Marsden Hartley, 1908-1909

The �ֲ���ý College Museum of Art and 217 Films announce the world premiere of the new Marsden Hartley documentary Visible Silence:  Marsden Hartley, Painter and Poet.

This movie is a production of Connecticut-based independent film makers Michael Maglaras and Terri Templeton of 217 Films.   Written by Maglaras, the world premiere of this hour-long documentary will be held at the Olin Arts Center at �ֲ���ý College in Lewiston, Maine on Thursday, September 25 at 7:00 pm and 9:00 p.m.217 Films and the Museum are making the event free open to the public as a gift to the citizens of Lewiston, Maine in honor of their most famous son. Admission is free but tickets are required. For reservations or more information call 207-786-6135 or email olinarts@bates.edu

�ֲ���ý College Museum of Art is home to the world’s largest collection of Hartley artifacts, ���Ի���Visible Silence features many pieces from this extensive archive of Hartley’s personal effects, including drawing and photographs.  This documentary includes more than 45 of Hartley’s paintings and drawings — from his earliest work as a child to the last painting found on the easel in his studio in Corea, Maine the day he died in 1943.

Hartley was deeply attached to his hometown of Lewiston and to the Androscoggin River, and locations in and around these areas play a key role in the film.  Hartley traveled extensively, but always returned to Maine and, at the end of his life, considered himself “Maine’s Painter.” He requested his ashes be strewn along the Androscoggin when he died; and this important and poignant moment is dramatized in Visible Silence.

The world premiere of 217 Films first Maine-made movie, Cleophas and His Own, based on a story by Marsden Hartley, was held in Lewiston in 2005. Visit the 217 Films site for the film:

The scene of the greatest economic and cultural metamorphosis of our time, China is not only at the center of the world’s attention but has arguably the most vital, imaginative, and uncontainable art scene in the world.The Rising Tide investigates China’s meteoric march toward the future through the work of some of its most talented emerging artists, whose work reflects the country’s rising influence as an economic, political and cultural force in the global arena.

In recent years, Chinese artists, especially those working in photography and video, have gained international recognition for their powerful works capturing the social and aesthetic confusion created in a rapidly changing society. To the Chinese avant-garde, materialism is all pervasive, and the dominant consumer culture has altered people’s mentalities. Interestingly, their work, influenced by Western ideals and art practice, remains distinctly Chinese in its content and aesthetic.

Produced within the dual context of globalization and urbanization, the work of artists Cao Fei, Xu Zhen, Yang Yong, Wang Qingsong, Chen Qiulin, Birdhead, and Zhang O examines the collision between the present and the future, and the confusion and ambiguity that characterize the new China. Their work is often a stunned attempt to deal with the dynamic and tectonic forces transforming China. The Rising Tide captures this momentous time in China’s history while exploring the work of artists, who comment with intelligence, wit, foreboding and nostalgia.

View movie trailer:

Two Plein Air Art Events Back-to-Back! Refreshments during the intermission.  Free admission.

Movie Premier!

The �ֲ���ý College Museum of Art presents Katahdin Lake: Painter’s Paradise a documentary by artist Chris Huntington.

Painters’ Panel Discussion!

Plein air painting strategies will be discussed by artists David Little, Deborah Grabber, Michael Branca, and �ֲ���ý’s own Joe Nicoletti.

Paper conservator Christopher Sokolowski (�ֲ���ý class of 1990) will discuss his path to the field of conservation, current work, and interesting projects along the way.

With an MA in Art History from U-Mass Amherst and a MS in Art Concservation from Winterthur/University of Delaware, Sokolowski has worked at the Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and is currently with the Northeast Document Conservation Center.

Sponsored by the Museum of Art.

Performance Followed by Discussion with DJ Spooky: Mark Bessire (Museum Director), Dale Chapman (Assistant Professor, Music), Charles I. Nero (Associate Professor, Rhetoric)

DJ Spooky’s Rebirth of A Nation was commissioned by The Lincoln Center Festival, Festival D’Automne à Paris, Spoleto Festival USA and Wiener Festwochen (Vienna). Additional support was provided by the American Center Foundation and Mass MOCA.

Tickets:

*$10 General Public seats available at *A limited number of free tickets are available to �ֲ���ý students.
For reservations or more information: 207-786-6135 or olinarts@bates.edu

�ֲ���ý Sponsors: Multicultural Center, Museum of Art, Department of Music, Dean of the Faculty Office, Department of Theater and Rhetoric, Student Activities Office, Harward Center for Community Partnerships, Office of Admissions, �ֲ���ý Dance Festival, and Program in Environmental Studies.

