Replicas - Alternative Memorabilia of Apolitical Presidential History….what?

First, it has been far too long. Second, I must apologize for a little promise I made with regards to the presidential election.  It didn’t seem possible and believe me, I am still in denial.  That is how I am managing.  I would love to hear what you think about what is happening in our world.  We need art now more than ever.  Let me know when you next want to meet and where our discussions on Contemporary Art should take us. 

The primary upside to the current state of things is that many people I have talked to have been awakened and pushed to DO something. The rise in activism and volunteering will be a good thing. 

David Rubel's Collection/Archive of presidential
Campaign memorabilia.

So what does the title of this blog refer to? I recently installed local resident David Rubel’s collection of presidential and political memorabilia in the window at 9 Main Street, (check out the George W. Bush action figure!) Stone House Properties has graciously allowed me to showcase locals collections in the window since 2013. 

Through a series of fortunate events and chance
conversations my thinking about current politics lead me to consider past presidential history. I found and verified apolitical historical presidential information on at least two separate websites with names like “41 Fun Facts about the Presidents,” so we can be sure it is irrefutable.  Specific “facts” about presidents were selected from which artifacts could be “crafted” though craftsmanship was not the point. These “artifacts” serve as a reminder of past history we have lived through and survived, while hopefully provoking a chuckle or two for those who read all of the fine print.   

Replicas...on display downstairs at the
Chatham Public Library.

Below are two particularly interesting tidbits to whet your appetite, but for the rest you just have to stop by the Chatham Public Library, downstairs, bottom shelf of the display case.  Don’t forget to leave your comments in the Replicas booklet:

Booklet with more info and a place to
write your comments.

1. Did you know that President Coolidge loved having breakfast in bed….while having his head rubbed with Vaseline?

2. Once President Clinton accepted the honor of appearing on the NPR quiz show Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me and received a perfect score on the “Not My Job” quiz….though the topic was My Little Pony. (listen/read the entire transcript here.)

Out and about in our region, looking at, talking about... ART

Garnett Puett's work on display at the School.

Digesting the works at the end of our visit.

Summer art field trips started out strong and local with a visit to The School in Kinderhook, NY. This old public school turned gallery was opened by Jack Shainman two years ago. Our community is extremely fortunate to have such a thoughtful and beautifully renovated art space just down the road.

Three of us carpooled over from Chatham and upon arriving learned that two more folks were waiting for us. Through an impromptu conversation with a young woman who greeted us at the door, we were offered a wonderful tour. Rachel Fainter, a collections manager at the School provided us with wonderful insights about the artists and their works.  She was very informed as she had written much of the information printed next to the artist works.

The group show: A Change of Place: Four Solo Exhibitions includes four artists, Pierre Dorion, Hayv Kahraman, Richard Mosse, and Garnett Puett “converge on themes of transformation, environment, and remembrance,” as the website states.

Several very interesting threads of conversation emerged as we looked, listened, and discussed.  How beauty can bring the viewer in and then create a space for contemplation and unpacking big or sometimes difficult ideas our society is confronted with. Or, what is collaboration and can humans successfully coexist with other creatures or the environment and what this might look like. This show is up until October 29th. The School is open on Saturdays from 11am-5pm, and by appointment.  The address is 25 Broad Street, Kinderhook, NY 12106   tel. +1 518-758-1628 

Where will the next art field trip take us?  Would you like to go with us? Come along and enjoy the company and have an interesting conversation about Contemporary Art. Stop by the Chatham Public Library (11 Woodbridge Ave, Chatham, NY 12037 Phone: 518-392-3666) to learn more and leave your contact info for upcoming trips.

S’mores for our final and OE 2016 in Oakland

S'mores as our final class activity.


 

The semester is over up at Siena and in lieu of a final, we made S’mores in the lecture hall, over sterno! A fitting end for a great class and wonderful group of students.  Thanks to ALL OF YOU for your enthusiasm, generosity, curiosity, and open-mindedness. 

Out in front of Oakland Museum of California, where the conference was held
and for the first time ever, there was a charge to attend the keynote talks.

