Established in 2018, the biannual Bennett Prize fosters the artistic careers of women figurative artists by providing winners $50,000 and the opportunity to create, over the next two years, a solo exhibition, which afterward tours. The prize is intended as both recognition and empowerment; a carving out of space, in other words, ordinarily taken up by men.

After an open call, four jurors selected 10 finalists: the best of the best. Although all represent points on the spectrum of figurative realism, those points lie some distance from each other; on one end are Ruth Dealy’s semi-abstract figures, and on the other Ronna Harris’ contemporary channeling of the old masters.

On May 18, Shiqing Deng was announced as this year’s winner. Deng’s paintings demonstrate both technical mastery and a controlled but questing imagination. They imply secrets, obscure narratives; dreamy, they might, if pushed, tilt into the nightmarish. In addition, the Dr. Elaine Melotti Schmidt Prize for Achievement in Figurative Realism, a related prize, was given for the first time. The $10,000 prize was awarded to Ruth Dealy.

The finalists’ work can be seen at the Muskegon Museum of Art. Rising Voices 3: The Bennet Prize runs there through September 10th. In addition to the artists mentioned above, the work on displays includes striking pieces by Haley Hasler, Laura Karetsky, and Kyla Zoe Rafert, among others. 

Also running through September 10 is The Lessons I Leave You: Paintings by Ayana Ross. Ross, the 2021 Bennett Prize winner, depicts scenes we might have seen outside our own windows or inside our own houses: a woman (a mother, we assume) speaks earnestly with a boy; a white-bearded man is teaching a boy how to golf. Through judicious use of light and color, Ross grants them a retrospective quality; they’re everyday moments as seen in memory, when we finally understand how important they were. It’s remarkable work.

Kristina Broughton, Muskegon Museum of Art’s marketing director, said that the prize allowed Ross to quit her job. “Before that, painting was her side hobby. She’s said that the prize was absolutely life-changing.”

Running through August 27 is another exhibition devoted to realism, although not exclusively of the figurative variety, is American Realism: Visions of America, 1900-1950. It’s a collaboration between four museums: the Detroit Institute of Art, the Flint Institute of Art, the Kalamazoo Institute of Art, and the Muskegon Museum of  Art.

“It’s about America defining itself,” Broughton said. “About it shaking free of the influence of western European art. Or of keeping those influences, in some cases, but with homegrown subjects.”

The exhibition consists of paintings, drawings, and prints, and includes the work of major artists, among them Edward Hopper, Alexander Calder, George Bellows, and others.

Broughton urges people to come see the work in person. “It’s a different experience in person. It’s not until you get in front of it that you can see the fine details, the brushstrokes. Or scale: something that might look small on your screen might be enormous in person.” 

In the end, she concluded, it’s about intimacy. In person, nothing stands between you and a painting’s secrets. 

Muskegon Museum of Art 

296 W. Webster Ave., Muskegon 

muskegonartmuseum.org

The Bennett Prize: Rising Voices,
Through Sept. 10

The Lessons I Leave You,
Through Sept. 10

American Realism: Visions of America, Through Aug. 27

People can get a booklet at the PMA, fill it all out, and receive a free one-year family membership to the museum once they check-in at all five locations.

A saltwater food chain, a collection of vegetables, and an acorn maturing through its development stages are just a few of Helsinki-based Salakauppa’s custom nesting dolls. The brainchild of Aamu Song and Johan Olin, Salakauppa—sala means “secret” and kauppa means “shop” in Finnish—was founded a little over 15 years ago to showcase the duo’s contemporary take on traditional matryoshkas. Using linden wood, which is soft and easily worked, each doll is designed by Song, then produced by expert craftspeople in Semenov, Russia, who meticulously turn the pieces on a lathe.

