Art & Cultural Events List

New Exhibition in the Brickbottom Gallery! Familiar Faces: Family and Self Portraits, February 2 - March 3, 2012

Opening Reception: Sunday, February 5, 5-7pm, Gallery Hours: Thursday - Saturday, 12-5

Artists: Sandra Allik, Sherry Autor, Bill Chisholm, Michael Crockett, Lois Fiore (curator), Cynthia Frost, Lou Gippetti, Cynthia Maurice, Susan Schmidt, and David Sholl.

Brickbottom Gallery, 1 Fitchburg Street, Somerville, MA 02143, 617-776-3410

www.brickbottom.com, brickbottomartist@rcn.com

CLASS MEETS AT Somerville Community Access TV, 90 Union Square in Somerville
CALL 617-628-8826 or email membership@access-scat.org to register

This fun course will be co-taught by Tara and Gordon Nelson. Tara Nelson recently received her MFA in Film from MassArt and has been busy getting her films into festivals, including the prestigious Views of the Avant Garde at the Lincoln Center in NYC. Gordon Nelson is an old-school film artist who has been teaching super-8 classes since 1998. This is a rare opportunity to experiment with a non-intimidating all-analog moving picture medium where users gain precise control of the image.

Course Description: No video format can replicate the unique “look” of film and this course will cover the basics of working with this special format. Using a Super-8 camera, students will shoot their own rolls of film and edit their movies using either traditional splicing or digital techniques. We will also cover some "direct animation" styles, such as hand-painting, tinting, and scratching the film. At the end of the course, we will hold a screening in SCATV's studio. In addition to the tuition fee, students should plan to spend $50 for film and processing costs.

Instructors: Tara and Gordon Nelson
Meets 4 Saturdays
February 4, 11, 25, March 3, Noon-2:30pm
Cost: $60 members, $100 non-members

MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology
Spring 2012 Monday Nights Lecture Series
Experiments in Thinking, Action and Form

Mark your calendars!
Mondays, 7–9 PM
ACT Cube, Wiesner Building (E15-001)
20 Ames Street, Cambridge, MA

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February 13
What Do Artists Know?
Contemporary Responses to the Deskilling of Art
Michael Corris, Professor/Chair of Studio Art, Southern Methodist University, Dallas

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March 5
Re-representations and Simulations
Bruce Yonemoto, Professor of Studio Art in Video, Experimental Media, and Film Theory, University of California, Irvine

In conversation with Stephen Prina, Professor of Visual and Environmental Studies, Harvard University

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March 12
Archipelago Logic: Towards Sustainable Futures
Taru Elfving, Artistic Director, Contemporary Art Archipelago (CAA), Finland

In conversation with:
Renée Green, Associate Professor, MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology
Gediminas Urbonas, Associate Professor, MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology
Nomeda Urbonas, ACT Fellow, MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology

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April 2
Playback: Broadcast Experiments 1970 and Now
Gloria Sutton, Assistant Professor, Northeastern University, Boston

Respondent: João Ribas, Curator, MIT List Visual Art Center

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April 9
Projects and Protocols: Conventions on Art and Technology
Muntadas, Professor of the Practice, MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology

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April 23
Sound and Semiocapitalism:
Affective Labor and the Metaphysics of the Real
Michael Eng, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, John Carroll University, University Heights, Ohio
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On View
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Disobedience Archive
Exhibition extended through April 15, 2012.
http://disobedience.mit.edu/
…

Faculty News
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Azra Aksamija in Cube or Dome. Mosques – New Ways of Building, Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations (ifa), Stuttgart
Azra Aksamija in Heimatkunde: Eine kosmopolitische Inventur (How German is it? 30 Artists' Notion of Home), Jewish Museum Berlin
Andrea Frank Exhibit Systems, Galleria Michela Rizzo, Venice
Renée Green Book Launch in NY, Participant INC
Muntadas Exhibit Information>>Space>>Control, Bronx Museum
• Critics Pick in Art Forum: http://alturl.com/kspyg
Muntadas Exhibit Entre/Between, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia
• Reviewed in Wall Street Journal: http://alturl.com/42dkb
Muntadas Lecture at Parsons New School of Design, March 7
Angel Nevarez in Shifters, City University of New York
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For further information, contact ACT Public Programs Coordinator Laura Anca Chichisan at clauraa@mit.edu or 617-253-4415. Calendar can be viewed and downloaded at http://bit.ly/act-spring-lectures-cal.
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MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Avenue, E15-212
Cambridge MA 02139-4307

act.mit.edu
617-253-5229

These events are free and open to the public. Children are welcome in the company of an adult.