The end of the semester signaled another Open Engagement Conference.  

This year the conference was held in Oakland, California and the theme was POWER.  There were many great moments at this year’s conference including a guided walk in Oakland lead by policylink,  a talk by Precarious Knowledge Collective (Dipti Desai and Jess Hanlin both NYU professors) about artists creating maps and using mapping systems to broadcast and make visible vital information, and a presentation by the San Quentin Prison Arts Project.

During one lunch hour I met several Canadian women wrestlers who provided some materials to help us develop our wrestling personas and I learned how to do a head lock. I also learned to hip hop (well, sort of.) from an Oakland organization called Destiny Arts.  They use hip hop as a framework for creative youth development and empowerment.

This year’s first keynote talk was given by Suzanne Lacy.  After a very long day on Saturday, I raced back to where I was staying at 10:30pm, edited the 1:45 minute talk down to 1 hour and uploaded it to dropbox so my students could listen for their last class.  And you can listen too, the link is on the right. Here is her website to learn more about all of her projects she talks about. 

And last but certainly not least, the final event at the conference was a keynote talk by Angela Davis.  All I can say is it was excellent and POWERFUL!  I recorded this talk as well and there is a link on the right.  Her talk included many interesting artists, musicians, philosophers, and political activists.  I have created a page with links to some of them here.  

Stay tuned for more updates and images on all of the intellectually engaging, aesthetically pleasing, and fun field trips planned for the summer!

Students Teach...each other and me!

A student-frisbee-enthusiast teaches class members how to throw
and catch a frisbee in our generously sized lecture hall!

In an effort to put some of the ideas of progressive thinkers and educators that influence many socially engaged artists - into practice, my students were asked to teach something to the class that they are passionate about and can be taught in under 10 minutes (lots of time constraints with 24 students and 1 hour class time.)
Some of the topics taught included: how to play Xbox (using our 9 x12’ screen, very impressive,) how to catch and throw a frisbee (inside our 156 seat lecture hall,) and how to ‘properly’ eat a cupcake (so that the frosting is evenly distributed with each bite.)

This was a very enjoyable way to for us to better consider some of the key points that a socially engaged artist thinks about when working with a community:  having genuine interest and developing trust, while sharing knowledge, expertise, and agency.  Also what some of the ‘materials’ available to a socially engaged artist might be such as how to repurpose available physical space to create a new mental space with different or unexpected outcomes.  To continue the conversation about this and related topics, our next meeting will be Wednesday, March, 30 6-7:45pm at the Chatham Public Library! (Please note the changed time/date!)

The titles of the two themes we covered were: Philosophers, Monuments and Historical Reenactments (talk 3,) and Dialogical/Skillshare: Putting the ‘Social’ back into Socially Engaged Art (talk 4).  These themes were a way to loosely group together some really interesting and exciting artist projects.  Many wonderful artists were spotlighted such as Paul Ramirez Jonas, Harrell Fletcher, Carmen Papalia, and Mark Allen.  Check out the links to the right for more info.

Moved You, and sometimes ambiguous

Concepts students found moving in some way from the first Chapter of Helguera's book.

Up at Siena, as my class and I enter our fourth week, students are engaged and impressing me everyday as they offer thoughtful responses and ask on target questions.  We have had our first guest, spoken word poet and artist Daniel Summerhill. And, I am learning to squeeze in everything I can in our one-hour class segments.

I have created a dropbox folder with lots of materials I am using in the course   And now you can have access to this info too. So far I have added pdfs of the first 3 chapters of Pablo Helguera’s book: Education for Socially Engaged Art (please buy his book by clicking here.)  There are questions, slide presentations, notes and links to learn more about various artists and related movements. I will add to this folder as the semester proceeds.

For our next meeting at the Chatham Public Library on Wednesday, February 17th 6:00-7:45pm, we will start to look at chapter 2 of the book and look at artists I have loosely categorized under “useful art,” to borrow from a term Tania Bruguera uses to talk about her work.  Other artists we will look at include:  Rick Lowe, LAPD (Los Angeles Poverty Department,) Suzanne Lacy, Michael Rakowitz, and Pepón Osorio.

