Asheville's smART Space residency program

photo by Max Cooper
Last November, Melissa Terrezza, Sean Pace and Jeremy Russell became the first artists to be awarded a residency through the city of Asheville’s newly created smART Space program — the brainchild of Diane Ruggiero, Superintendent of Cultural Arts. For 90 days, the artists are allowed around-the-clock access to the 2,100-square-foot space on the ground level of the Pioneer Building, and are given a $1,500 honorarium. The public is invited to drop in on the artists while they work, and on March 2, a closing reception will be held for the community to witness the fruits of their combined creative efforts.

Read more about the artists' projects, the smART Space program, and how to apply as an artist for a smART Space residency: Asheville gets smART Space; Mountain Xpress 2/14/12

Art on a cart has grown up

I've written about The Easel Rider before, but this UNC-TV video has really affirmed my faith in this program. Funded with city dollars, the Easel Rider requires less resources to operate and can potentially provide greater outreach than traditional "recreation center" programs.

Another innovative aspect is that the Easel Rider can accommodate a variety of artists and media thanks to the help of new media artists Mark Koven and Gene Felice who outfitted the van with some state of the art digital electronic equipment.

I'm not sure how many other cities in the US have implemented programs similar to Easel Rider, but I hope people can look to this production as an example of inspired and resourceful city spending.

If you are an artist/writer/performer who would like an opportunity to utilize the Easel Rider, follow this link for more information

Chaos in Berlin

In April 2007 I spent two weeks in Berlin with my friend Sebastian Collett. We stayed at a squat called Tuntenhaus, went to a couple of raves, rode the subways, looked at art, etc. I also went to the craziest dance performance somewhere in East Berlin where we were blindfolded and then made to interact with the dancers. I loved all the graffiti, the Turkish food, and the way people are so candid and yet so guarded.

While I was there I filmed some of the sights, and interviewed a few artists, and when I got back to the states I used the facilities at the now defunct public access station, URTV, and put together this video. The sound quality of the interviews is quite atrocious, but the music -- by Sys-hex, Glossolalia and Pomme de Terre -- is pretty keen.

Link to video: Chaos in Berlin

One of the people interviewed is a choreographer, Tomi Paasonen. Check his work here: www.paasonen.com

Happy Holidays

City-sponsored Yarnstorming June 10th

Yarnbombed pothole by Juliana Santacruz Herrera

It's like graffiti, but with yarn.

There's something so benign about knitting, eg., tea cozies and winter scarves. But plenty of artists have done some pretty badass things with yarn. (check out this Facebook group for some neat examples.)

Now there's this thing called yarnstorming, (or yarn bombing): the act of wrapping public fixtures with sheathes of knitted or crocheted yarn -- kind of like a decoration that can be removed at any time. According to this wikipage on yarnbombing, "the practice is still technically illegal, though it is not often prosecuted vigorously."

On Friday June 10th the Asheville Parks, Recreation and Cultural Department will be conducting a FREE yarnstorming workshop 4-7pm at Amboy Park.

According to the event's flyer, no knitting experience is necessary. Instructors will be on hand to teach people how to knit, and install their knitted creations. There will be snacks and music too! It's almost too good to be true, (though I admit that I'm a little bummed to read that all installations will be removed by the city within a week.)

For more information, contact Diane Ruggiero, Superintendent of Cultural Arts, at 828-259-5815

Click here for directions to Amboy Road Park.

Asheville Rites Project: A public art + performance piece

Photo of Molly Rose Freeman by Matt Rose, courtesy of Verve Magazine

For the next two weeks Molly Rose Freeman will be painting five 10' x10' panels for the Asheville Rites Project, a collaborative performance piece that comes together on May 21. The panels are installed in amphitheatre format in the RiverLink sculpture and performance plaza, an outdoor venue located at 117 Riverside Drive, across from the Cotton Mill Studios and 12 Bones Restaurant.

A dance choreographed by Garth Gimball is set to take place at dusk on May 21st (raindate is May 28th) at the plaza with Freeman's panels serving as the backdrop. Live music will be performed by Michael Libramento. The event is free and open to the public. In the meantime, you can swing by and check out the mural as it progresses.

This project is made possible with the help of Kickstarter donations, RiverLink, Arts2People, Asheville Mural Project, The River Arts District Artist Community, and Asheville Ballet

Read more about Molly Rose Freeman: Wall Flower: Verve Magazine May 2011

Asheville Mall Flash Mob

This kind of stuff is so great.

My wish for a new year

Mural on The Berlin Wall

International borders are abstract concepts, little more than lines on maps that we imagine upon the earth. Existing outside of the real world of rivers, mountains, or deserts, political boundaries have no bearing on ecosystems. ~Art against the Wall by Scott Nicol.

In the last decade, border controls have tightened so much that frequently artists are denied entry into countries. Take, for example, the denial of 5 Iraqi artists into Britain last April, who were part of a prestigious art show in Manchester, and the two artists that were refused visas into Scotland in 2009.

It’s not just a security issue however. The strict border laws are also motivated by economics. Last summer, Asheville performer Claire Elizabeth Barratt was denied entry into Canada – a country she has visited several times in the past – because of a discrepancy concerning her teaching a workshop. The border patrol didn’t like the idea of Barratt receiving payment in Canada so they denied her entry.

This is a real tragedy because artists and intellects are being denied collaborative opportunities and the exchange of information. While information transmitted via Internet has never been greater, vital face-to-face collaborations are being threatened. And it’s not just amongst visual artists: musicians, writers, Nobel Prize Laureates, dancers, athletes and intellectuals all face a growing epidemic of tightened border controls.

