Award winning movie director and writer Henry Chaisson was scouring New England in 2024 to find art for his next film, “Recluse,” which he filmed in Massachusetts last November. He was born in Newton, Massachusetts and is known for “Servant” (2019), “Antlers” (2021) and the script of “Diary of a Murderer.” His latest, “Recluse,” was filmed at the Hawthorn Hill Estate in Lancaster, Massachusetts. This 1914 mansion served as the Maharishi Ayurveda Health Center that was once famously visited by Beatle George Harrison and was later used for scenes in the movie “Little Women.” “Recluse” is neither a meditation retreat nor about a close and loving family. Chaison described the film as, “a fusion of gothic ghost tale and revenge thriller, a modern fable about family secrets.” He hopes to present it at the 2025 Toronto Film Festival and release it after that. Chaisson sought art throughout … [Read more...] about BRINGING ART TO HOLLYWOOD
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ART AND TRAVEL
All my life, I have disagreed with Henry David Thoreau who thought it wasn’t “worthwhile to [travel] around the world to count the cats in Zanzibar.” The joy of travel has been in my blood since I was a child when our family summer vacation was a trip to visit our Canadian family. Our favorite stops included the gorges in Ithaca, the Thousand Islands, and Niagara Falls, especially when they were lit up with rainbow colors at night. Each of these places were natural works of art, although at the time I didn’t think of it that way. They were simply beautiful. When I was older, I realized that Mark Twain, who said that travel was “fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness,” was right. He also suggested that it “would be well if an excursion could be got up every year and the system regularly inaugurated.” I agreed wholeheartedly, so, in my early 20s, I took my first solo trip to … [Read more...] about ART AND TRAVEL
SHEPHERDING THE SHOW ALONG
On Monday, February 3, curator and artist David Walega arrived at New Bedford’s Gallery X around noon. The walls were bare inside the 1855 Universalist Church-turned-art gallery. Paintings, sculptures and ceramics covered floors and tables, waiting for installation. The sight was “overwhelming,” he said. And art just kept coming through the door. By 3:15 p.m., with the help of several volunteers, 67 works by 36 artists hung on the walls and sat upon white pedestals. The work of planning, preparing and installing the hundreds of annual art exhibitions throughout New England takes the effort of innumerable curators, gallery assistants, administrators and, of course, artists. But what works for a 140-year-old church won’t work for a gallery space in a storefront window, or for a massive complex housing a 15,000 square-foot exhibition and event space. No two art institutions curate and … [Read more...] about SHEPHERDING THE SHOW ALONG
PHOENIX RISING AT NESTO
The African American Master Artists in Residence Program at Northeastern University (AAMARP) has been a dynamic and unique nexus for artists of the African diaspora for 50 years, according to its current director, Dr. Reginald Jackson, himself a collagist, photographer, filmmaker, professor emeritus at Simmons college, and one of AAMARP's original practitioners. Some of the artists that AAMARP has fostered include John Wilson, who created the bust of Martin Luther King, Jr. at the Capitol Rotunda, and Theresa-India Young, celebrated in part for her multicultural weavings. Jackson said the program is unique in that it allows resident artists to stay as long as they want, “as they develop their craft, engage in community and mentor younger artists.” They’re provided with studio space and three large, beautiful galleries to exhibit in. Its distinguished artists interact with the Boston, … [Read more...] about PHOENIX RISING AT NESTO
STILL FABULOUS AT 50: SOMERVILLE’S VERNON STREET STUDIOS REMAINS ARTIST HAVEN
Somerville, Massachusetts, known as an artist haven, is thankfully still home to a handful of artist workspace communities including the Brickbottom Artist Building, Joy Street Studios, Milk Row Studios, Washington Street Art Center, Central Street Studios, Mad Oyster Studios and Pearl Street. The largest and longest-running location, Vernon Street Studios, touting 100 studios smack in between Davis and Porter Squares, celebrates its 50th Anniversary of hosting Open Studios on December 7 and 8 from 12-6 p.m. at 6 and 20 Vernon Street. To mark this milestone, Vernon Street Studios will also host a retrospective exhibi- tion at Somerville’s Nave Gallery from December 3 through January 9, 2025. One of its coordinators, artist Heather Balchunas, moved into Vernon Street in 2008. “I was only on the waitlist for one year. After signing the lease, I thought ‘I am a real artist. I have my own … [Read more...] about STILL FABULOUS AT 50: SOMERVILLE’S VERNON STREET STUDIOS REMAINS ARTIST HAVEN