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AIE helps raise local artist profiles

Sun, 26 May 2013 00:00:00 GMT

AIE helps raise local artist profiles - When showing her work in Washington D.C. a couple of years ago at the Smithsonian Craft Show, textile artist Leah Evans’ work caught the eye of the U.S. ambassador to Rwanda.

Now, one of Evans’ quilts hangs in the U.S. Embassy in Kigali, Rwanda, part of the Art in Embassies program, an effort to build cross-cultural connections through visual art. It’s on loan there for three years.

That exposure at the annual Smithsonian show has helped the local artist get her name out to the public and raise her profile.

“I’ve had people contact me based on my work from the Smithsonian show,” Evans said. “It’s definitely my most consistent and my best show.”

Evans was one of two Madisonians chosen for the Washington D.C. event, a prestigious exhibition of 121 craft artists from around the country. Milliner Renee Roeder Earley is showing her handmade hats for the first time there this year; it’s Evans’ fourth trip. The exhibition runs Thursday through Sunday.

Taking inspiration from satellite images and maps, Evans creates pieced and detailed quilts that explore human influence on land and water and the reverse: how populations are shaped by their environment.

She’s exhibited at Art Fair on the Square, among other shows, and was also featured in "Stitched Ground: Four Artists Embroider the Land," at the James Watrous Gallery, an exhibit Capital Times arts writer Lindsay Christians named as one of 2010’s best.

As an artist, Evans said she’s “looking at some point in history or some environmental source and kind of picking it apart… why humans are impacting the land in a certain way and what that means.”

This “environmental history approach” stems from a seminal class she took at the University of Kansas with well-known historian Donald Worster, who recently appeared in the PBS documentary “Surviving the Dust Bowl.”

Before Evans starts work at the sewing machine, she's doing research. At the root of some of her work are articles she’s read about people and their relationship to the land.

Evans' piece inspired by the now well-known quilters from Gee’s Bend, Ala., (a collective of African-American quilters who made a splash on the modern art scene several years ago) has its origins in a Pulitzer Prize-winning article by J.R. Moehringer called “Crossing Over,” which detailed the lives of those living on the Bend, a community isolated by geography as well as racism.

In her work, “the pieced sections of land reference the strip quilting of the women and property divisions common to the South,” Evans wrote in an artist's statement.

A newer piece grew out of an article Evans read in the Economist about geologist Harold Fisk's 1944 groundbreaking map of the Mississippi River, which charted changes in the river over time.

Evans' “Fisk’s Ghost” is a riff on that map.

“I just plotted out different river courses all on top of each other — the same river at different times in history,” she said. The work shows "the play between the once-wild river and people setting a new boundary on top of it. We think it's permanent but it's be https:// en proven to change as well."

About 10 of her larger maps will be on display at the show at a time. She will also sell smaller, one-of-a-kind pieces framed in handmade, papier-mache boxes.

Lately, Evans has focused on doing more hand work on her pieces and dyeing more of her own fabric, what she called “the slower processes" of her art.

“I’ve made it a goal of mine to focus more on the work than on the profit,” she said.

“I’m hoping people that have been following my work for awhile who are interested in collecting my pieces will see the new work and feel excited about it,” she said.

And who knows? Her work might attract the attention of another dignitary again.

“Ruth Bader Ginsburg walked by my booth last year,” Evans said of the U.S. Supreme Court justice. “Maybe this year she’ll stop in.”

To read more, visit the original link.

Art in Embassies Madrid

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Trade Winds Volume 7

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Art in Embassies, Aspen Institute and Wilson Center co-host 50th Anniversary Event

Nick Cave - Art Works Podcast

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Art Works Podcast: Nick Cave

In this week’s podcast, we meet Chicago-based artist Nick Cave. Cave, whose background is in fabric arts, fashion design, and dance, is known is for his colorful elaborate sculpture/costumes he calls “Sound Suits.” Sound Suits are difficult to describe; they’ve reminded people of Mardi Gras costumes or African Masquerade robes. The materials that comprise the Sound Suits are as unlikely as the finished product. Some are made of twigs, others are made of thousands of buttons or feathers, and still another was constructed of Beanie Babies. The height of the Sound Suits are frequently magnified by extravagant head gear, like a domed miter that a bishop might wear. When worn, the suits often swoosh or rustle, so that the movement of the suit itself results in a kind of music. Sound Suits have been presented in galleries on forms, and worn as costumes in performances in public spaces around the world. In this excerpt from the podcast, Cave talks about what it’s like to actually wear one of these fabulous creations. [Podcast] - link to original NEA podcast.

February 7, 2013 By Josephine Reed - NEA

Jenny Abell Dakar Commission

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Jenny Abell Dakar Commission -Healdsburg art lovers have been able to see work by Jenny Honnert Abell for almost seven years at Hammerfriar Gallery, but soon the Santa Rosa artist will have international exposure.br />
As part of the State Department’s Art in Embassy Program, 10 of her works will be permanently installed in the new U.S. Embassy in Dakar, the capital of Senegal in West Africa. The embassy is scheduled to open in March.

The Art in Embassy program is a legacy of President John F. Kennedy’s administration, designed to promote national pride and cultural identity by displaying American art throughout the world.

Abell has been living and working in Santa Rosa for 18 years and, in addition to Healdsburg, is represented by galleries in Santa Fe, Nashville, San Francisco and Sun Valley, Idaho.

Last year her work came to the attention of Virginia Shore, deputy director and chief curator of the Art in Embassy Program and a regular client of the Gale Severn Gallery in Idaho. She liked Abell’s work so much she personally invited her to participate in the program.

Abell had her choice of locations around the world, including Jakarta and Budapest, but she chose Dakar because it would happen soonest and because she was eager to get started.

“I didn’t want this exciting project hanging out there for a year or two,” she said.

Abell spent a week in Senegal in December to soak in the region’s people and culture. In addition to visiting the new Embassy building, she went to open air markets, a rug factory and Goree Island, which the Portuguese settled in 1444 and from which slaves were traded in the 1780s.

Jenny Honnert Abell with Aminata, left, and Fatou, right, outside of the Embassy in Dakar, Senegal. (Photo courtesy of Jenny Honnert Abell) Two things struck her during the ride from Dakar’s small airport. One was the 160-foot African Renaissance Movement sculpture on a hill overlooking the sea that depicts a father, mother and child, with the child held in his father’s arms pointing towards the sea.

“I found it to be stiff and rather unimpressive,” says Abell. “There are many objections to the sculpture by the Senegalese people, most of all that it was constructed by a North Korean firm.”

The second thing was a row of mosques that hugged an oceanside curve. “This was the first physical indication that I was in another country,” Abell said. “It was beautiful.”

French is the primary language, along with a native language known as Wolof. “I learned that the local people often meld the languages together as they speak, so it is impossible for an outsider to understand.”

In her commissioned pieces, she reflects the things that inspired her in Africa — village life, Senegal Parrots, baobab trees, intense colors and the beautiful variety and softness of skin tones.

“Marketplaces were everywhere,” Abell said. “The fruits and vegetable stands, piles of shoes and clothes, men and women everywhere carrying tall stacks and baskets on their heads, women with hoards of necklaces to sell hanging around their necks, the bright yellow buses, red and white striped curbs … it all made for visual overload.”

Abell also found beauty in the repetitive patterns of unfinished buildings, damaged stucco and bare brick work, all representative of the town’s rundown state.And while visiting Goree Island, she met two Senegalese men making sand paintings for visitors.

“I was mostly interested in the colored sands that they were using,” she says. “I asked my guide to see if they would sell me a small sample of each color, and for $20 I got 10 different colors, all natural sands from different places in Senegal. One piece in my series is a sand painting using these sands.”

Abell hopes to go back to Dakar either during or shortly after her paintings are installed in April. “I was only there a week and barely scratched the surface,” she said. “If I go back, I will make a point to travel further into the country to see what lies outside of Dakar.”

Abell works with mixed media on large panels and old book covers. Jill Plamann of Hammerfriar describes her work as “meticulous and remarkably beautiful to look at. Within this highly refined work, you will find compassion, pain, playfulness, optimism and references to Jenny’s love and study of ancient cultures.”

See samples of Abell’s work at Hammerfriar Gallery, 132 Mill St., Healdsburg, or jennyhonnertabell.com. By MARY JO WINTER / Towns Correspondent. Link to article.

Beginnings - Art in Embassies

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Beginnings – Art in Embassies
The new US Ambassador to Zimbabwe has just embarked on his tour of duty here. Perhaps that is why it is fitting that the Art In Embassies (AIE) collection at his residence is appropriately themed Beginnings.

Although he was last here a decade ago Ambassador Bruce Wharton is beginning his tenure as Washington’s man in Harare with what can be described as an effective high-end component of United States cultural outreach initiative.

The collection, Beginnings, showcases works of art drawn from Zimbabwe, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ghana and South Africa.

It shows, among other things, landscapes, historic buildings, portraits and photographs. A few photographs of Americans such as that of Malcolm X, which represents the beginnings of civil rights movement and those of Native Americans ensures the relevance of titling the collection as the Beginnings.

There are works of art depicting commuter buses at the Pretoria Taxi Rank, a Tauya ”Chicken” bus groaning under baggage that includes a live goat and riders on horseback. They all depict modes of transport suggesting the beginnings of journeys. Three different artists scattered across the globe in their own peculiar interpretation addressing the issue of transport.

Two landscape art works deserve particular mention; one depicts an estuary, but it could be land scoured by glacial erosion and the other a massive art piece that seems to offer a narrative about the beginning of the occupation of the Wild West, such expanse, such towering vastness, all seemingly buttressing the theme of beginnings.

Officially opening the new Art In Embassies collection Ambassador Wharton said the intention is to draw communities together through culture. To this end they are embarking on a programme for the Harare Polytechnic, where the US will put together a collection of art works which will be mounted at the United States Information Services.

“We hope you will explore and come back to us and ask some questions because this should be the beginning of dialogue. We want this for people to come together and say what is on their minds. We want it to be serious ...” he explained.

His spouse, Julia, said they rather liked the idea of the landscapes, “because we feel everything begins with the land”.

Every new US ambassador has the opportunity to display an exhibit of art of the size and quality that normally would take decades to accumulate. During his tour of duty the selected works of art and other objects are displayed in the ambassador’s residence where public diplomacy is conducted and where guests are entertained.

For more than five decades the Art In Embassies has played a leading role in US public diplomacy through a focused mission of vital cross-cultural dialogue and understanding through the visual arts and dynamic artist exchange.

It is argued that art is also a tool of diplomacy and reaches beyond governments, conference rooms and presidential palaces, connecting people all over the world.

AIE seeks to engage, educate and inspire global audiences demonstrating how art can transcend national borders and build connections among people.

Outgoing US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, says of the AIE: “In order to create more friends and fewer enemies, we can’t just win wars. We must find common ground and common purpose with other peoples and nations so that together we can overcome hatred, violence, lawlessness and despair...

“Every exhibition reminds us of the diversity of mankind and the values that bind us together.” Art In Embassies was established within the US Department of State in 1964 by President John F Kennedy with the specific goal of promoting national pride and a sense of cultural identity by displaying America’s art and its artists throughout the world.

– By Sonny Wadaw.

The Diplomacy of Art

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Spotlight in Vanity Fair

Town and Country

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Town and Country

Art in Embassies Makes a Splash for 50th Anniversary

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Art in Embassies Makes a Splash for 50th Anniversary - In his book “The First Resort of Kings,” Richard Arndt, a former cultural attaché with the State Department, stressed the power of art as a diplomatic tool to encourage cultural exchange despite language and other hurdles.

“The arts have always had the advantage of transcending language barriers,” he wrote. “One can admire Phidias without Greek, Van Gogh without Dutch or French, Richter or Bolshoi without Russian, or Bartok without Hungarian.”

