It’s Friday, late afternoon, and creatures everywhere are feeling snacky.
In short, it’s the perfect time to experience David Lachman’s (Sculpture/Installation Finalist ‘07) essen/fressen, an installation that asks: what divides the human from the feline, or the hors d’oevres from the kibble?
Gallery Glimpse is a weekly sampling of our Gallery@MCC.
It’s a sleepy August morning, and you are, hopefully, supine in a hammock or in crystalline sand on some manner of cape (Cod, Ann, Canaveral, etc.). In case you brought your laptop, here’s a round-up of useful, edifying, interesting, or otherwise nifty art-related web destinations.
I brake for blogs that find unique uses for the format. Like Good Ear Review, which publishes dramatic monologues by varied writers, including some Mass. playwrights. Though its editor-in-chief is listed as Tristram Stjohn Bexindale-Webb (editor for the past 147 years), one suspects Northampton playwright KD Halpin may be more than the “Adjuncty Staff” the site claims her to be. Find out how to submit your own monologues.
Another fun one is the His Room as He Left It project blog by Ariel Kotker, where she posts additions to her ongoing, handmade installation, as she makes them. Recently, this meant sharing the Mosspocket Spittle Tabs.
The Technology in the Arts blog covers different methods to crowdfund your art. You’ve probably heard of the site Kickstarter, in which creative rewards are used as incentives to donate to projects, such as the successfully-funded Big Hammock (pictured above), a public art project in Boston’s Rose Kennedy Greenway. The post also delves into IndieGoGo and RocketHub.
A U-Mass Amherst theatre student shares the rules of comedy directing he gleaned from participating in rehearsals for The Hound of the Baskervilles at the Central Square Theatre in Cambridge, such as “If You Can’t Hide It, Feature It” and “Simplify (Unless You Shouldn’t).”
Comic virtuosity, rock star-ness, and individualized pencil sharpening convene in a bookstore you can’t find. On August 20, Brookline’s native son John Hodgman (of The Daily Show and The Areas of My Expertise), David Rees (of Get Your War On), and musical performer John Roderick are joining for an event at the Montague Bookmill in Western Mass. Among the evening’s offerings are this curiosity: Rees will present a rare, live artisanal pencil sharpening demonstration. What is artisanal pencil sharpening, you ask? My guess is it resides somewhere between satire, conceptual art, and hand-sanding, but seek out the bookshop (whose slogan is “Books you don’t need in a place you can’t find”) and find out for yourself. (The Bookmill can’t be too hard to find; according to this Globe article, Hodgman wrote most of his first book there.)
Apply to our Artist Fellowships Program, and you, too, might someday model for Vogue and Time Magazine! Further reading to support the previous sentence: 1. A profile of Jonathan Franzen in Time, which includes his visage on the cover (incidentally, the last time an author graced the Time cover was Stephen King, in March 2000). 2. A story about Franzen in Vogue, which includes a Vogue-ish photo portrait. 3. Our list of notable past Massachusetts state fellows, which includes Mr. Franzen (he received the award in 1986, two years before his first novel The Twenty Seventh City was published.)
When selecting honorary chairs for your theater company, it never hurts to aim high.
Stuck in traffic on the Mass Pike? Stay alert for talking felt, in case some Massachusetts artists decide to emulate Superclogger, a puppet show for gridlocked L.A. drivers.
When writing, do you suffer from the Yoda Effect? Chatty Cathy-ness? The Old Spice Guy Effect? A San Fran literary agent breaks down common writing maladies.
A painter accepts commissions to paint people’s ideal bookshelf, a row of their most treasured or meaningful books.
Provocative filmmaker John Waters is interviewed in the Paris Review, where he talks about his longtime tradition of summering in Provincetown. In particular, his happy days working for local booksellers:
It was a magical time in my life. I worked in the bookshop. First I worked in the East End Bookshop that was run by Molly Malone Cook and her girlfriend, Mary Oliver, the poet, who was not famous yet. And then I worked at the Provincetown Bookshop for many, many years. And it’s still there. Elloyd Hansen, one of the owners, was the guy who really gave me my complete education about books. I didn’t go to school, so he’s the one who told me about Ronald Firbank, Jane Bowles; I learned everything working there.
Image: Digital prototype of THE BIG HAMMOCK, a public art project by Hansy Better. Image courtesy of The Big Hammock Project. The Big Hammock has its grand opening party on August 20th, 1:30 PM, in the Rose Kennedy Greenway in Boston.
