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November 23, 2020

The Chestertown Spy

An Educational News Source for Chestertown Maryland

Arts Arts Notes

Academy Art Museum Announces November Events

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EXHIBITIONS

The following Academy Art Museum exhibitions are sponsored by the Talbot County Arts Council, the Maryland State Arts Council, and the Star Democrat. Open daily, Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. and Sunday, 12 noon to 4 p.m.

Accidental Icons: Warhol’s Photography
Through January 17, 2021
From the late 1950s until his death, Andy Warhol produced thousands of photographs of his Factory life, surrounded by fellow artists, celebrities, and socialites. Warhol’s Polaroids and silver gelatin prints are lesser-known compared to his monumental silkscreens, drawing, and films that transformed the course of American art. From close, brightly-lit Polaroids (some of which served as drafts for his silkscreens), to lucid yet moody silver gelatin prints of the people, objects, and places of his time, Warhol created a visual diary that transformed the personalities in his midst into vernacular icons.

This exhibition offers a glimpse into Warhol’s photographic oeuvre. Actresses Jane Fonda and Pia Zadora; Native American artist and activist RC Gorman; socialite and trophy hunter Elsa Talayero; model Juliana Siu; basketball star Kareem Abdul Jabbar and author Truman Capote make appearances in Warhol’s photographs, bringing together threads from the New York City scene that arguably made, and was later sustained by, Warhol. The exhibition includes works on loan from the Salisbury University Art Galleries.

Andy Warhol, Jane Fonda, 1982, Polacolor Type 2, Courtesy of Salisbury University and the Andy Warhol Foundation.

The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Selections Lesser Known and Unseen Works from the Vogel Collection
Through November 29, 2020
This exhibition presents highlights and previously-unexhibited works from the Vogel Collection. The Academy Art Museum was honored as the Maryland recipient of the Collection’s 50 Works for 50 States initiative in 2008. Featuring works on paper and sculptures by prominent contemporary artists such as Richard Tuttle, André Cadere, Robert Barry, Steve Keister, Moshe Kupferman, Lucio Pozzi, Edda Renouf, and others, the exhibition reveals both the landscape of 20th-century American art and the story of an exceptional collection.

The selection presents some of the most illustrious examples of abstract and minimalist art in America that address the profound socioeconomic and creative transformations of the postwar period. From Tuttle’s whimsical but interpretative watercolors on ruled paper to Cadere’s color-coded sculpture with an elusive solution, the exhibition revisits simultaneously radical and subtle ideas that defined the future of artistic production.

Lucio Pozzi, Trinity, 1980, watercolor, Gift of Dorothy and Herbert Vogel, 2008.

Waterwall

Site-specific installation by artist Katherine Tzu-Lan Mann
South Street Lawn at Museum
Through Spring 2021
Waterwall is a mixed-media installation created by combining acrylic, sumi ink, silkscreen, and cyanotype on collaged translucent vinyl over glass. Artist Katherine Tzu-Lan Mann describes the work as “a three-dimensional landscape painting: a riff on stained glass, a maximalist immersive gardenscape, a fantastic escapist porthole.”

Mann is an American painter whose work explores mythology, identity, and landscape, particularly through the unique dialogues she crafts between the slow and permeating movement of ink and paint and the dynamic layers of collaged and printed elements. Waterwall harkens back to centuries of cave murals found in Dunhuang, China, where paintings do not just describe landscapes, but become environments and magical symbols themselves. As sunlight passes through the walls and ceiling of the cube on the Academy Art Museum’s grounds, Waterwall bathes the viewer in light and detail, creating a verdant, melting, glowing, fragmented, personal, and mythological realm. The bespoke plexiglass structure for the Museum lawn was designed by Mitch Hager of HAGER + HUCK Architecture. Sponsors of Waterwall are the Maryland State Arts Council, Talbot County Arts Council, and Catherine McCoy.

Waterwall, a site-specific mixed-media installation by artist Katherine Tzu-Lan Mann, is now on display on the Museum’s South Street Lawn.

