2009 Windows on Main Street opens August 8, 2009

 

Rebecca Ambrosini's invitation at the Creamery.

Windows on Main St opens next Saturday, August 8.  Installations have already started going up.  I caught up with Will Walker on Friday as he was installing his work at M&T Bank.

(editor's note:  I can't express how pleasant it is to have August roll in, and not have to be scrambling about with WOMS related tasks.) 

I will, however, be participating in a panel discussion organized in conjunction with the Windows exhibition that will focus on the topic of public art.  "Public Art, the Economy and Our Community is scheduled to take place on Saturday, Aug 8 at 2pm at Dia:Beacon.  I don't know this for a fact, but I imagine the talk will take place in the Learning Lab above the bookstore.  I'll verify that detail.  The other panelists include: 

Steven Evans, Assistant Director of the Dia Foundation at Beacon, 

Sara Pasti, Director of the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, and Beacon City Councilwoman, 

Garin Baker of the Orange County Arts Council, 

Cabot Parsons, Chairperson of the Beacon Arts & Cultural Committee 

Dan Weise of Open Space Gallery, and Electric Windows here in Beacon.

 

 A peak into the office area at M&T Bank which will be bathed in an elecctric emerald 

glow for a month, courtesy of Will Walker and Jesse Lebwohl-Steiner.

Later in the evening, there will be an opening reception for WOMS on Saturday at Chill wine bar at 173 Main St. from 6-9pm.

The exhibit will close on September 12.  On that day, there will be a panel talk featuring some of the exhibit's participating artists speaking about their projects.  The talk will take place at Zuzu's (453 Main St) at 12pm followed by a closing reception from 2-4pm.

Here are your 2009 Windows on Main St Participating Artists: 

• Rebecca Ambrosini - Muddy Cup Coffeeshop, 129 Main Street
• Kathleen Anderson - Hudson Valley Federal Credit Union, 324 Main Street
• Elizabeth Castagna - 500 Main Street
• Carla Goldberg - Beacon Rivers for Estuaries & Rivers, 199 Main Street
• Theresa Gooby - 259 Main Street
• Elia Gurna - 502 Main Street
• Beth Haber - River Winds Gallery, 172 Main Street
• Jason Hahn - 504 Main Street
• Peter Iannarelli & Keisha Luce - Moxie, 544 Main Street
• Jesse Lebwohl-Steiner & Will Walker - M&T Bank, 200 Main Street
• Beth Lewis-Jackson & Edward Vermehren - Hudson Beach Glass, 162 Main Street
• Teresa Marra - Chill Wine Bar, 173 Main Street
• Eileen McTiernan - Mount Beacon Fine Art, 155 Main Street
• Dana Devine O’Malley - Zora Dora, 201 Main Street
• Joe Pimentel & Melissa Toth - Fire Lotus, 474 Main Street
• Keely Sheehan - Echo, 470 Main Street
• Vickie Raabin - Mixture, 209 Main Street
• Steve Rossi - Artisan Wine Shop, 180 Main Street
• Dan Rigney - BEAHive/American Burnish, 291 Main Street
• Emily Sylvester - Poppy’s Burger’s & Fries, 184 Main Street
• Catherine Welshman - Jacqueline’s, 478 Main Street

Electric Windows on Cool Hunting.com

Cool Hunting.com is a site that culls together all that is cool in the realms of art, design architecture, cuisine and more. In the form of blog posts and short nicely produced videos, Cool Hunting shares work being created by many visionary folks. I have long subscribed to the video podcast feed via itunes, and consider it a treat when the new weekly installment arrives. The most recent video posted today highlights the Electric Windows event from this past May. I've embedded the video here, but I definitely suggest visiting the site, and subscribing to the videos. It's a nugget of goodness delivered straight to your computer. I don't doubt that I'll be pulling some Eye Candy Friday material from Cool Hunting at some point.

On another Electric Windows note, I spent a little time over at Beacon High School this past semester, speaking with some of the art students about the other windows based art project in Beacon, Windows on Main St. Two of the windows in the WOMS project in August will be created by two teams of students. On one of my visits shortly after the Electric Windows ocurred, I was informed by the art teacher, Diane Mikula, that the students were abuzz about the event and that of all the different art events that have taken place around town, this one more than any other really resonated with the students.
So, congratulations to Jeff and Nicole at Beacon Art Supply and Dan and Kalene at Open Space as well as Bill Erlich and Beacon Terminals Associates for making this happen.

The weekend that was: images from May 17&18, 2008

Many thanks to everyone who came out to the Kamp Maykr brunch on Saturday morning. The weather was pretty perfect, and this made for such a pleasant morning. Given that so many people had their own events later in the day, it was great that so many folks came by to share in such a wonderful morning.
Around noon, from our porch, we heard some of the goings on across the street for the Beekman Banners project. From my vantage point, I could see the tops of several heads attending the dedication. I've only seen just a few of the banners at the top of the street, but I feel it already transforms that stretch down to the train station from a neglected service road to a street that is part of a city and a community.
Below are a few images of pieces installed around our place for Kamp Maykr. Putting this together for the weekend was a great experience for me in interacting with my immediate surroundings more intentionally. There are so many interesting nooks and crannies that I can imagine that we'll be utilizing more as a project space in the future.

Above: Theresa Gooby's "Viewing Window, Partially Abstracted" filament wrap of the porch entry.
Below: a detail of my "Primer/Sealer" piece.

Above: one of Matt Hereford's many cairns placed aroung the property. This one is conversing with the magnolia tree. Below: a detail of Beacon's latest residential development spearheaded by property magnate, Kathy Feighery. As you can see, you really should have gotten in on this deal on the ground floor as space is limited.

