An art website popped up on our radar recently called Reimages, founded by art blogger Alicia Joy. She began the website to explain how knowledge can be cross-textual, translated from one form–whether written word, spoken story, etc.–and reiterated through visual image. She calls this cross-textual transformation of knowledge “reimaging,” and hence named her art blog after it.

She says,

Sometimes, I see anew what I have already known. Maybe a story or photograph will totally rewire my understanding of a character trait, like perseverance  Think of reimaging as animating and reinforcing. A given instance may illustrate a piece of knowledge, expanding and bolstering the effect of its meaning to me. Take love as an example. I may know a couple things about love, but I am sure that I will learn more about it as my life goes on. People, stories, experiences and many circumstances will reimage the meaning of love for me. Or, a good author may work hard to bring to life a strong and persistent character that animates the trait “perseverance,” reimaging such a principle for the reader. Great teachers will repeat themselves in a variety of creative ways to convey their messages, coming at it from several angles to make sure their students thoroughly understand. There is more than one way to learn, and I see this illustrative knowledge everywhere. Knowledge reimages; it resonates colorfully all around us.

To see more of her reimages, check out her website!

As part of the Armory Arts Week, the Elizabeth Foundation of the Arts invites the public to view nearly 60 Open Studios and visit the EFA Project Space and Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop!

EFA Studios member artists work in a wide range of media and artistic sensibilities, creating a vibrant and diverse community of peers under one roof. Artists on floors 3-10 will have their studios open to welcome guests to explore, interact, and investigate their art.

WHEN: Saturday, March 9 from 1:00-6:00pm

WHERE: 323 W. 39th Street, New York, NY (between 8th and 9th avenues)

Participating Artists: Samira Abbassy, Mira Alcott, Kalin Allen, Chris Anderson, Ebitenyefa Baralaye, Jaq Belcher, Rhona Bitner, Jesse Brugger, Martha Burgess, Patty Cateura, Noa Charuvi, Heejung Cho, Cecile Chong, Clare Churchouse, Vicky Colombet, Michael Eade, Stella Ebner, Sally Egbert, Beth Ganz, Roger Geier, Del Geist, Lauren Gohara, Mahmoud Hamadani, Marietta Hoferer, John Jacobsmeyer, Richard Jochum, Tamiko Kawata, Noah Klersfeld, Beth Kurtz, Greg Kwiatek, Haeley Kyong, Patricia Leighton, JC Lenochan, Phillip Low, Katinka Mann, TV Moore, Ryan Sarah Murphy, Morgan O’Hara, Gary Petersen, Armita Raafat, Max Razdow, Javier Romero, Sara Sanders, Xin Song, Gabriel J. Shuldiner, Susan Siegel, Maggie Simonelli, Jenny Snider, Eric Starosielski, Scott Teplin, Allison Wade-Wermager, Bryan Whitney

The EFA Project Space will also be hosting a public reading with Keren Cytter on Friday, March 8, from 3:00pm – 10:00pm. This public reading performance is based on Keren Cytter’s novel White Diaries. This is a durational performance; the chapters of the novel will be read aloud by actor Nick Chase and actress Candace Thompson. This event is organized in conjunction with The Book Lovers exhibition and made possible by the generous support of Israel’s Office of Cultural Affairs in New York. The Book Lovers is open through Saturday, March 9.

The Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop is a co-operative printmaking workspace that provides professional-quality printmaking facilities to artists and printmakers of every skill level. RBPMW’s mission is to support artists’ creative risk taking and innovation through print.

For more information about events during the Armory Show, please visit the Armory Arts Week website. The Armory Show: March 5-10, 2013.

For more information on our member artists, please visit the EFA Studios member gallery.

This Saturday, March 9th, Folk/Jazz Duo Jake Armerding & Kevin Gosa of The Fretful Porcupine will be  performing several, never-before-heard new songs and arrangements of songs. Special guest Monica Allison will also be preforming. Don’t miss this exclusive event!

Where: All Angels Episcopal Church (UWS)

When:  6pm Gallery Opening with refreshments including fresh made desserts by New Creation Bakery
7:30pm Coffeehouse Concert featuring The Fretful Porcupine and indie singer- songwriter Monica Allison

$12; free admission with student ID!

