Video Vortex Reader II :: Call for Contributions — DEADLINE: May 10, 2010.

In response to the increasing potential for video as a significant form of personal media on the Internet, the Video Vortex program examines key issues that are emerging around the independent production and distribution of online video content. With the rise of YouTube and alternative platforms, the moving image on the Internet has become expansively more prominent and popular. As a wide range of technologies is now broadly available, the potential of video as a personal means of expression has reached a totally new dimension.

Following the success of the first Video Vortex reader (published late 2008, second edition, 4000 copies in total), recent Video Vortex conferences in Ankara (Oct. 2008), Split (May 2009) and Brussels (Nov. 2009) have sparked a number of new insights, debates and conversations regarding the politics, aesthetics, and artistic possibilities of online video. Since these issues develop with the rapidly changing landscape of online video and its use, we want to open up a space once again for interested people to contribute to this critical conversation in a second issue of the Video Vortex reader.

POSSIBLE TOPICS

Taking its lead from the first Video Vortex reader, and based on the issues raised at the latest three Video Vortex conferences as well as recent developments, possible topics include:

• Theories of online video and Web cinema
• Politics of online video
• YouTube and the state of contemporary visual culture
• Database aesthetics
• Video art meets web aesthetics
• Autonomous participatory culture for art and activism
• Artist engagement with ‘user-generated-content’ sites: content and architecture
• Changing modes of video distribution and what this means for artists and activists
• Open-source and open-content initiatives
• Alternatives to proprietary standards
• Censorship and YouTube
• The ethics and politics of indigenous knowledge and online video
• The use of online video within government practices (election campaigning, censorship etc.)
• Democracy, citizen journalism and online video
• Social Cinema
• Educational practices and online video in the classroom
• New and changing economic models
• Google, YouTube and the economics of online video
• Commercial objectives imposed by mass media on user-generated and video-sharing databases
• Effect of ubiquitous online video practice on cinema, television and video art.

WE INVITE

Internet, visual culture and media scholars, researchers, artists, curators, producers, lawyers, engineers, open-source and open-content advocates, activists, Video Vortex conference participants, and others to submit materials and proposals.

FORMATS

We welcome interviews, dialogues, essays and articles, images (b/w), email exchanges, manifestos, with a max of 8,000 words. For scope and style, take a look at the previous INC readers (Video Vortex Reader, Urban Screens, Incommunicado Reader, MyCreativity Reader) and the style guide here.

This publication is produced by the Institute of Network Cultures in Amsterdam and will be launched early 2011.

DEADLINE: May 10, 2010

SEND CONTRIBUTIONS TO: rachel(at)networkcultures(dot)org

ABOUT THE READER SERIES

The INC reader series are derived from conference contributions and produced by the Institute of Network Cultures in Amsterdam. They are available (for free) in print and pdf form here.

e-flux journal Issue #14
 March 2010: Education Actualized, guest-edited by Irit Rogoff :: Lecture: Participation - A User’s Guide by Irit Rogoff :: March 8, 2010; 6:30 pm :: Cooper Union, 41 Cooper Square, NYC.

All around us we see a search for other languages and other modalities of knowledge production, a pursuit of other modes of entering the problematics of “education” that defy, in voice and in practice, the limitations being set up by the forces of bureaucratic pragmatism: a decade of increasing control and regulation, of market values imposed on an essential public right, and of middle-brow positivism privileged over any form of criticality — matched by a decade of unprecedented self-organization, of exceptionally creative modes of dissent, of criticality, and of individual ambitions that are challenging people to experiment with how they inhabit the field, how they inhabit knowledge.

Our notion of “Education Actualized” lies in the tension between these antagonistic spheres. If we think of actualization as the incarnation of an idea of “an education” within one particular educational system, we arrive at the duality we inhabit and work with. This issue is teeming with voices — angry and bewildered, critical and speculative, voices of ideas put to the test, producing fictions of impossible encounters — all efforts to grasp and locate, to actualize and inhabit this ongoing process in which we are all immersed.

You will see that almost every one of the contributions here reflects an unease and a recognition of the dangers and limitations wrought by attempts to regulate and homogenize a vast range of education cultures. The marketing of education, which began in the U.S. and followed in Britain, has now taken hold on the European continent. The dangers inherent in education becoming a market economy geared towards profit and revenue, privileging a reductive notion of “outcomes,” “transferable knowledges,” and “entrepreneurship” are clear to all. But the emerging dominance of cognitive capitalism over European education systems and their inscription into capital economies of debt and credit, of self-support, of precarities for both students and professionals, is only one side of these developments. The other is the politicization of “education” to an extent we have not seen since the late 1960s.

Not only are students — whose access and conditions have worsened considerably — being treated as paying clients with no say or part in determining their own education, they are also increasingly organized in effective and insistent ways. But many other spheres and strata of education have also been galvanized and linked up with the proliferation of self-organized structures that have emerged in the past decade of waning public-sphere culture and increasing privatization.

This issue of e-flux journal aims to bring together and extend a series of projects and interactions taking place between 2006 and the present that involved extensive investigations into “education” as a site of knowledge production, alternative modes of questioning, new vocabularies, analyses of the conditions of contemporary education, and negotiations between institutional and self-organized cultures. The voices that make up this issue have all been involved with related projects: A.C.A.D.E.M.Y was a series of exhibitions and publications (Hamburg, Antwerp, Eindhoven) that saw life over the course of 2006–2007; “Summit – Non Aligned Initiatives in Education Culture” was a large-scale meeting held at the HAU theatres in Berlin in 2007; in other formations and in other conjunctions we met and collaborated through the “Dictionary of War” project, the “Edu-factory,” border academies, nomadic universities, committee meetings, conferences, discussions, and dinners. But, rather than document or build directly upon these activities, we wanted to bring about an “actualization” of these originary events—a constant process by which concepts acquire extensions and qualities.

This does not purport to be a representation of this vast field of thought, action, and agitation — the work collected here is in dialogue with many other exponents of this field, part of a network of shared concerns and open collaborations. This might help to explain what could appear to be a fairly arbitrary conjunction of people who do not belong to any particular organization, institution, or profession. Some of us are academics, some activists, and others are artists, curators, or publishers; everyone seems to be turning their hand to forms of activity and articulation outside their typical sphere of operations. Our contact with “education” as a political platform, a polemic, and the site of much of our work seems to have stretched us in unexpected directions, as can be seen through the actual writing that has been produced for this issue.

The focal point of the issue is the specter that haunts European higher education — the Bologna Accord on education, the so-called reforms of the system across the continent of Europe that aim to standardize it with comparable entry points, degrees, outcomes, credits, funding structures, criteria of excellence, and so forth. This has undoubtedly produced a very “Eurocentric” view of the map of education, but so great is the potential upheaval of “Bologna” that we decided to focus on this part of the world, but also to place it in dialogue with colleagues and collaborators in the U.S. There is equally a decisive “geopolitical” drive to Europe’s education policy that fuses the former East and the former West into one knowledge tradition, thereby erasing decades of other models of knowledge in the East and producing an illusion of cohesion through knowledge economies and bureaucracies.

Our thanks to e-flux journal for giving us the space to elaborate the ideas included in this issue and for founding a platform hospitable to expanded discussions around creative practices. Our thanks to the Siemens Art Fund that initiated the A.C.A.D.E.M.Y project and to the Kulturstiftung des Bundes, Germany, that funded the “Summit” project, to Van Abbemuseum and MuHKA, which took part in extensive discussions and collaborated on these projects, and to the many other institutions, forums, and funders who have supported this work as it has progressed.