For the past 50 years, Art in Embassies has been speaking the universal language of cultural diplomacy.

The program, a public-private partnership established by John F. Kennedy in 1963, has been sending artists and their works to U.S. missions across the globe as part of an initiative to foster U.S. public diplomacy through art. According to the State Department, more than 10,000 pieces have been placed in over 200 ambassador residences, embassies and consulates overseas — from Bucharest to Beijing to Bamako. Professional curators create and ship about 60 exhibitions abroad each year, and since 2003, more than 58 permanent collections have been installed in the department’s diplomatic facilities throughout the world.

To coincide with the program’s golden anniversary, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presented five artists — Cai Guo-Qiang, Jeff Koons, Shahzia Sikander, Kiki Smith, and Carrie Mae Weems — with the first-ever Medal of Art, awarding them for their contributions to a continued cross-cultural, artistic dialogue throughout the years.

The medal ceremony luncheon, held Nov. 30 in the Benjamin Franklin Room of the State Department, was part of a jam-packed celebration that included a discussion with the artists at the Ronald Reagan Building as well as an elaborate party at the Smithsonian’s Kogod Courtyard next to the National Portrait Gallery organized by Art in Embassies Director Beth Dozoretz, a longtime Clinton supporter.

Carrie Mae Weems talks to the audience at the Ronald Reagan Building, where the five honorees spoke about the Art in Embassies program, a public-private partnership spearheaded by the State Department.

That soiree, held the same night as the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery’s big 25th anniversary bash and a White House dinner for campaign donors, still attracted a bevy of administration and government officials, including Clinton. In all, some 700 guests fêted until the wee hours in the glass canopy-topped atrium, which was filled with a tower composed of Benjamin Moore paint cans, a crayon pyramid and other artistic creations.

In fact, earlier in the day, one of the honored artists, Cai Guo-Qiang, exploded a 40-foot pine tree outside the Freer Gallery of Art on the National Mall using his signature blend of pyrotechnics and gunpowder.

Each of the five honorees work in a variety of disciplines, from Guo-Qiang’s use of pyrotechnics to create smoke-filled illusions, to Jeff Koons’ stainless steel pop art sculptures, offering larger-than-life metallic balloon animals, inflatable toys and human beings.

“Each of them has delighted imaginations for decades. And they truly are living testaments to the timeless and unending human urge to create and connect. So they provide us with another language of diplomacy, one that evokes our universal aspirations as human beings, our common challenges, and our responsibilities for thinking through and addressing the problems that we face together,” Secretary Clinton said at the luncheon honoring the medal recipients. “From Beijing to Monrovia, even here in Washington, these five artists have contributed works of art that are the building blocks of this shared language.”

The artists expanded on this conversation when they sat down with Museum of Modern Art (MoMa) Director Glenn Lowry and a full audience on Nov. 30 at a wide-ranging discussion hosted the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the Aspen Institute, and the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center.

Guo-Qiang, Koons, Sikander, Smith and Weems talked about everything from the human condition to how artists can act as vessels for public diplomacy.

Jane Harman, director, president and CEO of the Woodrow Wilson Center, kicked off the discussion by reflecting on the power of art, a power she witnessed while serving in Congress for more than 15 years.

Ron Dozoretz poses with his wife Beth Dozoretz, director of Art in Embassies, who began organizing the program’s 50th anniversary celebration two years ago.

“What is so little understood is how important culture is as a foreign policy tool, and how underutilized it is as a foreign policy tool. I served in our Congress for nine terms … and I know from the travels I made in Congress all over the world … how critical this program is to showcase what America stands for in our embassies, and how important art is as an education tool, as a way to knit civilization together everywhere in the world.”

In addition to securing pieces of art for diplomatic facilities — typically multimillion-dollar works acquired for a fraction of the cost thanks to private donors and groups such as the Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies (FAPE) — Art in Embassies organizes exhibits and other events at U.S. missions featuring both U.S. artists and artists from the host countries. In fact, over the last decade, more than 100 artists have traveled to countries participating in the Art in Embassies’ exchange programs and collaborated with their local counterparts to produce works now on display in embassies and consulates.

Pakistani-American artist Shahzia Sikander’s work is now on display at the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan. Her piece, “I am also not my own enemy,” fuses the traditional with the modern to create two large-scale paintings with the title imprinted in Urdu across the canvas.

“I think a lot of my work is really also about translation,” she told the D.C. audience. “The distance between the idea of the original and what may be an interpretation … what is that distance? And I think that even in this particular work, ‘I am also not my own enemy,’ it opens up that dialogue. Who is the enemy here or not?”

In addition to promoting cross-cultural dialogue, an underlying thrust of the program is to make U.S. embassies — derided in recent years as fortresses because of security concerns — more welcoming and emblematic of American values. Art can also pry open closed-off regimes.

Kiki Smith, whose exhibits grace embassies from Mumbai to Stockholm, Rome to Istanbul, spoke about art’s ability to break barriers.

“Creativity is fluid, and it’s a vehicle,” she said. “It seems to me that art is a space that keeps demanding that the depth of our human consciousness gets to have expression, in particularly within the bounds of societies that are often restrictive and constrictive, that art keeps chopping out space, and has this ability to move and be fluid from different cultures.”

“Secretary Clinton praised all the honorees for showing a new side of America to foreign audiences and, perhaps, influencing them in the process.

“Just think of what each of these artists means for people yearning to express themselves,” she said. “That young artist living under a repressive regime, that budding painter who’s not quite sure where he or she fits in. Now, not all of these people will ever meet any of these artists, but they will learn about them and themselves, maybe even know something of their spirit, and tap into a deeper level of inspiration, because they will encounter their works.”

Article by by Joe Corcoran for the Washington Diplomat.
Image by Tony Powell.

Area Artist to Show and Tell of Senegal Journey at Hammerfriar

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Last month, Jenny Honnert Abell traveled to Dakar, Senegal, to experience the people and culture of that West African country.

Next weekend, Saturday Jan. 19, she's giving a talk about her experiences at Hammerfriar Gallery in Healdsburg, where her work is represented locally.

This opportunity to travel in Senegal came as part of a commission she was awarded by the Art in Embassies program run by the State Department, which celebrated its 50th year in 2012. The inspiration she found on that December 2012 journey will be reflected in 10 works she is creating to be installed permanently in the new U.S. Embassy building in Dakar, scheduled to open in March 2013.

The visual artist has been living and working in Santa Rosa for 18 years, and her work is widely shown throughout the United States. She is represented by galleries in Santa Fe, NM, Sun Valley, ID, Nashville, TN, San Francisco, as well as Hammerfriar.

Abel works with mixed media on both large panels and old book covers. A recent solo show this past summer at Hammerfriar included work from both styles, focusing on her recurring themes of an imaginary, eccentric natural world and human headed birds.

Jenny Abell's talk at Hammerfriar Gallery will be on January 19, from 6 - 7:30 pm. She will present photos and talk about her visit to the Embassy, markets, rug factory, and Goree Island, where the Portuguese settled in 1444, and slaves were traded in the 1780’s. Jenny will also present a few of the finished, unframed works that will become part of the installation in Dakar. Link to article

State Seal of Approval

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT

They say that art is the great international communicator no matter what language you speak. Art also is a symbol of free expression, and has represented the United States in its embassies and consulates around the world by putting our "best foot forward" in the spirit of creativity and cooperation among nations and showcasing some of America's most respected contemporary artists. On the night of November 30, 2012, some of the most recognizable names in the art world traveled to our nation's capital to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the U. S. Department of State's Art in Embassies program, which was held in the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The gala was sponsored by the State Department and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who despite having a full plate of international diplomatic obligations and related crises, still found time to attend and appreciate the swirling dances with performers decked out in costumes conceived by Nick Cave, as well as the iconic art designs and collaborations produced by David Stark. Secretary of State Clinton spoke:

For over half a century, Art in Embassies has been working to place American art in our embassies and consulates around the world. And today, there are more than 10,000 works hanging or standing or being exhibited in some way, depending upon the medium, in more than 200 overseas missions. That obviously could not happen without an enormous amount of support. And in fact, over the last fifty years, more than 20,000 individual and institutional partners have contributed to this effort. David Stark, Rhode Island School of Design whiz kid, sparked guests' imaginations with the integration of colorful artworks inspired by Art in Embassies' mission to promote the "intersection of people through visual arts." An homage to everyday artistic fundamentals and inspiration, the evening featured several art installations, including live musical and dance performances, along with mixed media presentations by the attending award winning artists. Designs by Stark featured a 20-foot tall pyramid created from 1.5 million Crayola crayons, which were donated by sponsors to art organizations for school children directly after the event, and a birthday "cake" formed from 300 cans of Benjamin Moore paint, measuring 16 feet in diameter and replete with giant candles.

Award recipients of the evening included 2012 Department of State Medal of Art honorees Jeff Koons, Jenny Holzer (who installed a massive wall text piece during the event), Jason Moran, Cai Guo-Qiang, Kiki Smith, Shahzia Sikander and Carrie Mae Weems; all were in attendance, along with numerous former recipients. Nancy Pelosi, House minority leader, and a host of congressmen graced the room, along with other diplomats, such as British Ambassador Sir Peter Westmacott with wife Lady Susan, Mexican Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan with wife Veronica Valencia-Sarukhan, and Congressman-elect John Delaney (D-Md.). Also in attendance were Art in Embassies contributors Beth Dozoretz, director, and Virginia Shore, chief curator, as well as MSNBC anchor Chris Matthews, host of NBC's Meet the Press David Gregory, and Howard Fineman, editorial director for the Huffington Post.

During the evening, the main event circled around the astounding collaboration that was showcased between Nick Cave and Washington's Duke Ellington School of the Arts Radical Elite Showband and the Kankouran West African Dance Company. This sight surely caught the attention of the approximately 500 guests, including Secretary Clinton, who observed the presentations from a private observation post while 10 Kankouran dancers performed in Mr. Cave's sound suits to the music of the Showband, which was comprised of nearly 50 instrumentalists ages 14 to 18.

The slideshow offers a peek into the exciting night that transpired in historic downtown Washington, where artists, designers, gallery curators, socialites, politicians, journalists, art lovers and embassy supporters all came together to celebrate the amazing achievement of placing great works of art in embassies throughout the world. Article by Bruce Helander. Image by Tony Powell.

View the source article at Huffington Post through this link.

Arts in Embassies program was great diplomatic tool, former Ambassador Tom Schieffer says

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Arts in Embassies program was great diplomatic tool, former Ambassador Tom Schieffer says -

WASHINGTON -- When Tom Schieffer was U.S. ambassador in Australia and then Japan, he found that a little-noticed program that placed American art in embassies was one of the best diplomatic investments he made.

Fifty years after the Kennedy administration started a small effort to place American art in embassies, the program was saluted by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton this month on its anniversary for fostering cultural diplomacy. She also awarded the department's first Medal of Arts to five artists.

"Every American Ambassador decides before going to post what the theme of their exhibition will be," Schieffer said in an e-mail to the Star-Telegram from Japan where he is visiting. The art is exhibited in public areas.

The Fort Worth native was nominated by his friend and former business partner at the Texas Rangers, President George W. Bush, to serve in Canberra from 2001 to 2005 and Tokyo from 2005 to 2008.

"In Australia my wife Susanne and I had a theme of American Presidents. We chose portraits of several who had changed America. Our favorite object though was a walking cane used by Sam Houston which was inscribed 'To Sam Houston, the hero of San Jacinto, who never sacrificed his principles for political expediency, from his friend Alexander Fraser.' Over almost eight years in Australia and Japan, we showed that inscription to five different Prime Ministers with pride and appreciation. When some said they didn't know that Houston had been an American President, we would laugh and say he was President of the Republic of Texas," Schieffer wrote.

