ArtSake

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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Choreographers Green Street Studios announces the Spring/Summer 2011 cycle of its Emerging Artists Award Program designed to provide infrastructure for choreographers, to create new work, and to provide deep, ongoing mentorship between experienced and early-to-mid-career choreographers. The Emerging Artist Award provides the opportunity for New England-based choreographers to be in residence at Green Street Studios from March – June 2011. Call 617-864-3191.
Deadline: March 4, 2011

Grant Information Workshop The Arts Foundation of Cape Cod (AFCC) will hold a grants information workshop for interested applicants on Tuesday, March 8, 6 pm at the AFCC office in Centerville. First-time applicants are strongly urged to attend. Reservations required. Contact 508-362-0066 or info@artsfoundation.org. AFCC’s grants program provides cash awards to local artists and cultural organizations that are engaged in projects that help create a strong, stable, and diverse arts and culture industry on Cape Cod, and contribute positively to the quality of life and economic vitality of the region. Preference is given to specific program initiatives, particularly those enhancing the arts education of learners of all ages, and to collaborative efforts within the arts community.
Deadline to RSVP: March 7, 2011

Filmmakers Birmingham SHOUT: Gay and Lesbian Film Festival (August 27-28, 2011, Birmingham, AL) is now accepting submissions of independent films by, for, or about the GLBT community in the following categories: narrative feature (over 45 minutes), documentary feature (over 45 minutes), and short (under 45 minutes). Contact billyraybrewton@gmail.com or call 205-324-0888.
Deadline: March 15, 2011

Boston Photographers The Mayor’s Office of Arts, Tourism & Special Events seeks Boston photographers to capture the essence and spirit of Boston. They are asking participants to photograph Boston on Patriot’s Day 2011. The best 25 photographs chosen will be displayed in the Mayor’s Gallery, the remaining pictures will adorn the hallways on the 2nd and 8th floors of Boston City Hall. The exhibition will take place May 23 – June 30, 2011. Participants must reside or work in the City of Boston. Artwork submitted will be juried by the The Mayor’s Office of Arts, Tourism & Special Events Exhibition Committee. To apply, submit 3 jpegs (72 dpi) of the photos, description sheet of the work submitted, and resume or brief description of your photography experience. Deliver or email completed applications to John Crowley, Exhibition Coordinator, Mayor’s Office of Arts, Tourism & Special Events, Boston City Hall, Room 802, Boston, MA 02201. Questions: john.crowley@cityofboston.gov or 617-635-2368.
Deadline: March 30, 2011

Public Art Festival Call to Artists The summertime festival ArtBeat 2011 (Somerville, MA) includes music, performance art, craft vendors, dance, theater, and food. Each year they develop a theme that serves as a launching point for artists and the community to express themselves. This year it is “Red.” Deadline for Craft Artists: March 28, 2011
Deadline for Performing Artists and Painters: April 1, 2011

Call to Artists FIGMENT BOSTON 2011 is now accepting project proposals for the event which takes place June 4-5 on the Rose Kennedy Greenway, Boston, MA. Learn more.
Deadline: April 15, 2011

Painters Lillian Orlowsky and William Freed Foundation Grant is offered to American painters aged 45 or older who demonstrate financial need. The primary emphasis is to promote public awareness and a commitment to American art, as well as encouraging interest in artists who lack adequate recognition. Questions: Call 508-487-1750 or visit www.paam.org.
Deadline: August 15, 2011

Also of Note:

Make Art, Pay Bills: Creative Economy Summit 2

Moral Rights and the Visual Rights Act Webinar

 Free Drawing Marathon

 Gallery Conversations at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum

Image credit: Photograph by Provincetown Art Association depicting the Hawthorne Gallery.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Past Fellows Notes
Jan. 2011

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

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

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

From the looks of it, the new year will be rich with great art!

