This Monday, March 22, at 7:30 PM, Sue Murad (Choreography Fellow ‘08) and a group of artists will perform Buried in the Park Street Church overlooking the Granary Burial Ground. It’s a work of performance art that culminates three years of research (or rather, begins to culminate, since Sue plans to continue creating new performances).

Sue is one of those artists - and she’ll tell you this herself - that’s really hard to categorize. The same applies to “Buried” and Sue’s ongoing project. The project has its immediate origins in a series of 30 “word themes” that Sue sent to 40 different people last year. Sue asked for their responses to words like harbor, hymn, government, and those responses could be in the form of anecdotes, poetry, or… you name it.

“There was a nice blend of written response,” says Sue. “Some writers were incredibly short and literal. A friend typed me a nice long letter on a single sheet of paper for each word.” Other respondents were less literary. There were sound files, drawings, and collages (such as the collage above, by artist Jessica Gath). Sue read the words to her art group, and observed the movements they made in response.

Those responses, in all their variety, make up the raw material from which Sue created Monday’s performance. But where did the words come from?

To answer that, we need to look back four years, when Sue began reading Biblical stories with a new curiosity: What was happening elsewhere in the world at the same time? She bought a chronological Bible, in which a theologian had noted historical parallels to the stories – for instance, Buddha was born in the time of Daniel. “It threw me!” Sue admits. Prior to that, “the stories had seemed in the clouds. They were truth to my heart, but they didn’t seem like history.” For Sue, the chronology placed the stories “on the Earth.”

So began three years of research undertaken for “the joy of reading and the beauty of culture and the fascination of the planet being full of civilizations at shockingly different stages of development at the same time.” Sue knew the research would eventually lead to some kind of artistic performance, but hinging that performance on a timeline didn’t feel quite right, because of the discrepancies about dates that often accompany ancient history.

“I decided to look back at my notes and see if there were themes that I as an artist found interesting. That’s where this group of 30 words came from. It was hard to get it down to 30, but once I had this list, then I felt I wanted a contemporary collection of voices to respond back.”

Monday’s performance will begin in the Park Street Church lobby, overlooking the Granary Burial Ground, and will rove throughout portions of the church in site-specific responses to the word themes - which are in themselves responses to a study of ancient cultures. (See what I mean about being hard to categorize?)

Sue received her MCC award in Choreography for her work designing movement for the art rock band UV Protection. The award may not have resolved the “category” question once and for all, but it did validate Sue’s artistic work. “Because I was always in the band world, it felt far from art dialogue. So much art is about conversation. To know that I put something out there to other choreographers, to other people who love dance, and that they would award it, was wonderful to me.”

When she received the grant, she earmarked some for expenses like loans and new equipment, shared a portion with her UV Protection bandmates, and, curiously, set aside an amount to give to another artist she wanted to support and encourage. This choice, too, has its roots in ancient literature. “Biblically, it’s called a tithe,” she says.

Performance details:
Buried
Funerals and other formal arrangements. Please wear black. Performance art orchestrated by Sue Murad.
Monday, March 22nd
7:15 pm Doors open, 7:30 pm Service

Site specific location: Ockenga Lobby overlooking the Granary Burying Ground
Park Street Church (side entrance) in Boston

Developed & Performed by: Kat Callard, Jess Gath, Heidi Katz, Sue Murad, Mehran Namazi, Michal Shapiro, Cari Senefski, Sara Sussman, Liz Weir, Rita Wong, and others.

Image and video: A collage in response to the word buried by Jessica Gath; a video excerpt of DROP POP by UV Protection.

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For writers who long to be heard: A new literary magazine, The Drum, has been launched by Henriette Lazaridis Power (a 2006 Artist Fellow in Fiction/Creative Nonfiction). The Drum publishes, in audio form, short fiction, essays, and the occasional author interview. The inaugural issue comes out in May. Says Henriette, “We’re looking for work that pays close attention to language while never losing sight of the narrative drive. We want stories that really do tell a story. And essays that engage in the complexity of an idea. The Drum is a home for emerging and established writers who value the power of writing out loud.”