In Tokyo the theme was American Dreams, with paintings and photographs of immigrants, civil rights activists, woman-suffragists, explorers, artists and musicians.

"The most popular exhibit, however, was one loaned to us by the baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown," he wrote. "It was a glove used by Lou Gehrig when he and Babe Ruth barnstormed Japan in 1934. It turned out that the glove had been given to him by Japanese players after his had been lost in the voyage over. The Japanese manufacturer Mizuno had made it but we didn't know that when we borrowed it. When we and the company announced that at a news conference it created a very positive sensation all over Japan."

At a 50th anniversary luncheon in the State Department's richly appointed Benjamin Franklin Room, Clinton said that the Arts in Embassies program was a personally important cause.

"I've spoken frequently about what different kinds of diplomacy we can use to advance our nation's values and interests," she told the more than 200 guests. "Sometimes that obviously means old-fashioned diplomacy. Fly to a capital; meet with presidents, prime ministers, foreign ministers, other officials.

"But art is also a tool of diplomacy," said Clinton. "It is one that reaches beyond governments, past all of the official conference rooms and the presidential palaces to connect with people all over the world."

The program now has more than 10,000 works hanging or exhibited in some way in more than 200 overseas outposts.

Maria Recio is the Star-Telegram's Washington bureau chief. To view the original article at the Star-Telegram, click on the following link.

Oil painting coming home to Utah from South African embassy

Sat, 29 Dec 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Oil painting coming home to Utah from South African embassy -
MAPLETON -- Steven Lee Adams will soon be receiving a large crate at his studio in Mapleton containing a painting he loaned to the U.S. ambassador to South Africa three years ago. His painting has been hanging in the embassy there as part of the Art in Embassies Program.

In an excerpt from a letter sent to Adams by Ambassador Donald Gips, he thanked the artist and wrote, "As I conclude my tenure as U.S. ambassador to South Africa, I want to thank you for the beautiful artwork you so generously lent to my wife, Liz, and I to display in our residence. Your piece, 'Winter Evening' was a gorgeous addition to our home and we have received countless compliments on it. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Art in Embassies program, an important tool for U.S. diplomacy. As Secretary Clinton said, art provides us 'with another language of diplomacy, one that evokes our universal aspirations as human beings, our common challenges and our responsibilities for thinking through and addressing the problems that we face together.' I am honored that we were able to showcase your work to the scores of South African, American and other international visitors we have hosted over the last three years."

President John F. Kennedy and his wife Jackie started the AIEP in 1964. The program places more than 5,000 works of art on loan in 170 U.S. embassies around the world.

"When Donald Gips and his wife came into my gallery I knew them well since they had been my customers for years," said Mary Williams, owner of Mary Williams Fine Arts in Boulder, Colo. "He had been appointed as ambassador to South Africa and was looking for art for the embassy. They are not allowed to hang their private collection in the public areas but must choose works from museums and professional art galleries."

Williams explained that Gips was familiar with Adams's work and was at the top of the list of artists he was hoping would be willing to participate.

"I happened to have this giant painting by Steven hanging in my gallery and they loved it. It's an honor to be chosen to participate in the Art in Embassies Program, and Steven agreed to loan 'Winter Evening -- Timpanogos,' " she said. "It does mean of course that I lost a sale of an A-plus painting, but Steven and I have an unusual artist and dealer relationship after 17 years together. It's not common for the artist and dealer to continue working together for so many years but it's been very rewarding watching my community in Boulder embrace him and love his art."

The ambassador chose other works of art, including photographs by Edward Curtis, but when the embassy catalogue was published Adams's painting was chosen for the cover.

Adams was surprised when he was contacted three years ago by representatives of AIEP. "The ambassador chose my painting because he wanted something that reflected the Rocky Mountains and the West," Adams said. "The paintings help the ambassadors feel at home while they are living abroad and expose international visitors to American art. "This particular painting was from a photo I took after I had finished skiing at Sundance. I was in the upper parking lot area and I saw this image at the end of the day and took out my camera that I carry everywhere for just that purpose. I'm an artist and I look for those images in nature."

The award-winning Utah artist began his painting career at a young age after being encouraged by his family, especially his grandmother, who recognized his talent when he was in fifth grade. His art teacher at Lakeridge Jr. High encouraged him and he took art classes at BYU, but he didn't paint full-time until he was 30 years old.

"I had married young and had four children to support," Adams said. "After my divorce at age 30, I decided I would try and be an artist full-time. My dad, a friend, and Repartee Gallery helped me to be able to paint for nine months and have a show, which launched my career. I try to tell young people it's not too late to do something. Being an artist can be terrifying. When you have a job you can do your work without a lot of people looking at you all the time, but when you are an artist it's like running out into the world naked. It takes courage to put yourself out there. It's worth it when you see people crying and telling you that your paintings touch them."

Another painting of Mt. Timpanogos by Adams is more familiar to Utah County residents and visitors. He was commissioned to create the paintings of Mt. Timpanogos and Bridal Veil Falls that hang in the entrance of the Utah County Health and Justice Building in Provo. He was surprised to be chosen.

"It was amazing and wonderful," he said. "I was actually shocked to be asked to do both. It took nine months to get them both done and it was a difficult time for me because my son Brooks had just died in an accident. It became a bittersweet experience."

For more information on Steven Lee Adams and to see his paintings, visit stevenleeadams.com. He is represented in Utah by Authentique Gallery in St. George, Edelweiss Gallery in Midway, and he will be in the Illume Gallery at City Creek when it opens in the spring. To view the article at its source, click on the following link:

Chris Flisher: Invading the world with art

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 00:00:00 GMT

BOXBOROUGH — An artist and astrologer, Chris Flisher is a close observer time, distance and space, as well as the celestial sky from which he draws inspiration when he creates his colorful spiritual drawings - called mandalas - in his Boxborough home studio.

Now Flisher’s artwork is on display half a world away, in Praia, Cape Verde, an archipelago nation spanning 10 islands off the coast of western Africa, a place that might seem as far and as different as the moon to many Americans.

Flisher’s art was recently selected by the U.S. State Department’s Art in Embassies program which showcases American art across the globe, installing it in U.S. embassies, consulates and annexes across the globe. Created in 1964 by President John F. Kennedy, the program’s aim is to help create cultural bridges between countries.

"I really stand behind their notion of diplomacy through art," Flisher said, "that instead of invading countries with weapons, we will invade countries with art."

Flisher’s mandalas are connected geometric forms, created using with pen, ink and watercolors. Based on Buddhist and Hindu traditions, mandalas use circles and repeating designs to represent the cyclical and dynamic qualities of the natural world. It’s a form of abstract art , Flisher said, that utilizes radial balance to encourage meditation and connectedness.

"When I was 18 or 19, I happened to see a whole wall of mandalas, and they really had an impact on me," Flisher said as he pointed to a wall covered with his work in his Boxborough studio. "I was familiar with the geometric forms because I had been studying architecture, so there was something that fascinated me about the way the lines and angles lined up in those mandalas."

Flisher noted that it is this sense of familiarity that draws people to his work. Even if viewers do not recognize Flisher’s pieces as mandalas, they identify with the elaborate patterns and rich colors.

"The mandala art form is largely unknown in the Western world, but has conveyed a spiritual connection with people for thousands of years," said Suzanne Schultz, owner of Canvas Fine Arts Gallery 601 in downtown Boston, where Flisher just wrapped up a month-long exhibition. Schultz said Flisher’s work was well received, and his powerful vision and message resonated with viewers.

Mandalas are traditionally created by monks for religious reasons, mainly to establish a sacred space and focus attention on devotional practice. Flisher’s work conveys these longstanding traditions but also adopts a more contemporary approach, with emphasis on reaching a wide audience. Pieces often depict a number of religious symbols, like the Hindu Om or the Jewish Star of David, and celestial themes of astrology.

To view the full article, click on the following link: Chris Flisher

Secretary Delivers Art in Embassies Address

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMT

The following are the remarks for the Art in Embassies 50th Anniversary Luncheon.

SECRETARY CLINTON: Thank you very, very much. I am absolutely delighted to see the Ben Franklin Room filled for this event, which is so important to us here at the State Department.

And I want to thank Beth for her tireless efforts and her unwavering commitment to expanding the role of art in American diplomacy. I am delighted that she’s had such an extraordinary time working to tell the story of what Art in Embassies means here at home and around the world. And I’m very grateful that she has served in this position on behalf of my tenure here at the State Department and our country. And of course, I want to thank Virginia Shore, who, as Beth said, has over the past 20 years made Art in Embassies an internationally recognized leader in cultural diplomacy. These two extraordinary leaders have really left their mark.

We have so many distinguished guests that I will give you a general thank you. Beth was able to recognize some of you who are here with us. I also notice a number of ambassadors from other countries who have joined us today. We are so fortunate to be here to honor five extraordinary artists who have given of themselves and their gifts to this program.

For over half a century, Art in Embassies has been working to place American art in our embassies and consulates around the world. And today, there are more than 10,000 works hanging or standing or being exhibited in some way, depending upon the medium, in more than 200 overseas missions. (Applause.) Yes, let’s give that a round of applause. That obviously could not happen without an enormous amount of support. And in fact, over the last 50 years, more than 20,000 individual and institutional partners have contributed to this effort.

One of the great characteristics of our country are our public-private partnerships. They are really at the core of how we do everything. De Tocqueville noticed that, but we’ve continued to perfect and increase our extraordinary partnerships between government and business, between civil society and academia. Our partnerships are really at the core of who we are and what we do. And this program could not exist without those partners. So on behalf of the Obama Administration, and especially everyone who works in our Diplomatic Corps around the world, we have been blessed by your generosity.

Let me just take a minute to explain why this is such an important cause for me personally and for our country. Starting when I was First Lady, working with Joe Carroll and others, I saw the importance of conveying who we were as Americans in as many different venues and using as many different approaches as we could muster. And I have seen the results from my extensive travels now for more than 20 years.

And during the past four years, being privileged to serve in this position, I’ve spoken frequently about what different kinds of diplomacy we can use to advance our nation’s values and interests. Sometimes that obviously means old-fashioned diplomacy, fly to a capital, meet with presidents, prime ministers, foreign ministers, other officials. Sometimes it’s using new technology to connect people, to give them a voice. Sometimes it’s doing a town hall with hundreds of young people to hear what’s on their minds. And we do all of that and more.

But art is also a tool of diplomacy. It is one that reaches beyond governments, past all of the official conference rooms and the presidential palaces, to connect with people all over the world. And that’s the art we are celebrating this afternoon, along with the luminous talents of our honorees and their contributions to the artistic landscape of our nation and to our diplomacy.

Each of them has delighted imaginations for decades. And they truly are living testaments to the timeless and unending human urge to create and connect. So they provide us with another language of diplomacy, one that evokes our universal aspirations as human beings, our common challenges, and our responsibilities for thinking through and addressing the problems that we face together.

From Beijing to Monrovia, even here in Washington, these five artists have contributed works of art that are the building blocks of this shared language. And that is why we are honoring them with this first-ever Department of State Medal of the Arts Award, for their contributions to the advancement of understanding and diplomacy.

Just think of what each of these artists means for people yearning to express themselves, that young artist living under a repressive regime, that budding painter who’s not quite sure where he or she fits in. Now, not all of these people will ever meet any of these artists, but they will learn about them and themselves, maybe even know something of their spirit and tap into a deeper level of inspiration, because they will encounter their works.

I feel it every time I walk into an American embassy or consulate in any part of the world. And I hear so many people who visit our missions comment on the art. And, of course, the Americans who live and work there are the most grateful of all.

So none of this would be possible without all of you, and I want to thank you. You help us connect and you help us be better understood and you help us explain who we are as Americans and what we stand for.

