2011 Pew Fellows announced-Congratulations!
The Pew Center for Arts and Heritage has announced its Pew Fellowships in the Arts recipients for 2011:

• Charles Cohen (electronic musician and composer)
• CAConrad (poet)
• Jorge Cousineau (set designer)
• Joy Feasley (visual artist)
• Chris Forsyth (guitarist and composer)
• Jane Irish (visual artist)
• Tania Isaac (choreographer)
• Pattie McCarthy (poet)
• Brian Philips (architect)
• Tim Portlock (visual artist)
• Matthew Suib (visual artist)
• Jamaaladeen Tacuma (visual artist free-jazz bassist, composer, and band leader)

New Philadelphia Art Alliance director-Congratulations!
The Philadelphia Art Alliance has appointed former leader of Foundation STAART, Molly Dougherty, as its new director.

Miss Rockaway Armada under construction

One of their new upcoming projects is Miss Rockaway Armada, an exhibit and parade of recycled materials from the Schuylkill River to various locations in the city before being deconstructed into an exhibit at PAA.

Leipzig documentary parallels Philly-see it at Bodega
This Friday, July 22 at 7:30 PM, Bodega will be screening the documentary HAUST by Loretta Fahrenholz. It follows recent art grads in Leipzig, Germany where the art and work landscapes mirror that of Philadelphia. The screening is free!

Nexus closes gallery @ Crane Arts
Nexus, founded in 1975,  is one of the oldest member galleries in the city. They have just closed their gallery in the Crane Arts Building. We are waiting for news to hear what comes next.

Vox AUX opens July 29-new performance space
AUX performance space, an extension of Vox Populi will be launching this month. (AUX is next to the gallery on the third floor in the 319 N. 11th St. building.)

The opening weekend, July 29-31, will be host to a variety of performances presented by local arts collectives including Bodega, Little Berlin, and Tiger Strikes Asteroid. The performances begin every night of that weekend at 8 PM.

Knight Arts beefs up Philly art coverage
Writer Chip Schwartz (ahem, that’s me) is now helping to provide additional Philadelphia arts and culture coverage for KnightArts.org. Having started in July, Chip has already written about a few local artists and shows including these reviews of Extra Extra and Grizzly Grizzly, among others.

NEA grants to reinvestment fund and UPenn
Gary Steuer announced on his blog that the the Office of Arts, Culture and Creative Economy has partnered with The Reinvestment Fund and the University of Pennsylvania’s Social Impact of the Arts Project to receive one of the largest NEA grants awarded in the “51 Cities” initiative, $250,000, to build a Creative Assests Mapping Database. This will further research on the link between cultural and economic development as well as provide a web tool to aid in planning, marketing, and policy development.

New gallery in Chestnut Hill
Seeking to crank up the artmosphere in Chestnut Hill, a new gallery has just opened its doors.

Gravers Lane Gallery will showcase established and emerging artists and has a few upcoming events planned for autumn. Check out their website for more details.

Libby and Roberta chosen as Commonwealth Speakers
Roberta and Libby were selected to be part of the 2012-13 roster for PA Commonwealth Speakers!  They will be giving their popular power point lectures about contemporary art in venues that sign up for them (libraries, community centers).  More information when the 2012 info is up on the PA Humanities Council website.

Opportunities

Lancaster Avenue Arts has an open call for proposals involving art in or on vacant storefronts. The deadline is August 8. Visit their guidelines PDF for more info.  Honorarium of $500 for each artist selected and some help with production costs!

Blow Magazine, an international photography publication based in Dublin, Ireland has regular photo competitions. Send them a CD/DVD of your work (there is no limit to subject matter) and get on their radar! See the rules for the competition here.

Special deal until September 1 at Fireball Printing: get 125 two-sided 4×6 postcards for $25!

Utrecht Art Supply is hosting its 3rd Annual Art Competition. There are three categories for painting, sculpture, and drawing and over $16,000 in prize money available.

Artist News

SCOPE London announces its winner of the Art Takes London 2011 contest.  Two Philly artists – Mike Ellyson from Grizzly Grizzly and Jesse Greenberg (of the late, lamented Pifas) -  are among the top-100 finalists, which SCOPE says are artists to watch.

