News and Notes from MCC Artist Fellows
We compile a monthly list of presentations, honors, publications, and events featuring past and present MCC Artist Fellows & Finalists. As you’ll see, the news is good – not just about these award-winning artists, but also about the breadth and vitality of contemporary arts throughout the Commonwealth and beyond.
A number of our past fellows/finalists are participating in 150X150, featuring 150 works of art for $150 each, with all proceeds to benefit the exhibition program at Laconia Gallery. On Saturday, May 2, at noon, there will be a “Mad Dash,” during which art-mad potential buyers vie to be the first to get to their favorite work of art and claim its tag. You can preview the works first on Friday, May 1, 5:30-9 PM, to plot your sprint path. Past MCC fellows/finalists with work in the show include Candice Smith Corby (Painting Fellow ’08), Matthew Hincman (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’07), Nona Hershey (Drawing/Printmaking/Artist Books Fellow ’04), Julie Levesque (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’05), Eric Lewandowski (Drawing/Printmaking/Artist Books Finalist ’06), Sue Murad (Choreography Fellow ’08), Caleb Neelon (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’07), Mary O’Malley (Drawing/Printmaking/Artist Books Fellow ’06), and Deb Todd Wheeler (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’03). It all goes down at Laconia Gallery in Boston’s South End.
Michael Downing (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Finalist ’08) and Suzanne Matson (Fiction Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’98, Finalist ’08) join Carolyn Gregory for a reading in the Dire Literary Series, Friday, May 1 at Out of the Blue Gallery in Cambridge. There’s an open mic at 8 PM, with the featured readers following.
Kim Adrian’s (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’08) essay “How to Buy Peaches” is in issue #39 (“the Appetites Issue”) of Tin House. Plus, Kim is featured in the April 29/May 12 2009 issue of The Improper Bostonian, in an article called “Minds that Matter: Boston’s Brightest Young Scientists, Artists, and Thinkers.” (Once you read the Improper Bostonian story and Tin House essay, you can hear Kim read in person as part of the Dire Literary Series, on June 5.)
Diane Arvanites-Noya and Tommy Neblett (Choreography Fellows ’04, ’08), aka Prometheus Dance, perform Tabula Rasa and the world premiere of Warp on Friday, May 15, 7:30 PM and Saturday, May 16, 8 PM at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston. There is a post-performance Q&A on May 15. The events are presented by World Music/CRASHarts.
Candice Smith Corby (Painting Fellow ’08) has a solo show at the Essex Art Center in Lawrence. It’s a painted wall installation, called Estate of Things, that continues Candice’s interest in painting personal objects and furniture and then re-arranging them in new contexts. Estate of Things also considers the beloved and meaningless objects that are left behind after we are gone. (To learn more about Candice and her process, check out her Artist to Artist discussion with sculptural artist Julie Levesque.) The show runs May 8 June 12, 2009, with an opening reception Friday, May 8, 5-7 PM.
Brian Corey (Painting Fellow ’08) has a small exhibition of paintings in the back gallery at Kingston Gallery in Boston. The exhibition runs April 28 – May 30, 2009, with a First Friday reception on May 1, 5-7:30 PM.
Patrick Donnelly’s (Poetry Fellow ’08) poetry is featured in the From the Fishouse Anthology, a collection of poems that (to quote the subtitle) “Sing, Rhyme, Resound, Syncopate, Alliterate, and Just Plain Sound Great.” The anthology, which also includes a CD of readings of some of the included poems, is based on From the Fishouse, an online audio archive of emerging poets.
Finally, Spring is here and the work of Vico Fabbris (Painting Fellow ’06) has been included in the Spring/Summer Issue of Wild Apples Journal of Nature, Art and Inquiry. The launch party is Thursday, May 7th at 7 PM at Walden Woods, 44 Baker Farm Road in Lincoln, MA.
Congratulations to Michael Hoerman (Poetry Fellow ’04) for his appointment as a Visiting Scholar in the Department of English at the University of Houston. The appointment supports his research and poetry projects in the upcoming academic year, including the continuation of projects began during his 2004 fellowship. In addition, Michael collaborated with printmaker Kelly Moran of Texas Collaborative Arts to produce a fine art print featuring his poem “The Woodsman and the Nixie.” The print, in an edition of ten, will release at Na-Haus Art Space on May 2, 223 E. 11th, Heights-Houston. The multidisciplinary program includes visual art on exhibit by Moran, Jesus Galvan, and others, along with readings and performance from Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say, The Art Institute of Houston/Borders Poetry Series, Voices Breaking Boundaries, and the 2009 Houston Slam Team.
Noy Holland (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’08) is featured on the Emerging Writers Network blog, as part of Short Story Month.
Julie Levesque’s (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’05) sculptural installation Sift is on view in a new building just to the left of Clark Gallery in Lincoln. Sift, which measures 20 feet in diameter, opens Saturday, May 9 and shows through May 23, at 145 Lincoln Rd in Lincoln, Mass. There’s an opening reception May 9, 4-6 PM.
We’re thrilled to announce that Francie Lin (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’06) has won the 2009 Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best First Novel by an American Author for The Foreigner. The good news was announced at a ceremony on April 30. Well deserved!
Allan Reeder’s (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’06) short story The Accident, which was recently published in the online literary journal Memorious, was listed as one of the best stories published online in 2008, and as such is in the running for the storySouth Million Writers Award (with a $500 first prize). Allan’s nomination for the award puts him in the company of such likewise nominated authors as Jill McCorkle and Robert Olen Butler.
Janet Rickus (Painting Fellow ’06) joins Rebecca Kinkead for “Figure and Form,” an exhibition of paintings at Clark Gallery in Lincoln. The show, which features new paintings by both artists, runs May 1-31.
Tom Sleigh’s (Playwriting/New Theater Works Fellow ’03) essay The Deeds has been selected for the 2009 edition of The Best American Travel Essays (Houghton Mifflin).
Drawings by Naoe Suzuki (Drawing/Printmaking/Artist Books Fellow ’06) are featured in The Deceptive Narrative at the Art Institute of Boston Gallery at University Hall. Works by Naoe, Andrew Brandou, and Christine Murphy will show May 7-June 13, with an opening reception May 7, 5:30 PM.
Tracy Winn (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’08) reads from her short story collection Mrs. Somebody Somebody at 3 PM on May 3, at Concord Bookshop in Concord, then at a Books and Brews reading/signing at 7 PM on May 7 at Newtonville Books in Newtownville, MA. Recently, Tracy read at the SMFU Literary Festival in Dallas, TX.
Past Fellows Notes
Apr. 2009
Mar. 2009
Feb. 2009
Jan. 2009
Dec. 2008
Nov. 2008
Oct. 2008
Sep. 2008
Aug. 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
Mar. 2008
Feb. 2008
Jan. 2008
Dec. 2007
Nov. 2007
Oct. 2007
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: Nona Hershey, MEASURING TIME (2003), graphite, powder, acrylic medium, gouache, ink, 25 1/2 in x 22 in; Brian Corey, NETWORKING II (2006), acrylic, ink on wood, 11.5 in x 17 in; Janet Rickus, REPOSE (2005), oil, 12 in x 16 in.