News

Along with much of Philadelphia and the surrounding regions, we were shocked and saddened this weekend to learn that Lewis Katz had lost his life in a plane crash. Known across the region as a builder of schools, founder of charitable organizations, owner of two sports teams, passionate Temple alum, and in general an exceptionally kind human being, Katz died four days after he and fellow investor H. F. “Gerry” Lenfest won control of The Inquirer, The Daily News and Philly.com. Jeff Gammage and Melissa Dribben’s obituary on Philly.com is an elegant reminder of the acts of generosity for which he was known, and many which are unknown to most.

The Delaware Art Museum is coming up on a landmark this summer, when they put on their first performance art exhibition. Presenting the fittingly-titled Retro*active: Performance Art from 1964-1987, the DAM’s exploration of the far-flung reaches of the art form opens June 14 and runs to September 21, 2014. There’s also an exciting traveling exhibition that picks up on July 12, wrapping up on the same day as the stationary one.

Second lives of things we loved the first time around: HereTV has picked up Straight and Butch, the 2010 documentary by our friend and steadfast documentarian Butch Cordora.  Old and new viewers can relive what it’s like to recreate saucy photos for a calendar while coaxing straight men to challenge the boundaries of their own straightness on camera (spoiler: “agonizing” is a key word employed by Butch). Additionally, Straight and Butch found a perfect venue for the silver screen at The Ritz at the Bourse, which chose it as the “Midnight Movie” last Friday night. Keep the momentum going, Butch – we don’t mind sharing you with the world.

Opportunities

Goddard College in Vermont, known as an artistic haven, is offering an ongoing call for applications for its Low-Residency MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts. The residency in Vermont has the more immediate deadline, June 15 for the session running July 25–August 1, 2014; the Washington residency, which runs September 19–27, 2014, has a July 15 priority deadline (fee waived), and the regular deadline is August 15. Both options are equally beautiful: the main campus in Vermont is in historic Plainfield, Vermont, close to the state capitol of Montpelier; the West Coast program is in the Fort Worden State Park in Port Townsend overlooking Puget Sound and the Western Washington mountains.  To apply, you’ll need to fill out the online portion, submit a $40 application fee, provide three letters of reference, and submit transcripts. The mailing address is Goddard College, Office of Admissions, 123 Pitkin Road, Plainfield, VT 05667, and full details about the program and its requirements can be found on their MFA page. For any questions, contact David De Lucca, Admission Counselor at david.delucca@goddard.edu.

Philadelphia Sculpture Gym is offering a great summer deal to students and recent graduates, with June, July and August boasting memberships at $120/month (normally $225/month. Members have access to a fantastic weld shop, metal shop, ceramics shop, molding & casting, jewelry and wood shop, through which Jenny Welsh is all too happy to take any prospects on a walk-through. If you’re interested, give her a holler at PSGJennyWelsh@gmail.com

Artist News

San Francisco visitors and natives can check out some of Christopher Davison’s wooly, bizarre work in his new show Everyday Zeal at Alter Space. Open as of last weekend, it runs until July 12.

Street Road’s new exhibition, opened last weekend, considers the future of their local Route 41. Curated by Emily Artinian, Felise Luchansky and Maria Pithara (Cyprus), Arterial Motives presents fourteen international artists’ perspectives on traffic and land use. Those artists are Adrian Barron (Northampton, UK), Binelde Hyrcan (Paris and Luanda), Cy Kuckenbacker (San Diego), Danny Aldred (Winchester, UK), David A. Parker (Philadelphia), Felise Luchansky & Emily Artinian (Delaware), Lily Cox-Richard (Houston, Texas), Maider López (San Sebastián, Spain), MAP Office – Laurent Gutierrez & Valérie Portefaix (Hong Kong), Maya Ohashi & Izumi Takeyama (Tokyo), Michael Massaia (New Jersey). The show is up at Street Road until October 31, 2014.

Kristin Mills, boss of the Cloud Coffee Truck at Tyler and organizer of the first Cloud Prize, just had a great opening for her show at Lincoln Arts Project Gallery in Waltham, MA. Begun on May 15 – June 14, you can stop in on Saturdays from 12-4 to see it.

You know what they say about lying down with dogs. Apply that wisdom instead to internet trolls, and you get the gist of Jon Rafman’s latest production, HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL at galerie antoine ertaskiran in Montreal. Viewers (and perhaps Rafman himself) might need a brain shower after considering his multimedia explorations of the underbelly of the internet. A hilariously, trollishly poetic rebuke left for Rafman (courtesy of e-flux):

“this shit would have been cool in 2005 but you’re on goddamn 4chan in 2013, one of the biggest sites for ‘SUCH A LOSER ;_;’ people to ever browse the internet people someone didn’t found out your dirty secret life and reveal it to everyone else we’ve been doing it since the early/mid 2000s

it isn’t special

get over it” – 4chan user anon 40254871

Not that this supplements Rafman’s observations about the trollishness with which trolls defend their trolling. Oh, no. The show runs until June 28.