Pittsfield Contemporary

Pittsfield’s Center for Creative Re-Use and Sustainability Wants you to…

Rebecca Weinman — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:58:15 +0000

March 14, 2010 12:00 pm

April 24, 2010 4:00 pm

.. and DONATE to Alchemy Initiative’s EARTH DAY CLOTHES SWAP!

Clean out your closet. Heck, clean out your mother’s, brother’s, boyfriend’s and girlfriend’s closets. Bring good, clean re-wearable clothes, shoes and accessories to Alchemy Initiative. Eco-fashion has never been so sexy!

REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE, REWEAR

– Fashion show & Dance PARTY!
Come get a sneak peek from our exclusive collection, modeled by your favorite local personalities and fashionistas.
Friday evening, April 23rd 7-10 pm
40 Melville Street, upper level (former Notre Dame church)
$15 admission includes the show, live DJ, high fashion hors d’oeuvres.
$1 raffle tickets to the Bin Binge gets 5 lucky winners the opportunity to spend 2 minutes diving through the bins for first dibs …

– SWAP (women’s and men’s clothing, shoes and accessories)
Saturday, April 24, 1-4 pm
40 Melville Street
$2 admission
Pay per pound ($5/1lb) ….no limit to what you can buy.
VIP racks at rock-bottom prices!

So, take your clothes off and DONATE
Sunday March 14, 21, 28; 12-4 pm
40 Melville Street
Clothes must be in good clean condition.

UPCOMING:BERKSHIRE VETERANS PHOTOGRAPHY PROJECT

Rebecca Weinman — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:22:48 +0000

March 12, 2010 5:00 pm

April 10, 2010 5:00 pm

Berkshire Veterans Photography Project
Portraits by Bill Wright

Opening: Friday, March 12, 2010, 5pm-7pm

Lichtenstein Center for the Arts

28 Renne Ave., Pittsfield, MA

FREE and open to the public.

Catering to be provided by Joe’s Lunchbox.

WHAT: 26 portraits of veterans from Berkshire County, including 99-year-old Margeret H. Haggerty and a 22 year-old man who has served terms in two terms in Afghanistan and and one in Iraq.

The exhibit will run from March 12- April 10, 2010.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CALL 413.499.9348 OR VISIT CULTURALPITTSFIELD.COM.

FIELDTRIP: JAYELLING@ IS183RADIOACTIVEBODEGA SET-UP COUNTDOWN

Rebecca Weinman — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 19:10:06 +0000

March 6, 2010
8:00 pm

Are you going to be Lounging here tonight>?
Although we have been a bit quiet on the matter, the county-nay, the region’s biggest art party is coming to the P-Field this weekend!!!

IS183 Art School of the Berkshires will throw it’s annual blow-out and fundraiser -RADIOACTIVE BODEGA tommorrow at East Coast Refinishing. Preparations have been ongoing for months and have involved artists and art minded individuals from across the county in its execution.

Very little has eeked out, as to how the large industrial space will be converted, except that a suspended van is involved and quite a bit of welding. But PCOM’s Jay Elling is on-site today documenting the last minute preparation and giving you PCOM readers the sneaky peek!

Tickets for the dance party are $50 and include chocolates by Chocolate Springs, hors d’oeuvres by Kate Baldwin Caterer and drinks sponsored by Berkshire Mountain Distillers, Domaney’s Discount Liquors and Pittsfield Breworks- that’s right, open bar. And in that vein, Abbot’s Limousine and Car Service is offering a discounted rate of $20 (tip not included) one way rate for trips to and from the party.

Don’t have tickets yet?! Click here to buy or call IS183 @ 413.298.5252 x100, or get them night of f East Coast Refinishing.

This event is critical to the health of the art school as it is the source of almost 1/3 of the contributed income IS183 needs to operate its outreach, after-school and scholarship programs, which serve numerous Pittsfield students and employ many Pittsfield artists.

ABOUT IS183

In the summer of 1991, IS183 Art School opened its doors in what continues to be its historic landmark home, Citizens Hall, in Stockbridge. Some 50 community citizens signed up for art classes that first year. Eighteen years later in the summer of 2009, IS183 Art School welcomed almost 500 students to its studios in this same facility, over a two month period.