At the Times Museum in China, Roxana Perez Mendez and Adam Parker Smith are part of an on-site residency program/exhibit entitled Shift (click the “English” on the top of the page to get the translation).

New York State, 2011. Digital print, drawing, paint

Harrod’s oversized digital prints beckon the viewer to look in on various scenes of a typical urban apartment: a shower, a window, a staircase, a mirror. Pleasantly familiar details, like an out-of-date plastic window shade or painted-over Victorian ornamentation remind us of someplace we have lived or visited. Yet on second glance, the spaces are impenetrable.

In several instances the artist places a bright light smack in the middle of an image, darkening the surrounding area. Instead of a view through a window or a reflection in the mirror, we see nothing but black. The weight and energy of the image thrusts back toward us, and spatial reading is undermined.

Another of the artist’s tricks is to pepper photographs with real-life objects. One pair of images, Open Shower and Shower (2011) shows a cramped tub—first without, then with a curtain. In fact they are the same photograph, but in the second Harrod has added a pencil line and a few strips of patterned toilet paper to represent rod and curtain respectively. The falsehood of these devices pokes fun at conventional representation even as it blocks our entry into the space. A photograph, we are reminded, is as flat as a piece of bathroom tissue.

Shower, 2011. Digital print, drawing, toilet paper

Harrod’s Stair Business (2011) takes the viewer on a wild goose-chase through a mocked up environment. Blob-like plaster casts hang in front of or are applied directly to the surface of a fish-eye view up and down a staircase. The piece promises to be a trompe l’oeil exploration, in which the casts move freely out of the photograph and into the viewer’s space. But some of the objects are out of proportion in relation to their position on the stairs, and the spatial reading again falls apart. The joke is on the viewer, and as if to rub it in, the artist has given his plaster appliqués a curiously scatological appearance. What kind of business, we wonder, has been done on these stairs?

Stair Business, 2011. Digital print, plaster rocks, applied prints

The artist’s ultimate expression, Retinal Burn 2, Cat and Mouse, actually hurts your eye when you look at it. You struggle to see into an array of broken-up mirrors, but their raking angles reflect only blank wall and ceiling. Meanwhile, a system of bright blinking lights burns a blue-green afterimage into your eye. The annoying string of dots that now crowds your line of sight is bitter payback for having tried to apprehend your own reflection. Promising a pleasant look into personal experience and everyday life, this uncanny and very effective show leaves you half blind.

Retinal Burn 2, Cat and Mouse, 2011. Mirror, bright lights, representation of retinal burn

Marginal Utility is located at 319 North 11th Street, 2nd Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19107. Hours: Friday 5:00-8:00pm, Saturday + Sunday 12:00-5:00pm

From left to right: Germaine Ingram, photo by James Wasserman; still from Kara Crombie's Aloof Hills, courtesy of the artist; James Sugg, courtesy of Pig Iron Theatre Company.

Here’s who won:
Max Apple (fiction writer)
Melanie Bilenker (jewelry maker)
John Blake, Jr. (jazz violinist/composer/arranger)
Kara Crombie (video artist)
William Daley (clay artist)
Orrin Evans (jazz pianist/composer/arranger)
Germaine Ingram (tap performer/choreographer)
Hanna Khoury (violinist/classical Arab musician)
Tina Morton (documentary filmmaker)
Jenny Sabin (architect/designer)
James Sugg (solo theater artist/sound designer/composer)
Charles “Chuck” Treece (multi-instrumentalist/producer/songwriter)

We don’t know the majority of these artists and we assume they are deserving and we congratulate them all.

But at a time when the visual arts scene in Philadelphia is so exciting, we are reading this movement by Pew away from cutting edge visual arts as a bellweather of future actions by Pew.  In other words, Pew’s shift in focus is a loss for individual visual artists not working in traditional areas. We don’t want to question the nominating process, the secret first entry level of names for this award — that’s a whole other discussion. We do take this as an institutional shift in direction.

It’s our belief that one reason artists have been moving to Philadelphia and staying here is the Pew (of course cheap rents, proximity to New York and the massive amount of energy in the Philly art scene right now are other big reasons). But to have this shift in focus at Pew at the same time that the PA Council on the Arts has put their fellowships in abeyance, well it’s a low blow for the burgeoning art scene.

