ArtSake

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.

SIX past and current MCC Artist Fellows were selected to be among nine finalists for the 2010 James and Audrey Foster Prize, the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston’s biennial award and exhibition program for Boston-area artists. Eirik Johnson (Photography Fellow ‘09), Fred H. C. Liang (Painting Fellow ‘04, ‘08), Rebecca Meyers (Film & Video Fellow ‘09), Matt Rich (Painting Fellow ‘10), Evelyn Rydz (Drawing Fellow ‘10), and Steve Tourlentes (Photography Fellow ‘05), along with Robert de Saint Phalle, Daniela Rivera, and Amie Siegel, will participate in an exhibition at the ICA that opens Sept. 22, 2010, and continues through Jan. 30, 2011. The winner of the prize will be announced in January 2011.

Three MCC Fellows are featured in the show 1X1 at Gallery Kayafas in Boston. The show, curated by Gregory Mencoff (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ‘05, ‘09), includes work by Evelyn Rydz (Drawing Fellow ‘10) and Pat Shannon (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ‘09) along with Nancy Cusack and John Schulz. It runs March 4-April 10, 2010, with receptions on First Fridays: March 5 and April 2, 5:30-8 PM.

Three MCC Fellows/Finalists are featured in an exhibition of Artadia Boston’s recent awardees, at the Mills Gallery in the Boston Center for the Arts. Work by Claire Beckett (Photography Fellow ‘07), Ambreen Butt (Drawing Finalist ‘10), and Eric Gottesman (Photography Fellow ‘09), along with that of Caleb Cole, Raúl González, Amie Siegel and Joe Zane, will on exhibit March 26 - April 25, 2010, opening reception, Friday, March 26, 6-8 PM.

Speaking of Claire Beckett… kudos to Claire and Irina Rozovsky (Photography Finalist ‘09): both are included in the Humble Arts Foundation’s 31 Women in Art Photography, which is on exhibit at Affirmation Arts in NYC, March 6-April 10, 2010, opening reception: Saturday, March 6, 6–9 PM.

This month, Steve Almond (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ‘08) has a number of Boston-area readings and appearances in advance of the April release his new book Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life. On Friday, March 12, he’ll be the host of Grub Street’s Grub Gone… Blue, a night of reading from writers’ “blue” periods. On Thursday, March 18, he’ll join Steven Beeber at the Art Institute of Boston (check back at Steve’s website for details). On Tuesday, March 23, he’ll join Keith Morris at Porter Square Books in Cambridge. Then on April 16, his voice by now limbered up and the mic cleared of sibilance, he’ll visit the Brattle Theatre (hosted by Harvard Bookstore) for a musical celebration of his new book, an ode/confessional for the musical superfan in all of us. Tickets on sale now. In other auspicious Almond news: his story “Donkey Greedy, Donkey Gets Punched” has been selected by Richard Russo to appear in The Best American Short Stories 2010. Can I humbly request a “Woo hoo?”

Alissa Cardone (Choreography Finalist ‘02, ‘06, ‘08) and Kinodance will perform their new work “Fuse” on March 5 as part of the 12th biennial Arts and Technology Symposium at Connecticut College.

Ralf Yusuf Gawlick (Music Composition Fellow ‘09) let us know that on March 17 at 8 pm in Gasson Hall, Boston College, the Hawthorne String Quartet will perform his Berlin Suite. The piece, performed here as a concert suite, was commissioned by the German Embassy and Boston College for the film documentary “Writing on the Wall: Remembering the Berlin Wall” celebrating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Admission is free. At 7 PM, there is a reception to celebrate the release of Solo and Chamber Works, Ralf Yusuf Gawlick, from Musica Omnia. Also, don’t miss the premiere of Kinderkreuzzug, Ralf’s dramatic cantata for children’s voices and small chamber ensemble, on Saturday, April 10, 7:30 PM, at St. Ignatius, Chestnut Hill and again on Sunday, April 11, 3:00 PM Trinity Episcopal, Concord. The cantata, which adapts Bertolt Brecht’s extraordinary and grim anti-war poetry, will be performed by two New England choirs and a German boys choir sponsored to fly to the region specifically for this piece. The choirs will record the cantata for the label Musica Omnia.