Our first day of class....

Wait...what? What is going on here?  Our first meeting of the new year is my first day back at Siena College where I have been teaching since fall of 2015. It is also the first day of my new class:  Intro to Visual Studies: Socially Engaged Art, in theory and practice.  And you can join in!  I will make this new class curriculum available to all of you interested, in a slightly condensed version.  I should mention that this will not be a typical lecture course.  I take the work ‘practice’ in the title very seriously.  There are many progressive educational ideas and theories that Socially Engaged Art borrows from. We will learn by doing. Here is your big chance to participate!  Up on Campus we have the opportunity to meet and interact with some very interesting people.  And you are invited!  Details to follow....

Reading assignment:  Read Chapter 1 of Education for Socially Engaged Art: A Materials and Techniques Handbook by Pablo Helguera (look for a pdf on the left in readings.)  This chapter is just 8 pages!  The entire book is only 90 (wonderful) pages brimming with information.  Hope you will give it a try. I realize that there may be references and ideas that are unfamiliar to you. PLEASE, make a list of everything that is confusing to you (and look up what you can.)  During our meeting we will review and have a lively conversation about what you read.  In the readings section I have also provided some background readings/video on the progressive educational ideas of John Dewey and Paulo Freire.

1st assignment - (same as for my Siena students*)  

Please be prepared to tell us the following:
-10 artists or artworks you like/dislike or know of.  
-any prior art “education” going back to high school.   
-Describe special interests/abilities or talents that you feel may assist you in learning in this class such as: a sense of humor, art-lover, excellent critical reading skills, or open-mindedness.  
-Something you are passionate about outside the sphere of art that you enjoy doing.  (This could be just about anything.) 
-Describe your learning style: for example, a note-taker to cement the ideas, or a procrastinator who uses the adrenaline of the final days and hours to get it done, or? 

*I left off the questions about whether you live on campus and what class obligations follow immediately after class.  More on the ‘why’ of these questions coming up!

The Gift: Art as exchange/participation in collaboration with the public

Participant in the "Chalkboard Collective" as part of
Heather Hart's Bartertown, People's Economy held
at the Brooklyn Musuem in October 2014.

For our final reading group meeting of 2015 we will look at a few artists who make work that offers an exchange or participatory component to the public as part of their art practice. This work falls under the larger theme of socially engaged art, a form of art that I practice.  Although my own practice is not object-based anymore, I am essentially a maker. The act of making something for someone (though now this might be intangible or even dialogical,) is a natural impulse for me.  I think this is true for many artists, at least at the starting point of their careers.  For this reason I have also included a review of The Gift by Lewis Hyde.  This is a very interesting book all creative types may find interesting and is available through our library.

The artists we will look at are: Lee Mingwei, Heather Hart, and Pablo Helguera.  We will focus on specific projects by each artist that mesh with our theme of the gift. All three artists have made many other interesting works that diverge from our specific theme, so check them out!  There are many more wonderful artists and projects we could have looked at, but there simply isn’t enough space or time here.

The good news is I was asked to teach an Intro to the Visual Arts course at Siena College and they have given me free rein to develop the course.  So the title of this course is: Introduction to Socially Engaged Art.  For those of you interested, I will continue our monthly meetings into 2016, using the same curriculum I have developed for this college course. We will be using a small but very thoughtful book by Pablo Helguera titled: Education for Socially Engaged Art: a materials and technique handbook.  Since he is also one of the artists featured for the gift, I have include a pdf of the first chapter to wet your appetite. You can purchase this slim volume for just $9.95 through amazon (or I can loan you a copy.) 

Soil: The grass, leaves, and dirt on the artists who make art out of it!

