Midweek News Podcast, CFEVA fellows, Library Company, ArtblogConnect events, Schitt’s Creek parody and openings

Roberta: Hi everyone, this is Roberta.

Ryan: And I’m Ryan. And this is the Midweek News

Roberta: On Artblog Radio. Ryan, good morning. How are doing all this heat?

Ryan: I’m hot as you might imagine. Yeah,

Roberta: I am so sorry. Have you been out bike riding recently?

Ryan: Yeah, we endeavored onto a 40 mile ride as a group, but I was kind of loathing it when I woke up, but then I felt a lot better once we had wrapped it up. Finally got a little bit of a breeze, which was nice.

Roberta: To recap for everyone. You loathed the idea when you got up.

Ryan: Oh, everything was just so sticky.

Roberta: Oh, yeah. So happy when it was over.

Ryan: It’s true. I mean, something I say to my kids is that saying yes, I’m far happier with the results when I say yes to a, to something than when I say no. So being open to it, even when you don’t feel like it often comes out, I usually come out ahead.

Roberta: I think that’s a great philosophy of life. Say yes. I mean, that’s probably not original. I’m sure someone, you know, self-help book out there, say yes instead of saying no. But it is true. It’s the optimistic, yeah, I can do that, or I’d like to try.

That can make a difference. Ah, Ryan. Great. Yeah, great philosophy. So yes, everybody, let’s talk about the news just briefly. I don’t have a lot to say today in this. I mean, we’re not in the dog days of summer, but it sure as hell feels like it. Hot, hot, hot and oh my gosh, so moist out there. Humidity. Anyway, let’s talk about CFEVA.

The 2024 CFEVA Fellows was announced and congratulations to the four new 2024 fellows. Santiago Galeas, Nari Kim, Alana Walters and Lauren Sandler. It’s a wonderful program. Everyone you can, it’s competitive. You need to apply, I’m sure it’s very competitive actually, given that Siva is a big promoter of the arts in Philadelphia and in the region. The fellowship comes with a $1,000 stipend and up to $3,000 for a CFEVA related project or exhibit, and it gets you in their network, which is really a very good network to be in. Lots of community there. Shared events and the POST open studio tours in October. So congratulations again everybody, and you should apply to this if you haven’t already. You never know. The other thing I wanted to mention briefly is there’s a very interesting event at the Library Company. They have a new series there called the Black Historians Department. And this one is called “The Past Belongs to You”, and it’s an exhibit. And the partner who put this together is Tafari Robertson, and he’s a, a black, Philadelphia artist, multidisciplinary artist, and a historian. And so they’re going to use the archives at the Library Company and put together an exhibit. And on Wednesday, July 17th, there’s the opening celebration. You need to register for it. And we’ll put that link in the transcript so you can see how you register for it. It’s a free event in person at the Library Company.

Apart from that, I’ll just mention that we have some things coming up on Artblog that I’m excited about, and the first one is I’m interviewing Sheena C. Howard on Friday. She’s the editor of Black Comics, the Politics of Race and Representation. It’s a compendium of writings about black comics. We are big fans of black comics on this Artblog. And so I’m excited to talk to Dr. Howard, who is an assistant professor at Ryder University. I believe she’s headquartered in Philadelphia, and there’ll be more on that. I’ll follow up with a post on Artblog after I’ve done the interview with her.

So that’s coming up. And I think the other things coming up are we have a review by Martina Merlo of the John Jarboe installation at the Fabric workshop, which should be really wonderful. Blaise Tobia has written a piece on the Souls Shot portraits that are at the Episcopal Cathedral that’s coming up.

I’ll be interviewing some Velocity Fund grantees and doing a write-up on that. I’m looking forward to that. And what else? Sarah Kaizar is a new artist we’re going to be working with who has a very complicated project that we’re digging into, and she will tell you about it starting over the summer at some point.

So lots of exciting things coming up on Artblog. And that’s it for me, Ryan, let’s shoot it over to you.

Ryan: All right, so. Something that I’m interested in seeing is at the Barnes. It’s a collaboration between the Barnes and Mural Arts. It’s part of Mural Arts Restorative Justice Initiative that started a few years ago. It’s called “Visions“. It opened on the 5th of July and it runs through August 26th. It is about the art of incarcerated people, and that could, that looks like an interesting show. Head over to that. Take a look at that. At the Crane Arts building, there is a new gallery opening Box Spring Gallery, Gabby Heit is opening a new gallery there, take a look at that for the new opening for 2nd Thursday. And then my theater shout-out is my kids love Schitt’s Creek. So if you love Schitt’s Creek, maybe this is up your creek, up your alley. It is a Without A Cue Productions, at Red Rum Theater, which is 6th and Walnut at the Curtis Building, and it’s called a Rose Colored Murder, a Schitt’s Creek Parody. So if you’re into that popped up on my radar, so that could be a lot of fun. That’s Friday, July 12th through Sunday, July 14th. Take a look at that. Tickets are available online. So those are my big picks for the week. And other than that, stay cool. Stay hydrated.

Roberta: Yeah, you betcha. I need to circle around to something you just said.

Ryan: Yeah.

Roberta: Red Rum Theater.

Ryan: Hmm.

Roberta: Excuse me. Why would you name your theater Red Rum?

Ryan: Well, it is a parody show too.

Roberta: What?

Ryan: It’s a parody show as well, so maybe it’s a lot of that, but yeah. Red Rum. So, yeah, if you haven’t seen that movie.

Roberta: The Shining scared me to death and red rum I will never forget. I will never forget.

Ryan: That’s a powerful movie too. If you haven’t seen The Shining, put that on your watch list.

Roberta: Yes. Halloween time. Not in the, not. If you want something lyrical and light in the summer. I want to say to everybody, I’m going to New York this weekend just for a few nights and hope to get to the Met to see the Harlem Renaissance Show, which I have not seen, but I’m looking forward to.

I’m also going to a gallery, Lehmann Mopan in Chelsea, which has a showing by OSGEMEOS the Brazilian Twin Street artists who are having a big show. I forget if it’s at the Whitney or someplace, some museum showing coming up in the fall. But right now you can go see them, have a preview at the gallery and I’m very excited for both those things.

Ryan: Great. I hope you have a great time.

Roberta: Thank you. So shall we wrap it up and have a nice, cool breezy. See you later.

Ryan: Well, thanks for listening everybody. This has been Artblog Radio’s, Midweek News. And I’m Ryan.

Roberta: And I’m Roberta.

Ryan: Thanks for listening.

Roberta: Bye everybody.

Ryan: Bye-Bye.

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