SARANAC LAKE — A dozen artists, including six from the North Country, will have the chance to live and create free public art in this community, with their work funded by $150,000 from Pendragon Theatre, BluSeed Studios and the National Endowment for the Arts.
The artists — in visual and performing arts — will be selected in June, and applications for the program open this coming week.
Pendragon Theatre and BluSeed Studios were recently awarded a $75,000 matching grant from the NEA’s Our Town program and collectively came up with another $75,000.
The money will go to pay artists a commission; house them; and pay for transportation, supplies, administrative costs and marketing.
“A lot of residencies provide one of those things,” Pendragon Managing Director Michael Aguirre said. “This is amazing. It’s all-encompassing.”
Also, the organizations are not taking any “box office cut” — the art produced in Saranac Lake will be viewed by the public for free in Saranac Lake, with the goal of contributing to the community and speaking to issues and life here.
This is not just a cool experience for the artists but also a benefit to the town, BluSeed Executive Director Marissa Hernandez said.
“Art, art and more art!” Hernandez wrote in an email. “All of the projects that come out of our artists’ applications will bring free community involvement in some way.”
She said this could include artist talks, classes, experiences, performances and installations.
There’s always been overlap between artists at BluSeed and Pendragon. Some performing artists also do visual art, and some BluSeed artists create sets for Pendragon’s plays.
“Some of the most meaningful work I’ve been a part of has happened when unique collaborations occur outside of one traditional entity,” Pendragon Artistic Producer Sarah Norris said in a statement.
Hernandez said BluSeed had artists in residence programs before her time there, but there’s never been a collaboration between BluSeed and Pendragon at this scale before.
“Mike and I met to discuss ideas about how our two organizations could work together in our community. He came to the table with this idea for us to create a program for the NEA Our Town grant,” Hernandez wrote.
The application process for artists based full-time in the North Country will launch on Wednesday and close on May 31, with artists being selected no later than June 30.
Pendragon and BluSeed assume that a one-month residency will be the average length of time per artist.
Pendragon has a housing building on Helen Hill with five two-bedroom apartments for artists to stay. The length of engagement for each artist will vary depending on their project and specialty.
Each artist will receive a commission fee, which can range between $100 and $5,000, but Aguirre hopes most are between $1,000 and $3,000.
Each organization will have a panel to select the artists — six visual and six performing artists.
“A balance of gender, inclusion of BIPOC and accessibility of artists will be crucial in the selection of the inaugural 12 artists,” according to a joint press release from the organizations.
Aguirre hopes this will be a recurring residency, as part of the grant is seed money for future years.
“I am looking forward to being a piece of this journey. To work with artists to create something special for our communities,” Hernandez wrote.
SHREVEPORT, La. (KSLA) – Case Jones, Marketing Director for Shreveport Regional Arts Council, stopped by KSLA to talk about Critical Mass Eleven.
It’s an annual art critic competition that showcases the best talents in northwest Louisiana. The all-day art event will be held on May 13, from 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. It will be located on Texas Street in Shreveport.
Click here for the Facebook event.
Copyright 2023 KSLA. All rights reserved.
Author Debra Magpie Earling will read from her new novel, “The Lost Journals of Sacajewea,” at a book launch on Friday, May 19, at the Missoula Art Museum with Fact & Fiction.
Earling, a Bitterroot Salish tribal member, won an American Book Award for her 2002 novel, “Perma Red.”
Her new book will be released on May 23 by Milkweed Editions, which brought “Perma” back into print last year. She’ll sign copies after the reading and a discussion with Peter Koch, a Missoula native and master printer based in Berkeley, California.
Our favorite photos of the week from May 1 to May 7.
According to a MAM news release, “The Lost Journals” originated with a project at the museum in 2005, when they invited Indigenous artists to create work for an exhibition during the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial.
Earling wrote a poem in Sacajewea’s voice. Later, she and Koch collaborated on a limited edition art book for the text, which she’s since expanded into her new novel, which the MAM called an “unconventional and poetic voice.”
