MECA: This Just In

The Porteous building will be open 9 am to 5 pm from Dec. 15 to 19 and on Dec. 22 and 23.
The building will be closed Dec. 24 through Jan. 1 and open for normal business hours on January 2.

More than 100 first year students at Maine College of Art have participated in a unique freshman experience that has resulted in an exhibition called “Food, Hunger, Justice.” As part of a new curriculum called FY-In that has a service learning component, students have spent their first semester researching the ood crisis in Maine. In response, they have volunteered on local farms, created artwork and will use the proceeds from art sales to provide food for low-income senior citizens in Portland.

Students partnered with Cultivating Community to visit their urban and suburban farms: Turkey Hill Farm, Boyd Street Urban Farm and Oxford Street garden. During these visits, students harvested food, put gardens to bed, moved rocks and assisted with farm chores.

Based on their academic study and on-site experiences, students created artwork that reflected their learnings. These original works include prints, painting, drawings, photographs, t-shirts, mixed media and videos. Their goal is to use artwork to raise awareness about the pending food crisis in Maine. The work will be on view from November 19 to December 6 throughout Portland at Maine College of Art at 522 Congress Street, Aurora Provisions at 64 Pine Street, Rabelais Books at 86 Middle Street and Local 188 at 685 Congress Street. Proceeds from the sale of student work benefit the Elder Share fund of Cultivating Community, which delivers a weekly bag of produce to seniors living in one of three low-income housing in Portland.

Casablanca Comics and Maine College of Art will once again partner to host 24-Hour Comic day on campus. This event is an annual challenge for cartoonists to produce a 24-page comic book written, drawn, and completed in 24 consecutive hours. The event begins at 10 a.m. on October 18 in the Illustration studios in the Porteous Building. Advance sign up is required. For more information and registration instructions, see www.24hourcomicsday.com

Faculty member Matt Hutton (Woodworking & Furniture Design), is the recipient of the 2008 Society of Arts and Crafts Artist Award. Initiated in 1994, the SAC Artist Awards are presented bi-annually and include a cash prize and group exhibition. The exhibition of the award winners is on view until October 19 at the SAC gallery on Newbury Street in Boston. Matt’s work is also currently on view at the Center for Contemporary Maine Art Biennial exhibition in Rockport.

Faculty Member Lucy Breslin (Ceramics) will have work in Madrid, Spain this fall as part of the 50th anniversary celebration of the Fulbright exchange between Spain and the United States. Breslin was awarded a Fulbright to study in Spain in 1985.

Alum Caroline Lathan Stiefel MFA ’01 received a Pollock Krasner Fellowship. Stiefel is also a past recipient of a Creative Capital Visual Artist grant. She has exhibited at galleries in Atlanta, Pittsburgh, New York and New Jersey. She is the recipient of a New Jersey State Council on the Arts Grant in Sculpture and a Print and Paper Fellowship from the Rutgers Center for Innovative Print and Paper. From 1998-2003 she was Artist-in-Residence in New Jersey elementary schools.

Alum Kelly Rudman ’08 is the wood studio manager at Exhibitology in New York City. Exhibitology is a full service design and build fabrication studio that serves retail, museum and architecture clients by creating innovative exhibits, displays and interactives.

Alum Peter Selmayr ’08 spent the summer as an intern in the graphic design department at L.L. Bean and was hired on full time in the fall.

Current Student Regis Byron ’09 spent the summer working a paid internship for American Eagle Corporate Headquarters in Pittsburg. A graphic design major, Regis worked on web site imagery, package design and maintaining Facebook and MySpace pages for the clothing company.

Friday, September 19
6:00-7:30pm
in the ICA at MECA
Caitlin Strokosch, Executive Director of the Alliance of Artists Communities, will deliver an information session on artists-in-residence~programs. Learn about the hundreds of artists’ residency opportunities available for artists of all kinds and every career stage, in your backyard and across the globe. Find out what distinguishes them, the best way to apply, and how to maximize your experience.The Alliance of Artists Communities is the national network of artists' residencies, and the premier resource on residencies for artists of all disciplines. Based in Providence, Rhode Island, the Alliance represents the field of more than 1,000 residencies worldwide. The Alliance publishes the popular book, Artists Communities: A Directory of Residencies that Offer Time and Space for Creativity, and maintains an online database of artists' residencies at www.artistcommunities.org.