Learn more and RSVP to Facebook invite here.

Hypertrophic Visions

Curated by Robin Reisenfeld

Exhibition Dates: March 8 – April 12, 2013
Gallery hours: M-F, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., and Saturday, 1-5 p.m.

Opening Reception: Friday, March 8, 6-8 p.m.

Location: NYCAMS, 44 West 28th Street, 7th Floor
Directions: N/R to 28th Street
Contact: Adam Erickson, 212.213.8052

The exhibition Hypertrophic Visions opens at the NYCAMS gallery, 44 West 28th Street, 7th Floor, on March 8 and will run through April 12.

The artists included in Hypertrophic Visions, Jonathan Ehrenberg, Matthew Fisher, Valerie Hegarty, Darina Karpov, Hiroyuki Nakamura, Katy Schimert, and William Villalongo draw from a confluence of personal, cultural and mythological narratives infused with imagery and symbols that trade both in art historical and vernacular traditions. Picking up upon certain strategies and techniques reminiscent of Surrealist play, these artists rummage, delve, and borrow to invent imaginary histories whose stories alter, deviate, and mutate along the way.

“All convey a sense of disruption through exaggeration and/or magnification and often wed motifs drawn from different periods and cultures to register the psychological rawness intrinsic in our accelerated milieu saturated by information,” explains curator Robin Reisenfeld.  “Collectively, they engender our tenuous relationship to physical reality and a condition of precariousness intensified by a decade-long series of geopolitical, environmental and economic crises and social uncertainty.”

Through historical, spatial and temporal disjunctions these artists recount the destabilizing aspects as well as attending transformative possibilities inherent within contemporary culture.

Eric Leiser and Jay Mesonek seek to produce meaningful art that combines spiritual, surreal, experimental, and natural elements to draw attention to the beauty and mystery of the natural world. They are multi-media artists who have worked together since childhood, and currently work together at their production company, Albino Fawn Productions.

Their exhibition “Heartcore” will transform the Living Gallery in Williamsburg into an interactive installation forest environment. Eric’s work for the exhibition arose from the love of his childhood home in Northern California. He says, “the heavenly vibration of natural beauty found in it’s redwood forests, wild oceans, and transcendental landscapes combined with the radical lifestyles and ecological awareness of the people are key to understanding the bases for all my previous artistic work.” Jay’s work is focused on the mystery and wonder of nature and grace. Jay seeks “to extend healing through my interpretation of encounters with the divine mystery.”

The “Heartcore” exhibition will run from February 16th through March 16th from 7:00 pm—10:00 pm at The Living Gallery BK. To find out more about the exhibition, click here.

Goldin + Senneby Documentary Screening

Image courtesy of Goldin + Senneby

Friday, February 1, 3:30pm 

At Regus Meeting Room, 112 West 34 St, 17th Floor

The Winter’s Tale

From January 31 to March 3, People’s Light & Theatre Company’s new production of The Winter’s Tale will welcome audiences to the theater’s seven-acre Malvern, PA campus with a transformation from indoor theater space to outdoor event inspired by ancient pagan festivals. Directed by Guy Hollands, Associate Director of Citizens Theatre in Glasgow, and funded by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, audiences can expect a fast-paced, visceral performance by a diverse cast of People’s Light resident actors and guest artists, joined by an ensemble of amateur teen actors. An intricate weaving of indoor and outdoor components, imbued with an
“eco-warrior” aesthetic, contributes to the scope of the theater’s most ambitious production in two decades—
the result of an ongoing collaborative process between People’s Light, Hollands, and his colleagues. “We approached the Scots [because of] the artistic caliber of their work,” Artistic Director Abigail Adams explains.
“We wanted to learn from them and we did.”

Visit our Center Spotlight page for more on People’s Light’s ambitious Shakespeare production and to view additional images of The Winter’s Tale cast in action.

Image courtesy of People’s Light & Theatre Company.

Get to Know the 2012 Pew Fellows

Every year, The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage awards no-strings-attached Pew Fellowships to artists of exemplary talent in the five-county Philadelphia area. This year’s recipients include a sculptor who dissects and reconfigures items found in grocery stores, IKEA showrooms, and other outposts of consumer culture; a young choreographer who creates dance out of ordinary, everyday movements and gestures; and a pioneer of the 1960s avant-garde jazz movement who is still arranging, composing, and playing music today.

