ArtSake

Robbie Heidinger and the Hilltown 6.

It sounds like a bluegrass band. Or a gang of outlaws. And in fact, the Hilltown 6 is not without a similar, hill-based mystique.

The Hilltown 6 is a collection of nationally recognized clay artists who live and work in the hilltowns of Western Massachusetts. Among them is Robbie Heidinger, a ceramic artist who won an MCC Crafts Fellowship in 2009, and was a panelist in this year’s Artist Fellowships Program. She and a group of other hilltown artists and guests will open up their studios, kilns, and settings for an annual pottery tour and sale on Saturday, July 30 and Sunday, July 31, 2011, 10 AM to 5 PM.

The members of Hilltown 6 are Robbie Heidinger, Christy Knox, Michael McCarthy, Hiroshi Nakayama, Mark Shapiro, Eric Smith, Constance Talbot, and Sam Taylor.

You can see the artists’ work and work spaces, as well as demonstrations at several venues. Also, three of the studios will feature guest artists: Robbie Heidinger will host photographer David Leith; Mark Shapiro will host potter Jeffrey Lipton; and Christy Knox will host clay artist Karin Noyes.

For a map and more info, check out the Hilltown 6 site.

Images: plate by Robbie Heidinger; dancing vases by Christy Knox; vase by Constance Talbot; stoneware ceramics by Hiroshi Nakayama; Robbie Heidinger firing the soda kiln.

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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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Cape Ann is home to a thriving arts community, one of the oldest in the country. For twenty-eight years Cape Ann Artisans has been inviting the public to visit their studios during their Open Studio weekends.

This year’s spring tour will be held June 18th and 19th from 10 am to 5 pm each day. The self-guided tour along the scenic coastline of Gloucester and Rockport presents a unique opportunity to meet fifteen professional artists and see their work in the setting in which it was created.

The work represented includes: pottery, painting, sculpture, photography, mosaics, jewelry, hand-made glass beads and weaving. Brochures with route maps will be available at the Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce, the Rockport Information Booth on Rte 127 and at each of the artisans. A bright magenta Studio Tour banner will mark each location.

Artists include David Achibald, Leslie Bartlett, Cynthia Curtis, Anni Melancon, David Montgomery, Marty Morgan, Marge Rack, Mi Robertson, Twin Lights Studios (Scott Place and Erin O’Sullivan), Pam Stratton, Bart Stuyf, Beth Williams, Judy Wright, Sara Wright.

For further information call 978-281-3347. Many studios are open year round.

Image credit: All photographs courtesy of Cape Ann Artisans. From top to bottom: Beth Williams making a glass bead; Marty Morgan throwing on the potter’s wheel; Anni Melancon with pots hot out of her kiln; Bart Stuyf working on a copper bird.

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It’s been a while since we’ve rounded up some links of interest to the Massachusetts arts community. Friends, there is much to share, so click to your hearts content on the following stuff.

I love the premise behind the California-based Sustainable Arts Foundation: help artists and writers who also happen to be parents to create their work. “Too often,” says the org, “creative impulses are set aside to meet the wonderful, but pressing, demands of raising a family. The foundation’s goal is to encourage parents to continue pursuing their creative passion, and to rekindle it in those who may have let it slide.” Until May 20, they’re accepting applications for $6000 grants to support artists/parents!

Closer to home, Playwrights’ Commons, an organization formed by dramaturg Ilana Brownstein, has developed a number of programs to serve the unmet needs of local playwrights. Commons is currently accepting applications for its Freedom Art Theatre Retreat, which will give emerging Boston-area playwrights the chance to be matched with designers and dramaturgs for an intensive, play-blossoming retreat in a remote, New England setting, this August. The organization also has intriguing plans for its Donut Hole Lab, which will aim to support playwrights “who are no longer young or new enough to be considered by producing theatres as emerging, and yet who are also not yet considered established…” More details to come.