The decorative toys date back to the late 19th century when the first set was conceived by folk artist Sergey Malyutin with the assistance of a wood carver named Vasily Zvyozdochkin. The basic design consists of a set of pieces that decrease in size, fitting into one another, and traditionally depict a mother doll whose children, including a baby, fit inside. Song and Olin playfully reimagine the possibilities of matryoshka sets by portraying a diverse range of families, flora, and fauna, emphasizing the joy of discovery as each set is opened to reveal its inner dwellers.

Located for more than a decade in a kiosk in central Helsinki, Salakauppa just relocated to a new storefront, which they describe as a “home and temple” for their ongoing Secrets series. You can find more on the shop’s website. (via Present & Correct)

“Green Vegetables (cabbage, broccoli, artichoke, asparagus, cucumber, and green peas)” (2023), linden, paint, and lacquer, 120 x 180 millimeters

Salakauppa display. Photo by Paavo Lehtonen

“Sea Matryoshka (A whale eats a seal that eats a penguin that eats a fish that eats a calamari that eats a sea cucumber, and finally, there’s a plankton),” (2013), linden, paint, and lacquer, 250 x 120 millimeters

Onion matryoshka display in Salakauppa. Photo by Paavo Lehtonen

“Kärpässieni (A set of four nesting Fly Agaric mushrooms),” (2015), linden, paint, and lacquer, 140 x 160 millimeters

“Oaknut Matryoshka (Tiny green oak nuts become big brown ones, then squirrel is happy)” (2013), linden, paint, and lacquer, 120 x 100 millimeters

“Sauna Family (A peaceful löyly moment in the hot sauna),” (2022), linden, paint, and lacquer, 120 x 245 millimeters

“Apple Matryoshka (As apple flower falls like white rain in the late summer, tiny apple start to grow),” linden, paint, and lacquer, 120 x 110 millimeters

“Trees Lehmusto (Linden forest),” (2017), linden, paint, and lacquer, 260 x 150 millimeters

Aamu Song and Johan Olin in Sarakauppa. Photo by Paavo Lehtonen 

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article Delightful Wooden Nesting Dolls by Salakauppa Playfully Reimagine Traditional Designs appeared first on Colossal.

For one performing-arts group, the pandemic rebound depends on making a night at the movies a can’t-miss experience. For two others, the answer lies in partnerships to share space or book acts together. A fourth organization, meanwhile, is going for broke on digital productions.

Performing-arts organizations are facing arguably the toughest road to recovery after the pandemic. They suffered dearly — doors shuttered, revenue models broke, and a base of donors and patrons already declining and aging eroded even further. The Oregon Shakespeare Theater, one of the oldest and largest nonprofit regional companies, doesn’t have the money to finish its season. Long-standing theaters in Atlanta; Greensboro, N.C.; and San Diego are closing.

The industry’s being challenged as never before, say insiders. “As emergency government funds have ceased and ticket buyers are nowhere near pre-pandemic levels, many theaters are struggling to survive,” says Vicki Reiss, executive director of the Shubert Foundation, which awarded a record $37.6 million in general-operating support to 609 nonprofit performing-arts organizations in 2022.

What’s the answer? Here are new strategies that groups are trying.

Charcuterie Boards and Connection

The 47-year-old Myrna Loy Center is one of the most vibrant small performance venues in the West, luring even international acts to its fortress-like building, formerly a county jail, in Helena, Mont., population 33,000. It also runs a strong arts-education program. Its motto, in keeping with the repurposing of the jail: “Art transforms everything.”

The group, however, was born as a film society. (It’s named after the 1930s and ‘40s film star and Montana native who made her stage debut at 13 in Helena.) The organization hopes its two-screen cinema can help it escape the gravitational pull of the Covid crisis. During the pandemic, the center offered deeply discounted theater rentals and private showings for Covid “pods” — families or small groups who limited their interactions with others. It’s continuing to promote those events and enhance the movie-going experience.