We’re pleased to present our profiles of the 2012 recipients: 13 exceptional artists, including one collaborative team, who reflect the Center’s commitment to supporting the most vibrant and innovative artists in the Philadelphia region.

Visit our Pew Fellows page for more.

Top to bottom: Alex Da Corte (visual arts), Meg Foley (dance), Marshall Allen (music). Photos by Colin Lenton.

Featured photo of Marco Roth by Endre Somogyi.

Get Centered

IAN BOGOST ON GAMIFICATION AND THE ARTS The video game designer, critic, and researcher discusses how games can be used to tackle major and minor organizational issues, specifically in the arts and culture sector.

ARTS OUTREACH IN THE 21ST CENTURY
Read our overview of The Pew Internet & American Life Project’s recent report, Arts Organizations and Digital Technologies, which investigates how the arts sector utilizes social media and mobile platforms to engage new audiences, with input from nearly 1,250 participating organizations.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS
February is packed with Center-funded events, including the world premiere of Tacita Dean’s film JG at Arcadia University Art Gallery; the East Coast premiere of Kevin Puts’ Pulitzer Prize-winning Silent Night at the Opera Company of Philadelphia; and the Rosenbach Museum & Library’s exhibition of past and present veteran stories, War Stories: Hard Earned. Unforgettably Told.

Top: Ian Bogost. Photo by Gary Meek. Bottom: Still from JG by Tacita Dean, courtesy of Arcadia University Art Gallery.

 

This spring Christ City Church launches its inaugural art show, “Renewal,” a juried exhibition from March 22–29, at Christ City’s Studio in Memphis, TN. All 2D (ready-to-hang) and 3D artwork inspired by the theme of RENEWAL will be accepted.

Christ City believes that renewal means working with all Memphians to create a better city pointing toward the ultimate restoration of all things. With this in mind a percentage of each piece sold will go to an art organization in Memphis. Submissions must be received by Monday, March 11.

For more information or to express your interest in submitting your work, visit Christ City Art’s site at www.christcityarts.com. To learn more about Christ City Church, go to www.christcitymemphis.org.

Christ City Church is a Christ-centered, city-focused Christian community in Midtown Memphis, TN, that exists to teach and follow in the way of Christ, live on mission for the good of the city, and mirror the selfless love that exists between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Christ City Art’s mission is to create cultural goods that help Memphis in every way look more and more like the new city to come.

# # #

If you would like more information about the show or to talk with one of Renewal’s organizers, please contact Jason McFarland at 901.490.2902 or email Jason at jason@christcitymemphis.org.

The Apocalypse Prize is a free religious art competition and it is open to all.

An award of $10,000 will be given to the participating artist who is best able to use the principles of Medieval Style in his own work.

This prize has been developed to present a way of making religious art based on and illustrative of the Sacred Scriptures. All themes   must be chosen from the Apocalypse of Saint John. Our website is educational and has teaching videos and many other helps to enable  participants to fully engage in this learning experience.

All artists over 16 years of age compete for the grand prize of $10,000, while artist 13-15 years compete for a second prize of $2,000,  and artists 12 years old and under may compete for a prize of $1,000. The deadline for entries is December 31, 2013.

This competition represents a complete course in Medieval art for visual artists and is unique of its kind. A free booklet of detailed  instruction in the pictorial devices used in Medieval art will be mailed to all who apply to compete on our website.

The purpose of this prize is to encourage participants and visitors to our website in their interest in Medieval art and to deepen their   appreciation of its great potential to inform contemporary religious art for the praise and greater glory of God.

ApocalypsePrize.com

Published on April 03, 2012 by Meaghan Ritchey

PRESS RELEASE

THE OTHER SIDE / Monica Lozano

3 photographic series inspired in the border town of Ciudad Juarez Mexico.

Opening Night. Thursday April 19th. 6:30 pm.