My thanks to Susanne Lang who took on co-editing this issue, to Ashley Whitfield who took on its production, and to the authors who rose to the challenge and explored the numerous facets of “education” as a vital, critical, and communal space. — Irit Rogoff

Upgrade! Eindhoven: Tetsu Kondo (Japan) :: March 14, 2010; 8:00 -10:30 pm (doors open 7:30) :: Temporary Art Centre, Eindhoven, The Netherlands.

The next Upgrade! Eindhoven presents Albert van Abbe and MAD Artist in Residence, Tetsu Kondo discussing Kondo’s work and vision. Kondo is an artist, musician and researcher whose work includes drawing, installations and musical instrument design. He is currently teaching at Tokyo Polytechnic University.

Kondo will also demonstrate his Dendraw, a software instrument he developed, that transforms the beauty of visual programming into live interactive sound performances. The Dendraw generates specific sine waves depending on screen position. The Dendraw concept is inspired by acoustic string instruments such as the guitar and violin. The Dendraw consists of 5-circular strings which generate tones as Kondo slides its points in the screen, sometimes creating harmonies with certain movements.

Localitzats [Located] aims to show how the emergence of technology in each of the different aspects of our daily life leads to the irreversible loss of privacy, which affects us all; a fact that we often do not seem to be sufficiently aware of.

In this case, the work focuses on the Priorat region, a territory that allows the development of the project because of its size and small number of villages and residents. Localitzats_PRIORAT displays the first and last names of more than three thousand residents of Priorat that have been located on the Network. This information was obtained through a simple search by locality carried out in one of the many telephone contact records on the Internet.

The Network and new technologies facilitate the indiscriminate emission of personal data by unsuspecting users, as well as the immediate collection of databases that report to various stakeholders.

Services as common as a simple search for phone numbers are able to locate a person on a map. A search of combined words can provide details ranging from personal identification numbers to a diverse background, which may contain a complete record of works, personal relationships, crimes and offenses…

A software as accessible as the popular Google Maps Street Viewer can allow us to gain access to the residence of a person we only know the name of.

Regardless of the nature of our relationship with the Network, it is easy to imagine that our data are there. The final use of these data depends only on the interests of those who manage them. This can range from market research to all kinds of scams and swindles, all under the watchful eye of many agencies t hat are there to ensure the ever-recurring national security.

All Art Licensing offers FREE live event: LICENSE YOUR ART-OPEN DOORS AND CLOSE DEALS on Wed, February 24th

This comprehensive presentation with live audio and downloadable presentation helps artists understand the art licensing business and identifies the points of entry.

Ever wondered how creators get their art on all those beautiful products in small boutiques and huge retail stores? Artists, Painters, Illustrators, Cartoonists, Animators & Graphic Designers — this is a fast-paced introduction to art licensing that will show you how to begin to expand your creative and income potential.

If you want to increase your income and learn more about art licensing, then this FREE live event with downloadable presentation is a great starting point.

Topics include: What exactly is licensing and how does it work – Types of licensing – What you MUST know about the retail marketplace BEFORE you start – Protecting your rights – Royalty rates – Artist requirements – Agent services – and much more!

This class will run just under 1-1/2 hours with a live Q&A at the end.

Register online below. Submit your questions for the live Q&A during the checkout process in the designated box at the bottom of the checkout page. J’net will answer as many questions as possible during this class.

Upon registration for this event, you will be sent an e-mail confirmation of your reservation. The day before the event, February 23rd, you will receive an email with the call-in number, access code and presentation handout.

Register at: www.allartlicensing.com/schedule.cfm

Here’s an email from Linda, who runs guided art classes & tours in Hawaii. The deadline is November 1st, which is next Monday, so you gotta get a jump on things!

Aloha All,

I am at Kealakekua Bay now, and today will be painting orchids, snorkeling, eating tropical fruits…life could be worse. If this sounds as nice to you as it is to me, peek at my website page:

http://vorobikbotanicalart.com/HiPaintOrchids.htm

and make sure to follow all links to see a variety of pictures, the syllabus, etc.

Deadline is 1 November (soon!) for the Feb 2010 workshop.

Flights are cheap now, so it is a good time to travel. And an OK time to leave the dreary northwest winter!
One of my participants said:

"Linda is a focused, flexible, funny and masterful teacher- The students had a broad range of skills. The venue was sublime- birds singing, gentle breezes blowing, incredible food & snorkeling a five minute walk."  -Mary Frank

Mahalo! lav

Call for Artists

Artists are invited to participate in an art liquidation sale.  Dust off unsold work and liquidate your inventory at the:

Holiday ArtStravaganza Artist Liquidation Sale

sponsored by C Art Gallery

855 Hiawatha Place South, Seattle

Sundays in December: 12/6, 12/13 and 12/20 – 10AM-6PM

All art must be priced below $500.
We strongly suggest you  have a wide selection of work under $100.

Original work only.

Artists are provided approx. 5 1/2′ wide x up to 10′ tall hanging space and 3′ of floor space to lean art in front of your wall.  Work must be labeled with price, artist and name of piece.

Submit by October 27 to c.artgallery@gmail.com:

• Artist name and bio

• Five samples of work representative of art to be featured.

• Dates of participation (be sure to review participation fees below)

• $15 non-refundable entry fee via Paypal by clicking the following link: $15 Entry Fee

(No obscene, gratuitous erotica or sexually explicit work will be accepted.)

Additional Information:

Artists will be selected as works are submitted and approved.  Selected artists will be notified by Ocotber 29 and will be requested to send a 50% non-refundable deposit due by November 4 based on the fee structure below to secure your space.

   One  Sunday         Fee:  $  80   Deposit:  $40
   Two Sundays        Fee:  $150   Deposit:  $75
   Three Sundays     Fee:  $200   Deposit:  $100        

The balance of the participation fee is due November 15.

The gallery will not receive any commission for the sale of work.

Participating artists agree to set-up between 8AM and 9:30AM and be present or have a representative present during the course of the day  through 6PM.  The artists is required to remove all work from the premises each day unless other arrangements are made.

C Art Gallery will be open 10AM-6PM each Sunday and will handle all transactions. Additional fees include service fees for sales transactions.  Artist will be responsible for paying sales tax on work sold.

Please e-mail c.artgallery@gmail.com or call 206-322-9374 for additional information.

Juliane Zelwies, Hamburger Diagram

Saturday, August 8th, the Laundromat kicks off its 2009 season with The Burger Group Show – a one-day exhibition complete with selections from The Laundromat Flat File and a menu of 'conceptual burgers.' The show features work by returning Laundromat artists, as well as newcomers who will be exhibiting their work with the space this fall.

Each participating artist has crafted a 'conceptual hamburger' that references the study of art history, or art-related concepts. The artists will be writing descriptions of their respective burgers for the menu, and cooking their creations for patrons. Founder and director of the Laundromat, Kevin Andrew Curran, sees the menu as a "tongue-in-cheek" opportunity for the artists to make commentary and fuel artistic discourse.

Curran does not intend to teach visitors a formal lesson, but he does see the potential for artists and visitors alike to indulge in "some (serious) fun with the idea of creating and consuming hamburgers that are playfully engaging art history." The show also provides an opportunity for the Laundromat to display works from the space's rotating Flat File. Artists included in the File lend their work to the Laundromat for one year, after which the drawer may be offered to another artist. In this way, Curran hopes to increase the number of artists whose work may be viewed in the flat file, while simultaneously increasing the geographic diversity of the collection.

The Burger Group Show will be held at the Laundromat gallery on Saturday, August 8th, from 6-10 PM. Participating artists include Chris Deo, Sarah McDougald Kohn, Maria Walker, Jonathan Allmaier, Scott Wilson, Ben Godward, Joe Protheroe, Ianthe Jackson and Liz Atzberger. Conceptual burgers will be on sale for $5 to $20, and visitors are invited to take home a copy of the menu.