BFA Thesis Exhibition: Porteous Tractatus
Porteous Building, Floors 1, 2 and 3
May 10 to May 24
Porteous Tractatus is a curated exhibition of work by students graduating from MECA’s BFA program. Various spaces of the Porteous Building will be activated by artwork to invite free association and thematic play. Works will be contextualized in relation to six overarching concepts that together form a composite of creative strategies: filament, foment, detournement, document, procurement and enchantment. Viewers will be led along the tracts that are to be defined, in part, by the architecture of this historic building itself.

97th Annual Commencement
May 11 at 2 p.m.
Merrill Auditorium
Maine College of Art will hold a commencement ceremony for students graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and a Master of Fine Arts degree. The commencement speaker is artist Fred Wilson. Wilson lives and works in New York. He received a BFA from SUNY/Purchase in 1976 and his work of the last two decades, rearranging and reinterpreting museum collections, has been widely shown and discussed. Profiling him for their Art: 21 series, PBS noted that his installations “question – and force – the view to question how curators shape interpretations of historical truth, artistic value, and the language of display and what kinds of biases our cultural institutions express.” Wilson, who has worked extensively with the MFA program as a visiting artist at the College, will receive an Honorary Degree.

A second Honorary Degree will be awarded to Sarwar Khan. Khan represents the international nongovernmental organization Lok Kala Sagar Sansthan (LKSS) and their US counterpart, a nonprofit organization called Folk Arts Rajasthan (FAR). Together they work to provide humanitarian relief, education, and jobs for impoverished Merasi residents of the state of Rajasthan. The Merasi, which literally means “keepers of the story,” are musicians and storytellers with a tradition dating back centuries. They will perform at the commencement ceremony.

MECA at Cathedral Student Art Exhibit
June 1, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception
Corner of Franklin Arterial between Cumberland and Congress Streets
A juried exhibition of artwork from Cathedral School students in grades 1 – 8. Throughout the year, students from Maine College of Art design and deliver the arts curriculum at Cathedral School. This exhibition showcases the artwork developed as a result of this unique collaboration between two educational institutions.

Merit Exhibition 2008
March 19 through April 9, Porteous Building, Floors 1 - 4

The Merit Scholarship is an exhibition of work by MECA students who will be majoring in the 2008-2009 academic year and have achieved a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0. The work is juried by a group of faculty members representing each department. Outstanding entries are selected to receive awards. The reception and awards ceremony will be held on March 27 from 12:30 to 2 p.m. in the Student Center on the second floor of the Porteous Building, located at 522 Congress Street.

Students in the Metalsmithing and Jewelry Department have teamed up with students in the Graphic Design department to mount an exhibition at Rabelias, the bookstore with a food focus, located at 86 Middle Street. The show is entitled Food + Table and the art will be displayed throughout the store. Each piece will be surrounded by titles that relate to the theme of the work. There will also be a catalog of the process and the complete works, designed by the Graphic Design students that will act as a guide to the show. The show will be up for a month, from March 21 until April 21st. Please join us for the opening and celebration of the exhibition Friday, 21 March 2008 from 5:00 to 7:00pm. The reception is open to the public and will include refreshments provided by local chefs.

Each year, the D.L. Geary Brewing Company hosts a competition for the design of the label of their summer ale. The winning design is featured on more than 300,000 bottles of beer and packaging. The winning designer gets a $5000 scholarship. It is a great marriage of art, design and commerce. Congratulations to this year’s winner, Aaron Staples of Holden, Maine.

Each year, the printmaking department at Maine College of Art develops an exchange project as part of the curriculum. This year’s project is “One Day…” a collaboration between graphic design students at the Fine Arts Institute in Mongolia and MECA printmaking students. The theme stems from “One Day in Mongolia,” a historical motif in Mongolian art which celebrates everyday life. Students at both institutions have been working throughout the year to create and exchange limited edition prints based on their cross-cultural conversations and responses to each other’s traditions. Much of this dialogue has traspired online using Facebook. The printmaking students at MECA are also working with a graphic design student on a catalog for the exhibition.