For filmmakers seeking composers (& vice versa): the Learning Center and the Film Scoring Department at Berklee College of Music will host the 5th Annual Music for Film networking event on Saturday, April 10, 2010 from 1:30–7 p.m. The event, free and open to the public, includes a speakers’ panel about the filmmaker/composer relationship, a presentation by film composer Mason Daring (Lone Star), a film scoring contest, and an exposition where students and professionals will have booths, exchange demos and business cards, and talk about their work. Register and find more info.

For emerging playwrights: The Princess Grace Awards Playwright Fellowship is given annually to a young American playwright, consists of a $7,500 grant and a ten-week residence, including paid travel, at New Dramatists, a playwright service organization, in New York City. The award is based primarily on the artistic quality of a submitted play and the potential of the fellowship to assist in the writer’s growth. Read the guidelines at www.pgfusa.org and apply by March 31, 2010.

For artists with disabilities: VSA, the International Organization on Arts and Disability, has announced the VSA Teaching Artist Fellowship Program, seeking to identify, engage, and support artists with disabilities through teaching artist fellowships in the visual and performing arts. This competitive fellowship offers a professional development retreat in Washington D.C., subscriptions/memberships within VSA’s teaching artist network, networking and teaching opportunities, enrollment in VSA Community of Practice, and the opportunity to serve as facilitators for VSA’s education programs. Fellows will also be profiled in VSA publications. Submission deadline: April 23, 2010. Find guidelines, application forms, and more information.

AND you can continue your opportunities search at these great sites for finding artist grants, residencies, calls-to-artists, etc:

• Mira’s List (a labor-of-love blog just teeming with artist opportunities listings)
• ArtSource (an online resource of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts)
• NYFA Source (a search engine for artist opportunities, hosted by the New York Foundation for the Arts but with a national scope)

Image: TOWNSEND’S PATENT FOLDING GLOBE, created by Dennis Townsend (1869). From the Boston Public Library Norman B. Leventhal Map Center.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/boston_public_library/ / CC BY 2.0

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Ralf Yusuf Gawlick (Music Composition Fellow ‘09) was born in Germany, of Turkish-Kurdish descent. He’s lived and worked in the United States and Europe, and through his wife, has become particularly connected to Poland (his “adopted country”).

With that breadth of personal experience, perhaps it should come as no surprise that his musical compositions seem to move with the sweep of many histories. His compositions are deep engagements of the conscience and mind, drawing on the poetry of Pope John Paul II, the tumult of the Berlin Wall, or the plight of Polish orphans on a children’s crusade.

Listen to an excerpt of Ralf Yusuf Gawlick’s Glocken-spiel for piano quartet

Berlin Suite and a new CD
I had the pleasure of meeting Ralf this past November, at a Massachusetts State House event to celebrate the 2009 Artist Fellows and Finalists. Gracious and deeply invested in his work, he shared how he’d been commissioned by Boston College and the German Embassy to write the music for the film Writing on the Wall: Remembering the Berlin Wall. The film has since screened at numerous venues, including the MFA Boston.

Ralf’s score will be performed as a concert suite by the Hawthorne String Quartet on Wednesday, March 17, at Gasson 100, Boston College, in Chestnut Hill. There’s a reception at 7 PM to celebrate Ralf’s new CD, Ralf Yusuf Gawlick: Solo and Chamber Works, from Musica Omnia. A free performance of the film score, called “Berlin Suite Opus 15,” is at 8 PM.

Kinderkreuzzug
Then next month (April 10 and 11), Ralf will premiere a large-scale work for children’s voices and  a small chamber ensemble, called the Kinderkreuzzug Cantata. Its text is the anti-war poetry of Bertolt Brecht, written after the playwright’s 1933 escape from Nazi Germany. The story follows 50 orphaned children who embark on an extraordinary crusade: they leave war-torn Poland in hopes of finding a land of peace.

