ArtSake

Ariel Freiberg‘s paintings intrigue and implore, exaggerate and embellish, all the while eliciting “a bit of an adrenaline rush.” Here, she invites us into her studio – and as collaborators on her new project.

My Dream Harvester community arts project is an open forum for accounts of dreams from slumber or wished aspirations. Dream Harvester and I will be live and dreaming at ArtBeat, July 16th in Davis Square from 11 AM to 6 PM, part of the Somerville’s festival of music, performance art, craft vendors, dance, theater, food, and more.

Once I harvest the dreams of the visitors of ArtBeat (and I invite you to join in), I will create visual representations of the collective accounts. These works will be shared online and exhibited in the Boston area (location yet to be determined).

Art can draw on the unconscious collective ideas of our time. I would like to investigate this further by expanding my usual private process of working in the studio by harvesting a collection of my communities’ dreams. Through the visual translation of these accounts, I hope to highlight the connective tissues of thought through our global village.

My art practice is, in part, an invitation to the viewer into a visual and conceptual dialogue with the narrative of my personal experiences and observations.

I am working on a new series of paintings of gardening tools and shoes. The ideas for this work have been percolating in my head for the past year and have infiltrated my drawings and several small paintings on panel. I see the gardening tools paired with shoes as signals to the viewer of the tension between sexuality within the natural world and human narratives.

With all of my work, I crave to break the ground of tradition, revealing an unconscious second language. I work the soil, trying to find the meaning behind beauty’s seduction. The second language speaks to our bodies, in unfamiliar spaces, pushing expectations of what is seen and what is felt.

Here you can see a couple of the small panel works.

My process also involves the sorting and collecting of reference materials. Reference materials can involve objects like shoes and colored papers and photos from fashion magazines and drawings from models. I draw from all these forms, combining them into a two-dimensional image. I prefer to work all of the space and forms out by hand. This process helps me understand what I really feel about these forms and how color and touch can correspond with those emotions. I also draw great inspiration from many Rocco artists for their use of color and space. Watteau’s psychological landscapes inform the environments of my paintings. Sometimes I employ Italian artist Giovanni Battista Tiepolo’s use of space, so the viewer has the sensation of being in the painting.

Here are some images of my workspace and my latest large canvas. I usually build my own frames from poplar and I use canvas that I prime with both acrylic and oil grounds.

Photographed here are objects that are the subjects of the work in progress.

While creating this setup, I deliberately ripped the photos and papers. For some of the small paintings on panel, I ripped up some recent woodcut prints. I’ve also experimented with color and form in watercolors.

I see the trowels and cultivators breaking ground that expose the internal trauma. These paintings of gardening tools and shoes in various scales, earthing the ground, contrast subterranean fantastical groundless environments of my earlier works.

Ariel will attend ArtBeat at Davis Square in Somerville, July 16, 11 AM to 6 PM, to discuss and “harvest” dreams from ArtBeat attendees.

Images: all images courtesy of the artist. Photos by Ariel Freiberg, Ralph Pennel, and Chris Yeager.

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Set off some dazzling fireworks (naturally, I mean safely and legally) – it’s time to celebrate July’s news and notes from past MCC fellows/finalists.

Shakedown, an exhibition at DODGE Gallery in NYC, includes work by Taylor Davis (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’99), Sheila Gallagher (Drawing Finalist ’10), and Laurel Sparks (Painting Fellow ’04). The show also features Massachusetts artists Robert de Saint Phalle, Jane Fox Hipple, and Douglas Weathersby, among others.

Rebecca Doughty (Painting Finalist ’10), Eric Gottesman (Photography Fellow ’09), Frances Hamilton (Drawing Fellow ’98), and Dawn Southworth (Drawing/Printmaking/Artist Books Finalist ’04) are all exhibiting work in Picture Books, featuring art in all media that pictures, or, references a book within the composition, or, is a book of some kind. The show runs at Clark Gallery in Lincoln through August 6, 2011.

Chuck Holtzman (Drawing Fellow ’06), Joel Janowitz (Painting Fellow ’08) and Harold Reddicliffe (Painting Fellow ’10) join Mary Armstrong, Carol Gove, Conley Harris, and Anne Lilly for an exhibition at Victoria Munroe Fine Art in Boston. The show of drawings, paintings, and sculpture runs through August 20, 2011.

