Welcome Statement, September/October 2010
In putting together this sculpture-heavy issue, I’ve
spent many hours talking with artists about the
difference between showing their work in traditional
galleries and outside where once their work is installed,
especially in public spaces, they’re handed over to
Mother Nature and society-at-large, with both positive
and negative results.
I’ve spent endless hours over the past three years
watching people young and old run around Elm
Park in Worcester, Mass. (where I live) exploring and
engaging the sculpture of Art in the Park, which is
held in August and September. With their cellphones
and cameras, children and relatives and out-of-town
visitors, they go in search of the perfect angles and
images of their experience — and in the process,
become artists in their own right.
Shows like this give birth to new generations of art
lovers, especially at a time when budget deficits
cause programs that transport schoolchildren to
regional cultural attractions to be cut back, if not
eliminated. I am confident that in future years the
children who engage this exhibition — and others
like it throughout New England — will bring their
own unique contributions to the region’s art scene
due to the creative spark that’s been lit inside them.
These artists who devote their time to participate in
these events — and create one-of-a-kind work that
in many instances has a limited shelf life — deserve
our gratitude.
The big question for those who make a living selling
and showing art is how does one take that newfound
energy and interest in art and attract those people to
engage creative work indoors as well
artscope has been exploring the selling and marketing
of art from a variety of perspectives over the past year.
In this issue, Ami Bennitt, gallery director of Boston’s
SPACE 242, explores the mind think of potential and current art buyers and the importance of allowing
those who view your art to have the opportunity to
meet you face-to-face at gallery openings or open
studio events. Ami will be a regular contributor to
these pages, introducing you to the “low-brow”
outsider artists she’s championed at the gallery, which
is currently on hiatus.
This issue is brought to you in great part through the
efforts of a new addition to our masthead: copy editor
Anne Daley. We also welcome J. Fatima Martins,
former curator at the Museum of Nebraska Art at the
University of Nebrasky-Kearey and now a resident of
Central Massachusetts, to our staff. Martins visited
abstract landscape painter Ilana Manolson in her
Concord, Mass. studio to get a preview of her October
exhibition at the Clark Gallery.
David Boyce reviewed the David Loeffler Smith show
at Crowell’s Fine Art Gallery in New Bedford on a
tight deadline; he’s worked with artists for 40 years,
and says he’s always felt art is a necessary luxury.
“For me, writing about art is a privilege, and the most
satisfying work I could imagine.”
In our hopes of helping to set your September/
October art calendar, James Dyment gives you a prereopening
tour of the Addison Gallery of American
Art; Alexandra Tursi surveys Vermont’s “State of Craft”
at the Bennington Museum; Lisa Mikulski previews
“Latin Views 2010” at the University of Connecticut’s
Alexey Von Schlippe Gallery; Judith Tolnick Champa
encourages you to plan a trip to Providence that
incorporates both printmaker Dan Wood’s exhibition
at AS220 Project Place and a Saturday night WaterFire
happening; and Britta Konau tells you why you should
travel to Waterville, Maine to see Sharon Lockhart’s
multi-media “Lunch Break” at the Colby College
Museum of Art.
If you’ve visited our website or facebook fan page
this summer, you’ve already read the writing of Lacey
Daley, who served an internship with us (through
SUNY Fredonia, where she’s now in her senior year)
in June and July, during which time she took over
composing and editing our artscope email blast!s.
This issue, she visited the studios of the Waltham
Mills Artists’ Association (including that of her
aunt, Cathleen Daley, who encouraged her to come
to Boston) for our Community feature. If you’re in
college — or know someone who is — and would like
the experience of working for an art magazine, please
contact our publisher, Kaveh Mojtabai at kmojtabai@
artscopemagazine.com..
This issue’s centerfold contest winner is Boston-based
ceramic clay sculptor Cathy Moynihan, whose “Flock”
nested its way into the hearts of our panel: Currier
Museum of Art Associate Curator Kurt Sundstrom;
Michael Volmar, curator of collections at the
Fruitlands Museum; and artscope writer Britta Konau.
For our January/February 2011 issue, we’re looking for
submissions of glasswork. Full details can be found in
our classifieds section.
As we send this issue to press, New England’s annual
colorful tree and fall harvest spectacular has begun.
May you enjoy the fruits of our area farmers and artists
— and when you return, drop me a line to tell me the
best of what you’ve found.
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