Artist Talk. Wednesday April 25th. 6:30pm

International Arts Movement. Space 38/39

38 West 39th Street, 3rd Floor

New York, NY 10018

International Arts Movement is pleased to present The Other Side, a collection of 3 photographic series by Monica Lozano, curated by Sergio Arribas and Dhruv Malhotra. Monica Lozano’s work is inspired by real stories of people’s courage, determination and strength, particularly those who have lived difficult experiences in border towns throughout the world. Her work is a poignant meditation on the human condition in a difficult time and place. By contemplating on the theme of survival, these stories are a testament of courage.

In the words of Lozano: “I was raised in the border town of Ciudad Juarez Mexico which today is considered to be one of the most dangerous cities in the world. The last 5 years I found myself exasperated by the continuous media reports about the violence in Juarez. In a desire to capture this other side I knew about my city, I found myself dedicating my photographic work to this matter. After several encounters, I realized that I was also looking to find my own hope, my own understanding and acceptance of the whole situation.”

About Monica Lozano

Following a BA in Visual Arts, Lozano received her Masters Degree in Photography in Madrid, Spain. During this time, she produced Borders, a series selected for various international photo competitions and grants including the Air Dolomiti (Lufthansa) prize at the ITS#EIGHT competition in Italy. She also completed thePhoto Global residency at the School of Visual Arts in New York on a presidential scholarship. Lozano’s elegant and socially charged portraits have been exhibited in Italy, Spain, Germany, Mexico and the United States. In 2011 she was featured under the One To Watch column in American Photo Magazine. Lozano is currently collaborating in a global action with 2011 TED Award winner JR and his Inside Out Project in Ciudad Juarez and Mexico City. International press has placed Lozano as one of Mexico’s new contemporary young photographers.

http://www.monicalozano.com/

About International Arts Movement

IAM gathers artists and creative catalysts to wrestle with the deep questions of art, faith and humanity in order to inspire the creative community to engage the culture that is and create the world that ought to be. International Arts Movement works on inspiring people to hope, engage deeply into the depth of culture’s critical zones, and create a world that ought to be. We believe that artistic excellence as a model of “what ought to be” paves the way for lasting, enduring humanity.

http://www.internationalartsmovement.org/

About the Inside Out Project

The Inside Out Project is a large-scale participatory art project that transforms messages of personal identity into pieces of artistic work. Everyone is challenged to use black and white photographic portraits to discover, reveal and share the untold stories and images of people around the world. These digitally uploaded images are made into posters and sent back to the project’s co-creators, for them to exhibit in their own communities. People can participate as an individual or as part of a group. Posters can be placed anywhere, from a solitary image in an office window, to a wall of an abandoned building, or in a full stadium. These exhibitions will be documented, archived and be made available online atwww.insideoutproject.net.

Published on February 17, 2012 by IAM

This April New City Arts Initiative will host their first ever forum this April. At this weekend gathering in Charlottesville, VA three questions will be addressed:

1. Why do the arts matter?

2. What is good art?

3. What is the responsibility of the artist.

We’re excited to report that the cityfolk have gathered their resources and talent to bring this event to fruition. Maureen Lovett, the Executive Director, shares a few words below about the experience of bringing a first-class arts event to Charlottesville. 

Since last spring, we’ve been planning, coordinating, and juggling to host some sort of conference in Charlottesville. Our ideas and plans have changed, but initially, those plans didn’t even seem to matter because the idea of fundraising was so daunting.

As an organization, we already raise funds to cover our organizational and event costs. It was too late to apply for a grant. The thought of proposing a conference budget to our already extended givers seemed unwise. Meanwhile, we needed presenters on board in order to convince sponsors to give, but without a budget yet, it felt awkward to build a schedule.

Kickstarter crossed our mind, but it seemed like too much production to take on in addition to conference planning. We reached out to a few donors to give large gifts, but with time no longer on our side, we needed a different funding outlook.

Presenters had been gracious to us by waving fees, finding alternative ways to pay their way here, and reserving lodging with friends. A catering company came on board, accepted our meager food and beverage budget, and committed to underwriting the rest of the meal costs. We had three weeks before we need to open registration and no other significant funding.

When anxiety started to set in (note: procrastination not advised), we just started asking. Everyone. I frantically called a friend to brainstorm a new network of donors. She helped me think of local people and businesses to ask, after offering a financial gift herself.  The same thing happened with the next person I called—a gift and some referrals. And the next. Soon, our board was coming up with creative ways to fund the project and asking local businesses to sponsor us around the $500-$1,000 level.