Peter Brown (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’06) reads from his new short story collection A Bright Soothing Noise at Brookline Booksmith, on Tuesday, January 11, 7 PM. The collection, which won the Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Short Fiction, is about characters struggling to realize their own pieces of the American dream.

Alicia Casilio, Sara Casilio, Kelly Casilio, and Cary Wolinsky aka TRIIIBE (Sculpture/Installation Fellows ’09) have their New York City debut in a show at DODGE Gallery, January 8 – February 13, 2011.

Patrick Donnelly (Poetry Fellow ’08) is the new director of the Advanced Seminar at The Frost Place, a poets’ residency and educational center in New Hampshire.

Beth Galston (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’84) unveils a new public art project this month, Serpentine Fence. Three years in the making, this permanent sculpture is a 120-foot-long serpentine fence made of stainless steel and translucent purple metal mesh, with special lights at night. The project has involved a collaboration between the City of Boston Parks Department, JP Centre/South Main Streets, Ray Dunetz Landscape Architecture, Solutions in Metal (Fabricator), Ron Marini (Contractor), and the artist, supported by grants from The Browne Fund.

In April 2010, Ralf Yusuf Gawlick (Music Composition Fellow ’09) premiered Kinderkreuzzug, a large-scale work for children’s voices and small chamber ensemble (read an ArtSake post about the work). Musica Omnia has released a CD of the powerful cantata, which adapts Bertolt Brecht’s extraordinary poem about a group of orphaned children on a crusade to find a land of peace.

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

Eric Hofbauer (Music Composition Fellow ’09) was recently featured in an interview/solo set on BBC’s Jazz on 3 radio show. In it, he played several pieces from his American Fear solo recording.

Congratulations to Sharon Howell (Poetry Fellow ’10), who recently learned that her poetry collection has been accepted for publication by Pressed Wafer Press – details to come!

Jan Johnson (Drawing Fellow ’10) is one of the artists exhibiting in A woman’s work is never done, at the A.I.R. Gallery in Brooklyn, NY. The show, curated by Susanne Altmann, includes work by women from throughout the country (and world). The art focuses on diverse artistic approaches and blends “the personally meaningful with a close and objective eye toward cultural observation” (read more). The show runs at January 5-January 30, 2011. See images of the exhibition on A.I.R. Gallery’s Facebook page.

Caroline Klocksiem‘s (Poetry Fellow ’08) poem No cracked earth was recently featured in the poetry journal Leveler. Also, two of her poems appear in Super Arrow, issue three.

Jane D. Marsching‘s (Photography Finalist ’03) work Ice Out an edition of 5 “hybrid prints,” is on exhibit at Ningyo Editions in Watertown, through January 15, 2011. The work draws on wind data during “ice out” days (90% melt of pond ice), using data drawn today via specially created software (co-written with Matthew Shanley) and from Thoreau’s 1847 almanac. This piece includes a video with choreographer/dancer Sarah Baumert.

Todd McKie (Painting Finalist ’08) has a solo exhibition of collages and of paintings on found wooden panels at Victoria Munroe Fine Art in Boston, January 13 – February 26, 2011.

Rachel Mello (Painting Finalist ’10) has a solo show of cut-silhouette paintings, wood-block prints, and print collages at Club Passim/Veggie Planet in Cambridge, MA. The show runs through January 21.

Nathalie Miebach (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’09) has a solo show opening this month at the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton. Changing Waters is the largest installation Nathalie has build so far, a 27-foot long wall piece and four 10-foot long sculptures. The installation looks at the interaction between ocean and weather systems in the Gulf of Maine, integrating both data from off-shore buoys and weather stations as well as some of the rich fishing history. It’s fantastical, theatrical and numerical. The installation will be on exhibit January 15, 2011 – September 25, 2011, with an opening reception February 27, 2011, 2-5 PM.

