Welcome to our final issue of 2014. Many of the stories are the result of longterm planning, including Kristin Nord’s artist profile of Michael Madore, whose work has been on our radar for a few years. This is the first opportunity we’ve had to cover him in conjunction with an exhibition — “Castellology,” currently on view at the MS17 Art Project at the Atrium at Harris Place in New London; in December, it’ll be displayed at Connecticut’s Office of the Arts, Department of Economic and Community Development in Hartford.
Artscope publisher Kaveh Mojtabai and I were in New London in late September to visit the galleries of Canal Street and attend the grand opening of CreateHereNow’s Experience the Power of Place Discover New London; nearly a dozen formerly vacant storefronts were brought alive through the creative arts — the kind of development many New England communities strive for.
Mojtabai was also in attendance at the Brush Art Gallery and Studios’ Celebration of the Arts as well as the Provincetown Art Association and Museum’s 100th Anniversary Gala (along with artscope Far Cape correspondent Laura Shabott) in October, events that artscope is honored to sponsor. We’re also sponsoring the Center for Contemporary Printmaking’s 2014 Monothon Benefit Auction & Party on November 8 in Norwalk, Conn.; the month-long Newburyport Art Association’s Holiday Show Sale in late November and December; and the Whistler House Museum of Art Holiday Party on December 5th.
When we talk or exchange emails with readers, artists and galleries, we always like to point out that the stories you read in our magazine are there with the hope that you’ll get out and enjoy the artists covered firsthand, and that we help introduce you to new favorite artists or venues, helping the local arts community by directing interested buyers toward the kind of work they’re interested in. We hope you’ll let these venues know you learned about them or their show through artscope. It helps us all.
While we work our hardest to put the best possible coverage into each issue, we realize there are still many artists we haven’t had a chance to feature yet; because of this, we’ve tried to avoid featuring the same artists twice while continuing to follow and promote their work through our online offerings: the artscopemagazine.com zine, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. We aim to spread our coverage throughout the New England region as much as possible while doing whatever we can to ensure the success of our partners, with an eye toward all of us continuing to prosper to the best of our ability.
We like to cover a wide range of genres and topics in each issue, be it by spotlighting a new gallery, as we do in this issue with Brattleboro’s recently opened Mitchell-Giddings Fine Arts, or by exploring how communities are using the arts to reinvent themselves, as Pawtucket, Rhode Island is doing by encouraging outside public art to change the way visitors and residents see it, and finding new uses for old buildings and holding a year-round schedule of events to promote the artists that utilize them.
We love having the opportunity not only to cover an artist’s first big show, as we do with Jamie Thompson’s review of Aaron T Stephan’s “To Borrow, Cut, Copy, and Steal” solo exhibition at the Portland Museum of Art, but also to celebrate the tried, true and in need of great re-appreciation, with longtime mainstays like the Guild of Boston Artists, celebrating its 100th anniversary this month with a Centennial Exhibition that provides collectors a great opportunity to add or start their collection with an organization that strives to educate people that the “Boston School” style it’s famous for is every bit as alive and relevant today as it was back in 1914.
Another goal is to be as timely as possible. Along those lines, we knew we were cutting it close covering the “Simon Fujiwara: Three Easy Pieces” exhibition that opened at the Carpenter Center for Visual Arts at Harvard University a few days prior to our press date, but we had no idea what lengths Catherine Creighton would have to go in order to file her story. She spoke with the artist and gallery director on Friday, and after battling her word count Saturday evening, gave birth to her first child later that night. After some much-needed rest, having brought her laptop to the hospital, she finished and filed her review. Here’s wishing the Creightons a great holiday season.
This issue’s Centerfold contest winner, with a digital painting theme, is Gloria King Merritt’s “Steel and Glass.” Thanks to our jurors: Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University professor Tom Barrett and illustrator Matthew Mullin. For our next contest, we’re looking for your original glass or mosaic work; full details can be found in our Classifieds section.
As you go over your holiday gift-giving list, we hope you’ll consider giving the art lover on your list a subscription to artscope, be it in magazine or digital form; for more details, call our office at (617) 639-5771.
Thanks to all of you for your support and comments throughout the year; trust that they are all considered in developing what goes into each issue of artscope. We look forward to sharing more artistic adventures together in the years ahead.
Brian Goslow, managing editor (bgoslow@artscopemagazine.com)