Three weeks later, our extended community had collectively agreed that this event was worthwhile by funding us in small-yet-significant increments. The true purpose of the conference is to continue building community around the arts by celebrating regional arts leaders who happen to also be top-notch presenters. Local businesses and patrons recognized the event for its potential, and came on as a part of the collective support necessary to see this event happen. If they couldn’t get out their checkbooks, people started giving coffee, beer, space, materials, and volunteerism.

We made our minimum underwriting goal of $15,000 (while decreasing our overall budget through in-kind donations) in less than three weeks through relationships, matching graciousness with graciousness, and a sincere community initiative.

We are happy to say that registration is now open: http://forum.newcityarts.org/

Published on December 09, 2011 by IAM

Folding Cosmos Japanese Tea House: A Shalom Project of The Folding Cosmos Committee & IAM

Throughout the week preceding the tenth anniversary of 9/11, the International Arts Movement hosted tea time at the organization’s midtown office, Space 38|39. IAM offered a cup of comfort and empathy through the Japanese art exhibit and interactive tea ceremony entitled ‘Folding Cosmos’. It’s the stories, the particulars, that all add up to make the events of September 11, 2001 so painful and shocking and resonant. For one who was not in New York City on that day, I feel as if I don’t belong at some of the commemoration events; I am a foreigner to this grief. I am detached. But it’s the personal accounts that allow us to feel and to feel for one another. ‘Folding Cosmos’ was not a large observance in a stereo-speakered stadium, but an intimate and participatory cultural confluence. It was a stance of solidarity and an embrace of empathy in a macrocosmic meeting place.

International Arts Movement was founded by Makoto Fujimura in 1991. Eleven years ago, the Japanese artist and his family lived only a few blocks from Ground Zero. And so on the tenth anniversary of 9/11, Fujimura read an excerpt fromFallen Towers and the Art of Tea, an essay from his book Refractions, its provenance being a blog encouraged and enabled by his children. What was once a collection of essays that Fujimura might describe as “incomplete gestures” is now one of several cultural artifacts that sprang from his reflection upon the events of that day. Refractions is a piece that became a published work with generative force.

Also from the ashes of 9/11 came Tribeca Temporary. Seeking to demonstrate something larger through his work, something wholly different from the ‘egofest’ of the contemporary art world, Mako Fujimura and other ‘Ground Zero’ artists collaborated to establish TriBeCa Temporay, a not-for-profit art gallery. Here was a space where, according to Fujimura, “incomplete gestures were acceptable, even preferred.”

After Fujimura’s reading, we were invited to step into the ‘Folding Cosmos’ for tea. Two benches squared around a table that swirled with a fluorescent oil, almost like a magic eight ball rolled topsy turvy, but with neon streaks simulating cosmic light. Fluorescent oil sliding through thin Plexiglas tubes stood in for the corners of the tea house within the greater space. Each person received a sweet pastry, as we awaited our tea. Inconspicuously kneeling, the tea master was hard at work, never breaking form, never taking a break. Ladling hot water over the green matcha essence, she whisked the mix together into a frothy broth of energy. Each bowl-like cup, an ample serving, had been thrown or cast by an IAM-affiliated potter. Each was special and delightful in its design–and used in the presence of the potter. A twice turning of the cup, cup by cup, and every guest received their tea in turn. Each serving received individual attention, yet was crafted in the same careful fashion by the tea master.  What a gift for New York City in 2011 to receive from Japan–only months down the road from the earthquake and tsunami that swept away some 12,000 people, displacing hundreds others. ‘Folding Cosmos’ was given out of mourning, from people still reeling from their own loss to others remembering their grief.

An internationally recognized artist, Fujimura has already reached far beyond Tribeca. Yet a new project set to launch this year, Generative Japan, will focus more on revitalizing the arts as an essential step toward healing in that nation. As an effort of the International Arts Movement, he hopes to see more projects unfold, like the ‘Folding Cosmos’, as restorative acts. Around Christmas of this year, Fujimura will travel to the northern provinces of Japan to give back and to see how he as an artist and how art itself can work towards the long-term regeneration of Japan. No matter how “incomplete” the gesture might be.