ArtSake

So, you want art this weekend. You’ve come to the right place. Here’s a handy dandy guide to your art-seeking travels.

Your starting point is Taunton, Massachusetts, on Sat., June 4, 2011, for the Dighton Cow Chip Festival. There, you’ll behold chainsaw sculptor “The Machine” Jesse Green as he lives out his slogan – “Carving Dreams into Reality” – by sculpting (live, in real-time, and using the previously mentioned chainsaw) a cow sculpture that’s to become Taunton’s newest fixture.

Then, make your way due north until you reach the cool waters of the Charles River, where the Cambridge River Festival (Sat, June 4) can offer you music, puppetry, dance, theatre, improv, a parade, children’s programming, and all manners of interactive and creative fun.

Cross the Charles River to Boston – specifically, to the Rose Kennedy Greenway. There, FIGMENT Boston (June 4-5) awaits you. FIGMENT Boston is a part of the national FIGMENT project, a “forum for the creation and display of participatory and interactive art by emerging artists across disciplines.” Over 80 artists are participating in FIGMENT Boston this year, including live video installation, interactive music performance, architectural dance installation, and many, many other interesting projects that are too hard to compact into a reasonable sentence. May we humbly suggest this event is likely to be far out.

Next, head north to Salem, MA. You’ll find the Salem Arts Festival, a weekend-long (June 3-5) celebration of visual, performing, and literary art. You can take a magic carpet ride, learn bellydance, do improv, and see tons of art.

Now, I understand that, with four festivals already under your belt, you’re weary, hungry, possibly a touch over-festive. But you must persevere. For a little over 30 miles from Salem is the formidable city of Lowell, where you’ll breathlessly rush through the doors of the Merrimack Repertory Theatre. There, the Lowell National Historical Park hosts an evening of Irish dance and fiddle music Saturday night, featuring master artists and their apprentices, from the MCC’s Traditional Apprenticeship Program. Read more at our sibling blog, Keepers of Tradition, on this fascinating evening of solo, duet, and group performances.

You may rest now.

It’s Sunday morning (almost noon – you slept late). Rise, and see art.

First, head to South Boston, where there’s a Spring Open Studio at the Distillery & King Terminal (Sun., June 5, 2011). See the current participating artists and check out some previous work by some of those same artists in an older post we did about their Fall open studios.

Finally, make your way, by roller skate, rickshaw, unicycle, or – if need be – an easier mode of transport, to the Tufts University Art Gallery in Medford. A show of MCC Fellows just opened (see pictures of the opening on our Facebook page). If you want a sense of the range and vision of work being produced by visual artists in Massachusetts, you have arrived at your destination. While you’re there, use your cell to call a special number for audio commentary by the artists.

There. You’ve reached the end of our guide. But feel free to expand the map.

Image: Gallery view of paintings by Monica Nydam, from a show of MCC Fellows at Tufts University Art Gallery.

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Spring is a-bloom, allergens are omnipresent, and Massachusetts artists are being their usual awesome. Here’s this month’s news from past MCC fellows/finalists.

This month, the Massachusetts Poetry Festival takes place in Salem, Massachusetts (you’ll see events featuring past fellows/finalists throughout this month’s notes). But we wanted to be sure to draw your attention to Follow the Fellows at the Phillips Library in the Peabody Essex Museum, 4:30-5:45 PM, on Saturday, May 14. The event will feature readings by MCC Poetry Fellows Ben Berman (’08), John Canaday (’10), Patrick Donnelly (’08), Regie Gibson (’10), Sharon Howell (’10), Rosann Kozlowski (’10), and Leslie Williams (’10).

Meg Alexander‘s (Drawing Finalist ’04) solo show New Landscapes recently showed at Boston’s Gallery Kayafas.

Steve Almond (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’08) is featured in two events at the upcoming Massachusetts Poetry Fest. He will read his own (good) poetry (Main Stage, 2-2:20 PM, 5/14), before exploring bad poetry (The Gathering, 3-4 PM, 5/14) as judge of the Festival’s Bad Poem Contest

Diane Arvanites-Noya and Tommy Neblett (Choreography Fellows ’04, ’08), directors of Prometheus Dance, will premiere Desiderare, an evening-length dance work at the Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center, Thursday-Saturday, May 12-14, 8 PM. “Desiderare” means “to wish, to want, to like, to desire.”

Sally Bellerose (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Finalist ’04) won first place in fiction and will be a featured reader at The Saints and Sinners Literary Conference in New Orleans, LA. Her story Fishwives will also appear in the conference’s anthology of short stories. All proceeds of the anthology are being donated to the No/AIDS Task Force. The conference takes place May 11-15, and Sally will read her winning short story on May 11. She will also read from her soon-to-be-released novel, The Girls Club on May 13. The Girls Club won the Bywater Prize and will be published by Bywater Books with an August release date.

Ben Berman (Poetry Fellow ’08) has new poems coming out in Solstice Quarterly and Drunken Boat and his poem Good Grief was just nominated for Best New Poets 2011 by Unsplendid. At the Mass Poetry Fest, Ben will lead the Grub Street Poem Generator workshop at Green Land Cafe, 12-1:30 PM, on May 14.

Simeon Berry (Poetry Fellow ’06) will read work at part of the Salamander Reading at the Mass Poetry Fest, at The Gathering, 5:30-6:30 PM, on May 13. It’s a reading from editors and contributors to Salamander Literary Journal.

