Saturday, May 11, 2013

Just TWO Days Left! Apply now! Deadline is Monday! Apply for our 2013-2014 residency!

The 40th Street Artist-in-Residence Program (AIR) awards West Philadelphia artists one year of free studio space at 40th and Chestnut Streets. In exchange, each artist shares his/her talents with West Philadelphia by leading workshops, teaching classes, exhibiting in the area, etc. Founded by artist Edward M. Epstein in 2003 and run by Gina Renzi since 2008, the program addresses the need for studio space in West Philadelphia, assists artists with career development, and makes the 40th Street area a nexus for visual arts.

AIR is NOW accepting applications for the 2013-2014 residency. Applications are due Monday May 13, 2013 at 11:59pm.

The 2013-2014 residency begins August 25, 2013 and ends August 15, 2014.

Please keep reading for application information.




The mission of the 40th Street Artist-in-Residence program is:
pictured: 4013 chestnut street
·    To address the need for artist studio space in West Philadelphia by offering studios rent-free, on a rotating basis, primarily to those artists who reside in/are very closely affiliated with Philadelphia neighborhoods west of the Schuylkill River.

·    To assist in career growth and provide exhibition opportunities for new and emerging artists and those whose work has not been recognized in mainstream venues.

·    To enrich the 40th Street area by placing artists here who share their talents with our neighbors.


If accepted to the program, you will be granted a studio space at either 4007 Chestnut or 4013 Chestnut Street, beginning on August 25, 2013.

You will be encouraged to use that time to develop your own creative work. In exchange, you will e. k. miles in studio 2011 be asked to share your talents through a minimum of 40 hours of outreach work, within West Philadelphia, over the course of the year. Examples of this include creating a public installation or holding a workshop or class***. Support will be provided to help you develop this project.

In addition, residents will have opportunities to work together to plan exhibitions, both of their own work and of their outreach work. Monthly meetings (or more when necessary) will help facilitate this work as well as create opportunities for artists to share ideas and foster community within the program.

Our sites are not live-in facilities. The studios are available at all times, but the buildings are shared; you must be considerate of other tenants. The spaces can accommodate a variety of creative activities, including painting, sculpture, installation art, photography, etc. Collaborative as well as individual efforts are welcome.

Ceilings are high (approximately 12 feet in some areas); rooms range from 100-300 square feet. Some areas have ample natural light, while others have none at all (making them ideal as darkrooms). The studios are not furnished. The buildingshave small yards in the rear that may be used for assembling larger works, or as a place to exhibit sculpture. The spaces have ventilation, running water, and 120- volt AC outlets. However, the facilities will not accommodate highly toxic chemicals, welding, or high-powered electrical equipment. Note also that within the spaces, there is open access to the different work areas; we count on resident artists to show respect for others' property and privacy.


To apply:
 
You can access the application in multiple ways: 
 
1. Click HERE for a Google doc version.
2. Click HERE to download from Dropbox.
3. Email 40th.AIR.app@gmail.com for an application. Please specify if you want an application in PDF or Microsoft Word format.
Once completed, please submit the application by 11:59pm on Monday May 13, 2013. Email it to 40th.AIR.app@gmail.com or mail it to 40th Street Artist-in-Residence Program, 4007 Chestnut Street, First Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19104.
Do not drop off materials; there is no guarantee we will receive them.
We can return application materials if you include a self-addressed stamped envelope.

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Plastique Cirque Event & Exhibit opens FRIDAY MAY 10!


 
Ladies and Gentlemen, people of all ages, step right up! 
Plastic Fantastic, the nomadic immersive environment for play made of water bottles, is pleased to present 
 
Plastique Cirque Event and Exhibit 
at the 40th Street Artist-in-Residence Program Space 
on Friday May 10th, 2013!


pictured: plastique flyer
In this ambitious production, 40th Street AIR Space resident and Plastic Fantastic's Diedra Krieger curates ten performance artists (Frog, J9, Julie's Hoolies, Kat Schneck, Kristen Bailey, Mary Wood, Pete Grauer, Rachel Brennesholtz, The Hoop Mistresses, and Upholstery) for the opening "Event" and eight visual artists (Anna Perricci, Becky Schwartz, damali abrams, Jenn Rockwell, Kelly Anne, Sean Stoops, Shawn Beeks, Woodley White) with her for an "Exhibition" featuring mixed media and video installations.
Play has an exceptional history in cultural production! Its trajectory is rooted in the history of 60s events, intermedia art and happenings, and follows contemporary collectives who use play as tactical media for interventions. Immersed in this history, Plastic Fantastic and its affiliates continue their search for ways to play as a form to act on serious concerns about plastic and water.

For the "Event" on Friday May 10th [outside] behind the 40th Street AIR Space building, in the Plastic Fantastic geodesic dome, performance artists, circus artists, and puppeteers unite for an evening of escapades that ignite the imagination to a new world of possibilities and ecstatic dystopias. Upholstery leads the shenanigans premiering "Marvin & Mae (& a sea of plastic)", a fantastical tale of loneliness and love told through puppets made entirely of plastic waste. This original work features music by the group and puppeteers Kristen Bailey, Kate Black-Regan & C. Kennedy.  Mary Wood not being made of plastic herself shows off her contortionist abilities.

