Saturday is all da bidniz

In a previous post from earlier in the week, I mentioned the all day law and business of art program being held at Marist College from 9 to 5pm.

As part of it's annual Radius exhibit, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum will be holding a Professional Practice Forum entitled "Making Allies in the Art World: Networking and Building Relationships" led by Jackie Battenfield. The forum is free and starts at 2pm.
The juried Radius Exhibit of artists from CT and Southeastern NY will open Saturday evening at 4pm at the Ridgefield Artists Guild Galleries at 34 Halpin Rd in Ridgefield CT.

Video showcase and discussion at bau, Oct 28

Christopher Staples is moderating the video showcase and panel discussion that will be held at bau on Saturday night at 6 pm. The video artists taking part in the program are: Marcy B. Freedman, Laura Napier, Gene Panczenko, Jaankia Peerna and Kathleen Sweeney.

Upcoming grant writing and legal seminars

The Dutchess County Arts Council is sponsoring two upcoming events details of which can be found in today's POJO, and at the Arts Council website, www.artsmidhudson.org.

The first is a grant writing workshop on Monday, Oct. 23 at 10:30 at the Cuneen Hackett Theater in Poughkeepsie. Congressman Maurice Hinchey, and , Dana Gioia, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts will be present to discuss funding opportunities from the NEA. This event is free, but requires reservations.

The second event is an all day legal seminar for artists on Saturday, Oct. 28 at Marist College, in the student center from 9-5. The seminar program has been developed by Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts.
The Seminar costs $60 ($50 for Arts Council members of Dutchess, Westchester, Ulster, Greene, Orange, Putnam Counties,) or $70 at the door and includes a continental breakfast, and a 200 page legal and business guide.

The Arts Council is an advocate of the arts in the region, and is committed to being a resource to artists and organizations in the area. I encourage folks to become members of the DCAC which gives much needed financial support to the organization that relies on a small staff to do so much.

2006 DCAC Executive Art Awards

The Dutchess County Arts Council will be holding its annual Executive Art Awards Dinner tomorrow, October 19 starting at 5:30 pm at the Dutchess Golf and Country Club at 411 South Rd in Poughkeepsie. In Monday's Poughkeepsie Journal, Kathleen Wereszynski Murray gives a rundown of the recipients of this year's various awards. In her column from last weekend's Enjoy Section, Wereszynski Murray highlights this year's Art Organization recepient, bau, and its activities over the two years of its exsistence. Steven Evans, Assistant Director of Dia:Beacon nominated bau for this year's award.

2006 Arts Award Receipients

Individual Artist: Madeleine Segall-Marx

A nationally recognized sculptor, curator & teacher creating art in Hyde Park .

Arts Organization: Beacon Artists Union (bau)

Innovative collective of professional visual artists in Beacon.

Art in Public Places: Dutchess County Department

of Planning & Development

Creative public planners turning the Loop Bus into a county-wide work of art.

Individual Patrons: Lisa & Stephen Aronson

Poughkeepsie couple actively engaged in building a vibrant arts community.

Business/Organization: Hudson Valley Federal Credit Union

Leading corporate supporter of the arts in Dutchess County .

Arts in Education: Yvonne Alexander

Devoted art teacher in the Arlington District for over 17 years.

Youth with Exceptional

Promise in the Arts : Emily Bogle

Young photographer with unique compositional talent.

Special Citation: Lucia Edgcomb

Bardavon's Managing Director of Theater Operations for over 30 years.

Reunited and it feels so guhd?