Nell Breyer (Choreography Fellow ’06) staged a dance performance in Fall of 2010, on the Sol Lewitt terrazzo floor at MIT. Now, a video installation projecting footage of the performance will be on exhibit at Carroll and Sons Gallery in Boston. Perspectives on a Dance in Sol LeWitt’s ‘Bars of Color within Squares (MIT)’ will run through May 30, 2011, with an opening reception Friday, May 6, 5:30-7:30 PM. Also, there will be an encore performance of A Dance in Sol LeWitt’s ‘Bars of Color within Squares (MIT)’ at the MIT+150 Festival of Art, Science & Technology, part of the Boston Cyberarts Festival. The performance takes place at the MIT Green Center for Physics, Building 6C, May 7, 4pm and 8pm Performances. Tickets are FREE, but Reservations are required.

Jamie Cat Callan (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’10) will read from her latest book, Bonjour, Happiness!, at New York City’s Tribeca Barnes & Noble on Monday, May 16th at 7 PM. Dress like a French woman and win a prize!

Shawn Cody‘s (Playwriting Fellow ’07) new music theater work The Water Dream is playing in concert, featuring Anthony Rapp (Original Broadway Cast and Feature Film of Rent), at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater in New York City, May 28, 29, and 30, 8 PM. It’s open to the public, but reservations are recommended. Email with name, night, and number of seats. The Water Dream (read an excerpt) is a multi-media musical with whale puppets and an on-stage aquarium.

Patrick Donnelly (Poetry Fellow ’08) offers a workshop on How to Be a Good Public Reader of Your Own Poetry as part of the Mass Poetry Fest, at the House of Seven Gables Hooper House #1, 2-3:30 PM, May 14.

Rosalyn Driscoll (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’97) is among the artists contributing to the collaborative installation Just Under the Surface, which explores the aesthetic, emotional, bodily and metaphysical possibilities of an art that integrates all the senses, especially touch, using sculpture, moving image, sound and word. It is on exhibit at The Crypt Gallery, a former burial site under St. Pancras Church, in London, May 6-19, 2011.

Janet Echelman (Crafts and Sculpture/Installation ’09) received a prestigious 2011 Guggenheim Fellowship.

Vico Fabbris (Painting Fellow ’06) has a solo show of watercolor paintings and work-on-paper called Florasynthesis, at Gurari Collections in Boston May 6-29, 2011. There will be an opening reception on Friday, May 6, 6-8 PM, as part of the South End Gallery District’s First Friday event.

Kate Feiffer (Film & Video Finalist ’03) reads from My Side of the Car, her children’s book illustrated by her father, Jules Feiffer, at Porter Square Books in Cambridge, May 19, 9 AM.

David Fiuczynski (Music Composition ’09) was among the artists and scholars who received a 2011 Guggenheim Fellowship.

Regie Gibson (Poetry Fellow ’10) hosts the The Headword Poetry Presentation, performances by area spoken word poets as part of the Mass Poetry Fest, at the Main Stage, 1:30-2:45 PM, on May 14.

Eric Gottesman (Photography Fellow ’09) is now being represented by Clark Gallery in Lincoln. He has two solo shows coming up: Paths that cross cross again at TPW Gallery in Toronto, May 12-June 15, 2011, part of the Scotiabank Contact Photo Festival, and Intimacy is the Reconciliation of Foreignness and Habit, running June 30-October 2, 2011 at Real Art Ways in Hartford, CT. Eric is curating the Apex Art show in Amman, Jordan as part of the 2011 Franchise Award. The show is called We Have Woven the Motherlands with Nets of Iron and runs May 4-June 4, 2011. This year, Eric will be publishing a book of his work in Ethiopia, with Umbrage Editions. Eric will seek finishing funds for the project, called May the Finest in the World Always Accompany You!, through Kickstarter – stay tuned. He will be the Artist-In-Residence at Amherst College in Spring 2012. Furthermore, he will have work in the Artadia group show at the San Francisco Art Institute in July 2011.

Joel Janowitz (Painting Fellow ’08) has a self-titled solo show at Victoria Munroe Fine Art in Boston, May 12-June 18, 2011, with an opening reception Thursday, May 12, 6-8 PM. There will be a gallery talk at 7 PM.

Rachel Kadish (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction ’08) has a fascinating essay about her cousin, an Israeli artist who becomes a protest art icon, in the Good Men Project.

Frannie Lindsay (Poetry Fellow ’06) takes part in The First and Last Word Poetry Series at the Center for Arts at the Armory in Somerville on May 17, 6:30-9 PM. Earlier this month, she’ll join Nancy K. Pearson (Poetry Finalist ’10) and other poets as part of BEG, BORROW, AND STEAL at the Mass Poetry Fest (House of Seven Gables #1, 3:30-4:45 PM, May 14), a reading featuring Perugia Press poets.

Congratulations to Melinda Lopez (Playwriting Fellow ’03), who won an IRNE Award for her play From Orchids to Octopi.

Congratulations to Caitlin McCarthy (Playwriting Finalist ’11) who signed a contract with Populus Pictures in London to develop her film script Resistance. Also, Caitlin’s work to raise awareness about the DES drug disaster was featured in The Boston Globe Magazine, which discusses her screenplay about DES, Wonder Drug (read an excerpt). Caitlin will be on a speaking panel, DES Forty Years Later, to Be Held At Massachusetts General Hospital on May 19, 2011, 3-5:30 PM, followed by a reception. Free and open to the public.

Nathalie Miebach (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’09) will have two wall sculptures/musical scores on display at the Future Everything Festival in Manchester, UK, May 11-14, 2011. The festival/conference brings together innovative thinkers, artists and musicians to explore the interface between technology, society, culture and cool ideas. To quote the Guardian Newspaper, the festival is “crammed with geek cool,” and Nathalie’s work will be part of “Data Dimensions,” featuring artists and designers from across the globe who love working with data.