The Myrna Loy now offers charcuterie plates and other snacks in addition to the “the best popcorn” in town. It’s also promoting happy hours at its pub as an after-work watering hole and a pre-show rendezvous point. Next up: a capital campaign to replace the 40-year-old seats with cushier ones.

The center’s main rival is an 11-screen Cinemark megaplex — daunting competition in the battle to coax cinema lovers from the home comfort of Netflix and other streamers. The Myrna Loy, however, believes it can provide more fun and energy than a corporate behemoth. “We’re the David in the Goliath story,” says executive director Krys Holmes.

The organization is also looking to expand work outside its walls. With a National Endowment for the Arts “creative placemaking” grant and other funding, the group commissioned and installed 24 pieces of public art and two iconic murals to invigorate the bleak streetscape of its home in East Helena; created a 30-minute documentary about the area; and held street parties celebrating the neighborhood. One of the coolest projects, according to Holmes: Dumpster Art Day, when five artists turned dumpsters into artworks.

This outreach has deepened the Myrna Loy’s connection to its neighborhood and the city, she adds. Its donor base is up, defying a national slide in the number of donors giving to nonprofits.

Beating High Rents

A room in the bowels of a commercial building in New York’s Meatpacking District offers hope for the city’s battered independent theater community. At the end of a long, winding basement hallway, a bright yellow door opens to a 1,500-square-foot rehearsal studio equipped with sprung floors for dancers, sound equipment, and even a cozy kitchen. Cost to rent in the pricey neighborhood: $10 an hour or less.

The West Village Rehearsal Co-Op opened in January as a sanctuary from New York’s runaway real-estate costs, and it’s on its way to serving 1,500 or more artists by the year’s end. When the neighborhood’s community board decided to set aside space for the arts in a new development, four independent theater organizations considered vying for the opportunity, then opted for a joint venture.

Coming out of the pandemic, “the only way forward for all of us is to work in collaboration and partnership,” says Randi Berry, founder of IndieSpace, one of the four groups and a backbone nonprofit for independent theater in New York.

Each of the other three organizations — Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, HERE Arts Center, and New Ohio Theatre — use the studio for two months out of the year. IndieSpace books the space at other times. Collectively, they pay for upkeep, management, and the ridiculously low $1 annual cost of the 99-year lease.

The always-tough New York real-estate market grew even worse for small theaters during the pandemic, says Berry, who previously worked in commercial real estate handling billions in deals. With their doors closed for more than a year, some groups lost their leases. Others had to find new venues when Covid-related restrictions required HVAC upgrades that landlords wouldn’t take on.

“A lot of our venues are in basements,” Berry says. “There is no outside air intake.”

The co-op rehearsal space, she adds, could be introduced across New York. “We really see this as a template. It’s the first step in something we need to see in every neighborhood.”

My Competition Is My Ally

As the worst of the pandemic lifted and Boston’s Theater District reopened, the Boch Center emerged in a strong position. It had applied $10 million in federal relief to clear its debt, and philanthropy had stepped up to pay for extensive renovations of its famed venues — the Wang and Shubert theaters. Audiences packed its first performances, which featured hard-to-get acts booked in part because of the center’s work to open a Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fame in 2019.

Corwin Wickersham

Boch CEO Joe Spaulding, a 50-year veteran of the music and performing-arts industries, knows this run of good fortune might expire without warning. To bolster Boch’s position, it has joined the Theater Alliance, a new collaboration of 39 theaters and performing-arts venues in 18 markets. Members include nonprofit peers such as the Tulsa Performing Arts Center and the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust but also for-profit giants like Radio City Music Hall and the Grand Old Opry. Some might consider this an unholy alliance, but Spaulding sees new revenue and savings potential through collaborative efforts for sales, marketing, sponsorships, and more.

“We’re going to book together. We’re going to buy together. We’re going to sell together. And we’re going to brand together,” he says.