Camilo Ramirez (Photography Fellow ’09) and Irina Rozovsky (Photography Finalist ’09) are exhibiting in a dual show of their recent photography, called Details at a Distance. The show runs at Fountain Studios in Brooklyn, NY, July 9-30, 2011, with an opening reception July 9, 7-10 PM.

An installation of the work of Karen Aqua (Film & Video Fellow ’11), called Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, will be on exhibit at the Brickbottom Gallery in Somerville, through July 10, 2011. The exhibition features pastel drawings, sounds, and video from Karen’s final film, Taxonomy, which was completed one month before her untimely passing on May 30, 2011. There will be a memorial tribute to Karen’s life and work on July 10, 2011, 2 PM, at the Center for Arts at the Armory in Somerville.

Sweetgrass, a film by Ilisa Barbash and Lucien Castaing-Taylor (Film & Video Fellows ’11), will be broadcast on PBS as part of the POV series starting July 5, 2011.

Congratulations to Michele Caniato (Music Composition Fellow ’07) for receiving a Fulbright award. He will be in Helsinki, Finland for four months starting in September, hosted by Metropolia University and will be composing, conducting, and lecturing.

On her blog, Cheryl Clark (Poetry Finalist ’10) added an audio recording of her reading from the Commonwealth Reading Series this past March 2011.

Patrick Donnelly (Poetry Fellow ’08) has a great interview on the Mass Poetry Festival blog, where he discusses opportunities available at The Frost Place, a poetry education center where he is Director of the Advanced Seminar.

Janet Echelman (Crafts & Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’09) was recently interviewed by CNN!

Samantha Fields (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’11) has a solo show, Ecstasy and Common Sense, at NK Gallery in Boston. The show will run July 6-29, 2011, with an opening reception July 8, 6-8 PM.

Laura Harrington‘s (Playwriting Fellow ’05, ’97) novel Alice Bliss is a People Pick, receiving four out of four stars in the July 4th issue of People Magazine. Laura will join JoeAnn Hart for a reading on Wednesday, July 6, 2011, 7:30 PM, at Gloucester Writer’s Center (call for start time). Laura will also have a joint reading with fellow debut author Rebecca Makkai at the Boston Public Library (Tues, July 12, 2011, 6 PM). And, she’ll have a talk, Q&A, and signing at Stellina’s Restaurant in Watertown, on Wednesday, July 13, 6-7:30 PM.

Gregory Hischak‘s (Playwriting Finalist ’11) new full-length play Volcanic in Origin had its world premiere at the Source Festival in Washington D.C. and runs through July 3, 2011. Read an essay about the play by its dramaturg LaRonika Thomas.

Congratulations to Rania Matar (Photography Fellow ’11, ’07), whose A Girl and Her Room series is featured in a same-titled exhibition at The Mosaic Rooms in London, UK (through July 23, 2011). Also, Umbrage Editions will print a book of photos from the A Girl and Her Room series, scheduled for release Spring 2012. Rania’s exceptional work has recently been awarded the Legacy Award by Debra Klomp Ching in conjunction with the 17th Juried Exhibition at the Griffin Museum of Photography (through August 29); First Place at the Off the Wall Exhibit at the Danforth Museum of Art (through August 7, 2011); First Prize at The Julia M. Cameron Awards: Category Portrait, People and Figure; and Winner in the PDN Magazine Photo Annual 2011 in the Personal Category (featured in the June 2011 edition). Rania’s work is included in a number of group shows: University of Maine Museum of Art Photo National 2011 Exhibition (through September 24, 2011); Photographic Resource Center Exposure 2011 Exhibit (opening reception: July 21, 6:30PM, exhibit through August 21); Beirut Exhibition Center, Rebirth: Lebanon 21st Century Contemporary Art (through July 24, 2011).

Rachel Mello (Painting Finalist ’10) has a solo show of works from her Cities and Shadows Series at Soapbox Gallery in Brooklyn, NY, July 8 through July 20, 2011. There will be an opening reception on Saturday, July 9 5-7 PM. Rachel’s monoprint School of Pliers in Peril is featured in Crest Hardware Art Show in Brooklyn, NY, a show that features art inspired by and/or involving hardware. The show runs through July 30. Also, Rachel’s work was recently featured in Multiple/Unique at the Washington Street Art Center in Somerville.

