Posts tagged ‘art’

Apr 11

Writing and Imagination

Perusing the mighty universe of the internet one evening, I stumbled across a parody music video of the popular (and amazing) HBO show Game of Thrones. Snared by the catchy tune and the spectacle of a male queen of dragons, I wasn’t prepared for this interesting quote that ended the performance:

“Hollywood Cannot Live Up to the Power of Your Imagination”

At that point, I remembered that, although made nationally popular by television, Game of Thrones originated in the imagination of George R. R. Martin. And then I started thinking more about popular culture nowadays: The Hunger Games, Harry Potter, the highly anticipated The Great Gatsby—all of these cinematic blockbusters share the common ancestor of the written word and, consequently, the minds of authors. In a world where reading seems to have fallen to the wayside, writers and the imaginations they obsess over unveiling to us appear just as relevant and public as ever.

Anita Diamant, beloved author of The Red Tent and keynote speaker at the Twain House’s Writer’s Weekend

As a former English Major in college and an aspiring writer myself, I’ve always held a soft spot in my heart for the novel. As such, I feel privileged to live in Greater Hartford and to enjoy a heritage filled with American literary masters like Mark Twain and Harriet Beecher Stowe. At the same time, I’m excited that we honor that past by holding so many events and resources for writers to unravel, brainstorm and explore the depths of their ideas with their peers. For example, at the end of April, the Mark Twain House holds its 2^nd Annual Writers’ Weekend. This celebration of authors includes workshops, courses and talks with award-winning writers and playwrights from all over the country. For younger writers, the Twain House also holds the Write to the Point!: Nonfiction Writing studio in our nationally-recognized Neighborhood Studios teen arts apprenticeship program this summer. For a smaller, more engaging writing experience, there’s Syllable, a reading series for aspiring writers organized by theme, and Edgings & Inchings at Real Art Ways, a monthly poetry reading and open mic night.

If you’ve ever wanted to give writing a chance—to wield the difficult power of the pen (well, keyboard I guess, nowadays)—these events may be the kick-start you need to get your prose or verse pumping. Although the consumption of novels has expanded into more vehicles than just printed pages in today’s culture, their heart has remained the same—to bring us to different worlds, to bare human essence and emotion in front of our eyes and to challenge us to think differently about…well, everything really. And, in the end, isn’t that the objective of every form of art?

Mar 7

DYOP: Drip Your Own Paint

Since UTC agreed to chair our 2013 campaign, it only made sense to ask them to jump-start our workplace giving program and kick-off a company wide initiative starting March 1st. UTC took that idea and really ran with it.

View of Hartford from the Gold Building cafeteria.

For the entire month of March, UTC will host workplace giving campaigns in each of their business units: Otis, Pratt & Whitney, Sikorsky, United Technologies Aerospace System, United Technologies Research Center, UTC Climate, Controls & Security and corporate headquarters in the Gold Building. Coordinators from each of the business units, working with Sandy Broadus (Assistant General Counsel, Litigation) under the leadership of co-chairs Matthew Bromberg (VP of Coporate Strategy & Development) and Charles Gill (General Counsel), are planning dozens of interactive and hands-on arts events to get employees engaged with our tremendous arts community. What an undertaking!

My colleague Laura McLelland, the Arts Council’s director of workplace partnerships, is coordinating each company’s giving campaign and helping Sandy and her team come up with fun, creative ideas to motivate employee support. Together, they agreed that the campaign should kick-off on March 1st at corporate HQ with a fun, easy way for people to create a one-of-a-kind piece of community art; Laura had the perfect solution: a Jackson Pollock-style drip and splat painting activity.

Oh the Drip & Splat (I’m trying to change the name to DYOP, hence the title of this article). It’s been a longtime staple of our workplace giving program—probably because it’s so popular. And fun. And easy.

The idea is simple. We provide blank canvases and colorful, washable tempera paint. Employees can stop by and drip, splat and literally throw the paint at the canvas, leaving their mark on the finished piece. As time goes by, and as employees line up to participate, the artwork becomes layered with different colors and paints until the canvas disappears and the company is left with an amazing piece of abstract art created by its employees. The office proudly hangs the art for all to see, and I love hearing people point to a specific drip or certain splat and say, “I made that. That’s my mark.”

