• Article

    The flow from the Fountainhead

    Published April 30, 2013 by

    Aaron Gilbert. The Fountainhead Residency program, under the inspired leadership of "foundress" Kathryn Mikesell, who founded it in 2008 with husband Dan, has been positively shaking up the art scene since it started. They bring in artists from all over the globe, to introduce them to...
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    Hair Wars Detroit fighting the good fight

    Published April 30, 2013 by

    Hair Wars Detroit. Without question, hair is a major issue. Mainstream hair culture still suffers along under the terribly retrograde, double-bind of a beauty standard that dictates a woman must spend a lot of time on her hair to make it look as good as possible,...
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    Moore College of Art & Design Senior Show 2013

    Published April 30, 2013 by

    The semester-ending Emerging Artists & Designers: Senior Show 2013 is underway at Moore College of Art & Design. The exhibition fills every one of Moore's galleries and bristles with work in an astounding number of areas by a huge group of individuals that together comprise the Class of 2013. [caption...
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    Announcing 43 winners in the Philadelphia Knight Arts Challenge

    Published April 29, 2013 by

      Photo credit: Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra Tonight, I’m at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, excited to announce the 43 winners of the Knight Arts Challenge Philadelphia. RELATED LINK  "Celebrating the 2013 Philly Knight Arts Challenge Winners" - A Storify This year, we were once again delightfully surprised by Philadelphia’s creative minds. I think you’ll see why. In the winners, there are several interesting trends, including ideas that will: Make art more participatory - including a performance of Shakespeare's Henry IV where the audience will take part in an enormous battle; Explore cross-genre mashups – with projects that will combine technology and design, voice and architecture and food and visual art. To me, this is one of the most exciting areas. As our world and attention spans become increasingly fragmented, combining genres is an interesting way to engage audiences on a multiple of levels. Weave art into neighborhoods – with pop-up dance performances and musical events in the city’s Latino neighborhood; And always important for a city of Philadelphia’s creative caliber, several projects will Develop the next generation of cultural thinkers with a student monologue series, after school music composition classes and more. The full list is below, along with information on the people and groups behind them. As you may know, this is the final year of our three-year Challenge in Philadelphia.  And over that time, we’ve seen more than 4,000 ideas come at us, with 187 challenge finalists and eventually 114 winners. What you’ve given us is incredible, and in the coming months we’re going to take what we’ve seen and learned and figure out a way to take more Philadelphia ideas to the next level through our community-arts grant making program. We continue to be deeply committed to the arts in Philadelphia, and we’ll have some great news on more investments in the fall. Stay tuned. Here are today’s winners – can’t wait to see how they develop.
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    Exuberance on display at North Carolina Dance Theatre’s “Contemporary Fusion”

    Published April 29, 2013 by

    Lush exuberance filled the stage this weekend at the North Carolina Dance Theatre’s (a Knight Arts grantee) performance of “Contemporary Fusion.” A part of the Ulysses Festival, Charlotte’s Spring Festival of the Arts, “Contemporary Fusion” closed the Dance Theatre’s 2012-2013 season with a roaring clang. It featured three radically different...
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    Ordway April 2013 update

    Published April 29, 2013 by

    By Shelley Quiala, Ordway Center for the Performing Arts "It's important for scientists to communicate the key messages of our work to different audiences. We need to keep finding new tools (like dance and film) through which we can share these stories.“ -Chip Small, Biology Professor, University of St. Thomas...
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    T. Elliot Mansa’s urban portraits

    Published April 26, 2013 by

    T. Elliot Mansa. Art that has been coming out of the urban core is often heavy on portraiture – characters, friends, family portrayed in both raw settings and historical and cultural context – especially in painting, especially from African-American artists. The work of Houston’s Robert Pruitt,...
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    Jason Havernaas on cycles of life at INCA

    Published April 26, 2013 by

    On Saturday, April 20th, Jason Havernaas, the newest resident at the Institute for Neo Connotative Action (INCA) in the historic New Center district, gave an artist talk on his life and work. Much of his work, which evolved from photographic portraits to video shorts, centers around his upbringing within an...
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    A “Traviata á la Verdi” to relish

    Published April 25, 2013 by

    By Sebastian Spreng, Visual Artist and Classical Music Writer The satisfaction of a good opera performance is equal to that of a delicious meal. In this regard, the Florida Grand Opera's La Traviata is nothing less than a banquet. Verdi’s immortal work is underpinned by the lavish and ultra-traditional FGO...
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    Let’s talk about F.O.O.D.

    Published April 25, 2013 by

    Roland Kreiter, "Mysqueeze Juicer" circa 2010. Image courtesy of Alessi Food: we rave about it; we crave it; we critique it; spend time and energy preparing it; watch T.V. shows about it; sometimes it even drives us to blaspheme. But what about the objects that we...