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.
With great enthusiasm, we report that Salvatore Scibona (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’06) and Joan Wickersham (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’08) will read at a November 18 event in NYC featuring the 2008 National Book Awards finalists (which both of them are). The awards ceremony, where National Book Awards will be announced, takes place the following night. Stay tuned for the results. (Speaking of Salvatore, he joins Askold Melnyczuk for a reading at the Blacksmith House in Cambridge on Monday, November 3.)
Ben Berman (Poetry Fellow ’08) received an Honorable Mention in the New England Poetry Club’s Erika Mumford Prize and will be reading along with the winners of the competition on November 18th, at 7pm at the Central Square library.
Stephen DiRado’s (Photography Finalist ’03, ’07) Dinner Series: How We Lived will be exhibited at the Fitchburg Art Museum, through January 4. The large format black and white photographs explore the complex family dynamics that unfold around the dinner table.
Jane Gillooly’s (Film & Video Fellow ’07) documentary Today the Hawk Takes One Chick has its New York premiere screening at the Margaret Mead Film and Video Festival on November 15, 6 PM.
Chuck Holtzman’s (Drawing Fellow ’06) wood sculptures show at Victoria Munroe Fine Art Gallery through November 29. Opening reception Saturday, November 8, 3 PM. Drawings and watercolors by Katherine Porter are also on display.
Lisa Kessler (Photography Finalist ’05) takes part in Facing Peace, an exhibition of Lisa’s photographs and artwork by families who have survived violence. The show runs November 6-December 6 at Marran Gallery at Lesley University. There is an opening reception Friday, November 14, 5 PM, and an Artist Talk Thursday, November 20, 5 PM.
Ariel Kotker (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’07) has a joint show with Mollie Zanoni at the Northampton Center for the Arts, November 4-28, opening reception November 9, 5 PM.
Julie Levesque’s (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’05) installation Fork, Knife or Spoon? runs at the Reynolds Center at Babson College, through December 15, with an opening reception November 6, 5 PM. You can read and contribute to the online version of “Fork, Knife or Spoon?” here.
Digital prints by Jane D. Marsching (Photography Finalist ’03) are part of Figment’s Imagination at Miller Block Gallery, through December 12.
Rania Matar (Photography Fellow ’07) is one of four finalists for the ICA Boston’s prestigious James and Audrey Foster Prize, and the finalists are exhibiting November 12-March 1. There will be an Artist Talk on Sunday, December 7, 1 PM. See a slideshow of Rania’s and the other artists’ work.
Andrew Neumann (Sculpture/Installation Finalist ’03) exhibits kinetic sculptures in “The Last Picture Show” at AXIOM Center for New and Experimental Media in Boston, through December 13, with an artist talk on Dec. 13, 3:30 PM.
Lisa Olstein (Poetry Fellow ’06) let us know that her second poetry collection, Lost Alphabet, was accepted for publication by Copper Canyon Press and will be released in July 2009. New poems have recently appeared in Narrative Magazine, NotNostrums.com, and The Fairy Tale Review. With Dara Wier, Noy Holland (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’08), and Chris Bachelder, Lisa recently co-edited a special issue of The Massachusetts Review in tribute to Grace Paley.
Monica Raymond’s (Playwriting/New Theater Works Finalist ’07, Poetry Finalist ’08) poem “What the Echo Knows” (along with an MP3 of her reading it) is in the Transformation Issue of qarrtsiluni. The online journal has published a number of Monica’s poems; her poem “Another for Jim” is scheduled to be published in the current issue.
Peter Jay Shippy (Poetry Fellow ’02, Playwriting/New Theater Works Fellow ’07) was recently published in Gargoyle #53.
Rachel Perry Welty’s (Drawing/Printmaking/Artist Books Fellow ’04) work is exhibited at the Lehman Art Center in North Andover, November 14-January 24. Read a recent profile of Rachel in the Boston Globe.
Deb Todd Wheeler (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’03) is showing drawings and models in Figment’s Imagination at Miller Block Gallery, through December 12.
Past Fellows Notes
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 (top to bottom): Cover image for Joan Wickersham’s THE SUICIDE INDEX (Harcourt 2008); Still from Jane Gillooly’s TODAY THE HAWK TAKES ONE CHICK (2007); Chuck Holtzman, UNTITLED (2005), charcoal on paper, 17 in X 14 in; Ariel Kotker, RABBITS FOOT (2007) from the ongoing installation His Room As He Left It, mixed media