Congratulations to Nathalie Miebach (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’09), who received a TED Global Fellowship! As part of the Fellowship, she’ll participate in the TED Global Conference, which will be held in Edinburgh (UK), July 11-15, 2011.

Caleb Neelon (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’07) was one of the innovative thinkers invited to speak at the June 2011 TEDxBoston! Read a recent interview with Caleb on the Converse blog.

Liz Nofziger (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’05) is among the artists in Shifting Terrain: Landscape Video at the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, NH. The exhibition runs July 2-September 18, 2011, with an opening reception July 7, 5:30-7:30 PM.

Masha Obolensky‘s (Playwriting Finalist ’11) ten-minute Girls Play has been selected to participate in The Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival. The festival, now in its 36th year, takes place at The Lion Theatre on Theatre Row in NYC on July 19-24. Read an interview with the playwright on the Festival’s blog.

Monica Raymond‘s (Playwriting Finalist ’07, Poetry Finalist ’08) story Ludd and the Perkadoodles was a runner up for the contestoria contest at HERE ARTS CENTER. Read it online.

Alison Safford (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’03) just completed a solo show at Gallery 303 at the New England Institute of Art.

Katy Schneider (Painting Fellow ’00) is featured in Inside/Out, a dual show with David Gloman of expressive landscapes and interiors, at studio21south in North Adams, through July 10, 2011.

Congratulations to Tracy Heather Strain and Randall MacLowry (Film & Video Fellows ’07), whose Lorraine Hansberry Documentary Project won a $30,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts!

Naoe Suzuki (Drawing Fellow ’06) is collaborating with the theatre company Dramahound Productions for a fascinating multi-media installation. Mi Tigre, My Lover at the Open Source Gallery in Brooklyn, NY features a play based on Naoe’s paintings, which are inspired by early 20th century female tiger trainer Mabel Stark. The paintings serve as the backdrop for a play by Anne Phelan. The play runs June 25-July 9, 2011, at 306 17th Street, between 5th and 6th Ave, South Slope, Brooklyn.

Rachel Perry Welty‘s (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’09, Drawing Fellow ’04) Rachel Perry Welty 24/7 at the DeCordova Sculpture Park and Musueum was very favorably reviewed in Art in America Magazine.

Nine Houses: nine matted archival pigment prints by Maxine Yalovitz-Blankenship (Drawing Fellow ’83, Painting Finalist ’82, ’83), has just been published by Tahawus Press. The prints are in a clothbound boxed folio, limited to an edition of fifty, and are accompanied by text and poetry, written in response to the images, by Alan Lightman, Maxine Kumin, Florence Ladd, John Baeder, Elizabeth McKim, and her fellow Guggenheim Fellows: Morris Halle, Philip Levine, Ann Patchett, and Richard Wendorf.

Kevin Young (Poetry Fellow ’10) will present an afternoon of poetry at The Mount, the historic home of Edith Wharton in Lenox, MA. The reading, presented in partnership with the Amy Clampitt Fund, is on July 9, 2011, at 4 PM. Tickets are $12 and are available online.

Evan Ziporyn (Music Composition Fellow ’11) will present in The Music of Evan Ziporyn on Thursday, July 7, 2011, 8 PM, at the Shalin Liu Performance Center as part of the Rockport Music Festival. The composer will perform along with musicians including “friends from Bang on a Can.” Speaking of: from July 13 through July 31, the tenth annual Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival takes place at MASS MoCA in North Adams. Evan Ziporyn, who has been actively involved in the festival since its inception, will pariticpate in the Festival, which is dedicated to programming today’s most innovative new music and includes public performances, recitals, and lectures, plus workshops for participants in everything from Balinese music to improvisation, master classes, music business seminars, and more.

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

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

Images: production photo from Masha Obolensky’s GIRLS PLAY, featuring scenic design by Caitlin Fergus; Samantha Fields, Detail of SHE SPEAKS FOLLY IN A THOUSAND HOLY WAYS; Liz Nofziger, PORE; Evan Ziporyn, photo by Kevin Yatarola.

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Do you frequent the New American Paintings blog? If no, go to answer #1. If yes, go to answer #2.

1. In that case go go go go go. (It’s a great resource for what’s current in painting. Plus, its main contributor is Evan Garza, a keen mind on contemporary art and a past panelist in our Artist Fellowships Program.)