On May 21 and 22, a conference in Cambridge called Play-jurisms will explore the complex thicket of copyright, appropriation, ethics, and creativity. All events are free, including discussions with intellectual property lawyers and artists, performances, and a film screening. The conference, organized by David Taber and Tim Devin, and will be held at the Democracy Center near Harvard Sq.

The Emerging America Festival, a partnership between The American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.), Huntington Theatre Company, and the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston to present “groundbreaking performance by American artists,” starts tonight and continues this weekend. Along with new theatre by local dramatists like Jay Scheib (recent Guggenheim awardee) and Ryan Landry, the festival has commissioned a fascinating library of podcast plays by artists like Kirsten Greenidge, John Kuntz, and recent MCC Fellow Rosanna Yamagiwa Alfaro.

Congratulations to Boston-area playwright Lydia Diamond for winning the Wimberly Award from the Huntington Theatre Company for her play Stick Fly! She also recently received an IRNE (Independent Reviewers of New England) Award for “Best New Play from a Large Theatre Company” Watch the YouTube clip at the top of the post to see her gracious response.

Boston-area novelist Jane Roper frequently gets asked, “Is your novel fictional?” So, like, is it?

Still kneeling on a bed of uncooked macaroni to punish yourself for not making Salamander literary magazine’s Fiction Contest submission deadline? Well, kneel no more! The deadline has been extended until May 31. Jim Shepard is judging. Contest guidelines.

But George, the Man with the Yellow Hat told you not to get into any trouble! And yet Harvard Square’s iconic Curious George children’s bookstore is in trouble. Actually, it’s no laughing matter; without help, they may have to shut their doors. The store was launched with the help of the late Curious George co-creator (and Cambridge resident) Margaret Rey.

Recently, we discussed the many artist open studios taking place around Massachusetts this Spring. This weekend, there are open studios events in Newton, Dedham, Boston (the SoWa Art Walk), and central Cambridge.

And finally, a few updates on some past MCC Fellows: while Jamie Cat Callan (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’10) is entertainingly interviewed over at Grub Daily, Joan Wickersham (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’08) prepares to join authors Elizabeth Searle, Andre Dubus III, and Elyssa East for a live, power-packed Four Stories reading on May 23, in Cambridge (all proceeds will be donated to children orphaned in the recent earthquake disaster in Japan). Meanwhile, Jeff Zimbalist‘s (Film & Video Fellow ’05) latest film Bollywood: The Greatest Love Story Ever Told (a documentary co-directed with Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra), is about to premiere at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival! Watch a trailer.

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Exercise both your mind and your body at the 11th Annual Fort Point Art Walk beginning on May 6 from 4-7pm and continuing May 7-8, 12-5pm.

Art Walk features more than 75 artists opening their studios in Boston’s Fort Point. So here’s your chance to check out the studios of some of Boston’s finest painters, jewelers, ceramicists, photographers, sculptors, and textile artists. It’s free and it’s good for your right brain.

Brief artists’ talks and demonstrations are also scheduled throughout the weekend. Sculptor and potter Linda Huey will demonstrate the making of a vessel from ceramic leaves, mixed media artist Bonnie Mineo will be demonstrating printing with foam plates, Jim Shea will be wheel throwing pottery, and Jay Higginbottom will be showing his watercolor painting techniques.

Boston Street Lab will also be participating as a guest, with their Work In Progress series. Art Walk visitors can view open dance rehearsals in the raw, ground-floor space at Midway Studios, plus an installation that shows a writer at work, his words projected nearly two stories tall as he writes. Details and schedule on www.fortpointarts.org.

ArtSake thinks that if you can’t find something you like on this Art Walk, then chances are, you’re an official, capital “C” curmudgeon! So get out there and have some fun -  and support each other in our artistic endeavors.

Studios are all located within a three-block area, a short walk from T and commuter rail at South Station in downtown Boston, and the Silver Line Courthouse stop. Easy, breezy walking if you’re not in massively high heels.