From absolute beginners to seasoned professionals, the programs at IS183 offer a wide range of artmaking opportunities, regardless of means. Last year almost $10,000 in need-based scholarships were awarded. Further, IS183 employed over sixty five faculty artists and served over 1,200 students of all ages—children, teens and adults, from the Berkshires and beyond—in year-round classes, workshops and intensives with local, regional, national and international faculty in Ceramics, Fiber Arts, Painting, Drawing, Sculpture, Photography, Jewelry and Mixed Media.

ABOUT EAST COAST REFINISHING

In 1999, when Pete and Claudia Melle purchased the vacant Lipton Steel plant on Industrial Drive in Pittsfield, they had a business plan to convert the cavernous 28,000 square feet into the largest surface refinishing and painting company in Western Mass.

The raw site was perfect, with 30 foot ceilings, electric cranes and space large enough to
accommodate giant 18 wheelers. They installed a huge, 800 square foot paint booth, one of the largest in the state. Five years later East Coast Refinishing has a reputation for excellence on a large and artistic scale.

Many regional artists have iron, steel and stone scale finished or refinished at East Coast. Since taking up residency they opened another business, Surface Stripping Technologies, for specialty sandblasting and polishing, and share the old building with Powers Industries, a start up steel fabrication and welding company and Keith Hadsell’s Custom Cabinetry, a fine woodworking shop. East Coast is a model of resurrecting a brown field, bringing jobs and life to the community, and supporting local arts.

Art is necessary. So is supporting it.

PULL: A.LEO NASH @ aleonash.com

Rebecca Weinman — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 01:48:13 +0000

From Blogger Josh Spear: “Photographer A. Leo Nash has been attending Burning Man for over a decade, rising early in the morning each day to document the bizarre and wonderful assortment of vehicles, structures, and other constructions that often defy description. The nature of his subject — like the festival itself — is fleeting , yet through Nash’s understated black & white compositions, we can see each surreal flight of fancy captured in time prior to being disassembled or put to the torch. Nash released a hard-bound compilation of photographs last month inBurning Man: Art in the Desert that is worth reviewing if only to appreciate the book’s unique matchbox design, if not its contents. ”

Want more Leo? Click Here.

Want more PULL? Click here.

Got something we should PULL (blog, website, etc)? Click Here, drop line.

Enjoy.

PULL: MUY GRANDA@ BERKSHIRELIVING.COM

Rebecca Weinman — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:14:35 +0000

Amanda Rae Busch reports on painter, printmaker and general arts community cornerstone Julio Granda:

“Julio is that bridge between the abstract world of artists and the reality of the working general public,” explains artist and longtime friend Tom Patti, who first met Granda through writer (and great-grandson of Herman Melville) Paul Metcalf, then a realtor-by-day who sold Granda his home in Washington. “The enthusiasm and the vigor, the way he went about things, he was sort of the spiritual leader of the band of artists that were around at that time,” Patti says. “I lived outside of the community—but he was always drawing me back into it—who could say no to Julio? He had a big influence on a generation.”

CLICK HERE TO READ AMANDA RAE BUSCH’S FULL BERKSHIRE LIVING ARTICLE ON THE INCOMPARABLE JULIO GRANDA!

UPCOMING: JOHN FFRENCH: A LIFE IN COLOR @ ALCHEMY INITIATIVE

Rebecca Weinman — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:47:36 +0000

March 17, 2010
7:00 pm	to	8:30 pm

In 2007, John ffrench was chosen by the Crafts Council of Ireland as the subject of its first “life-time achievement exhibition”, a show so popular its run was extended by several weeks. In 2008, RTÉ television broadcast A Life in Colour, a documentary on his life and work.

John ffrench, 10/5/28-1/22/10, was an Irishman by birth and known to many, locally, as an accomplished ceramicist, high school art teacher in Great Barrington and resdient of Stockbridge since 1969. Come celebrate John’s life, work, and legacy of fearless adventure, and color-filled creative abandon:

St Patrick’s Day, March 17, 2010

Alchemy Initiative, 40 Melville Street

Pittsfield, MA

Doors open at 7pm. 60 minute show starts at 8.

