Amherst Biennial
October & November 2010 – exhibited at the Nacul Center, Amherst Town Hall, and other sites to be announced.

They’re looking for the “best art created in Western Massachusetts during the last 2 years.” Application and more information available at www.amherstma.gov/index.aspx?NID=1337. Deadline for submissions is June 15. $25 entry fee.

Franklin County Biennial
October 2010 – on display at The Gallery at Hallmark in Turners falls. This one is open to artists who live or work in Franklin County

Call for entries and more information is available on the website. Deadline for submissions is July 19. $15 entry fee.

The Steam Roller Printmaking Workshop (Now.For.Art in conjunction with Zea Mays Printmaking and C3) starts at 10am outside between the parking garage and Thornes Market. Fifteen artists will be making mega-prints, up to 4×8′ using a steam roller as printing press. Even if you’re not into at and printmaking, this should be a great process to watch. The prints will be on view 7-9pm at a reception in the old Dynamite space in Thornes.

Sharing the Dynamite space is the & In One Another show, which is on view noon-9pm. Reception 7-9pm (joint reception with the steamroller prints). This show is the result of a two-month long collaborative sketchbook project: each participant did a daily sketch based on daily assignments. The assignments were purposely vague (one-word or short phrases, e.g. “Eclipse”, “Recurring Nightmare”) which allowed for broad interpretation by the participants. Twenty-five sketchbooks were returned and all will be on view. The show will continue until the 19th (3-7pm daily), then moves to 103 State Street until the 26th (3-7pm daily). Closing reception on the 26th.

Sunday, January 31, 1-4pm
William Baczek Fine Arts, 36 Main Street, Northampton

A silent auction of artwork donated to benefit the victims of the Northampton fires. This will be a one day event, with 100% of the money made during the show going directly to the people affected by the fires.

To view a selection of the works available go to: www.wbfinearts.com/page.php?id=2047

The bidding on the show will end in phases beginning at 3pm.

ARTISTS INCLUDE:

• Eric Carle
• Leonard Baskin
• Robert Sweeney
• Scott Prior
• Robin Freedenfeld
• Katy Schneider
• Nanny Vonnegut
• Tony DeTerlizzi
• Mo Willems
• Rick Beaupre
• Patrick Clifford
• Claudine Mussuto
• Ali Osborn
• Raphy Griswold
• Michael Tillyer
• Charlotte Sullivan
• Sean Greene
• Tom Ryan
• Joshua Smith
• Joshua Jayne
• Mat Matera
• Ellen Augarten
• Mira Ishii
• Emily Saunders
• Kim West
• Lyn Horton
• Hilary Emerson Lay
• Christy Patrick
• Mia Cabana
• Sloan Tomlinson
• Angela Zammarelli
• Christin Couture
• Craig Medeiros
• Michael Shapcott
• Jane O’Hara
• Deborah Rubin
• Donnabelle Casis
• Laurie Mason Goddard
• Lynn Peterfreund
• Denise Beaudet
• Liz Chalfin
• Sue Katz
• Sally Curcio
• Kaleidoscope Pottery
• Susan Barocas
• Laura Kamyk
• Robin Logan
• Rachel Alexander Chase
• Dean Nimmer
• Lisbeth Kraus Rock
• Lisa Orsted
• Frances Kidder
• Shawn Farley
• George Beaupre
• Casey W. Coller
• Nancy Howard Smith
• Barbara Hadden
• Stephen St. Francis Decky
• Taiga Ermansons
• Tiffany Hilton Pottery
• Mona Shiber
• Nick Raptelis
• Joshua Vrysen
• Rebecca Bleecher
• Jim Wallace
• Jane Lund
• Susannah Auferoth
• Eduardo Hernandez Santos
• Terry Rooney
• Hilary Price

PLEASE NOTE THAT PAYMENT FOR AUCTION ITEMS SHOULD BE MADE BY CHECK (payable to the “Northampton Neighbors Relief Fund”) OR CASH. To preregister and get an auction bid number, email the gallery at info@wbfinearts.com or call 413-587-9880.