My wish for the new year is that the collective consciousness will actively reject ideas of borders and hierarchies of power. As artists we will take on more collaborative projects that harbor cooperation and creatively challenge cultural notions of "us" versus 'them."

Happy New Year everybody!

For artists, border fence is subject and venue

The Border Crossing Art Project

Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project

No one is Illegal

Art Against War

Lisa Nance mural at Downtown Books and News

While strolling through Downtown Books and News this weekend, I was delighted to discover a wonderful new edition to the store.

Recently DBN manager, Julian Vorus, had the walls of the store painted a crisp shade of white, but he noticed that handprints kept appearing on the door to his office. To fix this problem, Vorus commissioned local artist Lisa Nance to paint this mural.

The books on the shelf contain the names of people who have worked at DBN or have been associated with the store in some way. I love the little Star Wars creatures.

This is Retail, the cat who made DBN her home for over a decade. Retail passed away more than 3 years ago. She was crotchety and adorable. She had a little lightening bolt on her head. We all were sad when she died and I think this is the perfect homage to her.

You can find the mural in the magazine section of the store which is located at 67 N. Lexington Ave.

View more of Lisa Nance's work at www.gooeygrissom.com

Cruising around the City of Brotherly Love

I spent the weekend in Philadelphia, a city I've never visited before, and had a smashing time. I didn't go into any art galleries, but just walking around was a visual feast. I also learned heaps of interesting historical tidbits, like the fact that Betsy Ross was married five times.

For $5 I was able to hop on and off the city's Phlash Trolley at touristy hotspots like the Rodin Museum (free admission), The Liberty Bell (free), and The Art Museum ($16). I didn't tour the Art Museum but hung outside with the George Washington Monument. The sculpture's wild fetishization of colonialism provoked me to study it at length. Naked Native Americans lounge around with pacified indigenous beasts while the genteel Caucasian founders of this country are represented on a higher platform. A mammoth George Washington on horse presides over them all.

Down at Penn's Landing near the Delaware River, The Irish Memorial captured my attention as it tells the story of Ireland's potato famine and the Irish emigration to the US. Lots of children were playing amongst the tombstones, and happy couples were getting their pictures taken next to it. I love memorials that people can climb on.

Masonic Temple at left, City Hall at right

Center City is quite impressive with it's regal architecture and contemporary public art.The infamous Robert Indiana Love Sculpture is to be found in this part of town. The Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons that loomed a street over piqued my curiosity but unfortunately it's closed to the public on Saturdays. They offer tours Tues-Fri.

Walking around Philadelphia one notices a lot of outdoor murals and mosaics. The Philadelphia Mural Arts Program offers tours of the murals. On South Street I came across the Magical Gardens -- a labyrinth of mosaics of mirror, glass and found objects constructed by Isaiah Zager. Other mosiacs by Zager are scattered throughout The South Side neighborhood.

The Mutter Museum College for Physicians held a bounty of scientific and medical couriosities, and it was enthralling at first to look at all the skulls, deformed skeletons and gangrene hands, but after awhile I felt a little sickened by the multitudes of misshapen babies floating around in glass jars.

As captivating as the decapitated, was the museum's visual art exhibition: Corporeal Manifestations -- the first of it's kind for the Museum and hopefully they will run more in the future. I was particularly stirred by Tip Toland's sculpture, Survivor. I imagine it to be a physical representation of the gaps one lives with psychologically/spiritually after experiencing trauma.

In the end I give Philadelphia a hearty thumb's up for it's public art and cheap stuff to do on the fly. It kind of reminded me of Savannah Georgia with all it's history, cemeteries and squares. It also reminded me oddly enough of Berlin given it's sculptures, street art, grandiose architecture, and governmental monuments.

Two shows to go see in Asheville

The artwork of Nathanael Roney is currently on display at Harvest Records in West Asheville.

Ted Harper has drawings at Bobo Gallery on Lexington Ave. And a dazzling mural in the alley.

Read more about the work of these two artists in this article I wrote for the Mountain XPress

Somewhere Along the Line

In this video by Rod Murphy of 6;14 Films, Asheville artist Paul Olszewski recounts the long and checkered history of a large mural he painted in the mid 1990's and has since carted all over the United States. Weighing between 2,000 and 3,000 pounds, the painting was finally exhibited for the first time in the River Arts District this past November via crane (!!!)

For all you non-Ashevillians who write to me wondering what is like to be an artist in Asheville -- this is a video for you to watch.

I recommend visiting this YouTube link to see a bigger and better version of the video.

More storefronts for artists please!

Artist Paul Hayes has created a paper mobile, "Giant Ghosts" in an empty storefront at 989 Market St. in San Francisco.

Photo: Lance Iversen / The Chronicle

I really like the idea of artists using vacant storefronts as a space for public art installations. This has been happening in many cities. Two examples of this are: San Francisco and Toronto. It seems like such an ideal response to the recession -- providing a forum for artists, and benefitting property owners by attracting people to the site and deterring crime. For a more in-depth look at this phenomenon read this NyTimes article by Diane Cardwell

In Asheville, unfortunately, I haven't seen any of this though I have seen some empty store fronts and I have seen some creative window displays for retail shops. One of the most notable is the holiday window display at The Honey Pot by Tara Jensen who regularly creates mixed media installations. Check it out next time you're on Lexington Avenue in downtown Asheville.

Holiday head used on a mannequin for The Honey Pot display by Tara Jensen