$5 admission. Limited general seating. Freshly baked goods and drinks will be available.

For more information, please contact the Alchemy Initiative at (413) 236-9600

alchemyinitiative@gmail.com.

UPCOMING:TALK// GRIER HORNER @THE BERKSHIRE MUSEUM

Rebecca Weinman — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 22:34:27 +0000

CLICK TO VISIT GRIERHORNER.COM

PULL: Joe Wilk@ Rocks/In/a/Blender.tumblr.com

Rebecca Weinman — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 02:07:52 +0000

As awesome, as we may be here at Pittsfield Contemporary, we do not have time to cover everything. And to be honest, you don’t have enough time to read everything. So in the interest of efficiency, we present to you PULL (working title)- the category where we pull interesting bits from our local artist blogs, and maybe some other places….we’ll let you know when we decide.

So here you go John Q. Public, a stunner from Joe Wilk of Wilk &Wright Photography and Design, 441 North Street.

Want more Joe? Click Here.

Want more PULL? Well this is the first one, so you’ll have to wait.

Got something we should PULL (blog, website, etc)? Click Here, drop line.

Enjoy.

DISH & DINE @ Ferrin Gallery

Rebecca Weinman — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 04:16:39 +0000

Ferrin Gallery just does not stop. Last Saturday, they kicked off their newest endeavor, Dish and Dine, a series of evening dinners in the gallery pairing local food with local artists. Delicious!

Here’s the break down of what when down:

ARTIST: Jason Houston Spoke about works on display “Family of Mine” and “Food & Farm”

DINE: The Market provided locally sourced tasty eats from Clover Town Baker, Pittsfield, MA, Equinox Farms, Housantonic MA, Ioka Farms, Hancock, MA, Czajkowski Farms, Westfield, MA, Woodstock Farms, Woodstock NY, Holiday Farms, Dalton MA

DISH: MaryAnne Davis functional porcelain tableware from just over the border in Chatham, NY graced the table

WHO CAME TO DINNER?

Paul Graubard who will be having a solo showing at the galley, Stories from the Bible and Other Places, March 13th – May 8th; Noted photographer, author and documenter of Pittsfield’s own Colonial Theatre renovations, Nicholas Whitman; Project Art Resident Artist Gerit Grimm on visit from Germany, the ever present paper cutter Eric Drury; Watercolorist, June Ferrin; and Performer/Farmer Billie Best of Crazy Wife Farm.

“Art and life come together at a table. Using handmade dishes to set a table provides the opportunity to express private creativity: ephemeral and memorable. The social fabric, the relationships built one meal at a time becomes the real art and the meal has an energy of a higher order. Conversation is magic, bringing each individual at the table into a personal bond.”

Jay Elling pics coming soon!

Stay tuned for upcoming Dish & Dine @ Ferrin!

FIELD TRIP @ BERKSHIRE MUSEUM: ARMED AND DANGEROUS

xartistx — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 17:25:51 +0000

“What do I want to know about the Berkshire Museum’s Armed and Dangerous: Art of the Arsenal?” That was what I was asking myself last Friday at Dottie’s Coffee Lounge. Fortunately, I was pondering this in the midst of the lunch rush, so I turned to photographer and Quite Queer party mastermind, Timothy Michael Kushi for a bit of market research. His response to what was the need to know: “accomplishments of the participating artists and the inspiration for the artists work.” Unsure as to how much of this information would be readily available, and wanting to give the community something original, I furrowed my brow and pondered how an artists perspective could be brought into the interview. Then the obvious struck me-grab a couple artists and bring ‘em along. Thus was born PCon’s FIELD TRIP.

Two hours later, I was in the Dino Dig Room with fellow Pittsfield Contemparian, Jay Elling and the fierce and fabulous Jeanet Ingalls, disputing the exact former placement of the glow in the dark rock room (removed during the museum’s renovations)* and arguing the awesome versus icky factor of the museum’s taxidermied natural history collection.

With the arrival of Berkshire Museum Director of Interpretation, Maria Mingalone and Jazu Stine, our Field Trip was ready to go and I was ready to see if this cockamayme idea had any legs.