Inside the 40th Street AIR Gallery for the duration of the exhibition, Krieger's Meditative Play Tretrahedrons made of water bottle parts rise into White's prolific reproductions of bottles under Perricci's Tippler's planet, a chandelier made of hundreds of water bottles and LEDs. As Abrams and Kriegers' "Cartwheeling through Feminist Theory" loops, Rockwell's freak show leftovers are hidden amongst the bottles with Beeks' Grizzly Care Bears, figments of pop culture's imagination dumped into the context of a cold reality.  Huey Schools After School Program' Earth Day project with Krieger will spiral around the Exhibit.  In the second gallery, Stoops' illuminated silhouettes of local Schuylkill river creatures swim and play atop waves and waves of plastic pollution.

If it rains on May 10, please still come to the gallery for the "exhibit" and come back on May 17 for the "event" in our backyard! 

But wait! There's more!


####
Plastique Cirque
Event and Exhibition 
Friday May 10th (If it rains on May 10, come to the gallery for the "exhibit" and come back on May 17 for the "event" in our backyard), 6-10pm
Exhibition Hours: Saturday May 11th, 11am - 2pm; Fridays May 17th & 24th 5-8pm
40th Street AIR Space
4007 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA
Please join us to explore the sights and sounds featured in Plastique Cirque.  For more information, or to view the work by appointment, please contact playnicelets@gmail.com.

Monday, April 15, 2013

Apply for our 2013-2014 residency!!! Applications are due at 11:59pm on Monday May 13, 2013


The 2013-2014 residency begins August 25, 2013 and ends August 15, 2014.

Email 40th.AIR.app@gmail.com for an application. Please specify if you would like an application in PDF or Microsoft Word format.

Click HERE to download via Dropbox

Click HERE for a Google doc version


Monday, April 1, 2013

Fatima Adamu's "Reflections of a Personal Nature" opens Friday April 12th!

Please join us on Friday April 12 to celebrate the opening 
of 2012-2013 resident Fatima Adamu's solo show! 
This will be our first resident-curated/ resident-featured exhibit of 2013. 

"Reflections of a Personal Nature"
Paintings by Fatima Adamu
Reception on Friday, April 12th, 6-9 pm
Gallery hours on Fridays April 19 and 26, 
3-7pm and by appointment 
(email 40th.air.app@gmail.com)
40th Street Artist-in-Residence Gallery
4007 Chestnut Street, First Floor
Refreshments will be Served

"These paintings and installation are inspired by sketches I began in the pages of journal while on a flight back to the United States from Nigeria where my family lives. It had been 12 years since my last visit and the experiences left me overflowing with emotions and ideas that I couldn't seem to express in words; so I resorted to color and form instead. These works touch on my reflections on femininity, vulnerability and identity." 
- Fatima Adamu

Exhibits in the months to come: May: Diedra Krieger, June: Mike Harpring, July: Thomasin Parnes, August: Exchange community outreach show, and September: Celestine Wilson Hughes

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

The Art Blog Interviews Celestine Wilson Hughes

via theartblog.org

Celestine Wilson Hughes talks about becoming an artist – an artblog radio podcast

By
January 28, 2013   ·   0 Comments
Celestine Wilson Hughes began to feel like a real artist about the time she got a band saw and started cutting wood in the backyard for painting projects.  Before that she considered herself a vendor of jewelry and hand-painted t-shirts.  Customers told her she was an artist and she began to adopt that mantle.  Wilson Hughes, who is self-taught, makes large totemic sculptures out of colored glass shards.  Her works are celebrations of community, the garden and especially of women’s undervalued inner strength and women’s bodies. Hughes just got a studio outside her house when she started a residency at the 40th St. A.I.R. (Artist in Residence) studios in West Philadelphia. We talked with Celestine on Dec. 9, 2012 at her 40th St. A.I.R. studio.
celestinecrop

Right click to download 15-minute Celestine Wilson Hughes episode
Coming soon, a YouTube audio slide show of this podcast!
This episode is edited by Peter Crimmins. The music is by Eric Biondo. The slide show is edited by artblog Intern Alison McMenamin. Thanks to the Knight Foundation for helping us get the ball rolling on this project. Thanks also to J-Lab‘s Enterprise Reporting Fund and William Penn Foundation for additional support and to our partner WHYY NewsWorks for their ongoing support and for sharing artblog radio episodes on the arts & culture page of their community news site NewsWorks.org. You can subscribe to artblog radio on iTunes.

Saturday, February 2, 2013

A New Exhibit Every Month, April through September 2013!

Hey friends!
Thanks so much to everyone who visited the gallery during Friends and Neighbors last month. We had a packed house for the opening on January 11, sold some work, and had visitors on both gallery days (January 18 and 25). 

Looking ahead, we'll be opening shows on the SECOND FRIDAYS of APRIL, MAY, JUNE, JULY, AUGUST, and SEPTEMBER. 

Here is the rundown:

April: curated by resident Fatima Adamu

May: curated by resident Diedra Krieger

June: curated by resident Mike Harpring

July: curated by resident Thomasin Parnes

August: Exchange, our annual exhibit of community outreach work; we also take this time to bid farewell to outgoing residents and give a big howdy to incoming residents.

September: curated by resident Celestine Wilson Hughes

Don't miss the fun!