Koji Nakano (Music Composition Finalist ’09) has had a fortuitous run since receiving his MCC award. In 2011, in conjunction with a University of California/Davis lecture, his work Ancient Songs will be performed at Chapman University (Jan. 14), University of California at San Diego (Jan. 20), and the Hong Kong Arts Centre (March 6). In 2010, Mr. Nakano received a MetLife Creative Connections Grant from Meet The Composer to support the premiere of Time Song III: Reincarnation “The Birth of a Spirits” at the Pacific Rim Music Festival. It was subsequently performed in Seoul, Korea, and Taipei, Taiwan. Two film/music collaborations with filmmaker Tiffany Doesken premiered in 2010: Unspoken Voices-Unbroken Spirits for Audio Visual at the 2010 ISCM World New Music Days in Sydney, Australia, and Looking at a Dancing Apsara through Rectangular Prisms at the Interactive Creative Forum. In the fall of 2010, the multi-media concert Music, Dance and Film: Innovation and Tradition in the Works of Koji Nakano was presented as part of the Annual Music and Performing Arts at Burapha University in Bangsaen, Thailand (see image above). Also in 2010, Mr. Nakano received a residency fellowship from the Ucross Foundation in Wyoming, an ASCAPlus Award, and the White Flowers Residency for Composers from Yaddo. In the fall of 2009, Ensemble Reconsil Vienna gave the world premiere of his Scattered Clouds/Dramatic Sky as part of Composers Forum in Mittersill (recorded on CD KOFOMI #14 from Ein_Klang Records).

Monica Raymond‘s (Playwriting Finalist ’07, Poetry Finalist ’08) essay Notes on “Collateral Damage Noted” (about Mobius member Tom Plsek‘s sound meditation commemorating Iraqi civilian deaths in the current war) was published at qarrtsiluni.com in December. Also, her poem Dreaming the World was a prize winner in Old Father William’s Frabjous and Curious Poetry contest for poems influenced by Lewis Carroll, sponsored by Caffeine Theater in Chicago.

Anna Ross (Poetry Finalist ’10) has poetry in the Fall/Winter 2011 issue of the journal Barrow Street.

Eric Henry Sanders‘s (Playwriting Fellow ’09) play Reservoir had its world premiere at The Drilling CompaNY Theatre in New York, November 4 -24th, 2010 – read a terrific review in the New York Times. The run has been so successful that it’s been extended for an additional eight shows: January 6-16, 2011. You can read about the play’s development (as well as hear an excerpt performed by Company One) on ArtSake.

Adam Schwartz (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’10) reads from his new novel A Stranger on the Planet (an excerpt of which won him an MCC fellowship) at Brookline Booksmith on Thursday, January 27, at 7 PM. Next month, he joins poet Dan Chaisson for a reading at Porter Square Books in Cambridge, Wednesday, February 9, 7 PM.

In The Guardian, Annie Proulx gives Salvatore Scibona‘s (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’06) The End a great review, calling it “an outstanding work in all the right ways.”

Peter Snoad‘s (Playwriting Fellow ’09) new full-length farce, Identity Crisis, winner of the 2010 New Play Festival at Centre Stage in Greenville, South Carolina, will receive a workshop production there from January 13-22. Also this month, his short play My Name Is Art will run at the Short and Sweet Festival in Sydney, Australia (January 5-February 20). Recently, his play The Greening of Bridget Kelly was performed at the Roy Arias Studios in Manhattan by 3 Road Productions as part of its “Blood Bond” series of new plays.

Julia Story (Poetry Finalist ’10), who recently won the John C. Zacharis First Book Award for her prose poetry collection Post Moxie, is entertainingly interviewed on the Ploughshares blog by another past MCC awardee, Simeon Berry (Poetry Fellow ’06).

Cam Terwilliger (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’08) was recently named the Associate Fiction Editor at West Branch, and his short story “The Kingdom” was a finalist for Narrative‘s “People Under 30″ contest.