Monica Raymond‘s (Playwriting Finalist ’07, Poetry Finalist ’08) free translations of Francois Villon and a Provencal lyric have been published on qarrtsiluni.com. Also, she just returned from an April staged reading of her play The Owl Girl, sponsored by Golden Thread Theater in San Francisco, directed by Naomi Newman, founder of A Traveling Jewish Theater. Later this month, Monica has a reading of her play A to Z at the Great Plains Theater Conference in Omaha, May 31, 2011, directed by Elena Araoz.

Congratulations to Anna Ross (Poetry Finalist ’10), whose alma mater Mount Holyoke College awarded her their Mary Lyon Award given to “a young alumna who has been out of the College fifteen years or less, who demonstrates promise or sustained achievement in her life, profession, or community consistent with the humane values that Mary Lyon exemplified in her life and inspired in others.” The award is named for Mount Holyoke founder Mary Lyons. Anna recently read as part of the Calliope Reading Series in Falmouth, MA on May 1.

Irina Rozovsky (Photography Finalist ’09) has a solo show of photography, This Russia, at the Garner Center of Photography at the New England School of Photography in Boston. The show runs through June 3, 2011, with and an artist talk May 9, 6 PM. Fraction Magazine has a sneak peak of Irina’s soon-to-be-published monograph One to Nothing. The monograph will be published by Kehrer Verlag in Fall 2011; see a preview. Also, Irina is among the artists featured in The Collector’s Guide to New Art Photography Vol.2, a biennial sourcebook with new work by 100 contemporary photographers, from the Humble Arts Foundation.

Eric Henry Sanders‘s (Playwriting Fellow ’09) play Reservoir will have its European premiere this month, when it’s produced at Theater 89 in Berlin (under the translated title Haseks Heimkehr), running May 20-June 11.

Adam Schwartz (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’10) was interviewed in The New Yorker.

Jeff Daniel Silva‘s (Film & Video Finalist ’09) feature-length documentary Ivan & Ivana had its world premiere in the International competition at Visions de Réel in Nyon, Switzerland on April 8. The film chronicles the lives of Ivan and Ivana, an émigré couple who uprooted from Kosovo to California to start anew after the last Balkan war. The film reveals their successes, trials, and tribulations over five years of turbulent economic, political, and personal tides to reveal an unorthodox depiction of the American immigrant experience. The film also screened in the Independent Film Festival Boston, on April 30 and May 1. Read a terrific review on Not Coming to a Theatre Near You.

Sarah Slifer (Choreography Fellow ’10) is among the performers presenting Charles Olson’s dance play Apollonius of Tyana at the Mass Poetry Fest (Main Stage, 11 AM, May 14). She’ll also create an “installation-specific” work to collaborate with a Susan Phillipsz sound installation as part of the Peabody Essex Museum’s Art After Hours series. The performance will take place June 30, 5:30 PM, at the Peabody Essex Museum.

Cam Terwilliger (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’08) shares his experiences as a creative research fellow at The American Antiquarian Society (AAS) in Worcester, on the Grub Daily blog.

Poetry by Leslie Williams (Poetry Fellow ’10) is featured in the Spring 2011 issue of the Southern Review.

Past Fellows Notes
Apr. 2011
Mar. 2011
Feb. 2011
Jan. 2011

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: Still from DESIDERARE w/ Naoko Brown (foreground), Jennifer Kelble (background), photo by JJJ Cole; Cover art from THE GIRLS CLUB by Sally Bellerose (Bywater Books, August 2011); Eric Gottesmean, BANDED PHOTOGRAPHS (2007), C-print, 20×24 in; Promotional image for IVAN & IVANA by Jeff Silva.

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Here’s the latest installment of Fellows Notes, the current news of past fellows/finalists from our Artist Fellowships Program.

In February, our past awardees roll with rock book clubs, pack for Rome residencies, go walking (and dancing) in Memphis, and lots more.

Five MCC Artist Fellowship Program awardees in Painting, Vico Fabbris (Fellow ’06), Christopher Faust (Fellow ’10), Joel Janowitz (Fellow ’08), Laurie Kaplowitz (Finalist ’08), and Anne Neely (Finalist ’10) are in an exhibition at the Shipyard Gallery in Hingham, a satellite gallery of the South Shore Art Center. The exhibition runs through February 20, 2011 at 18 Shipyard Drive, next to the Hingham Beer Works. Read about the show in the Boston Globe.

Steve Almond‘s (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’08) book Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life is the inaugural selection of the new Rock and Roll Book Club. Since the club, inspired by a love of books and rock and roll, reads and discusses books with a connection to rock, we can’t think of a better first selection that Steve’s ode to the pop music we love (even when we know we shouldn’t). Steve will join the group for a launch party on February 16 at The Enormous Room in Cambridge. Read about the Rock and Roll Book Club in Time Out Boston.

Claire Andrade-Watkins (Film & Video Fellow ’09) has organized a weekly program of screenings of rare archival 8mm, video about the Fox Point Cape Verdean community and the Cape Verdean Diaspora, presented by the Cape Verdean Student Organization at Brown University and the Fox Point Cape Verdean Project (which Claire directs). The series launches on Friday, February 18, 7 PM, at the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America, Brown University, in Providence, RI. Admission is free, open to the public.

Claire Beckett (Photography Fellow ’07) has a solo show opening this month at Carroll and Sons in Boston: You Are…, February 23-March 26, 2011, opening reception Friday, March 4, 5:30-7:30 PM. She’s also among the artists currently exhibiting in The Truth Is Not in the Mirror: Photography and a Constructed Identity at the Haggerty Museum of Art at Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI, through May 22, 2011.