The scale of the project’s vision is matched in performance: two New England children’s choirs will be joined by a choir from Germany, sponsored to visit New England specifically for this piece. They will perform the cantata twice, publicly, as well as offer a separate program of their own (see information below), then record the cantata for a future Musica Omnia release.

In a statement about the cantata, Ralf writes, “Brecht’s children still walk and suffer in our collective conscience. Although my music may not give bread, it may just harbor their hope, and ours, for the extraordinary.”

Performances of the Kinderkreuzzug Cantata
Saturday, April 10, 7:30 PM, Premiere of Kinderkreuzzug Cantata, St. Ignatius, Chestnut Hill

Sunday, April 11, 3 PM, 2nd performance of Kinderkreuzzug Cantata, Trinity Episcopal, Concord

Knabenchor der Chorakademie Dortmund, the German choir visiting for the premiere, will also hold a separate concert on Friday, April 9, 7-9 PM, at the First Lutheran Church, Boston

Tickets for the concerts on April 9, 10 and 11 are: $16 adults, $10 students, children.

Kinderkreuzzug features Knabenchor der Chorakademie Dortmund (conductor, Jost Salm), Treble Chorus of New England (c. Valerie Becker), Youth Pro Musica (c. Robert Barney); small chamber ensemble: Richard Shaughnessy (clarinet), Blanka Bednarz (violin), Elizabeth Kuefler (viola), Rafael Popper-Keizer (cello), Heinrich Christensen (organ).

The cantata and performances are sponsored by Goethe Institute in Boston, Goethe Institute in Munich, Newton Cultural Council, German Consulate General Boston, School of Arts & Sciences, Boston College Institute of Liberal Arts, Boston College Arts for Social Responsibility, Boston College Jesuit Institute, Boston College.

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For Nathalie Miebach, the mysteries of art and science are best engaged by their individual components: colors and temperatures, reed and wind speeds. Through a time- (and hands-) intensive weaving process, she creates sculptures that visually interpret scientific data. The resulting sculptures - intricately crafted yet curiously natural - invite new understandings of astronomy, ecology, meteorology. Nathalie’s work, recently seen in a solo show Sarah Doyle Gallery at Brown University, is now on exhibit in 185th Annual Invitational Exhibition of Contemporary American Art,  at NYC’s National Academy Museum (through 6/8). Locally, you can see her work in Transformations in Wellesley College’s Jewett Gallery (through 4/4).

Her explorations of art and science go one step further in her latest project, which first translates weather data into musical scores, and then into sculptural forms. The project will reach a peak this Sunday, March 14, 3 PM, at the Lily Pad in Inman Square, Cambridge, when the Axis Ensemble performs “Hurricane Noel,” one of Nathalie’s weather data musical scores, and she’ll present sculptural work from the same score.

We asked Nathalie about this project, the pull of the sciences, and her relationship with music composition.

ArtSake: Your recent works - including those that won you a 2009 Artist Fellowship - are woven sculptures derived from weather data. What sparked the addition of musical scores?

Nathalie: It’s a hard question for me to answer, because I’m still trying to figure it out myself. It has to do with nuances that are embedded in numerical behaviors that scientific instruments don’t pick up, but the human mind does. In that lies an imperfection/perfection of the human mind I find incredibly fascinating and beautiful. I’m becoming more interested in the way humans understand weather as opposed to how instruments record it. Musical notation has been a type of mediator in helping me give these nuanced, idiosyncratic ways of understanding weather a larger voice.

It was, in part, my growing interest in the nuances of behaviors I was observing in weather. After looking at meteorological data collected from weather stations and my own daily observations collected from a specific environment, I began to notice how I was relying and beginning to trust my own observations more than my instruments. Observing weather by looking at a computer screen versus daily observations taken from one’s own backyard yields a completely different understanding of the environmental interactions of weather. While I think both are important, I began to notice that my own observations were a lot more nuanced by the things I was observing in the environment around me. Weather never happens in isolation, but always in the context of an environment. Thus, observing weather is about observing an environment reacting / influencing weather.