Above: Steve Rossi's untitled Adirondack re-con outpost. Below: Peter Acheson's untitled sculpture.
About mid-afternoon, I made it from the brunch, down our front lawn to Spire and the Habitat for Artists project.
Above: Matthew Kinney's habitat. Below: a peek into my habitat.

Above: I don't know what this guy is doing. Oh wait, that's Flying Swine's Donald Kimmel. Donald was providing short impromptu performances throughout the afternoon in the Flying Swine Stage & Communitat.

Above: 'Uh Yeah, where should I put this box of ladies?' That's Isis Charise (left), Kathy Feighery (center), and Angelika Rinnhofer (right) in Kathy's drawing studio/PODS. PODs of Hudson Valley is a sponsor of the HFA project.

Below: Don't vorry Matt Kinney. I mean, I'm only KRUshing your HEAD!

Above: Steven Walls studio. Below: a portion of the group show in Spire's common space gallery.
It's almost eery walking into Spire Studios. So foreign and so familiar. It was my home for three years, and I now only live across the street, but I simply don't make it in there often. It's an uncanny experience.
Above and below: images in Jesse Lebwohl-Steiner's studio.
Jesse Lebwohl-Steiner is now occupying the space that had previously been the studio of Alexis Elton and Peter Iannarelli. I certainly see threads of commonality in concept and use of material in the three artists' work . The residency of those three artists in this same space represent fascinating chapters in the growing biography of tiny studio.

The day after:

I was beat after all my running around on the west end of town that I did not make it to the east end on Sunday Morning. Dan at Open Space was fiendishly blogging in the days leading up to and the day of the Electric Windows Event.

Above: installation of the Windows was ongoing on Sunday morning. Below: a bleary eyed Rick Price was finalizing his piece.

May 17-18, 2008: Beacon's unSitely afFair

So the Sitelines Art Fair has been cancelled, but you really had your heart set on making it up to Beacon for the day or for the weekend. What's a body to do? Come what may, come mid-May, we're here for you, and you're welcome. There's plenty of other stuff on tap for the weekend. Here's the shakes on, hopefully most, of what's happening.


View Larger Map>
Here's a map showing what's going on where. Green pins indicate what's happening on Saturday, Red pins represent Sunday.
Saturday May 17th:

Dia:Beacon
10:30am - 2pm Dia:Beacon will be closing at 2pm for its annual benefit.
Two new installations are opening
Kamp Maykr
10:00am-5pm. Welcome to Kamp Maykr, we're hosting a pot luck brunch in the morning and an exhibit of yardwork at 1172 North Ave. Start your day off right, bring a dish, hang out for a while, and build your strength for the adventure ahead. Work on view by the likes of Michael Natiello, Steve Rossi, Kathy Feighery, me. The brunch will run til noon or so, but the artwork will be on view both Sat and Sun 12-5pm. Stay tuned right here for further details
Beekman Banner Project
noon - There will be a ceremony featuring Mayor Steve Gold and Dutchess County Art Council President Benjamin Krevolin to inaugurate a series of banners featuring work of local artists lining Beekman St.
Electric Windows
12:30-through the day. Electric Windows is bringing together 24 artists near and far to create
Artists will be painting through the day while accompanied the entire day by music provided by a range a selection of bands and DJ's. Check the above link for line up and schedule info.
Beacon Studios
1-5pm The many artists of Beacon Studios will be hosting an open house.
In addition, in the building's library gallery, there will be a preview of The Media Church, an installation by a guy named Russell, which will officially be opening on May 31.
Habitat for Artists


1-5pm Habitat for Artists will be celebrating the launch of the studio cum sculpture (or sculpture cum studio) project which has been taking shape in the parking lot of Spire Studios for the last several weeks. Participating artist will be on hand in their temporary digs, working and hanging out.
Donald Kimmel of Flying Swine will doing performance piece at some point in the afternoon.
Spire Studios
6pm - on. Spire Studios will be hosting open studios.

If have some yawing need to hang with an artist, this is the day. I can't say that I'm much good for company, but given the multitude of them roaming about on this day, you're bound to meet one with some charm.
Hermitage
7:30 Allan Kaplan reads from his new book "Like On Of Us."

Next Step
10:30pm - on. The Piggy Bank, Open Space, Burlock, and Break Beats will be bringing us this NonSecondSaturday Edition of Next Step complete with DJ's, dancing, and live painting at the Piggy Bank, 448 Main St. (I still owe Tom Moore $5 from the Next Step of a couple months back. I ain't forgotten ya Tommy.)

And that's just Saturday.
On Sunday:
Dia:Beacon
Dia's got several things going on this day in conjunction with the two sold out performances being presented by the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. There's a family day kicking off at noon that includes a movement based tour of artwork. A selection of items relating to the work of John Cage will be on view. There might be a few other things going on, but I can't quite decipher them, and they may be applicable to members only, like a reception for a Tacita Dean projection based on footage of Merce Cunningham performing.

Electric Windows
The pieces that were created through the day Saturday will be installed in the windows of the Electric Blanket Factory at 1 E. Main St. I don't know what time.

Country Folk @ Zahra's Studio
noon - on. If you simply can't get enough live painting, stop by Zahra's at 496 Main St. and catch the Country Folk crew creating a wall piece that will be part of their June exhibit at the gallery.

Kamp Maykr
12-5pm. Someone will still be hanging out, so stop by and check out what's been done in our yard.

That's what I know at the moment. Check back for updates.