Nell Breyer (Choreography Fellow ’06) will give an illustrated lecture called Perceptions of Motion at the Observatory Room in Brooklyn, NY, on Friday, February 11, 8 PM. The lecture, which is presented by the Hollow Earth Society, will explore how we perceive motion, using art and science as lenses.

In late 2010, Janet Echelman (Crafts & Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’09) was awarded a prestigious, year-long residency at American Academy in Rome. She’s currently working on three sculptures to be featured in Terminal 2 at the San Francisco Airport (see a computer simulation of her recomposure zone in this New York Times article). What’s more, she’ll be presenting at TED2011 on March 1, 2011, as part of the Threads of Discovery series.

Christopher Frost (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’09) has a solo show at Boston Sculptors Gallery in the South End, February 9-March 13, 2011.

MASS MoCA will screen Michal Goldman‘s (Film & Video Fellow ’07) film At Home in Utopia, which tells the story of immigrant Jewish garment workers as they challenged social norms through the cooperatively owned and run United Workers Cooperative Colony, aka the “Coops.” The documentary, showing on Thursday, February 10, at 7:30 PM, is part of MASS MoCA’s “Power to the People” Series. Screened in Club B-10, followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker.

Michael Hoerman (Poetry Fellow ’04) will read on February 4 for Dire Literary Series at 106 Prospect Street, Cambridge, at 8 PM. Joining Michael are poets Carissa Halston and John Hodgen (Poetry Finalist ’00).

Masako Kamiya (Painting Fellow ’06, ’10) is part of two exhibitions opening this month. She’s among the artists in Extravagant Drawings at Dorsky Gallery in Long Island, NY, February 6-April 10, 2011, opening reception Sunday, February 6, 2011, 2-5 PM. Also, she, along with Rose Olson and other artists, is featured in Point of Departure at The Gallery Della – Piana in Wenham, MA. The show runs February 13-April 21, 2011, opening reception, Sunday, February 13, 3-5 PM.

Caroline Klocksiem‘s (Poetry Fellow ’08) chapbook, Circumstances of the House & Moon, was accepted for publication by Dancing Girl Press.

Kathryn Kulpa (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Finalist ’10) has a new piece published in decomP magazine, “Soon, and for the Rest of Your Life.” Also, the Winter 2011 issue of Newport Review, which she edits, just made its online debut. The journal is now looking for submissions of poetry, prose and artwork for the Summer 2011 issue.

Caitlin McCarthy (Playwriting Finalist ’11) is interviewed on WCVB-TV Boston’s Chronicle, on Friday, February 18, 2011, about her screenplay Wonder Drug, which explores the DES drug disaster. She’ll also discuss efforts, advocacy, and personal history with the case. The program coincides with the 40th anniversary of the DES cancer link discovery at Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital. Find details on The Boston Channel or watch the program after it airs on the Chronicle HD Archives.

Gary Metras (Poetry Fellow ’84) was profiled in and is the cover photograph for the National Education Association’s magazine for retired members, The Active Life, Nov. 2010 issue, with a focus on retired teachers who are published writers. Also, Gary has a poetry reading this month, on Friday, February 18, 2011, 7 PM, at Amherst Books in Amherst, Mass.

Nathalie Miebach‘s (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’09) installation Changing Waters will be on exhibit at the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton through September 25, 2011. There will be an opening reception on February 27, 2-5 PM, and an artist talk on March 27. Also, Nathalie will conduct an intensive, week-long sculptural weaving workshop at the museum March 8-12. Elsewhere in the state, she has a solo show called Musical Scores and Sculptures at the Anderson Gallery at Bridgewater State Univeristy. The show runs Feb 14 – March 11, with an opening reception Thursday, February 17, at 4:45 PM.

Pan Morigan (Music Composition Fellow ’07) just released an album of new original songs called Wild Blue. Pan will perform at a CD release concert on Friday, February 11, 2011, 8 PM, at the Helen Hills Chapel at Smith College in Northampton. Pan will also join another past MCC fellow, Andrea Hairston (Playwriting/New Theater Works Fellow ’03), in a series of events combining narrative and music, taking place across the United States to promote Andrea’s novel Redwood and Wildfire.

Koji Nakano‘s (Music Composition Finalist ’09) Ancient Songs was recently performed by Soprano Stacey Fraser at Chapman University and at the University of California at San Diego, and another performance is planned at the Hong Kong Arts Centre on March 6, 2011. On February 20, 2011, Fraser will premiere Arigatoo, an aria from Koji Nakano’s second opera Spiritual Forest, as part of a concert at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. In addition, she will give the Taiwan Premiere of the same aria at the Taipei National Concert Hall on March 1, 2011.

Jendi Reiter (Poetry Fellow ’10) was runner-up for the 2010 Iowa Review Award in Nonfiction.

Matt Rich (Painting Fellow ’10) was among the artists selected by the editors of New American Paintings as 11 to watch.

Adam Schwartz (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’10) will have an event celebrating his book A Stranger on the Planet at Wellesley College (where he teaches), on February 4, 2011. Also, he joins poet Dan Chaisson for a reading at Porter Square Books in Cambridge, on February 9,  at 7 PM. Read a terrific review of Adam’s novel in the Boston Globe.

Carolyn Webb (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’82) will have a solo exhibit of sculpture and prints at Spheris Gallery in Hanover, NH. The show runs February 19-March 22, 2011.

Rachel Perry Welty (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’09, Drawing Fellow ’04) has a solo exhibition at deCordova Sculpture Park + Museum in Lincoln, called Rachel Perry Welty 24/7. The show runs through April 24, with an opening on February 5, 2011. Read a Q&A with Rachel in the Boston Globe.