Art Walk is self guided: maps and directories will be available at  information booths at the corner of A and Binford Streets and in all participating buildings. Locations of studios and galleries include: 15 Channel Center, 25 Channel Center Street, 249 A Street, 319 A Street, 347 Congress Street, 346 Congress Street, and 12 Farnsworth Street. Free parking will be available in the Central Parking Lot directly across from 249 A Street, thanks to Gillette/P&G. Questions: 617-423-1100.

Image credit: All images courtesy of FPAC. Photographs from top to botton: Kate Davis Caldwell by Packert Photography; Linda Huey in her clay studio, photo by Stagg Giuliano; Paintings by Maggie Connors and Nataliya Bregel, from Lost and Found at the Fort Point Arts Community Gallery (May 5 – July 1, 2011); Bracelet by Julia Groos; Michael Shea throwing.

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It’s the Spring season for artists’ open studios. You feel it in your creative bones. Perhaps you even smell it: the whiff of acrylic paint and turpentine, the melting of glass and firing of kilns. In April and May, all over the state, artists are opening up their studios to the public, a unique opportunity to experience newly made art in the place it’s made. It’s also a chance, should you be interested in purchasing art, to support a working artist directly.

To kick things off, we thought we’d share images from artists taking part in one of the largest organized open studio events in Massachusetts – the Somerville Open Studios (April 30-May 1, 2011).

Along with Somerville Open Studios, here are the other open studios events in April and May (and let us know if your’s isn’t on the list):
Potters Place Spring Show and Sale in Walpole (April 29-May 1, 2011)
Brookline Artists’ Open Studios (April 30-May 1, 2011)
Fort Point Arts Community (May 6-8, 2011)
Cambridge Open Studios (COS East, May 7 & 8; Central, May 14 & 15; North/West, May 21 & 22)
Needham Open Studios (May 7-8, 2011)
Newton Open Studios (May 14-15, 2011)
Dedham Open Studios (May 15, 2011)
SoWa Art Walk (May 15, 2011)
Lexington Open Studios (May 21-22, 2011)
The Distillery and King Terminal in South Boston (June 5, 2011)

Go to Somerville Open Studios for a full list of participating studios, venues, and artists.

Images: Bekka Teerlink, THE BIRDS WILL BE THE FIRST TO DIE (2010), oil on canvas, 36×48 in; Resa Blatman, WOVEN (2010), oil, glitter and beads on cut-edge panel, 32h x 59w in; Ariel Freiberg, KEY TO YOUR HEART (2009), oil on canvas, 60×84 in; Keith Maddy, CRISS CROSS DANCE, mixed media on vintage textile, 8×8 in; Christina Tedesco, MOVING (2011), mixed media (gesso, sharpie, and wood); Suzanne Lubeck, SOMERVILLE: ON THE BANKS OF THE MYSTIC RIVER LIES THE CITY OF SEVEN HILLS, ILLUMINATION AND INNOVATION, mixed media, oil, encaustic, 18×18 in.

All artists featured above are participating in Somerville Open Studios. Resa Blatman, Ariel Freiberg, Suzanne Lubeck, and Keith Maddy will all exhibit work at Vernon Street Studios. Christina Tedesco and Bekka Teerlink are exhibiting work at Mad Oyster Studios and as part of the Artists’ Choice Exhibit at the Somerville Museum.

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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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Some might assume that the editors of ArtSake are, like Mary Poppins, practically perfect in every way. (Other assumed similarities: that we carry coat racks in our handbags and frequently fraternize with chimney sweeps.) However, despite this appearance of practical perfection, we occasionally slip, missing important news when compiling our monthly Fellows Notes updates from past MCC fellows/finalists.