The completed works will be on display simultaneously in both countries. In Maine, the exhibit will be held at drawing room from April 18 to 28 with an opening on April 18 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Viewing times noon to 8 p.m. on April 18, noon to 5 p.m. on April 23 and noon to 6 p.m. on April 25.

MECA Post-Baccalaureate in Art Education Open House
Students will participate in an exciting hands-on workshop led by an Art Education faculty member. The workshop will feature a demonstration of studio teaching and learning using contemporary instructional practices for a K-12 population. Participants will meet faculty, current students and alumni who will share more about their MECA experiences and life after graduation. The event will conclude with a question and answer session. Please register for this event by February 7th, by contacting the Admissions Office at 800.699.1509 or admissions@meca.edu.

The Woodworking & Furniture Design Majors will present "Design 24" an exhibition of their work on Friday February 1st, from 5 to 8 p.m. Exposing a variety of directions taken in the field of studio furniture design, the work produced within this department consists primarily of wood. However, students are free and encouraged to explore the possibilities of new and non-traditional materials and methods of craft.

Participating students include Sara Ameigh, Nicholas Patrizio, Erika Hoffman, Caitlin Purinton, Kelly Rudman, Tamera Hios, Tawny Collins, Annmarie Lunt. The show, on the second floor of the Porteous Building, is one night only. It is free and open to the public.

From the Inside IV: An Exhibition by MECA Staff
Fourteen members of the Maine College of Art staff will display work at the June Fitzpatrick Gallery at MECA from January 2 to January 26, 2008. Participating artists are Nik Bsullak ‘99, Jay Cornell '03, Jill Dalton '99, David Gillis, Erin Hutton '99, Rachel Katz '00 MFA, Colleen Kinsella, Zacary Perkins '08, Stephen Quirk '00, Jessica Rodrigue '03, Patti Sandberg '02, Phil Stevens '91, Cheslye Ventimiglia and Annie Wadleigh. An opening reception is scheduled for First Friday, January 4 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Alumni Alison Hildreth '76 spent the spring of 2007 as the guest artist for the printmaking department. The annual master print project included faculty member Joshua Eckels and student assistants Melissa Ruiz and Lisa Pixley. Work continued over the summer and into the fall.

The master print program is built into the Printmaking majors curriculum. Distinguished guest artists from the past years include, Rick Lowe, Tim Rollins, Amy Yoes, Carlo Pittore, and Mark Dion. Prints become part of the MECA Printmaking Department collection and are used for student study, exhibitions, and fundraising for student scholarships. Students are able to hone their technical and professional skills by creating a true master edition print, and have the opportunity to work closely with internationally recognized artists.

On December 12 at 1:30 p.m., the Cathedral School hold a dedication ceremony in honor of their newly constructed art classroom. Maine's First Lady Karen Baldacci, an advocate for arts education, will attend the ribbon cutting.

The arts program at the Cathedral School is unique in its origin. Since 2001, Maine College of Art students have designed and implemented the entire arts curriculum a this private Catholic School for grades K-8. The program, MECA at Cathedral, continues to thrive. This year, 14 students from Maine College of Art will teach 241 art classes over the 30-week school year. Each class will have a MECA intern and assistant intern teaching the history of art as well as engaging in hands-on art making, including painting, sculpture, fabric, photography and drawing. During the school year, Cathedral students will engage in numerous field trips to local art venues and be outfitted with disposable cameras for photography outings. At the end of each school year there is a juried exhibition of student artwork.

Because art was not integrated into the curriculum early in the development of the Cathedral School, there was no physical space allocated for art making. Until now, classrooms have doubled as art rooms. With the development of an arts curriculum comes a need for an appropriate venue for creating. The new art room provides sinks, drying racks, wall space and cork boards to support the creative activities of the Cathedral School.