So we are delighted to be hosting this special celebration. And now I want Beth to come back to the podium and tell you more about each of these accomplished artists as we present the awards. Thank you. The following link will take you to the official remarks on state.gov.

Nick Cave Performing at Anniversary Celebration

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMT

‘Soundsuits’ sculptor Nick Cave performs at the U.S. State Department’s Art in Embassies 50th anniversary celebration

Sculpture reinvents itself as sound, as music and as a source of protection in the hands of Nick Cave.

The Chicago-based performance artist and sculptor constructs “Soundsuits,” material-heavy costumes that inspired a number of Corcoran College of Art + Design students to respond to his work through music and spoken word, performed at an artist-exchange workshop Wednesday evening at THEARC (1901 Mississippi Ave. SE.). Performing artist Nick Cave. (James Prinz Photography) The event was part of a week of events to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the U.S. State Department’s Art in Embassies (AIE) program, as featured by Mark Jenkins.Cave participated in an AIE cultural-exchange program earlier this year by making a bas-relief monument for the new embassy in Dakar, Senegal.

His main work, however, remains in his Soundsuits. In the past 20 years, Cave collected various found materials — such as twigs, beads, buttons and human and synthetic hair — to clothe his Soundsuits, which are akin to traditional African ceremonial masks. When Cave dons the suits, the sculptural pieces evolve into extensive audio performances , generating a distinctive symphony of sound when the materials reverberate and rustle against one another through his physical movements.

In 1992, Cave created his first suit — from twigs — in reaction to the LAPD’s arrest and beating of black motorist Rodney King, a case that would inflame the city and spark the riots.

Style Blog chatted with the artist as he ruminated on his creative process and student responses to his work:

Article by Winyan Soo Hoo - use the following link to see the full interview with Nick Cave about his soundsuits.

Art in Embassies Celebrates 50 Years

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMT

For 50 years, the State Department’s Office of Art in Embassies has selected and displayed American art, mostly behind locked doors in highly secure buildings. The pieces AIE purchases for embassies, and borrows for ambassadors’ residences, are usually seen only by official guests.

“It may not be something specifically that the American citizen can experience,” said Art in Embassies Director Beth Dozoretz. Yet “pretty much anyone from the State Department who goes to our embassies comes back to us and says the exhibitions on loan are a very, very important tool for outreach.”

This week, that outreach comes to Washington, with a series of events that allow the public a glimpse at what AIE does. Most conspicuously, from Wednesday to Friday the video screens outside Verizon Center will display 161 photographs from “Serving Abroad . . . Through Their Eyes,” an AIE-sponsored show of photographs made by active-duty military and Foreign Service personnel. More than 3,200 images were submitted for the exhibition, which will be shown at the Pentagon, the State Department and the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.

A performance on Wednesday will feature dancer and visual artist Nick Cave in collaboration with students at the Town Hall Education Arts Recreation Campus in Southeast Washington. The event is part of an open house at the cultural and community center and will feature participants from the Washington Ballet, the Levine School of Music and the Corcoran College of Art and Design.

Among the more than 20 artists participating in the AIE celebration, five will receive the State Department’s Medal of Arts from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton: Jeff Koons, Cai Guo-Qiang, Shahzia Sikander, Kiki Smith and Carrie Mae Weems. On Thursday, those artists will discuss their work with Museum of Modern Art Director Glenn Lowry at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. (It was MoMA that started the private predecessor to AIE in 1953; it became a government program a decade later.)

In addition to marking AIE’s 50th anniversary, the events illustrate the program’s evolving role and philosophy. As the United States builds a new generation of highly fortified embassies, AIE is making its contribution a little more public. Structures from Beijing to Bucharest have been designed with art visible from the street.

The office provides art, mostly contemporary, to about 200 buildings in 189 countries. It curates about 60 temporary exhibitions per year and since 2003 has installed 58 permanent collections in diplomatic facilities. The art is purchased with federal money, although some events — including those for the anniversary — draw on private funding.

Among AIE’s cultural exchange programs are lectures and demonstrations by American artists overseas. But the program also mixes American art with indigenous works and encourages U.S. artists to engage local cultures. To make a monumental piece for the new embassy in Dakar, Senegal, visual artist Cave traveled there.

“He and I went to Senegal in January and met with about a dozen Senegalese artists,” said Virginia Shore, AIE’s chief curator. “He’s going to incorporate the work of a handful of those artists in this big bas-relief we’ve commissioned him to do.”

At the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, which opened in 2008, AIE installed a giant Koons sculpture of tulips visible through an opening in the wall. “It’s sort of the iconic statement for this beautiful embassy,” Dozoretz said. “Because of the buzz that comes from people being able to walk by and see it, as well as [Koons’s] own reputation as an artist, when he went there to do an exchange program for us, over a thousand people showed up.”

Art that is visible from outside the embassy, Shore said, “has become a big focus. With every new project that we do, we are making sure to do some sort of an outdoor piece so that the general public can see the work.”

Not all embassy art can be public, though. AIE began the Washington portion of its 50th-birthday bash with an Oct. 25 appearance by artist Antony Gormley at the British Embassy, where he dedicated a sculpture that can’t be seen outside the security perimeter. “That’s a bit of a betrayal of my profound belief that art is for everyone,” Gormley said of the piece’s secluded place in the garden beneath the ambassador’s residence. “For most of mankind’s existence, art has been an expression of collective belief, collective aspiration. And made collectively.”

As shown by Cave’s Dakar bas-relief, as well as other recent projects, collective artmaking is part of AIE’s mission. However effective the office’s cultural exchange programs are, however, most of the art it furnishes to embassies is likely to remain behind blast-proof walls.

Jenkins is a freelance writer.

Serving Abroad . . . Through Their Eyes

Wednesday-Friday on the video screens outside Verizon Center, 601 F St. NW.

Nick Cave performance

Wednesday, 5:30-7:30 p.m., Town Hall Education Arts Recreation Campus, 1901 Mississippi Ave. SE.

For information, visit art.state.gov/Anniversary.aspx.

To view the original article, click on the following link:

U.S. Department of State's Office of Art in Embassies and U.S. Department of Defense Announce "Serving Abroad.Through Their Eyes" Twelve "Best in Show" Awardees

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Serving Abroad...Through Their Eyes Best in Show Announced -
In commemoration of Veterans Day, the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Art in Embassies (AIE) and the U.S. Department of Defense proudly announce the 12 “Best in Show” featured in AIE’s 50th anniversary “Serving Abroad…Through Their Eyes” photography exhibition. A year ago on Veterans Day, Military, Civil Service and Foreign Service personnel were invited to submit photographs illustrating their life while serving abroad. More than 3,200 images were submitted, from which 161 finalists were chosen; ultimately, the 12 “Best in Show” were identified. These photographs, selected by a panel of distinguished photo-journalists, depict themes of friendship, places, faces, loss or triumph, providing a window on the complexity, diversity and courageous work performed by America’s heroes throughout the world.

The “Best in Show” images were juried by a panel that included two former Secretaries of State: Madeline Albright and Colin Powell; three former Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs: General Richard Myers, General Peter Pace, and Admiral Mike Mullen; and NBC News’ David Gregory.

The “Best in Show” photographers are listed below:

Benjamin Altenes of Utah, a Diplomatic Security Officer with the Department of State
Harold Bonacquist of Virginia, a Desk Officer with the Department of State
U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Francisco V. Govea II of March Air Force Base, Calif.
Jonathan Paul Howard of Virginia, a Deputy Press Attaché with the Department of State
Alda Kauffeld of Virginia, a DOC Specialist with USAID, currently stationed in Accra, Ghana
U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Russell Lee Klika of the Tennessee National Guard
U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Chad D. Nelson of the Iowa National Guard
U.S. Army Captain John Rutledge of Fort Drum, N.Y.
Former U.S. Army Sgt. Monica K. Smith of Kentucky
U.S. Air Force Technical Sgt. Joshua Strang of Fort Meade, Md.
U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Alvin Williams Jr. of Virginia, stationed in the United States
U. S. Air Force Master Sgt. Cohen A. Young, of Shaw Air Force Base, S.C.

The images will be displayed on Verizon Center’s 7th Street video marquee November 28-30 from 5:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. Lincoln Schatz, celebrated video artist, created a video artwork incorporating the “Serving Abroad…Through Their Eyes” images that will be on display at the U.S. Department of State on November 30, and ultimately installed as a part of the new U.S. Embassy’s permanent art collection in Kabul, Afghanistan.

For further information, please visit art.state.gov, or contact Dabney Kerr at KerrD@state.gov, (703) 875-4209, or Abigail Gardner at Agardner@skdknick.com, (202) 464-6603.

PRN: 2012/1754

To view the PDF version of the Press Release, visit the Related Section of the Best in Show Gallery.

The U.S. Department of State Commemorates Art in Embassies 50th Anniversary

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMT

The U.S. Department of State Commemorates Art in Embassies 50th Anniversary - The Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations’ Office of Art in Embassies (AIE) proudly celebrates 50 years of facilitating the Department of State’s public diplomacy through the power of the visual arts.

The AIE 50th anniversary features programming, events, and performances, including celebrations on November 30th, when U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will honor five artists -- Jeff Koons, Cai Guo-Qiang, Shahzia Sikander, Kiki Smith, and Carrie Mae Weems -- with the first U.S. Department of State - Medal of Arts for their outstanding commitment to the AIE program and international cultural exchange. The evening’s finale, hosted by the Department, will be an invitation-only event at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

A landmark partnership between the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Defense resulted in a photographic exhibit entitled Serving Abroad...Through Their Eyes. This exhibit features photographs taken by active military, Foreign Service, and Civil Service personnel while serving abroad. Those images will be displayed at the Pentagon, the Verizon Center, and the Department of State in November.

On November 28th, AIE’s Artist Exchange, with performance artist Nick Cave, engages students at THEARC’s community open house in southeast D.C. from 5:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m., highlighting THEARC’s partnerships with the Corcoran School of Art, the Levine School of Music, The Washington Ballet, and THEARC Theater.

On November 29th, Dr. Glenn Lowry, director of the Museum of Modern Art of New York, will moderate a discussion with AIE’s 50th anniversary artist honorees, presented by AIE, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the Aspen Institute, and the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center.

About Art in Embassies

For five decades, the AIE program has played a leading role in U.S. public diplomacy by promoting cross-cultural dialogue and understanding through the visual arts, and by sponsoring dynamic artist exchanges. The Museum of Modern Art of New York first envisioned this global visual arts program in 1953, and President John F. Kennedy formalized it at the U.S. Department of State in 1963. Today, AIE is a public-private partnership that engages 20,000 participants (artists, museums, galleries, universities and private collectors) in over 200 venues located in 189 countries. Professional curators and registrars create and ship approximately 60 loan exhibitions per year to our embassies and consulates. In addition, since 2003, over 58 permanent collections have been installed in the Department’s diplomatic facilities throughout the world.

For further information, please visit art.state.gov, or contact Dabney Kerr at KerrD@state.gov (703) 875-4209, or Abigail Gardner at Agardner@skdknick.com (202) 464-6603.

To view the official press release, click this link.

High Volume - Nick Cave

Tue, 09 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT

High Volume: Nick Cave
Nick Cave is into fabulous. Take the black marks that scar the floor of his 3,500-square-foot loft in Chicago. “Fabulous,” he says. Or the haunting portrait by the English artist John Kirby that Cave found at an art fair. “Isn’t it fabulous?” So is the porcupine-needle vestment from Cameroon that serves as a dividing screen in Cave’s living room, and the framed quilt backed with love letters in his bedroom, where artworks hung on a yellow wall create so much visual excitement it’s hard to imagine getting any rest.

