Artist Residencies at Centrum

Centrum's 2009 Jaqua Award Recipients

Artist Trust  has chosen two musicians to receive the Russell Jaqua Award for Artistic Excellence! We'll let you know when they choose dates, and see if we can get them scheduled for performances while they are here...

Jherek Bischoff, Seattle, King County.  Jherek has a number of years of experience in musical performance, ranging from orchestral composition, to arrangement and performance. This local involvement got him linked to the Degenerate Arts Orchestra, which consisted of 48 of the city’s finest musicians. Jherek will be performing at Town Hall in Seattle, where he will assemble a 35-person orchestra to play 12 of his compositions on September 11.

Juliana Svetlitchnaia, Bothell, Snohomish County. Juliana is a singer and ethnomusicologist specializing in Russian folk music.  For the last 20 years she has been collecting and learning ancient Russian songs from expeditions to remote Russian Villages where these songs existed for centuries and were carried orally from generation to generation. Unique songs that are truly beautiful, this project is an effort to preserve and promote a genuine culture. For more information go to: www.ethnorussia.com

2009 EDGE Artists in Residence this Summer

Congratulations to the thirty-three artists selected to participate in the 2009 EDGE Professional Development Program! This year's cycles will be July 5-12 and August 8-15. Both cycles are being held as week-long intensives at Centrum in order to attract more artists from around the state. See and hear presentations of their work in July and August following their EDGE-ucation.
 
The EDGE program at Artist Trust  is a comprehensive survey of professional practices offered through a hands-on, interactive curriculum that includes instruction by professionals in the field, specialized presentations, panel discussions and assignments. EDGE provides artists with the relevant and necessary entrepreneurial skills to achieve their personal career goals and the opportunity to build community through peer support and exchange.  

The East Pole, John Lucas - wood, paint, resin, basalt

"The Borders Project" at Centrum

How do borders affect the spaces we encompass in our everyday lives? How can the technologies of dance, film, and multi-media performance translate and expand the conversations we have about our borders?  What are the repercussions on our bodies and communal health?

Adam McKinney of DNAWORKS in New York will bring 8 artists to Centrum's Artistic Residency Program, where they will begin work on a multi-media collaborative piece entitled “The Borders Project”. This collaborative residency will include both Daniel Banks and Adam, Co-Directors of DNAWORKS, along with Chris Crader, Trinity Hamilton,  Samar Haddad King, Diane Roberts, Ariel Vegosen, and Scott Macklin.

" DNAWORKS is dedicated to furthuring artistic expression and dialogue, focusing on issues of indentity, culture, class, and heritage. We catalyze performance and action through the arts in the intersecting communitites in which we live and work. In our work, art = ritual = healing = community. We look forward to taking advantage of Fort Worden’s natural elements, as well as the cistern, bunkers, and beach from June 14-20, 2009."

Jaqua Fund Recipients at Centrum

By a happy coincidence we have three recipients of the Russell Jaqua Award for Artistic Excellence in Residence this month. These Residency Awards are provided by Centrum in collaboration with Artist Trust of Seattle as part of the GAP Program, providing support for artist-generated projects including the development, completion, or presentation of new works. Recipients are selected by a panel of artists and arts professionals from Washington State. The Russell Jaqua Fund was established in his memory through the generousity of Centrum Donors and  Russell's friends and family.

  Kevin Bernstein is inspired by the natural phenomena of the Pacific Northwest. He plans to produce a new body of paintings and drawings based upon the research of regional traveling in Washington State from Eastern to Western Washington. Kevin works primarily on six-by-four-feet pieces of birch plywood in his effort to understand nature as a primal source in a complex and ever-changing world in need of preservation and restraint. His new works will be on display at an exhibition in Olympia.

Robert Campbell has been primarily a video artist for the past 20 years and has recently expanded his materials to include glass. His most recent body of work, Yellow, combines sculpture, glasswork, photography, and multi-channel video in order to explore environmental degradation and its effects on  humans, specifically targeting estrogen mimickers and other hormone disruptors found in everyday products.

Miho Takekawa is a percussionist from Japan who wishes to revisit the traditional Japanese folk music of her childhood in a non-traditional way. Miho is scheduled to collaborate with three Seattle musicians, each with extensive experience with Japanese music: jazz drummer Greg Campbell, jazz vibraphonist Tom Collier, and South American Flutist Diego Coy. Her hope is to perpetuate Japanese folk music and inspire others to challenge their artistic identities. Miho will perform during her residency with Diego Coy at two Port Townsend Venues... scroll down for details.