A starred review in Kirkus said, “What we discover here is a startlingly new perspective on watershed historical events, particularly as they relate to the contributions of Native Americans in both aiding and resisting Western expansion across the continent in the early 19th century.”
Among her other honors, Earling has received a National Endowment for the Arts grant and a Guggenheim Fellowship, and was the first Indigenous director of the University of Montana’s Creative Writing Program.
Details: Free. Doors at 5 p.m. Reading at 6. Music by Dylan and Joseph Running Crane. Hors d’oeuvres and a no-host bar.
#lee-rev-content { margin:0 -5px; }
#lee-rev-content h3 {
font-family: inherit!important;
font-weight: 700!important;
border-left: 8px solid var(–lee-blox-link-color);
text-indent: 7px;
font-size: 24px!important;
line-height: 24px;
}
#lee-rev-content .rc-provider {
font-family: inherit!important;
}
#lee-rev-content h4 {
line-height: 24px!important;
font-family: “serif-ds”,Times,”Times New Roman”,serif!important;
margin-top: 10px!important;
}
@media (max-width: 991px) {
#lee-rev-content h3 {
font-size: 18px!important;
line-height: 18px;
}
}
#pu-email-form-entertainment-email-article {
clear: both;
background-color: #fff;
color: #222;
background-position: bottom;
background-repeat: no-repeat;
padding: 15px 0 20px;
margin-bottom: 40px;
border-top: 4px solid rgba(0,0,0,.8);
border-bottom: 1px solid rgba(0,0,0,.2);
display: none;
}
#pu-email-form-entertainment-email-article,
#pu-email-form-entertainment-email-article p {
font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, “Segoe UI”, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, “Apple Color Emoji”, “Segoe UI Emoji”, “Segoe UI Symbol”;
}
#pu-email-form-entertainment-email-article h2 {
font-size: 24px;
margin: 15px 0 5px 0;
font-family: “serif-ds”, Times, “Times New Roman”, serif;
}
#pu-email-form-entertainment-email-article .lead {
margin-bottom: 5px;
}
#pu-email-form-entertainment-email-article .email-desc {
font-size: 16px;
line-height: 20px;
margin-bottom: 5px;
opacity: 0.7;
}
#pu-email-form-entertainment-email-article form {
padding: 10px 30px 5px 30px;
}
#pu-email-form-entertainment-email-article .disclaimer {
opacity: 0.5;
margin-bottom: 0;
line-height: 100%;
}
#pu-email-form-entertainment-email-article .disclaimer a {
color: #222;
text-decoration: underline;
}
#pu-email-form-entertainment-email-article .email-hammer {
border-bottom: 3px solid #222;
opacity: .5;
display: inline-block;
padding: 0 10px 5px 10px;
margin-bottom: -5px;
font-size: 16px;
}
@media (max-width: 991px) {
#pu-email-form-entertainment-email-article form {
padding: 10px 0 5px 0;
}
}
.grecaptcha-badge { visibility: hidden; }
It is a natural process: composting turned into art and renewable energy.
“So these are banana peels for my smoothie this morning that I broke up so that the worms would have an easier time digesting,” said Alison Coplan, senior curator at the Swiss Institute.
The “Compost Oracle” is the star attraction of a new exhibition at the Swiss Institute in the East Village.
It will power an earth battery connected to a speaker sounding prophecies. Conceived by Finnish artist Jenna Sutela, it was inspired by a popular muppet.
“Marjorie was a trash pile who was also something of a kind of fortune teller. Marjorie knew everything because she had everyone’s trash inside of her, and so she was able to make prophecies about the future,” Coplan said.
Climate change and sustainability have been major themes at the small museum since Stefanie Hessler took the helm a year ago.
“My vision for the institution was really to center one of the most urgent topics of our time within the institution, and an arts organization of our scale can be more experimental in our approach,” Hessler said.
