News

fairgroundsolfoodpg.1 — Garden space at Little Berlin’s Fairgrounds.

Right there at the forefront of crowd-sourced fundraising, Little Berlin is using Groupon to raise money for its next mission: benches for its Fair Grounds project. And not just any old benches – they’re seeking donations of $10 or more for $1000, going towards hand-crafting five benches with the help of local artists and designers. The campaign is up for seven days, from August 20-26 – so if you haven’t already donated, act fast! For more info and access to the Groupon page visit Little Berlin’s Tumblr.

Junot Diaz, author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and winner of a spot on New Yorker’s 2010 list of 20 under 40 authors, is speaking at the Penn Humanities Forum on Peripheries lectures on November 14. Lectures are free, but as a courtesy sign up in advance. The lecture takes place in the Harrison Auditorium at the Penn Museum on 3260 South Street. His lecture is accompanied by a reading from his new collection of stories, This Is How You Lose Her, as well as a book signing.

11943716 international art curator florcy morisset new program leader for historic museum — Florcy Morisset, the new Director of the Richard Allen Museum.

Old City gallerist and curator extraordinaire Florcy Morisset has been named director of the Richard Allen Museum at Mother Bethel AME Church. Join her in celebration tonight at 5 pm for Fourth Friday’s Art Crawl at the Museum! RSVP at Florcy.morisset@motherbethel.com. Congratulations, Florcy!

WHYY’s Connections Festival, which always plays host to lots of arty things, is taking place this year from Sept 6-8. Artblog is lucky enough to be participating alongside our pals NewsWorks in the Thursday, Sept 6 Creative Connectors Festival inside the WHYY studios. The Festival kicks off with the NewsWorks.org Connections Salon on Thursday, Sept. 6, from 7 to 9 p.m, complete with performances, art displays and food and drink samples inspired by the 76 Creative Connectors. Other arty things include outdoor screenings of Friday Arts (including a segment featuring photographer Justyna Badach at 8:30 p.m) and the documentary The Barnes Collection.

Tyler’s been ranked in Artinfo’s list of “The 10 MFA Programs That Give You the Most Bang For Your Buck.” What can we say? They know how to deliver the goods.

The Philadelphia Cartoonists’ Society is celebrating their 15 year anniversary, with an art exhibit and book launch at Locust Moon Comics and Movies on Saturday, September 8, at 2:00pm. Congrats and here’s to many more years, cartoonists of Philly!

Opportunities

via wooloo – Darkroom Gallery in Essex Junction, VT has put out a call for photography entries, to be displayed in an exhibit in October. Prizes vary, with chances to win a consultation with Brooks Jensen and a membership to Lenswork Magazine. The deadline is September 19. Full details are listed above.

Beginning September 4, the MAP Fund is accepting Letters of Inquiry for an opportunity for U.S.-based performing artists, ensembles, producers, and presenters. You can apply if you are a 501c3 or apply through a fiscal sponsor. Their guidelines are fairly stringent, allowing only projects that contain a live performance and projects that have never premiered anywhere in the world before the first date of the current grant activities period. The deadline for LOIs is October 17.

Print Center switches it up – Instead of alternating its annual competitions in print and photography every other year, for the 87th Annual Competition, the Print Center is allowing artists to submit all forms of art, as long as either photo or print are integral to their pieces. Juried by Irene Hofmann, the exhibition winners receive three solo exhibitions at the Center in June-July 2013, an online exhibition, the Philadelphia Museum of Art Purchase Award, a two-year contract from The Print Center Gallery Store, and up to $3,000 in purchase, cash and material prizes.The deadline is October 30; entries are accepted online only.

Artist News

swenbeck4 lo — Paul Swenbeck at MassArt.

Syd Carpenter and Paul Swenbeck are featured in Earth & Alchemy, an upcoming show of contemporary ceramic sculpture at the Massachusetts College of Art & Design. Running from September 24 – December 24, 2012 at the Stephen D. Paine Gallery, and curated by Lisa Tung, the exhibition opens with a public reception on Monday, September 24 from 6-8 PM. A panel discussion is scheduled for Wednesday, November 14 at 6 PM with Carpenter and Swenbeck joined by Annabeth Rosen and MFA curator Emily Zilber. Free and open to the public, the Bakalar & Paine galleries are open Monday through Saturday 12-6 PM., and Wednesdays 12-8PM. The galleries are closed on Sundays.

Colette Fu is one of many featured in DIAMOND LEAVES: Artist Books from around the World, an artist book show in Beijing. Presented by (who else) the Booklyn Artists Alliance and the Central Academy of Fine Arts Museum (CAFAM) in Beijing, the exhibition is curated by Xu Bing, artist and Vice-President of the CAFAM, and Marshall Weber, artist and Directing Curator of Booklyn. A tremendously exciting achievement for Fu, this is also a win for book arts – it’s the first major museum exhibition of contemporary international artist books in China. The show runs September 18-October 28 at CAFAM.