Installation view of Tattoo at Kathleen Cullen Fine Arts. Via gallery.

Tattoo at Kathleen Cullen Fine Arts is a multimedia exploration of tattoo art and its ever-changing role in society. The exhibition includes paintings, photography, sculpture and film, as well as a few empty bottles of Jack Daniels littered about the gallery for an something like an authentic, tattoo parlor feel. We caught up with Cullen, the director of the gallery, and asked about her inspiration for the show and her take on tattoo art.-- S.K.

Stephanie Korszen for ArtCat: What was your inspiration for situating the work of tattoo artists within the context of a fine art gallery?

Kathleen Cullen: The inspiration is really the everyday. You need only sit down at a café or bar, or stand at a traffic light, to grant your eyes the opportunity to admire the body art on others' skin. Additionally, one of the artists I represent, Max Snow, served as the catalyst for this exhibition. In 2008, Max documented the stories of Latino gang members in L.A., for whom tattoo art serves an important role in self-identity. Max also wears part of his identity externally in the form of body art.

In the 1930s, Herbert Hoffmann photographed people and documented their fantastic stories before they were sent to prison by the Third Reich. He developed a great respect for these people, whom he saw as hard-working and unpretentious. Many bore the simplest of tattoos on their arms and hands – historically a sign of degeneracy. Over the years, tattoos have broken free of this inherent link to all things degenerate, to the point where they now have the potential to serve as a status symbol on par with designer handbags. Bruce Willis, on the cover of W Magazine, sports tattoos. Supermodels adorn themselves with body art. We see biker motifs, as well as Maori, Japanese, and sailor themes – rich codes to decipher on other’s bodies.

AC: You’ve discussed tattoo art as an intercession between the arenas of popular and high culture. How have you mirrored this comingling of cultures in your gallery space?

KC: We have everything from a Keith Haring poster, graffiti tattoos, tattoo-inspired furniture
and a film, Mark of Cain, by Alix Lambert. This film was part of a ten-year project during which the Lambert interviewed criminals in Russia. Lambert’s project inspired David Cronenberg to review the Russian criminal tattoo codes for the well-known movie Eastern Promises, starring Vigo Mortensen and Naomi Watts. Lambert reveals the hidden history behind Russian tattoos, as well as their complex symbolism.

Installation view of Tattoo at Kathleen Cullen Fine Arts. Via gallery.

AC: How did you conduct your research for this exhibition?

KC: We began by researching books and articles on the tattoo subculture from the 1930s
through the 1950s, and then followed the evolution of the tattoo further into the punk generation of the 1970s and 80s. Tattoos have transcended their stereotypical role as the mark of a lowlife in the first half of the twentieth century – though youthful sailors often flaunted tattoos as a rite of manhood – to arrive at a socially-accepted norm. Represented in our exhibit are biker, Maori, Japanese and sailor motifs.

Also included is Larry Clark's Tulsa tattoo. Like Danny Lyons, Clark blurred the lines between observer and participant. Lyons photographed unwanted, hated bikers. A common underlying theme for the artists represented in the exhibition is the desire to share an emotional closeness with their subjects. The resulting works are not merely documents; they are empathetic portraits.

AC: In presenting tattoo art, all of the works on display also portray the tattooed. Do you feel that the meaning of a tattoo is inherently tied to – and thus dependent upon – the individual’s identity?

KC: The meaning of a tattoo is intrinsically tied to a person's identity, because without the individual, the tattoo is rendered meaningless. If the individual was done away with, the tattoo would become an image devoid of significance.

Late flowerings – that rage against the imminent dying of the light – are not especially unusual. Titian painted into his 80s; W B Yeats, late in his 70s, wrote, in the final stanza of a late, great poem, of nymphs and satyrs boisterously copulating in the foam. John Cowper Powys wrote the finest of his novels during his 70s. Call it, if you like, a kind of manic exuberance before the shutters come down.

Who’s Eligible: Applicants can be current students, recent graduates, or established artists.
Applications for 2010 residencies are due March 31, 2010.

Come Design With Us:
ALITE Designs offers a Designer in Residency (DIR) program that allows non-designers (those who don’t yet have a design background) and designers to learn about product design and ALITE’s user-centric design process.

Because we don’t require our DIRs to have design or product design backgrounds, we will assist you in the initial stages of developing your project and becoming better acquainted with product design fundamentals. Our current DIR has a marketing background.

We’ll provide you with structure, resources and mentorship as well as studio space, a stipend, and financial support for your project. Although there is an openness to the program, we do encourage our DIRs to focus or relate their projects to our mission; getting people outside.

Stipend: $1,500—2,000/month
Duration: Residencies can range from 3 to 6 months.

Application:
To apply, MAIL your application packet to:
ALITE Designs, Inc.
Designer in Residence Program
2505 Mariposa Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

We do not accept applications electronically at this time.

Please include the following:
Background: Where are you now and why are you interested in product design?

Statement of Purpose: Explain how the residency program will influence your work, and how you can contribute to ALITE Designs.

Project Description: Describe the project or projects you would like to work on during your residency. Explain how long you believe your residency should be (3 to 6 months) and why.

Resume/C.V.: Outline past projects or accomplishments, and where possible give examples of your work.

For questions about the DIR program, please send an email to: smokey@alitedesigns.com

ALITE Designs: Located in San Francisco, ALITE Designs is a design-driven, urban-outdoor company dedicated to the idea that everyone should be playing outside together. Defined by innovation, bold colors and a sense of humor, we thrive on creating products that make it simple and fun to connect with friends and the outdoors.

To find out more about our company and become better acquainted with our products and aesthetic please visit our website: http://www.alitedesigns.com

*CAUGHT LOOKING 2010: Open call for CMU School of Art Students, Faculty and Staff.*

Now is your chance to see your video on the biggest screen in Pittsburgh in front of a public audience! CAUGHT LOOKING is the 4th iteration of new one-minute video works on the “jumbotron” screen at PNC Park. In addition to videos by CMU students faculty and staff students, faculty and staff from Pittsburgh Filmmakers will also be submit their work.

*Caught Looking 4 will be held on Wednesday, April 28th starting at 7PM at PNC Park*.
The public is welcome to this FREE event.

Participate in this unique program! Make a FAMILY-FRIENDLY (SAFE FOR WORK) one-minute video. Please avoid profanity and nudity, as the PNC Park is a public venue, and a workplace.

Note: The videos in the program will be selected by Jacob Ciocci of CMU and Andrew Swensen of Pittsburgh Filmmakers. All submissions will not necessarily be selected for the screening.

*THE DEADLINE FOR VIDEO SUBMISSIONS IS APRIL 1st AT NOON.*
*SUBMISSIONS CAN BE DROPPED OFF IN THE ART OFFICE ANY TIME AFTER MARCH 22nd.

*PLEASE READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS IN THEIR ENTIRETY!*

These are the video settings: NTSC DV (720×480 Pixels), Anamorphic
16:9, 29.97 Fps, 48 kHz

TO MAKE YOUR FILES
1. Make or import your 1 minute movie in Final Cut Pro
2. Put your name or any credits AT THE END OF YOUR PIECE.
3. Export -> Using QuickTime Conversion
4. Options->Settings: Compression Type: DV-NTSC highest quality
5. Size: NTSC 720×480 16:9
5.Name the resultant file with YOUR LAST NAME.