Masako Kamiya (Painting Fellow ‘06, ‘10) has a solo exhibition, Outspoken: Masako Kamiya, 2002-2010 at the Danforth Museum of Art in Framingham, March 17 - May 16 2010. Artist’s Reception: Saturday, March 20, 6-8PM. Artist’s Talk: Wednesday, March 17, noon & Sunday, April 11, 3PM. (The talks are free for museum members or with paid admission to the museum.) Read more about the show (and about Masako) on ArtSake.

Adam Lampton (Photography Finalist ‘07) has a solo show at Carroll and Sons Gallery in Boston, Nothing Serious Can Happen Here: Photographs from Macao by Adam Lampton. The show runs through March 27, 2010.

Todd McKie (Painting Finalist ‘08) has been awarded a Residency Fellowship to Instituto Sacatar in Bahia, Brazil. Twenty-five artists were selected from among more than 500 candidates from 19 different countries. Todd will be there for two months in 2011. You can see recent work by Todd at Gallery NAGA in Boston this May 2010. A book about a collaborative project done with David Caras is to be published to coincide with the exhibition.

This month, work by Nathalie Miebach (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ‘09) can be experienced both locally and in NYC, and through numerous senses. Her sculptural art, recently featured at the Sarah Doyle Gallery at Brown University, is now on exhibit in 185th Annual Invitational Exhibition of Contemporary American Art, National Academy Museum, New York, NY, through June 8, 2010. Furthermore, she’s in a group show called Transformations in the Jewett Gallery at Wellesley College, March 3-April 4, with an opening reception March 4, 5-6 PM. Then on March 14, at 3 PM, the Axis Ensemble will perform her sculptures (not a typo) at the Lily Pad in Inman Square, Cambridge. Nathalie creates her fascinating sculptures using weather data; for this project, she’s translating the weather data into musical scores, then using the score as a starting point for her sculpture. MEANWHILE, the score itself goes to musicians (enter the Axis Ensemble), and voila, you have “Hurricane Noel,” a performance and sculpture interpreting the same weather. We have it on good authority that the sculpture will be in attendance at the concert.

Stephen Mishol (Painting Fellow ‘08) has three paintings and four drawings in Tek’tanik at the Aferro Gallery in Newark, NJ. The show runs from March 13 - April 24.

Eric Henry Sanders (Playwriting Fellow ‘09) will have a workshop reading of his play Woyzeck: Homecoming at The Drilling Company in NYC in March. Then in April, his short play Dead Duck will be part of the Back to Back Director’s Project, starting April 21, 2010 at Available Potential Enterprises.

Past Fellows Notes
Feb. 2010
Jan. 2010

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

Image: Eirik Johnson, THE ROAD TO FORKS, WASHINGTON (2006), archival pigment print, 24×30 in; Cover art for SOLO AND CHAMBER WORKS, RALF YUSUF GAWLICK (Musica Omnia 2010); Stephen Mishol, PUSH (2007) Vinyl paint on paper, 20×25 3/4 in.

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Lana Z. Caplan is interested in the ways that women’s social identities can be comprised of at-odds imagery and expectations. As she says in an interview on the Gallery NAGA website: “in the third wave of feminism, we’re expected to be individualistic and successful, to be able to do it all, have a family, relationships, time for ourselves, to be sexy and sexually liberated. All of these roles conflict.”

Lana, who has been making fascinating film, video, and photographic art in the Boston area since 1990, has a one-woman exhibition of new works exploring those conflicting roles at Gallery NAGA through February 27, 2010. Notes for Future Illusions invites viewers to experience videos that, taken together, make up a cohesive installation exploring the perspectives of the spectator and the inspected, and the contradictory icons of womanhood.

Viewers can drift from a video set up in front of a 70s pleather couch, to captivating projected images shot in the Mediterranean, to a “park bench” piece, to videos with headphone stations, and more.

An admiring Boston Globe write-up of the exhibition called PORTRAIT (first still from the top) a “funny elucidation of the awkward self-awareness of people sitting for a portrait.”

Notes for Future Illusions runs at Gallery NAGA in Boston through February 27, 2010.

Lana Z. Caplan is a film/videomaker, photographer and installation artist who splits her time between Boston, MA and the Amalfi Coast of Italy. She was recently awarded an ongoing residency at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio, to support the documentary she is making about international women who have emigrated to Italy to marry Italian men.