The Oak View Group, an investment and advisory company for the sports and live-entertainment industries, launched the Theater Alliance in January. Oak View runs a similar collaboration in which stadiums and arenas jointly book acts and buy everything from advertising to snacks. The new venture will also spearhead collective fundraising through memorabilia auctions and an annual gala.

The pandemic crisis spurred an earlier first-of-its-kind partnership. Independent performing-arts groups, festivals, and promoters — both for-profit and nonprofit — created the National Independent Venue Association to lobby and win from Congress $16 billion in relief aid. The group’s membership tops 1,000, numbers that Spaulding says provide the industry new strength.

“I’ve always said I believe in partnerships and collaboration,” he says. Earlier in his career, arts leaders often said they would rather drown than partner with others or merge. “And by the way, they’ve mostly gone under. I’ve been living the other way.”

Selling Art by the Pixel

In the first days of the pandemic, even as it hurried to close operations, plug a budget shortfall, and safeguard the health and finances of its staff and artists, the Dallas Black Dance Theater saw an opportunity. Some 20 years earlier, the organization had explored offering dance education and performances digitally, only to conclude that the future would have to wait for, among other things, the arrival of a faster and stronger internet than broadband provided.

When lockdowns pushed much of life in America online, the group dusted off those ambitions. By summer, it was selling tickets to a robust virtual season. Dancers took to iconic and unusual outside spaces for filming — the plaza in front of city hall, a lakeside dock, a high-rise rooftop.

By year’s end, the programming had netted $100,000 — enough to persuade the group to continue virtual work. “We didn’t even think about going back,” says executive director Zenetta Drew.

Today, Dallas Black Dance Theater offers conservatory-level dance classes online, a schedule of virtual performances, and an on-demand streaming platform. Perhaps best of all for its bottom line: It has contracts with four school districts, including the 150,000-student Dallas school system, to deliver virtual performances.

Digital work now makes up a quarter of the group’s $3.8 million budget and is helping engage new audiences, including digital-first young people and older patrons who may shy away from close spaces in the post-pandemic era. Sixty percent of its virtual audiences come from outside Texas, including patrons from 34 countries and 38 states.

Arts leaders often say that streaming and virtual performances can’t be monetized and depress in-person audience numbers. But attendance is strong at Dallas Black Dance Theater, with visitors to Dallas showing up in bigger numbers than previously. When rural Texans have seen a virtual performance, they often come to a live performance when they visit the city. “That’s how come this weekend we were sold out, and 40 percent of the people who showed up had never ever seen us,” Drew says gleefully.

BOISE — The Idaho Commission on the Arts released its second annual round of grant winners in June for Gov. Brad Little’s Expanding Arts Access in Rural Public Schools program.

These rural arts grants will fund up to $15,000 for 72 rural schools to improve student arts programs (with only two schools to receive less than $9,000).

Teachers say that this funding is essential for the lifeblood of arts departments to take root in sparsely populated areas. They also celebrate the award’s specificity.

“It was a surprise to everybody,” Nezperce music teacher Joe Campbell told Ed News. “Here’s this pot of money, and it can only be used for arts, and it can only be used in rural schools, which is really kind of nice.”

Educators in schools with fewer than 20 enrolled students per square mile or school districts within counties of less than 25,000 residents can apply for up to $15,000 in state money (as defined by Idaho Code). Though the program comes from the governor’s office, Idaho’s State Department of Education supports rural arts grants as a gateway to student success.

“Rural communities should have an equal chance at enjoying both the potential educational, economic and community-building benefits that the arts can offer,” said the SDE’s Maggie Reynolds.

Award money pays for materials for educators to boost creative options and extend opportunities for students in sparsely populated areas. Injecting money into arts, according to award recipients, not only helps an artistic curriculum, but cultivates important soft, interdisciplinary practices like critical thinking in addition to hard, relevant professional skills.