That nuanced reading wasn’t coming through in my translations from numbers to sculpture. This is how I came to reach for musical notation, as a vehicle to allow me to integrate and give voice to that little glimmer of nuance that was creeping into my observations. Just like a composer can tweak and shape the notes of a melody, I can use tempo and rhythm to nuance the musical translation of the data into musical notes. The notes themselves are still based on actual numbers I collect.

I am beginning to realize how important it is to me to feel a little naive about what I’m working on. I seem to constantly gravitate towards that stage in learning where you don’t really know what you’re doing, cross your fingers and somehow intuitively hope for the best. I certainly feel that way about music and have been lucky enough to work with such patient (and polite) musicians who are both very forgiving and honest about my musical inabilities.

ArtSake: The sound clips from the project you’ve posted on your website are fascinating. What has surprised you about the musical performances? And how have you found the process of collaborating with musicians?

Nathalie: The biggest surprise to me is how it all comes back to sculpture. I got into musical notations because the sculptural language I was using was no longer reflecting the way I was interpreting and understanding the data. Translating scores into sculptures and listening to musicians interpret the data has made me rethink sculpture in so many ways. After sitting in on a rehearsal with the Axis Ensemble, I went back to my studio and just stared at my sculptures for two hours. I was blown away by the ease at which music can express so elegantly nuances of behaviors. Rather than feeling discouraged, I feel my respect for sculpture has been deepened because of music.

There is something very liberating about inviting other voices into the translation process. When I give musicians the score, I tell them what it’s about, what portions of the score are flexible and those that aren’t. Then I pretty much withdraw and give them lots of freedom in determining rhythm, tempo, number of instruments, etc. For me it’s important that they make it their own, for this is the whole purpose of inviting others into the translation process. It gives me other examples of interpretations that I can then use to reevaluate my own sculptural translations of the same score.

ArtSake: I’m curious about your background in the sciences. What drew you to weather in the first place?

Nathalie: I don’t have a background in science in that I was never formally trained, aside from a few continuing education courses I took / am taking at Harvard Extension School. However, I love science and the fact that the whole premise of it rests on doubt. I’m learning about the ocean right now and can’t get over the fact of how amazing barnacles are!

My first sculptural interpretations of data began with astronomy. Weather came into the picture in 2006 when I had two consecutive artist residencies at the Fine Arts Work Center. Zach Smith, a climate educator from the Wright Center for Science Education, knew of my work and approached me about a project on climate change. At the time I knew I wanted to figure out a way for me to collect my own data to see how the sculptural translation process would change. Until then I had relied mainly on data sources from the web. I was to field-test one of their instruments for the Wright Center on the beaches of Cape Cod, while I would be tutored on how to collect science data. I knew very little about weather and only the most basic Climate Change 101 information. I soon realized that if there was any hope for me to truly understand the complexity of climate change, I had to first understand weather. That’s what I’ve been trying to do ever since.

ArtSake: What is it about weaving that allows you to access and explore such complicated material?

Nathalie: Weather is not really complicated when you break it down to its components. It gets messy when you draw back and watch this cacophony of variables interact. And even worse when you look back in time as well. That’s what meteorologists do on TV with their complicated models. I stay safely in the realm of just a few variables, so that things never get too complicated.

Weaving is incredibly versatile and allows you to pretty much build anything you want. As a Lego fanatic, there is nothing that brings me more pleasure than building something with my hands. Weaving is the next best thing to that. Weaving also takes time, which allows the questions I am addressing to evolve and change over time.

ArtSake: This is a question we sometimes ask in our nano-interviews, and I always find the responses interesting: what artist do you most admire but work nothing like?

Nathalie: Since I barely play the recorder, this should qualify. My biggest visual influence has actual been classical music, particularly Minimalism. I’m particularly drawn to Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Arvo Paert and John Adams for creating music that has always felt to me extremely sculptural. Incidentally, it is also the kind of music I reach for when I am trying to figure out some structural problem I am facing or when I am looking at data and trying to discern behavioral patterns. I guess it helps me think.