Images (top to bottom): still from PORTRAIT (2010), DVD (1/3) 3:30; MARTYR (THE DUCHESS OF AMALFI), silver gelatin print (1/3) and cut paper, 13×13 in; two installation overviews of NOTES FOR FUTURE ILLUSIONS; still from SANCTIMONIA (2010), DVD (1/3) 3:40, all images by Lana Z. Caplan.

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Of Interest to Public Artists: NEFA’s next brown-bag lunch topic for artists is called An Insider’s View on Image Submissions. This session will focus on preparing images of your work for public art submissions. Art and architectural photographer Charles Mayer will share tips and suggestions on how to get the best photographs of your work. December 10, 2009 from 11:30 A.M. - 1:00 P.M. at The Cellar, located at 319 A Street (in the Fort Point Channel neighborhood of Boston). Space is limited. RSVP to ljohnston@nefa.org

Photographers: Smithsonian magazine’s seventh annual photo contest. Contestants may enter photographs in five categories: The Natural World, Americana, Altered Images, Travel, and People.
Deadline: December 16, 2009

Hamptons International Film Festival – Screenwriters’ Lab. The Hamptons Writers’ Lab pairs established writers with up-and-coming screenwriters. The mentors advise in a one-on-one laboratory setting while additional daily events bring the participants together with board members, sponsors, the local artistic community, and other friends of the festival. They are seeking a broad selection of screenplays addressing a wide subject matter including works that explore science, technology, mathematics, invention, and engineering. Fore more, contact the Hamptons International Film Festival – Screenwriters’ Lab, 3 Newtown Mews, East Hampton, NY 11937, (631) 324-4600, programming@hamptonsfilmfest.org
Deadlines: December 23, 2009 (regular); January 8, 2010 (late)

Call to Cambridge area artists to exhibit  in the CAC Gallery
Cambridge Open Studios Preview Salon Exhibition. For more information contact Jeremy Gaucher, Public Art Administrator, at jgaucher@cambridgema.gov or 617-349-4388.
Deadline: Registration due December 31, 2009

Image credit: http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/htmls/anta0050.htm
Photograph of An Antarctic fur seal pup and a Gentoo penguin. Image ID: anta0050, NOAA At The Ends of the Earth Collection. Location: Antarctic Peninsula. Photographer: Dr. David Demer, NOAA/NMFS/SWFSC/AMLR. From NOAA Photo Library.

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On December 5, at 5 PM, a tobacco shed in Amherst will transform with light.

Shedding Light is a public art project conceived and created by artist/architect Erika Zekos and supported by, among others, the Town of Amherst, the Amherst Cultural Council, and the Swartz Family Farm, where the project will be on display December 5-31. Erika’s past projects include Greetings from MY City, which plays off the familiar concept of the tourist site postcard to allow young artists to engage and depict their own communities. Similarly, Shedding Light starts with a familiar sight of the Pioneer Valley - an aging tobacco shed - and illuminates it with a new vision.

We asked Erika about the origins of the project, her background as an artist and architect, and the makings of a truly public work of art.

ArtSake: How did the concept behind Shedding Light, lighting up a tobacco barn from the interior “like an architectural lantern,” first occur to you?

Erika: When my family moved to Amherst five years ago we would drive around to explore back roads and hidden places. The very first thought I had when I saw the tobacco sheds for the first time was, “We grow tobacco here?!” and the second was, “Wow, these buildings are so beautiful!” Seeing the sunlight streaming into a shed through the long, vertical panels I knew immediately that I wanted to switch it up and let the light stream out and into the landscape at night.

As with much of my work, the idea is to call attention to the environment (both built and unbuilt) and create a forum for the questions that arise as a result of the work. The more I’ve learned about the uniqueness, simplicity, and single-use design of the tobacco sheds the more intrigued I’ve become. It’s not my intention to celebrate smoking, but it’s certainly an interesting history. Believe it or not, Connecticut Valley shade-grown tobacco is among the best in the world and is used as the wrapper layer of fine cigars. In the peak growing years of the 1920’s to 50’s 30,000 acres were planted… now it’s more like 3,000 acres. It’s no surprise then that the sheds built to dry the crop are quickly vanishing as they fall down or the land is developed into shopping malls and housing. I wanted to do something that would highlight the distinctiveness of this architectural vernacular and the vision of the shed filled with light in a winter landscape was a clear idea from the very beginning.