“That’s a big plus of this program: it fits with what people are going to do in their lives,” Campbell said. “When you start looking at all these jobs that are out there for people who can produce music — doing sound and voiceover and all this stuff that you learn — all of a sudden, there’s a lot of career paths.”

Rocking out transferable skills in Nezperce

This is the second year that Campbell has received the rural arts grant for Nezperce’s required “modern band” course of study. Modern band is a focus on producing modern music as opposed to traditional band standards. Campbell indicated that this musical modernity was necessary to resuscitate a once celebrated musical tradition in the 180-student Nezperce Joint District.

Photo courtesy of Nezperce School District
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Nezperce music students perform in a coffee shop.

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“To have a successful band, just to cover all the parts, you really need 50 to 60 kids in a traditional band. We don’t have that many kids in our high school to begin with,” Campbell said.

Nezperce has a tradition stemming back to the 1950s when “hall of fame” music educators would flock to be a part of the reservation town’s music program, according to Campbell. When that momentum slowed, though, the road back was rocky.

“The kids weren’t buying into the program. We lost that tradition. If you lose the tradition, it’s really hard to get it back,” Campbell said.

While music was still a compulsory course for K-8 students, Campbell was “burning out” trying to propel the program forward. Instead of quitting, however, Campbell got creative.

Serendipity and research led him to the “Little Kids Rock” (now “Music Will”), a nonprofit organization that offered a student-driven curricular framework. Students play, perform, improvise and compose self-selected songs from modern rock, pop, Latin, rap, R & B, and other emerging styles.

Even though the program was only offered in large, metropolitan areas like Chicago, Dallas, Miami, and Los Angeles in the early 2010s, Campbell talked officials into piloting the program in tiny Nezperce.

The program has since flourished inside and outside of the classroom. Instead of trumpets and oboes, Nezperce students play the guitar, keyboard, and drums while a singer belts out tunes by Billy Eilish while shaking the tambourines.

Among the program’s previous grants was money to build a recording studio, which has allowed kids to break into the recording side of music. One graduated senior even recorded their own album while another incoming senior plans to do the same.

From Nezperce’s standing as the first Music Will modern band program in the Northwest, Caldwell has helped spread the program throughout Idaho and across the region. In American Falls, Bishop Kelly, Moscow, and West Ada, the Idaho Music Education Association has helped to match teachers to mentors like Campbell to give students the opportunity to rock.

A $14,536 rural arts grant will build upon this foundation and extend Nezperce’s arts reach.

The 2022 and 2023 awards help to upgrade the district’s 1960s-era performance stage. From sound system to lighting, this six-decade old setup needed revision. Not only will this new setup improve the technical quality of music productions, but it will aim to resurrect Nezperce’s moribund drama program.

While drama is not yet an option, a district math teacher has teamed up with Campbell to spearhead this effort to stretch the school’s stage offerings.

Diverse artistry in Garden Valley

In Garden Valley, a similar arts program has sprouted aspirations to grow further creative branches, fed now by its first $15,000 rural arts grant.

Like many small school teachers, Michelle Ogle’s efforts stretch to the corners of the 286-student district. The art teacher, cross country coach, extracurricular mentor, and soon-to-be vice principal ripples arts projects throughout the K-12 school. For Ogle, art is like that great teammate, the glue guy, that can be thrown into any lineup to hold things together.

“It’s the great bridge builder. It’s so interdisciplinary by nature that I could make connections with any single one of my peer teachers and support what they’re doing,” Ogle said.

Ogle, for example, worked closely with Garden Valley kindergarten and first grade teachers to incorporate early language building and early literacy over the last two years. She used online books for students to launch art projects that made connections with characters and context, plot and purpose.

Photo courtesy of Garden Valley Schools.
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Garden Valley elementary students work on watercolor paintings.