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 Rice/Polak Gallery in Provincetown exhibits dozens of intriguing contemporary artists, including numerous from Massachusetts. MCC fellows/finalists upcoming at Rice/Polak include Joshua Meyer (Painting Fellow ‘10), whose Intermingle: New paintings by Joshua Meyer is on exhibit August 13-August 26, with an opening reception Friday, August 13, 7 PM. Following that exhibition, Julie Levesque (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ‘05) and Jane D. Marsching (Photography Finalist ‘03) will both have solo shows, August 27-September 10, 2010, with a reception on Friday August 27, 7 PM.
Steve Almond (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ‘08) visited Here and Now on WBUR radio to discuss his summer music picks, and those of callers-in.
David Binder’s (Photography Fellow ‘01) documentary Calling My Children is screening at the Woods Hole Film Festival August 3rd at 1:00 PM.
Liza Bingham (Painting Finalist ‘10) is among the artists in Free Association, a summer group exhibition for Associate Members of Kingston Gallery in Boston. The show runs August 4-29, 2010, with an opening reception Friday August 6th, 5:30-8 PM.
Steven Bogart (Playwriting Finalist ‘09) directs a new production of Cabaret, opening at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge on August 31. The production features local performing artist Amanda Palmer (of Dresden Dolls fame) as the Master of Ceremonies.
Jessica Bozek’s (Poetry Finalist ‘10) new poetry chapbook Squint into the Sun has been released by Dancing Girl Press.
Lorraine Chapman’s (Choreography Fellow ‘04) dance company is among those performing and participating in the Massachusetts Dance Festival, which seeks to successfully establish dance artistically, financially and operationally, throughout the state. Lorrain Chapman The Company will perform at the Boston Ballet on Saturday, August 21, 2010, at 8 PM, and at the UMass Amherst Fine Arts Center on Saturday, August 28th, 2010 at 8 PM.
This July, Janet Echelman’s (Crafts & Sculpture/Installation Fellow ‘09) Biennial of the Americas was unveiled in Denver. The work is suspended between the Greek Theater and the Denver Art Museum in Denver’s Civic Center Park.
Christopher Faust (Painting Fellow ‘10) is among the artists in On the Road, an exhibit of artwork inspired by the road, running through August 27, 2010, at the Suffolk University Art Gallery at NESAD. The show was curated by Gallery Director James Hull.
Jane Gillooly (Film & Video Fellow ‘07) will screen Today the Hawk Takes One Chick on August 16, 7 PM at the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, as part of the DocYard series of contemporary documentary films. Also, Jane received a pre-production grant from the LEF Foundation for her film-in-progress The Suitcase of Love and Shame.
Dawn Lane (Choreography Fellow ‘10) has a new website, at dawn-lane.com. Read an ArtSake article about Dawn’s recent honor in Washington D.C.
Rebecca Meyers (Film & Video Fellow ‘09) has been hired as film coordinator for ArtsEmerson. Rebecca will program films related to ArtsEmerson’s live performing arts series, as well as “other independent, repertory and foreign films, a student-curated series, classics, and regular screenings of films for children.” (News via the HubArts blog.)
Caleb Neelon (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ‘07) is among the artists in The Boat Show, an exhibition in the Drive-by Gallery in Watertown. Drive-by is the new gallery of Beth Kantrowitz (formerly of Allston Skirt Gallery) and Kathleen O’Hara (formerly of OH+T Gallery).
Liz Nofziger (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ‘05) created a site-specific installation at an abandoned bar called The Artery. The installation treats the inside of a bar as the inside of a body in an immersive multimedia environment. The installation is in the old Artery Lounge space on 26 Holden Street in North Adams, MA, through October 17, 2010. See Downstreet Art for more information, including gallery hours.
Congratulations to Nancy K. Pearson (Poetry Finalist ‘10), who won the 2010 Spoon Review Poetry Review’s Editors’ Prize.
Cynthia Morrison Phoel (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ‘04, ‘10) has two August reading events featuring her recently published short story collection Cold Snap: Bulgaria Stories. She reads at the BigTown Gallery in Rochester, VT, on Sunday, August 15, 5:30 PM. Then, she visits The Provincetown Art Association and Museum in Provincetown on Monday, August 23, 7 PM.
Work by Daniel Ranalli (Drawing Fellow ‘10) will be on exhibit at DNA Gallery in Provincetown, August 13 - September 1. The show, which also includes work by Tabitha Vevers and Peter Hutchinson, was curated by Russell LaMontagne & Richard Baiano.