On the bright side, it does look Pew has moved beyond the usual suspects. Meanwhile we’ll have to lick our wounds and move on to thinking about the Knight Foundation Arts Challenge.

Anne Seidman (2008 fellow), Untitled, 2006, water based paint, 15”x13” Photo courtesy of Pew Fellowships.

Melissa Franklin of the Pew called us up to give us the scoop.

“We’ve thought about this for a while. We’ve had it on our minds that there has to be a better way to review materials. We want to put into place a more thoughtful and thorough review process” She also said the context for the grant making has changed because the art has changed.  We asked her if applications were down and she said they were down slightly and we think that has to be a concern.

Franklin said the grant criteria will remain unchanged.  Pew will award grants on the basis of artistic excellence, artistic commitment and on the impact of the grant on the artist and impact of the artist’s work on society.

The traditional categories into which they forced artists to define themselves have been given the heave-ho.  ”The categories have always been problematic for a lot of artists. We have artists who have to squeeze themselves into categories. Others work in ways that defy the categories. Now we’re looking at any artistic discipline this year.

Jennifer Levonian (2009 fellow), still from You, Starbucks, Watercolor and White-Out on found map, size varies. Photo courtesy of Pew Fellowships.

As for the application, it’s been changed as well.  ”Our old questions are not very good. For example, we don’t need to know what people will do with the money.  But what we do need to know is what they’re thinking about and where they want to go with their art.

“Another thing, in the past we’d give $60,000 and say ‘See ya.’ And that’s not good enough. We need to engage more deeply with the recipients. We’re going to work out what each artist needs, whether it’s to make connections or introductions or technical assistance.”

The nomination process.

In the new nomination process, 30 nominators will select 2 artists each. The artists who are nominated are invited to apply. The categories will be literature, visual arts, dance and music, etc. (see all the categories on the Pew website).  The nominators — who Franklin said will be people with deep knowledge of the arts in the region — will change every year and they will be anonymous to protect them from undue influence and pressure from their friends. The nominators will have to write the reasons for their selection and that narrative will become a part of the information about the artist as they go through the selection process. ”An outside person can often talk about the work better than the artist.”

Charles Burwell (2008 fellow), Red Line with Three Figures, 2006, oil on canvas, 36”x36” Photo courtesy of Pew Fellowships.

After the nominated artists apply they will be evaluated by  experts around the country, who will look at the materials. Only those artists ranked high enough will go to the final interdisciplinary panel (same as now).

“The old open application assumes it’s more egalitarian and it also assumes people know about us. But some people may not even apply to us.”  (Pew historically had a 97% rejection rate of all applicants –that gets around and people who ought to be applying sometimes get discouraged).

Now the 60 nominated applicants have a 20% shot.

“This new method gives us the freedom to be proactive about people doing interesting work right now.” We asked if she could give us an example of who that might be and she mentioned King Brit and young artists in general.

We asked if the names of the 60 artists nominated would be made public each year and the answer was no. When the 12 grants are announced Pew will release the 12 names and the names of the final evaluators.

Anthony Campuzano, Pew Fellow. Photo courtesy of Pew Fellowships

Franklin told us she’d been working for a year on this overhaul. She said she worked with Cynthia Mayeda, head of external affairs at the Brooklyn Museum on the review. Franklin also said she consulted with USA Artists, Creative Capital and artists who had been on the Pew panels in the past like Amy Sillman and Kevin Young.

Over their 18 years in operation, Pew Fellowships has had 7,900 applications and has given grants to 237 artists.

“We hope people will welcome this change,” Franklin said.

For more information about this big change check the Pew Fellowships website which has a FAQ page and other information.

Marc Brodzik  media arts                               
Anthony Campuzano works on paper       
Sarah Gamble works on paper                      
Daniel Heyman works on paper                   
Ken Kalfus fiction and creative nonfiction 
Jennifer Levonian media arts  
Robert Matthews works on paper 
Frances McElroy media arts
Ben Peterson works on paper
Marco Roth fiction and creative nonfiction
Ryan Trecartin media arts
Nami Yamamoto works on paper

Artist bios and visual materials available at  Pew Fellowships website.