Please register for each event that you plan to attend. You will receive directions and information on parking when you register. E-mail Elizabeth Wylde at friendsoffreshpond@yahoo.com.

ANIMAL TRACKS AND SIGNS
Saturday, February 4
1 to 3 pm
Maynard Ecology Center, basement of Neville Place
650 Concord Avenue
Many wild animals that we think of as living only in remote wilderness have, in recent years, filtered into urban settings and are using parks like Fresh Pond as hunting grounds and refuges. Although these animals, hiding in the night or in foliage, are seldom seen directly, their presence can be detected by the tracks and signs they leave behind. Tracker David Brown leads a program using slides and plaster casts to familiarize you with some of this evidence so that you can go out and look for yourself. If the conditions are good, we will also go outside to look for prints, so please dress accordingly. You must register for this program.

A VIRTUAL FRESH POND WALKABOUT
Monday February 6
6 to 7:30 pm
Water Purification Facility
250 Fresh Pond Parkway
Cambridge Watershed Manager Chip Norton will lead us on a virtual tour of the Reservation’s new and future restoration projects. In the comfort of the Water Department conference room, he will use photos, maps, and illustrations to describe the challenges and goals of these efforts to keep our drinking water pure and to create healthy natural habitats for plants and the animals that live among them. Bring your questions! You must register for this program. Snow date is Monday, February 13.

LICHENS ARE EVERYWHERE!
Saturday, February 11
1 to 3 pm
Maynard Ecology Center, basement of Neville Place
650 Concord Avenue
Elizabeth Kneiper, a naturalist with a special interest in lichens, will introduce us to the characteristics and biology of the plant worlds' most interesting composite organisms – lichens. Most people hardly notice these plants that grow on most moist surfaces and give character to rocks and old trees. Using photos and specimens, we will study a variety of common local species. This program will be held indoors.


BATS: NOT RATS, NOT BLIND, NOT RABID
Sunday, February 26
2 to 4 pm
Maynard Ecology Center, basement of Neville Place
650 Concord Avenue
Some people are afraid of them, but bats provide us with a huge benefit, each one eating thousands of insects every night. Nathan Fuller, an expert on bats, will help us get better acquainted with these small flying mammals: their diversity, their lifestyles, and the 21st century dangers they face from disease and climate change.

*** This winter and spring Grow Native Massachusetts is offering a series of free nature-related lectures at the Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway. The details are at www.grownativemass.org.

Calling all kids, parents, and fairy tale lovers!!

Looking to warm up your imaginations and beat the winter blues? Join us for this brand new, fiercely fun show presented by The CoLab Theatre Company!

Double, double toil and bubbles,

Archie's parents turned into apples - and now he's got troubles!

Will he be able to turn them back before time runs out? Find out as Archie, and his friend, Little Red Riding Hood, embark on this mixed up tale of magic, courage, and a whole lot of apple strudel!

"Don't Eat the Apples"

by

Erika Geller, Burt Hill and Lily Borg

Jan 28th @ 11am

Feb 11th @ 11am & 2pm

Performed downstairs at:

Unity Somerville

6 William St.

Somerville, MA 02144

Tickets available at the door and online at www.colabtheatre.org!

or http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/219457

Parent and Child - $12

Each additional child - $2

Adults - $7

This show is suitable for children ages three and up. Please email Erika at colabtheatre@gmail.com with any questions. Mark your calendars for adventure - we'll see you at the theatre!

The CoLab, a budding fringe theatre company in the Greater Boston Area, is devoted not only to producing new theatre, but building new audiences, starting at the local level. This season, we thought about what that really means and we decided we would start 2012 by appealing to perhaps our most important audience, its children. The future of The Arts in America and in Boston lies with our youngest viewers, who will become the audiences of tomorrow. While we think BIG theatre is great, many people believe that they have to spend lots of money on a big budget musical on Broadway every time they want to experience the theatre. By bringing Don't Eat The Apples to Somerville, we're hoping to show both parents and children that theatre can be enjoyable, affordable, and in their own backyard.

Playwright Erika Geller spent most of her summer nannying in Somerville where she attended many sing-a-longs and story hours, but no plays. By talking with other nannies, moms, and dads, she realized how many families were looking to expose their children to the arts, and how few affordable opportunities there were to do it. When it came to a venue for the show, the Somerville area was the first to come to her mind as it already has such a huge arts community for adults - why shouldn't there more opportunity for its smallest citizens to experience the theatre? As the cold weather hits, Don't Eat The Apples provides the perfect opportunity to make a happy memory with your family at the theatre, without leaving the neighborhood or breaking the bank!