November’s topic was inspired by a long time Contemporary Art Reading and discussion group member Glenda (and Joanne even though she can’t attend the meetings just now.)  And while doing a little research I discovered that 2015 is the United Nations International Year of the Soil. I am not really exactly sure what this means but it dovetails nicely with the idea of looking at artists who think about, work with or otherwise engage with the dirty stuff to make their art.  Some of these artists use living materials as metaphor, others for how we interact with the natural environment.  All are making work that is interesting to look at.  For a historic perspective on art that engages with or “uses” nature and natural materials, I have included two artists who made their mark several decades ago in Land Art.  I think you will find the works of Robert Smithson and Agnes Denes both very interesting.

Our meeting for November will be held on Wednesday the 18th, 6-7:45pm upstairs at the Chatham Public Library.  And don’t forget to check the blog in the beginning of December for an updated reading list for our meeting on 12/16/15.  The topic for this meeting will be The Gift: Artists that offer an exchange or participatory component to the public as part of their art practice.

What's Happening Next: Oct-Dec 2015 schedule

Madison presented her talk in Julie DeLisle's office
(better acoustics!)

So, for all of you who did not get to come out and hear Madison LaVallee's talk titled: Material Sandwiches presented on Sept. 23, you are in luck.  Click here to listen to the entire talk. (Please note: a video excerpt from Woman house of about 4 minutes is included. The audio for Judith Butler is available through a link to the right.)

For our upcoming October meeting (10/21, 6-7:45 upstairs at the library,) we will listen to brief excerpts from Madison's talk and have a discussion.  Her readings are still available to the right of this entry.  Looking forward to catching up.

Our November meeting will have a theme of Soil: artists that use soil/dirt metaphorically or literally in their art practice.  The date for this meeting is November 18, same place, same time!  Check back here about one week before for the readings to prepare for our conversation.

And then in December the theme will be the Gift: artists using an exchange or gift component with the public as part of their art practice.  Seems like a good fit for this month of gift-giving.  This meeting will be on December 16, also same time/same place at the Chatham Public library.

And what will come next, in the dink and the dank of winter, you might ask?  Come to one of these fall meetings and participate!  Your questions and ideas are the fodder to be transformed into the next topic for a 2016 meeting!

It is Re-starting......Reboot after summer

Chatham Art Agency, in all its permutations on view at Greenarts.

So, what did you do over the summer?  I hope you had a chance to see some of the great cultural happenings the season is known for.  This image shows the Chatham Art Agency on the road and on display as part of an exhibit at the Greene County Council for the Arts titled Give and Take: A Collection of Past Individual Artist Grant Recipients.

Our contemporary art reading and discussion group will be getting underway this month with a bang.  Artist Madison LaVallee will be offering a talk about her work on Wednesday, September 23, (6:30 - 7:45) at the Chatham Public Library (upstairs.)  Hope you all can make it and please, spread the word!

Madison LaVallee Installing 

Maddi will be installing her work in the window at Stone House Properties this Saturday, September 12, where it will be on view through November.  Stop by on Saturday from 4-6 pm for a little meet and greet and enjoy the other TWO art openings happening on Main Street at the Joyce Goldstein Gallery and Thompson Giroux Gallery.  

Jaymee Harvey's work on through Friday, Sept. 11, 2015

Over the summer Maddi and another friend from graduate school, Jaymee Harvey and I developed a new theme for the window at Stone House Properties that began in July. 



This theme: “Labor and Fantasy in the Domestic Sphere” will celebrate and reclaim or question and reassert themes around home, inside/outside, and domestic space.

The office of Stone House Properties at 9 Main Street is it’s own kind of transitional domestic space.  Nicely appointed with comfortable seating that could be found in a living room, one can sit and have a conversation while searching for a new home.  Thanks so much to Nancy Cuddihy of Stone House Properties for her continued support in allowing a little art to happen in the window!

Check out Word of Mouth at Second Space, started by Sheri Bauer-Mayorga.

The artist’s hand: its role and relevance today.

Damián Ortega Controller of the Universe, 2007

This month’s topic is brought to us in part through a collaboration with  Katie O’Keefe, a recent graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art, from our area (Tivoli.) Her suggestion of reading from the book The Hand by Frank R. Wilson has sparked the theme of the role of the artist's hand.  The other readings present a counter point that I hope you will find  interesting and will stimulate the discussion.  OR, perhaps YOU will offer a reading suggestion!? She hopes to be  join in the conversation at our next meeting, Monday June 8th, 6-7:45pm at the Chatham Public Library.  