Judith Wombwell (Choreography Fellow ’10) choreographed a piece called Integral for Project: Motion in Memphis, TN. The piece will be part of a performance at Evergreen Theatre in Memphis, February 18-20, 2011. Judith’s company Deadfall Dance will perform their piece Grass as part of the concert. Read an article about the rehearsal process for Integral.

Kevin Young (Poetry Fellow ’10) reads from his new book, Ardency: A Chronicle of the Amistad Rebels at Porter Square Books in Cambridge, on Monday, February 7, 7 PM. Read a primer on the books of Kevin Young on the Porter Square Books blog.

Past Fellows Notes
Jan. 2011

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: Laurie Kaplowitz, LUSTRE (2006), Acrylic on canvas, 46×42 in; Chris Frost, RED CASTLE (2008) concrete patio blocks, 7x11x12 feet; CD cover for WILD BLUE by Pan Morigan; Promotional image for Deadfall Dance.

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A group of about 35 creative minds in the Massachusetts choreography and dance community came together this past Sunday, January 23, 2011, at the home of MCC Executive Director Anita Walker, in Cohasset, MA. The order of the day? Talking about art. Not the marketing aspects, not funding, not the field’s contributions to the economy (worthy topics, all, just not the focus on this cold, clear January day). What are the creative issues, challenges, changes, and inspirations dance and choreography artists were, are, and will be facing in this vital and evolving discipline?

The group spoke from a wide array of aesthetic perspectives and experiences, from traditional dance to contemporary choreography, voices ranging from dance company leaders to dance community innovators.

The conversation, it may not surprise you, was a work of graceful human movement in and of itself, flowing from fascinating topics with generosity and imagination.

Here is a (woefully incomplete) summary of some of the questions addressed. (And if you’d like to add or respond to any of these points, please join the conversation by leaving a comment below!)

What inspires you in the field of dance? Collaboration was the most frequent answer, as artists highlighted the need, potential, and inspiration to be found in working hand-in-hand with other creative minds. Dance is, by nature, collaboration, as one artist reminded the room. This could mean collaborating with fellow choreographers and dancers, artists from other disciplines, or even non-artists: the thriving community of scientists and thinkers in Massachusetts. One artist brought up bartering, and how she taught ballet to someone who advanced her knowledge of online social networking. Other inspirations: the wealth of dance genres in this state, and the sense of community fostered by groups like Dance Action Network and Boston Dance Alliance.

How do you present new work in the face of limited presentation venues/opportunities? Finding ways to present is a constant struggle for dance artists, but some saw great potential for experimentation here. Starting homegrown festivals and projects such as the Gloucester New Arts Fest and the Dance in the Fells project, or finding unique, perhaps even non-traditional, non-arts spaces to perform work. The key, as one artist put it, was finding the spaces that need dance in them.

How is technology impacting your work? There was wide consensus technology is an important force in dance, whether that be an intentional creative choice not to use technology in performance to emphasize human movement and connection, or the integration of cutting-edge media in the content of the work itself. Some artists discussed technology as a useful tool in developing work; video accelerating and sharpening the choreographic development of a new work.

What is the role of Massachusetts educational institutions in advancing the field of dance? Some artists advocated a shift in perspective, approaching dancers in training not just as technicians of dance but as choreographers themselves, with vital, contributing energy to the creation of new work.

How can the field as a whole advance in artistic quality? Several artists brought up the tremendous potential for mentorship and peer feedback, experienced artists offering critical feedback to emerging artists, or even to other experienced artists with emerging projects. Is there potential for an ongoing effort at providing critical feedback in the Massachusetts dance community?

What are your thoughts on any of these issues? What other creative issues are you grappling with in the realms of dance and choreography?

Another opportunity to discuss dance takes place at Jose Mateo Ballet Theatre, on February 6, 2011, at TALK ABOUT DANCE, a panel discussion on how to create effective Dance for World Community networks. More information here.

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Today’s glimpse from our gallery of past MCC fellows/finalists: choreography in dialogue with violin and freestyle rap, from Anna Myer‘s (Choreography Finalist ’10) Street Talk Suite Talk.

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Today’s glimpse from our gallery of past fellows/finalists: Irish dance by Kieran Jordan, whose blend of traditional heritage with contemporary innovations has won her international acclaim – and an MCC Traditional Arts Fellowship.

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Today’s glimpse from our gallery of past MCC fellows/finalists: collaborators Nell Breyer and Stefanie Nelson (Choreography Fellows ’06) expand the boundaries of dance with their fascinating blend of human movement and digital art.

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Here’s the latest installment of Fellows Notes, the current great news of past Fellows/Finalists from our Artist Fellowships Program.

November’s got some terrific stuff: Claire Beckett’s photos on DC buildings… TRIIIBE’s ongoing installation at Boston University… Eric Henry Sanders’s new play in New York. Read on.

On the Boston Area Small Press and Poetry Scene blog, Steve Almond is entertainingly interviewed by Cam Terwilliger, in advance of Steve’s participation in the Somerville News Writers’ Festival, November 13, 2010, at the Center for the Arts at the Armory in Somerville. (Both Steve and Cam are 2008 Fellows in Fiction/Creative Nonfiction.) Here’s a sample of Steve discussing his recent, DIY self-publishing projects: “Of course, there’s a lot of schlepping involved. And some low-level humiliation. But that’s the life of a writer anyway these days.”

Diane Arvanites-Noya and Tommy Neblett (Choreography Fellows ’08, ’04), aka Prometheus Dance, are part of Dance and back again! A 19th Birthday Faculty Concert in the Julie Ince Thompson Theatre at The Dance Complex. New and renewed pieces by Prometheus Dance, The Prometheus Elders, and numerous other groups will be performed on Saturday, November 13, 8 PM and Sunday, November 14, 7 PM.

