Wearable Art Class at MassArt – March 7-11, 2011

Barbara Poole is teaching a one week wearable art class at MassArt from March 7th through  March 11, 2011. Sign up for the class at http://pce.massart.edu/courses/spring/workshops/index.shtml It is course number NC317 Wearable Art.

Felt, the oldest non-woven fabric, has become part of a renaissance of artists using ancient fiber techniques. This class will take students from the felt-making basics to creating their own unique piece of wearable art using felt as a medium. The class is designed for anyone interested in fashion who wants to learn to manipulate a new material.  In addition, Barbara encourages performance artists to felt to create sculpture and costumes for their work to take this class. You will learn to laminate fibers and fabrics and will experiment with other inclusions. Because of its unique properties, felt that can be used in both fashion and sculpture. The workshop is open to all, from beginners to those with experience who want to increase their skills. (The class requires standing for long periods of time.)

Submitted by Barbara Poole
B.Felt

ONE

Virginia Spiegel has organized an amazing event to raise money for the American Cancer Society and not only is it an opportunity to purchase a piece of amazing artwork by some of the most gifted artists I know it’s also an opportunity to win some great prizes including a gift certificate good for anything from my etsy shop!

All you have to do to be eligible to win one of the 5 great prize packages is to help us spread the word about the event.  Tweet it, blog it, facebook it, post about it in your yahoo groups, talk about it in your newsletter, or add it to your email signature!  Each time you do a promo  email Virginia at – Virginia(at)VirginiaSpiegel.com - and your name goes into the draw.   And to make it even easier Virginia has the promos already written for you so all you have to do is copy and paste!

Here are links to everything you need to know about this event and how to be eligible for prizes:

For general information about the fundraiser, previews of and details about purchasing artwork click here.

For information on how to help promo the event and be eligible for prizes click here.

For prewritten promo announcements click here.

Call for exhibition proposal – Brandeis

Women’s Studies Research Center (WSRC) at Brandeis University in Waltham, MA welcomes submissions and proposals for art exhibitions and projects.

Shows are selected by the WSRC Exhibitions Committee, which is comprised of WSRC scholars. This process ensures that we fulfill our goals and our mission, and that we exhibit art of the highest caliber. It also ensures the feasibility and practicality of producing the show.

The committee meets two times a year — once in the fall and once in the spring — to review submissions and proposals and make selections for upcoming exhibitions. Please be aware that it may take several months to receive a final decision regarding your proposal.
Criteria

We look for exhibitions that are:

* visually and artistically impressive and original
* related to women and gender
* activist or feminist in nature
* related to research being done by the scholars at the WSRC

and that

* ask important questions and provoke dialogue
* provide a context for education
* have not been presented locally in the recent past

Get more information on the submission guidelines and process here.

Slater Mill – Gallery Opening

The Aristocrat of Textile Fabrics:
Rhode Island’s Lace Manufacturing
September 9-October 29; Mon.-Sat. 10AM-4PM, Sun. 10AM-2PM
Opening reception: Thursday, September 9, 2010, 5:30-7PM

This amazing exhibit focuses on Rhode Island’s rich history of lace-making with never before seen manufacturers samples and records of production from the Slater Mill’s private collection, Pawtucket Research Center collection, and the collection at the University of Rhode Island.

Rhode Island dominated the machine-made lace industry in the twentieth century and this exhibition includes items from many of those lace manufacturers.  On display will be examples of lace, hand-made and made by machine, including garments and accessories demonstrating the quality and variety of designs produced and used by the people of Rhode Island.  See a glimpse inside the lace making industry and how lace is made by machine.  Of the fifty-four lace manufacturing mills in the United States in 1948, thirty-four were located in Rhode Island.  Today, only one lace manufacturer remains in Rhode Island, still competing with French made lace, and still producing leavers lace on machines over one hundred years old.

Free to the public

175 Main Street, Downtown Pawtucket, across from Slater Mill Museum

For information contact Andrian Paquette, Curator, at 401.725.8638 x103 or email curator@slatermill.org.