*HOW TO DELIVER YOUR FILES (starting march 22nd):
1. Burn a DVD-R or CD-R with the quicktime file
2. Label the disk with your last name
3. PUT THE DISK IN A CASE
4. Fill out the form located in the art office
5. Drop the disk off in the art office “jumbotron” box

QUESTIONS, contact Jacob Ciocci

wats:ON? 2010
ADVENTURES IN VIRTUALITY
curated by Spike Wolff and Pablo Garcia
All events take place at Carnegie Mellon University http://www.cmu.edu/cfa/watson
Info call 412-268-3451

ABOUT
While the term Virtual Reality entered our vocabulary a mere 20 years ago, the desire for simulation and special effects have existed as long as there has been artistic representation. To succeed in making virtual effects, two major elements need to be in place: a precise production technique and a subject to perceive the effect. Virtuality, contemporary or historical, takes many forms. High-fidelity digital simulations, world maps and surveying technology, descriptive geometry, cinema and photography, and more, either digital or analog, combine into a long history of virtual technologies. The artists included in this dialog work within the realm of phenomenal perception, ungrounding our conditioned ways of seeing to create an ambiguous play between physical and perceptual space. The experience of these works is of dynamic parallax and shifting displacement, in a space that is both present and absent. Impossible space, space that can be perceived, occupied and experienced, but does not exist.

[Sponsorship] THESE EVENTS MADE POSSIBLE BY THE JILL WATSON FAMILY FOUNDATION. The Jill WATSON FESTIVAL ACROSS THE ARTS honors Jill Watson’s commitment to an interdisciplinary philosophy as an artist and celebrates her accomplishments and reputation as an architect. Jill Watson was a Carnegie Mellon University alumna, adjunct faculty member in the School of Architecture and acclaimed Pittsburgh architect who died in the TWA Flight 800 plane crash on July 17, 1996.

We thank the following for their generous support:
Carnegie Mellon College of Fine Arts, School of Architecture, [s t u d I o for creative inquiry], School of Art, CFA 111 – for accessibility School of Drama, ETC Entertainment Technology Center, The Carnegie Museum of Art

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

MCCALL
ANTHONY MCCALL, ARTIST
Wed 17 March
4:00pm ʻYou and I, Horizontalʼ, exhibition opens CFA 421
6:00pm artists talk, studio for creative inquiry
McCall, known for his solid light film installations, creates environmental cinema existing in the zone of both the cinematic and the sculptural, creating a powerfully visceral spatial experience out of virtually, nothing. ʻYou and I, Horizontalʼ runs through 20 March.

DRAMA
BACKSTAGE
Thu 18 March
1:30pm open house , Chosky theatre, Purnell Center

HUHTAMO
ERKKI HUHTAMO, MEDIA ARCHAEOLOGIST
Thu 18 March
6:00pm ʻProjecting Images: a Media-Archaeological Perspectiveʼ , studio for creative inquiry
Huhtamo, professor of media history and theory at UCLA, has pioneered media archaeology as an emerging critical approach to understanding media-cultural phenomena and the media interface which molds human experience. His lecture will address the development of projection practices throughout history and why people project images; the talk will be illustrated with a rich array of rarely seen imagery.

MACHINIMA FILM FESTIVAL
presented by FRIEDRICH KIRSCHNER
Fri 19 March
8:30pm film festival, studio for creative inquiry
Kirschner will present a curated sampling of Machinima film live via skype from Germany. Machinima, machine animation cinema, creates narrative film with avatars or objects via the virtual environment of computer gaming.

ARCADE GAME NIGHT
Fri 19 March
10:00pm video games provided by ETC, studio for creative inquiry
Old school to current market to the future of gaming; play hands-on interactive video games provided by ETC, the Entertainment Technology Center of Carnegie Mellon University.

DISCUSSION FEATURING ʻCONICAL INTERSECTʼ
BY GORDON MATTA-CLARK
Sat 20 March
4:30pm dialog and closing reception, studio for creative inquiry
Join us for conversation on festival themes and experience, featuring a screening of ʻConical Intersectʼ, a work inspired by McCallʼs early film ʻLine Describing a Cone. 16mm print provided by the Carnegie Museum of Art.

GEHR
ERNIE GEHR, EXPERIMENTAL FILMMAKER
Sat 20 March
6:00pm films and discussion, studio for creative inquiry
Gehrʼs work allows for a spatial and perceptual experience of film. He will screen a selection of his films, from early 16mm to recent digital work; the program will include his seminal visionary work ʻSerene Velocityʼ.

LISTEN HERE

MFA students Agnes Bolt & Oscar Peters discuss their “Braddock Cross-Pollination Project” executed in Fall 2009 when they traveled from Braddock, PA to Braddock ND - the only two Braddocks in America.

Tangibly, a photographic essay, “Braddock Cross-Pollination Project’s” true form lies in the social, psychological, political and metaphoric exchange between two small, economically struggling towns in America linked purely by a common name. This 1,300 mile drive from Pennsylvania to North Dakota and back was to deliver a message from stranger to stranger, and allow each town to reflect on its own existence via its doppelganger. Over 40 people participated in the project, from an urban African American teenager to a 70-year-old sunflower farmer living in the barren plains.

ABOUT BRADDOCK(s):
Braddock, PA is an urban ex-steel industry town of about 2,000 people fighting with drugs and crime, abandoned homes and businesses. Since the 1980’s Braddock has undergone an almost 90% drop in population as the Steel Industries begun to shut down. An energetic young mayor is attempting to revive the town but with no supermarkets, gas stations and now a closing hospital- the major source of employment, the town has a long way to go.

Braddock, ND is a farming community with a population of 19 people. Founded as a frontier railroad town, today its entirely Caucasian, Catholic, conservative and aging population will probably be the last generation to call Braddock their home; the school and post office closed down several years ago, the parish rectory building was literally being moved on a tractor trailer to another town while I was there, the only remaining establishments in town are the bar and senior citizen community center. The liveliest community may be the seasonal pheasant and deer hunters that return annually to Braddock.

BROWSE PAST LAB A6 PODCASTS

March is Disability Awareness Month. This year they are encouraging everyone to “Free Your Mind”.

(via indianadisabilityawareness.org)

Last year my blog at this time concentrated on what we do in the gardens to make them accessible to as many people as possible. All of that information is still relevant so check it here.

With 100 Acres – The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art and Nature Park opening June 20 I decided to take a look at it this year. Since it does not have an asphalt road running through it, or concrete walks, it won’t be as easily accessed for those with mobility issues as the rest of our gardens and grounds. But there will still be much to experience and enjoy.

First you have to get there. One of the main access points will be the 38th street loop just west of the IMA’s 38th Street entrance. The parking area there will put you right at the Park. However, once there, you do have to cross a one lane road. On the other side an ADA compliant ramp will lead visitors down into the Park. Other access points will be crossing over the Pony Truss Bridge from the main IMA campus and, of course, the Canal Path that runs along the edge of the Park. Once inside, many areas in the 100 Acres will be accessible by way of crushed stone paths. Not as ideal as concrete, but much better than mulch or turf. These will lead you to the visitors’ center and some of the inaugural art pieces. Several mulch paths will give people even more opportunities to interact with nature and art. Those paths will quite simply require a different level of mobility.

I really want to emphasize the nature side of the Art and Nature Park. At this point we cannot get everybody to all areas of 100 Acres. However, you will be immersed in nature no matter where you go. Native trees, shrubs, vines, grasses, and perennials will abound. We began replacing the exotic invasives two years ago with a major tree planting. This year over 70 species and cultivars will be planted in and around Alfredo Jaar’s Park of the Laments.

Animals like beaver, squirrels, and turtles are common sights. Occasionally you might even glimpse a red fox or mink. Above all, it will be a great place to experience the joy of birdwatching. Waterfowl such as ducks and herons can be found on the lake, the canal, and the White River. Great Blue Herons show up regularly in the shallows of the lake. Birds of prey soar in the skies. Songbirds can be found throughout.