And it is not only by showing artwork but also by doing that with the Swiss Institute is pushing a sustainability agenda, carefully measuring carbon emissions of the whole operation.
“I just analyzed all of our credit card reports and our banking statements to identify every cab ride, every every flight, every train,” said Christine Egaña Navin, the institute’s director of sustainability.
The museum is also a space for other contemporary artists.
“I think the biggest thing here is discovery,” notes Christian Kjaerulf-Praksti, director of advancement at the museum.
Like Jac Leirner, showing her “Blue Phase” sculpture, a metaphor of a high-inflation period in her native Brazil.
“When the value of the paper of the money was even higher than the value of the money itself,” Leirner said.
The Swiss Institute is an independent nonprofit organization.
Entrance to the museum is free.
Saturday, May 13, 2023 2:32PM
NEW YORK CITY (WABC) — A local artist is using his photography to tell his COVID story and capture the hardships and humor of the pandemic.
The Museum of the City of New York has opened a new exhibit reflecting on the pandemic and the ongoing challenges left in its wake.
“New York Now: Home” features photography and video works made over the past several years that capture the changes across the five boroughs during the pandemic and its aftermath.
Artists capture the experiences of New Yorkers and shed light on life in the city before, during and after the pandemic.
Neil Kramer is a photographer who captured the drastic changes we all experienced during the pandemic by documenting his personal experience in the spring of 2020.
“It was definitely an experience of love and dealing with family responsibility during a traumatic time,” Neil said.
Neil’s mom and ex-wife came to stay with him for what was supposed to be a short visit.
“Then March hits, Queens was the epicenter of the pandemic,” Neil said.
The trio hunkered down inside Neil’s two-bedroom apartment in Queens and he started taking pictures. He said it was his way of coping with the seismic shift in how we all lived.
“This was what we did to calm our nerves and to be artistic,” Neil said.
At first, the images were light in nature, but after about a year the tone was heavier as things changed in his building.
“People died on our floor we got a little lonely,” Neil said.
Some of Neil’s images tie back to real moments that he’s recreated. He’s still documenting the aftermath of the pandemic and posting it all on Instagram where to his surprise he gets messages from strangers.
“It makes me more aware for many people the pandemic is not exactly over,” Neil said.
The exhibit opens on May 11 and tickets can be purchased through the museum’s website.
ALSO READ | SNEAK PEEK: American Museum of Natural History opening state-of-the-art science center
———-
* Get Eyewitness News Delivered
* Download the abc7NY app for breaking news alerts
Submit a News Tip
Copyright © 2023 WABC-TV. All Rights Reserved.
Related Topics
We first introduced Kate Clark a when she became Seattle City Light’s Artist-in-Residence in 2021. Prior to this, Kate spent 10 years working on collaborative and community-based projects. While that work was on a more granular level, project by project, now Kate Clark has been charged with envisioning a master plan for how City Light administers its 1% for Art Fund dollars.
Kate’s plan will propose potential public art projects for future City Light projects, sites and initiatives to be implemented over 10 years. It will be released later this year, and with the upcoming 50th anniversary for the City’s 1% for the Arts Fund, we wanted to get to know our Artist-in-Residence better.
THE BASICS
BACKGROUND
WORK IN GENERAL
What do you like most about your role?
I get to learn a lot, visit fascinating locations and use my imagination.
What is the most rewarding part of your work at the utility?
As an artist who works at the intersections of community-engaged practice and public art, it’s incredibly rewarding to put forth proposals and suggestions that can help strengthen opportunities for artists to create public art projects that are meaningfully connected to the neighborhoods their artwork is designed for and with.
What are some trends you see happening in the art industry?
I’m most moved by a powerful trend in critiquing the historical role monuments have served in upholding white supremacist notions and creating projects that dismantle these notions and uplift lesser told stories. I admire the work of projects like Monument Lab, The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, and individual works from artists like Simone Leigh and Hank Willis Thomas.
JUST FOR FUN
What energizes you and brings you excitement?