COMING!
2020 Annual Members’ Exhibition
Signs of the Times
December 11, 2020–January 17, 2021
The Museum’s Annual Members’ Exhibition invites artists to submit works that explore Signs of the Times. 2020 has been a troubling year that has at least brought moments of clarity, togetherness and gratitude for many of our members. We look forward to exhibiting imaginative and experimental works in any medium that addresses how this unique time manifests itself in our personal and shared world.

LECTURES
KITTREDGE-WILSON SPEAKER SERIES – Lectures on Zoom!
Friday, November 20 at 6 p.m.
Learn about the Museum’s newly completed renovation project through “Architecture for the Arts,” with Steve Ziger, Partner, Ziger/Snead of Baltimore, MD. Ziger is a partner at the Top-50 US Architects firm of Ziger/Snead of Baltimore, MD, which served as the architect for the AAM’s new courtyard entrance and gallery renovations. Cost is $20 Members; $25 Non-members.

Steve Ziger, Partner, Ziger/Snead

ADULT CLASSES
Adult Class Scholarships – Drawing, Painting, Printmaking, Pastels, Watercolor, and much more.
All Materials are Included. Contact Katie Cassidy for details at 410-820-5222 or email
wkmcgarry@verizon.net for further information. Visit academyartmuseum.org for a full listing of classes. Scholarships are made possible through a generous grant from the Mid-Shore Community Foundation.

A Finding Your Purpose: Daily Journaling for Artists
Instructor: Diane DuBois Mullaly (dianeduboismullaly.com)
4 weeks via Zoom: November 5, 12, 19, December 3
Thursdays: 10 a.m.–1 p.m.
Cost: $115 Members, $132 Non-members

CHILDREN’S CLASSES
Easton CommUNITY Days
#AAM Rocks & Easton Maze
November 14 – 15, 2020
Free
Write words of hope or kindness or draw whatever you like on your rock and hide it in downtown Easton where people are likely to find it before Friday, November 13th. During Easton CommUNITY Days on November 14th and 15th, wander around town in search of other kindness rocks. If you find one, take a selfie with it, post it to #AAMRocks, and re-hide it for others to find. Reserve your kindness rock kit at https://academyartmuseum.org/event/easton-community-days/. Each kit includes a smooth rock and three acrylic paint pens. Pick up is at the Museum between Tuesday, November 3rd and Saturday, November 7th. Also, stop by the Academy Art Museum during the CommUNITY Days event on November 14th and 15th to pick up your free Easton Maze and red pencil. The maze is shaped like the town of Easton and features pictures of a few works from the Permanent Collection. The Museum thanks the Mid-Shore Community Foundation’s Artistic Insights Fund and the HUT Foundation for their generous support of children’s programming.

PERFORMING ARTS CLASSES
Piano & Guitar Lessons
Instructor: Raymond Remesch
Contact Instructor for further information at (410) 829-0335 or rayremesch@gmail.com

Voice Lessons
Instructor: Georgiann Gibson
Contact instructor for Information at (410) 829-2525 or georgiann@atlanticbb.net.

MUSEUM COVID-19 GUIDELINES
Per City, State, and CDC guidelines, new safety measures have been implemented to ensure limited attendance and adequate space for social distancing. Masks must be worn at all times by participants and instructors. Prior to visiting the Academy Art Museum, visitors are encouraged to visit AAM’s website to read more about the Museum’s reopening protocols. Responses to frequently asked questions can be found on the Visit Page.
If you aren’t able to visit the Museum at this time, please enjoy our available virtual tours, art activities, artist talks, and virtual platform, Art at Home. We look forward to seeing you soon at AAM.
For additional information, visit academyartmuseum.org

AAM Reopens with Two New Exhibitions and a Variety of Classes in September

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Archival pigment print by Kim Llerena, titled Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado.

New Photography II
August 1 – October 7, 2020

New Photography II, a biennial juried competition, includes photographic artists at all stages of their career and will be open through October 7, 2020. The exhibition aims to highlight the current state of photography across a broad spectrum, showcasing new and exciting work by both emerging and established artists. This year’s selection includes many exciting works by 66 artists from all over the United States that explore our modern world through different disciplines within the medium.