I have been crazy-mad about pileated woodpeckers (Dryocopus pileatus) from childhood as they were frequent inhabitants of the creek-bottom woods where I grew up. We have at least a pair of these brightly colored crow-sized birds in the 100 Acres.

It’s not all about seeing the birds, listen for their fascinating calls as well.

Our newly revamped website will also give folks multiple ways of getting information about the site, the nature, and the art. You can begin accessing information before you leave home! Heck, you can get information right now, over three months before the official opening day. Check out the 100 Acres page to learn about the geology of the site (work done with the US Geological Survey), the first eight commissions, or details of the opening week-end. Access is about more than physical attributes.

The visitors’ center will be fully accessible with ramps leading to a surrounding deck. Drinking fountains and bathroom facilities are located in this building. Educational materials to be housed here are still being developed. The Visitor’s Center will also give shelter from the elements – like our sudden Midwest thunderstorms.

Be sure and mark June 20 on your calendars. Free Your Mind and see you there.

THE CHALLENGE

On January 6, 2010 we announced that the IMA was searching for its next blogger and outlined the rules of the contest.

The IMA is searching for its next blogger and we want you! Interested in sharing your thoughts about the IMA from an “outsider’s” perspective? Not afraid to muse publicly about the museum’s programs and exhibitions? Able to attend IMA events and willing to submit 300-600 words once a month? Then you could be the blogger for the job.

THE FINALISTS

After receiving dozens of submissions, the IMA narrowed the field to 5. Over the course of the last 5 weeks, we posted the candidates blog entries. Each had to answer the following questions:

Tell us a little about yourself:
Tell us a story. We want to know how good your yarn-spinning skills are, so give your best anecdote involving an experience you’ve had at the museum.
Why should you be an IMA blogger?

Review the Finalist’s Posts…

• Katie Neville
• Heather McAlister
• Jenni Clarkson
• Crystal Hammon
• Jessica Hancock

THE VOTE

Whose voice do you want to hear on a monthly basis? Blog readers, it’s time for you to decide! From now until March 23 at 11:59 pm you can vote for your favorite finalist.  The winner will be announced on March 24. Don’t forget, what’s at stake – The IMA’s Next Top Blogger gets a free membership to the IMA, invitations to special events throughout the year, and the opportunity to share her thoughts about art, design, the natural environment, and the IMA with the world. Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

The Western Front throws a party like no other!

Our 37th Anniversary Gala Dinner and Art Auction takes place on Saturday, March 6, 2010 at 6:00 p.m. Themed in an era of the New Deal, the evening will be reminiscent of the importance of collective support for the arts during a time of particular uncertainty.

The Auction is the signature event held at the Western Front: the Grand Luxe Hall hosts 70 guests during the evening with a catered three-course dinner, complementary beverages, musical entertainment by Veda Hille and returning auctioneer Hank Bull.

For the Western Front, a non-profit registered charity, the event raises funds to help support its diverse arts programming, and its continued efforts to foster a vibrant cultural scene in Vancouver.

For art lovers and friends of the Western Front, this is a rare opportunity to purchase works by a wide range of renowned artists: Will Kwan; Jin-Me Yoon; Julie Morstad; Scott Moore; Reece Terris; Martin Thacker; Al Neil; Kika Thorne; Damian Moppett; Heidi Nagtegaal; Jeremy Hof; Allyson Clay; Hank Bull; Sonny Assu; Khan Lee; Sonja Ahlers; Peter Gazendam; Sabine Bitter; Helmut Weber; Eric Metcalfe; Donato Mancini; Alison Hrabluik; Michael Drebert; Ian Skedd; Laiwan; Elizabeth Zvonar; and Erin Shirreff.

Western Front is grateful for the participation of Rigamarole fine wines, Authentic Wine & Spirit Merchants, the Flower Factory and Pan-O-Pan in making this event a delicious success.

Our Auction Preview Catalogue is now online:
http://auction2010.tumblr.com

Tickets are $150 and a portion is eligible for a charitable tax receipt. To reserve a seat or table, please call 604.876.9343 or email: admin@front.bc.ca

Learning from Vancouver
Exhibition and Symposium

Bik Van der Pol and Urban Subjects: in dialogue
Curated by Alissa Firth-Eagland and Johan Lundh

Exhibition: January 30 to March 6, 2010
Opening reception: January 29, 2010, 8 PM
Symposium: January 29 to 31, 2010

According to a recent survey prepared by Mercer Consulting, the world’s largest human resource firm specializing in investments and outsourcing, Vancouver is now the fourth most livable city in the world establishing it as an increasingly popular model for urban development. The survey, which effectively confers world-class status on the city, sparks obvious questions about Vancouver and its role in the global imaginary. Why is Vancouver the only North American city in the top ten? What images of the city are created and circulated to represent this livability, and what do such images signify?

The title of this project, Learning from Vancouver, comes from a commissioned work by Dutch artist duo Bik Van der Pol (Rotterdam, NL). This exhibition marks the first presentation of their practice in Canada. Bik Van der Pol’s work will be presented together with a work by the collective Urban Subjects (Vienna AT and Vancouver, CA) that is in formal and thematic dialogue.

Liesbeth Bik and Jos Van der Pol, known as Bik Van der Pol, have worked collectively since 1995. They have researched and developed this work during two residencies at the Western Front in 2009 and 2010. Their practice explores the potential of art to produce and transmit knowledge and research methods of how to activate situations in order to create a platform for various kinds of communicative activities. Bik Van der Pol’s works has been shown extensively, for instance at Art In General (New York, US); ISP Whitney (New York, US); Marie Louise Hessel Museum/CCS Bard (Annandale-on-Hudson, NY); Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam, NL); Van Abbe Museum (Eindhoven, NL); Witte de With (Rotterdam, NL).

Urban Subjects is a visual research collective formed by Sabine Bitter, Jeff Derksen, and Helmut Weber, developing interdisciplinary artistic projects focusing on urban issues. They recently published the book Autogestion, or Henri Lefebvre in New Belgrade, with a previously unpublished manuscript by Lefebvre (Fillip, Vancouver, CA and Sternberg Press, Berlin, DE) and have another edited volume, Not Sheep: New Urban Enclosures and Commons forthcoming. They are currently developing an international exhibition on the urban effects of Olympics and Expos, Where the World Was: Cities After Global Mega-events and are working on a project on new forms of autogestion in relation to the state in Caracas, Venezuela.

Learning from Vancouver will engage diverse local communities in live conversation about Vancouver and its image through a range of entry points, all free to the public. In addition to the exhibition, a three-day symposium headed by distinguished local and international speakers will unpack current mediatizations and images of the city: Bik Van der Pol (Rotterdam, NL); Clint Burnham (Vancouver, CA); Paul de Guzman (Vancouver, CA); Alissa Firth-Eagland and Johan Lundh (Grenoble, FR and New York, US); Hadley + Maxwell (Berlin, DE); Candice Hopkins (Ottawa, CA); Fiona Jeffries (New York, US); Am Johal (Vancouver, CA); Laiwan (Vancouver, CA); Randy Lee Cutler (Vancouver, CA); Kristina Lee Podesva (Vancouver, CA); Glen Lowry (Vancouver, CA); Tom Sherman (Syracuse, US); Matthew Soules (Vancouver, CA); Monika Szewczyk (Berlin, DE and Rotterdam, NL); Althea Thauberger (Vancouver, CA); Henry Tsang (Vancouver, CA), Urban Subjects: Jeff Derksen, Sabine Bitter and Helmut Weber (Vancouver, CA and Vienna, AT); and Amy Zion (Vancouver, CA).

