Fleisher Art Memorial @ the White House
Student Zulmarie Nazario, 16, attended a ceremony on November 2 at the White House where she received the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award from First Lady Michelle Obama on behalf of the Fleisher Art Memorial. The prestigious award is for Fleisher’s work to develop learning and life skills in young people through the arts and creative experience. Nazario is one of many students who participate in Fleisher’s after school program in which a number of activities help young people explore their artistic and creative abilities.

Matt Braun, Executive Director of Fleisher and Zulmarie Nazario with Michelle Obama.

Barnes continues education with construction workers

Construction workers listen to an art lecture courtesy of the Barnes Foundation.

Although the old Merion location may be closed, and the new building not yet complete on the Parkway, the Barnes Foundation has not stopped its mission of art education.  Philly.com reports that the construction workers laboring on the new Barnes building have been receiving in-depth classes about art and aesthetics every Wednesday courtesy of John Gatti, painter and education director for the foundation.  Classes are in the construction trailer across the street from the new Barnes site.

Mural News
Two upcoming mural programs look great. First is the The Roots Mural Project courtesy of the Mural Arts Program and South Street Headhouse District honoring Philly’s hometown heroes and internationally recognized band, The Roots. Catch Questlove at the press conference on Monday, November 7 at 10:30 AM at Headhouse Square. Second, on Sunday November 13 Sonia Sanchez will kick off Peace is a Haiku Song, also a Mural Arts Program, in conjunction with First Person Arts Festival. The project is a collaborative haiku poem in which anyone can participate. The products will become part of an art installation designed by Anthony Campuzano and displayed during the First Person Festival,  We think it’s inspired programming to have word artist (Campuzano) do a word art mural through First Person Arts (which is all about words) and the Mural Arts Program (all about imagery).

An exploration of recorded sound by Bill Moriarty

Bill Moriarty

Venturing into the ephemeral realm of sound, hipster Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction is showing, er playing the sound art of Bill Moriarty this month. The mixing artist, recording engineer, sound designer, and record producer has worked with Man Man, Dr. Dog and lots of other bands. The audio show opens tonight, November 4 (reception 6-8 PM) and runs through November 27.

Anti-Wall Street art on Lancaster Avenue (and beyond)

Previously Occupied: 1984-1988 will showcase a number of works made by Virginia Maksymowicz during the mid 1980s, when she worked a day job as a temporary secretary for major Wall Street firms. The opening doubles as a fundraiser for Occupy Philly, accepting donations in the form of checks and warm clothing, blankets, etc. (please, no food). The reception is on November 11 from 6-9 PM.

Schuylkill Center Hawk Mountain trip

The Schuylkill Center wants to take you to Hawk Mountain, the best place in the Northeast to view the fall raptor migration now underway.  Check the Center’s upcoming trips scheduled for more (the next Hawk Mt. trip is November 5)  (Did you know raptors migrated?  We at artblog are amazed because they never come through our backyards.) Cost is $25 for members and $35 for non-members. Space is limited so call 215-482-7300 x 110 or email scee@schuylkillcenter.org for more info.

Opportunities

You’ve heard of CSA’s? That would be Community Supported Agriculture.  Now there is CSA, Community Supported Art, a new nationally-syndicated program in Philadelphia’s Office Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy that seeks to hook up collectors and artists to foster the economic stability of artists and the art community.   Community Supported Art Program is sponsored byf the Knight Foundation. The deadline for application is November 30 and you can find a PDF with more info here.

The Schuylkill Center is looking for artists and crafters for a family craft event December 4. There is a $20 fee for a vendor table, but, give a 45-minute children’s workshop the day of the craft fair and  your table is free. The deadline to apply is November 11.

Here’s news about Artspace and Artist’s Space, so don’t be confused now.  Artspace is offering a chance to win a free trip to Art Basel Miami Beach in exchange for signing up for a free membership. And Artist’s Space in New York endured a short occupation by a splinter group of Occupy Wall Street recently.  The group had its own hashtags (#Occupy38), campers, and a dance party, naturally.  via Art Fag City

Hello yogis and hard bodies. Culture Monster reports that performance artist Marina Abramović is “seeking dynamic adult men and women, 5’– 6’ tall, with excellent physical stamina, focus and discipline” for an upcoming show at LA MOCA. All ages welcome. For more info, visit her Facebook page.

The Gallery at Delaware County Community College is seeking fiber artists mainly working in a sculptural format for an upcoming group exhibition to be potentially included in FiberPhiladelphia 2012.  via InLiquid

Wexler Gallery is seeking a Gallery Administrator to replace current admin, Phil Jackson, who is moving to New York.  via InLiquid.

Artist News

Penn Design professor Terry Adkins has a major upcoming show at Tang Museum. This is a big traveling show with a catalog.

Sarah Moore, "Backwards".

Sarah Moore‘s photography series “Expanse” is featured in this month’s issue of the online Fraction Magazine.

Knapp Gallery has a show of furniture this month – a first for the gallery .  The artist is Karl Slocum, the gallery director.

Educator Janice Merendino recently had a write up about the art workshops she designs and conducts for people with cognitive, social and physical disabilities at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Jayson Musson as Hennessy Youngman

Former Philly-ite (he’s now a Brooklynite) Jayson Musson’s alter ego Hennessy Youngman is on the bill at a comedy showcase that’s part of the big New York performance art festival, Performa.via Art Fag City

Installation view of Tony Birch and Tom Nicholson, Camp Pell Lecture, Artspace, Sydney, 2010. Courtesy of Artspace.