” data-medium-file=”https://www.idahoednews.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/ElemWatercolor-412×620.jpg” data-large-file=”https://www.idahoednews.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/ElemWatercolor-784×1180.jpg” decoding=”async” loading=”lazy” class=” wp-image-81590″ src=”https://www.idahoednews.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/ElemWatercolor-412×620.jpg” alt=”Garden Valley elementary students work on watercolor paintings.” width=”284″ height=”427″ srcset=”https://www.idahoednews.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/ElemWatercolor-412×620.jpg 412w, https://www.idahoednews.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/ElemWatercolor-784×1180.jpg 784w, https://www.idahoednews.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/ElemWatercolor-133×200.jpg 133w, https://www.idahoednews.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/ElemWatercolor-1020×1536.jpg 1020w, https://www.idahoednews.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/ElemWatercolor.jpg 1228w” sizes=”(max-width: 284px) 100vw, 284px”>

Ogle’s core arts classes already radiate across the creative spectrum with offshoots in extracurricular activities and in summer camps — landscape and plein air painting, fiber arts, and bookmaking, to name a few.

Garden Valley’s $15,000 rural arts award will go towards expanding students’ inventive expression. This includes damp boxes and other materials to broaden ceramics projects, a new printmaking station, leather and bead work, calligraphy instruments, and ceramics materials that help her students experiment in a variety of artistic pursuits that highlight traditional forms with roots in the region.

“My hope is that we can just keep building on the program and offering more because a lot of these kids’ worlds are fairly insulated because they live in such a small place,” Ogle said. “My goal is to broaden their world, to make it better by showing them what’s out there.”

Exposing kids to this variety, however, has a purpose beyond simple experimentation.

“When they get to high school, they’re managing their own gallery,” Ogle said. “They photograph their own artwork, they write artist statements, and those artist statements are where they’re making connections with how their own ideas are being used.”

Utilizing the online Artsonia gallery, this portfolio begins in elementary school, offering students a potential ten years of developing skills and speaking with an expressive tongue.

“Art is a universal language. It has a magical quality to it,” Garden Valley art teacher Michelle Ogle said. “So many of the skills that I teach, anybody can learn them. And it’s so fluid like you can adapt it so easily for anybody.”

For Ogle, this adaptation translates to an at once larger and smaller role in Garden Valley’s arts program.

Next year, another teacher will take over her elementary school arts classes, so she has time to teach while serving as vice principal. This is, in part, to move aside for another educator to found a graphic design CTE program, another arts-based subject that will aspire to boost student success after high school.

A thriving arts industry that reaches rural places

Even though its ends are creation, arts’ means develop interdisciplinary skills — abstract visualization, problem solving, collaboration, marketing, management, and more — can apply to a multitude of subjects and subsequent careers (per the University of Michigan). After COVID-related decreases, economic activity in arts and cultural activity amounted to $1.02 trillion in the United States, good for 4.5% of the country’s GDP in 2021 (according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis).

The source of this industry remains the schools that provides arts to students.

“Creating an arts industry in any area relies on art education, and this grant makes this important first step possible for our rural Idaho communities,” SDE said.

ESPN returns its Fantasy Football campaign ahead of the 2023 NFL season with new creative dedicated to the mantra, Only in Fantasy. Only on ESPN. The campaign – which runs July 17 to September 10 on ESPN platforms – features three new spots: Delivery, Commish, and Steve.

“ESPN Fantasy Football creates connections and builds communities. In this campaign, we remind fans to continue playing ESPN Fantasy Football because it is the ultimate equalizer between people, and can help get you out of awkward situations,” said Seth Ader, Vice President, Brand Marketing, ESPN. “We’re excited to launch the campaign and get our millions of players ready for the upcoming season.”

Delivery: Saying “you, too” to delivery drivers or movie theater ushers when being told to “enjoy the meal” or “enjoy the show” can create some pretty awkward moments. Quick, think! How do you recover from this awkward exchange? In this spot, the woman receiving her food order recovers from saying “you, too” to the delivery man with a simple gesture, “don’t forget to set your lineup tonight.” Awkward moment…gone!