ArtSake: How does your use of a tobacco shed on the hydroponic Swartz Family Farm relate to the core premises of the project?

Erika: Shedding Light is about appreciating the ingenuity and sustainability of our farming history while simultaneously looking ahead to the future. These sheds are 150 year-old examples of the kind of simple, sustainable design that everyone is talking about today; they harnessed the wind to naturally ventilate and dry the tobacco.

Collaborating with the Swartzes is perfect really because it conveys both sides of the coin. Joe and Sarah Swartz are third generation farmers dealing with the realities of bringing their product to market and working 24/7 to make a living. This doesn’t leave much for preserving aging tobacco sheds (and the shed that I’m using for Shedding Light is in pretty rough shape at the moment). But at the same time the Swartzes are very forward-thinking farmers themselves: leasing much of their land to neighboring farms and growing lettuces and herbs year round in their greenhouses, using only 1/10th the water that conventional farming requires for the same product. They also operate a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) that invites the community to participate in the success of the farm and share in the harvest.

While the physical aspects of illuminating the shed (light and shadows) will be the easiest to understand, it’s the underlying connection to the community (farming, local history, etc.) that I hope keeps this project in the memories of those who experience it.

ArtSake: Nora Maroulis of wunderarts called your project “public art at its best/most impactful.” Both Shedding Light and your Greetings from MY City project use artistic creation to enhance and build awareness of one’s community. Is it this interaction between art and community that appeals to you, as a public artist? And is it the same appeal that drew you to architecture?

Erika: Absolutely! The interaction between the cultural and physical landscapes is such ripe territory for exploration in both architecture and art. Architecture is about designing a better built environment, but ultimately, it’s about the experiences of the people who live in it… my public art projects deal with the architectural too, but tend to be more hands-on with regards to the interaction. They invite you in and ask you to think. Greetings from MY City (a collaboration with my great friend Gretchen Schneider) is a perfect example of that. We invited kids from neighborhoods in inner city Boston and Holyoke to create photo essays of the places and spaces that are important to them. Ultimately we create postcards with a selection of those photos, creating a document of their stories for the wider community.

ArtSake: The Shedding Light project has become a community event, in every sense. The December 5 shed lighting includes a book event, a panel exploring sustainable living and green architecture, and a concurrent art exhibit including your photos of the shed and drawings by Scott Tulay. Can you describe how the project built to this exciting level of public involvement?

Erika: Well, every project that I’ve ever done as an architectural designer, teacher, or public artist has invited collaboration and the sharing of ideas.

In the case of Shedding Light, the conception of the piece was the easy part; actually seeing it to fruition has been an incredible journey. As soon as I talked with Terry Rooney, the chair of the Amherst Public Art Commission, it was clear that this would blossom into something bigger than the original idea. Terry suggested the idea of offsetting the energy used by the lights with a solar array, which was a perfect fit with the original concept. I then began the work of finding a shed to work with, talking with a professor at UMass Amherst about involving his students in the photovoltaic design, to a lighting designer, electrician, historians, etc. I’m also working with the Amherst Young Artists Coalition to have students document the installation in photos and film.

We were just about to go ahead with the photovoltaic panels when the state ended its rebate program (two years earlier than anticipated due to high demand) so at this point we won’t be installing solar array, but we’re optimistic about bringing this to the farm in the spring.

All that said, a public education and exhibit component has been a part of the project from the beginning. Scott’s drawings are gorgeous and compliment the installation perfectly.

This is Amherst’s 250th birthday year and it’s a great opportunity to bring a celebration of agriculture and architecture and art to the public in this way.

Shedding Light will be on display at the Swartz Family Farm, evenings from December 5 through December 31, 2009. There will be numerous events on Saturday, December 5, at the Nacul Center in Amherst. At 2 PM will be a lecture by Dary Purinton and Dale Cahill, co-authors of Tobacco Sheds of the Connecticut River Valley; at 2:45 PM is the panel discussion “Living Green from the Past to the Future;” 3:30 is the opening reception of a concurrent exhibition of new drawings by Scott Tulay and Erika’s photos of Shedding Light. At 5 PM at the Swartz Family Farm, the shed will be lit up for the first time.

