Sunday, September 20, 2009
Arts & Extras: Community input key to artists workshop
Courtesy Chico Harkrader
This kite was created by Jackie Matisse-Monnier in 2002 for the Mountain Lake Workshop.
Arts & Extras column
Mike Allen, arts columnist
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The Mountain Lake Workshop, founded in 1983 by retired Virginia Tech art professor Ray Kass, is not the kind of workshop a budding artist might attend to brush up on painting skills.
Instead, the workshop involves inviting prominent artists to come to Southwest Virginia and work with volunteers to try something different -- as an example, avant garde composer John Cage, best known for pushing the limits of music by offering concert pieces consisting of ambient sound, came to the Mountain Lake Workshop several times to experiment in painting with watercolors. Volunteers would help make the paper stained with smoke that Cage preferred to paint on.
"I wanted to create experiences where the community members actually participated in making artwork," Kass said about creating the workshop. "It's about setting out together on a new creative endeavor."
This past Thursday, "The Mountain Lake Workshop 1983-2009: A Phenomenon of Collaborative Artmaking" opened in the Montgomery Museum and Lewis Miller Arts Center in Christiansburg.
Kass was unable to attend the opening because of a pulmonary embolism that struck Sept. 13 while he was visiting New York. Reached by phone the next day at a New York hospital, he said he expects to recover and spoke with enthusiasm about working with artists such as the late avant garde choreographer Merce Cunningham and sculptor Jiro Okura of Kyoto, Japan.
The workshop retrospective includes sketches created under the guidance of New York artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles in a project called "Methanogenesis," in which participants created blue pulp paper and drew abstract forms resembling bacteria seen through a microscope.
Jackie Matisse-Monnier, the granddaughter of French Fauvist master Henri Matisse, contributes a painted kite from a 2002 workshop, "Kites Flying In & Out of Space." Matisse is known for creating colorful artistic kites, flying them and photographing them in flight. Kass brought Matisse in to experiment with re-creating the flights of her kites using virtual reality technology.
The late folk artist Howard Finster, a Baptist minister whose patrons ranged from the Library of Congress to R.E.M., came to the workshop several times. A collection of his images is part of the Mountain Lake display.
The exhibit also showcases small pieces by more than a dozen regional artists who participated in the program through the years, including Truman Capone, Sally Mann, Simone Paterson, Suzi Gablik, Steve Bickley, Brian Sieveking, Kathy Pinkerton, Joe Kelley, Pat West, Carol Burch-Brown, Ann Glover, Chico Harkrader and Marcia McDade.
Arts Council of the Blue Ridge education director Rhonda Hale curated the exhibit, working in partnership with the Montgomery Museum.
The breadth of the exhibit shows how influential the Mountain Lake Workshop has been to the regional art scene over the years, she said.
The exhibit will be shown through Oct. 31. The museum's address is 300 Pepper St.; for more information, call 382-5644 or visit www.montgomerymuseum.org.
Mill Mountain benefit
Extreme sports and Roanoke's mostly dormant Mill Mountain Theatre might seem like an odd pairing, but on Sept. 30, the 2009 Banff Radical Reels Film Festival will screen at the theater's Trinkle Main Stage.
Radical Reels originates in Canada, and it's composed of film entries from around the world involving extreme sports. Proceeds from $12 tickets benefit Mill Mountain Theatre.
The movie festival will be preceded by an Outdoor Expo, where stores and volunteer groups will exhibit their wares and services. The film starts at 6:45 p.m.
For more information, visit www.roanokeoutside.com/reels.php.
Teacher training session
The Roanoke Children's Theatre at the Taubman Museum of Art in downtown Roanoke is offering a teacher-in-service session and study guide to help teachers coordinate lesson plans with their production of "The Giver," based on Lois Lowry's Newbery Award-winning novel.
The play, recommended for grades 5 through 12, will run Oct. 6-11. The session runs 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Monday at the Taubman. For more information, call 309-6802 or e-mail roanokechildrenstheatre@gmail.com.
Williams on Williamson
Community theater lovers in Roanoke looking to sample some ambitious adult fare might consider checking out the Star City Playhouse at 2914 Williamson Road.
The theater company begins its 2009-10 season Friday with Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Prize-winning "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," about a Southern family in turmoil and a wife who questions her husband's sexuality.
For more information call 366-0060 or visit www.starcityplayhouse.org
Overpass art in Roanoke
Starting today, Romanian artist Dan Perjovschi will create an outdoor mural for Taubman Museum of Art, painting on the overpass wall across from the museum's cafe.
He's expect to finish Sept. 24 and will talk about the project at 5:30 p.m. in the museum's Advance Auto Parts Auditorium, followed at 6 p.m. by an informal question and answer session. The site-specific work will be on display through March 2010.
Art in the Alley in Salem
Harriet Stokes and three artist friends co-founded Salem's "Art in the Alley" in 1970 before the city even had its own art show.
On Sept. 27, about 20 artists, including Eric Fitzpatrick and Vera Dickerson, will show their stuff at the same location at Langhorn Place on Lewis Avenue from 1-5 p.m. Rain location at Spartan Square. The event is free.
"Everyone comes, children, animals," Stokes said. "It's a really nice, family-oriented show." For more information, call Stokes at 389-6357.
Liberty University exhibit
An exhibit by Smith Mountain artist David Heath, "This Peaceful Land: Contemporary American Landscapes," will be the first in the new Liberty University Art Gallery in Lynchburg. Heath's tranquil scenes reflect his Christian faith and a reverence for God's creations.
The exhibit opens Thursday with a reception from 6 to 8:30 p.m.; it closes Nov. 9. For more information call 582-2285.
'Arts & Extras' blog
It may seem like there's a lot going on in the region arts-wise, but trust me, I've only scratched the surface -- all the performing arts companies are about to begin their 2009-10 seasons, and the Roanoke Arts Festival is just around the corner.
Visit me at blogs.roanoke.com/arts/ in the "Arts & Extras" blog and you'll learn more about what lies ahead.