Definitely high on the fabulosity meter are Cave’s celebrated “Soundsuits,” dazzling (and slightly sinister) armor for body and spirit. Made by hand in the former tire factory where he works and lives, in the Motor Row district of the city’s Near South Side, they are extravagant amalgams of beads, buttons, sequins, sweaters, socks, hooked rugs, fake flowers and knickknacks that together speak the language of both sculpture and fashion.

The first one he made was in 1992, in the aftermath of the Rodney King beating in Los Angeles. Out of a profound distress, he created a sculpture of twigs that covered his face and body, masking his race, age and gender when he put it on. When he moved, it made a sound. That was his aha moment. The subsequent suits — made of raffia, feathers or human hair dyed in colors hot enough to make a Mardi Gras Indian burn with envy — were sometimes wearable, turning the body into a whooshing, clanking or crackling noisemaker. Yet what Cave, 53, wants most for his home is the sound of silence. “When you get quiet,” the artist says, “it’s amazing how much work you can do — on yourself.” His sanctum is a triple-height space with two bedrooms, a professionally equipped kitchen and a living area where three distinct seating arrangements suggest the private club car of a train. That allows just enough room to accommodate the paintings, vintage furniture and objects he collects with nearly the same devotion he has toward his own art. “I’ve made decisions to surround myself with what I believe to be my destiny,” he says. “It’s important for me to wake up to the thing I do.” Coming from a more immodest person, that might sound like pure Midwestern corn pone. But the natty Cave, a professor in the fashion department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, is as diligent as his work is flamboyant. Cave is up at 6 every morning for a run along the shore of Lake Michigan and in the studio, two floors below, by 8 a.m. He often works till midnight and has up to 10 full-time assistants to help him meet a bruising exhibition schedule. This month alone he will present 50 sculptures and eight short films in France, at Lille 3000, an international arts festival that opened this week. On Nov. 30, he’ll be in Washington, D.C., to stage a performance for the 50th anniversary of the State Department’s Art in Embassies program. Following that, he’ll be back in the studio to prepare a whole new body of work for a solo show at the Denver Art Museum next summer.

When he does take a break, it’s to cook for himself and, occasionally, a few friends who gather at a table long enough to seat 16. “No parties,” he says. “I’m very shy. An opening is probably my biggest nightmare.” The loft provides an escape. “I can come up here and just settle down. That’s probably the most important thing about it.”

At the front door, it’s immediately obvious that art is Cave’s comfort and his pleasure. The sky-lighted entrance hall is a gallery for works by other African-American artists whom Cave admires — Barkley L. Hendricks, Kehinde Wiley, Zwelethu Mthethwa and Hank Willis Thomas, among them. It leads into the living space, past a guest room and a large office that is another salon. The wall over a worktable stacked with fashion magazines and art books is blanketed by naïve still-life and portrait paintings that came mostly from the Art Student Showcase gallery in New York. Whenever he goes to galleries and art fairs now, he says, “I pray that I’ll find nothing I like.”

Evidently, that prayer has gone unanswered. An eclectic group of contemporary artworks lines the walls of the dining area. Even the center island in the kitchen is partly a pedestal for one of his own assemblages, a wiry spray of porcelain birds and plastic flowers gathered, like all of his art materials and much of his interior décor, from flea markets, secondhand shops or eBay. And he’s an expert shopper. “Love it,” he says, under his breath.

He’s also a historian of his own career. Cave holds on to one piece from his art’s every shift in direction: constructed, abstract paintings in the living room; rough planks hammered with metal scraps in the hall; a vintage blackface lawn jockey beside his bed. Instead of a lantern, the figure holds a branch of battered floral sconces. “He was in a subservient position with the lantern. Now this is an offering. This is no longer a stigma for me anymore,” Cave says. “I’m glad I’m a black man.”

Cave grew up in Fulton, Mo., in a family of seven boys. “All fabulous,” he says. At the Kansas City Art Institute, his studies included a semester of dance training with an Alvin Ailey company member. It now informs his mesmerizing performance videos. In 1990, after earning a master’s degree at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, he began teaching in Chicago.

That’s where he met Jeffery Roberts, the architectural designer who designed the loft. Cave and Roberts were partners in Robave, a popular lifestyle shop that they operated throughout the 1990s, making clothes and restoring furniture for the store’s evolving environments, an experience that clearly influenced the style and contents of the loft.

The living space is where Roberts’s industrial aesthetic meets Cave’s desire for “balance, harmony, relevancy, contentment.” African figures and benches from Jula Dukuray, a dealer friend in New York, are set amid paintings, 19th- and 20th-century American chests, leather armchairs from Crate & Barrel and historical artifacts — a sobering ball and chain, a comic cigarette lighter, a pincushion and thermometer set made from deer hooves — placed on a stack of industrial wood pallets. “I’m interested in that sort of assemblage,” says Cave. For him the mix is a testament to his creativity and the “sense of internal peace within my spirit.”

A version of this article appeared in print on 10/07/2012, on page M284 of the NewYork edition with the headline: High Volume. - photograph of Nick Cave in his Chicago loft by Jason Schmidt. To view the full article at the source, click on this link.

Fort Collins Artist Gets State Department Commission

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Sleeping with Anemones - Fused glass triptych "Sleeping with Anemones" by Fort Collins artist Mary Barron is her whimsical depiction of life on the sea floor. It was selected by the U.S. Department of State as the basis of a new work to include cichlids, a type of fish found in Lake Tanganyika, on the shores of Burundi, to be placed in the U.S. Embassy there. Fused glass artist Mary Barron has been commissioned by the U.S. Department of State to create a mural for its Embassy in Burundi.

"I'm thrilled to create a work of art for staff and visitors to enjoy in this east African country," Ms. Barron said. "The region has long held great interest to me, and at their request, my fused glass triptych will include references to colorful cichlids, a species of fish native to Lake Tanganyika, on the shores of Burundi."

Ms. Barron's artwork was twice previously selected for the State Department's ART in Embassies program, which placed her work temporarily in Malawi and Paraguay, but this is her first commission for permanent collection.

A 1976 BFA graduate of CSU, Ms. Barron now works primarily with fused glass, creating works of art, large custom installations and practical products such as glass tiles, murals and lighting through her company Adagio Art Glass.

By Rick Barron September 24, 2012 - To see the full article, click on this link.

Emirati Artists Encouraged by Exhibition

Tue, 04 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Abu Dhabi: A dynamic group of emerging Emirati artists, alongside American counterparts, have been featured in an exhibition of contemporary art in the Emirates at US ambassador Michael Corbin’s residence.

Nine leading Emirati and American artists, who either live in or have strong creative ties to the UAE, displayed their work at the exhibition, entitled ‘Beyond the Frame’. The work on show explored the notion of moving beyond the ways that art, aesthetics, history and culture have been traditionally framed.

“I love art and I believe it is a great form of communication that helps in building bridges between people and invites them in exchanging their ideas through visual arts,” Corbin told Gulf News.

“Art completes my mission as an ambassador and it is one of my essential job responsibilities. US embassies around the world cultivate and maintain partnerships with thousands of artists, museums and galleries, which provide diverse exhibitions to boost diplomatic ties between countries and highlight their cultures.”

The exhibition was conceived and realised by the curator and critic Isabella Ellaheh Hughes, who specialises in contemporary art and consults on curatorial, artistic and cultural projects in both the commercial and non-profit art world.

“The new audience is what has mainly attracted me towards projecting my art work at the US ambassador residence,” said Noor Al Suwaidi, one of the Emirati artists, who has also exhibited at the Fine Art Gallery in Dubai.

“I have created diptych drawings especially for this exhibit. Since age nine, I have dedicated myself to a creative career with the support of my family and friends.”
The 30-year-old has defined her work as “an amalgamation of bold, conspicuous chromatic movements, guided into shapes and left to meet at moments where our imaginations make and shake figures into focus.”

In contrast to Al Suwaidi, Alanood Abdul Rahman Al Hammadi, a 25-year-old Emirati and a recent graduate of Zayed University, is participating for the first time in an art exhibition at the capital.

“I used my pencil and paper to create the Jadayel (braids created into symbols and shapes from all over the world and a variety of cultures) as there are several shaped cultural misconceptions about the reality of Islam in the world,” said. “My father has discovered my talent recently and he motivated me to continue participating in art galleries and exhibitions to expand my skills and learn from other leading artists worldwide.”

The exhibition ended on Saturday after running since last November. To read the full story at the original source, please click on the following link to gulfnews.com

Image Credit: Ahmed Kutty/Gulf News Caption: Alanood Abdul Rahman Al Hammadi introduces her work at ‘Beyond the Frame, an exhibition on contemporary art in the UAE, at the residence of the American Ambassador to the UAE.

Where the Wild Things Are

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Where the Wild Things Are - Batman might have a hard time recognizing the kaleidoscopic suit that he inspired artist Nick Cave to make; for one thing, there are spinning globes instead of a cape. "When Batman hits someone, there are all these words and images that explode," explains Cave, 53, whose lair is in Chicago, not Gotham. "It's the space around my head, radiating ideas and thoughts and floating in space." It's a fair analogy for the quixotically creative Cave, who finds inspiration in everything from rocket missiles to tree roots and scours flea markets for the buttons, stuffed animals, and crocheted pot holders he uses to make the wearable sculptures he's dubbed Soundsuits. "You have to be willing to surrender to this otherness," he says of the experience of wearing one. "Gender, class, race become irrelevant, and you're forced to view the world without judgment." Not to mention that they're heavy. "It's really very exhausting," Cave, an Alvin Ailey—trained dancer, says with a laugh. It's good prep for next month, when he will bring 40 new pieces (including those pictured here) to the Fantastic 2012 art extravaganza in Lille, France. Next up is a dance performance in Chicago, for which Cave is making what he calls "witch-doctor suits." He's also toying with leaping to the runway. "Fashion's got everything covered, but there's still room for amazing pieces." Read more: Nick Cave Fashion Editorial – Nick Cave Soundsuits Fashion Shoot - Harper's BAZAAR

To view Nick Cave's art in an Art in Embassies exhibition, check out the work in Port-au-Prince

Image credit goes to Harper's Bazaar, photographer Max Farago

Ambassador Krol hosts AIE reception

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Art is a language that requires no translation. On June 15, Ambassador Krol hosted a reception at the Ambassadorial Residence to showcase American artwork displayed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of State’s ART in Embassies program. This program gives American ambassadors the opportunity to select works contributed by American artists, illustrating a theme of each ambassador’s choosing.

For their collection, Ambassador Krol and his wife Melissa Welch chose eight paintings based around the theme of the ocean, particularly as portrayed in their respective home states of New Jersey and Rhode Island. “America’s landscape is diverse, but human settlement began along its vast and varied coasts where millions of Americans continue to make their living, raise their families, and enjoy life. Serving here in Uzbekistan – one of the world’s only two doubly landlocked countries – gives us the opportunity to share a sense of the ocean’s timeless peace and restless energy with our guests here at the residence,” the Ambassador writes in the catalog’s introduction.

Rounding out the collection is one piece of Native American Navajo fabric art similar to fabric art found in Uzbekistan. According to Ambassador Krol, “the patterns and colors reflect a unity of artistic vision across distant lands and diverse cultures, evoking a sense that we are all one people on this planet.”

More than 30 artists practicing diverse forms of the visual arts attended the reception. Each guest received a catalog, published in English, Russian and Uzbek, highlighting the artists and their work. Their reactions to the collection were enthusiastic, and favorites included the fabric art, known as Two Grey Hills, by Barbara Teller Ornelas, and Dune Walk in New Jersey, by Ken Ahlering. Rano Kist, a renowned batik painter and illustrator, remarked on the beauty of the collection and the celebratory nature of the evening, bringing together so many well-known and established artists together to inaugurate the Ambassador’s collection in Tashkent.