Erika H. Zekos is an architectural designer, teacher and artist committed to projects in public art, education and architecture. She has completed numerous public art installations in Boston and western MA, as well as practiced residential, institutional and educational design. She is currently the western MA Program Coordinator and master teacher with Learning By Design in Massachusetts, a non-profit design education program. Erika has also taught architecture at Roger Williams University, Rhode Island School of Design and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is also a dedicated community member, serving on the boards of the western MA chapter of the American Institute of Architects, the Amherst Education Foundation and the parent organization of her children’s school.

Images: photo from a test lighting of SHEDDING LIGHT by Erika Zekos; Scott Tulay, BARN INTERIOR (2009), ink, pastel, charcoal, 22X30 in; Scott Tulay, SHED AT NIGHT (2009), ink, pastel, charcoal, 30×40 in.

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In a ceremony at The Boston Foundation this past Tuesday night, eight artists (including six past fellows/finalists from the MCC Artist Fellowships Program) were announced as the inaugural Brother Thomas Fellows, receiving unrestricted awards of $15,000.

The awards are part of the legacy of Brother Thomas Bezanson, a Benedictine monk whose porcelain ceramics are world-renowned for their mastery and grace. The Boston Foundation worked with Bernie and Sue Pucker from the Pucker Gallery (longtime friends of Brother Thomas) to establish the Brother Thomas Fund, creating a means to support working contemporary artists through the sale of Brother Thomas’s work.

Artists are nominated for consideration for the award, which is planned for every two years. Sixty-two artists were nominated for the 2009 Brother Thomas Fellowships, representing a wide range of exceptional artists in many disciplines. The eight fellows are:

• John Oluwole ADEkoje, a filmmaker and playwright who teaches at the Boston Arts Academy
• Kati Agcs, a composer and member of the composition faculty at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston
• Richard Hoffman (MCC Fiction/Creative Nonfiction ‘02), a poet, prose writer, and writer in residence at Emerson College
• Barbara Helfgott Hyett (MCC Poetry Fellow ‘98), a poet and founder of the Workshop for Publishing Poets
• Brian Knep (MCC Sculpture/Installation Finalist ‘07), a new media artist who was the first artist-in-residence at Harvard Medical School
• Alla Kovgan (MCC Film & Video Fellow ‘09), a filmmaker and co-founder of Kinodance Company and the Balagan Experimental Film Series
• Tracy Heather Strain (MCC Film & Video Fellow ‘07), a filmmaker whose work-in-progress is a documentary on Lorraine Hansberry, author of Raisin in the Sun
• Heather White (MCC Crafts Finalist ‘09), a jeweler, maker of wearable art, and Associate professor at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design

Congratulations to all nominees and fellows!

The panelists were: Nicholas Baume, former Chief Curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston; Emilya Cachapero, Director of Artistic Programs for the Theatre Communications Group; Michael Cain, a composer and pianist; Kwame Dawes, poet in residence at the University of South Carolina Arts Institute; Caridad Svich, playwright, translator and editor; Judith Tannenbaum, Curator of Contemporary Art at the Rhode Island School of Design Museum; and Joe Zina, former Executive Director of the Coolidge Corner Theatre.

Images: Brian Knep, FROG TIME (2007), non-repeating video installation, computer, video projector, custom software, 7×5 ft; Still from NORA, co-directed by Alla Kovgan and David Hinton; Heather White, MURMURING BROOCH (2006), cast sterling lips, gold, rubies, seed and cultured pearls, 4.75×4.75x.75 in.