Daniel Tobin (Poetry Finalist ’10) reads from his new poetry collection Belated Heavens at Brookline Booksmith on Tuesday, January 25 at 7 PM.

Rachel Perry Welty (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’09, Drawing Fellow ’04) will have a solo exhibition at deCordova Sculpture Park + Museum in Lincoln, called Rachel Perry Welty 24/7. A 68-page fully illustrated catalogue/artist book has been created in conjunction with the show, which runs January 29 – April 24 with an opening on February 5, 2011. By the way, Rachel recently had a solo show of work at Yancey Richardson Gallery in New York, which received a nice blurb in The New Yorker.

Jeff Zimbalist‘s (Film & Video Fellow ’05) much-lauded documentary The Two Escobars just received another laud: it was named Best Documentary of 2010 by Sports Illustrated!

Past Fellows Notes

Dec. 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: Image from a portrait concert of work by Koji Nakano as part of the Annual Music and Performing Arts Festival at Burapha University in Thailand on November 17, 2010; CD cover image for KINDERKREUZZUG by Ralf Gawlick (Musica Omnia 2010); Todd McKie, FRUIT BOWL (2007), flashe on canvas, 40×30 in, photo by Bill Kipp; poster for IDENTITY CRISIS, a play by Peter Snoad, performed by Centre Stage Theatre; cover art for BELATED HEAVENS by Daniel Tobin (Four Way Books, 2010).

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This post is a pictorial tour of some of the exceptional stuff past fellows/finalists from MCC’s Artist Fellowships Program are currently up to.

1. Reimagined tea pots. Leslie Sills (Crafts Fellow ’95) created the above work, called HIGH TEA. The sculptural teapot is among the works included in The Teapot Redefined, an exhibition of sculptural teapots at Mobilia Gallery in Cambridge (through Oct. 31). The work 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.

2. National film releases. 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!).

3. Chinese World Expos. 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.

4. Literary/culinary benefit events. Former Poetry Slam National Champion 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.

5. Edens-in-progress. TRIIIBE (Sculpture/Installation Fellows ’09), the artists collective of Alicia, Kelly, and Sara Casilio and photographer Cary Wolinsky, is 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. If you’re in search of art that’s visually arresting, socially engaged, and possessed of a truly unique vision, then traveler, I think I know where to find your paradise.

6. Collaborative, two-part installations. Liz Nofziger (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’05) and Linda Price-Sneddon (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’01) have created a multi-media installation showing at two different art venues. Part one of That Which Changes That Which Stays the Same shows at the Villa Victoria in Boston through November 3, 2010. Part two shows at the Essex Art Center in Lawrence through December 8, with an Artists’ Talk Wednesday, November 17, 7-8 PM. The artists’ collaboration is itself the result of a collaboration (woah, meta) between Villa Victoria and Essex Art Center, called Exchange.

For more exceptional stuff, check out Fellows Notes.

Images: Leslie Sills, HIGH TEA (front and side view), ceramic; still from THE TWO ESCOBARS by Jeff and Michael Zimbalist; still from ACQUARELLA by Martha Jane Bradford and Chantal Harvey; Regie Gibson; promotional image for A Taste of Grub; TRIIIBE, FINE; installation view of THAT WHICH CHANGES THAT WHICH STAYS THE SAME by Liz Nofziger and Linda Price-Sneddon.

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THE ROYAL FROG BALLET is an amoeba of collaborators, a producing body, a shouting household of households, and an aspiring dance team in search of parade.

- from the troupe’s website (do you, too, get the feeling its audience is in for an interesting time?)

The Royal Frog Ballet is a cross-disciplinary group that blends performance, visual art, music, movement, and a sensibility that’s equal parts Vaudeville and avant-garde. And that encapsulation undoubtedly leaves out important facets of the RFB, because it’s just one hard-to-encapsulate group.