Last week, Pew announced its 2008 Fellows, recipients of the coveted $60,000 awards for artists in the 5-county Philadelphia area. These are the largest grants in the country that individual artists can apply for, according to Pew. This year 323 applied and 12 received the awards including 4 in painting and the three who we know who’ve been working in Philadelphia a long time we’re really excited about. Matthew Cox is a new name to us. Here’s who:

Anne Seidman painting
Charles Burwell painting 
Matthew Cox painting
Mauro Zamora painting 
Felix “Pupi” Legarreta folk & traditional arts
J. Rufus Caleb playwriting         
Russell Davis playwriting   
Katharine Clark Gray playwriting
Nana Korantemaa folk & traditional arts 
Vera Nakonechny folk & traditional arts
Venissa Santí folk & traditional arts        
Edgar J. Shockley III playwriting  


This is the 17th year Pew has given out the awards for a total of 220 fellowships totaling more than $11 million.

Anne Seidman
Untitled 2008
waterbased paint on wood panel mounted on wood.

We thought you might like to know who was on the jury (we wanted to know). The interdisciplinary panel members, who make the final decision, are listed below.

What a relief from copying, pasting and mailing!

Turns out this is a first step for Pew.

“It is kind of a test run. we thought we would just start with the painters so we could determine any problems, eliminate as many moving pieces as possible,” said Melissa Franklin, director of the fellowships.

In the course of converting to digital technology, Pew last year allowed Crafts to submit work samples on discs. Surprisingly, only about a third or a quarter of the applicants, however, used discs. “I was surprised at how many people still had slides.”

The last customer that that rents slide projectors from Pew’s supplier is Pew! “It’s almost quaint,” said Franklin. “We are only one they hold slide projectors for.”

This year’s applicants in the category of Folk and Traditional Arts may submit their images on a disc.

Looking to the future, Franklin expects the next round of applications to be totally digital, except Pew will take writing samples in hard copy and some other categories on discs. The differences reflect the needs of categories–like choreography and music (although she did add uploading music as MP3s was a possibility for the future).

Here’s the link to the applications:
http://www.pewarts.org/apply.html

The visual arts for this region just got a shot in the arm–money, the vitamin that the local art scene needs more of. The increases are part of $9.5 million Pew announced would go to the Philadelphia Center for Arts and Heritage and its programs, including Dance Advance, the Heritage Philadelphia Program, Pew Fellowships in the Arts, Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative, Philadelphia Music Project and the Philadelphia Theatre Initiative.

The two programs of these programs that affect the visual arts most are the Pew Fellowships in the Arts and the Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative.

The annual Pew Fellowships in the Arts awards (max of 12 awards annually) will increase from $50,000 to $60,000, to address the issue of inflation. Last year’s Pew Fellows included visual artists Fritz Dietel, Ed Bing Lee, and Julie York.

Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative (PEI), will support up to 13 programs with grants of up to $250,000 for exhibition implementation, up from $200,000, and will support up to $25,000 for planning, up from $20,000.

Among the programs PEI most recently gave funding to are South African artist William Kentridge’s upcoming exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the women in Pop Art exhibit that will be at the University of the Arts.

PEI will continue to offer a number of professional development activities, as well, and has expanded its guidelines to encourage increased collaboration with independent curators and visual arts organizations from outside the region and bring major touring exhibitions to Philadelphia.

And the winners of the 12 $50,000 Pew fellowships to Philly-area artists are:

Charles Anderson choreography
King Britt music composition
Nicole Cousineau choreography
Fritz Dietel craft
Ed Bing Lee craft
Gerald Levinson music composition
Adelaide Paul craft
Peter Paulsen music composition
Jamey Robinson music composition
Kate Watson-Wallace choreography
Dorothy Wilkie choreography
Julie York craft

Ed Bing Lee, Scarlet, Tangerine, Royal, Citron, Olive, 2004. knotted linen. Photo from Snyderman Gallery

Five of the recipients were first-time applicants. The winners were selected from nearly 200 artists working in the areas of choreography, craft, and music composition.

The 2007 fellowships mark the 16th year of the Pew Fellowships in the Arts.