Monica Raymond’s (Playwriting Finalist ‘07, Poetry Finalist ‘08) poem “The Miraculous” is part of the exhibit “Sinners, Saints, and Censorship: A Quills Art & Poetry Exhibition” at the Central Square YMCA (Durrell Hall), Cambridge, running through August 8th, 2010. The free art show will be up for 45 minutes before, and about 30 min. after, each performance of Bad Habit Productions‘ Quills (attendance of the play is not required to see the exhibit).
Anna Ross (Poetry Finalist ‘10) interviews poet Marie Ponsot in Guernica Magazine.
Sunanda Sahay (Traditional Arts Finalist ‘10) has an exhibition of traditional Indian Madhubani paintings at the Multicultural Arts Center in Cambridge, running through September 6, 2010.
Jo Sandman (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ‘84) will lead a talk and conversation on her work selected for inclusion in the exhibit Out of the Box: Photography Portfolios from the Permanent Collection of the DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln. The exhibition, which runs through October 30, 2010 and was organized by independent curator Leslie K. Brown, is a fascinating selection of photographs from the DeCordova’s collection. Bring your cell phone for an audio tour of the exhibition by Leslie Brown and Gus Kayafas of Palm Press. Jo’s talk is on Saturday, August 7, at 3 PM.
Sarah Slifer (Choreography Fellow ‘10) will perform a new duet with dancer Jimena Bermejo Black in an evening of pieces called Body of Eyes: a dance party/performance, at Club Oberon in Harvard Square, Cambridge. Sarah’s new duet, “5 light-years 3 seconds now,” looks into grand-unified theories and human perception. New scientific theories are postulating many spatial dimensions and sometimes two time dimensions; Sarah is attempting to find these dimensions and play around in there. The performance takes place on August 11th, at 8 PM.
Lewis Spratlan’s (Music Composition Fellow ‘88) opera Life Is a Dream has its world premiere in July and August, at the Santa Fe Opera in New Mexico.
Leslie Williams (Poetry Fellow ‘10) has won the 2010 Robert H. Winner Award from the Poetry Society of America, and her book, Success of the Seed Plants, won the 2010 Bellday Books Prize and will come out in October. Congratulations!
Helena Wurzel (Painting Finalist ‘10) is in the group show Missive at the Russell Projects in Richmond, VA. The show runs through September 4th.
Past Fellows Notes
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 and media: Joshua Meyer, SMILING AT THE CEILING (2010), oil on canvas, 38×42 in; Janet Echelman, BIENNIAL OF THE AMERICAS (2010), public art installation, Civic Center Park, Denver, CO; Jo Sandman, toned gelatin silver photograph using medical x-ray as source material; Helena Wurzel, TEA FOR ONE WITH LUCINDA WILLIAMS (2009), Acrylic Paint and Paper Collage, 22×30 in.
We’re excited to announce that the Massachusetts Cultural Council 2011 Artist Fellowships program guidelines are now available. The Artist Fellowships are unrestricted, anonymously judged, competitive grants in recognition of artistic excellence.
If you’ve applied before, you may notice that the deadline structure has changed since previous years. There are two application periods for 2011 Artist Fellowships, divided by discipline. Applications are now being accepted in Music Composition, Playwriting, and Sculpture/Installation. Deadline: September 20, 2010.
Beginning December 1, MCC will accept applications in Crafts, Film & Video, and Photography. Deadline: January 24, 2011.
Who should apply? Generative Massachusetts artists who meet eligibility requirements are encouraged to apply. In the current categories, this means:
We know artists work in ways that are not easily categorized, and there might be creative work not mentioned above that still fits into the current application disciplines. So if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask us.
Listen to an excerpt from A.P. by David Fiuczynski (Music Composition Fellow ‘09)
Read full program guidelines, eligibility requirements, and application instructions.
Image and media: Pat Shannon (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ‘09), OPEN HOUSE (2008), cut newspapers, acrylic gel, binder’s board 17 in x 24 in x 22 in; excerpt from A.P. by David Fiuczynski (Music Composition Fellow ‘09).
John Ewing is interested in sparking public dialogue. And he does so the way he, as a public artist specializing in digital media, knows best: through interactive, boundary-pushing art.
The Virtual Street Corners project connects Coolidge Corner, Brookline with Dudley Sq, Roxbury through 24/7 video teleconferencing. The project, which you can read about in a terrific interview in The Atlantic, inspires spontaneous conversations by passers-by in both neighborhoods as well as planned discussions by artists, politicians, and other community figures from each neighborhood.
Tomorrow (Friday, June 25, at 5 PM), former Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis will visit Virtual Street Corners. He’ll discuss his recent projects, share his perspective on the relationship between Brookline and Dudley Sq., and engage in dialogue with State Senate candidate Carlos Henriquez and Union of Minority Neighborhoods Executive Director Horace Small about what can be done to strengthen the relationship between the two communities.