So we asked Sophie Wood, co-director of the troupe (which is based in Northampton but includes members from elsewhere on the East Coast), to elaborate, in advance of an appearance in the upcoming HONK! Festival in Somerville (October 8-10) and a Surrealist Cabaret and Pumpkin Walk in Amherst (October 22-24).

ArtSake: I’m interested in a recent collaboration by The Royal Frog Ballet, The Leaving Nest at the A.P.E. Gallery in Northampton. Can you talk about the interdisciplinary nature of that project – it was billed as “an installation, performance series, and window garden” – and how it relates to the identity of your troupe?

Sophie Wood: Our original idea for using the gallery was to expose our art making process, as well as a product or performance, as part of the showing. The A.P.E. Gallery (as a space) is aesthetically very different from the spaces that we were used to performing in and creating installations for: usually we’re in a barn or a field or a community center or someone’s living room. I think that we were all a little unsettled by the idea of being in a very classy, clean, professional gallery space, and have spent lots of time intentionally creating art that isn’t meant for galleries. But we also wanted to try something different, and were really intrigued by the giant window that is the front of the gallery space which is right on Main Street in Northampton, and generally the down town location as a way of reaching new audiences.

The desire to present our process is part of our aesthetic and identity, I suppose, in that we want to create art that is accessible, that feels down home, that feels like you could make it too, without compromising the quality or the vision. We try to use materials that are cheap or reused, to use spaces that aren’t traditional performance venues, singers that have never sung before. I think part of that is a desire to create art that inspires other people to make art, and part of that is a desire to inspire ourselves to try anything that we want to, regardless of whether or not it’s the ‘art’ that we study or practice. We want to make encouraging art, not untouchable art.

The Leaving Nest was a three week installation. The week before the gallery opened, two muralists started painting on the big walls opposite each other, a team of builders started building a giant boat/house like structure (on wheels) in the center of the room, some gardeners put 30 amaryllis bulbs that had been started a month before in pots in front of the window on Main Street, a pin hole camera was set up with props, and the dancers and writers and costume makers wandered around making little messes in the corners.

The first week we had a gallery opening, and at that point the murals and sculpture were all in a state that could be called finished, the bulbs were poking up in various stages, headed towards blooming, and there were about 8 costumed living human statues amongst the plants and on the boat, and the visitors were being photographed by the camera.

After the opening, we were in the gallery each night after hours, changing the installation, adding to the sculpture, watering the plants painting more on the murals, adding more props, but each day when the gallery opened, all of the art was “finished” and ready for gallery viewing. At night people were always peering in the windows, watching us work or rehearse; we did a lot of singing and dancing in the space at night also.

The second week we performed a costumed and performative singing show from on top of the boat/house, that had been rehearsed and created that week in the space, and the third week we presented a performative choreographic spoken word show that had also been created in the space. The changes made to the murals and the sculpture reflected and added to the performances. Characters from the first show appeared in the murals by the second show, writing from both shows inspired additions to the sculpture and murals, images from the gallery appeared in the writing.

It was an incredibly exhausting, challenging, intensive experience for us as a collective and as individuals. It was extremely educational and thought-provoking and opened up a lot of discussion in the collective about how we present work, how we advertise it, how we structure our decision making. We’re just figuring it out as we go along, following what excites us.

ArtSake: Artists in the Royal Frog Ballet have been creatively collaborating for a long time (you call it an “ever-extending collection of housemates, friends, loves, siblings, classmates, co-workers, neighbors, and networkers”). What are the benefits of a deep and sustained creative partnership?

Sophie: We’ve all been developing our individual art heavily influenced by our surroundings, which, for many of us, for a long time, has included each other. We read lots of the same books, see lots of the same shows, hear lots of the same music; Our thought patterns have become similar, but our brains and how we process ideas, images, organization, are still very much individual. We introduce each other to new concepts, images, sounds, and pick them apart or build off of them together. The benefit is never having to explain yourself and who you are before you explain your idea. The benefits are similar to the benefits of family; Sometimes they drive you bonkers, but their confidence in you is irrationally solid, their support is unending, and their understanding of who you are is inexplicable.