Laura leads the Drip & Splat activity.

Last Friday, I went over to the Gold Building with Laura and Meaghan Wooldridge, our Workplace Giving Associate, to run a Drip & Splat (DYOP) with the folks at corporate HQ. The activity was a resounding success—after the first few employees, including the cafeteria staff, left their marks, employees were lining up to try their hand at abstract art and claim their very own ‘I take pART’ sticker. Sandy proved to be amazingly adept at recruiting volunteers, and by the end of the activity more than 100 UTC employees had taken pART.

Yesterday, Arts Council staff were down at Pratt & Whitney’s location in Middletown running a similar DYOP activity; as I write this article, Laura and Meaghan are journeying down to the southern part of the state to Sikorsky to create two more pieces of DYOP art. And this is just the beginning! Stay tuned for more updates and other UTC workplace events as March unfolds.

Check out our Facebook album of photos from the Corporate HQ DYOP

Interested in running a DYOP activity at your workplace? Talk to Laura.

Mar 4

Take pART: United Arts 2013

Each year the Greater Hartford Arts Council runs a “United Arts” campaign—donors can make one gift that supports our entire arts, heritage and cultural community. United Arts dollars fund our range of grant programs and support more than 150 local organizations and artists every year.

United Arts invites the community to take pART in everything the arts have to offer, from visiting one of our world-class organizations to see an exhibit, catch a play or concert, watch a performance or interact with local artists who call Greater Hartford home. The Arts Council runs workplace giving campaigns in 70 companies throughout our 34-town service area, encouraging employees to support the arts and flex their creative muscles through hands-on arts activities and events.

Guests at the Society Room for the 2013 Big Red for the Arts

The campaign officially kicked-off on February 6 with Big Red for the Arts, our annual food & wine fundraising event. Featuring dishes from some of the best restaurants in Greater Hartford and wines and spirits from around the world, this year’s Big Red raised a record-breaking $65,000 to support the arts. Special thanks to presenting sponsor Rockville Bank for helping us kick-off our campaign in style!

Please consider a Donation to the
United Arts Campaign

What’s New in 2013:

Calder’s Stegosaurus sculpture (see above) is the face of our campaign this year, both on our take pART brochure and featured as the 2013 thank-you gift to our $500 and up donors, designed by the amazing artists at local paper goods shop Hartford Prints!
you’ll be hearing a lot of String Theorie—the featured musicians of our 2013 campaign—and donors who give $100 or more will receive a digital download featuring an exclusive live track.
Stay tuned for more information about how you can take pART, both at your workplace and in the community!
The spring Aetna Arts Week is right around the corner, chock-full of free and low-cost activities and events sponsored by Aetna and supported by your generous contributions to United Arts
Learn why the Arts Mean Business: supporting 7,000 local jobs and generating an annual economic impact of more than $230 million
We’ll be posting stories, videos and photos as CEO Cathy Malloy and Arts Council staff travel around the community meeting with arts enthusiasts and visiting our grantee organizations to raise awareness about our amazing arts and cultural community

We look forward to an another amazing year of keeping the arts alive!

Jan 14

Letterpress 101

This week wraps up our 2013 Pick Your Print contest, and by next Wednesday we’ll have a winning concept ready to be turned into a piece of letterpress art. Letterpress has seen a resurgence in popularity over the last couple of years–from business cards to greeting cards and everything in between–but a few of us are still fuzzy on the details. What exactly is letterpress?

For the answer we went to the experts: the Gale sisters. Read their “Letterpress 101″ below:

WHAT IS LETTERPRESS? By Hartford Prints
Letterpress is a type of relief printing. Traditionally, it employs moveable type which is then inked and applied to paper with enough pressure to create an impression in the paper. A very simplistic version of this would be the rubber stamp.Western letterpress was invented by Johannes Gutenberg in the mid-1400′s. At one time, it was the method by which virtually all newspapers, books and other publications were printed. With advances in technology, letterpress has moved out of the commercial world and into the educational and fine craft worlds. Today, many colleges with a printmaking program offer letterpress courses and many of their graduates go on to open small business which offer fine printing on a small scale.