Virtual Street Corners is installed at A Nubian Notion and Brookline Booksmith (respectively), through June 30. Learn more
Images: View of the two locales in Virtual Street Corners, photo by John Ewing; Portrait of Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis by Gardner Cox (1983).
We compile a monthly list of presentations, honors, publications, and events featuring past and present MCC Artist Fellows & Finalists. As you’ll see, the news is good - not just about these award-winning artists, but also about the breadth and vitality of contemporary arts throughout the Commonwealth.
Three MCC Fellows/Finalists are featured in an exhibition of Artadia Boston’s recent awardees at the Mills Gallery in the Boston Center for the Arts. Work by Claire Beckett (Photography Fellow ‘07), Ambreen Butt (Drawing Finalist ‘10), and Eric Gottesman (Photography Fellow ‘09), along with that of Caleb Cole, Raúl González, Amie Siegel and Joe Zane, will be on exhibit through April 25, 2010.
Steve Almond (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ‘08) visits the Brattle Theatre (hosted by Harvard Bookstore) on Friday, April 16 for a musical celebration of his new book, Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life, an ode/confessional for the musical superfan in all of us.
Congratulations to S. Bear Bergman (Playwriting Fellow ‘05). Bear’s essay collection The Nearest Exit May Be Behind You is a finalist for a 2010 Lambda Literary Award.
David Binder’s (Photography Fellow ‘01) documentary Calling My Children is screening at the Sacramento International Film Festival on April 19. The film recently screened at the Bermuda International Film Festival on March 24.
Martha Jane Bradford (Drawing Fellow ‘85) is creating an exciting educational exhibit for the Cahners ComputerPlace at the Museum of Science, Boston, on digital and virtual art. The exhibit, an immersive installation with sound and video projections that emulate the environments Martha creates in Second Life, will further visitors’ understanding of digital images and of making virtual art. You can find more information, as well as a video tour of Martha’s Second Life creations, on her blog. Incidentally, the Museum is currently accepting applications for a Technical Designer Internship for this exhibit.
Alicia Casilio, Sara Casilio, Kelly Casilio, and Cary Wolinsky, aka TRIIIBE (Sculpture/Installation Fellows ‘09) will have a solo show at Gallery Kayafas in Boston, April 15-May 29, 2010. Dates to know: Saturday, April 17, opening reception, 6-9 PM; Friday, April 30, Crime Night, 6-9 PM; First Friday, May 7, Multiples Night (for look-alikes and like-a-looking), 6-9 PM; Friday, May 28, Last Chance!, 6-9 PM.
Michael Downing (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Finalist ‘08) wrote an essay for Huffington Post about his experience as an “embedded reporter” in the healthcare debate.
Kurt Cole Eidsvig (Poetry Fellow ‘04) is taking part in x/o: a visual/sound/spoke word installation on Saturday, April 24, 7 PM, at the Fort Point Theatre Channel, Fort Point, Boston. The free event, created by Kurt, Martin Cockroft, and Brendan Murray uses art, sound, poetry, and projected imagery for a 90-minute performance on opposites, building blocks, and the relationships between things. The event will include the premiere of X-and-O.com, an Internet installation created by Eidsvig, Murray, and Claude Keswani.
Vico Fabbris (Painting Fellow ‘06) will have a solo exhibition of watercolors and works on paper, called Floralies, at Gurari Collections in Boston. The exhibition continues Vico’s exploration of the precariousness of the natural world through invented botanicals. The exhibition runs April 2 through May 2, 2010, with an opening reception April 2, 6-9 PM.
Ralf Yusuf Gawlick (Music Composition Fellow ‘09) will premiere Kinderkreuzzug, his dramatic cantata for children’s voices and small chamber ensemble, on Saturday, April 10, 7:30 PM, at St. Ignatius, Chestnut Hill and again on Sunday, April 11, 3 PM Trinity Episcopal, Concord. The cantata, which takes as its source material Bertolt Brecht’s extraordinary and grim anti-war poetry, will be performed by two New England choirs and a German boys choir sponsored to fly to the region specifically for this piece. The choirs will record the cantata for the label Musica Omnia. Read more about Ralf and Kinderkreuzzug in an ArtSake profile.
Congratulations to D.M. Gordon (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ‘08), who won first place the Glimmer Train Short Story for New Writers Prize!
Liza Johnson (Film & Video Finalist ‘03, ‘07) has won a Cinereach Grant for her film Return, which follows a female soldier home from a tour of duty.
