty much withdraw and give them lots of freedom in determining rhythm, tempo, number of instruments, etc. For me it’s important that they make it their own, for this is the whole purpose of inviting others into the translation process. It gives me other examples of interpretations that I can then use to reevaluate my own sculptural translations of the same score.

ArtSake: I’m curious about your background in the sciences. What drew you to weather in the first place?

Nathalie: I don’t have a background in science in that I was never formally trained, aside from a few continuing education courses I took / am taking at Harvard Extension School. However, I love science and the fact that the whole premise of it rests on doubt. I’m learning about the ocean right now and can’t get over the fact of how amazing barnacles are!

My first sculptural interpretations of data began with astronomy. Weather came into the picture in 2006 when I had two consecutive artist residencies at the Fine Arts Work Center. Zach Smith, a climate educator from the Wright Center for Science Education, knew of my work and approached me about a project on climate change. At the time I knew I wanted to figure out a way for me to collect my own data to see how the sculptural translation process would change. Until then I had relied mainly on data sources from the web. I was to field-test one of their instruments for the Wright Center on the beaches of Cape Cod, while I would be tutored on how to collect science data. I knew very little about weather and only the most basic Climate Change 101 information. I soon realized that if there was any hope for me to truly understand the complexity of climate change, I had to first understand weather. That’s what I’ve been trying to do ever since.

ArtSake: What is it about weaving that allows you to access and explore such complicated material?

Nathalie: Weather is not really complicated when you break it down to its components. It gets messy when you draw back and watch this cacophony of variables interact. And even worse when you look back in time as well. That’s what meteorologists do on TV with their complicated models. I stay safely in the realm of just a few variables, so that things never get too complicated.

Weaving is incredibly versatile and allows you to pretty much build anything you want. As a Lego fanatic, there is nothing that brings me more pleasure than building something with my hands. Weaving is the next best thing to that. Weaving also takes time, which allows the questions I am addressing to evolve and change over time.

ArtSake: This is a question we sometimes ask in our nano-interviews, and I always find the responses interesting: what artist do you most admire but work nothing like?

Nathalie: Since I barely play the recorder, this should qualify. My biggest visual influence has actual been classical music, particularly Minimalism. I’m particularly drawn to Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Arvo Paert and John Adams for creating music that has always felt to me extremely sculptural. Incidentally, it is also the kind of music I reach for when I am trying to figure out some structural problem I am facing or when I am looking at data and trying to discern behavioral patterns. I guess it helps me think.

Spending time with these composers for days and days in my studio has also made me very aware of the very act of listening and how important it is in sculpture. So much of understanding sculpture and weather seems to be the act of simply listening - for materials, for behaviors, for structure, for meaning. And there is nothing simple about that.

When music finally did enter the process, I had this keen sense that it was this presence in my studio that had been sitting there for a long time, asking itself what took me so long.

Nathalie Miebach is the winner of the Blanche E. Colman Award and a 2009 Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Fellowship in Sculpture/Installation. Her work is included in the upcoming book publication of Data Flow 2: Visualizing Information, from the Germany-based publisher Die Gestalten Verlag. Nathalie will give artist talks at Salem State College (March 22nd, 11 AM) and the Montserrat College of Art in Beverly (April 22, noon), and will participate in “The New Materiality: Digital Dialogues at the Boundaries of Contemporary Craft” at the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, May 29, 2010 – Feb 6, 2011.

Images: all work by Nathalie Miebach; detail of URBAN WEATHER PRAIRIES - SYMPHONIC STUDIES IN D (2009), Reed, wood, data, 16×15x15 ft; SHOULDER WEATHER THROUGH NEW URBAN FRONTIERS (2009), Wood, data, reed, 45×45x27 in; score for STORMY WEATHER, INTERNAL STORMS; EXTERNAL WEATHER, INTERNAL STORMS (2009), Reed, metal, wood, data, 33×40x60 in; URBAN WEATHER PRAIRIES - SYMPHONIC STUDIES IN D (2009), Reed, wood, data, 16×15x15 ft; score for HURRICANE NOEL.

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