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Call to artists: Wounded in Action: An Art Exhibition of Orthopaedic Advancements. The exhibition will be a tribute to injured troops, civilians, and the orthopaedic surgeons who are caring and have cared for them as they served and/or serve our country in time of crisis. This exhibition is open to all artists with an interest in this theme. Artists need not have been military personnel, orthopaedic surgeons, or personally injured in war themselves.
Deadline: October 15, 2009

HarborArts: Large-scale outdoor sculpture on loan at Boston Harbor Shipyard call to artists. Eligibility: Open to all artists/designers/teams in the US and internationally. Students welcome. HarborArts seeks to implement an outdoor artwork loan program for a limited number of large-scale, 2D, and 3D works at Boston Harbor Shipyard in East Boston, Massachusetts. Works will be exhibited on a rotating schedule lasting a minimum of 3 months to several years, depending on availability and feasibility.
Deadline: Monday, November 9, 2009

Calling all furniture, lighting, product, interior, or environmental designers.
Modern Painters Magazine and Louise Blouin Media invite designers to participate in the inaugural competion Re:Vision Design Awards. First prize is $10,000 and two finalist awards are $2,500 each. Submissions from across the design spectrum that thoughtfully explore new ways to live, work, play, and interact in the domestic environment are encouraged.
Deadline: November 17, 2009

Image credit: Photograph of Bessie Colman courtesy of NASA (NASA, GPN-2004-00027). Additional biographical information on Ms. Colman courtesy of NASA: Born on January 26, 1892 in Atlanta, Texas to a family of sharecroppers, Bessie Coleman grew up in poverty. Her father abandoned the family when she was nine, and her elder brothers soon left as well, leaving her mother with the four youngest of her thirteen children. While taking care of her younger sisters, Bessie completed all eight available years of primary education, excelling in math. She enrolled at the Colored Agricultural and Normal University in Langston, Oklahoma in 1910, but lack of funds forced her to leave after only one term.

Five years later, she left the South and moved to Chicago to join two of her brothers, Walter and John, where she worked as a beautician for several years. An avid reader, she learned about World War I pilots in the newspaper and became intrigued by the prospect of flying. As a black woman, she had no chance of acceptance at any American pilot school, so she moved to France in 1919 and enrolled at the Ecole d’Aviation des Freres Caudon at Le Crotoy.

After returning briefly to the United States, she spent one more term in France practicing more advanced flying before finally settling back in her birth country. She did exhibition flying and gave lectures across the country from 1922 to 1926. While flying, she refused to perform unless the audiences were desegregated. She was test flying a new plane on April 30, 1926 when it malfunctioned, killing both her and the mechanic who was piloting it. Her career as the world’s first African American pilot inspired many who followed.

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Photo above depicts two artists wondering whatever happened to their luggage.

On a happier note, The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority has issued two Calls to Artists for upcoming projects at Washington Dulles International Airport and they have nothing to do with locating lost luggage.

The first call to artists involves the International Arrivals Building. The Airports Authority is looking for artists to make artwork for three permanent installations intended to welcome arriving international passengers to the United States and the National Capital Region, to enhance their travel experience and to promote the cultural diversity of the National Capital Region.

The second call involves the the Federal Inspection Services Area, Concourse C. One project artist will be selected to work with nine classroom/art teachers at schools in the National Capital Region to create student portraits for a public art project titled, HELLO AND WELCOME.

For more information contact Margaret Bishop, Community Relations Manager, Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, 703-417-8383, or email Margaret.Bishop@MWAA.com

Deadline for both projects: October 15, 2009.

There are two upcoming free talks to note:
The first is the launch event of Artists In Context on Friday, October 9, 2009, from 1:00 - 4:00 p.m. at the Arthur M. Sackler Museum Lecture Hall, Harvard University, 485 Broadway, Cambridge. Seating is limited so reservation is recommended. Email RSVP@artistsincontext.org to attend.

ARTISTS IN CONTEXT is a flexible organizational framework designed to assemble artists and other creative thinkers across disciplines to conceptualize new ways of representing and acting upon the critical issues. The speakers include: Claudine Brown, Director of the Arts and Culture Program, Nathan Cummings Foundation; Mel Chin, Ann Hamilton, Dava Newman, Director, MIT Technology and Policy Program and Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Engineering Systems; and an additional speaker TBA. The moderator is Carrie Lambert-Beatty, Assistant Professor of History of Art and Architecture and of Visual and Environmental Studies, Harvard University.

The second talk involves Ford Hall Forum at Suffolk University, in collaboration with the Massachusetts Poetry Festival presenting Massachusetts Poetry in Hard Times: What the Best of Bay State Bards Offer Us in Bad Times and Good. Poets include David Ferry, Suji Kwock Kim, Jill McDonough, Gail Mazur & Lloyd Schwartz, with moderator Christopher Lydon. For more information, call the Ford Hall Forum at 617-557-2007. Event takes place on Thursday, October 15 at 6:30-8:00 pm, at the Rabb Auditorium, Boston Public Library, 700 Boylston Street, Boston, MA.