Contributions to the Russell Jaqua Fund for Artistic Excellence may be made by contacting Mary Hilts, Development Associate at 360-385-3102 x116, or by email mary@centrum.org. Your support is deeply appreciated, and will help Centrum continue to bring talented artists and writers to this wonderful place.

Karen Rudd Kudos

Congratulations to Centrum Resident and GAP Award Recipient  Karen Rudd . Her  3D Arts entry "Last Stand" placed first in its category at the Collective Visions Art Gallery's annual juried exhibit. If you made it to Karen's open studio here at Centrum in June of 2008, you got to see her work on this series. Here's what Marie Weichman of Olympic College had to say about Karen's work in the CVG Newsletter:

"On February 1st Collective Visions Art Gallery opens its annual juried art exhibit, THE CVG SHOW '09 to the public.  This year the show is stock full of a wide range of artworks representing everything from humor to the dark side of life.  Process dominates several pieces while content is the driving factor for other works.  It is easy to see the world through the artist's eye in this show and those views are vastly different from one another...   

there is one piece that makes getting out of the house worth every bit of effort.  "Last Stand," by Karen Rudd is not only the smartest piece of art in the show, but also, socio-politically speaking, one of the most  currently relevant works in the show.  At a distance this piece looks like nothing more than a tree trunk, but upon closer inspection it is made of, (I pause here to consider not telling you, thereby saving the surprise, but...), scrap pieces of recycled cardboard and glue.  Nothing more."

New Works Happenings at Centrum

Megan Hildebrandt
Historian/performance artist Megan Hildebrandt is currently in residence creating yet another of her entertaining and historically accurate Performance Art pieces. This performance will be an invigorated, interactive exploration via PowerPoint and performance of both the history and contemporary culture of Fort Worden. The “Alternative History Lesson” PPT will include projections of historically based drawings and photographs, with a healthy dose of humor and contemporary, everyday life references. 

Says Hildebrandt of the new work:
“It will be a remarkable opportunity to enjoy both some local history and contemporary art. The performance will explore Fort Worden’s multiple identities over the past hundred years as an active military base, a juvenile detention facility, and as a state park. How would John Lorimer Worden, the USS Monitor Commander for whom the Fort was named, relate to the park as a Juvenile Facility, or as a tourist attraction?  Who are the people Fort Worden’s batteries and buildings are named for? What was life like here at the Fort during the various periods in its history?

I will also include the past and present of the “City of Dreams”, Port Townsend. What was the role of the railroad in the destiny of the city, and what are the industries that have fed the citizens of Port Townsend, such as the imports of lumber from the port and the local paper mill?”

To get an idea of Megan’s unique style, take a look at this 3 part video recording of "The Rumors Are True!”… a performance/exhibit that just wrapped up in Baltimore, Maryland.

Part 1 "The Rumors are True"   Part 2   Part 3

The Port Townsend performance date and location are not yet confirmed. Please contact lisa@centrum.org for details.

Debbie Carlson, Artist Trust GAP award recipient
Debbie is back to continue her work on Sakuhachi, the story of an eight-year-old boy whose world is tossed upside down in 1940s Japan. The novel examines the courage and commitment required from individuals and nations to endure wartime horrors and to confront the ghosts that arise.

Ms. Carlson is one of eight artists and writers selected to receive a Centrum Residency through the Artist Trust GAP Awards. These awards are funded by the Russel Jaqua Fund for Artistic Excellence.

Lucie Duclos
Lucie is a graphic designer and illustrator whose residency will allow her time “to explore the intricate patterns, shades and textures inspired by nature… to create artwork with different mediums (pastels, oil, acrylic, collage or mixed-media) and experiment on a variety of surfaces (wood, textile, paper, etc.). "I believe that we have much to learn from nature. The possibilities for designs and color palettes are an endless source of inspiration.”

Jenn Dean
Jenn is returning to finish The House of My Sleepless Nights, about her mother’s hidden mental illness. A portion of the memoir has been published in the journal Salamander. “There are few literary memoirs about what it felt like to grow up with a parent with Borderline Personality Disorder, and how it shaped one’s views of the world. I want to get this work out there, as BPD is sort of the next “depression,”—meaning it’s becoming talked about in mainstream media culture the way depression was back in the 1990’s. Centrum has been a huge help—offering the quiet space and solitude where one can immerse oneself and forget about home, job, etc. Without Centrum I don’t know how I could finish the book.”

Also a passionate environmentalist, Jenn uses her writing skills to educate the public about the impacts humans have on the environment--in particular the survival issues that bird species face. She has traveled to Bermuda to conduct historical and biological research on one of the most endangered sea birds in the world; the resulting essay, The Keepers of the Ghost Bird, is pending publication. Jenn’s work as a naturalist/writer is widely published.