The Ambassador’s collection arrived in Tashkent in early 2012 and will be on view for the remainder of his assignment in Uzbekistan. To view the article at its source, click on this link.

Painting that could cure diseases

Sat, 19 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Painting that could cure diseases - At 6.15pm on a drizzly Monday, dozens of people are queuing in front of Tate Modern in London. Above, the rainclouds are swelling to a brooding, luminous pewter not dissimilar from the shade used by Brice Marden for his early monochrome paintings. Exhibited in mid-1960s New York, they set Marden on the road to becoming, in the words of New Yorker critic Peter Schjeldahl in 2006 “the most profound abstract painter of the past four decades”. Certainly, he is an artist for whom you willingly wait in the rain. He is at Tate to launch the American Artist Lecture Series, a three-year cycle of talks organised by Tate and the US Art in Embassies programme, which borrows artworks to adorn those buildings. Hosting a crowd that ranges from art students to the US ambassador, Louis Susman, and his wife Marjorie, a collector of Marden’s work, the packed auditorium is a snapshot of the art world at its most eclectic. To view the full article, follow this link.

You may also visit the American Artist Lecture series to see the PDF of the article and learn more about the project.

AIE and TATE Artist Lecture Series

Wed, 09 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT

American Artist Lecture Series Inauguration - The Department of State’s Office of Art in Embassies (AIE) is pleased to announce the AIE American Artist Lecture Series at the Tate Modern-London, in a unique collaboration with Embassy London. In celebration of AIE’s 50^th anniversary, the three-year-long program will feature six noted American artists.

Brice Marden, internationally recognized minimalist painter, will inaugurate the lecture series on May 14, 2012. Marden received his MFA from the Yale School of Art and Architecture in 1963. He has been the subject of numerous one-man shows and retrospectives at such venues as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Marden is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a longtime contributor to AIE.

The Tate Modern, with 45 million visitors since it was established in 2000 as part of the Tate Britain, is a catalyst for the transformation of public attitudes toward the visual arts in the U.K.

The AIE program was established by the Museum of Modern Art in 1953, and formalized as part of the Department of State by the Kennedy Administration in 1963. It is one of the United States’ premier public-private partnership arts organizations, with over 20,000 individual and institutional participants, and a presence in some 200 venues in 189 countries worldwide. AIE furthers U.S. diplomacy through the power of the visual arts by expansive, international cultural exchange initiatives.

For more information about Art in Embassies, please contact Dabney Kerr at KerrD@state.gov or (703) 875-4209, or visit http://art.state.gov. For more information about the participation of U.S. Embassy London in this program and other arts programs, contact spokesperson Lynne Platt at plattlg@state.gov or +44-20-7894-0672.

AIE announces new collaboration

Wed, 02 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Brice Marden’s early work brought together the painterly quality of abstract expressionism with the intellectual rigours of minimalism, achieving a striking balance between emotional intensity and formal simplicity. Marden talks about his work as an artist and the importance of touch, surface, colour and tone.

The American Artist Lecture Series is a partnership between Art In Embassies, Tate Modern and US Embassy London. It seeks to bring the greatest living modern and contemporary American artists to the UK in the name of cultural diplomacy. To purchase tickets for this event, click on this link.

Sharing art and friendship in Jamaica

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT

If there's a better art and goodwill ambassador from Fredericksburg than Johnny Johnson, it's news to me. That's why I was interested to learn that the longtime artist, educator and force for good in the community recently had a special reception and display of his work in Kingston, Jamaica. The art exhibition of some two dozen of his pieces, "Celebrating the Ties That Bind: 50 Years of Friendship," was done at the behest of the U.S. embassy on that island country. Over the better part of a week in January, Johnson talked about his paintings with visitors and students at the Mutual Gallery in Kingston. He did interviews with Jamaican newspapers and radio and television stations on his work and his approach to art and social commentary.

He traveled to a school of visual arts at Edna Manley College there to talk about art education, and delighted those who crowded into his successful exhibition by talking about the pieces on display. Johnson said he enjoyed the interaction and got a great kick out of one response to his work: that he must have been a Jamaican in an earlier life to display such bright and lively colors. "I don't know about that earlier life thing, but I was gratified by the response to the exhibition," Johnson said.

He noted that two things led to the exhibition of paintings that displayed everything from his love of jazz to the struggles of homelessness and social equality. The first was his participation through the years in a program in which artists loan paintings to U.S. embassies around the world. The second was his ties to former Fredericksburg resident Pamela Bridgewater, U.S. ambassador to Jamaica, who hosted Johnson and his wife, Jean, and artist/exhibit curator Kathleen Walsh at the embassy. "Pam was a student of mine at James Monroe High School," Johnson said recently from his studio on Charles Street. "I used to watch her get on the school bus right here when she was a youngster."

Johnson's art career is no secret to those in this area, having started not long after the college basketball star moved here from North Carolina to teach in 1959. To read the second part of the article, please click on the following link

Sharon Cosgrove heading to Astana

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Though Wilkes University associate professor of art Sharon Cosgrove speaks neither Kazakh nor Russian, the two primary languages of Kazakhstan, she said that when she travels there at the end of the month, she doesn’t expect the language barrier to be much of a problem.

As part of the U.S. Department of State’s ART in Embassies program, Cosgrove’s trip will take her to areas with strong English-speaking populations and she will also be accompanied by a translator fluent in both Kazakh and Russian. However, Cosgrove explained, there is something even greater that allows her to communicate on a deeper level with the people of Kazakhstan.

“Even though I don’t speak the language, we have the visual language of art,” Cosgrove said. “Colors, lines, shapes, styles. It transcends politics or climate and things like that.”

From March 26 to March 31, Cosgrove will spend time in Kazakhstan visiting schools and cultural institutions in the Kazakhstani cities of Astana, Kostanay and Almaty. There, she will act as a cultural ambassador, meeting and greeting Kazakhstani citizens and officials and also offering lectures and classes to Kazakhstani art students. Four of Cosgrove’s paintings are also on display at the U.S. Ambassador Kenneth Fairfax’s residence in Astana.

Started in 1963, the Art in Embassies Program will soon celebrate its 50th anniversary. In all those years, Cosgrove points out, the program has allowed the United States to share thousands of works of art with its international neighbors, so much so that art historian Henry Geldzahler notably referred to the program as a ”footprint that can be left where people have no opportunity to see American art.”

Arguably more important, though, is the way the program allows for mutually beneficial cultural exchange, as the artists who participate interact with peoples of various foreign cultures. “This is a great international program that represents American artists worldwide,” Cosgrove said. “It’s like being called to duty to represent America. Why wouldn’t I want to be involved?”

Of the many items on Cosgrove’s overseas agenda, one key element will be her visits to Astana, Kostanay and Almaty’s “American Corners.” American Corners are, in Cosgrove’s words, “special places where they have movies, games, speakers, all in English.” According to the website for the U.S. Embassy in Kazakhstan, access to the American Corners is free and open to anyone. Their extensive offerings of activities and English teaching materials are intended to help interested Kazakhstani citizens learns English in more organic, engaging manner than a single simple academic course could offer.

“That’s part of it,” Cosgrove noted, discussing the purpose of the ART in Embassies program, “to help them prepare for classes in America.” Cosgrove’s visits to the American Corners, she said, will be “very informal compared to classes and the presentations I will be doing. Those will be big, long productions. It’s very friendly, just us sitting down and talking.” Furthermore, Cosgrove points out that, whereas her classes will be geared specifically toward art students, her American Corner visits will allow her to interact with “children, adults, people of all ages and walks of life.”

“My role as a cultural ambassador is something I’m very excited about,” Cosgrove said. “I wish I could leave tomorrow. I’m ready to go.” Experiencing other cultures is nothing new to Cosgrove. She has also spent time in Italy, where she was a visiting artist at both The International School of Art in Umbria and The American Academy in Rome, and taught students at Santa Reparata International School of Art in Florence. In 1999, she was the recipient of the Medici Award from the International Biennale Exhibition of Contemporary Art in Florence.

“Every time I travel to a place other than home it’s an opportunity to see the world from a different perspective and gain insight from different point of view,” Cosgrove said. “I think that what happens, as an artist, is it doesn’t always take effect immediately. I tend to be very reflective. It takes a while to put things into place. Sometimes it takes months of years for whatever it was that transformed you to settle in. For an artist putting that into their work can have a very profound and long-term effect.” To view the story at its source on wilkesbeacon.com, click on this link.

Sharing the Artful Impulse

Sat, 03 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Stonington - Inside the La Grua Center Friday afternoon, art became a truly cooperative process.

Five individuals worked together in silence on a single, enormous canvas. One woman dabbed orange onto her brush. Another slid a line of yellow onto the work. Once the participants added something, they tended to step back and appraise where the overall piece was going, while another artist stepped up for his or her turn.

The notion was that the final result would look as if it were created by a single artist.

This is Tunisian collaborative painting, a process that Stonington artist David Black brought to America and introduced to a new group at Friday's session.

Black - a former Broadway producer who turned to painting - first saw this particular collaborative art form in Tunisia in 2008. He was invited there when the U.S. ambassador to that country chose Black's paintings of Stonington for his home. This happened when Black's work became part of ART in Embassies, a U.S. State Department program that loans art to U.S. diplomatic residences.

While in Tunisia, Black met journalist and artist Hechmi Ghachem. He introduced Black to this collaborative process. Part of the purpose of the art then was to bring together artists during the repressive rule of Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. (Ben Ali was ousted after the Arab Spring uprisings that began in Tunisia in December 2010.)

"Tunisian collaborative painting is really a new art form," Black said. "I wanted to find out immediately when I came back, does anyone do this?"

He was invited to Converse College in South Carolina, where 26 art professors told him that no other collaborative painting system like this exists - the biggest difference being that in other collaborative systems, artists have a subject matter in advance.

"At the very least, it's an incredible learning experience," Black said. "All the constraints you have as a human being - like, will somebody laugh at me, am I going to make money with this, will I make a mistake - they're all gone. Because you cannot make a mistake in Tunisian collaborative painting as an artist because no one artist is held responsible for the painting.

"You're not going to get what you want, either, because there are other people. So what happens is, you pay attention to something most of us never do, which is that which comes unbidden, which is the essence of creativity. ... It's an extremely exciting and rewarding experience, and you don't have be an artist to experience it, either."

Black staged his first Tunisian collaborative painting session at Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts in Old Lyme two years ago. Black's work since then has included workshops at the Art Students League in New York City, where more than 125 artists from 30 countries participated over a five-day period.

"Every single time, it ends up looking like the work of a single artist. I just never understood it," Black said. "When you tell people the rules, and they hear me say anybody can paint over anybody else's work, they say, 'Uh-oh.'"

But, he notes, artists paint over their own work every day. Tunisian collaborative painting takes what artists do separately and applies it to a group.

However, for America, Black has changed a couple of the rules. One is how it's determined when a painting is finished. Originally, the person who started it decides. Here, any artist who believes the work is complete raises his hand; the participants take a vote, and the majority rules.

At one point at the La Grua Center, a woman raised her hand to indicate she thought the painting was done - and another women in her group smiled at her kindly but shook her head no.

The other change Black made is insisting on absolute silence.

"You need to take away the conversation, the temptation to say, 'Oh, a little more yellow here,'" he said.

As for the final products from the Stonington sessions, three were vibrant, abstract creations, with a few small representational images woven in - a white bird here, a heart there. A fourth piece focused heavily on words - "Help is on the way" inscribed on one side of the paper, a windmill bedecked with words like peace, joy and love appearing on the other.

These were created by 10 people who were divided into two groups, and who then were reassembled into different teams for a second painting.

One of the participants, Teri Banas of Mystic, said afterward that it was interesting to see how cohesive things became."It got to a point where the design elements actually worked together," she said. "It had to sort of emerge, because you start off not knowing where it's going to go."