Being with a group who are all participating in a creative process that they love — and creating a community from it. The most recent experience of this was for a book release event hosted by the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community — celebrating the incredible book Project 562: Changing the Way We See Native America by artist Matika Wilbur. This book, ten years in the making, involved Matika Wilbur photographing and interviewing members of all 562 federally recognized tribes.
What’s the best piece of advice you have received?
A quote from science-fiction author Octavia Butler: “All that you touch you change. All that you change changes you. The only lasting truth is change.” I find this quote equally comforting and terrifying.
How do you prefer to start/end your day?
I’m required to start the day with a cup of Yorkshire Gold (a habit from the influence of an English friend), and I love to end the day with a book.
What is the one item you can’t live without that needs electricity to operate?
Basic, but true: my cell phone.
What fashion trend would you bring back?
I had to look up the official name of this accessory: it’s called a ferronnière. It’s a headband that encircles the forehead and has a small jewel suspended from the center. These were popular as formal wear for women in the 15th and 19th centuries, but I’m advocating for the return of these for all genders. For context, refer to the elves in the Lord of the Rings. Seriously, everyone looks good in these things. Please imagine anyone you know with a head necklace — and tell me if I’m wrong.
What would we most likely find you doing on the weekend?
Weekends are my times to cook or bake something elaborate and to take a sauna.
For fans of classic and international cinema, The Main Cinema in Minneapolis is hosting a bonanza this weekend in the form of a festival called Il Cinema Ritrovato On Tour.
The festival is dedicated to the history of cinema and features a wide range of films, including classics, retrospectives and newly restored movies. It will feature 11 films.
Minneapolis and St. Paul’s sprawling Great Northern Festival has announced a new executive director beginning Monday. Jovan C. Speller Rebollar will oversee various administrative and development tasks including finance and marketing.
Speller Rebollar was most recently a program director at the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council in St. Paul. At the Great Northern, she will work alongside Chief Programming Officer Kate Nordstrum, who continues to lead festival curation and programming.
MPR News is Member supported public media. Show your support during the Spring Member Drive, donate, and ensure access to local news and in-depth conversations for everyone.
Portrait of Jovan C. Speller Rebollar.
Courtesy of Laure Vail
Singer Lea Kalisch, who offers a modern spin on Yiddish songs, will perform Monday at Hook and Ladder in Minneapolis. Kalisch is known for performing in a shtreimel, an enormous fur hat worn by men in Hasidic Jewish communities.
“It’s become part of my brand. I don’t wear it randomly,” Kalisch told MPR News. “I wear it in pieces where I actually play a rabbi because I’m also an actor, so much of what I do is not just music, but my performances are very theatrical.”
Kalisch was born in Switzerland, raised in New York and recently relocated to Minnesota.
She will be joined by Jewbalaya, a band that fuses European Jewish music with traditional New Orleans jazz.
Composer Carlos Simon listens to “brea(dth)”.
Courtesy of Greg Helgeson
The Minnesota Orchestra will premiere “brea(d)th” May 18-20, a program commissioned to “honor the ongoing struggle for racial justice in Minnesota and beyond.” The piece is by Grammy-nominated composer Carlos Simon and librettist Marc Bamuthi Joseph and will be conducted by Jonathan Taylor Rush, featuring 150 choral singers.
The program will also include works by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Wynton Marsalis. The May 19 performance will be broadcast live and streamed live on the Minnesota Orchestra website.
The Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts in Minneapolis has announced its 2022-23 season.
Ten productions will feature a number of Minneapolis dance organizations. In February, The Zorongo Flamenco Dance Theatre will perform “The Conference of the Birds,” inspired by a 12th-century Persian poem. Crash Dance Productions, a contemporary dance company, will perform in March.
The Cowles Center season will also include ARENA DANCES, BRKFST Dance Company, the James Sewell Ballet and Ragamala Dance Company.
This weekend, more than 100 Minneapolis buildings will open their doors to visitors.