Tamar Guimarães’s slide-work A Man Called Love (2007) provides a portrait of Francisco Candido Xavier, a Brazilian psychic who wrote prolifically and was a famous figure in his country. The Brazilian artist narrates the story of the psychic’s life and inevitably crosses over into issues of race, class and politics of the country from 1964 to 1985. The collection of found photographs and archival images overlap one another. The presentation is fluid, and thoughtful depth exists between the power of the images and the unfolding of a complex history. The slides of political turmoil and protests contain a certain otherworldliness; perhaps their presentation within the life of a psychic imbues the images of smoke-filled streets with a spiritual quality. Ultimately, A Man Called Love leaves the viewer with a multiplicity of meanings, a story unfolds and the paths of interpretation open up.

Installation view of Tamar Guimarães, A Man Called Love, 2007, Artspace, Sydney, 2010. Courtesy of Artspace.

Similarly, the collaboration between historian Tony Birch and artist Tom Nicholson, Camp Pell Lecture (2010; pictured at the beginning of this article), explores diverse histories of a geographic site. Camp Pell, a military camp turned public housing project once in Melbourne’s Royal Park (which has lain unoccupied since the 1956 Melbourne Olympics), is now the site for the new Children’s Hospital. The Australian duo has created a room in which five video/image series project simultaneously along with the reading of five lectures. The lectures, read sporadically (sometimes there is silence, sometimes one voice, and sometimes up to 5 voices), speak of early expeditions, ethnographic displays at the Melbourne Zoo, the military camp and the housing complex turned slum which was eradicated prior to the 1956 Olympics. The result, for the viewer, is a cacophony of history at some moments, and an absence at others. What we see and what we hear only ever denotes a small portion of the history present in a site. Archival images mix with slow-paced videos of the empty site (sometimes seen as a park, other times seen as a construction site), words emerge and overlap. The result is a complicated portrait, a true presentation of the complexity of history.

Installation view of Tony Birch and Tom Nicholson, Camp Pell Lecture, Artspace, Sydney, 2010. Courtesy of Artspace.

Just such a rich and complicated story unfolds in the third space of Artspace through the work of Vancouver-based video/installation artist Jayce Salloum. The space features 10 videos mainly featuring interviews. Salloum’s work (part of an ongoing videotape, Untitled, 1999-present) uncovers histories of locations and locations of histories (to use his phrasing) through one-on-one talks with the displaced. Most poignant (and most salient with the 2010 Olympic Games soon to start in Vancouver) are the interviews with the native people of the Syilx Territory in British Columbia. They speak very frankly of the difficult truths of their contemporary lives as a consequence of the contact with European settlers and the loss of their land. “When we lost that land, we lost a part of ourselves,” one woman quietly states in a conversation about displacement, marginalization, assimilation and loss of a national identity. Conversations with people from Lebanon and Palestine, as well as with natives of New Zealand and Western Canada are interspersed with other videos of natural scenery and interior shots. Salloum thus creates a larger landscape through his installation, the land comes alive through the words of people who have lost their native homes, history rewrites itself.

Installation view of Jayce Salloum, all is not lost but some things may have been misplaced along the way (or) of endings and beginnings and some points in-between, and other works from the ongoing videotape, untitled, 1999-ongoing, Artspace, Sydney, 2010. Courtesy of Artspace.

The wonderfully complex installations at Artspace plumb the depth and complexity of historical revision, enforcing the idea that both reported history and current news need to be questioned and reconsidered. Be sure to explore the multiplicities of histories at Artspace on display up until February 27.

artblog covered the day-long symposium LINC and others sponsored that was all about creating affordable work/live space and other issues (health care for artists). Here is a post and here is another and you’ll find more links in our index under “linc.”

Today, one of the LINC participants, Chris Velasco, who at the time of the LINC symposium was with a group called ARTSPACE, sent out a news blast from his new organization (new to me at any rate) PLACE. Velasco was the housing-sector expert at the LINC meeting.

Aside from the acronymification of the non-profit sector, the news from PLACE is good, and the email came with this lovely aerial view of Philadelphia, which I am sharing.

Aerial view of our fair city that came with the PLACE email this morning.

Here’s the news:

The William Penn Foundation and the Philadelphia Fringe Festival have launched a major new initiative to create up to three state-of-the-art communities for artists, arts organizations and creative businesses in Philadelphia. PLACE (Projects Linking Art, Community & Environment), a nonprofit arts and community development organization, has been hired as the lead consultant on the initiative.

The PLACE team is actively engaged in acquiring up to three sites in Philadelphia and Greater Philadelphia. Each site will become a sustainable, mixed-use, mixed-income cultural community.

PLACE seeks three, large-scale sites that offer, or can be improved to offer, at least 150,000 square feet each. Due to the affordable/nonprofit nature of the projects, it will be necessary to acquire sites as affordably as possible. Proximity to Center City is preferable—a preference specified by an overwhelming majority of the arts community. Also important is access to mass transit. Both new construction sites and adaptive reuse sites will be considered. Existing buildings must offer high ceilings (11-foot minimum) and natural light. PLACE will prepare and sign an exclusive option to purchase, or long-term lease.

The group has moved far enough along to have selected a couple of architecture/design firms and hired them for the rehabbing jobs when they do come along. (construction would begin in late 2008/early 2009–that’s a target, not a firm date)

Here’s the design team, apparently known for their green projects:

FX Fowle Architects and

Kitchen and Associates

Kitchen and Associates did the rehab in Kensington known as Coral Street Arts House. Here’s a link to a nice lost and found project related to Coral St.

You can sign up for the email newsletter at the PLACE website which, at the moment, is still under construction. I’m glad this stuff is moving along, albeit slowly. It’s a good idea.