On Black's schedule for other 2012 Tunisian collaborative painting sessions are those at the American Islamic Congress Center in Boston, The Sorbonne in Paris, Yale University in New Haven, and, more locally, St. Michael's School in Pawcatuck and the Lyman Allyn Art Museum in New London.

To view the article at its source, please click on the following link: http://www.theday.com/article/20120303/NWS01/303039885/-1/NWS

Image credit: Tim Cook - The Day

Graham Caldwell video clip

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

To see the full video, visit the Video section in News

RI School of Design creates US embassy art

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Students at the Rhode Island School of Design are getting a crash course in international diplomacy as they work with a professional sculptor on artwork for a new U.S. Embassy in Morocco. The collaboration with the U.S. State Department's ART in Embassies program is a first for the premiere arts school in Providence. It's given nine hand-picked students the chance to put their talents to use for Uncle Sam. "On the one hand it's a little scary, because it does put pressure on you," said Bayne Peterson, a 27 year-old graduate student from Boston. "But I'm looking at it as a real opportunity to do something special." Miami artist Jim Drain is leading the class. He plans to incorporate the students' ideas in a large sculpture for a new embassy building in Rabat, Morocco. Construction is slated to end by 2015. The new Embassy will replace an outdated facility in the North African nation. To read the full article, click on the follow link.

US Embassy brings fabric artist to Thrapong

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

One of Botswana’s finest art galleries, Thapong Visual Art Medium this week welcomed Victoria ‘Tori’ Greising, an American artist who will be working with local artists and residents in creating a three -dimensional fabric sculpture. This is part of the Art in Embassies Programme which the American government has been running since 1963 although this is the first time for the US to send an artist to Botswana.

The workshop started on Wednesday and finishes today (Friday). During the workshop Greising will be designing one of her unusual art pieces using different fabrics donated by some artists and members of the community. “By them providing the material, they become part of the art and the art becomes a physical representation of the community". With her artistry background, and a masters degree in painting, she uses the skills to combine the right colours to come up with a fresh angle to the installation art. “This art of fabric or installation art comes from original art. It is rooted in traditional art values which bring the community together,’’ she said.

One of Greising local highlights is that she has been asked to make one of her art pieces for the US Ambassador to Botswana, Michelle Gavin. And with installation art receiving positive response in the USA, the local artists are also eager to learn some new skills in order to develop their own artwork. Thapong Visual Arts Coordinator, Reginald Bakwena said they were looking forward to gaining a lot of skills from Greising. “Her work is more contemporary and it will encourage artists in Botswana to do the same. As an artist you have to look at what’s outside the market as there are some people who appreciate contemporary art. These workshops also help artists from different countries to build relationships with each other,’’ Bakwena said. One of Greising’ aims is to maintain studio practise and to inspire local artists to experiment with new and innovative types of art. “Anything can be art and art should not be limited to certain material. Manipulation and transformation cannot be only a picture on the wall but being able to interact with it.” To view the article in its original form, click here.

US Ambassador hosts art exhibition

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

RIYADH: US Ambassador to Riyadh James B. Smith and his wife Dr. Janet Breslin-Smith hosted on Sunday night at their Riyadh residence the “ART in Embassies” exhibition dubbed “Connecting Families,” which was attended by media and both Saudi and American artists. The US ambassador’s residence is named after the USS Quincy, the battleship on which President Franklin D. Roosevelt met with King Abdulaziz more than 60 years ago and established strong bonds of friendship between the two nations.The highlights of the art exhibition, among others, include the work of Saudi youth artists.

The paintings of Dalal Al-Otibi, who teaches contemporary arts at Princess Nourah University, riveted visitors. “I really did not expect that my work would be selected by the US Embassy and be on display at the residence of the American Ambassador,” Dalal told Arab News.“I am so excited and happy to see my work being given that prominence. This will encourage me and Saudi youth to do more works of art,” Al-Otibi said.

These exhibits include “The Door of the Kaaba” by Soha Alzaid, among others. Also on view is the work of Wolf Kahn.Speaking on the sidelines of the exhibition, the ambassador told Arab News: “We’ve come to understand the importance of family to the people of Saudi Arabia. Family is equally important to Americans, and the quilt, passed down from generation to generation, is a symbol of family in our culture.”

He added that he took his inspiration from US President Barack Obama, when he said: “There are many more things that bind us rather than separate us.”He said this show would help in creating a family bonding atmosphere and make things easier for those people who could not travel to the US to see these pieces. “We want to share this experience with others. Janet and I are proud to continue to celebrate these longstanding and warm ties by displaying in our home fine pieces of art that represent a part of the rich cultural heritage of the United States,” the ambassador said. To view the full story on Arab News, click this link.

RISD and AIE partner with Jim Drain

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Rhode Island School of Design Partners with the U.S. Department of State's Office of ART in Embassies Visiting artist Jim Drain (RISD BFA 98/Sculpture) is leading Art in Embassies: Morocco, a Wintersession 2012 studio course at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), as the first phase of a multiyear partnership between RISD and the U.S. Department of State's Office of ART in Embassies (AIE), made possible through the generous support of RISD alumna and Board Vice Chair Lisa Pevaroff, RISD BFA 83/Textile Design.

This collaborative project has been designed to promote cross-cultural exchange, and to recognize and nurture the talents of the next generation of professional artists. Ultimately, the collaboration will yield a large-scale outdoor work of art for the U.S. Embassy building currently in the design phase for Rabat, Morocco. Drain is leading RISD students in the exploration and research of the rich culture in Morocco, examining the deeper meaning and significance behind the surface and visual culture. The class has also taken a close look at AIE's mission and objectives; at the architectural design for this particular embassy so that the site-specific piece truly fits within the unique plans for the structure; and will work with visiting textile artist, Soukaina Aziz El Idrissi from Morocco. Dean of Fine Arts Anais Missakian, a professor of Textiles, and Interim Associate Provost Patricia Phillips, a professor in Graduate Studies, are also involved in the process.

"We are approaching this installation not from specific disciplines, but rather from a materials and cultural approach. The crossover between disciplines is valuable, as each student brings a specific interest and expertise to the ideation process," notes Drain. "In this course I am working with the class on something with real consequence, and we have an incredible opportunity to have real input into the nuts and bolts of the work itself. It is a challenging way to do a commission, but one that I find very thrilling. Together, we are focusing on how to incorporate materials in new and unorthodox ways, building models, researching and discussing issues relating to cultural diplomacy." To read the full article, please click here. To view the course description, galleries, etc, please click here.

Serving Abroad, Through Their Eyes

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

For full details on how to enter, click here

Modern Art and the Cold War

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT

For decades in art circles it was either a rumour or a joke, but now it is confirmed as a fact. The Central Intelligence Agency used American modern art - including the works of such artists as Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell, Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko - as a weapon in the Cold War. In the manner of a Renaissance prince - except that it acted secretly - the CIA fostered and promoted American Abstract Expressionist painting around the world for more than 20 years. The connection is improbable. This was a period, in the 1950s and 1960s, when the great majority of Americans disliked or even despised modern art - President Truman summed up the popular view when he said: "If that's art, then I'm a Hottentot." As for the artists themselves, many were ex- com- munists barely acceptable in the America of the McCarthyite era, and certainly not the sort of people normally likely to receive US government backing. For the full story on how ART in Embassies ties into this story, check out the following link.

ART in Embassies Video

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMT

AIE Intrigues, Educates and Connects!

"Serving Abroad...Through Their Eyes"

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMT

If you’ve served abroad, Uncle Sam wants your photographs.

The Defense Department wants donated photos from current and former service members who have served overseas for use in a recognition exhibition planned in conjunction with the State Department, according to a DoD press release. The department is looking for photos that depict life as a military member overseas in six specific categories: daily life, friendship, places, faces, loss or triumph. If your picture is chosen, it will be used for display in a special photography exhibition planned for the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Pentagon and other prominent venues, stateside and overseas. Project “Serving Abroad…Through Their Eyes” is accepting photo submissions through Presidents Day, which is Feb. 20, 2012. “It is simply phenomenal, and absolutely fitting that photos by America’s bravest during tough duty abroad get this sort of national recognition,” said Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, in the press release.“I can’t wait to see them and take part in the new conversations and relationships this is sure to inspire.” Rules, entry form and submission guidelines can be found at http://www.ourmilitary.mil/their-eyes/serving-abroad-through-their-eyes The image credit is: Senior Airman Lauren Everett, a medic attached to Laghman Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT), talks to an Afghan child during a patrol in Mehtar Lam district, Laghman province, Afghanistan, Oct. 14 // Staff Sgt. Ryan CraneFor the full story on Air Force Times, click on the following link: http://militarytimes.com/blogs/flightlines/2011/11/28/serving-abroad-through-your-eyes/

Moulthrop Family on PBS

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Matt and Philip Moulthrop, current and previously lenders to the ART in Embassies program are now being featured in a video produced on PBS about the history of their family as an craft art family of woodturners (PBS Series Craft in America, Episode VII Family). Their current work can be seen in Yaounde through this link http://art.state.gov/exhibitiondetail.aspx?id=105456&region=AF&pid=216 and the video can be seen for free on PBS through this link http://video.pbs.org/video/2152205235

Embassy Sarajevo opens AIE shows

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Ambassador and Mrs. Moon hosted representatives of the BiH art community October 25 at their residence to celebrate ART in Embassies program exhibits at the Ambassador’s Residence and New Embassy Compound in Sarajevo. Ambassador Moon told guests “Promoting the arts and connecting people through the visual arts advances freedom of expression and invites an exchange of ideas. The arts intrigue, educate and connect—playing an ambassadorial role as important as that served by traditional diplomacy.”

The reception was widely covered in BiH television, print, and online media. State-level public broadcaster BHT quoted Ambassador Moon saying he was very pleased he could share the art collection with citizens of BiH while other outlets focused on Moon’s comments on “the wealth of creativity and talent in the arts community in BiH.

Look at the art collections in the Ambassador's residence and at the new U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo here:

Exhibitions: http://art.state.gov/exhibitions.aspx?region=EUR&post=184

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/usembassy.bih

Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/USEmbassySJJ

Art out of Junk

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT

In consumer societies, where everything is disposable the minute it breaks down or a new model comes out, there is an art movement that finds beauty in objects that most people would consider useless. That movement is called ‘found art sculpture’ and last week a group of Omani artists were introduced to it at a workshop with Gwen Fryer, an artist who can visit a demolition site and find – or as she calls it, harvest - enough material to keep her happily at work forever.