Learning from Vancouver is produced with the generous support of a Canada Council for the Arts Media Arts Dissemination Project Grant and the Mondriaan Foundation.

The Western Front gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the BC Arts Council through the Government of British Columbia, the City of Vancouver, Direct Access Gaming, our members and volunteers. The Western Front is a member of the Pacific Association of Artist-Run Centres (PAARC).

NYC public school students between the ages of 13–18 are invited to spend their Thursday afternoons, from 3–6PM, at Eyebeam. Each month will feature a series of free hands-on workshops, starting at 4PM, where students will have the opportunity to work with different open-source software programs as used by artists and technologists.

Thursdays in March: Make your own Wordpress website with Eyebeam Intern, Georg Pedersen. Graphic artist and designer Georg Pedersen will introduce the versatile and free blogging platform, Wordpress to students. Students will learn what makes a good website in terms of content, visual layout, and functionality, and then get to create their own webiste over the course of the month.

One of the most influential people in the Canadian art world, Pierre Arpin, is leaving the Canada Council for the Arts to become general manager, exhibition and collection services, for the National Gallery of Victoria in Australia.
At the Canada Council, Arpin served as the head of visual arts, giving him a powerful voice in deciding which artists and galleries receive funding from the federal agency. As well, Arpin’s fingerprints can be seen in everything from the annual Governor General’s Visual Arts Awards to decisions regarding Canada’s representative to the Venice Biennial.
Arpin is a former director of the Winnipeg Art Gallery, of British Columbia’s Art Gallery of Greater Victoria and of the Art Gallery of Sudbury.
“Pierre Arpin has tackled major issues of museum and collection management and has established a very strong reputation for the role he has played in several Canadian institutions,” said a written statement from Gerard Vaughan, dirrector of the National Gallery of Victoria.
Arpin begins his new job in February.
“This will be a challenging and exciting role and I look forward to being a part of what is, in my view, one of the leading art museums in the world,” said Arpin.
The Canada Council offices are closed until early January so no one was available to comment on Arpin’s departure nor to discuss a replacement.

"I love exploring the way people come together," says the award-winning Swiss photographer Yann Gross, 29. "Two years ago, I visited my girlfriend who was working in Uganda, and she took me to this skate park she'd found in Kitintale, a working-class suburb of Kampala. It's the first east African skate park, and as a skateboarder I was fascinated by the community that had built up around it. It was constructed entirely by local kids. I ended up staying there for two months; I became friends with them first, and only then I started to take pictures.

The Armory Art Show takes the idea that art isn't a commodity to be sold like the machines and tools on display at the Hannover industrial trade show (that I used to visit as a teenager) and dispenses with it neatly. If any of the Show's objects at some stage were in the presence of an artist toiling over their meaning and worth (I'm not talking about money here), you wouldn't know that once you encountered them at the Piers in New York City. Make no mistake, I had no illusions about the Armory Show before I went. So I did not undergo the kind of shock treatment that someone with romantic ideas about the commercial art world would experience if she or he was exposed to such an abomination of the human spirit for the first time. That said, the Armory Show still was a soul crushing experience, where your soul is not only crushed, it's actually slowly and steadily ground into a fine powder.

A short editorial interlude of sorts: If you can't imagine that a soul can be ground into a fine powder, you might enjoy the Armory Show. Also, if you have a problem with someone using such imagery - after all how can a soul, which is not a solid entity, be ground into a powder? - then, well, you might enjoy Twitter.

Experiencing the Armory Show is a bit like going to the mall before Christmas: You know in advance that the experience will suck the life out of you completely, to leave you behind poorer (literally and figuratively), owning a bunch of junk that your loved ones don't really need. But you still end up wondering how every year the combination of crass commercialism and fake happiness can be so toxic. Maybe it's the music? How much canned "holiday" music can one take before resorting to creatively adding some not-so lyrical flourishes ("Oh fucking Tannenbaum")?

Well, the Armory Show doesn't have any music, Christmas or whatever else. Maybe it should? Instead, the atmosphere the day I went (Saturday) was more like a really crowded, run-down second-world airport: Outside a bunch of tremendously ugly concrete. I entered using a very narrow escalator. Inside it was crowded and noisy, it smelled funny, and the VIP lounges contained an odd mix of presumed entitlement, bad free coffee, and overpriced junk food.

Needless to say, the idea that there actually are VIPs in anything art related is revolting. I am fully aware that I am nothing but a sorry egalitarian.

Of course, there is a reason why the Armory Show bothered me so much. There actually is good art on display, and I still want to believe that at least some of the artists who might have toiled over their art are profoundly distressed about seeing it reduced to... yeah, to what?

If you didn't like my comparison with Christmas at the mall, here's another attempt: It's like going to an IKEA, except that IKEA will guide you through the store so that you really look at literally everything they got, regardless of whether you need four hundred dozens cheaply made candles for $5.99 or not. IKEA also doesn't have booths. The Armory Show has booths but no predestined path for its visitors. Still, it's positively IKEAish. The funny thing is that the booths, which, I suppose, are there to divide the space to get things more organized, only add to the visual clutter.

So once you enter the Armory Show your first experience is a bit like opening your closet door and having the entire contents of the upper shelves fall into your face.

I'm glad I did not commit to blogging about the photography at the Armory Show, because the task of having to systematically walk through the aisles and jot down what there is to be seen strikes me as daunting. If you're interested in seeing such a list head over to the DLK Collection blog where they're in the process of publishing just that, in six parts. Very impressive.

What I did do instead was to walk down the various aisles in what I thought was some sort of systematic fashion, looking left and right, and finding quite a bit of noteworthy and even more not so noteworthy photography. I'll talk about some of what I found over the next few days.

The Armory Show - or in fact, any other such trade show - is interesting in one aspect: What you get to see is what galleries want you to see. The successful work. The work that they hope or know will sell. So in that sense, the Show gives you an idea of what that work is.

Of course, assuming the last paragraph is correct the flip side of the Show is that if you have followed the photo (or art) scene for a while, there will be few - if any - surprises. The surprises will mainly be at the galleries whose existence you've never heard of before, which, at least for me, means those in places like, for example, Moscow. There has been a lot of talk about how the internet has brought photographers together - but seeing so much work I had never even heard of before made me wonder what I had been doing these past few years. After all, I have been spending what occasionally strikes me as a freakishly large amount of time looking at and/or for photography online.

In any case, here's the thing. You can't really look out for experiences like that, the experiences where you stumble upon the unexpected. As an early 21st Century person living in the Western world you're actually trained to avoid just doing that. Or at least I am. Going to the Armory Show is like going to a very, very big store without a list of things to buy. I don't think the brain is set up to process a huge amount of visual information without running into some serious problems.

Oh, I know, young people are very good at multitasking and video gaming etc., but a lot of those assertions are based on little more than the hype generated by the makers of the various electronic gadgets and websites. How all these people are supposed to leapfrog hundreds of thousands of years of human evolution, to be able to do things that the human brain is not evolved for, I'd still like to see an explanation for.

This all might strike you as tremendously old-fashioned, but just think of the combination of driving and texting or even "just" talking on the phone. Most people are terrible drivers without being on the phone, and adding their friend call in to talk about that cute guy/girl they just met usually does not help very much. I'm just saying.

Of course, I could just be the real exception, and everybody else could have just tremendously enjoyed the Armory Show. Maybe. Maybe not. It is true, there actually were people drooling over the art at the Armory Show. I saw at least two of them. Of course, they both were less than a year old each, so maybe that doesn't mean that much.