Spending time with these composers for days and days in my studio has also made me very aware of the very act of listening and how important it is in sculpture. So much of understanding sculpture and weather seems to be the act of simply listening - for materials, for behaviors, for structure, for meaning. And there is nothing simple about that.

When music finally did enter the process, I had this keen sense that it was this presence in my studio that had been sitting there for a long time, asking itself what took me so long.

Nathalie Miebach is the winner of the Blanche E. Colman Award and a 2009 Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Fellowship in Sculpture/Installation. Her work is included in the upcoming book publication of Data Flow 2: Visualizing Information, from the Germany-based publisher Die Gestalten Verlag. Nathalie will give artist talks at Salem State College (March 22nd, 11 AM) and the Montserrat College of Art in Beverly (April 22, noon), and will participate in “The New Materiality: Digital Dialogues at the Boundaries of Contemporary Craft” at the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, May 29, 2010 – Feb 6, 2011.

Images: all work by Nathalie Miebach; detail of URBAN WEATHER PRAIRIES - SYMPHONIC STUDIES IN D (2009), Reed, wood, data, 16×15x15 ft; SHOULDER WEATHER THROUGH NEW URBAN FRONTIERS (2009), Wood, data, reed, 45×45x27 in; score for STORMY WEATHER, INTERNAL STORMS; EXTERNAL WEATHER, INTERNAL STORMS (2009), Reed, metal, wood, data, 33×40x60 in; URBAN WEATHER PRAIRIES - SYMPHONIC STUDIES IN D (2009), Reed, wood, data, 16×15x15 ft; score for HURRICANE NOEL.

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We learned that Doris “Granny D” Haddock, a well-known New England political activist, has passed away at the age of 100. Granny D was best known for walking across the country at 90 years old to support campaign finance reform and for her US Senate run against Judd Gregg in 2004. That Senate race was captured in the spirited, engaging documentary Run Granny Run, directed by Marlo Poras (a past MCC Film & Video Fellow).

Those who have seen the documentary or otherwise experienced Granny D won’t be surprised to learn her long, fruitful life also bustled with artistic aspirations. As a young woman, she went to Emerson College and hoped to be an actress.

She described her theatrical experiences in a WMUR story:

“I set up a one-man show and went around to the various small villages in New England and did a stand-up show,” she said. “My word, I haven’t told anyone about that in years.”

It’s always fascinating to see the way creative energies manifest in the lives of creative people - artists, activists, or otherwise. Rest in peace.

Read more about her on the Run Granny Run webpage.

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For Dancers: Applications are being accepted for the next Movement at the Mills at the Boston Center for the Arts. For more information, contact Andrea Blesso Albuquerque at the Boston Center for the Arts at (617) 456-1132 or ablesso@bcaonline.org.
Deadline: March 12 by 5 pm. Performance is April 30.

Call to Artists: Philosophies of Life exhibition at Endicott College Center for the Arts in Beverly, MA. Qualifications: Must have a disability and be an artist, reside in Massachusetts, and be willing to be associated with Artist With Disabilities Task Force. Exhibition dates: Monday, September 13, 2010 through Friday, October 22, 2010. Reception: Monday, September 20, 2010 from 5 – 7  pm.
Questions or to request an application form, contact Lisa B. Corfman at: Phone: (617) 308-2573. Email: LBCorfman@Comcast.net

Call for Entries: Experimental Moving Images From the Art Technology New England/AXIOM Center for New and Experimental Media.
On Thursday April 22, 2010, Axiom and ATNE will host Experimental Moving Images From the ATNE Community. Make a profile on the free ATNE portal, and you can submit work for the screening! Go here to make a free user profile, and see the submission guidelines and submission form. Film, video and animation with a duration of 30 seconds to 15 minutes will be considered.
Deadline: March 15, 2010

Image credit: Boston Public Library Music Department. Accession No.: 07_07_000055, Call Number: no. 23 of **M.450.164, Lithographer: Bufford, John H. & Sons, Title of Lithograph: Oscar Wilde, Composer: Uschman, Carl, Title of Composition: Dream of the Lily Waltz, Place of Publication: Boston, Publisher: Oliver Ditson & Co.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/boston_public_library/ / CC BY 2.0

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There are a handful of upcoming opportunities for artists’ professional development - so on your marks, get set, etc!