Craig Wolfe reports on the impending merger of Tallix and Polich Art Works in today's Poughkeepsie Journal. The merger will result in the closing of the Beacon factory, and a loss of some jobs. The new venture will clunkily be called Polich Tallix LLC. I felt that Polix or Tallich, or anything else, would be more suitably catchy and progressive as a name. The history of the two foundries reads like the saga of an estranged family of divorce with periods of rancor between the parents, and the children (employees) shuttling from one to the other. The competition between the two foundries, each trying to undercut the other is sited as weakening the two businesses, and the hope is that the merger will create a stronger company. With the variety of material options and new technologies available today, one can imagine the market for bronze and steel sculpture has been affected - besides, how many more bronze monuments can city's and villages cram into their squares. I've heard that, in hopes of accessing a new market, Tallix had recently jumped on the Discovery Channel bandwagon, taken up the fabrication of motorcycles to bolster income.

The closing of the Beacon site is a disappointment as its presence added the sense of Beacon being a community uniquely invested in the creation of art in a way that many other communties that boast of their "art renaissance" can not claim.

Oct 14 - Second Saturday

For a complete listing of Second Saturday events, visit www.beaconarts.org

The artists at Bulldog Studios will be holding open studios from 2-5pm. There will also be a model airplane show in the gym at Bulldog - 211 Fishkill Ave.

Jacqueline, the hat and home furnishings boutique at 478 Main St will begin hosting monthly exhibit of artwork in one of the shop's windows. There will be an opportunity to meet Sculptor Morgan Donahue who will be on hand from 6-9 pm to discuss her work.

Go North Gallery, at 469 Main St, is opening its first official show at Go North Gallery at will open Saturday with "Concerning Form," an exhibit of ceramic work by Patricia H. Ragette. Opening reception will be held from 6-9 pm. The exhibit will run through Nov. 5.

It looks like the vacancy created in the rear of Iron Fish Trading Co. when Para/site closed will now be filled by the Iron Fish Gallery which is showing metal sculpture by Jason Hahne.

Hudson Beach Glass will have a group show of glass sculpture in the 2nd floor gallery.

The Ten Tents Art Lab at 502 Main St. will open it's inaugural exhibit on Saturday with a reception from 6-9 pm. The exhibit is called "Cloudscapes" and features the work of Mia Pearlman. I passed by the space tonight, and saw the exhibit info posted on the door. I'm anxious to see what this space has in store. The website, www.tentents.org is now operational, and has some information on its mission.

Joan Jonas performances return to Dia:Beacon

Saturday, October 14 marks the beginning of a series of encore performances of Joan Jonas' The Shape, the Scent, the Feel of Things. Performances will commence at 2pm on Oct. 14, 15, 21, 22, 28, 29. More information can be found at www.diabeacon.org.

Saturday the 14 will also be Westchester County Community Day at Dia:Beacon. Residents of Westchester County will receive free admission on that day.

Hermann Nitsch speaking at HVCCA, Oct 15, 4pm

Nitsh at work. photo from www.nitsch.org

Hermann Nitsch, artist, elder statesman of Austrian culture and founder of the Viennese Actionists will be speaking at HVCCA on Sunday, October 15 at 4pm as part of a series of talks relating to the current exhibition, "Reverence." "...Nitsch was interested in the manner in which organized ritual could lead to a collective state of catharsis." Active as a performance artist, painter and composer, Nitsch's noteriety is most often tied to the series of happenings the Actionists staged in the '60s. Not unlike a Gallagher concert, but perhaps just as entertaining, the Actionists invoked themes of ritual and taboo using urine, animal carcasses, excrement, blood and other bodily fluids - not watermelons.

HVCCA is located at 1701 Main St in Peekskill. The talk will begin at 4pm. Refreshments will be served. - raincoats optional-

Charles Nolan to hold benefit fashion show in Beacon NY

Monday's POJO ran an announcement for a fashion show showcasing Charles Nolan's fall 2006 line to benefit St Joachim-St John the Baptist in. The event will be held at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Beacon at 6 pm. on Friday, Oct. 13. Reservations can be made at the parish office: 845.838.0915

Yellowbird Gallery seeking proposals

This call for entries was released a couple of weeks ago. Deadline is Oct 28. Here are the details:

YELLOW BIRD GALLERY ANNOUNCES A JURIED COMPETITION. We welcome artists,
working as individuals or in teams, to submit their ideas for a holiday
installation in our main bay. Dimensions of the bay are approximately 30
feet x 40 feet with 16 foot ceilings. We are looking for a
site-specific object or installation that expresses the spirit of the
holiday season. The gallery will provide $500 towards completion of the
selected work. Proposals must be received by October 28th by MAIL ONLY.
Installation late November with a gallery opening to follow. Exhibition
continues through New Year's Day.
Yellow Bird Gallery, 19 Front Street,
Newburgh, NY 12550.

