It's Up...and now for the closing party!

Re-thinking the Facade in place, temporarily 

detail with "blocks"
made by Cathi, Leni, and Beth, Thanks

 Take a look at Berkshire Bank at 52 Main Street in Chatham and what will you see?  A kooky, crazy temporary installation:  inspired and sometimes made by you!  THANK YOU ONE MILLION to everyone who participated and helped out!  You put the "engage" in engagement.  Lots of fun was had and I also learned a lot.  Enjoy the beautiful plantings, even after the installation comes down. Special thanks to Joanne for all of her garden maven help!  Speaking of the installation coming down, on Thursday, July 31 from 4-6 pm there will be a closing party right in front of the bank.  The installation will come down (with the very kind assistance of James, Randy, and their tall ladders,) and there will be cake!  Plus take home a piece of the installation as a souvenir!  Spread the word. Hope to see you there!

Parade from SummerFest poses in front of the facade!

What's next?  The Audio Walking Tour of Chatham! An audio tour of the Village of Chatham that surveys history, culture, and contemporary living through local stories. Tell your personal, funny, sad, irreverent, etc., stories that connect to particular locations in the village. Be the voice of someone else’s story.  Stories will be recorded, edited, and ordered into a self guided tour of the village of Chatham. Participate in telling, recording or editing (no experience necessary!) Check back here for more details.

Temporary Installation opening July 12th...with a closing on July 31!

Facades at the Grainery

On Saturday July 12th Re-thinking the Facade will be on view at Berkshire Bank at 52 Main street, Chatham, NY.  This temporary installation was inspired by the architecture of the Village of Chatham in all it’s varieties as a metaphor for the diversity of our community. Participants were asked to re-imagine the brick facade of the bank building.  Their ideas ranged from bringing the personal into the public, conceptual notions of community and more.  (These model facades are in the windows on Main Street.)  I have sampled and synthesized many of these ideas and included them in the

Facades at Banner's

installation.  

Why a closing event?  Why not?! On Thursday, July 31st, from 4-6 pm I will be taking the installation down.  Since it is modular, all of the individual “bricks” will be on offer to the community to take home as a kind of souvenir and a thank you for their support during the project.  Or stop by to learn more about what’s next for Chatham Art Agency.... The Audio Walking Tour of Chatham!  Light refreshments will be served. 

Facades at Brown's Shoe Store

Check the right hand side of the blog for some interesting book titles for summer reading!

Facades at the Chatham Bookstore

Facade Time...Contemporary Art reading group goes on summer vacation!

So...guess what is in the window at 9 Main street?  YOUR facade models!  Many folks from the community have begun to participate in the "Re-thinking the Facade" project, creating what they might like to see on the Berkshire Bank facade. 

If you haven't made your facade model yet there is still time!  Come to the Chatham Public Library on Monday, June 23, at 6pm (in the teen room) and make yours.  All ages welcome and all materials provided.  Facade models are also available at:  The Chatham Public Library, Chatham Printing (9 Park Row,) and Village office in the Tracy Memorial.

Your models will be place in Main street shop windows for the community to enjoy.  Then on Saturday July 12th (during Summer Fest,) an actual temporary installation will be added to the Berkshire Bank facade and remain up until July 31st. All of your great ideas will be sampled and synthesized.  So join in the conversation.  more info: melissasarris2@gmail.com

Banned/Censored Art and Facades continued... with a bike accident on the side!

Most of you have probably heard now that I had a little mishap on my bike on Mother's day.  Nothing broken, just moving slow.  For this reason I have decided to move the banned and censored art theme to our next meeting on Monday June 9th, 6:30 pm.  All the links are on the right.

In the meantime - don't forget about your facades!  I have included some images here to get the juices flowing.                                                                                                  

Banned/Censored art: Sexuality, Religion, and Politics......and facades!