Image credit: NASA Center: Headquarters, Image # wrightflyer-1904.

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Artadia, a New York-based arts nonprofit, announced the finalists for the Artadia Awards 2009 Boston - including several past MCC Artist Fellows/Finalists (linked, below). Congratulations to: Claire Beckett, Cree Bruins, Ambreen Butt, Laura Chasman, Caleb Cole, Margo Cooper, Raul Gonzalez, Eric Gottesman, Wendy Jacob, Erik Levine, Steph Plourde-Simard, Nick Rodrigues, Amie Siegel, Suara Welitoff, and Joe Zane.

Each of the finalists, who were selected from nearly 600 applications, will receive a studio visit in the upcoming weeks. The Artadia jury will then select two artists to receive awards of $15,000 and five to receive awards of $3,000, to be announced mid-August.

More info about the Artadia awards.

Images: Claire Beckett, CIVILIAN JOSHUA OSBORNE PLAYING THE ROLE OF AN IRAQI CIVILIAN, WADI AL-SAHARA, MARINE CORPS AIR GROUND COMBAT CENTER, CA (2008), 2008 Archival ink print, 30 x 40 inches; Laura Chasman, NURSE ASSISTANT (2008), Gouache on mounting board, 12 x 11 inches; Eric Gottesman, MOTHER AND SON REUNITED (1978/2002), Rephotographed and Degraded (2006), Inkjet print, 24 x 17 inches.

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The 2009 Artist Fellowships in Crafts, Film & Video, Music Composition, Photography, Playwriting, and Sculpture/Installation have been announced.

MCC’s Artist Fellowships are anonymously judged and provide unrestricted grants (this year, $10,000 for fellows and $1,000 for finalists) to individual artists in recognition of artistic excellence. We profile awarded artists and share samples of their work on the Gallery @ MCC, and we share the current accomplishments of past fellows and finalists in Fellows Notes.

Here’s a full list of this year’s fellows/finalists and panelists.

Images (top to bottom): Janet Echelman (Crafts & Sculpture/Installation Fellow ‘09), SHE CHANGES, NET NO. 2 (2008), Polyester fiber, steel 50 x 150 x 150 meters; Patricia Shannon (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ‘09), OPEN HOUSE (2008), cut newspapers, acrylic gel, binder’s board 17 in x 24 in x 22 in; Camilo Ramirez (Photography Fellow ‘09), FLIGHT SUIT (2008), Archival Inkjet Print, 16 in x 20 in; Niho Kozuru (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ‘09), LIQUID SUNSHINE SERIES (2008), cast rubber, variable size (smallest, H 22 in to Largest, H 40 in); David Prifti (Photography Finalist ‘09), EMRYS AND MR. FRENCH (2007), Tintype 8 x 10 inches; Angela Cunningham, YELLOW NESTING SET (2007), Ceramics 6 in x 13.5 in x 13.5 in

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Candice Smith Corby (Painting Fellow ‘08) and Julie Levesque (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ‘05), who had a terrific Artist to Artist conversation on this blog a few months ago, both unveil installations this weekend.

Candice’s Estate of Things opens at Essex Art Center in Lawrence tonight (Friday, May 8), with a 5-7 PM opening reception. The painted wall installation considers the objects - beloved but meaningless - left behind once we are gone. Like the image below, the piece pulls you in with curious juxtapositions of the familiar yet discordant.

Julie’s Sift is installed in a new space beside the Clark Gallery in Lincoln. The sculptural work depicts a monochromatic figure crawling on a circular path. Like much of Julie’s work, it’s stark and creepy, a beautiful scene harboring dark secrets.

Read what other past fellows/finalists are up to in the Fellows Notes.

Image: Candice Smith Corby, detail of ESTATE OF THINGS (2009), acrylic on cut-out canvas on painted wallpaper (objects are life size)’ Julie Levesque, installation view of SIFT (2009), 3.5′X20′X20′; Julie Levesque, detail of SIFT (2009), 3.5′X20′X20′.

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