It’s called Doors Open Minneapolis, and it offers behind-the-scenes looks at a variety of venues, including theaters, sacred spaces, private clubs and sports complexes. Caretakers will be available to answer questions and share stories.
The event is free. Registration and a list of venues can be found at the Doors Open Minneapolis website.
Artist and ocean advocate Courtney Mattison wants to bring the beauty of the sea above the surface. Her new show features more than 700 handcrafted ceramic sea creatures. Some are bleach white, showing the effects of a threatened environment.
“I think if people understand that it’s coral and that there’s a change happening, that might spark a sense of curiosity to make viewers want to learn more about what’s happening to coral reefs and how threatened they are from climate change,” she told MPR News.
The show runs through Sept. 3 at the Minnesota Marine Art Museum in Winona.
“Our Changing Seas III,” the 12 foot by nine foot ceramic coral reef by Courtney Mattison, is up at the Minnesota Marine Art Museum in Winona.
Courtesy of Arthur Evans | Tang Museum
Interact Gallery in St. Paul, an organization for artists with disabilities, will debut “Glaze Haze,” an exhibition that features sculptures, planters and masks by 26 artists. The exhibition opens on May 13 with a reception and zine release. The Interact Gallery is open by appointment.
Minneapolis’s HUGE Improv Theater will be moving from Lyndale and Lake Street to a larger space at 2728 Lyndale Avenue. The new venue will provide more space for the theater and include a larger stage. The Twin Cities Improv Festival in late June will be the last event in the old space.
St. Paul’s Landmark Center has opened “Drawn To Saint Paul,” a collection of over 40 illustrations by J. Kevin Byrne, emeritus professor at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Byrne spent 25 years sketching St. Paul. The exhibition will run through May 28.
A wall of masks by various artists, 2022-23, on display at the Interact Gallery in St. Paul
Courtesy of Interact Center
The MPR News arts team offers suggestions for the best in avant-garde, experimental and off-the-beaten-path arts and culture.
Located in the Twin Cities and need stilt-walking lessons? Group art therapy? An editor for your erotica? A bespoke gif? There’s a directory for that.
Minneapolis artist India Johnson recently published the Twin Cities Writer and Artist Services Directory through her Late Night Copies Press (just a few photocopiers in her living room, she says).
The $3 directory zine is designed to demystify how regular folks can hire artists and creatives for services and projects.
The directory, which features 50 artists, writers and creatives, is what Johnson calls a “proof of concept.” She says artists should reach out to join and she’d eventually like to turn it into a website.
“There is an artist who will write you a song for a party or special occasion, including a retirement party, birthday, anniversary, memorial service, church service, Solstice party, Halloween party, Canada Day or Arbor Day,” Johnson told MPR News, laughing.
More practical services listed include “Get to Know your Sewing Machine” and “Dyke Does Handy Work.”
The directory is also a sort of mini-manifesto, opening with a list of “foundational assumptions” including:
A career in the arts involves work that is creatively and/or professionally important, but unpaid/underpaid.
Access to basic income for artists is one way to increase equity in the art world.
Hiring artists is directly more affordable for individuals than relying on an intermediary (org, nonprofit, art fair, etc.)
When artists organize, we improve the conditions of creative labor.
Johnson explains that too often, artists have to pay to get their work seen.
“The arts are a really inequitable industry to work in, and a lot of that is because rather than paying artists, we expect artists to pay to compete in opportunities to have their work in art exhibitions, in galleries and museums; We expect artists to pay tabling fees — there’s just like an endless amount of fees and applications that kind of come with trying to bring your art to an audience,” Johnson said.
The directory is one way to try and “just imagine how could the art world function differently so that it could be a more equitable place and that you could earn a living there rather than having to already have financial resources and security in order to participate.”
Late Night Copies Press will host a launch party from 2 to 6 p.m. Sunday at La Doña Cervecería in Minneapolis. Johnson says there will be artist popup shops and demonstrations, including one artist who is bringing a sink and showing how to unclog it.
Find the directory online and at these locations:
