Dear Artscope reader,
Back in early 2006, I traveled to the Artscope office in Quincy, Massachusetts with Leon Nigrosh, its fine arts contributing editor, with whom I had worked at several publications in Worcester, to discuss ideas on how to position the magazine for long-term growth and success with Publisher Kaveh Mojtabai. The idea that two decades later we would still be brainstorming issue by issue was the furthest thing from any of our minds that evening. But thankfully, here we are, still sharing artistic journeys and discoveries together.
“Twenty years ago, Artscope launched and filled a gap in the New England arts scene,” Mojtabai said. “Our goal was to do our best to gain the trust of our readers, advertisers and the art community with determination, hard work and integrity. It is the support of our editors, graphic designers, readers and not the least our dedicated writers, many of whom have been with us for years, that has made Artscope what it is today.”
In compiling ideas for this, our 20th Anniversary Issue, I took a different approach than I had in past celebratory publications. We’re not able to include contributions from all our current writer roster in each issue but this time around, everyone wanted to be part of this commemorative edition. That meant asking everyone, except for a handful of spotlight exhibitions, to aim for a single page story on an artist of their choosing.
The end result is a survey of artists based and currently showing their work in New England, some of whom we have covered in the past, some of whom have been major presences in the region for years and others having their first solo show, something we’ve always aimed to make a major part of their careers and ours in assisting artists and galleries in developing long range success.
This issue marks the return of James Dyment, currently the executive director of the Brush Art Gallery and Studios in Lowell, Massachusetts, who reviews the “Arshile Gorky: Redrawing Community and Connections” exhibition at the Armenian Museum of America. Dyment wrote about Gorky for us in our September/October 2009 issue, about a show of his drawings, paintings and sculpture at the Whistler House, where he was the exhibits and gallery manager. As he had helped oversee the restoration of the museum’s recently received gift of over two dozen pieces of the artist’s work, Dyment was the perfect person to write the story. It was the first instance, but not the last, where someone in-house at the venue of a show that we wanted to cover was the absolute right writer to cover it for Artscope readers, bringing you a unique behind-the-scenes view from a first-hand perspective.
We have strong contributions in this issue from two writers who have been with us throughout most of our history and who continue to be active artists in their own right: Elizabeth Michelman (Nina Nielsenat Storefront Art Projects and Suzanne Volmer (“Sarah Sense: Land, Lines, Blood, Memory” at Bannister Gallery at Rhode Island College).
Feeling a connection to my late grandfather’s experiences as a Navy veteran who turned his own experience as a disabled serviceman into a career of helping others recover from their own injuries at theVeterans Administration Hospital in Jamaica Plain, just outside of Boston, I was drawn to review Deborah Bai-Lannon’s “Aftermath: Portraits & Reflections of Veterans in Recovery” exhibition that’s on view through April 29) at de Menil Gallery at Groton School.
In putting together this issue, I recalled a few of my most memorable moments of the past 20 years.
For several years, Mojtabai and I would travel to Provincetown for the International Encaustic Conference that took place there and at nearby Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill the first weekend in June. Between its fascinating talks on trends in the field and large number of related exhibitions, it was an opportunity to see a large amount of work over a short period of time. Most memorable was walking down Commercial Street and seeing dozens of artists that we had featured in Artscope and subsequently, having been introduced to their work that weekend, would feature in the years to follow.
We sent our January/February 2014 issue to press on a day that the horrible events at Sandy Hook Elementary School were unfolding; two months to the day, Mojtabai and I were at the opening of “Healing Newtown,” a community space opened for residents to gather in memory of the students and staff members killed on that day and a place for the hundreds of pieces of artworks sent to the town by artists and students from around the country, wanting to let them know that they were in their thoughts. It was a strong reminder of the importance of the arts as a way to help heal us in our most difficult times.
Whenever the opportunity has arisen, I’ve encouraged our writers to cover their favorite artists, especially when it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Mine came when I learned that Pulitzer Prize winning photographer Lynsey Addario, whose images from war and tragedy-stricken regions from around the world had always torn at my heart, would have an exhibition at the Nesto Gallery at Milton Academy in late 2015. I knew I had to try to arrange an interview with her amid her constant travels around the world. Then, on a Saturday afternoon, I received an email from her stating that she was about to take a train from New York to Philadelphia and if I could get her my questions about her “Veiled Rebellion” collection of portraits of Afghan women, in a short period of time, she would be able to answer them for me. I highly encourage you to watch “Love+War,” the National Geographic Documentary on Addario’s career.
Then, there are those people you can’t forget meeting. One evening, at the original Danforth Art Museum, I was pulled to a strange sculpture with parts that moved the closer I got to them; at the same time, it turned on a recording of a World Series game from the 1950s. As I moved for a closer look, a pair of eyes joined by a huge smile showed up on the other side of the work. David A. Lang became one of Artscope’s closest friend, one whose work we’d crawl under to activate at the Boston Sculptors Gallery or his studio in Natick, Massachusetts. Driving home one night, after he’d talked with three of us to make plans for meeting later that week, his life came to a sudden end when a deer slammed through his window a few miles away. It’s a reminder of the need to cherish every moment we have together.
Each issue of Artscope is brought to you through the dedication of our production team, each of whom contributes a feature to this issue. J.M. Belmont, our Associate Editor, looks at a selection of images from a decades-long documentation of Indigenous American life and culture by photographer John Willis that’s on view at the Griffin Museum of Photography. Copy Editor Sawyer Smook-Pollitt, who also edits our bi-weekly email blast! that you can subscribe to at artscopemagazine.com, reviews two current shows at the Newport Art Museum in Rhode Island: “Pamela Granbery: Radiant States” and its “Springboard: Members’ Juried Exhibition,” the kind of show that always introduces us to new artists to watch in the years to come. Vanessa Boucher, our Senior Media Developer, reviews and interviews Michael Costello about his “La commedia é finite” show that looks behind the mask “in relation to how we all present ourselves in society” that’s on display at HallSpace in Dorchester, Massachusetts.
“In addition to our popular print issue, we have grown a multi-platform online presence,” publisher Mojtabai noted. “This is an ongoing endeavor to bring to our readers’ attention events and exhibits as they are happening — from Boston to Basel.”
Indeed, as we continue to distribute the magazine to partnering museums, galleries and art centers throughout New England, we’ve been hard at work developing our digital presence so that each issue is easily accessible wherever you may be located and in doing so, helps us with our goal from day one to bring the arts of our region to the attention of art lovers and collectors worldwide. We offer a $49 annual package that delivers each issue to readers both digitally and to their mailbox: a digital-only option costs only $29 a year with a single-issue option for $8. Each purchase allows us to continue to bring you our best.
All of us at Artscope Magazine thank you for your continued readership and support and as always, feel free to drop us a line anytime.