2. Well, then you probably already saw this. But, see it again:

In a recent post, the NAP blog shared details and images from Shakedown, a show at DODGE Gallery in NYC. The exhibiting artists include Taylor Davis (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’99), Sheila Gallagher (Drawing Finalist ’10), and Laurel Sparks (Painting Fellow ’04). The show also features Massachusetts artists Robert de Saint Phalle, Jane Fox Hipple, and Douglas Weathersby, among others.

Enthusiastic clapping for Massachusetts artists (and friends)!

See the NAP post. To learn what else past MCC Fellows/Finalists are up to, check out our Fellows Notes.

Images: Sheila Gallagher, GUO JINGJING (2008 OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST DIVING) (2009), CAD source for eye-tracking drawing, 47×36 in (photo by Matthew Littell); Laurel Sparks, AFTER ELPHABA (2003), acrylic, marble dust, papier mache, collage on linen, 64×70 in.

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New Media The Turbulence.org Commissions Program is now accepting proposals for projects that creatively explore the Internet as a site of production and transmission. Guidelines and application forms now available.
Deadline: June 30, 2011

Photographers Applications are now being accepted for the 3rd Annual – 2011 International Juried Photography Competition from Artists Haven Gallery in Florida. This year’s juror is Wendy M. Blazier, Senior Curator, Boca Raton Museum of Art. Read more.
Submission deadline: June 30, 2011

Sculptors The In Practice program, which supports artists creating new work for exhibition at SculptureCenter, is currently inviting artists to submit proposals for new projects and installations to be presented beginning January 2012. Artists selected for the In Practice program will receive a $500 honoraria and up to $1500 in production support.
Deadline: July 1, 2011

Call to Artists The Winchester Cultural Council is holding a juried art fair on August 6 at the Farmer’s Market on the Town Common. A jury comprised of WCC members, practicing artists, art teachers, and committee members will judge original artwork of professional quality in any medium for acceptance. A cash prize will be awarded for Best in Show. Approximately 25 booth spaces are available. Questions: Don Daniel.
Deadline: July 10, 2011

Call to Artists The Arnold Arboretum invites artists to submit work for the annual juried exhibition Artists in the Arboretum 2011 in conjunction with Jamaica Plain Open Studios. Leaf through the guidelines.
Deadline: July 14, 2011

Call to Artists 3rd Ward has announced an open call for an artist to show his or her work in a solo presentation at Art Taipei and a solo show in New York City. Judges include Dan Funderburgh, Artist & Designer; Richard Chang, Chairperson, Taiwan Art Gallery Association; and Daria Brit Shapiro, Head Curator, Artists Wanted. Learn more.
Deadline: July 15, 2011

Call to Artists UFORGE Gallery is currently accepting entries for its exhibition Family Masterpiece. Review the submission process and art requirements.
Deadline: July 15, 2011

Call for Work FallFest 2011 held in partnership with LynnArts, the Lynn Museum, and Lynn EDIC is accepting applications for vendors. This is an opportunity to get your work out to the public. The festival does not take a commission on sales. Live music all day. Dog parade. Great food. Sell your work and have fun. Read more.
Registration Deadline: August 5, 2011

Image Credit: Detail of painting by Joshua Meyer on display at the MCC’s Drawing and Painting Fellows exhibition at Tufts University Art Gallery through July 31, 2011.

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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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June is here. Sunshine is real. Let’s experience some art.

Here are a few ideas, care of our Fellows Notes (current news of past MCC fellows/finalists).

We are excited to announce New and Recent Work by 13 Massachusetts Cultural Council Award Recipients in Painting and Drawing, an exhibition at Tufts University Art Gallery in Medford. The exhibition will run June 2 – July 31, 2011, with an opening reception Thursday, June 2, 5:30-8 PM. The 13 exhibiting artists are all Fellows in Drawing and Painting from the 2010 grant cycle, including: Cree Bruins, Christopher Faust (his painting Vanishing Point is above), Jan Johnson, Masako Kamiya, Yanick Lapuh, Joshua Meyer, Monica Nydam, Daniel Ranalli, Harold Reddicliffe, Matthew Rich, Cristi Rinklin, Evelyn Rydz, and Michael Zelehoski. There will be an Artists’ Talk on Thursday, June 2, 5-6 PM, featuring Cree Bruins, Jan Johnson, Yanick Lapuh, Joshua Meyer, and Michael Zelehoski.