Commish: First impressions can be challenging, especially in front of a significant other’s father. Need a connection or way to break the ice? Look no further than Fantasy Football. In this spot, a 14-team league commissioner is the way into making that good first impression!

Steve: Ever have a chatty ride-sharing driver? Struggling to relate, even when the driver and passenger are both named Steve, lineup decisions are the way to go. Steve (the passenger), consults Steve (the driver) in liking “Jefferson this week.” Finally both on the same page, it sounds like Jefferson will be the play for a PPR league.

To sign-up for ESPN Fantasy Football, join here.

Credits
Client: ESPN
Tina Thornton – EVP, Creative Studio and Marketing
Seth Ader – VP, Brand Marketing
Alex Healy-Lucciola – Sr. Director, Brand Marketing
John Lobo – Associate Director, Brand Marketing
Jon Little – Associate Producer II
Lenny Washington – Coordinator, Brand Marketing 

Agency:
Sinan Dagli – Executive Creative Director
Robyn Tenenbaum – Creative Director
Lauren Byers  – Senior Art Director
Justin Cannon – Senior Copywriter
Cade Wallace – Senior Producer
Jake Bayham – Head of Strategy
Kyle Rodriguez – Account Director
Gustavo Feria – Account Supervisor

Production:
ArtClass – Production Company
Vincent Peone – Director
Aiden Samford-Ulrich – Director of Photography
Geno Imbriale -Managing Partner
Rebeca Niles – Managing Director / EP
Eric McCasline – Executive Producer
Sparkle Jones – Head of Production
Kat Garelli – Production Manager, ArtClass
Terry Gallagher – Line Producer
Abby Jones – Production Manager
MackCut – Editorial / Finish
Brendan Hogan – Lead Editor
Ellen Schoenfeld – Assistant Editor
Nick Quiles – Animator
Jim Hayhow – Flame Artist
Steve Picano – Color Artist
Gina Pagano – Executive Producer
Alex Pinkett – Producer
Th3rd Sound – Sound Design / Mix
Chip Sloan – Sound Designer / Mixer

Scientists believe that less than .04 percent (check out that decimal point!) of the world’s fungi has been documented, which adds up to only a little over 120,000 species out of a conservatively estimated 3.2 million worldwide. Mycologists Danny Newman and Roo Vandegrift have spent the last 12 years focusing on locations impacted by the climate crisis and increasing human interference, like Ecuador’s Reserva Los Cedros. Their stunning photographs (previously) capture the vibrant hues, delicate gills, and thin stems of a vast range of fungi in the mountainous cloud forest.

In 2018, the Ecuadorian government declared the Los Cedros reserve—one of the last unlogged watersheds on the western slope of the Andes—open for mining, putting countless flora and fauna at risk. “In a stunning legal upset, the mining concessions which threatened to turn Los Cedros into a toxic, barren wasteland were rescinded by the Ecuadorian supreme court, who specifically cited…our fungal diversity research in their ruling,” Newman says.

Spanning six expeditions, the duo recently published an in-depth survey of their findings, cataloguing a wealth of previously unknown species and providing what Newman calls “one of the most comprehensive contributions to Ecuadorian mycology in the country’s history.” Vandegrift is also the producer of a visually stunning upcoming documentary titled Marrow of the Mountain, filmed during an expedition in 2018 and 2019. 

Explore more images and descriptions on Mushroom Observer and both Newman and Vandegrift’s Instagrams.

Aurapex penicilliata

Favolaschia

Mycenaceae

Fibulostilbum phylaciicola

Agaricales

Ceriporia

Trichopeziza

Physalacriaceae

Physalacriaceae

Longisetae

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article In an Ecuadorian Cloud Forest, Two Mycologists Catalogue Hundreds of Fantastical Fungi appeared first on Colossal.