 

NYFA Current News

I just got my subscription email from the New York Foundation for the Arts. Here's an excerpt to their December 23rd online newsletter NYFA Current:

"Over the past year, NYFA Current has been committed to documenting the art-making process and its relation to present-day politics, particularly the economic downturn and issues in our environment. We’ve published three special issues—on New Orleans and art after the storm; a green issue featuring innovative social-art projects; and an issue on unregulated public artworks in rural and urban spaces. In the coming year, NYFA Current subscribers can expect continuing up-to-date coverage on the economy and how artists, foundations, and galleries are being affected. We’re also producing a special issue themed on money, spotlighting the financial crisis and, among other things, what artists can do to protect themselves." Timely, interesting, and helpful information well worth the subscription.

I read several great little pieces on New Works by artists all over the country, and particularly enjoyed a sneak peek at the latest edition of New American Paintings - juried exhibitions in print.

Marc Fendel's Cistern Residency

Musician and Centrum Creative Resident Marc Fendel just completed a residency using the Dan Harpole Cistern here at Fort Worden (and its 44 second reverberation) as a recording and musical instrument.

Marc sent us a link to a brief video clip of Kevin Nortness playing banjo in the Cistern during the residency. Marc tells us that they also recorded in HD. We can't wait to see that.

[Video of Kevin Nortness playing banjo.]

Call for Artists

Wanted: Artists for a Centrum visual artists residency. Now artists who want the time and space to pursue their work at Centrum can apply for a grant to cover the weekly fee.

Max and Sherry Grover of the Max Grover Gallery, Teresa Verraes-Landis of Artisans on Taylor, and visual artist and Centrum community member Karen Hackenberg are putting the first monies into the fund. If you're an interested artist and/or funder, please contact Centrum Residency Coordinator Sally Rodgers at 360.385.3102, x128 for more details on how to apply and get involved!

"It's another way to contribute to the growth of the visual arts in Port Townsend," Sherry Grover says.

2007 Artists in Residence

JANUARY
Jean Stefancic (Writer, Pittsburgh, PA)
Richard Delgado (Writer, Pittsburgh, PA)
Ellaraine Lochie (Writer, Sunnyvale, CA)
Patrick Carrington (Writer, Wild Crest, NJ)

FEBRUARY
Anne McDuffie (Writer, Seattle, WA)
Katie Humes (Writer, Bellingham, WA)
Diane Wilkinson (Visual Artist, Houston, TX)
Syrenka Slettebak (Writer, Seattle, WA)

MARCH
Lisa Olsen (Writer, Hadley, MA)
Valerie Powell (Visual Artist, Pullman, WA)
Isaac Powell (Visual Artist, Pullman, WA)

APRIL
Eric Barber (Composer, Shoreline, WA)
Bonnie Nelson (Writer, Forks, WA)
Darsie Beck (Visual Artist, Vashon, WA)
Bruce Trinkley (Composer, State College, PA)

MAY
Theresa Lovering-Brown (Visual Artist, Aptos, CA)
Luke Jennings (Writer, Seattle, WA)
Susan Gofstein (Visual Artist, Chicago, IL)
Courtney Westcott (Musician, Seattle, WA)
Peter Noy (Musician, Seattle, WA)

JUNE
Jane Ashley Butler (Writer, Iowa City, IA)
Ellaraine Lochie, (Writer, Sunnyvale, CA)
Linda Buckmaster (Writer, Belfast, ME)
Leslie Brody (Writer, Redlands, CA)
Robert Rice (Writer, Bozeman, MT)
Jolie Kaytes (Visual Artist, Moscow, ID)
Elise Moore (Visual Artist, Oakland, CA)
Patrick Carrington (Writer, Wild Crest, NJ)
Gregory Harris (Writer, Cambridge, MA)

AUGUST
David Owen Hastings (Visual Artist, Seattle, WA)

SEPTEMBER
Joseph Woodridge (Visual Artist, Seattle, WA)
Patricia Staton (Writer, Astoria, OR)
Artists Trust (EDGE program, Seattle, WA)
Hillary Raphael (Writer, New York, NY)
Marc Fendel (Musician, Seattle, WA)

OCTOBER
Rachel Bravmann-Bevens (Writer, Seattle, WA)
Nancy Sirkis (Photographer, New  York, NY)

DECEMBER
Laura Kaminsky (Composer, New York, NY)
Rebecca Allen (Visual Artist, New York, NY)
Jim Hobbs (Visual Artist, Seattle/London)