Numerous MCC fellows/finalists contribute artwork to Flourish, a juried exhibition of alumni of the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. The show, running June 8-July 9, 2011 in the Sandra & David Bakalar Gallery, features work by Elizabeth Alexander (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’11), Claire Beckett (Photography Fellow ’07), Candice Smith Corby (Painting Fellow ’08), and Adam Lampton (Photography Finalist ’07), among other MassArt alums. Tammy Dayton (Moth Design), Michelle Lamunière (curator, Harvard Art Museum), and Edward Saywell (curator, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) served on the selection committee.

Six MCC fellows/finalists are in new issue of Hayden’s Ferry Review: Sally Bellerose (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Finalist ’04), Simeon Berry (Poetry Fellow ’06), Patrick Ryan Frank (Poetry Fellow ’06), Elizabeth Graver (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’06), Caroline Klocksiem (Poetry Fellow ’08), and Tara L. Masih (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Finalist ’96).

Alan Colby (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’07) and Linda Price-Sneddon (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’01) both have work in a group show curated by Jeff Hull at A Street Gallery, 4 Clarendon St, Boston MA. The show runs June 4-30, 2011, with an opening reception Saturday, June 4, 3-5 PM.

Rebecca Doughty (Painting Finalist ’10), Eric Gottesman (Photography Fellow ’09), Frances Hamilton (Drawing Fellow ’98), and Dawn Southworth (Drawing/Printmaking/Artist Books Finalist ’04) are all exhibiting work in Picture Books, featuring art in all media that pictures, or, references a book within the composition, or, is a book of some kind. The show runs at Clark Gallery in Lincoln from June 6-August 6, 2011. There will be an opening reception 4-6 PM on Saturday, June 11, following a daylong sidewalk book sale.

Two MCC fellows/finalists are featured in the show Fresh Work: A Sampler of New England Photographers as part of the Flash Forward Festival Boston. Toni Pepe (Photography Finalist ’11) and Camilo Ramirez (Photography Fellow ’09) will both have work on display at the Fairmont Battery Wharf in Boston, June 3-June 5, 2011, with an opening reception on Friday, June 3, at 7 PM.

Photography by Claire Beckett (Photography Fellow ’07) is included in The Workers, a multi-disciplinary exhibition exploring the many aspects of labor, at MASS MoCA in North Adams.

S. Bear Bergman (Playwriting Fellow ’05) received a Lambda Literary Award for co-editing Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation.

Liza Bingham (Painting Finalist ’10) will have work in the 2011 Season Preview Exhibit at the Schoolhouse Gallery in Provincetown, MA, June 3-29, 2011, with an opening reception on June 3, 6-9 PM.

Alexander Chee (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’10) is currently a Fellow at Civitella Ranieri in Umbertide, Italy. The residency encourages the creative process by providing uninterrupted time to devote to work, as well as a collaborative spirit with the visual artists, writers, and musicians who are invited as Fellows.

Laura Harrington (Playwriting Fellow ’05, ’97) will publish her new novel, Alice Bliss (Pamela Dorman Books, Penguin/Viking, 2011), in June 2011. She’ll have numerous author events in New England: Harvard Bookstore in Cambridge (Weds, June 8, 2011, 7 PM); Barnes & Noble in Peabody, MA (Thurs, 6/9, 7 PM); Jabberwocky Bookstore in Newburyport (Fri, 6/10, 7 PM); Concord Bookshop in Concord (Sun, 6/12, 3 PM); Broadside Bookshop in Northampton (Tues, 6/14, 7 PM); Toad Hall Books at the Rockport Library (Wed, 6/15, 7 PM); and a joint reading with fellow debut author Rebecca Makkai at the Boston Public Library (Tues, July 12, 2011, 6 PM). Read an ArtSake interview with Laura.

Gregory Hischak‘s (Playwriting Finalist ’11) new full-length play Volcanic in Origin will have its world premiere at the Source Festival in Washington D.C., June 10-July 3, 2011.

Rania Matar (Photography Fellow ’11, ’07) is among the ten photographers selected by Whitney Johnson, picture editor at The New Yorker, for inclusion in EXPOSURE 2011, the 16th chapter of the Photographic Resource Center’s juried members exhibition. Selected work will be on exhibition from Thursday, July 21 to Sunday, August 21, with an opening reception at the PRC on Thursday, July 21.