Inviting Katie to collaborate in developing our topic will connect to another ongoing local project.  The What I Collect window at 9 Main Street in Chatham, NY will be undergoing a shift in the coming months.  Katie and a few other artists from the area will each be creating an installation in the window with the themes of: home, domesticity, or inside/outside, showcasing their own work.  Each artist will have a bio/artist statement posted at the window AND will collaborate with me on readings for upcoming topics for our group.  June will be our last meeting for the summer and then when we return in September, there will be something to look forward to seeing in the window on Main Street too.  See, read about, and talk about Art!  What could be finer?

Open Engagement and going to Jail...

City of Asylum Home

As always the Open Engagement conference on Socially engaged art was excellent, offering lots to think about.  Please take a look at the page with the link to the right of this entry to see some of what I saw and heard.  Pittsburgh was a wonderful, hilly surprise (with over 147 bridges,) and lots of other wonderful people and cultural happenings to recommend it.

What's next?  Going to Jail of course!  Much harder to get in than I would have imagined! We have been working on the scheduling for several months and now things have finally fallen into place.  I will be working with ReEntry, an organization based in Hudson that offers a range of services for folks just getting out of prison.  This program, a create arts workshop, will be offered for women at the Columbia County Jail in Hudson.




















Hope to see you at the opening for the Thompson Giroux Gallery exhibition: PASSAGE PATH ROAD ROUTE WAY Saturday, April 25, 4-6pm.

Socially Engaged Art, in words, pictures, and sounds.....

During the month of April something I look forward to every year is happening, besides the coming of spring!  Open Engagement, a conference that looks at, discusses, theorizes and embraces socially engaged art, happening this year in Pittsburgh at Carnegie Mellon University.  This free, three day event is the most exciting, thought-provoking and uplifting event I try to attend each year. This sense of excitement lasts long into the year and becomes a resource for many of my future projects.

So this year I plan to bring the conference back to YOU!  We’ll start now with some links to last year’s event which was held at the Queens Museum in Queens, NY and one of the Key note speakers: Mierle Laderman Ukeles.   Or click here to get to the special Open Engagement page.

I am also including some links to projects started by one of this year’s key note speakers, artist Rick Lowe and Project Row houses.  Plus Conflict Kitchen, by artist Jon Rubin, a cafe that only serves food from countries that the U.S. is currently in conflict with.  While I am there I will post some new links and images on the blog as the events unfold. Plus I will record all the workshops and talks I attend for you to listen to later! Because April is quite busy with travel (visiting family early in the month and then on to Pittsburgh later,) we won’t meet again until Monday May 4, 6-7:45pm, at the Library. 

Here are two very interesting upcoming local events I plan to attend and would love to have you join me:

Thompson Giroux Gallery
Passage Path Road Route Way - an exhibition featuring artists in the early stages of their career. 57 Main Street, Chatham, NY April 25 - May 31, 2015 (opening date info to follow)

Jack Shainman Gallery
Celebrates 1 Year Anniversary of The School with an exhibition of El Anatsui Sunday, May 17, 2015 at The School, 25 Broad Street, Kinderhook, NY 

Greg Skochko with the money...this case
weighted 36 lbs!

A final note on last month's blog topic of Art and Money:  While at the Armory Art Fair with some grad school chums early March, something funny happened.  My friend Greg Skochko discovered an artist piece that addresses just this topic.  A large metal case was on display filled with ONE MILLION DOLLARS and if one put their cell number down, could win the opportunity to carry the case around the show, hand-cuffed to the case and with an escort.  The subject of how much money was moving around during the art fair was made literal.  Well, here is a snapshot of Greg hand-cuffed to the money!

Art....and Money.