Philip Brookman, Consulting Curator of the Department of Photographs, National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC will jury the exhibition. Brookman will visit the Academy Art Museum in September to view the exhibition, particularly the prints, in order to determine this year’s award recipients. In addition, the Museum is offering the publication of “New Photography I,” a catalogue of the first edition of the juried exhibition held in 2018. The catalogue is available at the Museum Shop and online for $10.00.

Antonio McAfee: Legacy
August 1 – October 7, 2020

Antonio McAfee is one of the most unique emerging voices in photography today. The Baltimore-based photographer and professor’s first solo U.S. museum exhibition, Legacy, features found portraits of middle-class African-American historical figures, which McAfee uses to explore the reconstruction of identity and the significance of visual perception. His installations deliver ethereal and dynamic experiences of his historical subjects and transform their legacy.

Antonio McAfee, Oval #6

COMING!
2020 Annual Members’ Exhibitionca
Signs of the Times
December 11, 2020–January 17, 2021
Sign up online: October 1–30, 2020 (link open October 1)
The Museum’s Annual Members’ Exhibition invites artists to submit works that explore Signs of the Times. 2020 has been a troubling year that has at least brought moments of clarity, togetherness and gratitude for many of our members. We look forward to exhibiting imaginative and experimental works in any medium that addresses how this unique time manifests itself in our personal and shared world.

LECTURES
KITTREDGE-WILSON SPEAKER SERIES – Lectures on Zoom!
Gordon Parks: The New Tide, Early Work 1940–1950
Philip Brookman, Consulting Curator, Department of Photographs, National Gallery of Art,
Washington, D.C.
Friday, September 25, 6 p.m.
Cost: Cost: $20 Members, $25 Non-members (Pre-registration is required)
Philip Brookman illustrates how Gordon Parks’s early experiences at the Farm Security Administration, Office of War Information, and Standard Oil Company (New Jersey), as well as his close relationships with Ralph Ellison, Langston Hughes, Roy Stryker, Charles White, and Richard Wright helped shape his groundbreaking style.

ADULT CLASSES

Cast Drawing
Instructor: Bradford Ross
brad@bradfordross.com
6 weeks: September 3–October 8
Thursdays, 10 a.m.–1:00 p.m.
Cost: $195 Members, $225 Non-members

Philip Brookman

Paint Better Boats
Instructor: Diane DuBois Mullaly
dianeduboismullaly.com
3 weeks: September 3, 10 & 17
Built-in rain date: September 24
Thursdays: 10 a.m.–1 p.m.
Cost: $95 Members, $115 Non-members

Traveling with Gouache
New Instructor: Bernie Dellario
bernie.dellario@gmail.com
2 Day Workshop: September 12 &13
Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m.–3:30 p.m.
Cost: $135 Members, $162 Non-members

Basic Drawing: Gaining Confidence in
Value and Composition
Instructor: Katie Cassidy
wkmcgarry@verizon.net
6 weeks: September 15–October 20
Tuesdays, 10 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
Cost: $220 Members, $260 Non-members

Color Theory
New Instructor: Georgia June Goldberg
georgiajunegoldberg@gmail.com
6 weeks: September 16–October 21
Wednesdays, 1:15– 4 p.m.
Cost $195 Members, $235 Non-members

Pastel: Creating Strong and Vibrant
Compositions in Still Life and Landscape

Katie Cassidy

Instructor: Katie Cassidy
wkmcgarry@verizon.net
3 sessions of 4 weeks
Session 1: September 16–October 7
Session 2: October 14–November 4
Session 3: November 11–December 9
(no class November 25 – Thanksgiving)
Wednesdays: 10 a.m.–1 p.m.
Cost per Session: $175 Members, $210 Non-members

Watercolor Workshop:
It’s All About the Light
Instructor: Steve Bleinberger
2-day workshop: September 26 and 27
Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Cost: $110 Members, $132 Non-members

Adult Art Class Scholarships in Drawing, Painting, Printmaking, Pastels, Watercolor,
And Much More Available (All Materials are Included)
Visit academyartmuseum.org for a full listing of classes. Scholarships are made possible
through a generous grant from The Mid-Shore Community Foundation. Contact Katie Cassidy for details at 410-820-5222 or email: wkmcgarry@verizon.net.