Artwork at the Hartford Prints! studio.

At Hartford Prints! we have a Vandercook 4-T proof press. This model was invented in 1948 specifically to print on acetate to create negatives for offset lithography printing. Our press likely dates from the 1960′s. We create our printed matter in one of three ways: traditional hand-set lead or wood type, hand-carved wood or linoleum blocks, or photopolymer plates created from digital files which we design on our computers.

For the Arts Council, the plan is to create a woodcut print based on whichever of the three design concepts wins the most votes. Once the design is selected, Addy will refine and finalize the drawing and begin planning for the carving stage. In relief printing, however many colors are in the design is how many blocks will be needed. So for a two-color print, Addy will have to carve two separate blocks. The blocks are carved in reverse, or backwards. Whatever is to be printed is left alone and all the negative space, or white of the paper, is carved away. When the blocks are done, they are placed on the bed of the press. The press has rollers to which the ink is applied and the rollers then distribute the ink onto the block. As the press is operated, the paper is carried across the block and pressure is applied to push the paper into the block just enough to take an impression and pick up the ink. This process is repeated until the desired number of prints is achieved and then repeated again for each following color.

Letterpress is a lovely and tactile medium. Soft, thick, 100% cotton papers are often used and the impression creates a wonderful texture that is a delight to touch. Hartford Prints! is so excited to have the opportunity to produce a unique letterpress print for the Arts Council and we are sure that everyone who receives a copy of the print will be thrilled with the final result.

There’s still a few days left to vote! Visit LetsGoArts.org/PickYourPrint to choose our winning design!

Jan 7

The Story of Hartford Prints!

If you haven’t heard of Hartford Prints! before, well, you should. On its face, it’s a small paper goods shop and studio on Arbor Street in Hartford run by the quirky Gale sisters—Hartford natives—that specializes in distinctive letterpress artwork and custom paper products for a variety of special occasions. The story of Hartford Prints!, though, illustrates how the Arts Council’s grant programs really can enact powerful cultural and economic change in our community.

GRANT DOLLARS AT WORK

Back in 2009, Addy Gale, the oldest sister of three, embarked on a mission—to find a way to express her passion for printmaking. In this spirit, Addy applied for funding through the Hartford Arts & Heritage Jobs Grant Program, managed by the Arts Council and funded by the City of Hartford. The grant program is designed to create and retain jobs, especially in the cultural sector, within the Capital City. And Addy, who grew up in Hartford’s historic West End, thought it was the perfect opportunity to set up shop and return to her roots.

Grant funding helped support her start-up costs and created the opportunity to offer students from Hartford Public High School part-time jobs learning the craft of letterpress. This apprenticeship program led to the production of art prints, greeting cards and blank books expressing the students’ love of Hartford. Their was then showcased throughout Hartford, including the inaugural exhibit of the Arts Council-managed 100 Pearl Street Gallery, as a way of promoting the local community through the arts.

When grant money was running out in March 2012, Addy joined forces with her two sisters, Callie and Rory, to re-envision Hartford Prints! as a for-profit letterpress studio that’s seen a tremendous amount of success.

From Addy’s original idea to celebrate and safeguard the art of letterpress printmaking emerged a local small business with a mission of arts entrepreneurship and a keen, eclectic vibe with a passion for the Gale sister’s hometown: Hartford. The Gale sisters and their innovative print shop prove the viability of using the arts to generate economic impact and support local jobs. Through arts education and active community engagement, Hartford Prints! is a model of a small business giving back.

Who would have thought—so much good for an entire community from “three sisters and a press.”

PICK YOUR PRINT CONTEST

The Arts Council would be nowhere without the support of those who believe in the power of the arts. Every year, we like to show our appreciation to our generous donors to the United Arts Campaign through thank you gifts, one of which being a Greater Hartford-inspired print for those who contribute $500 or more.

This year, we’re partnering with Hartford Prints! and giving YOU the say in the final piece of art. The Gale sisters prepared three possible concepts for this year’s artwork inspired by some of the most beloved public art pieces in the Capital City. You can vote on your favorite concept in our online poll. The design with the most votes will be commissioned for this year’s thank you gift.

