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Artscope Magazine | January/February 2021

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new bedford art museum

"Visiting Mandela’s Prison Cell." Inside Nelson Mandela’s prison cell on Robben Island, off Cape Town, South Africa, the President and his family listened attentively to a first-hand account of what it was like to be imprisoned there during apartheid. Their guide was activist Ahmed Kathrada, who was imprisoned for 18 years. Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years before apartheid ended; he became the first President of South Africa to be elected by a fully free and democratic process. The President had met Mandela, one of his heroes, when he was a U.S. Senator. Mandela was not well enough to receive a visit on this trip, and he died some five months later. June 30, 2013. Courtesy of Little, Brown and Company/Pete Souza.

PETE SOUZA: ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE LENS

// Current Issue, Issue Articles, May/June 2019

by Ron Fortier

“Obama: An Intimate Portrait” is a hand-picked collection of 50 photos taken by Dartmouth native and former White House photographer Pete Souza. The exhibit is presented at the New Bedford Art Museum in conjunction with the New Bedford Historical Society. The New York Times captured my first impression of Pete Souza — it was spot on! “Life as a headliner makes him uneasy. For decades, Mr. Souza’s life has been about observation.” I met Mr. Souza during a private preview opening for the donors who made his current exhibit at the New Bedford Art Museum possible. I was on assignment; I was told to interview him. How many of the same boilerplate and cliched questions had he been asked over and over again? I hoped my single question would challenge him a bit. He seemed a bit standoffish at first. “You both had to walk a narrow path, while at the same time each of you had a power that no … [Read more...] about PETE SOUZA: ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE LENS

Visitors at the New Bedford Whaling Museum gazing at its “Skeletons of the Deep” exhibition.

A TASTE OF NEW BEDFORD: ALTERNATE SPACES AND A LIVELY ARTS SCENE

// Current Issue, Issue Articles, May/June 2019

by Ron Fortier

Nestled on the south coast of Massachusetts is New Bedford, named one of the most creative cities in not just one, but in several surveys and publications starting in 2011, when, Richard Florida, author of “The Rise of the Creative Class,” ranked the city as the “seventh most artistic city in America in proportion to its population, alongside the likes of San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles.” Since then, it was also ranked ninth on Matador Network’s list of Most Creative and sixth on Bustle’s Best Cities for Young Artists. The Massachusetts Cultural Council named New Bedford the most creative community in the State in 2017. Yet, when Luis Villanueva’s Colo Colo Gallery closed a year ago or so, the lauded creative community lost one of its last traditional galleries. The Colo Colo had survived for nearly 10 years with an impressive agenda of local, national and international … [Read more...] about A TASTE OF NEW BEDFORD: ALTERNATE SPACES AND A LIVELY ARTS SCENE

Donna Dodson, Elephant Seal, at her "Mermaids" solo exhibition New Bedford Art Museum showing through February 5, 2016.

Cornered Q&A: Donna Dodson Mermaids at the New Bedford Art Museum

// News, Visual Arts

By Brian Goslow (“Donna Dodson: Mermaids” continues through February 5 at the New Bedford Art Museum, 608 Pleasant St., New Bedford, Mass. The show’s artist reception takes place on Sunday, January 31 from 1-3 p.m. The museum’s winter hours are Wednesday through Sunday from noon-5 p.m. with extended hours on Thursday till 9 p.m. For more information, call (508) 961-3072.) WHEN DID YOU BEGIN WORK ON “MERMAIDS?” I began working on Mermaids before I moved (to Maynard, Mass.) in July 2015 and finished the first piece after we moved. I made the rest in my new studio between August 2015 and Jan 2016. I got waylaid by dropping a log onto my left foot and breaking my toe, thus slowing me down a bit, but I had planned a small show for this space, because I wanted to install a small grouping or island of works in the middle of the gallery so that people can walk around all sides of … [Read more...] about Cornered Q&A: Donna Dodson Mermaids at the New Bedford Art Museum