CHILDRENS CLASSES

Homeschool Classes
The Museum offers art classes for the area’s home-schooled children, ages 6 and up. Classes focus on fine art techniques and materials. A variety of media will be explored. Students visit the Museum’s exhibitions when appropriate. All classes meet on Fridays from 1:00-2:30 p.m. The fall home-school semester has two six-week sessions. Note that after the first full-priced tuition, siblings attend for 1/3 off! Instructors are Constance Del Nero for ages 6 to 9 years and Theresa Schram for ages 10 and above.

Early Fall Session:
September 11 – October 16
6 to 9 years (Please do NOT register 5-year-olds in this class.)
Cost (per session): $90 Members, $100 Non-members
After the first full-priced tuition, siblings attend for $60 (members) and $67 (Non-members)
Pre-registration is advised as space is limited in each group.

PERFORMING ARTS CLASSES

Piano & Guitar Lessons
Instructor: Raymond Remesch
Contact Instructor for further information at (410) 829-0335 or rayremesch@gmail.com

Voice Lessons
Instructor: Georgiann Gibson
Contact instructor for Information at (410) 829-2525 or georgiann@atlanticbb.net.

MUSEUM COVID-19 GUIDELINES
Per City, State and CDC guidelines, new safety measures have been implemented to ensure limited attendance and adequate space for social distancing. Masks must be worn at all times by participants and instructors. Prior to visiting the Academy Art Museum, visitors are encouraged to visit AAM’s website to read more about the Museum’s reopening protocols. Responses to frequently asked questions can be found on the Visit Page.

If you aren’t able to visit the Museum at this time, please enjoy our available virtual tours, art activities, artist talks and virtual platform, Art at Home. We look forward to seeing you soon at AAM.

For additional information, visit academyartmuseum.org or call the Museum at 410-822-2787.

At the Academy: Art at Home with AAM’s Jennifer Chrzanowski

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According to Jennifer Chrzanowski, the Academy Art Museum’s development manager, the AAM took only a few days to adjust to the new reality of COVID-19. No matter how long the lockdown would last, the Academy staff immediately started using their imagination to see how they could keep art alive through the internet and their very talented videographer, Ray Remesch.

From Docent Reflections, a new program of virtual tours in which docents share their meditations on select artists, or Art in a Box, an art project prepared for children, or Picture of the Week, the AAM is offering over a dozen new ways to interact with its members and the general public.
Now broadcasting from their Vimeo channel, the Academy sees a future for this kind of programming well beyond the coronavirus crisis.

The Spy talked to Jennifer recently to get an update.

This video is approximately three minutes in length. To see the AAM offerings please go to their Vimeo channel here.

 

At the Academy: AAM’s New Curator Mehves Lelic

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It’s safe to say the someone starting as a new art curator with any museum is facing an enormous challenge, but when you’re beginning this new job during a pandemic, and your institution is not even open to the public, let’s say it gets even the more complex.

That is what Mehves Lelic faced after only a few weeks in her new role as the Academy Art Museum early in March.

The University of Chicago graduate had just completed her first job on the Eastern Shore in the arts at Salisbury University, where her husband had been appointed to a tenure-track facility position there, helping the University Art Galleries as its education coordinator. After years of training, including Contemporary Art Chicago and Magnum Photos in Paris, Mehves was more than ready to take on her new role.

But in the blink of an eye, the Academy’s plans to reopen the Museum this spring was put on hold thanks to COVID-19. Mehves’ ideas, and those of the AAM, had to pivot, including its New Photography II exhibition, which is her specialty. That will be the first show to go online later this month.

A few weeks ago, the Spy talked to Mehves about her background, her motivation in joining the AAM staff, photography, and her aspirations as she begins her tenure at the Mid-Shore premiere arts education venue.

This video is approximately six minutes in length. For more information about the Academy Art Museum, please go here.