The contest runs from January 7 to January 20 and the winner will be announced on January 23.

If you’d like to learn even more about Hartford Prints!, visit HartfordPrints.com. Also—be on the lookout s for spotlights on each print the next two weeks featuring insights from each sister about the design. Happy picking!

Dec 6

My Let’s GO Arts! Adventure

Tell us one of your Let’s GO Arts! experiences! In connection with our Let’s GO Arts! Holiday Promotion, we are hosting a story contest for our Let’s GO Arts members. Let us know how your Let’s GO Arts! card was a part of your evening, and you could win a one year extension on your current Let’s GO Arts! membership – OR – 2 Let’s GO Arts! cards to gift to your friends and loved ones.

250 words or less. Entries are due Friday, December 14 to ALaRosa@LetsGoArts.org. Feel free to get creative with your story. To help inspire your writing, here’s an example of a time I used my Let’s GO Arts! card recently:

GOODNIGHT AND NOT GOODBYE

Jittery fingers, restless legs—anxiousness exuded from me before my job interviews at the Arts Council. When I first walked into the offices, I met the fiery haired Welcome Center Coordinator Susan Williams. With simply a few quick conversations, Susan managed to calm some of my nervousness, which helped me focus before each phase of the interviewing process.

Upon being hired, I knew I would be working part-time in the Welcome Center. As I was trained to run the information hub, Susan, unbeknownst to her, also instructed me in much more subtle ways—like the importance of amiability in developing professional relationships and the ability to positively transform an entire place of employment with a sunny disposition and true care.

About a year after I started, Susan retired from the Welcome Center. To toast her time at the Arts Council, I planned a happy hour at Salute Restaurant in Hartford for our staff to honor Susan’s 5 years at the Arts Council. With a table covered with wine and delectable apps like sweet potato raviolis, we raised our glasses to celebrate Susan and to voice our envy over her retirement.

Placing my Let’s GO Arts! card in the bill at the evening’s end, I was struck by a phrase from my old summer camp: “It was goodnight and not goodbye.” Although we no longer would work together, I know Susan and I will keep in touch with emails, notes and lunches—most likely at Salute again!

Happy writing! For more information about the story contest or the Let’s GO Arts! holiday promotion, visit www.LetsGoArts.org/Holiday.

Nov 11

Why We Love Aetna Arts Week

Today kicks off one of our favorite arts events: Aetna Arts Week, a week-long celebration of arts, heritage and culture in and around the capital city. Each year, we present two arts weeks (one in the fall, one in the spring) sponsored by Aetna and made possible by your generous donations to our United Arts Campaign.

But why do we love Aetna Arts Week? Alright, sure. We love anything about the arts. But this program, in particular, serves a number of community needs—and helps strengthen our relationship with one of our most important corporate partners, Aetna.

Let me back it up again. Aetna has been a long-time supporter of the Arts Council (and of many of the organizations we represent). For about 10 years, they sponsored & helped produce Aetna First Thursday, an evening of jam-packed arts programming on the first Thursday of every month. A few years ago, we noticed the popularity of the ‘monthly funnel’ of arts events had started to wane; our organizations were running their own, wildly successful Thursday late-night activities, and we wanted to pilot a new, different program that both served the cultural community AND engaged our partnership with Aetna.

One of the biggest struggles we have here at the Arts Council is showing you—the community—all of the wonderful organizations, events & programs supported by United Arts. I mean, we fund nearly 150 different institutions and events each year! Working with Aetna, we came up with a new idea: instead of “First Thursday,” how about creating a week FULL of events from our grantee organizations. We’ll do it twice a year and use it as an opportunity to drive the public to the places we support, while getting them more engaged in the art itself.

Ta-Da! Aetna Arts Week was born.

To us, this is one of the best examples of an arts-business partnership. It helps the Arts Council provide free & low-cost community arts events, keeping art accessible to everyone. It showcases our United Arts operating support grantees, providing a “sample” or “tasting” of the wonderful programs they offer year-round. And, it allows Aetna the opportunity to continue to support the arts and get its employees more involved and engaged in the Greater Hartford community.

Win-win-win.