At the end of our last meeting the topic of banned art was suggested for May 12th (thanks Joanne).  The above short list basically hits the key reasons why art works are removed from view.  Often, it is the work that is censored or banned that leads to new ideas, new understanding, and new acceptance - eventually.  Hindsight, as the saying goes is always 20/20 and can be great at providing insight. This is a very large and complicated subject that I will just scratch the surface on with the links included. Many of the links have their own links that I highly recommend you follow to see images of the art works in question.  Below is the final paragraph from the Art Asia Pacific Magazine link:

"And as for art? Art is what makes us human—or at least allows us to ask and understand what it means to be human. Art, as well as its sanctuaries, need to be recognized and safeguarded as that necessary space of exception: the safety valve of expression in any society. No stranger to the state as stern and unavoidable bedfellow, art is necessarily an ingenious, inconvenient paradox."

Photography "Outsiders" *

Front of the card

We had a great meeting on the 14th that included a wonderful new participant to the group (Hello Gail!)  And speaking of "participant" and "group" I decided to make up an "acknowledgement of participation" card.  Don't worry, you can get one too.  Just come to a meeting or two, and stay art curious!

By consensus for our next meeting we decided to examine a contemporary photographer, Kyle Thompson.  He is just starting out but his work is very accomplished.  To balance things out it seemed interesting to add one of the grand-daddies of photography: Alfred Stieglitz.  As is always the case with a lively conversation, one artist brought another to mind and Diane Arbus was brought into the mix.  Her work got us

Inside of the card

onto the subject of the outsider artist and the recently discovered photographer Vivian Maier.   I personally find the subject of the "outsider" artist quite fascinating and decided to add Henry Darger's works.  He was not a photographer but he was definitely an "outsider" and not just in the art world.

Contemporary art is often difficult for the those outside the art world to "get."  Many art works that are now part of the art canon were also viewed this way in their own time.  Let 50-100 or more years pass and all bets are off on how we might view the work.  Another factor that may make the viewer extra fascinated with an "outsider" artist is how the artist manages to produce the work (in some cases large amounts for many, many years,) with no outside support or feedback.  How does the artist keep going?  In some cases the work is found posthumously - how would the artist feel about the discovery of their work and was it ever intended for anyone else's eyes?  We can add to these questions during our next discussion.  Photography is a really interesting medium to think about these ideas as the artist often uses themselves to make their work (as Kyle says because he always has access to himself.) These self portraits can become a stand in for more universal themes of identity, something the medium of photography is eminently qualified to consider.  And then there is the issue of the "truths" photography speaks because of it's quasi-representational nature.  Perhaps we will pick up the thread we began when Julie Casper Roth showed us her video. Lots of links to look at and read -  can't wait to see where the conversation takes us.  See you on the 28th!

* A working definition of an "outsider artist" - Art produced by self-taught artists who are not part of the artistic establishment.

Documentary and Digestive biscuits

Having Julie Casper Roth come to show us her work and talk to us about the fine line that documentary work always walks between reality, truth, and fiction was really interesting.  As an artist Julie describes herself as a story teller who is always interested in how she can play with combining her love of history to create speculative fictions of the past or the future.

We rearranged the chairs and use a drawing pad as movie screen for this evening’s presentation. And what a lively conversation, in spite of being in the main part of the library (we were only reminded to lower our voices once!)  Several really interesting films were mentioned that folks may want to try to see including:  Catfish,  Johnny got his gun, (both can be requested by inter-library loan through Chatham Public library,) and Exit thru the gift shop, (available to stream on Netflix or to rent at video visions.)  

For our next meeting on Monday, April 14 we will try to catch our breathe and take some time to “digest” all that we have read, seen, thought about and talked about.  Using the term “meta” may be appropriate here (see the definition of this below*,) as we begin to talk about what we have been talking about and how effective/interesting this form of talking has been.  It is also time to talk about what we will do next ( I have a few ideas!)  I have included just one link for this week so as not to feel too full! And this is where the digestive biscuits will come into play.  Of course we will try them with and without chocolate, milk and bittersweet!  We will be back on our regular day, regular time, regular location - hope to see you there!  (Monday April 14, 6:30-7:45, in the teen room.) 

If you would like a little more reading material to hold you over until our next meeting please stop by the Bagel Cafe at 41 Main Street.  While having a bite enjoy reading a chapter or two of one of my art books I have temporarily loaned (and covered with fabulous fabric covers) located above the drinks cooler just waiting for you to open them up!

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