Mid-Shore Arts: @ the Academy with Ben Simons

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Perhaps it was just pure chance that the Academy Art Museum had already scheduled a significant shutdown of programs and exhibitions this spring. With a major renovation of its galleries and new visitor entry underway, the ability of the AAM to cope with the impact of COVID-19 has been far easier than many of its peer institutions as a result.

But that’s not to say that the Academy doesn’t face certain challenges going forward. Nonetheless, as AAM’s director Ben Simons notes in his interview with the Spy, the current crisis has opened up some new thinking about how an art museum and education center can operate.

From his home in the countryside just outside of town limits (hence the sub-par video quality), Ben highlights what his institution is doing with his creative staff and devoted board of trustees, to continue its mission. Harnessing the power of the web, the AAM is offering several new programs aimed at children, art students, and lovers of the visual arts, which is now making the Academy’s website an entirely new experience for learning and enjoying art.

This video is approximately four minutes in length. For more information about the Academy Art Museum, please go here.

 

Enjoying the Arts–Virtually by Steve Parks

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Maybe the least of our problems in the middle of a pandemic is boredom. Call it cabin fever, self-confined to your home as a good citizen who’s also acting out of self-preservation. But that doesn’t mean you can’t go out, virtually, and catch a show like way back when—last week or so—to a movie at the multiplex, a concert at the Avalon, your kid’s play or art show at school.

Forget sitting around watching alarming TV news or “Law & Order” reruns. Transport yourself to even the world’s coronavirus hot spots, such as Italy and New York City, without the slightest health risk. All you need is an Internet-connected laptop or a streaming port on the tube.

The Metropolitan Opera shut down early in March at its Lincoln Center home. You can’t even catch its “Live in HD” simulcast series at the Avalon or other venues across the country. But you can see and hear encore Met performances nightly at 7:30, and for 20 hours after the original stream, for the duration of the shutdown. Enjoy performances for free on the website from the company’s “Live in HD” catalog, including Verdi’s “La Traviata” March 19 and Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin” March 22, starring Renee Fleming.

The deadly virus first struck the U.S. hardest in Washington state where concerts by the Seattle Symphony, like most other orchestras everywhere, have been canceled until further notice. But the Seattle Symphony began streaming smaller ensemble performances by its musicians and rebroadcasting past full-orchestral concerts through its social media links on YouTube and Facebook. See what’s coming up by going here and signing up for email alerts on upcoming online concerts.

Other orchestras offer audio-only streamed recordings of past concerts, such as the Philadelphia Orchestra, while the New York Philharmonic presents audio rebroadcasts of past concerts and video clips. Both are free.

For restless kids unaccustomed to being homebound in the spring, Easton’s Academy Art Museum, while closed for its usual programs, is presenting a series of art-at-home activities, starting with a free download of “Australian Aboriginal Dot Art” available on its site.

Access to the visual arts through virtual tours of the greatest museums in the world have been available for years. But technology has greatly enhanced the experience. Right now, you can be admitted to the Uffizi Gallery while the streets outside are deserted as Florence is in lockdown. Inside, you’ll encounter Michelangelo’s David and one of the world’s top collections of Renaissance art. While touring Europe, don’t miss the Louvre in Paris, where you can skip the crowds around “Mona Lisa” for a private audience with her. Then stop by the Musee d’Orsay, a former railroad terminal on the Seine now home to arguably the most captivating array of Impressionist paintings anywhere. Next, skip over to Amsterdam for a feverish tour of the Van Gogh Museum followed by a Rembrandt-highlighted visit to the Rijksmuseum. In London, antiquity, by American standards, is the focus of the British Museum. And then you’re free to return closer to home with a seat-of-the-pants tour of the voluminous Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan and a whirlwind look at the National Gallery of Art and its Smithsonian neighbors in Washington, D.C. But don’t neglect the West Coast. The J. Paul Getty Museum survived the most recent California inferno, and its treasure was rescued—at least until the next disaster.

Go to individual museum sites for virtual tours or window shop among 2,500 available sites. For shortcuts, try this. But don’t kid yourself (snob alert!). Assuming there are future opportunities, seeing the art for real is digitally non-replicable. Meanwhile, you can’t get a better view.