On January 31st 2010, William Baczek Fine Arts will be hosting a silent auction of 50-75 pieces of artwork donated to benefit the victims of the Northampton fires. This will be a one day event, held from 1-4pm with 100% of the money made during the show going directly to the people affected by the fires.

This is a professional gallery show, and as such all works should be suitable for display (wired, framed, etc). Artists wishing to donate work should contact Rick Beaupre at rick3po@aim.com. Please attach images of work to be submitted for consideration.

Deadline for delivery of works is Jan 22, 2010.

The video below doesn’t provide any answers, but is an interesting little tidbit about five pieces that “need to be identified as art” at the Walker Art Museum in Minneapolis.

Amherst Art Walk, Thursday 5-8
Northampton Arts Night Out, Friday 4-9
Easthampton Art Walk, Saturday 5-8
Flywheel Flea Market, Sunday 10-3

Treat yourself to seeing a heap o’ local art for free, and pop in on some opening receptions. Check out The Valley Arts Newsletter and Valley Art Share for info on opening receptions and other arts events.

I’ll be posting again on the blog too. I just moved it over to it’s own domain, which will allow more freedom over the design and future additions to the site.

Happy New Year!

Parkhurst was an art historian who held many distinguished positions throughout his long lifetime: including numerous curatorships, director of the Baltimore Museum of Art, assistant director of the National Gallery, taught at Princeton, Oberlin, Williams, and Smith. Perhaps his most important contribution to the art world was as one of the “Monument Men” during World War Two; a group that helped save great works of art, and architecture, from destruction from bombing and Nazi looting. From the Monuments Men Foundation website:

The “Monuments Men” were a group of approximately 345 men and women from thirteen nations who comprised the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives section during World War II. Many were museum directors, curators, art historians, and educators. Together they worked to protect monuments and other cultural treasures from the destruction of World War II. In the last year of the war, they tracked, located, and ultimately returned more than 5 million artistic and cultural items stolen by Hitler and the Nazis. Their role in preserving cultural treasures was without precedent.

Their efforts were indeed monumental: one feat involved secretly moving the entire contents of the Louvre, and hiding them in a salt mine, protecting the artworks from Nazi looting during the occupation of France. For his part, the French government awarded Parkhurst the Legion of Honor, Chevalier, an honor rarely bestowed on a non-French citizen.

The work of the Monuments Men was recently part of the excellent documentary, The Rape of Europa. The documentary includes interviews with Parkhurst.

A better obituary for Parkhurst in the New York Times described his undiminished curiousity and fascination with art history:

A few years ago, while looking at Giotto’s frescoes in the Arena Chapel in Padua, Mr. Parkhurst became intrigued by the possible influence of the theater on Giotto’s art. … the idea gripped him, and he pursued it doggedly. Well into his 90s, he was still chasing after art.

Parkhurst died at his home in Amherst, MA, June 25, 2008.

It is tragic that the arts are usually the first things to be cut from public school curriculum, especially in an area like the Pioneer Valley, where so much of our local economy is dependent on the arts.

Coincidentally, news of these cuts arrive with the news that Northampton, once again, has been voted one of the “Top 25 Arts Destinations” in the country by American Style magazine.

Easthampton has a day full of events on Saturday. The Bear Fest kicks off this weekend with the unveiling of the artist-decorated bears at 2pm on Cottage St. That day also features three art openings (Juli Kirk, Barbara Johnson, and Brigita Fuhrmann), a small art/craft fair by the Etsy Western MA Street Team, and Bear Festivities continue behind Easthampton Savings Bank, on Main Street, after the unveiling. Art Walk from 5-8pm caps off the evening. And as an added bonus, the opening of the new bar and restaurant everyone in town has been waiting for, Venus and The Cellar Bar on Main Street. If you can’t make any of the events, definitely pop into town at some point after the unveiling – more than 30 bears will be placed at various locations downtown until October.

Also on Saturday, in Amherst is Eric Carle’s 80th birthday bash, featuring an exhibit by the Western MA Illustrators’ Guild.

Get all the details on these events (and more!) at The Valley Arts Newsletter.