News
Through the Heritage Philadelphia Program (HPP), the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage has awarded $766,325 to six local organizations, including two first-time grantees; the winners include the Preservation Alliance of Greater Philadelphia, for their effort to revitalize the John Coltrane House in North Philadelphia, and the Mural Arts Program, for Structure and Surface, a community-based public art initiative about the history of Philadelphia’s fallen textile industry. The full list of grantees and descriptions of their projects is on the HPP site.
The Brandywine River Museum is offering exclusive “Andrew Wyeth Experience Tours” on selected days in April and May. The studio where Wyeth worked, which has undergone extensive preservation efforts, is open to visits on April 24 and 28 and May 1, 5 and 10 from 9:45 a.m. until 4:15 p.m. More information on the tours can be found here.
The Philadelphia Woodworks Members Workshop had its official Grand Opening Sunday, April 22. Located on Umbria Street in Manayunk, this brand new coworking space for woodworkers, which also includes an art and furniture gallery, opened its doors on March 1.
Former Galleries at Moore College of Art and Design director Lisa Melandri is the new Director of the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (CAM). Melandri, currently the Deputy Director for Exhibitions and Programs at the Santa Monica Museum of Art (SMMoA), assumes her new position in August 2012. Melandri took over at Moore after Elsa Longhauser. Congratulations Lisa!
The Free Library of Philadelphia is hosting “Stonewalled: Five Artists Install on the Walls,” at the H.O.M.E. Page Cafe, where Philadelphia artists P. Timothy Giershick II, Tara Ivins, Lisa Murch, Benjamin Volta with Jerry Jackson and Grover Washington Middle School and Mauro Zamora present works that call attention to the Central Library’s place in the community as well as its role among Philadelphia art institutions. The opening reception is on Thursday, May 24 from 5:30-7:30 PM, and the show runs from April 23 to July 28.
Chief Cultural Officer Gary Steuer’s blog is a plentiful source of thoughts on Philly’s cultural life. In his latest post, he provides a comprehensive list of area gift shops.
Planning to be wandering around Times Square at 3 minutes to midnight any time soon? “Times Square Moment: A Digital Gallery,” featuring the video portraits of avant garde theater and visual legend Robert Wilson, starts Tuesday, May 1 at 11:57 PM on multiple screens in Times Square. The video shows for three minutes each night of the month and then vanishes, if we understand the logistics. Each month a different artist is featured. And you can make a proposal to have your work screened. The video program is a joint project of the Times Square Advertising Coalition (TSAC) and Times Square Arts, a public art program.
On Monday May 7 at 5 PM, the Fairmount Park Art Association holds its 140th annual meeting at the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Van Pelt Auditorium. Artists and students attend free but you must register. The lecture this year, after the brief official meeting, is by author Jonathan Lippincott, who will discuss and sign his book: Large Scale: Fabricating Sculpture in the 1960s and 1970s. Admission for members is free, $25 for non-members and includes membership through October 2012. Register by May 1.
Opportunities
The Manuel Rivera Ortiz Foundation announced its second annual call for a $5,000 grant for photographers, to be used in the completion of a social documentary project. Entries are accepted from anywhere in the world, and the submissions deadline is May 31, 2012. More information available on the Foundation’s website.
Two via wooloo – The Distillery, a former rum distillery and arts building in South Boston, MA is offering a free eight-week, site-specific, workspace-only residency running from June 18th to August 17th. Residents will have a 240 sq. ft studio space and a materials budget up to $800 depending on the scope of their project. The deadline for submissions is May 1, and more details can be found here. And the Center for Sex and Culture in San Francisco is hosting “Doing Your Dirty Work,” its first annual group exhibition. All artists that are at least 18 years old can submit recent artwork that deals with themes of sexuality, sexual identity and gender identity. There is no entry fee, and submissions are due at midnight, May 15th, 2012. The show begins Friday, August 3rd, continues until Saturday September 1st, 2012, and guidelines can be found here.
Be an artist in residence at the Statue of Liberty! The National Park Service is offering its first artist residency program, calling for three to six artists to make work honoring the re-opening of the Statue of Liberty to visitors in late 2012. Winners can choose a two, three, or four-week residency; although there is no stipend, New Jersey City University is offering free studio space and housing for the winners. The guidelines for proposals are here.
Yevgeniy Fiks, an artist whose work deals with the implications of the Cold War, has issued an international call for other artists to share his vision and submit work for a public monument to the Cold War. The deadline for submissions is November 1, 2012; more information can be found on Fiks’ website, which contains a detailed project page.
The McColl Center for Visual Art in Charlotte, NC is looking for a creative director. For more information and a job description, visit the Job Opportunities section of their site.
Artist News
Daniel Wallace of Extra Extra in Philly and Travis Fitzgerald and Joshua Pavlacky of Appendix Project Space curated a show MMXII Brand New Paint Job (BNPJ) at a new space, American Medium, in NYC. Featured in the show is Jon Rafman’s digital reworkings of objects using images from classical and contemporary art. The show is open one weekend only, May 5th and 6th.
Marginal Utility’s newest offering for ICA’s First Among Equals exhibition is Jayson Musson’s “Early Imperial Luxury Arts,” new work that describes the decline of the State. Musson’s installation features a video and pop culture kitsch consumer objects like a G.I. Joe blanket, a patriotic tie dyed t-shirt, a Rocky poster, and a tablecloth with the American Constitution printed on it. The installation is up now to May 13.