Broadway is shut down, probably past Tony Awards season. With no live streaming of shows now, Broadway World is posting “Living Room concerts” featuring currently out-of-work actors doing solo or duo concerts from their apartments, hotel suites—whatever… Writers, actors, singers, and dancers are sharing glimpses of their talents nightly at 7:30 on Instagram, while the Actors Fund is planning to raise money for performers-in-need with daily videos on its site featuring theater stars singing from home.

Even high school and college students are getting in on the act. Broadway Tony winner Laura Benanti went on Twitter to invite kids to post video clips on #SunshineSongs of rehearsals and performances of canceled shows. College theater seniors are posting showcases of their canceled work on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram in hopes they’ll be noticed by agents and industry professionals.

To see full-length musical classics, go to Broadway HD, a subscription service that invites you to pluck any play or musical from its library. Among its “must-see” shows are Cats (I’m waiting for the Dogs sequel), Carousel, my favorite Rodgers-and-Hammerstein, the 2013-14 Tony-winning best musical Kinky Boots, among its most recent offerings, and the original Sweeney Todd (superb Sondheim) and The King and I. Shows taped for PBS and other outlets can be found on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Google Play, Vudu and YouTube, including a Sondheim troika—Company, Sunday in the Park with George and Into the Woods—plus Cole Porter’s Kiss Me Kate and Disney’s Newsies. Most are by subscription or at roughly $6.99 a pop.

If you’re out and about in a few months, itching to see a show live on Broadway or in Baltimore, D.C., or Philly, just cancel the above subscriptions and apply your savings toward those expensive ticket prices.

Look for more suggestions this month, including TV and streaming recommendations, and where you can see Best Picture Oscar nominees you might have missed as movie theaters closed.

Steve Parks is a former New York arts critic, writer, and editor now living in Easton. 

 

 

 

At the Academy: A Chat with Steve Ziger on Architecture and First Impressions

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The Board of Directors at the Academy Art Museum weren’t fooling around when they selected Ziger|Snead Architects to design a new entrance to this Easton-based center for visual art. Eager to make a good first impression with visitors, they specifically were drawn to architect Steve Ziger’s portfolio of work with some of the leading cultural institutions in Maryland, including the Baltimore Art Museum and Center Stage. And Chestertown might know his work from Steve his teaming up with Alex Castro on its Public Arts Master Plan.

In anticipation of the new AAM courtyard and distinctive glass entrance opening soon, the Spy ventured over to the Ziger|Snead Architects office in the Mt. Vernon section of Baltimore for a chat about his firm’s past work and some of the challenges and opportunities that come with doing something “new” to older buildings.

This video is approximately four minutes in length. For more information about the Academy Art Museum please go here and use this link for Ziger|Snead Architects.

Academy Art Museum Bids Farewell to Chief Curator Anke Van Wagenberg 

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Academy Art Museum Director Ben Simons announced that Chief Curator Anke Van Wagenberg has accepted a new post in Vero Beach, FL as Senior Curator of the Vero Beach Museum of Art. Simons stated: “The Academy Art Museum is very grateful for the eight years of service Anke has provided to the Museum and the community, mounting  outstanding exhibitions, growing the Permanent Collection, developing the Collection Society, and forwarding many other curatorial programs. The Board, staff and entire community join me in wishing her all the best in her new post. Her legacy here is secure, and her new opportunity is an exciting one, congratulations to Anke!” 

Van Wagenberg told the Spy, “I am so grateful for my time here at this small gem of a museum, specifically to our Director Ben Simons and the Chair of the Board, Cathy McCoy, and a most talented group of docents, staff, and the museum members. There have been many proud moments for me here at the Museum.I mention a few exhibitions, James Turrell, Mark Rothko, Pat Steir, Lynn Meiers, Peter Paul Rubens, Robert Rauschenberg, Bill Viola, Richard Diebenkorn and many more local, regional and national shows. I have no doubt the Academy Art Museum will continue  to be successful on every level.”