When you’ve recovered from the shock of this admission, here are some of the intriguing updates we left out of our recent September 2010 Fellows Notes post:

Three past fellows, Candice Smith Corby (Painting ’08), Cristi Rinklin (Drawing ’10), and Laurel Sparks (Painting ’04) are in the show Painting NOW, at the Grimshaw-Gudwicz Art Gallery at Bristol Community College, running September 9-October 21, 2010. There will be an opening reception Thursday, September 9, 6-8 PM.

Jane Brox (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’04) has three Massachusetts readings of her new book of nonfiction Brilliant: The Evolution of Artificial Light. She’ll read at the Andover Bookstore in Andover on Thursday, September 9, 7 PM, at Porter Square Books in Cambridge on Monday, September 27, 7 PM, and at the Boston College Murray Function Room on Tuesday, September 28, 7 PM.

Ambreen Butt (Drawing Finalist ’10) is among the artists exhibiting in the Munroe Center for the Arts Open Studios in Lexington on Saturday, September 11, 12-4 PM.

Timothy Coleman (Crafts Finalist ’07) is exhibiting in the Society of Arts and Crafts Artist Award Exhibition in Boston. He is one of the three artists who received the 2010 award, which recognizes New England craft artists who demonstrate a mastery of their media and who create original and innovative work. The exhibition runs August 28 – October 31, with an opening reception Thursday, September 30, 6-8 PM.

Cynthia Maurice (Drawing Fellow ’02) has a solo show, Fresh Cut: New Works on Paper, part of the New England Currents series at the Danforth Museum in Framingham. The exhibit runs September 12-November 7, with an opening reception September 12, 5-7 PM. There will be a gallery talk on Wednesday, October 6, 12:30 PM.

Anne Neely (Painting Finalist ’10) recently showed in Large/Small, a Gallery Selection at Lohin Geduld Gallery in NY (the exhibition closed September 3). She’ll be in the group show Water at the Sun Valley Center for the Arts, Ketchum, Idaho from September 10 to November 5. And she’ll be among the artists participating in the South End Open Studios on September 25 and 26th. Anne’s studio, on 535 Albany Street, 4th Floor, will be open 12-5 PM both days.

Mary O’Donoghue (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’06) will read from her debut novel, Before the House Burns, at the Boston Athenaeum on Wednesday, September 22, 2010, 6-7:30 PM.

Mary O’Malley (Drawing Fellow ’06) was recently featured on the site Artist a Day.

Henriette Lazaridis Power (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’06) has a short story called “Uruguay” coming out in the November issue of Camera Obscura. She’s also just released another issue of The Drum, the online audio journal of new literature she founded.

Michael Zelehoski (Painting Fellow ’10) has a solo show, Objecthood, at the Christina Ray Gallery in NYC, September 9-October 10, with an opening reception Thursday, September 9, 7-9 PM. In the Huffington Post, Steven Mesler calls Michael the “next great artist.”

Jeff Zimbalist (Film & Video Fellow ’05) will screen The Two Escobars, the documentary he created with Michael Zimbalist, in Boston this month! It will have it’s Boston premiere at the Boston Film Festival, at the Stuart Street Playhouse in Boston on Saturday, September 18, at 4:45 PM. Ticket info.

Read the full Fellows Notes.

Images: Cristi Rinklin, ORACLE (2009), Flashe on Duralar, 30×48 in; cover art for BRILLIANT by Jane Brox (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010); logo for THE DRUM.

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Amid concrete and clay
And general decay
Nature must still find a way…
- The Smiths, Stretch Out and Wait

Site-Specific Dance: White Wave of Brooklyn, NY is proposing a series of site-specific dance works during the 2010 Dumbo Dance Festival. The seven sites are situated within two designated areas; the Brooklyn Bridge Park (near the entrance at Washington and Plymouth Streets), and along the Pier 1 waterfront (entrance at Old Fulton and Water Streets). There is no application fee to apply. Ideally they would like work to be collaborations between dancers, movement artists and multimedia artists of all kinds: musicians, composers, fashion/costume designers, video artists, photographers etc. You may apply as collaborators or as individual artists and they will will match you together. They are primarily a dance festival but are open to creative applications from artists in different media who can make a strong case for the way their work would fit in a dance context. The sites are presented raw.  Before submitting an application, they strongly suggest you visit the site–specific designated areas. Learn More
Deadline: Postmarked August 15, 2010

