News
Prepare for more outdoor concerts and events than you even know what to do with! The lineup for the 2012 Free Outdoor 40th Street Summer Series has been announced, with a lineup featuring Philly mainstays such as Slavic Soul Party and Sun Ra Arkestra. All concerts are to be held on the green space just behind the Walnut Street Free Library at 40th and Walnut Streets beginning at 6pm. And City Hall Presents, a new series of events incorporating all of Philly’s performing arts, began in the City Hall Courtyard on Wednesday, June 6th, with three different local percussion ensembles. You can RSVP for upcoming events here.
University City District knows that we need exciting temporary public art, and they have gone above and beyond in providing for us this summer! They’re launching a series of exhibitions at the Porch at 30th Street Station. Aside from Heart & Soul, for which artist statements and piano locations have just been announced, there is “Hakoniwa,” by Pew Fellow Nami Yamamoto. A celebration for both of these events was held on Wednesday. And the University City Dining Days have been announced as well, with a video of Jose Garces and a list of the 34 participating restaurants.
Two incredible UArts initiatives – DesignPhiladelphia‘s “Something from Nothing: Eco-Ventions for Urban Landscapes” and the School of Film series “At the Helm: Women Filmmakers” – have received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, respectively. The grants will fund innovative new projects. “At the Helm” is led by artblog favorite Wendy Weinberg, who made the documentary film The Art of Activism, featuring Libby and Roberta!
Meulensteen Gallery in NYC presents Young Curators, New Ideas IV . The show (up now to Aug. 24) includes Jenny Jaskey, who ran an eponymous gallery in Philly a while back. We still miss her and her great ideas for shows.
People like Impressionism…nothing new here. But Edward Redfield’s landscape painting “Early Morning Sunlight, Spring,” defied all expectations at the Freeman’s Auction on June 3, bringing in $362,500 after an intense bidding war. And that’s just one of the works by Pennsylvania Impressionists that achieved stellar prices on the sale of Fine American & European Paintings & Sculpture. Comprising only 32 of the 192 lots offered at auction, the works sold for a staggering $762,819 all together.
There’s a new Executive Director of Marketing at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Jennifer Francis, currently Head of Press and Marketing at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, will begin her new duties at the PMA in mid August. Full press release here.
The 45th annual exhibition of Art of the State runs from June 16 through Sept. 9 and includes 129 works of art by 115 artists from 30 counties. This year’s exhibit received 1,836 entries from 680 artists. Photos from the event are on Flickr, and more info can be found at the Art of the State site. Here is the list of artists from Philly and surrounding counties. Congrats to everyone!
Philadelphia
Jena Campbell, Peter Cunicelli, Robin Frey, Paul Hamanaka, Linda Johnson, Emilie Keim, Nancy Middlebrook, Mimi Oritsky, Carolyn Pyform, Laura Ramos, Robert Solomon, Sabina Tichindeleanu, Jason Ward, Russell Williams
Bucks
Paula Everitt, John Mathews, Mark Pettegrow, Robert Small
Chester
Barbara Grant, William Hill, Mary Kane
Delaware
Toni Kersey, Jason Rowles, Peter Smyth, Dganit Zauberman
Montgomery
David Moyer, G. Heinze Moyer, Laszlo Bagi, Jorj Bauer, Jupi Das, Karen Freedman, Linda Dubin Garfield, Lorraine Glessner, Mike Hale, Patricia Shaw Lima, Justin Snow, Bill Strouse, Anthony Tammoro
Via Dolores Poacelli – Jersey Arts has launched what appears to be a very nice artists’ registry. We want one in Philly!
The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage has recognized Fleisher Art Memorial, the little center that keeps on giving, with a Cultural Management grant. Pew has awarded $831,900 through the Philadelphia Cultural Management Initiative (PCMI) to eight arts and culture organizations in the Philadelphia area. In addition to Fleisher, Musicopia, Curtis Institute of Music and the Clay Studio have also received awards. A full list of grantees can be found here. Congratulations to all!
Opportunities
Denise Bibro Gallery welcomes emerging artists from all the New York boroughs to apply for its open call. They’re looking for recent MFA graduates or current MFAs who have no exclusive representation by any commercial gallery. Submissions must contain a CD with a resume, artist statement (or, relevant description of a particular project or work being submitted), five to ten images: and a word document with Medium, Dimensions, Date. The exhibition will run November 15 through December 22, 2012, and the deadline to submit is July 28, 2012. If you have any questions, please email info@denisebibrofineart.com or call 212 647 7030.
via Leslie Kaufman – If you’re a sculptor with a taste for adventure and partnership, local theatre club Philadelphia Artists’ Collective may have a wonderful Artist in Residence opportunity for you. PAC is seeking a sculptor to partner with them for one of their theatre production. This AIR is a foray into new territory for them, partly because they’ve only ever worked with painters before, and partly because one of the play’s main characters is a sculptor. Please contact katherineafritz@gmail.com for more details, or by phone at 518-260-7284. PAC’S website has more information about their mission and the Resident Artist Program.
For artists in the Northeast: The Society of Arts and Crafts is offering the $25,000 John D. Mineck Furniture Fellowship, meant to encourage, support and launch the career of a “young-in-career” furniture artist. Click here for guidelines and criteria. The deadline is July 16.
Leeway is presenting a special information session in Spanish on Monday, June 18 from 12:30pm to 2:00pm at Raíces Culturales Latino Americanas (1417 North 2nd Street, 1st Floor Annex). This session is free and open to the public. For questions or to RSVP please click here or email rsvp@leeway.org. A session in English is scheduled for support for Art and Change applicants on Monday June 25 from 2:00pm to 7:00pm at Fleisher Art Memorial. It’s a drop-in session and does not require an appointment; applicants will be seen on a first-come first-served basis. If you have any questions please contact Leeway.
more via Leeway– Asian Arts Initiative is looking for a development director. This position is for a senior-level staff member who participates in setting strategic direction and priorities for the organization. More information here.
Artist News
Award-winning illustrator and UArts grad Jerry Pinkney ’60 (Advertising Design) has been named to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the nation’s most prestigious honorary societies. Big congrats!
Robert Straight, Bruce Pollock and Daniel Gerwin are in the exhibition “Natural Constructed Spaces” at the Painting Center in NYC from June 19th to July 14, with an opening reception June 21 from 6 to 8 PM.
Lee Stoetzel, West Collects Director, curated “Fake Empire,” at Mixed Greens, a show that offers wry commentary on historic architecture and America’s place in the world. The exhibit begins today and runs until July 12, with an opening tonight, June 8, from 6-8 pm.
Terry Adkins, seen outside the ICA this week, inundated us with news, all of it pretty phenomenal. His 30-year retrospective, Recital, is coming up at the Tang Museum at Skidmore College. He is in a group exhibit, True North at the Anchorage Museum, and his project about the first African American North Pole explorer, Matthew Henson, is in La Triennale, in Paris, curated in by Okwui Enwezor. He also is showing at Gallery Zidoun in Luxembourg, with an exhibit/performance of his work The Principalities, which is about Jimi Hendrix as an angel who descends to earth. Adkins is a part of the Bearden Project at the Studio Museum in Harlem as well. Oh, and he’s got a piano piece in University City District’s Heart and Soul temporary outdoor piano project.