Left: Incommunicado, M. Sarris 2015, Right: Special Edition Silver Dollar, Tim Noble and Sue Webster 2007

The readymade concept was tossed around and enjoyed by all who attended our last meeting.  What came out of this conversation was the thread that will lead to our next discussion topic: value and the commodification of art or more simply put, “Art and Money.”  


One could argue that this is an incredibly large and multi-faceted topic.  The readings included offer a range of ideas to think about including: the effects of money (sometimes very large sums,) on the art world, finding alternative methods of producing art to avoid this trap, and art made of money, to name a few.

I am including several articles and some that are quite long.  Dig in and see what you think.  It’s cold and snowy out there, why not settle in to a long read or two!  The next meeting will be: 

Monday, March 9, from 6 -7:45 at the library upstairs.  See you there!

Readymades/made by you

Our last few meetings have been very interesting with new members participating and heating up the conversations (despite the weather!)  We keep swirling around issues of how to evaluate what is happening today in the art world and how it relates to us back home here in Chatham.  The last time I was down in the city I saw a show titled:  The Thing and the Thing-In-Itself at the Andrea Rosen Gallery.

This show, curated by noted art historian Robert Hobbs focuses on the limits of human understanding that Immanuel Kant contemplated in the Critique of Pure Reason.  Ideas about how humans can only know things in the world by referencing their own experiences or “constructed views.”  Somehow these ideas and the artworks featured seems like a really interesting place for us to pick up the conversation!  By chance I also had the opportunity to see a show called By Proxy at the James Cohan Gallery.  This show brings into the conversation different tools and techniques the artist may use to create work that goes beyond what they can do with their own hands.  Between these two shows there is ample art historical information and innovative ideas we can have fun discussing at our next meeting: February 9, 2015 6-7:45pm, at the Chatham Public Library.

Readymades/made by you: to make the discussion even more interesting YOU are invited to bring in three everyday objects (or images of.) In honor of Marcel Duchamp (with work featured in both shows mentioned above,) and the notion of “readymades,” arguably one of the most important twentieth century ideas about art.  Brainstorm a list of titles for your readymades. Display or take snapshots of your readymades along with their titles. 

Did wordplay or humor play a role in the titles you selected? How do the titles affect the way these everyday objects are perceived by yourself and others? (Take a look at the links to read a little more about this artist and concepts.)

Here is a little questionnaire I found on the MoMA website to help with the process:

What Makes a Work of Art?

Make a list of your criteria for what art is by considering these questions:

• What should an artwork provide to both the maker and the viewer?
• Who is it for?
• Where does one encounter art?
• What is the role of the artist?

Some very fine quotes by Marcel Duchamp:

 “Art is not about itself but the attention we bring to it.”

“Do unto others as they wish, but with imagination.” 

“Art is either plagiarism or revolution.

“I have forced myself to contradict myself in order to avoid conforming to my own taste.” 

“I don't believe in art. I believe in artists.” 

“I force myself to contradict myself in order to avoid conforming to my own taste.” 

MORE Show and Tell...

Greetings from the land of show and tell.  Folks came and showed their favorite artworks and we had a very interesting conversation.  Not everyone who wanted to was able to attend so....we are doing it again for our next meeting, Monday January 12, 2015 at the Chatham Public Library 6pm.  Here is your big second chance to show and tell.  Take a look at the readings because we will also make time to bring this information into our conversation.

While we are on the subject of narrative in contemporary art, you might want to take a listen to the beginning of the Audio Walking Tour of Chatham here.  This link will take you to sound cloud a website where I have uploaded 7 stories.  Want to hear more?  Do you or someone you know have a story to tell that occurred somewhere in the Village of Chatham?  There’s still time to participate.  In February 2015 stop by the Joyce Goldstein Gallery at 16 Main Street to hear more stories told by you!  Then, learn more about ART in the HOUSE for March 2015.  (To learn more about the artworks you brought in, come to the next meeting!)

Show and Tell: Narrative in Contemporary Art

Ahmed Alsoudani at Gladstone Gallery
Untitled

 This month’s theme is Show and Tell - you are all invited to bring in your favorite work of art to our next meeting, Monday Dec. 1, to show and tell why you like it and what it means to you.  If you do not own your favorite work of art or it is too large to carry, a digital image is OK.  The point is to have a conversation about an artwork we are really fascinated by and how this intersects with our own story.

