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.
Six fellows/finalists from our Artist Fellowships Program were among the eight inaugural Brother Thomas Fellows announced by the The Boston Foundation. The unrestricted $15,000 awards are part of the legacy of Benedictine monk and ceramics artist Brother Thomas Bezanson (more info here). From sixty-two artists nominated, eight were selected (including six past MCC fellows/finalists): filmmaker and playwright John Oluwole ADEkoje, composer Kati Agócs, writer Richard Hoffman (MCC Fiction/Creative Nonfiction ’02), poet Barbara Helfgott Hyett (MCC Poetry Fellow ’98), new media artist Brian Knep (MCC Sculpture/Installation Finalist ’07), filmmaker Alla Kovgan (MCC Film & Video Fellow ’09), filmmaker Tracy Heather Strain (MCC Film & Video Fellow ’07), and jewelry maker Heather White (MCC Crafts Finalist ’09).
Mags Harries (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’03) and Joel Janowitz (Painting Fellow ’08) are among the artists participating in the Small Works Show at the Sacramento Street Gallery at Agassiz Baldwin Community in Cambridge, through December 4, 2009.
Stacey Alickman (Painting Finalist ’04) has a solo show (with guest artist Keith Maddy) organized by Art Consultant Susan Merritt of the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority. Stacey’s work will be on display at Hynes Convention Center at 900 Boylston Street, Boston. The show is in the Main and South Rotunda gallery, through the first week of January 2010. There will be an opening reception on November 12th from 6 to 8pm. Email to make an appointment to see the work.
Diane Arvanites-Noya and Tommy Neblett (Choreography Fellows ’04, ’08), aka Prometheus Dance, choreographed the work The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship, a magical journey for children and their parents, adapted from an old Russian Folktale. Performances take place Saturday, November 7, 7 pm & Sunday, November 8, 3 pm at the Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center (CMAC), part of CMAC’s month of “Destination Dance Performances.”
Ben Berman (Poetry Fellow ’08) was a finalist in ABZ‘s book competition this summer and won an honorable mention from the New England Poetry Club for the Erika Mumford Prize. He was recently published in the Burnside Review and has work forthcoming in Drunken Boat.
David Binder (Photography Fellow ’01) was interviewed on NPR’s Here and Now about his documentary Calling My Children. The film recently screened at the Gold Lion Film Festival in South Africa.
Richard Cornell (Music Composition Fellow ’07) discusses how he composed Falling from a Height, Holding Hands, based on the Gary Snyder poem of the same name, in Boston Unversity’s Bostonia magazine.
Xujun Eberlein (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’08) joined writers Katherine Howe and J. Courtney Sullivan for the New Literary Voice 2009 reading as part of the Concord Festival of Authors. The reading took place Sunday, Nov. 1 at the Fowler Library in Concord, with Jim Leahy as moderator.
Janet Echelman (Crafts & Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’09) will be a panelist on the Visionary Public Spaces session at the Design Excellence in Public Places Symposium on Friday, November 20th as part of the 25th Annual Build Boston conference, moderated by Christina Lanzl of UrbanArts Institute. Also, in October, Janet presented a lecture at the Boston Public Library for an event co-sponsored by the Loeb Fellowship Program at Harvard University, on her vision for transformative public art.
Illuminated manuscripts from Amy Fagin’s (Traditional Arts Finalist ’06) Beyond Genocide series will be on display at the UMass Amherst Student Union Gallery, November 2-November 13. The 10 illuminations on display explore 10 mass annihilations on their impact on the planet. There will be an opening reception Tuesday, November 3, 5-9 PM.
Kieran Jordan (Traditional Arts Fellow ’08) has opened a new dance studio: Boston Percussive Dance. Our sister blog Keepers of Tradition has an encouraging post on this development.
Sonesta Hotels and Resorts has commissioned Colleen Kiely (Painting Fellow ’98) to create the print Between Here and There (#3). For over thirty years, Sonesta has annually commissioned one artist to create a print. Colleen’s print (seen left), relates to work she created during an artist’s residency in New Delhi, India. Produced in an edition of 500, the work balances images of contrasting cultures and time periods, stacking the Hindu god Ganesha with a scene of New Delhi traffic and houses from the board game Monopoly. Ganesha is celebrated as the remover of obstacles, the god of abundance and auspicious beginnings.
Brian Knep (Sculpture/Installation Finalist ’07) has a solo exhibition at the Judi Rotenberg Gallery in Boston, MA where he will be showing works inspired by his artist-residency at Harvard Medical School. The show runs November 19 – December 23, 2009.
Caleb Neelon (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’07) has been creating an ongoing mural at Children’s Hospital Boston, called the Imagination Wall. Greg Cook writes about the mural in The Phoenix, and you can follow its progress on Caleb’s website.
Predicaments, a selection of new work by Amy Podmore (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’09) will be on display at the Williams College Museum of Art in Williamstown until February 10, 2010. Amy will join artist Mike Glier, who is also currently exhibiting, for a gallery talk and tour of their exhibition on Wednesday, November 11 at 4:00 PM.
Matt Rich (Sculpture/Installation Finalist ’09) has solo show, IRE & ICE, at Samson Projects Gallery in Boston, through December 5, 2009. There will be an artist talk Nov. 7, 2 PM. Matt is also participating in Strange Loops, a group show of artists “whose practice explores abstraction and structures with no beginning or end.” It runs at the Boston Center for the Arts Mills Gallery, November 13-January 3, opening reception Nov. 13, 6-8 PM.
Salvatore Scibona (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’06) reads on Tuesday, November 3, 7 PM, as part of the Graywolf Press 35th Anniversary Reading on the Suffolk University campus in Boston. He has upcoming readings at the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute (Nov. 4, 6 PM) and at the International Center (Nov. 5, 7 PM), both in New York City, then at the RiverRun Bookstore in Portsmouth, NH on Friday, November 6, 7 PM.
Peter Jay Shippy (Poetry Fellow ’02, Playwriting/New Theater Works Fellow ’07) was recently interviewed on The Collagist blog.
Rachel Perry Welty (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’09, Drawing Fellow ’04), currently doing an artist residency at the MacDowell Colony, has two exhibitions opening this month: thx 4 UR info at Colorado State University – Pueblo, November 6 – December 11, 2009, opening November 6 from 5-7 PM; One Every Day at efa project space in New York City, November 7-December 19, 2009, opening November 7, 6-9 PM. She was recently interviewed by artist An Xiao on the art:21 blog, and her conversation with Francine Koslow Miller is included in the November 09 issue of Sculpture Magazine, in an article called Already a Winner.
Past Fellows Notes
Oct. 2009
Sep. 2009
Aug. 2009
July 2009
June 2009
May 2009
Apr. 2009
Mar. 2009
Feb. 2009
Jan. 2009
Dec. 2008
Nov. 2008
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: Heather White, CAMPANULA BLUE BELL BROOCH (2007) sterling, raw powder pigment, 8x4x3/4 in; Promotional image from THE FOOL OF THE WORLD AND THE FLYING SHIP, presented by Prometheus Dance; Colleen Kiely, BETWEEN HERE AND THERE (#3), original print commissioned by Sonesta Hotels and Resorts; Still from the PREDICAMENTS series of sculpture, video, and installation by Amy Podmore.