March 15 – deadline for New England filmmakers to apply for LEF New England Fellowships to support attendance to the Flaherty Seminar in NYC. The Flaherty Seminar, June 19-25, 2010 at Colgate University in Hamilton, NY, is a great opportunity for film artists to connect with programmers, scholars, and other filmmakers from around the globe. The LEF Fellowships can help New England filmmakers attend.

March 19 – ARTmorpheus partners with Fractured Atlas to present Raising Money to Support Your Creative Endeavors, a fundraising workshop for emerging artist of all disciplines and start-up arts non-profits. To RSVP, contact Liora Beer.

March 24 - Free Trailers Workshop for filmmakers at the Center for Independent Documentary in Newton. Register here.

Artist Business Training – one-and-a-half day workshops led by the UMass Arts Extension Service to address business basics and key issues that artists confront in the current economy

• April 21-22 Petersham, Petersham Town Hall (contact Sarah McMaster at North Quabbin Woods for more info or to sign up)
• April 28-29 Springfield, Schibelli Hall, Springfield Technical Community College (contact Tracy Woods at Art for the Soul Gallery)
• May 5-6 Northampton, Dynamite Space (contact Julia Handschuh)

Ongoing - PRIME Program from the International Institute of Boston – offering free guidance and resources for small businesses (including artist-entrepreneurs). Visit the Program’s website for more info.

Ongoing - Assets for Artists teams with City of Pittsfield to help artists buy homes or start-up/expand arts businesses in Pittsfield. Visit Berkshire Creative for more details.

If you know of any other upcoming professional development opportunities we’ve missed, let us know!

Image: Daniel Ranalli (Drawing Fellow ‘10), SNAIL DRAWING/DOUBLE LINE START (2007), Snail drawing in sand, 20×28 in.

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The event will take place in the Arts Resource Room of the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, 5:30-7:30 PM.

Diane Debicella, Program Director from Fractured Atlas, will provide an overview of the fundraising process that will address such issues as:

• How do arts organizations in the US fund their operations?
• Who gives money to the arts, why do they give it, who gets the money and how do you find it?
• What are the differences between individual and institutional giving?
• What is fiscal sponsorship and how can it help you?
• What do you need to submit a grant proposal?

There is a suggested donation: $10. Maximum Capacity is 25. To RSVP, contact Liora Beer from ARTmorpheus.

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SIX past and current MCC Artist Fellows were selected to be among nine finalists for the 2010 James and Audrey Foster Prize, the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston’s biennial award and exhibition program for Boston-area artists. Eirik Johnson (Photography Fellow ‘09), Fred H. C. Liang (Painting Fellow ‘04, ‘08), Rebecca Meyers (Film & Video Fellow ‘09), Matt Rich (Painting Fellow ‘10), Evelyn Rydz (Drawing Fellow ‘10), and Steve Tourlentes (Photography Fellow ‘05), along with Robert de Saint Phalle, Daniela Rivera, and Amie Siegel, will participate in an exhibition at the ICA that opens Sept. 22, 2010, and continues through Jan. 30, 2011. The winner of the prize will be announced in January 2011.

Three MCC Fellows are featured in the show 1X1 at Gallery Kayafas in Boston. The show, curated by Gregory Mencoff (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ‘05, ‘09), includes work by Evelyn Rydz (Drawing Fellow ‘10) and Pat Shannon (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ‘09) along with Nancy Cusack and John Schulz. It runs March 4-April 10, 2010, with receptions on First Fridays: March 5 and April 2, 5:30-8 PM.