In honor of the show and tell theme I have added links about

narrative and storytelling in contemporary art.  The Art 55 link gives an interesting historical overview, while the Artsy link considers this form as a kind of trend that has been in and out.  Both provide a whole bunch of interesting images too.

I have also included images of three contemporary artists

Lynette Yiadom -Boakye at Jack Shainman Gallery
Any Number of Preoccupations

works here for you take a look at.  Each of these artists have shows right now in Chelsea, NY. Can you tell a story just from looking at them here? Does the title give you any extra information? Where does this story take place? Who are the main characters?  What happens?  Can’t wait to hear all of your stories on Monday, Dec. 1, 6:30-7:45pm in the teen room at the Chatham Public library.

Martin Puryear at Matthew Marks Gallery
Phrygian Plot

The Labeling of Art

Depending on the medium an artist works in, their output isn’t usually questioned.  Painting is a good example of this. Today the artist’s output manifests in a multitude of forms going beyond the traditional mediums of paint or metal to include collaboration and conversation. In a world where social practice and other esoteric forms of conceptual art are now part of the contemporary art cannon, confusion is possible for the layman.  

And what about photography, whether its subtitle is “fine art photography” or “documentary photography?”  If the work is useful, can it also be art?  The contemporary art reading and discussion group will attempt to dig into these ideas, fortified by the readings listed to the left.  So come to the library on Nov. 3, 6:30- 7:45pm, (in the teen room) and be part of the conversation!

Here are a few excellent artists links with work that is either directly mentioned or relevant to this conversation:  Tania Bruguera  Tony Marioni Tim Hetherington Kerry James Marshall

Working Girls, Lemurs, and Balloon Dogs...must be Contemporary Art!

Greetings! As the leaves change it is clear a new season is upon us (good bye summer, I will miss you, dearly.)  That can only mean one thing:  time for the Contemporary Art Reading and Discussion Group to reconvene!

As always there is a lot going on to take note of.  First a few really great local options:  This Saturday, October 4th, a new show titled Search Portrait opens at Thompson Giroux Gallery, 57 Main street, Chatham 4-6 pm.  This is a group show of different takes on the idea of a portrait that I think you all will find interesting.  If you can’t make the opening the show runs until November 16.  Here is a link to the gallery:

http://www.thompsongirouxgallery.com/Exhibit_Upcoming.cfm

Next, a little farther from home (so let’s carpool!) is a very interesting show at the University of Albany museum called Mary Reid Kelley: Working Objects and Videos

On Tuesday, October 7 at 7pm there will be an artist talk.  I am going, hope you will join me!  The show runs until October 18th. Here is a link to the museum:

 http://www.albany.edu/museum/index.shtml

Now as far as those balloon dogs go, I have included just one article to read, published just a few days ago by Jed Perl from the New York Times review of Books.  If you read just one thing from this blog - read this!  This article is more than a review of Jeff Koons retrospective at the Whitney museum.  It lays out some very interesting ideas on art criticism today, where we are in contemporary art today, and how we got here.  Bring your questions and thoughts to the next meeting - Chatham Public Library, Monday October 6th, 6:30 -7:45 in the teen room.

Image info: 1) Lemur - Margot Curran, 2) Balloon Dog - Jeff Koons, 3) The Syphilis of Sisyphus - Mary Reid Kelley

Your stories....about here, and here and there!

The stories are starting to come in...don't you want to add your voice?  You still can!

Next public recording day: 

Chatham Public Library 6:30-7:45 Monday September 15th, in the teen room.

Can't make this date?  Contact me at: melissasarris2@gmail.com to set up an alternate time to record your story.

What do you have to do? Just show up with a story to tell.  Got lots of stories?  Select one that occurs at a particular place in the Village of Chatham, though the story need NOT have anything to do with the location.

Add in as much detail as you can about time of day, the weather, what you were wearing, who you were with, etc to help create the mood.