Call for Digital Art: Digital’2010: PLANET EARTH, an international digital print competition and exhibition organized by Art & Science Collaborations, Inc. (ASCI) is looking for artists and scientists to submit digital prints that reflect their perceptions of our planet. Jurors are Maddy Rosenberg, owner/director of Central Booking in DUMBO, Brooklyn; and Patrick Hamilton of the Science Museum of Minnesota. Selected works will be exhibited at the New York Hall of Science from October 3, 2010 through January 31, 2011. For more information, visit ASCI’s Web site.
Deadline: August 16, 2010

Funding for Media Artists: The National Endowment for the Humanities is offering Media Development & Media Production Grants.
Deadline: August 18, 2010

Call to Artists: Turners Falls RiverCulture is looking for artists to make art in downtown Turners Falls. Submit a proposal for the participatory/public art you want to make/do and if you’re selected, they will give you money to make that art happen. The criteria are inventiveness/beauty/aha-ness, use of location in a new/reimagined/creative way, likelihood you can pull it off, participatory nature/reach, use of the money, submitted by deadline. Questions, contact Lisa Davol.
Deadline: August 30, 2010

Call to Dorchester Area Artists: The Dorchester Arts Collaborative (DAC) is looking for artists to participate in their 2010 Open Studios October 23-24. For more, see DAC Web site or the DAC blog.

Business Development for Visual Artists: The Artist’s Professional Toolbox Program is a business development program specifically designed for visual artists. The Toolbox is an eight-month intensive course in which artists will learn marketing, networking and business skills with the additional benefits of peer group interaction, mentorship, and feedback. Apply to the program.
Deadline: September 24, 2010

Call for Public Art: Pittsfield’s Artscape invites artists to submit proposals for new work in the 2010-2011 exhibition season. Artists will receive a $1000 honorarium. For more information, call 413-499-9348.
Deadline: October, 31, 2010

Image Credit: Photograph of squirrel by ArtSake.

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No Asian Longhorned Beetles Need Apply: The Arnold Arboretum is looking for artists to participate in the 2010 Artists in the Arboretum. Local artists are invited to submit work inspired by the plants, landscape, and collections of the Arnold Arboretum for the upcoming show organized in conjunction with Jamaica Plain Open Studios. For more information: 617-384-5209 or arbweb@arnarb.harvard.edu. The submission form is online.
Deadline: July 14 at 4pm.

Sniffing out an Opportunity: Amesbury Plaza Community Day is looking for artists and craftspeople to participate in their event on July 17, 10am-4pm at 58 Macy Street, Route 110, Amesbury, MA (right on the Powow River).  Nine businesses in the Amesbury Plaza are participating. Organizers say it’ll be a great way for local artists and area groups to gain visibility in the community of Amesbury. Contact Christina Meriah (508-250-5157) for a table or booth application.

Running with the Pack: North Adams Open Studios is looking for artists – with and without studios – to participate in its sixth annual autumn showcase of local artisans to be held October 15-16, 10am - 6pm. The annual event showcases a diversity of artwork and art forms, and offers visitors a glimpse inside the creative spaces of working artists in the city, along with the opportunity to learn more about the artistic process. Information for the non-juried event, along with guidelines and information for artists needing to rent space, is available at the North Adams Open Studio Web site.
Deadline: August 31, 2010

Sit, Stay, Wag: South Shore Art Center has call out to artists for their show Body Language. Open to all artists and all media. No geographical restrictions. Work must have been completed since January 1, 2008 and not previously shown at South Shore Art Center. All work must be for sale.
Deadline: September 17, 2010

Image credit: Photograph by Peter Griffin. From public domain Web site.

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