Having basically no life force left, I dragged my body's shell over to the art show called SCOPE (Why are they yelling?). I ended up being very positively surprised by SCOPE. I suppose in part that's because it was smaller and less overrun. But all in all, the experience was so much nicer since it didn't come across as such an obvious art-meat market. People seemed to be a bit younger and the art seemed a bit fresher.

I'm sure the New York art scene, where you just got to have an opinion about which show is better than which other show (for reasons which are not entirely obvious to someone like me who lives in the countryside and is thus - hopefully - excused), will have an opinion about me proclaiming that SCOPE was "fresher" than the Armory Show. Be that as it may, SCOPE renewed my faith in the art world a little bit.

One could have long - and probably partly fruitless - debates about art and the gallery world and the pros and cons. You know what, I don't have a problem per se with art being shown in a gallery. It is true, galleries are like hospitals; but all things considered, a good gallery show can be a tremendously exciting and uplifting event. I'm a real sucker for seeing art work on the wall somewhere, and right now, the most likely place to have such an experience is at a gallery (especially since so many museum shows are dedicated to celebrating the 50th anniversary of that body of work or whatever else has been established for a long, long time).

An art fair/show, though... That's one of those supposedly fun things I'll never do again.

We have made a couple of changes in our program this year, most notably we will be announcing the winner in November 2010. The $50,000 is given to the artist who receives the highest number of votes so check back often for updates and of course the announcement of the shortlist in May 2010 and the launch of the voting in September!

In the meantime, we will be posting semi regularly about some of the unique aspects of the prize, like the artist residencies. Each year, the Grange Prize provides the nominees with an opportunity to complete a residency in the partner country during the voting period. Last year Lynne Cohen travelled to Cancun, Marco Cruz and Federico Gama spent two weeks in Toronto and Jin Me Yoon spent 12 days in Mexico City. Over the next couple of months we will be sharing some of their stories and giving you some sneak peeks at the work they made while on their residencies.

Chris Bosh speaks the students at the AGO. Photos courtesy AGO photographer Dean Thomlinson.

The AGO is working with its community partners to celebrate Black History Month, an annual remembrance of people and events in the history of the African diaspora.

This past Monday, the AGO hosted members of the Toronto Raptors with 40 young students from Toronto at-risk communities for the NBA’s Read to Achieve program. Our director Matthew Teitelbaum introduced the students to the AGO at this educational outreach initiative, which is aimed at helping young people develop a life-long love for reading.

This evening, the AGO is working with community artist Janine Carrington to present a collage artmaking activity at University Settlement’s Black History Month event, based on the theme "Remember the past, Seize the present, Embrace the future". All are welcome at this event, which will take place at University Settlement auditorium from 5 to 8 pm. For more information about University Settlement please visit www.usrc.ca

And this Saturday, February 27, the AGO is partnering with Kids Up Front Foundation to provide a free group visit for 30 dads and kids from the Black Daddies Club. Kids Up Front is a charitable organization that provides access to arts, culture, sport and recreation for children who otherwise do not have the opportunity. The Black Daddies Club was founded in 2007 by Brandon Hay in response to the lack of forums and spaces for Black men to discuss parenting issues as well as the issues facing the Black Community as a whole. More information at available at Kids Up Front and at Black Daddies Club.

Hello Douglas,

A good resource for your friend may be Telecoms Sans Frontiers. They deploy
teams around the globe to rebuild communications in emergencies and
disasters. They also work on large long term projects, such as using
communications technology to fight the food crisis.

http://tsfi.org

They established the internet and highspeed satellite lines at the airport
days after the earthquake in Haiti, then moved out to secure connections at
camps and government coordinating offices. They dispach teams daily into the
camps with free call equipment and have reached over 10,000 Haitian
families. They are partnered with many of the humanitarian and rescue
organizations that will be in Haiti for the long haul.

There is more on their work in Haiti here:

http://tsfi.org/en/action/emergencies/112-seisme-en-haiti-tsf-deploi-ses-equ
ipes


I hope that is helpful,


Kendra Kellogg
 
Email:  kendrakellogg-/E1597aS9LQAvxtiuMwx3w< at >public.gmane.org 
 
 

-----Original Message-----
From: idc-bounces-xGejAJT2w6zH

(March 5) BLACKS IN WAX DC's Department of Parks and Rec host Blacks in Wax, with a special opening for students this afternoon at 1 p.m. and later tonight from 6 to 8 p.m. for the after-work crowd, at the Southeast Tennis & Learning Center. This "living wax" museum is made up of Washingtonians both young and old, portraying figures from African American history and those making headlines today. This year's theme is "Lift Every Voice and Stand." Call 202-645-6242 for more information.

(March 5-April 11) THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA Arena Stage moves into its remodeled home in Southeast DC this fall. Before it does, the theater opens tonight with The Light in the Piazza, its penultimate play in Crystal City, Virginia, running through April 11th. Fate brings together a young American woman and a handsome Italian man in a whirlwind courtship shadowed by family secrets.

(March 6 & 7) LAS PINTURAS And historic Glen Echo Park's Yellow Barn Gallery features the work of Cuban-born artist Roger Perez in the exhibit Las Pinturas tomorrow and Sunday. Perez trains a wandering eye on the rolling hills of the Piedmont region and the sands of Puerto Vallarta, contrasting Virginia's farmlands with the beaches of Mexico.

(March 5-12) THE BLUEST EYE University of Maryland's theater department tackles Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center in College Park, Maryland, opening tomorrow and running through March 12th. The play centers on an 11-year-old African-American girl growing up in 1940s Ohio, who blames her dark skin for the discrimination she faces and prays for a pair of blue eyes. Next Tuesday's performance includes a "talk back" session with UM faculty from the English and history departments.

(March 5-28) LAUREL ART GUILD The 41st Annual Laurel Art Guild features the work of Maryland, Northern Virginia and D.C. artists, with an exhibit that opens tomorrow and runs through March 28th. You can see what the local talent's up to as awards are parsed out on Sunday.

(Through March 21) DEAR SARA JANE The scrappy staff at Hub Theatre is mounting its newest production, "Dear Sara Jane" at The Soundry art space in Vienna, Virginia, through March 21st. Victor Lodato's portrait of a young military wife is a humor-filled yet unrelenting examination of a culture of violence both abroad and at home.

(March 1) ONE-MAN EPIC The Shakespeare Theater Company has let in Faction of Fools just long enough to present The Great One-Man Commedia Epic tonight at 7. One actor, twelve characters and one thousand catastrophes are undertaken with the expertise of physical comedian Matthew Wilson, telling tales of young lovers, squabbling men, boasting soldiers and dim-witted servants as he duels himself in this one-man show.

(February 28-March 31) SACRED MADE REAL The Spanish Golden Age fills the rooms of the National Gallery of Art on the National Mall during The Sacred Made Real, an exhibit of Spanish painting and sculpture on view through March 31st.

(Through March 7) INTERSECTIONS Intersections: a New America Arts Festival is in full swing at the Atlas Performing Arts Center in Northeast DC through Sunday, taking its cue from the San Francisco festival of the same name and featuring free cafe concerts and dance parties.

You can submit events to Art Beat via email at ArtBeat@wamu.org.

Art Institute in the Community: Go beyond the museum walls as curator James Rondeau and exhibition manager Maureen Pskowski discuss the work of sculptor Scott Burton and Ellsworth Kellyâs White Curve, on view in the Modern Wing's outdoor spaces. 

Whatâs New: On October 10, Caravaggioâs The Supper at Emmaus, on loan from the National Gallery London, arrives at the Art Institute. Curator Christina Nielsen offers an inside look at the masterpiece and the artist that she calls âa supernova with a self-destructive streak.â

Exhibition Focus: Though separated by nearly 150 years, the works on view in Playing with Pictures: The Art of Victorian Photocollage and On the Scene: Jason Lazarus, Wolfgang PlÃger, Zoe Strauss share an unusual feature. Photography curators Elizabeth Siegel and Katherine Bussard reveal the surprising similarity.