Koji Nakano (Music Composition Finalist ’11, ’09) will present the second concert in his Asian Young Musicians Connection, which commissions new music by Asian composers. The concert takes place Friday, June 3, 2011, 7:30 PM, at the California State University at San Bernardino Recital Hall.

Anne Neely (Painting Finalist ’10) has work in the exhibition Maine As Muse, at Lohin Geduld Gallery in NYC, through July 8, 2011.

Masha Obolensky‘s (Playwriting Finalist ’11) ten-minute Girls Play has been selected to participate in The Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival. The festival, now in its 36th year, takes place at The Lion Theatre on Theatre Row in NYC on July 19-24. Girls Play was the winner of the 2010 KCACTF National Ten-Minute Play Award.

On Saturday, June 11, 2011, Susan Rivo (Film & Video Finalist ’11) will have a work-in-progress screening of her fascinating documentary Left on Pearl at The Berkshire Conference on the History of Women at UMass-Amherst (Thu, June 9–Sun, June 12). Left on Pearl explores a forgotten episode in local history, when, in March 1971, a group of women took over a Harvard University building to dramatize the need for a Women’s Center. Susan will also participate in a panel discussion at the conference called “Documenting Second Wave Feminism through Film.” Learn about the conference.

Candice Smith Corby‘s (Painting Fellow ’08) autobiographical, deadpan-humored mixed-media paintings are part of Patio, an exhibition at Drive-By Projects in Watertown. The show, which also features Matthew Clowney, Amze Emmons, Steve Novick, and Douglas Weathersby, runs June 9-August 25, 2011, with an opening reception – featuring Weathersby’s lemonade stand! – Friday, June 10, 6-8 PM.

Cam Terwilliger (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’08) has a short story, Cherry Town, in the most recent issue of The Literary Review. His story Reply Hazy appears in The Good Men Project. And he shares great advice gleaned from years of serving as a reader for literary journals and awards, in The Review Review.

Hannah Verlin (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’11) has a solo show, Knowing Not Knowing, at Boston Sculptors Gallery in Boston, through June 26, 2011. There’s a SOWA First Friday reception: June 3, 5–8 PM.

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

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

Images: Chris Faust, VANISHING POINT (2010), Acrylic on canvas, 36×48 in; Camilo Ramirez, FLIGHT SUIT (2008), Archival Inkjet Print, 16 in x 20 in; Cover art for ALICE BLISS by Laura Harrington (Pamela Dorman Books, Penguin/Viking, 2011).

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We are excited to announce New and Recent Work by 13 Massachusetts Cultural Council Award Recipients in Painting and Drawing, an exhibition at Tufts University Art Gallery in Medford.

The exhibition will run June 2 – July 31, 2011, with an opening reception
Thursday, June 2, 5:30-8 PM.

The 13 exhibiting artists are all Fellows in Drawing and Painting from the 2010 grant cycle, including: Cree Bruins, Christopher Faust, Jan Johnson, Masako Kamiya, Yanick Lapuh, Joshua Meyer, Monica Nydam, Daniel Ranalli, Harold Reddicliffe, Matthew Rich, Cristi Rinklin, Evelyn Rydz, and Michael Zelehoski.

There will be an Artists’ Talk on Thursday, June 2, 5-6 PM, featuring Cree Bruins, Jan Johnson, Yanick Lapuh, Joshua Meyer, and Michael Zelehoski.

Find more images from the exhibition on ArtSake’s Facebook page.

Image: Yanick Lapuh, I LOVE YOU (2011), Wood construction/relief painted in alkyd oil, 52x46x2 1/2 in; Cree Bruins, TAGLINE (2011), 35mm slides on lightboxes, dimensions variable; Jan Johnson, FOR YOU I KEEP (2010), Silk thread on vintage handkerchief, 12×13 in (detail); Harold Reddicliffe, OBJECTS FROM OVERHEAD (2010), Oil on canvas, 15×12 in.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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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In our modern world, mysteries abound! On the other hand, so do plastic water bottles. And twist ties (see above). In fact, lots of things abound. Information. Celebrities. Blog posts and websites. Haters and their hatin’. Makers and their makin’. All abound.

It’s been suggested that curation will be increasingly key to our navigation, as a culture, of the overly abundant information-scape in our lives. In that spirit, we thought we’d round up some of the abundantly intriguing, or mysterious, or just plain keen stuff going on.