Event’s Main Page.

Our distinguished panelists will discuss the history, philosophy, planning, and implementation of land conservation in Maine.

Opening Night Events, Thursday January 17, 2008

Panel discussion: Land Conservation in Maine, Olin 104, 6pm

Artists’ Reception immediately follows in museum, 7pm

Ted Koffman, State Representative
Pat McGowan, Commissioner, Maine Department of Conservation
Jym St. Pierre, Director, RESTORE: The North Woods
Carl Straub, Professor Emeritus, �ֲ���ý College

The exhibitions and programming are part of a year long series at the �ֲ���ý College Museum of Art exploring themes related to environmental issues, such as sustainability, conservation, wilderness, and landscape.

Related Page: 1, 2, 3

noon

September 11
October 2
November 6
December 4

Join us in the museum for the opening reception of Activator, an exhibition of installation work by 7 contemporary artists: Nate Aldrich & Zach Poff, Astrid Bowlby, Amy Stacey Curtis, Eric Hongisto, Nicola Lopez, and Jason Rogenes.

Artist talks: 7 PM, Olin Art Center

January 11: Astrid Bowlby, Nicola Lopez
January 12: Eric Hongisto, NB Aldrich & Zach Poff
January 18: Jason Rogenes
February 2: Amy Stacey Curtis

Tuesday Curator’s Tours @ noon: Liz Kelton Sheehan
January 24 & March 14

Kate Gilmore, video and performance artist, is a 1997 graduate of �ֲ���ý College. She received her MFA in 2002 from the School of the Visual Arts, NY, and currently resides in New York. Gilmore is the 2005 recipient of the New York Foundation of the Arts Fellowship for Performance.

Her work was included in PS1/MoMA’s Greater New York 2005 ���Ի���Open House: Working in Brooklyn at the Brooklyn Museum of Art; and in shows at Plus Ultra Gallery, White Columns, Bronx Museum of Art, Exit Art, Islip Art Museum, Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT.; Tokyo National University of Fine Art and Music, Tokyo, Japan; and Kunstraume Auf Zeit Gallery, Linz, Austria.

In a recent statement, Gilmore explains, “For the past few years I have been making installations that incorporate video, performance, and sculpture. Through the use of humor, these installations attempt to address the fears and insecurities of daily existence. Using my self as the main character and various types of women’s personalities as inspiration, I create specific narratives that speak to the struggles of everyday life and the different methods we use to make sense of it all.

In each video, I play a character that is confronted by precariously built environments or chaotic situations that force her into awkward and compromising positions. Determined to make sense of the space despite the endless obstacles, each character repeatedly attempts to control this utterly uncontrollable environment.”

Gilmore is this year’s featured speaker in the �ֲ���ý College Museum of Art’s “Alums in the Arts” lecture series, supported in part by the Friends of the Museum. Previous speakers include Darsie Alexander ’88, curator, and Joshua Holdeman ’91, of Christie’s New York.

My Love is an Anchor, video still

The program explores the museum’s role as a resource and nexus for explorations of art and visual culture — a “laboratory” for the visual arts that serves the college and the community.Featured prominently is the composed of art and documentary materials by or about this pioneering American modernist, a Lewiston native. The collection, donated 50 years ago, gave the museum its start. Museum director Mark Bessire discusses Hartley’s influence, which is evidenced in part by how many of his contemporaries were attracted to Maine because of him — artists such as Carl Sprinchorn, who is also featured in the program, and Vinalhaven pop artist Robert Indiana, who has devoted years to creating the painting series “The Hartley Elegies” (which will be the subject of a museum exhibition opening Oct. 1).

Also examined is performance art at �ֲ���ý College, which is the academic home of William Pope.L, one of the country’s preeminent performance artists. A segment depicts his students engaging their unwitting peers in a dialogue on race and the effects of globalization as part of a piece called The Black Factory, which has toured the East this summer.

Founded in the 1990s as a way to heighten awareness of Maine’s rich history in the visual arts and design, the links the state’s seven best-known art institutions. In addition to the �ֲ���ý museum, they are: the Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland; the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick; the Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville; the Ogunquit Museum of American Art; the Portland Museum of Art; and the University of Maine Museum of Art, Bangor.

The �ֲ���ý installment is the sixth in the MPBN series, which debuted in 2003. The purpose of the series, according to executive producer Barbara Noyes Pulling, is to “provide a video showcase of the wide variety of artistic talent, high-quality art collections and top-notch museum facilities in Maine, [which exist] in outsize proportion to the state’s small population.”

Olin 105