Claire Beckett (Photography Fellow ’07) is one of the artists included in the 2010 Photolucida Critical Mass Top 50. Also, her work will be on display during FotoWeek DC in the show 100 Portraits – 100 Photographers: Selections from the FlakPhoto.com Archive, curated by Andy Adams of FlakPhoto.com. This exhibition is part of the NightGallery series of projections on display from November 6-13, 2010, with a launch party at the Corcoran Gallery of Art on Friday, November 5. The images will be projected on exteriors of significant buildings across Washington, DC, including: Corcoran Gallery of Art and College of Art + Design, Newseum, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, American Red Cross, National Museum of the American Indian, Satellite Central (M Street – Georgetown) and the Human Rights Campaign buildings.

Liza Bingham (Painting Finalist ’10) is one of the over 80 artists exhibiting work in the 34th Annual Waltham Mills Open Studios, on Saturday, November 6 (12-6 PM) and Sunday, November 7 (12-5 PM).

Martha Jane Bradford (Drawing Fellow ’85) collaborated with Chantal Harvey to produce Acquarella: The Fable, digital/virtual art on view in the Air Tree Exhibit in the Madrid Pavilion of the World Expo in Shanghai, curated by Spanish curator and virtual arts leader Cristina García-Lasuén. Martha (Alizarin Goldflake in Second Life) produced, directed, and designed most of the virtual environment, while Chantal Harvey helmed the 3-D computer animation. Watch the clip with narration in English or Chinese. Also, Martha recently constructed Second Life sets for a real life play, The Winter Bear, which premiered in Anchorage October 29, 2010. Martha’s virtual, immersive art is integrated into the show’s the stage design (watch a video trailer). Find more information about the play The Winter Bear, a story of a troubled Athabascan teenager whose video game skills come in handy against a marauding Winter Bear. The play runs at Cyrano’s Off-Center Playhouse, Anchorage AK, Oct 29 – Nov 13. Read more about the project.

Sarah Braunstein (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’04) was named as one of the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 selections, recognizing five young fiction writers chosen by National Book Award Winners and Finalists. She’ll be formally honored at a celebration at powerHouse Arena in NYC on Monday, November 15, hosted by musician and author Rosanne Cash with music journalist Rob Sheffield as DJ. Sarah’s novel The Sweet Relief of Lost Children will be published by W.W. Norton in 2011.

Congratulations to Peter Brown (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’06), whose short story collection A Bright Soothing Noise is published by University of North Texas Press this month. The book won the press’s Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Short Fiction.

Alicia Casilio, Sara Casilio, Kelly Casilio, and Cary Wolinsky (Sculpture/Installation Fellows ’09), aka TRIIIBE, are turning Boston University’s massive 808 Gallery space into a site-specific installation. In Search of Eden will evolve as creators and observers participate in developing a present day version of the Garden of Eden. The installation will encompass photography, sculpture, painting and daily performances by the artists.

Lorraine Chapman (Choreography Fellow ’04) and her dance company join Contrapose Dance for an afternoon of dancing and dynamic work by Gianni Di Marco, Courtney Peix, and Lorraine Chapman. The event is on Sunday, November 14, 2:30 PM, Green Street Studios in Cambridge, MA. Among the works by Lorraine Chapman, The Company are “Pulp Tango,” the gold section from “Displaced Here Persons There,” and a new solo danced by Lorraine Chapman.

Regie Gibson (Poetry Fellow ’10) will emcee the literary feast A Taste of Grub, a November 5 fundraiser for Grub Street, a writers’ service organization based in Boston. Regie has plenty of experience behind a microphone; he’s a former Poetry Slam National Champion.

Jane Gillooly (Film & Video Fellow ’07) will be a guest at EventWorks SIM (Studio for Interrelated Media at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design) on Thursday, November 4, 2010, at 7:30 PM when her documentary Today the Hawk Takes One Chick has a free screening.

Cathy Jacobowitz‘s (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Finalist ’10) short story “You Made Me Leave My Happy Home” (drawn from her novel Melly Mockingbird) will be published in the Santa Monica Review spring or fall of 2011.

Congratulations to Liza Johnson (Film & Video Finalist ’07), who won the prestigious Rappaport Prize from the DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum. The prize is a $25,000 award to an individual artist, “an investment in both an individual and the broader community.”

Dawn Lane (Choreography Fellow ’10) was recently invited by Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival to a Creative Development Residency to develop a new work, one potato, two potato. The work uses aspects of Irish culture and history as a metaphor for exploring excess, loss & insufficiency. Joined by dancers Lorimer Burns, Jane Goodrich, Susannah Millonzi and Leslie Nelson, Dawn spent a productive week in October in the Doris Duke Theatre that culminated in an informal showing of the work in progress on October 15.

Scott Listfield (Painting Finalist ’10) was selected as the creator of this year’s First Night Boston button. The design will be unveiled this month.

Tara L. Masih‘s (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Finalist ’96) story collection, Where the Dog Star Never Glows, was announced as a finalist in the USA Book News Best Books 2010 Awards, short story category. Read Tara discussing Three Stages in the book’s development on ArtSake.

Rania Matar (Photography Fellow ’07) was selected for inclusion in the 2010 Photolucida Critical Mass Top 50.

Rachel Mello (Painting Finalist ’10) has a solo exhibition on paintings, prints, and collages at Club Passim in Cambridge. The exhibition runs November 15, 2010-January 3, 2011. Additionally, she has two pieces in the Nave Gallery’s Our Town exhibit, featuring works of and about Somerville, MA. Opening November 18, Rachel’s work will be included in Plenty at 13FOREST in Arlington. It’s the annual small works holiday show (gift ideas, anyone?).