On The Public Humanist, blog of Mass Humanities, Natasha Haverty and Adam Bright share the backstory of their radio documentary-in-progress about a debate society formed in the 1930s by inmates in a Norfolk, MA prison – and how the team defeated debate squads from more hallowed MA institutions like MIT and Harvard.

Why should James Franco work at Grub Street, the Boston-based writers service organization? Answer this question by 5 PM today (Friday, April 15), and you may win a pair of tickets to Cocktail Hour with the Francos, an unscripted conversation with writer/actor/conceptual artist James Franco and his mother, writer Betsy Franco, at Grub Street’s great Muse and the Marketplace Conference. Just tweet “James Franco should work at Grub Street because…” and your answer, and include @GrubWriters and #musefranco in your tweet.

How big a wave could one week’s worth of plastic bottles create? The good folks of Citizens for Salem/Beverly Water Resources suspect it will yield A Mighty Wave. They’re encouraging artists to converge at Salem Common in Salem on the morning of May 7 to create a one-day public art display, creating a wave of plastic from bottles collected in just one week in Salem. All will be broken down in time for a recycling truck to break (and recycle) the wave by afternoon. Find out more.

Not since the Mayors’ Arts Challenge have two MA cities had so vigorous a rivalry! Responding to a remark by a Cambridge city councilor that Somerville doesn’t have many interesting places, Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone has challenged Cambridge to an “Interesting City Challenge.” He even invokes the arts:

It’s called authenticity, and we’ve got it in the arts too. The City and local businesses weave art into everything we do. Public art absolutely needs to be part of this Challenge, though it’s not fair because most of the artists Cambridge had long ago moved to Somerville. And we’re talking everything from painters to sculptors to comic book artists. Oh, if you happen to catch a band in Cambridge anytime soon, make sure to ask them where in Somerville they live.

(As a state agency, we are not taking sides.)

Speaking of rivalries: watch Governor Deval Patrick go head to head with The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart! Actually, it’s a really friendly conversation. They talk about Gov. Patrick’s new book, former MA governor Mitt Romney, and why The Daily Show should move production to Massachusetts.

New England Film has a terrific article on five films from New England talent screening this month at the International Film Festival of Boston (April 27-May 4, 2011).

GO SEE ART. Where? Find out at GO SEE ART. It’s a compendium of New England art exhibitions. So go there. And then go. You know. To see art.

Will it surprise you that the Boston chapter of the Awesome Foundation, which funds projects it considers awesome (that’s really the only criteria), funded a group that describes itself as “Boston’s mysterious playmate?” Banditos Misteriosos won a $1000 “Awesome” grant for its plan to create a giant puzzle to be put together by the Boston community sometime this summer. Past efforts by the Misteriosos, who aim to answer the questions “Who are these people we pass in the street?” and “How could we use those big open public spaces?” by staging whimsical public events, include massive pillow and water gun fights and a live, “Choose Your Own Adventure” game.

At the recent TransCultural Exchange Conference, attendee Ilana Manolson (Painting Fellow ’08) shared her experiences exhibiting her paintings through the ART in Embassies Program, which places American art in U.S. diplomatic residencies worldwide. Through that program, Ilana’s paintings have been on exhibit at American embassies in The Hague and Sarajevo.

I really like this post by the Our Stories literary journal that lists short stories that employ a very specific device, then carry it off with skill. Massachusetts literary rawk star Steve Almond (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’08) is on the list twice!

Finally: arts funding is one thing mentioned in this post that’s not nearly abundant enough. On a federal level, the NEA’s budget is under threat, and here in MA, we have our own issues. Read this testimony by Tim Robbins about how a small investment in the arts can yield a bounty – not just in terms of the tax revenues, but culturally and personally.

Image: Rachel Perry Welty, LOST IN MY LIFE (TWIST TIES) (2009), Pigmented ink print, edition of 3, 90×60 in, Courtesy of the Artist, Barbara Krakow Gallery (Boston), Gallery Joe (Philadelphia), and Yancey Richardson Gallery (New York). Rachel’s solo show RACHEL PERRY WELTY 24/7 is on exhibit at the deCordova Sculpture Park + Museum in Lincoln through April 24, 2011. Currently, Rachel’s video work KARAOKE WRONG NUMBER 2004-2009 is featured in Videonale 13 at Kunstmuseum Bonn, through May 29, 2011.

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