Duplicate emails

It appears that there is a major glitch in the bulk email system that SDA uses. I apologize on behalf of SDA to those of you who have received up to 6 copies of my recent email. It is not me who is sending these. I use the bulk email system that SDA provides, especially due to the fact that we have close to 200 members in our region, which is too large a number for me to keep up to date with and send out personally from home. I do hope that you understand.

Vicki

July 24th Regional Meeting

LOCATION
Our July 24th Regional Meeting is being hostessed by member Cheryl Rezendes. For those of you who attended our frist meeting, you may remember Cheryl’s beautiful wearable art displayed toward the back of the room during show and tell. Cheryl teaches and offers a wide range of surface design classes at her studio in Greenfield,MA The address is 278 Main Street Suite 307, Greenfield, MA 01301. Her phone is 413-774-2125. We will begin our meeting at 11:00 and go to about 3:00.

PROGRAM
Our program will be presented by Janet Haddingham, one of our Ambassadors. Janet is a graphic designer and is going to discuss preparing JPEGs for juried exhibitions. She will be bringing her iMac with the program Adobe CS-4, that uses Photoshop. Along with image editing, Janet is going to share how to get rid of background stuff as well as how to create high-contrast black & white images for thermofax screens. I am going to bring my PC laptop with the program Adobe Photoshop Elements, a less expensive program. All of you are welcome to bring your laptops, with your image software program loaded. Don’t forget the power cord.. Also, if you don’t have a laptop. please bring a CD of images that can be used for editing. We’ll probably break up into a few groups to practice what Janet teaches us.

To complement this program, I feel that  we should have a program devoted to photographing our artwork. Many of you have written and expressed that this topic is of keen interest.  So, do I have any volunteers to present a program on photography at our October 24th meeting? Please email me if you are willing to help with this. We will be meeting at Bead & Fiber in Boston for that meeting,

SHOW & TELL
We will also have Show & Tell at our July 24th meeting, so please bring your latest work to share. We all love seeing what our members are creating in fiber art.

MISC.
A couple of reminders:
1. Please register for our Yahoo Group to get the latest information, especially the exhibition guidelines, which will soon be available. Here is the web page - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SDA_MARI/

2. Many of you have allowed your memberships to expire. With all of the exciting things planned for our region and SDA in general, plus the 2011 conference, please keep your membership active, so that you don’t lose out on these events. You must be a current member in order to apply to our juried member exhibition later this year, too.

3. Please email me if you plan to attend our regional meeting, so that I have an idea of how many members to anticipate.

4. We are going to have a potluck lunch. Please bring an entree, salad, dessert, snack, beverage, etc., for all to enjoy. I am going to buy plates, napkins, cups, etc.

See you in a few short weeks!
Vicki Jensen
MA-RI SDA State Rep
vickijensen53@gmail.com
508-676-6585
Blog – http://sdamari.wordpress.com/
Yahoo Group – http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SDA_MARI/

Katazome Workshop

Introduction to Katazome – Japanese stencil dyeing
Hosted by:Terri Lipman, 44 Michigan St, Winchester, NH 03470 603-209-1918 or 239-4398 telipman@yahoo.com

From Karen Miller:
Japanese fabrics have been made for centuries using intricate paper stencils and a resist paste made of rice flour. Authentic Japanese fabrics using this technique are very expensive and almost unobtainable in this country. You will learn how to make these lovely fabrics yourselves. On the first day we will carve two stencils from Japanese paper, and apply silk mesh to strengthen them. While the stencil is drying we will make the resist paste. We will use some of my stencils to apply paste to fabric so it will have time to dry over night. The second day we will learn how to use traditional pigments to produce multicolored images on silk and linen-cotton. Students will use their own stencils to paste a silk scarf.

Dates July 17 and 18, 2010 Two days 9-5 (lunch will be provided).
Cost of classes: $300 for two days plus, plus $35 materials fee/student (payable to Karen). A kit will be provided with stencil making equipment and fabrics. All dyes, pasting mats, use of Japanese brushes etc. will be provided.

Place: Moco Arts Class room in Keene, NH – Further directions will be sent with a confirmation.

Housing: Best Western in Keene, NH 603-357-3038 Ask for the Karen Miller room block to get the rate of $109.99. (for one or two people) Includes a free breakfast. This is about 8 minutes from the classroom.