Three MCC Fellows/Finalists are featured in an exhibition of Artadia Boston’s recent awardees, at the Mills Gallery in the Boston Center for the Arts. Work by Claire Beckett (Photography Fellow ‘07), Ambreen Butt (Drawing Finalist ‘10), and Eric Gottesman (Photography Fellow ‘09), along with that of Caleb Cole, Raúl González, Amie Siegel and Joe Zane, will on exhibit March 26 - April 25, 2010, opening reception, Friday, March 26, 6-8 PM.

Speaking of Claire Beckett… kudos to Claire and Irina Rozovsky (Photography Finalist ‘09): both are included in the Humble Arts Foundation’s 31 Women in Art Photography, which is on exhibit at Affirmation Arts in NYC, March 6-April 10, 2010, opening reception: Saturday, March 6, 6–9 PM.

This month, Steve Almond (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ‘08) has a number of Boston-area readings and appearances in advance of the April release his new book Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life. On Friday, March 12, he’ll be the host of Grub Street’s Grub Gone… Blue, a night of reading from writers’ “blue” periods. On Thursday, March 18, he’ll join Steven Beeber at the Art Institute of Boston (check back at Steve’s website for details). On Tuesday, March 23, he’ll join Keith Morris at Porter Square Books in Cambridge. Then on April 16, his voice by now limbered up and the mic cleared of sibilance, he’ll visit the Brattle Theatre (hosted by Harvard Bookstore) for a musical celebration of his new book, an ode/confessional for the musical superfan in all of us. Tickets on sale now. In other auspicious Almond news: his story “Donkey Greedy, Donkey Gets Punched” has been selected by Richard Russo to appear in The Best American Short Stories 2010. Can I humbly request a “Woo hoo?”

Alissa Cardone (Choreography Finalist ‘02, ‘06, ‘08) and Kinodance will perform their new work “Fuse” on March 5 as part of the 12th biennial Arts and Technology Symposium at Connecticut College.

Ralf Yusuf Gawlick (Music Composition Fellow ‘09) let us know that on March 17 at 8 pm in Gasson Hall, Boston College, the Hawthorne String Quartet will perform his Berlin Suite. The piece, performed here as a concert suite, was commissioned by the German Embassy and Boston College for the film documentary “Writing on the Wall: Remembering the Berlin Wall” celebrating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Admission is free. At 7 PM, there is a reception to celebrate the release of Solo and Chamber Works, Ralf Yusuf Gawlick, from Musica Omnia. Also, don’t miss the premiere of Kinderkreuzzug, Ralf’s dramatic cantata for children’s voices and small chamber ensemble, on Saturday, April 10, 7:30 PM, at St. Ignatius, Chestnut Hill and again on Sunday, April 11, 3:00 PM Trinity Episcopal, Concord. The cantata, which adapts Bertolt Brecht’s extraordinary and grim anti-war poetry, will be performed by two New England choirs and a German boys choir sponsored to fly to the region specifically for this piece. The choirs will record the cantata for the label Musica Omnia.

Masako Kamiya (Painting Fellow ‘06, ‘10) has a solo exhibition, Outspoken: Masako Kamiya, 2002-2010 at the Danforth Museum of Art in Framingham, March 17 - May 16 2010. Artist’s Reception: Saturday, March 20, 6-8PM. Artist’s Talk: Wednesday, March 17, noon & Sunday, April 11, 3PM. (The talks are free for museum members or with paid admission to the museum.) Read more about the show (and about Masako) on ArtSake.

Adam Lampton (Photography Finalist ‘07) has a solo show at Carroll and Sons Gallery in Boston, Nothing Serious Can Happen Here: Photographs from Macao by Adam Lampton. The show runs through March 27, 2010.

Todd McKie (Painting Finalist ‘08) has been awarded a Residency Fellowship to Instituto Sacatar in Bahia, Brazil. Twenty-five artists were selected from among more than 500 candidates from 19 different countries. Todd will be there for two months in 2011. You can see recent work by Todd at Gallery NAGA in Boston this May 2010. A book about a collaborative project done with David Caras is to be published to coincide with the exhibition.