Armed and Dangerous does not seek to glorify war but presents conflict as an element of human experience, exploring how warfare has changed over time and how weapons-as-artifacts reflect the cultural beliefs of the people who made and used them.

Early battle adornments and implements from the American Plains to New Guinea juxtaposed by an impressive wall of dramatically lit horns (of the animal, not musical persuasion) greeted us at the top of the stairs. In the midst of antlers and arms, I launched my first and only formal question to Mingalone; “what was the impetus for the exhibition?”

“Well, it was kind of by accident,” Mingalone began. “We had a summer intern assisting with the cataloging of our collection who had a special interest in weaponry. Every time I would go down there (to collection storage), there would be more unusual, beautiful objects, and we really started to get a sense of breadth and depth of this part of our collection.” Mingalone ballparked that out of the approximately 200 objects that comprise the show, 165 are part of the museums permanent collection.

*A side note, for those unaware, in 2008 the Berkshire Museum completed the installation of a Heating, Ventillation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system “that greatly improves the comfort of our guests year-round, but will also preserve the Berkshire Museum’s collections, allows more of the collection to be displayed for the public, and make possible exciting loans and exhibitions from other museums.”

“We have a diverse collection, we like to reflect that in how we mount our exhibitions-blending disciplines; taking a multi-disciplinary approach presents the richest educational atmosphere” Mingalone explained. That is why Mingalone and her exhibition team, plumbed the natural and art worlds for specimens to compliment this exceptional survey of objects designed to bludgeon, skew, intimidate and awe-to help tell the story of the evolution of one of the most universal, if unsavory human pursuits.

With my one and only official, big girl reporter question out of the way, and the museum fairly quiet, we were able to kick back and take it all in. In some ways, it is easy to be merely awed by the craftsmanship and exoticism of feathered headresses, 8 ft plus samurai swords, pony helmets and what looks to be a giant lucky rabbits foot but I was told was a quiver. “It is incredible the resources that have gone into these objects and how personal they are,” Ingalls stated in reference to an intricately done set of early Fillipino chainmail.

The objects that open the show were made for combat waged in spitting distance proximity. They are “declarations of self-as-warrior” in paint, feather, and club, and offer a sharp contrast to Berkshire based photojournalist Jonas Dovydenas‘ images of American soldiers embedded in Afghanistan.

“When you enter, it (combat) is so personal” says Ingalls , “and it becomes so depersonalized.” Reviewing a collection of early firearms, Stine adds that “it seems as if some elements of the moral code, dignity, and honor of being of a warrior has been lost.” It seemed easy to feel that way whilst looking at Dovydenas’ smoking, seemingly disillusioned soldiers with shinning suits of armor looking over your shoulder.

The exhibition, and our group, then moved beyond the soldiers, beyond the combat, to-brace yourself Mr. Kushi- contemporary art works related to the theme. Kitty corner to Dovydenas’ somber cigarette toking soldiers are images of what seem to be unoccupied cityscapes. Upon closer examination, Chinese contemporary artist Liu Bolin emerges painted to blend with his surroundings. Mingalone stated that the series, City Hiding, was partly inspired by Bolin’s displacement during Beijing’s pre-olympic city clean-up. In short, his abode went bye-bye to make nice for the tourists-Tanglewood traffic doesn’t seem so bad now, huh?

Bolin’s use of camouflage is not for the purpose of deadly stealth, but statement. Aussie artist Emma Hack uses camouflage to create sheer expressions of visual lushness, and god bless her for doing so. Her works, as well as those of the other contemporary artists, including Peter Gronquist (for any Bruno fans, he made the Chanel rocket launcher used in the film) brought a light, if cheeky note to the closing of our excursion.

Our last stop was an installation Shepard Fairey prints (many on loan from ceramicist and local educator Michael Boroniec), hung opposite World War II propaganda posters. Here the group dispersed, one half examining Fairey’s layering technique and trying to decipher the World War II propaganda, the other rating what’s good and bad for shows in the city. With the guards alerting us that the museum was in fact closed, we meandered our way out, taking in the mounted buck head with a 30 ft rack in the Crane Room. You know, just your average field trip.

TEXT//RWEINMAN

PHOTOS//JELLING

Click below for more fun time pics from Jay Elling!