The build-out of a dedicated art room, complete with supplies, is made possible with the support of grant funding from Simmons Foundation and Virginia Hodgkins Somers Foundation. The Bank of America Foundation has also provided support to continue the internship program. The MECA at Cathedral program is made possible by the generosity and vision of Dolores and Craig Foster.

Khen Rincpoche Lobzang Tsetan will be on the MECA campus on Friday, November 16. Khen Rinpoche was recently appointed by the Dalai Lama as the head abbot of Tashi Lunpo Monastery in Karnataka, India. In addition, he heads the Siddhartha School in Ladakh, India.

Given the Chinese occupation of Tibet, the preservation of Tibetan Buddhist culture and ethics depends upon Ladakh, a region which for over a millennium has been a stronghold of Tibetan Buddhism. The Siddhartha School is committed to offering a quality modern education while championing the traditional Buddhist culture and language.

Khen Rinpoche has visited the College several times as a guest of liberal arts faculty member Dana Sawyer. Sawyer has spent the past 20 years researching monks in India.

He will offer a blessing of the College at 5 p.m. in the lobby of the Porteous Building and a Dharma Talk at 7 p.m. in the Goodbody Auditorium in the Baxter Building. The evening lecture will provide an introduction to Tibetan Buddhism. Both events are free and open to the public.

The Porteous Building is located at 522 Congress Street and the Baxter Building is located at 619 Congress Street.

Students in the Art History and Curatorial Practice major have organized an exhibition of student work around the topic of humor. "Humor: Subtle to Serious" deals with the many textures of humor through a range of subject matter and media. From tongue-in-cheek to outright hilarious, these works are a venue for experiencing and understanding the many manifestations of humor within our culture. The show opens in the Friedman Student Gallery on November 16 and continues through December 1.

The Other Last Moment, 2007, Artist-in-Residence Project at Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center, Buffalo, NY

Kirsten Reynolds MFA '04 has been selected to receive a $26,000 Artist Advancement Award from the NH Charitable Foundation, Greater Piscataqua
Region. Kirsten, a Newmarket resident since 1998, works in installation, sculpture and digital imagery. Subversive humor and allusions to the grotesque define her theatrical tableaus, which test the limits of rational perception to suggest an architectural

and bodily space without boundaries: an impossible space of movement. She will use the grant award
to focus on proposing and creating new architectural installations of greater scale and complexity, promoting and exhibiting her work at a national level and expanding her newly emerging body of work in digital photography and video.

Now in its 6th year, the Artist Advancement Award provides financial support to individual visual artists and craftspeople in the Piscataqua Region to promote their artistic growth. It is the largest private foundation and endowed grant of its kind given to an individual artist nationally. Grant recipients are selected on the basis of strong artistic work and a career advancement plan for how they will use the grant to encourage their artistic development.

ART 21 Preview Screenings to be held at the ICA at MECA
The ICA will preview three episodes from the acclaimed PBS series "Art in the Twenty-First Century" season four which will air on PBS in late October. Through in-depth profiles and interviews, the four-part series will reveal the inspiration, vision and techniques behind the creative works of some of today's most accomplished contemporary artists. These screenings are free and open to the public. Thursday night screening will
be followed by a facilitated discussion.

October 2 from 12:30 to 2:00 p.m., '"Romance"
Featuring Laurie Simmons , Judy Pfaff, Lari Pittman, Pierre Huyghe
October 4 from 12:30 to 2:00 p.m.,:"Protest"
Featuring An-My Lê , Alfredo Jaar, Jenny Holzer, Nancy Spero
October 4 from 6:30 to 8 p.m, “Paradox”
Featuring Mark Bradford, Jennifer Allora, Guillermo Calzadilla, Robert Ryman

Crow Cianciola '06 has received a prestigious scholarship from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Graduate Program. He is among 34 students from an applicant pool of 977 nationwide to receive the scholarship, which covers education costs up to $300,000. The scholarship will enable him to enroll in the MFA program of the California College of the Arts. Cianciola plans to pursue studio art and teaching. Another Portland resident, Randall Regier, used a Cooke Foundation scholarship to complete his graduate studies at MECA. Regier graduated from MECA's master's program this spring with a degree in sculpture.

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