We know what each other’s abilities are and what our weaknesses are and where we struggle and where we excel and when and how to push and when to encourage and make tea, and when to stop. We know how we tick. We can usually read each other, for better or worse, as whole humans, not just as artists. If someone is struggling with an idea or at a rehearsal, we can often read or feel comfortable asking if it has to do with the art or with something unrelated. We know what to expect, and also we know what wonderful, creative, irrational, unexpectable beings we all are. We have a lot of minds to help us create that know us well, that live in our same world of place and of image and idea, but don’t see or process the world in the same way.

ArtSake: I love the premise behind the Surrealist Cabaret: an open studio for performance artists. Can you offer a few snapshots of what an audience visiting your “studios” might experience?

Sophie: That’s top secret. Or, maybe the studio hasn’t even been opened yet.

Could be that they see moving sculptures, a dance number or two, unexpected instruments, extravagant pumpkin art made by lots of ‘pumpkin artists’, magical landscape occurrences, unusual tree fruit, beasts of all shapes and varieties, and masked story tellers of questionable quality.

Couldn’t rightly say.

ArtSake: The Royal Frog Ballet is participating in the HONK! festival for the second time. Can you talk about how your troupe’s aesthetic jells with the spirit of HONK?

Sophie: I think our ‘aesthetic’ as a group is based whether or not it’s going to be a good time, satisfying, joyous, magical, or cathartic. HONK! is an unbelievable event. To me the most radical part of HONK! is how much pure fun it is, how inclusive that fun is, and that the inclusivity doesn’t make the fun lose any of its grittiness or edge. So, when we had the opportunity to bring our clowns (who follow no rules or choreography) to the streets with our ‘instruments’ (sculptures), it was too much of a good time to pass up.

ArtSake: Sophie, do you create your own solo work? And if so, how does it differ and/or crossover with the work of the troupe?

Sophie: I do, I have, I will, it’s complicated. I write poems and little books for bad days, I make exotic pinatas for weddings, paintings and collages for birthdays, papier mache sculptures, I dance, I perform, I make puppets and masks and costumes, I write plays, I dream of mastering the spoons. I co-direct a Shakespeare and physical comedy program for young people in Vermont. I make and do whatever strikes my fancy. Since a fair amount of my time goes towards the organizational and secretarial aspects of the Ballet, and setting up events in which to share work (which I then share work in), the difference between my work and Ballet work sometimes feels murky. I think the bulk of work that I make that seems most clearly my own is work that never gets shown, (or isn’t meant to be). One of the main reasons that working together was so appealing from the beginning is that it’s intimidating and exhausting to show work by yourself. It can lead to a lot of lonely artistic doubt. Support and encouragement to show and put art out in the world, regardless of how ‘ready’ it is, is one of my favorite aspects of working with the RFB.

ArtSake: What’s up next for The Royal Frog Ballet?

Sophie: A nap. A meeting. A bowl of french fries. A winter full of of individual touring and art making. A street performance event in Northampton in April, featuring members of our collective and other companies and artists from New England.

The Royal Frog Ballet will participate in the HONK! Parade in Somerville, Sunday, October 10, 2010. They present the Third Annual Surrealist Cabaret and Pumpkin Walk at 5:30 PM (rain or shine) on October 22, 23, and 24, at Old Friends Farm on Bramble Hill in Amherst, MA.

Sophie Wood co-directs the Royal Frog Ballet and the Get Thee To The Funnery! Shakespeare Program and several other theater workshops for young people in Central Vermont.

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Joseph Krupczynski aims to bring fresh fruits and vegetables to low-income communities in Western Massachusetts using a “green” service vehicle through the public art project called the Moveable Feast.