See the full line-up of Aetna Arts Week from this Courant article and on this blog.

Special thanks to Aetna (of course!) and to our operating support grantees who are offering an amazing line-up of programming. All of this wouldn’t be possible without the success of our United Arts Campaign, thanks to the generous support of our individual donors, corporate partners, foundations & government agencies.

Nov 7

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Celebrate Culture: Fall Aetna Arts Week 2012

Fall into Aetna Arts Week: November 11-17!

From the music you play on your iPod when you’re at the gym or in the car to the picturesque foliage autumn in New England sprouts each ear, art is all around every day. Amidst today’s increasingly hectic schedules consumed with deadlines, meetings and other obligations, the Arts Council is more determined than ever to encourage everyone to get out there and try something artsy and new.

That’s a big reason why we have chocked November 11-17 full of great artsy programming throughout Greater Hartford for Aetna Arts Week. Initiated a year and a half ago under the name United Arts Week, Aetna Arts Week, sponsored by (you guessed it) Aetna, highlights the wonderful organizations, events and activities funded by generous contributions to the Arts Council’s United Arts Campaign. In a nutshell, we create a menu of free and low-cost arts events throughout downtown Hartford to celebrate our local (and fantastic!) arts scene.

Whether you fancy theater or visual arts, or just like to get that exclusive feeling through a behind the scenes tour, you’ll definitely find an event that’ll get your ART beating. Visit FeelYourArtBeat.com to view our full line-up of events at organizations like the Wadsworth, The Bushnell, Hartford Stage, TheaterWorks and more!

Help us brighten up downtown Hartford!

Each Aetna Arts week, we create an interactive and fun “temporary public art project” that downtown Hartford dwellers can take pART on their lunch break. Last spring, we featured performances by some of Greater Hartford’s best dance groups at “Dancing in the Street”; in the spring of 2011, we created an incredible water-soluble coloring-book-style mural in State House Square. This year, we’re illuminating Hartford through “Light up the Night,” a lighted walkway of lanterns created out of recyclable, renewable materials outside Connecticut’s Old State House

Under the artistic guidance of Anne Cubberly, we invite you to create a lantern with us at free workshops this Sunday from 11am-6pm at Hartford’s HodgePodge and Wednesday at 11am at Connecticut’s Old State House. The lanterns from those workshops will then be combined, strung and illuminated together by Cubberly outside Connecticut’s Old State House to complete the project

To keep up on this season’s Aetna Arts Week, check back here, FeelYourArtBeat.com or on our Facebook page for pictures, videos and testimonials. Come get your ART beating with us!

Oct 11

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100 Pearl Street Gallery: Q&A with Lori Robeau

As we brace ourselves for another transition from fall to winter, we’re often drawn outdoors to pick apples, gather pumpkins and enjoy the changing of the leaves. We often take for granted that in October, everything in nature will take on its orange hue and eventually give way to the grey-white days of winter. Lori Robeau’s work asks us to pause and consider the impermanence of the natural world around us. She was nice enough to answer a few of my questions about her life and work.

Much of your work deals with the use of shadows and negative space to represent the loss of natural materials and elements. What inspired you to tell this story?

I spent much of my childhood wandering off alone on walks, exploring different natural landscapes—open fields that led to a lake, trails in the woods or a path that wound along a small stream—these spaces were my own private sanctuary. Now, these natural spaces are disappearing before my eyes and what is left is a small void. There is emptiness, a longing that cannot be filled with all the shopping in the world.

In looking at your work, especially Nature of Reality, there’s almost an ominous character to some of your work. Is that intentional? What do you want the viewer to experience with this piece?

Yes. I hope to prompt conflicting feelings of apprehension and compulsion and to effect a change of perception—not only in how the viewer sees the work once the illusion is revealed, but more importantly how they then interpret the content.

You use materials like recycled paper circulars, pinewood, vinyl and tar. How do these materials come together to tell your story of consumption and depletion of natural resources?

These materials represent consumption and depletion in a broad circle. First, the great pinewoods are harvested and processed into lumber (even the word timber contains in itself the shadow of the fall of the forest) to build more homes for the rapidly growing population. That population is targeted by media and marketing specialists to buy more products through advertisements that are printed on a by-product of the wood that is harvested.