Born in Paris, Gwen who is American spent several years of her youth in Tripoli, Libya, where her father then worked as a petroleum geophysicist. The influence this had in her work is evident. Besides the shapes and forms that the work takes, she also features Arabic script. “I have to confess that I cannot understand the language though I can read and write it,” said Gwen. From her Freedom series, Hearts and Bones features the line ‘All men are created free and equal’ in Arabic....to read the full article please click on the following link: http://www.theweek.co.om/disCon.aspx?Cval=5690

To see Gwen's work in Muscat, Oman, visit the exhibition http://art.state.gov/exhibitiondetail.aspx?id=101604&region=NEA&pid=142

U.S. Embassy Gives Art Center Stage

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT

On September 30, the U.S. Ambassador, Robert P. Jackson and his wife, Babette Jackson celebrated the importance of artistic expression and the cultural similarities between both countries in an Art in Embassies exhibition. The Ambassador and his wife opened their home to over 120 members of the arts community and the Diplomatic corps for a viewing of American and Cameroonian visual art, music, and poetry....To read the full article please click the following link to visit U.S. Embassy Yaounde and the photo gallery of the event http://yaounde.usembassy.gov/lns_09302011.html

When Life Becomes Art

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Excerpt from news story featuring Pedro Reyes, an artist featured in the new Tijuana Consulate in Mexico. "...It represents efforts by more than 100 artists to expand definitions of art and change social conditions by inventive, nontraditional means. Low, temporary walls of stacked concrete blocks and gray metal shelving units divide the space, creating an ambiance that suggests a revolutionary militia’s headquarters.The layout was designed by the architectural firm Common Room.Some of the artists veer toward symbolism. For “Palas por Pistolas,” a project orchestrated by Pedro Reyes, 1,527 guns were collected in a Mexican town racked by drug-related violence. The weapons were melted down and turned into shovels that were then used to plant trees on public-school grounds. Some of the spades are on display at the start of the exhibition, along with a young tree, which will be planted in a community garden after the show ends"... For the whole story, please click on the following link. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/30/arts/design/living-as-form-at-essex-street-market-review.html?_r=2
Also, visit our Tijuana exhibition to see Pedro's work, as well as many other artists. http://art.state.gov/exhibitiondetail.aspx?id=105428&region=WHA&pid=204

Maggie Michael at Bucharest Embassy

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMT

WASHINGTON, DC.- G Fine Art begins its 10th anniversary season with There is No Rising or Setting Sun, new paintings and works on paper by Maggie Michael. An opening reception will be held Saturday, September 10, 6-8PM, and the exhibition will run through October 15, 2011. Michael’s fourth solo exhibition features a group of works on paper – the Danube Series – executed this summer in Cetate, Romania, following the artist’s recent completion of a collaborative large scale mural for the US Embassy in Bucharest, a commission from the US Art in Embassies program. Paintings executed at the artist’s studio in Washington, DC will also be featured. To reach the full story, please click the following link: http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=50322

United States Inaugurates New Embassy Compound in Riga

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMT

The New Embassy Compound, located in the Sampeteris-Pleskodale neighborhood of Pardagauva, was designed to create a gateway to the United States that combines an appropriate balance of cordiality and security...The embassy showcases a permanent art collection celebrating the exchange of artistic expression between the United States and Latvia through forty-five works by American, Latvian, and Latvian-American artists, curated by OBO’s Office of Art in Embassies. Click the link for the full story http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2011/09/171703.htm

Art in Embassies exhibition opens in Wellington

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 00:00:00 GMT

We are delighted to welcome you to the ART in Embassies 2011 Wellington exhibition, Encountering Place. Because the exhibition is mounted in the public rooms of the Embassy Residence, we have the pleasure of seeing the works numerous times each day. And still the exhibition provokes the same broad smile it did a month ago, when the pieces were first uncrated and hung. http://www.flickr.com/photos/us_embassy_newzealand/collections/72157627512926126/

ART in Embassies

Sun, 19 Jun 2011 00:00:00 GMT

In January, California real estate developer Eleni Kounalakis Tsakopoulos, the new US ambassador to Budapest, held a reception at her official residence to show off her art collection. Hungarian guests from the political world and the arts strolled through the reception rooms, admiring works by, among others, Andy Warhol, Jim Dine and Wayne Thiebaud.

Only it’s not really her collection. The State Department negotiated all the loans and insured and oversaw all aspects of programming, installing the works in the Chief of Mission residence in Hungary as part of a long-established, vibrant program called Art in Embassies.

A legacy of the Kennedy administration, Art in Embassies’ message is simple: There is more to American culture than reality TV, fast food and Britney Spears. Its mandate, says director Beth Dozoretz, is “to work with the ambassadors and create an art exhibition that reflects their take on cultural diplomacy in relation to their assigned countries.”

Every new ambassador, in consultation with AIE curators, has the opportunity to display an exhibit of art of the size and quality that normally would take decades to accumulate. During his or her tenure, the selected paintings, sculptures and other objects inhabit spaces in the residence where public diplomacy is conducted and where guests are typically entertained. (The Chief of Mission’s residence is usually at a different location from the embassy, sometimes called the chancery, which is the workplace.)

The selection process can be a daunting experience, even with the help of experts. “It’s a bit like speed-reading Moby Dick,” was how one ex-envoy described it. But the end results demonstrate the program’s scope for creativity and substance.

In Paris, Ambassador Charles H. Rivkin and wife Susan Tolson have added their own touch of contemporary America to the stately rooms of the 19th-century embassy residence with a collection of art photography by several masters, among them Richard Avedon, Ed Ruscha and Edward Curtis. The unusual decision to use only photography in the residence, says Tolson, highlights “a form of art very dear to the French.”

Victoria Nuland, ambassador to NATO in Brussels until 2008, chose works by 21st-century American women artists. “The collection really displays the energy and diversity of American culture,” she said at the time—though what the military brass made of Iranian- American artist Roshan Houshmand’s The Red Dress, in mixed media and gold leaf on canvas, is anybody’s guess. For the expanded article, please continue to Art in Embassies

David Feinberg in Kinshasa

Thu, 05 May 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Sally Mansfield, curator with the United States Department of State’s ART in Embassies Program, has chosen an artwork by David Feinberg, University of Minnesota Department of Art associate professor, for display at the U.S. Embassy in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.

The artwork, "Life is Struggle," was made through Feinberg’s "Voice to Vision" collaborative studio project and will be displayed as part of the Kinshasa Embassy exhibition "Voices." The exhibition addresses the voices and voicelessness of victims of genocide, rape, AIDS, homelessness, poverty and discrimination. It will be displayed for the tenure of U.S. Ambassador James Entwhistle, from spring 2011 to fall 2013.

According to Mansfield, “Professor Feinberg’s 'Voice to Vision' project with Holocaust and genocide survivors is a perfect fit for this exhibition. His artwork 'Life is Struggle' addresses many issues of the exhibition simultaneously, in an admirably collaborative manner.”

About "Voice to Vision"
The "Voice to Vision" collaborative project, directed by Feinberg, captures the extraordinary experiences of genocide survivors from different parts of the world. The stories of the survivors are first shared through dialogue, and then transformed into works of visual art through painting, drawing, collage and mixed media. Each artwork has been created through collaboration with a team of artists and genocide survivors. As the survivors share their experiences, members of the collaborative team exchange ideas and make creative decisions together to produce a work of art that reflects the convergence of each voice involved in the project.

It is the goal of the "Voice to Vision" project to inspire others to use the tools of dialogue and the visual arts to investigate, recover and protect their own indigenous narrative and emotional experiences. There have been six "Voice to Vision" projects; images and participants can be found here: http://chgs.umn.edu/museum/exhibitions/voice. “Life is Struggle” was created by "Voice to Vision" Five.

Description of "Life is Struggle"
All of the survivors and artists in "Voice to Vision" Five were involved in this collaborative piece. It began with a blank, arbitrary background consisting of a woodwork structure and a random design of yellow stripes. The survivors were asked to paint two symbols anywhere on the background.

Fred, from Hanover, Germany, chose the letter "A," painted in black in the top left corner. "A" stood for the first letter of the name of his only cousin, Aaltje. When Fred and his family fled to America to escape the Nazi regime, baby Aaltje and her family remained behind in Holland. They all were ultimately exterminated at Auschwitz. Fred also chose the model of an old man, in the bottom right corner, which reminded him of an "old wise man.” The figure, which was broken, was fitting with the story Fred told: it was the destiny of so many elderly people to be murdered in the Holocaust.

Ting, from Sudan, chose the symbol "LIS," painted in white in the center of the piece, which stood for "life is struggle," and he chose the transparent airplane, which is enlarged in a photocopy on the bottom of the piece. The airplane reminded Ting of a "foreign structure" -- something man-made that was interfering with his culture and his people.

Bunkhean, from Cambodia, chose the broken wagon wheel, which reminded him of an ox-cart he was forced to drive in Cambodia and a representation of his broken country. He also chose the symbol of the skull and crossbones, painted in yellow below the wheel, to illustrate death.

Bunkhean's wife Bounna told her own story, passionately and tearfully. Bounna painted just one symbol, the pink star in the top right corner, which represented “love.”

Christine, a Native American, chose a filmstrip, which symbolized the pornographic films she was forced to participate in as a child, and she chose the railroad crossing sign. Christine said that she has a "certain level of loathing and anxiety" when she sees trains, a feeling she couldn't verbalize.

Alice, from Rwanda, chose the cow because cows are important animals in Rwanda and are symbols of status. Alice also painted a blue tree at the bottom of the piece, representing a tree outside of her house that was cut down. She painted the tree blue because when she was living in a refugee center, there was a man who would come in and randomly choose which people would live and which people would die. When this man told people, "You, I want you," the people who were going to die became so frightened their skin turned blue.

After the survivor's contributions to the piece, the artist team tied the symbols together in a cohesive way.

The artists started with an enlarged photocopy of a synagogue, one of the synagogues destroyed during Kristallnacht, an anti-Jewish pogrom in Nazi Germany from November 9 to 10, 1938. During Kristallnacht, 91 Jews were murdered, and 25,000 to 30,000 were arrested and deported to concentration camps. More than 200 synagogues were destroyed. Fred saw this synagogue -- the very synagogue in our piece -- burning on the night his father secretly brought home a Torah, the most holy of Jewish writings, which was illegal to possess at the time. "LIS," or "life is struggle," became the centerpiece of the dome of the synagogue, and the expanded size of the synagogue connected the other symbols in the piece.

Professor to create large photographic work for African embassy

Sun, 11 Apr 2010 00:00:00 GMT

The U.S. State Department has commissioned associate art professor Elliot Anderson to create a large-scale photographic work for a new embassy in Zambia, Africa.

The piece will be the central artwork for the embassy and will consist of a large diptych on lightboxes, with images of Niagara and Victoria Falls.

“It is similar to my Average Niagara work that is in the collection of San Francisco’s de Young Museum,” Anderson noted.

The work was commissioned by the State Department's Art in Embassies program, and the piece will have a prominent place in the entry atrium of the new US embassy in Lusaka, Zambia.

“A person associated with the State Department saw my solo exhibition Average Landscapes at the de Young in 2007,” said Anderson. “Originally, they contacted me about loaning a piece to them for an embassy in Burkina, West Africa, but on the advice of the de Young curator, I declined lending the piece.”

Recently, the Art in Embassies program contacted Anderson again--only this time they were willing to commission a work.

“They wanted a similar piece to the Niagara, but they wanted one image to be Victoria Falls, which is in Zambia,” Anderson said. “This was to illustrate a relationship between the natural wonders of both countries.”

The work will be installed there later this year. “Currently, they are looking for funds to send me there and arranging for me to work with students in Lusaka,” Anderson noted.

Anderson’s latest research has been focused on questions about what it means to be a landscape artist in the 21st century, and how an artist represents landscape with contemporary practices and tools.

He noted that environmentalism is an important aspect to incorporate in representing 21st Century landscapes.

One of his projects involves working with the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition along with DANM grad student Phoenix Toews--developing augmented reality software that runs on iPhones and iPads.

Their work is titled Tour of the Monuments of Silicon Valley. A viewer will be able to run an application on a device and visit a particular Silicon Valley Superfund site--there are currently 29 in the valley.

“Their phone locates them at the site and as they look through the camera on the phone, audio about the history and condition of the site plays, and 3D graphics appear in certain locations,” said Anderson. “They can interact with the 3D objects and hear more sound or see other images. And they can follow virtual objects through the space to learn about certain spots on the site.”

Anderson said that goal of the project is to create an interactive, locative storytelling platform using the phone, sound, text, and interactive computer graphics. A prototype was exhibited this past summer at the 01SJ International Biennial of technology art in San Jose.

Anderson is also taking part in a residency at SF Camerawork Gallery titled "As Yet Untitled" with a collective called “Nonsite Collective.”

“It's a group of Bay Area writers and artists,” said Anderson. “The residency is also an exhibition--the public witnesses the work done during the residency as it develops.”

original article located at http://news.ucsc.edu/2011/04/art-african-embassy.html