  Your Turn: Weâd like to hear from you. Share your modern-day versions of Victorian photocollage or let us know if you think repurposing found photographs can still be considered photography. E-mail us at musecast@artic.edu or post your thoughts to our Facebook page.

2nd Graphic "1＿Wall" Exhibition
at Guardian Garden (Ginza, Shimbashi area)
(2010-02-22 - 2010-03-18)

2nd edition of the "1_Wall" graphic exhibition. Presentations by participating artists will be given in front of a general audience, and the jury members will select the winner. The winner of the Grand Prize will be given the right to hold a solo show and produce a pamphlet one year after the award is made. Compared to the Hitotsubo exhibition and its decision process based solely on a portfolio , "1_Wall" incorporates an additional review process that adds an extra layer of seriousness to the proceedings.

"Konica Minolta Eco & Art Award 2010"
at Konica Minolta Plaza (Shinjuku area)
(2010-03-06 - 2010-03-23)

This exhibition showcases artworks, product and graphic design open call submissions that promote ecological initiatives and actions by young creators and artists aged 16-35. Works from each category will be exhibited in separate sections, and a Grand Prize in each category, as well as an audience prize, will be awarded.

Katsumi Asaba "Design Revolution"
at Creation Gallery G8 (Ginza, Shimbashi area)
(2010-02-22 - 2010-03-26)

The 12th edition of this exhibition, held to commemorate the life and career of the graphic designer Yusaku Kamekura, features the Misawa Design 2009 Bauhaus series of posters by Katsumi Asaba. These works express the design philosophy of the Misawa Bauhaus Collection. Art talk 219th Creative Salon March 18th (Thu) 19:10-20:40 with Taku Sato and Katsumi Asaba Venue: Creation Gallery G8 Free entry, reservation required 03-3575-6918

Wangechi Mutu
Untitled, 2009
Courtesy of the artist
Photo:Mathias Schormann
© Wangechi Mutu and Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects

Deutsche Bank has announced that on the recommendation of its Global Art Advisory Council, Wangechi Mutu was selected as the bank's 2010 Artist of the Year. The bank is bestowing the award for the first time this year, opening a new chapter in its global commitment to art.

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KW Institute for Contemporary Art – Hotel Marienbad From April 1st to 30th, 2010 a drug detox residency will be offered.

Read Full Article

Finalists for the 25th Annual Mayor’s Arts Awards

EXCELLENCE IN AN ARTISTIC DISCIPLINE

· Cathedral Choral Society

· Ira Blount

· Lawrence Bradford

· Pan American Symphony Orchestra

· Peter Waddell

· Step Afrika!

· The Suzanne Farrell Ballet

· Theater Alliance of Washington, DC

· Transformer

EXCELLENCE IN SERVICE TO THE ARTS

· Dance/Metro DC

· Kim Roberts

· Margery E. Goldberg

· Washington Project for the Arts

INNOVATION IN THE ARTS

· Daniel Phoenix Singh

· FOTOWEEK DC

· GALA Hispanic Theatre

· Miriam’s Kitchen

· Taffety Punk Theatre Company

· The Theatre Lab School of the Dramatic Arts

· VelocityDC Dance Festival

OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO ARTS EDUCATION

· CityDance Ensemble, Inc.

· Duke Ellington School of the Arts

· The Shakespeare Theatre Company

· The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts/Education Department

· The Washington Ballet

· Washington Performing Arts Society

OUTSTANDING EMERGING ARTIST

· Andrew Wodzianski

· Brian W. Grundstrom

· Sarah Elizabeth Koss

· Helanius J. Wilkins

· Luciana Stecconi

· Michelle Herman

Finalists for the Mayor’s Award for Arts Teaching

PERFORMING ARTS

· Gregory E. Lewis

· Premila Mistry

· Thomas Kingston Pierre, Jr.

· Rebecca Stump

· Benjamin Whelan-Morin

LANGUAGE ARTS

· Kathy Echave

· Mark A. Williams

VISUAL ARTS

· Stephanie Basralian

· Daniel A. Foley

· Eric Michael Ginsburg

· Bill Harris

· Charles Jean-Pierre

· Vinson Irby

· Andrea Perll

· Lindy Russell-Heymann

Situated in the heart of vibrant Bermondsey Street, Peter Layton’s London Glassblowing is a hot-glass studio focused on the creation and display of contemporary glass art. The studio has a reputation as one of Europe’s leading glassmaking workshops. This exclusive evening provides Friends with the opportunity to learn about the art of glassmaking including a demonstration of glassblowing techniques together with a private view of the studio’s current collection and for one...

Jackson Pollock (1912-1956)
Barnett Newman (1905-1970)
Willem De Kooning (1904-1997)
Clyfford Still ( 1904-1980)
Adolph Gottlieb (1903-1974)
Ad Reinhardt (1913-1967)
Robert Motherwell (1915-1991)
Mark Rothko ( 1903-1970)
William Baziotes (1912-1963)
James Brooks (1906-1992)
Jimmy Ernst (1920-1984)
Theodoros Stamos (1922-1997)
Bradley Walker Tomlin (1899-1953)
Richard Poussette-Dart (1916-1992)
Hedda Sterne (1910)

IRASCIBLE GROUP OF ADVANCED ARTISTS LED FIGHT AGAINST SHOW

The solemn people above, along with three others, made up the group of “irascible” artists who raised the biggest fuss about the Metropolitan’s competition (following pages). All representatives of advanced art, they paint in styles which vary from the dribblings of Pollock (LIFE, Aug. 8, 1949) to the Cyclopean phantoms of Baziotes, and all have distrusted the museum since its director likened them to “flat-chested” pelicans “strutting upon the intellectual wastelands.” From left, rear, they are: Willem de Kooning, Adolph Gottlieb, Ad Reinhardt, Hedda Sterne; (next row) Richard Pousette-Dart, William Baziotes, Jimmy Ernst (with bow tie), Jackson Pollock (in striped jacket), James Brooks, Clyfford Still (leaning on knee), Robert Motherwell, Bradley Walker Tomlin; (in foreground) Theodoros Stamos (on bench), Barnett Newman (on stool), Mark Rothko (with glasses). Their revolt and subsequent boycott of the show was in keeping with an old tradition among avant-garde artists. French painters in 1874 rebelled against their official juries and held the first impressionist exhibition. U.S. artists in 1908 broke with the National Academy jury to launch the famous Ashcan School. The effect of the revolt of the “irascible” remains to be seen, but it did appear to have needled the Metropolitan’s juries into turning more than half the show into a free-for-all of modern art.

Map-making was a major part of Paul Sandby’s early career on the Military Survey of Scotland, and much of his subsequent landscape art maintained connections with cartography. Professor Stephen Daniels, University of Nottingham, shows how cartography arguably enlarged the scope and power of Sandby’s art.

6.30–7.30pm; £14/£6 reductions* (includes exhibition entry, lecture and a drink), £10 (includes lecture and a drink)

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1. ]]> 15 February 2010, 11:31 am e6e389f6ac0142fa42c0c28ca394db30 Found: entry

Former Poet Laureate Sir Andrew Motion and exhibition co-curator MaryAnne Stevens explore the landscape tradition in English painting, and the similarities and differences in the poetry of such writers as William Wordsworth, Thomas Hardy and Edward Thomas.

6.30–7.30pm; £14/£6 reductions* (includes exhibition entry, lecture and a drink), £10 (includes lecture and a drink)

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