Tar is produced from the roots and wood of pine trees which is distilled until it’s a thick and black liquid. Tar can also be made from petroleum, which is another name for crude oil. Plastics such as vinyl are made from petroleum as well. Oil is another natural resource that is being depleted.

As the population grows the demand for these products grow and in the process nature; plants, animals and organisms are displaced or worse, disappear altogether.

Shifting gears, you’ve shown work all over New England. What about the Hartford region inspires you?

Hartford already has a name in the Performing Arts but has recently been growing a name and gaining momentum as a more diversified Cultural Arts Center. I am seeing more exhibits and happenings all around the city and I am inspired and motivated by that momentum!

What are you working on now? Are there any other issues you’d like to tackle through art?

Yes, along the same lines of a loss of nature, I am interested in taking on the issue and growing concerns of “food” and our detachment from the process of attaining it.

Although, right now, I think I’m just going to paint for a while.

I’d like to thank Lori for answering my questions and to encourage everyone to check out “Consumption” while its on display until January 4, 2013 in our 100 Pearl Street Gallery. There’s no better time to see it than with Lori herself at the opening reception of “Consumption” TONIGHT (October 11) from 5-7pm in the Gallery.

Here’s hoping to sharing (or pouring you) some wine later! Cheers!

Sep 26

Hartford Symphony Orchestra’s Beloved ARTini

Have you ever wondered how the art that surrounds you actually came to exist? I know I walk by the paintings behind my desk so frequently that I simply don’t stop and think about how they actually embody the finished products and efforts or an artist’s thoughts, minds and actions. Art’s a process—many times an all-encompassing, scrutinizing and difficult one.

In that train of thought, I reached out to the Hartford Symphony Orchestra to discuss the “ARTini,” or martini-inspired sculpture, its staff created for our upcoming ARTini event. Before the creative cocktail concoctions and the “ARTini” auction where guests can purchase the piece, I wanted to better understand the sculpture, how it came to be and why it’s important to the Symphony in general. Luckily, Katie Bonner, Manager of Public Relations & Special Projects, took some time to answer a few of these questions for me:

What inspired the Hartford Symphony to create its own ARTini sculpture for the event?

The centerpiece of the Hartford Symphony’s season this year is our LIFE Project, a multi-discipline music and art event dedicated to raising awareness about nature through the arts. At the heart of the project is LIFE: A Journey Through Time, a multimedia extravaganza for the senses featuring breathtaking photographs from National Geographic photographer Frans Lanting. His six-year journey to discover new insights about life on Earth will be musically choreographed with an elegant composition from Philip Glass. Led by HSO Music Director Carolyn Kuan, the HSO will perform LIFE: A Journey Through Time at The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday, April 27, 2013.

We used our ARTini sculpture as an opportunity to demonstrate visually how music and nature can have a symbiotic relationship. In our ARTini, the music from the base of the glass transitions and grows seamlessly into a flowering plant and thriving ecosystem. It also shows how music and the arts can help support a healthy environment.

How did the Symphony actually go about constructing its ARTini? What can you tell us about the creative process behind the piece?

After determining the overall look of our ARTini, we used a mix of Bach Cello Suite sheet music, paper maché, Elmer’s glue, watercolor paint, masking tape, glass beads, potting soil, moss, aloe plants, cacti and ferns. Aside from a few glued together fingers and paint spills, it was a painless process!

Art, as we know, is definitely a process. How has creating this ARTini affected the staff of the Symphony?

It took four of our staff members to create and assemble our ARTini: paper maché guru Laura Gonzalez; terrarium goddess Tracy Wu Fastenberg; paper cutter extraordinaire Sarah Hopkins; and myself. You might say we are a little overprotective of our ARTini…Buyer Beware: You might find four HSO staff members at your door with instructions on how to care for your living ARTini!

Many thanks to Katie and the Hartford Symphony Orchestra for taking the time to answer my questions. If you want to see the sculpture for yourself, head to ARTini this Thursday, Sept. 27 at 6pm at Hartford’s Union Station. Tickets are $40 and you can buy them online at LetsGoArts.org/ARTini. Hope to see you there!