Eric Henry Sanders’s (Playwriting Fellow ’09) play Reservoir will have its world premiere at The Drilling CompaNY Theatre in New York, running November 4 -24th, 2010. An earlier draft of the play helped Eric win an MCC fellowship, and you can read about its development (as well as hear an excerpt performed by Company One) on ArtSake.

Leslie Sills (Crafts Fellow ’95) created a sculptural teapot, called High Tea, that is among the works included in The Teapot Redefined. The exhibition of sculptural teapots ran at Mobilia Gallery in Cambridge through Oct. 31. High Tea was inspired by Leslie’s artist residency this past summer at Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, which borders a sheep farm in Newcastle, Maine.

Ron Spalletta (Poetry Finalist ’10) had a poem featured in Slate this summer, selected by poetry editor Robert Pinsky (hear Ron reading “Blank Villanelle”). Also, check out a great article about Ron in the Harvard Gazette, highlighting his dual careers as an award-winning poet and a Harvard Medical School manager.

Rachel Perry Welty (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’09, Drawing Fellow ’04) has a solo photographic exhibition, Lost in My Life, at the Yancey Richardson Gallery in New York. The work is a series of photographs in which the artist herself is immersed in an environment of flattened cereal boxes, bread tags, twist ties, and other miscellaneous leftovers of modern consumption. Lost in My Life runs November 4-December 23, 2010, with an opening reception November 4, 6-8 PM.

Leslie Williams‘s (Poetry Fellow ’10) new poetry collection Success of the Seed Plants has been published by Bellday Books. The book won the 2010 Bellday Books Prize.

Kevin Young (Poetry Fellow ’10) has poetry featured in the Best American Poetry 2010 anthology.

Jeff Zimbalist’s (Film & Video Fellow ’05) documentary The Two Escobars is being released in San Francisco this month, is currently running in New York, and will have an LA release next week. The film recently received a glowing review by The Onion’s AV Club (and those discerning hipsters are tough to impress!). The highly lauded documentary will be released on DVD Blu Ray this month.

Past Fellows Notes
Oct. 2010
Sept. 2010
Aug. 2010
July 2010
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: poster for RESERVOIR by Eric Henry Sanders, produced by The Drilling CompaNY; still from a trailer for THE WINTER BEAR, with virtual environments designed by Martha Jane Bradford; still from THE TRAVELERS CABARET by Lorraine Chapman; Scott Listfield, GRAND CANYON (2008), Oil on canvas, 24×48 in; Rachel Perry Welty, LOST IN MY LIFE (BOXES) (2010), Pigment Print, represented by Yancy Richardson Gallery.

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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.

The Boston Book Festival on Saturday, October 16, 2010 is a free literary celebration featuring readings, discussions, and events with an impressive list of world-renowned authors – including numerous past MCC Fellows. Events include Steve Almond (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’08), who hosts the Book Revue, a rocked-out multimedia event with literature by and about rock stars; Henriette Lazaridis Power (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’06), who hosts the event Fiction: Time and Place, exploring identity and the march of history in fiction; and Kevin Young (Poetry Fellow ’10), editor of the new anthology The Art of Losing, who joins other authors to read and discuss as part of Poetry of Love, Loss, and Healing (incidentally, Meg Kearney, one of our recent grants panelists in Poetry, will also take part).

Julie Levesque (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’05) and David Prifti (Photography Finalist ’09) are part of the Rice/Polak Gallery‘s contribution to Affordable Art Fair New York City, September 30-October 3.

Liz Nofziger (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’05) and Linda Price-Sneddon (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’01) have created a collaborative installation, in two parts showing at two different art venues. Part one of the installation That Which Changes That Which Stays the Same shows at the Villa Victoria in Boston through November 3, 2010. The second part of the installation shows at the Essex Art Center in Lawrence through December 8, with an opening reception Friday, October 8, 5-7 PM, and an Artists’ Talk Wednesday, November 17, 7-8 PM. Both works are part of a joint exhibition by Villa Victoria and Essex Art Center called Exchange.

David Binder’s (Photography Fellow ’01) film Calling My Children received Best Short Documentary at the Woods Hole Film Fest in August where David also received an Emerging Filmmaker award. Furthermore, the film was named Best Short at the Newburyport Documentary Film Fest last weekend. The film will screen at the New Jersey Film Festival on October 1, the New Hampshire Film Festival October 14 – 17, and the Oaxaca International Film Festival in Oaxaca, Mexico November 5-13, 2010.

Steven Bogart (Playwriting Finalist ’09) has received great reviews for the production of Cabaret he directed – the Globe review in particular singles out his direction for praise. Read an ArtSake interview with Steven about the show.

Congratulations to Sarah Braunstein (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’04), who was named as one of the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35! The award recognizes five young fiction writers, selected by National Book Award Winners and Finalists. Sarah’s novel The Sweet Relief of Lost Children will be published by W.W. Norton in 2011.

Candice Smith Corby (Painting Fellow ’08) currently has work in two shows: Painting Now at the Grimshaw-Gudewicz Art Gallery at Bristol Community College (through October 21), and New Work 2010 (with Gwen Strahle) at the Lenore Gray Gallery in Providence, RI (through Oct. 25).

Patrick Donnelly (Poetry Fellow ’08) is reading as part of the Greenfield Poetry and Spoken Word Festival on Saturday, October 9. He’ll be taking part in readings at the Greenfield Grille at 3 PM and again at 6:30 PM.

Michael Gandolfi’s (Music Composition Fellow ’03) composition Plain Song will be among the works on the Boston Symphony Chamber Players new CD, Plain Song, Fantastic Dances: Chamber Music By American Composers, on the BSO Classics label. Gandolfi’s composition both commissioned specifically for the Boston Symphony Chamber Players. The new recording will be made available for download as a complete album and at the Symphony Shop in Boston, in November.