What inspired you to create the Movable Feast Project?
Loretta Yarlow, the director of the University Gallery at UMass asked me if I was interested in putting together a public art project (with community engagement) as part of their contribution to Museums10 Fall 2010 exhibition theme of “Food.” Since I have been working in the last few years with Nuestras Raices in Holyoke (on the design for an educational/restaurant structure for their farm), I thought that they would be an excellent collaborative partner for such a project since their work is “food” and “community” focused. So I started a conversation with the director of Nuestras Raices and asked what projects they were developing that I might contribute to in a public art context. In those conversations I learned that, through their work with the Holyoke Food and Fitness Policy Council, they had identified the development of mobile markets/kitchens as one of the outreach priorities (whose primary objective is to reach low-income neighborhoods in the region with poor access to fresh fruits and vegetables) and they were planning on purchasing a food trailer for that use. Once we knew that the food trailer would be the subject/object of this project, “Moveable Feast” was born.

Where do the fruits and vegetables come from?
All the primary ingredients of all the food served from the trailer are sourced from local farms, including farmers from Nuestras Raices, La Finca.

What do you say to people who might say “how can this be art”?
My definition of art is that it should catalyze a renewed perception of our world –and it is my hope that “Movable Feast” is a visual (as well as a culinary) catalyst to re-vision how we see our local food system. I also believe that a public art project such as this can creatively transform local conditions and build uncharacteristic forms of associations among a diverse group of community residents—establishing and elaborating a unique alternate form of sociality. This process allows for the production of “things” (conversations, meals, performances, effects) that are transformed into “artworks” within this broadened framework. The project is an artistic production that also works as a collective learning project—promoting internal reflection, horizontal exchange, and vertical collaborations and partnerships. For me, the project is inspired by the idea that art can expand conventional notions of people, place and the art-making process. It is part of a broader effort to create works through participatory processes where the work’s visual and physical characteristics grow out of a reflective engagement with the community. So the work seeks not to simply “beautify” a site, but to use art and the art-making process as a means to bridge the gaps between the aesthetic, social and everyday perceptions of art and life.

What do you hope to achieve by undertaking the Movable Feast Project?
See above… but, also: One of the social issues/conditions that this project seeks to address is the disparities in access to healthy food –which remain an important challenge today, contributing to obesity and other related health problems. Yet, there are strategies being implemented across the country to address this issue. By providing a context for discussing, highlighting and disseminating information about healthy community-based food practices in Western Massachusetts’ diverse communities, this project seeks to become part of this growing movement (in a small, humble way) that provide realizable solutions.

Is there any fruit or vegetable you are not fond of? (Disclaimer, this ArtSake writer is a vegetarian).
Kiwi! …for some reason it makes me break out.

All dates and locations for the Moveable Feast are subject to change so be sure to check for updates.

Sunday 10/3 1:30 – 3:00 PM & 4:00 – 5:30 PM
Holyoke / Toepfert Apartments, North Summer Street &
Beaudoin Village, Leary Drive

Tuesday 10/5 4:30 – 7:00 PM
Amherst / Food for Thought Books / Panel Discussion
106 North Pleasant Street

Saturday 10/9 10:00 – 2:00PM
Springfield / Mason Square Farmers Market
11 Wilbraham Road

Tuesday 10/12 3:00 – 5:00 PM
Holyoke / El Arco Iris
561 South Canal Street

Image credit: All images courtesy of Joseph Krupczynski.

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Composers, dramatic writers, and sculpture/installation artists: the deadline to apply for a 2011 Artist Fellowship in Music Composition, Playwriting, or Sculpture/Installation is this Monday, September 20, 2010 (this is a postmark deadline for mailed materials).

In other words: there’s still time! Read full program guidelines and apply – pronto, ASAP, and post haste.

The fellowships are anonymously-judged grants of $7,500 and finalist awards $500, based solely on the artistic excellence of the work submitted.