This month, work by Nathalie Miebach (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ‘09) can be experienced both locally and in NYC, and through numerous senses. Her sculptural art, recently featured at the Sarah Doyle Gallery at Brown University, is now on exhibit in 185th Annual Invitational Exhibition of Contemporary American Art, National Academy Museum, New York, NY, through June 8, 2010. Furthermore, she’s in a group show called Transformations in the Jewett Gallery at Wellesley College, March 3-April 4, with an opening reception March 4, 5-6 PM. Then on March 14, at 3 PM, the Axis Ensemble will perform her sculptures (not a typo) at the Lily Pad in Inman Square, Cambridge. Nathalie creates her fascinating sculptures using weather data; for this project, she’s translating the weather data into musical scores, then using the score as a starting point for her sculpture. MEANWHILE, the score itself goes to musicians (enter the Axis Ensemble), and voila, you have “Hurricane Noel,” a performance and sculpture interpreting the same weather. We have it on good authority that the sculpture will be in attendance at the concert.

Stephen Mishol (Painting Fellow ‘08) has three paintings and four drawings in Tek’tanik at the Aferro Gallery in Newark, NJ. The show runs from March 13 - April 24.

Eric Henry Sanders (Playwriting Fellow ‘09) will have a workshop reading of his play Woyzeck: Homecoming at The Drilling Company in NYC in March. Then in April, his short play Dead Duck will be part of the Back to Back Director’s Project, starting April 21, 2010 at Available Potential Enterprises.

Past Fellows Notes
Feb. 2010
Jan. 2010

Are you a past fellow or finalist with an event, honor, or other bit of news you’d like to share? Tell us about it.

Image: Eirik Johnson, THE ROAD TO FORKS, WASHINGTON (2006), archival pigment print, 24×30 in; Cover art for SOLO AND CHAMBER WORKS, RALF YUSUF GAWLICK (Musica Omnia 2010); Stephen Mishol, PUSH (2007) Vinyl paint on paper, 20×25 3/4 in.

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Free Artists’ Roundtable
A casual pot luck gathering providing artists working in all media with a forum for peer exchange, networking and sharing resources with one another. David Reichert, resident artist, will speak about his experiences: “How to survive unemployment and job search strategies, using your artistic skill and talents - one artist’s story of survival and positive outcome.” Artists are encouraged to bring a food item of your choice to share. Paper goods and soft drinks will be provided. RSVP and direct any questions to Liora Beer beer@artmorpheus.org (617) 456-1131
Wednesday, March 3, 2010, 5:30 - 7:30pm
Mills Gallery, Boston Center for the Arts, 551 Tremont Street, Boston, MA

Guest Curators wanted for DownStreet Art 2010
Click here for application requirements and other details at
MCLA’s Berkshire Cultural Resource Center is seeking curators to be a part of DownStreet Art’s 2010 season. DownStreet Art is a public art project designed to revitalize downtown North Adams. If you are interested in becoming a Guest Curator, they strongly encourage you to visit their website www.DownStreetArt.org as well as downtown North Adams. All applications will be reviewed by the DownStreet Art committee and applicants will be notified within three weeks.
Application deadline: March 15, 2010

Call to Visual and Craft Artists: (ahts): The Boston Arts Festival 2010 is now accepting applications for its annual event. Go here for the application form. Questions? Contact John Crowley at 617-635-3911 or john.crowley@cityofboston.gov
Deadline: April 15, 2010

Call to Artists - Get Your Freak On!
Space 242 is looking for art celebrating/depicting circus freaks, carnies, sideshows, etc. for the next exhibition. Illustration, painting, sculpture, mixed media, and photography accepted. Space 242 is located at 242 E. Berkeley St., Boston. E-mail info@space242.com for a submission form.
Deadline: March 15, 2010

Image credit: photograph of daffodil in snow from public domain pictures.

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