Student Supplies:
-rubber gloves and apron or old clothes
-a 3″ stack of old newspaper
-a #11 Exacto knife handle
-a large quilting hoop or 17″ square Q-snap frame to stretch your silk or linen or an inexpensive wooden stretcher frame 20” square, and a dozen large metal binder clips to hold the fabric, two frames is good if you can manage it
-fine mist spray bottle

http://nautilus-fiberarts.blogspot.com

http://www.nautilus-fiberarts.com

A deposit of $150.00 will hold your place. This deposit is non refundable unless there are more than 5 students in the class and/or you can be replaced. The final payment will be due June 15, 2010. I accept Paypal through telipman@yahoo.com or you can mail a check to Lipman Designs, 44 Michigan St, Winchester, NH. 03470

May 8th Regional Meeting

Despite a miserable, rainy day we had 20 members attend our regional meeting held at the home of Catherine Kirsch in Worcester. Two SDA members from New Hampshire joined us, as well as three guests, who are now new members!

Our first order of business was a discussion of our member exhibition. We will have our first juried show at Artworks! located in New Bedford in 2011. Our opening reception will occur on Saturday, February 5^th and the show will come down on April 3^rd. Adrienne Sloane mentioned that the Arsenal Center for the Arts is also very interested in our work, so she is going to discuss with them the possibility of our having a show there, sometime in the Fall of 2012.

We discussed several options for the show title and finally decided on – “One Passion, Many Voices”.

Our exhibition committee consists of Paula Becker, Beverly Arems, Noelle Foye, Catherine Kirsch and myself. We will be meeting soon to create the exhibition guidelines. Meanwhile, I am working on find a juror for our show. Paula Becker and I are going to Artworks! in a few days to see the space again and get a better idea on the number of pieces that will work well there.

Our program focused on the topic of writing artist statements. I read an article written by Robert Shaw, titled “A Quiet Talk about Artist Statements”. This was filled with numerous tips on preparing and writing a good artist statement. I also handed out a copy of an article from Quilting Arts from 2009, on the same topic. If any of you would like PDf copies of these two articles, please email me at vickijensen53@gmail.com

After a break for lunch, we had another wonderful show & tell!

Our next meeting will be held on July 24^th in Western Massachusetts, followed by our last meeting of 2011 in Boston at Bead & Fiber on October 24^th. Details on our July meeting will be sent out in June.

Vicki Jensen
MA-RI SDA State Rep

Paper Connection Earth Day Sale

SBCF Grant Nominations – Deadline April 1, 2010

Dear Friend of the Arts:

Just a reminder that the Saint Botolph Club Foundation is seeking recommendations for the 2010 Emerging Artists Awards (formerly the Grants-in-Aid Awards). Now in its 46^th year, the program has provided more than 300 grants to artists in New England . Grants are awarded in three disciplines: literature, music, and the visual arts.  We hope you will consider nominating someone this year.

Emerging Artists Awards. A one-time award of $2,500. Grants may be used for a variety of purposes. (Previously funded proposals have included requests to support travel; research; participation in performance institutes; purchases of instruments, tools or supplies; time off to finish a project or a commission, etc.)

Candidates. Candidates should be emerging artists who have completed their undergraduate education but have yet to achieve recognized public success; there is no age limit.

Recommendation procedure. You are invited to recommend one or two candidates, with a separate recommendation letter for each (the letter does not need to be lengthy), employing the following criteria: 1) the candidate should show significant promise and 2) the award will make a substantial difference in the artist’s professional life. Recommendation letters should also provide the Committee with your own credentials (e.g. teacher, mentor, curator) for judging the candidate’s qualifications. (Note: You may elect to make your nomination anonymous to the candidate; if so, please inform us.)

Mailing: We request that you send your letter both by e-mail kate.andres@gmail.com and also in hard copy (4 copies) to Kate Andres, 42 Reed Street , Cambridge , MA 02140 .

Please include all relevant contact information for both you and the candidate.

Dates. The deadline for receipt of your recommendation is April 1, 2010 (Awards will be announced in May; recipients will receive their awards in June, 2010.

Thank you for participating in this process and for supporting our New England artists—one of our most precious resources.

Sincerely,
The Board of Trustees
The Saint Botolph Club Foundation