In this post you can see/hear some of the work that’s been successful in this grant; the image is a still from the performance piece Bailout by TRIIIBE (Sculpture/Installation Fellows ’09); in the audio clip you can hear Company One performing a scene from Reservoir by 2009 Playwriting Fellow Eric Henry Sanders.

And check out our tips for applying, based on feedback from past Artist Fellowships panelists and our own observations.

Image and media: Still from the performance piece BAILOUT (2008) by TRIIIBE; Company One performs a scene from Reservoir by Eric Henry Sanders (Playwriting Fellow ’09), directed by Shawn LaCount, with Fedna Jacquet as Psychiatrist and Brett Marks as Hasek.

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ArtSake’s extreme fondness for all things canine has lead us to share with you a most wonderful public art project created in partnership with the Cambridge Arts Council. Tired of looking for a trash barrel to deposit the daily waste created by Fido or Poochie? It is a waste of waste. So Matthew Mazzotta has created the Park Spark Project, a public methane digester in Pacific Street Park that uses dog waste and turns it into energy. It is the first dog park methane digester installed in the U.S. (yeah Cambridge)! We caught up with Matthew to have him to tell us more. 

What inspired you to create this project?
“Actually, I was walking down the street and I saw my friend Clay, who I don’t see that often, walking his dog. He said he was going to the dog park so I went with him to catch up with how he was doing. I had recently gone to India, with MIT’s D-lab program to study appropriate technologies. Having been interested in methane digesters for years, I was able to see them being used firsthand in India. There, women collect the cow dung with their hands and mix it up with water and then dump it into their digesters. Somewhat similar to what people do at dog parks, but the women in India don’t wear bags on their hands.

Sitting at Pacific Street Dog Park watching the dogs, I saw an almost overflowing garbage can full of dog waste and said to Clay ‘In other countries, people use that for fuel to cook with, that can is just a pile of energy.’

Even though we don’t see many small-scale digesters in the US, we are starting to see them on farms. As the issues around climate change are becoming more debated, methane is now being seen to be 30-70 times more potent as a green house gas than Carbon Dioxide. That means animal farms are being targeted as environmental polluters.

The Park Spark project is making visible how we as the city handle the waste from the animals of our communities and what the potential can be. Although, in India, the methane collected goes to a stove to cook with, I started imagining what a community of a city would use their energy for.”

What has been the most surprising thing to result from this project?
“Although, I wrote a grant to MIT to fund the project, I have been in conversation with the city about doing this for almost a year. There have been many discussions about this project, sometimes hopeful and sometimes not so much. The most surprising aspect, and the one I find amazing, is that I was able to work with the city and realize something so new and experimental. With many different parts of the city giving advice, I think the project was actually improved from what I had initially proposed. It was inspiring to see that someone can work with the city and achieve great results.”

What do you imagine dogs think about this?
“Well, I think that every dog that has entered the park has blessed the project (by peeing on it), so even if they don’t understand the implications of the Park Spark, it is nice to see that they are more than willing to live with it.”

The Park Spark Project Location: (Sidney St. between Pacific and Tudor), Cambridge, MA
Dates: August 25 – September 25, 2010

First Meeting: Wednesday, September 1st at 7:00 p.m.*
Livable Streets Alliance
100 Sidney Street, Cambridge, MA 02139
*Humans only
Learn more about the Park Spark Project
Image credits: All images courtesy of Matthew Mazzotta

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Art in the Park, Worcester features sixteen sculptures by New England artists placed around (and in) the ponds of historic Elm Park. The public exhibit, which is free and on display through October 1, 2010, is organized by the Worcester Arts Council.

Learn more about the sculptures, the artists, and the series of related events for Art in the Park.

Images: Ken Reker, WATER; Lu Heinz, LEAFBOMB; Fernando DeOliveira, JELLYFISH; Kathryn Lipke Vigesaa, MELT/WATER. All images from the 2010 Art in the Park, Worcester exhibition, on display in Elm Park through October 1, 2010.

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