Ilana Manolson (Painting Fellow ’08) has a solo show, Stasis/Flux, at Clark Gallery in Lincoln, Mass. The show runs October 1-30, with a reception October 2, 4-6 PM.

Rebecca Meyers (Film & Video Fellow ’09), whose work is currently showing in the ICA/Boston 2010 Foster Prize Exhibition, has a Q&A with ICA curator Randi Hopkins on Thursday, October 28, 7 PM. In Words & Images: Rebecca Meyers, she’ll present a selection of short work including the New England premiere of her newest film, blue mantle, which explores the local history of the Massachusetts coast, shipwrecks, and the role of the sea as aesthetic inspiration.

Nathalie Miebach (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’09) has a solo show, Weather Scores, at the Gordon Gallery of the Boston Arts Academy. The show features Nathalie’s work using weather data to create sculptural musical scores. Information from weather stations, off-shore buoys and satellite imagery, is translated into 2D and 3D musical scores that map meteorological conditions of a specific time and place, but also function as musical scores to be played by musicians (in fact, musician Elaine Rombola recently joined Nathalie to play the scores at a Nave Gallery reception). The Boston Arts Academy pieces focus on recent New England hurricanes, blizzards and storms. The show runs October 5-November 30, with an opening reception October 5, 5-7 PM. Read more about Nathalie’s weather scores in an ArtSake interview.

Cynthia Morrison Phoel (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’04, ’10) has a number of reading events for her new short story collection, Cold Snap: Bulgaria Stories. She takes part in the Concord Festival of Authors on Sunday, October 24, reading at 3 PM. Then, on Tuesday, October 26, 7 PM, she reads at Porter Square Books in Cambridge. On Thursday, October 28, 7 PM, she reads at Andover Bookstore (for both the Porter Square Books and Andover Bookstore events, she’ll be joined by Tracy Winn). Finally, she takes part in the Blacksmith House Reading Series: Monday, November 1, 8 PM, at Blacksmith House in Cambridge.

A 25-year survey of the work of Daniel Ranalli (Drawing Fellow ’10) will be presented at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum. The exhibition, curated by Leslie K. Brown, focuses on Ranalli’s environmental works, embedded in the ecology and landscape of the Outer Cape. It includes over 30 works from several series. The show will be on view October 15, 2010 – January 16, 2011, with a free public reception occurring October 22, 2010, at 7-9 pm.

Monica Raymond (Playwriting Finalist ’07, Poetry Finalist ’08) has a photograph of the Cambridge Carnival featured in the current online edition of qarrtsiluni on “Crowds.”

Cristi Rinklin‘s (Painting Fellow ’10) solo exhibition, Paracosmos, opens at Steven Zevitas Gallery in Boston and will run from September 30-October 30, with an opening reception on Oct. 1st from 5:30-8 PM. Furthermore, her work is currently included in two group exhibitions: Painting Now, at the Grimshaw-Gudewicz Art Gallery at Bristol Community College in Fall River, MA, on view through October 21, and Crazy Beautiful II, at Kenise Barnes Fine Art in Larchmont, NY, on view through November 4.

Work by Leslie Sills (Crafts Fellow ’95) is included in The Teapot Redefined, an exhibition of sculptural teapots at Mobilia Gallery in Cambridge. The show runs through October 31.

Sarah Slifer (Choreography Fellow ’10) is interpreting and performing Charles Olson’s dance-play Apollonius if Tyana for two festivals celebrating the centenary of Olson’s birth. The first festival, Black Mountain North Symposium in Rochester, NY, is on October 3, 11:45 AM. The second festival is Olson 100 in Gloucester on October 10, 1 PM.

Identity Crisis, a new full-length comedy by Peter Snoad (Playwriting Fellow ’09) which received its first staged reading at Provincetown Theatre, in Provincetown, MA in May, is slated for two more staged readings. Centre Stage-South Carolina has selected Identity Crisis as a finalist in its annual new play contest and will present a reading of the play in Greenville, SC on October 21. (Peter won the theater’s 2006 contest with Guided Tour, pictured above.) Next February, HRC Showcase Theater in Hudson, NY will also give Identity Crisis a staged reading as part of its reading series. Peter’s popular short play, My Name is Art, was staged in September at the Short and Sweet Festival in Canberra, Australia after being produced twice in London over the summer – including a slot at the London Fringe Festival – and at Short and Sweet in Singapore.

Congratulations to Tracy Winn (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’08), who received the 2010 Sherwood Anderson Foundation Fiction Award! The award is a yearly monetary prize (2009 award was $15,000) to a promising writer to celebrate the memory and literary work of Sherwood Anderson. Also, Tracy reads from her novel Mrs. Somebody Somebody (now in paperback) at Newtonville Books on October 14, 7 pm. Then, she’ll read at Porter Square Books on October 26 at 7 PM, and at Andover Bookstore on October 28, 7 PM.

Past Fellows Notes
Sept. 2010
Aug. 2010
July 2010
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: David Prifti, EMRYS AND MR. FRENCH (2007), Tintype, 8×10 in; director Steven Bogart and performer Amanda Palmer during a rehearsal for CABARET, photo by Kati Mitchell; score for HURRICANE NOEL by Nathalie Miebach; Poster for GUIDED TOUR, a play by Peter Snoad, performed by Centre Stage-South Carolina, 2007.

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Today’s glimpse from our gallery of past MCC fellows/finalists is a sampling of the idiosyncratic, at times comic, and flat out exhilarating dance of Christian Burns (Choreography Fellow ’08).

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