Masako Kamiya (Painting Fellow ‘06, ‘10) has a solo show at Gallery NAGA in Boston: “Masako Kamiya: New Work 2009-2010,” running April 3-May 1, with an artist reception on April 2 (6-8 PM) and an artist talk on April 10, 2 PM. The show is presented in conjunction with the mid-career retrospective of Masako’s work at the Danforth Museum of Art, Masako Kamiya Outspoken: 2002-2010, through May 16.
Yanick Lapuh (Painting Fellow ‘10) is among the local artists whose work will light up a gallery at the Boston Children’s Museum with “their yellowy best.” The Yellow Show will run April 22-June 20, 2010.
Melinda Lopez’s (Playwriting Fellow ‘03) play From Orchids to Octopi: an Evolutionary Love Story runs at Central Square Theatre through May 2, 2010. The play was commissioned by the National Institutes of Health to celebrate the 150th anniversary of “On the Origin of Species.” From Orchids to Octopi is a project of Catalyst Collaborative@MIT - Underground Railway Theater’s science theater initiative with MIT. Read an interview with Melinda on ArtSake.
Julie Mallozzi (Film & Video Finalist ‘07) wrote a fascinating essay on The Public Humanist, a blog of Mass Humanities, about her documentary-in-progress Lalita.
It won’t be your average artist talk when Jane D. Marsching (Photography Finalist ‘03) presents 7 Stories & a Dance: Feeling Data at Upgrade! Boston on April 6, 7-9 PM, at MIT-ACT. Jane will “weave together an evening of storytelling, dancing, and conversation as part of her talk about recent projects that seek to translate abstract climate data and depressing climate news into sensory experiences.”
Anne Neely (Painting Finalist ‘10) has a solo show of paintings called Waterlines at the Danforth Museum in Framingham. The show runs through May 16. Anne will give an artist talk on May 9 at 3 PM.
Mary O’Malley (Drawing Fellow ‘06) has a solo show, called Super Natural, at Sam Lee Gallery in LA, through May 13.
Jim Peters (Painting Fellow ‘08) is among the artists in an artSTRAND exhibition at Fort Point’s FP3 Gallery. Jim Peters’ mixed media piece of oil on canvas, photo and glass, “Blue Bath,” is part of a new series of works done in Paris and Provincetown and is inspired by French poetry and fiction. The show runs through April 30.
Monica Raymond (Playwriting Finalist ‘07, Poetry Finalist ‘08) will be participating in the Cambridge Poetry Festival in Jill Rhone Park (Lafayette Square, Cambridge, corner of Main and Columbia). The festival runs 12-5 PM on Sunday, April 18.
Evelyn Rydz (Drawing Fellow ‘10) was featured on the website Artist a Day.
Vaughn Sills (Photography Fellow ‘09) is among the artists in Shoot’n Southern: Women Photographers, Past and Present, at Mobile Museum of Art April 30 - July 18, 2010. The show will feature photographs from Vaughan’s series “Places for the Spirit: Traditional African American Gardens.”
Peter Snoad (Playwriting Fellow ‘09) has two short plays, The Greening of Bridget Kelly and My Name is Art, in the “American Bytes” series by Liminal Space Productions at the New Wimbledon Studio in Wimbledon, London, UK. There will be four performances the week of April 5, 2010. My Name is Art will also be produced by Edgemar Theater Group in Santa Monica, CA April 23-May 16 as part of their “Acts on the Edge” series. And two of Peter’s other short plays are being staged this month: Apple Pie by the Boca Raton Theatre Guild in Boca Raton, FL April 23-25; and Resistance by Actors’ Refuge Repertory Theatre in Boston April 23-24.
Elaine Spatz-Rabinowitz (Drawing Finalist ‘06) was recently featured in The Art Institute of Boston at Lesley College’s Five from Around exhibition.
Jeff Warmouth’s (Sculpture/Installation Finalist ‘05) solo exhibition, Food Court, was recently featured at UMASS Lowell’s University Gallery (closing April 2, 2010). The show consisted of three video installations — two of them interactive food stands that battle for your media-starved attention: JeffuBurger and the brand new Il Jeffuria Pizza. For a sense of what a JeffuBurger entails, visit Jeff’s website.
Past Fellows Notes
Mar. 2010
Feb. 2010
Jan. 2010
Are you a past fellow or finalist with an event, honor, or other bit of news you’d like to share? Tell us about it.
Image: TRIIIBE, PAINT BY NUMBERS, 50×42 in; images from FLORALIES by Vico Fabbris; Anne Neely, SURPRISE (2009) Oil on linen, 45×60 in (photo by Clements/Howcroft).
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.
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.
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.
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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