The cast also features three Somerville Resident Actors: Alyce Householter, Bob Mussett and Tim Hoover

Contact: Susan Halter
781-598-5244
www.lynnarts.org

LynnArts Announces Winter Programming Schedule

Lynn, MA – Winter programming begins this week at LynnArts with a Call for
Work for the February gallery show, ON AND OF PAPER. The show will be
juried by Stacy Thomas-Vikory. Ms. Thomas-Vikory received her BFA in
Printmaking from Montserrat College of Art and her MFA in Printmaking and
Drawing from SUNY at Buffalo. Her selected juried exhibitions include 30th
Anniversary Show and 25 Years, 25 Artists, Montserrat College of Art; Mondo
Tera Firma and Small in a Big Big World, The Cloister Gallery, Marblehead,
MA; The Landscape Reconsidered: Collage, Assemblage & Montage, the Gibbs
Gallery, Arlington Center for the Arts, Arlington, MA (Fall, 2002). Her
work is included in numerous private collections and in The New American
Paintings Catalog, February 1998. She currently teaches Book Arts, Painting
and Drawing, and Printmaking at Montserrat College of Art in Beverly, MA.

Artists interested in submitting their work can download guidelines from the
LynnArts website, www.lynnarts.org
Winter Workshops

This winter LynnArts will offer a series of art workshops open to anyone
interested in expanding their creative horizons. No prior experience is
required for any workshop and all materials will be supplied. You can
register for workshops on-line (fees apply) or in person at 25 Exchange St.
during regular business hours. Workshops are $20 for members, $25 for
non-members.

February 9
6-8 PM
BE MY VALENTINE CARD MAKING PARTY
Instructor: Linda Germain

Come create fund cards for your valentine, best friend, grandmother or
anyone you want to tell you care! Participants will use a variety of
printmaking techniques, stencils, relief blocks stamps, collage and more to
make unique cards for loved ones.

February 11
11 AM – 2 PM
MANDALA
Instructor: Dottie Doucette

Mandala means circle. It represents wholeness and is seen as a structure of
self. Awareness of the Mandala may have the potential of how we see
ourselves and even our own purpose. This creative workshop will include the
history of Mandala and a short meditation period. You will then create a
fantastic visual using geometric shapes and acrylics. (Feel free to bring a
pillow/cushion for the meditation). “…This group Mandala class is a unifying
experience in which people can express themselves individually within their
beliefs and visions”. –Instructor, Dottie Doucette.

March 3
2 – 4 PM
THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX
Instructor: Paula Beaulieu, Med

Businesses today are looking for people who can think playfully or
creatively, “out-of-the-box,” as they say. Workers need to spend
unstructured time in acts of imagination in order to tap into their playful
side where they can create, invent, stretch, and dream of what could be.
Through this guided hands-on art workshop, participants will be lead in a
series of exercises designed to help them tap into that source of innate
creativity where their playful side exists so they can be more open to new
ideas and possibilities as the New Year unfolds.

March 10
11 AM – 2 PM
CREATING THE STORY OF US
Child/Parent workshop
Instructor: Dana DiNatale

Creating the Story of Us is a workshop inspired by the new magazine Create
with Me. Families will create a 3D mixed media artwork/sculpture telling the
story of your familiy, a representation of your life, history and family. A
family tree of sorts, that is open to interpretation. Using different
materials such as collage, paint, recyclables, embellishments and the like
artists will explore techniques and the art process while experiencing
working together. Participants should feel free to bring in photographs
and/or found objects to include in the project.

Art Explorers Vacation Week Programming for Youth

FEBRUARY PROGRAM
SHAPE SHIFTING WITH PEM! ages 6 to 12
Tue., February, 21 to Fri., February 24.
9:00AM - 3:00 PM $150.00, extended day and scholarships available
Fee includes registration and materials.

Students will start their week at the Peabody Essex Museum where they’ll
enjoy artist’s demos, art projects and a tour of the Museum, then continue
the theme at LA with arts programming in the morning and theater in the
afternoon. REGISTER BY FEBRUARY 10th! Registration forms available at
www.lynnarts.org. Register now for the whole summer.

In the Neal Rantoul Black Box Theater

January 19-28
Arts After Hours presents
I LOVE YOU, YOU’RE PERFECT, NOW CHANGE

Book and Lyrics by Joe DiPietro, Music by Jimmy Roberts a romantic musical
voyage from the single years to the senior years... LynnArts, 25 Exchange
Street Tickets now on sale at www.artsafterhours.com
or by calling 781-205-4010. Tickets $20-$25, all matinees $20.