True North Theater Project's River Play Festival

I was remiss in not posting this when it first hit my mailbox early in the year, but the deadline for submissions for True North Theater Project's First Annual River Play Festival is quickly approaching. Here are the details:

Playwrights from around the country are invited to participate in this festival by writing one-act plays with RIVER being the jumping off point. Along with three selected plays from submissions, one-acts will be written for our festival by celebrated playwright and screenwriter John Peilmeier (Agnes of God, Voices in the Dark, The Boys of Winter) playwright and poet Irene O'Garden,(Women On Fire, Little Heart, Fat Girl) award-winning playwright Quincy Long (Lively Lad, Joy of Going Somewhere Definite) and Michael Heintzman, co-founder and playwright of TrueNorth Theatre Project (Under the Hood).

The evening of theatre will be produced at the newly constructed Beacon Institute Building One, at Denning's Point on the Hudson River at Beacon, New York in May 2007.

The River Play Festival is a unique marriage between The Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries and TrueNorth Theatre Project. The goal of this annual Festival is to create a theatre event that will foster education through entertainment of our most prized natural resources, Rivers. Through this venture we will produce an evening of one-act plays written specifically for and about RIVERS.

For more information go to;

www.truenorththeatre.org

or

http://festival2.html

"To live by a large river is to be kept in the heart of things."
John Haines

Criteria
Deadline - Change to November 1st, 2006
Fifteen page plays - unpublished and unproduced
Cast - four (maximum)
Theme - River

Submission

Postmark no later than October 15th, 2006
Send three bound copies of your play along with a single page writer biography to and $5 Administration fee to:
River Play Festival 2006
TrueNorth Theatre Project
P.O. Box 228
Beacon, NY 12508

Finalists will be announced in November 2006.
Three winners will be announced January 2007
$400 to be awarded to the three winners along with production of their plays in May 2007

On this weekend

I'm a bit behind, and ill prepared for doling out info for happenings this weekend. I know Van Brunt is having a group show opening tonight. I don't have the card in front of me, and the gallery website doesn't have the new information so I'm at a loss for the details - except I know that one of the featured artists is Matthew Kinney. Matt will be showing some of his most recent sculpural work with highly finished panels of wood joined with plastic buckets. The opening will be held tonight from 5-8 or 6-9pm.

photo by matthew sinclair kinney

Matt has started a blog that highlights images of recent work. The address is www.matthewsinclairkinney.blogspot.com.

Harald Plochberger is presenting "A Deconstructive Reading" today starting at 5pm. The event is free, but reservations are suggested due to limited space. More info here.

Elsewhere today, the Samuel Dorsky Museum at SUNY New Paltz will be hosting an opening reception from 5-7 pm for a new exhibit by Lilla Curto and William Outcault. There will be an artist lecture held on Weds. Oct 11 at 7:30pm in Lecture Center 102 on campus.

Waves of Light III exhibit in Hudson NY

Alexis Elton, Peter Iannarelli, and bau members: Harald Plochberger, Franc Palaia, Christopher Staples, Egon Zippel, and Tony Moore, are all participating in the Waves of Light III exhibit held at the Pocketbook Factory in Hudson NY through Oct 9.

The exhibit is curated by Grzegorz Kepinski and opened yesterday as a part of Hudson's annual Artwalk event. The Pocketbook factory is open daily through Oct 9 from 11-5pm (closed Oct. 3-4.)