Support CityWide Open Studios!

If you've ever been to CityWide Open Studios, it's the best ways to spend October in New Haven. Watch the above video to learn more about their fundraising efforts for this year's event!

This short film shows you the perspective of Open Studios from the words of artists, community activists, and many others. To put it in the phrase best said by Semi Semi-Dikoko: "It needs to be experienced."

Experience it yourself by watching the video above! And donate to CityWide Open Studios. Follow +NhvOrg (@NHVORG on Twitter) to find out more about how you can participate as a supporter of Artspace and CWOS. There are many different rewards.

From their posting:

City-Wide Open Studios brings artists living and working in Connecticut together in an exhibition that spreads out across the City of New Haven over mutiple weekends. From recent graduates of the area's fine arts programs, to distinguished artists with international reputations, to nascent collectives, social-justice oriented public art and self-taught artists, CWOS celebrates the ideas and process of a dynamic and generous creative community.

We're celebrating our 19th year with our first-ever Kickstarter because we need your support. This event is for you--the artist, the visitor, the citizen, the explorer, but we can't do it without your help.

We're best known for finding and rehabbing empty historic buildings and securing them for the pop-up installations by artists that inspire and create pride in our unusual built environment. Our overall budget is $185,000. This covers all the clean up, rehabilitation, coordination, printing, website, security, insurance, fees for guest curators, signage, and special projects.  And much more. We keep our fees to artists as low as possible--way lower than other Open Studios across the US-- and most events are free to attend. The good news is that we do have grant funds that cover a good chunk of our budget. We're $25,000 short.

Visitors and friends: Every dollar you give helps us get closer to being able to fully fund this program that is so eagerly anticipated by so many. Your support also keeps it free so that all can enjoy it.

Participating artists: please show your support by standing with us and opening up your studio and space--this year you can sign up right here at Kickstarter. Every artist who signs up gets us closer to being able to present the CWOS festival. And the sooner you sign up, the longer your work is on view on the CWOS.org website for audiences to see.

With your backing, we will also be able, for the very first time, to advertise in two national arts publications--HyperAllergic and Two Coats of Paint--so that we can attract many more people from the region to come and raise our national profile.

We also need your help to enrich the experience for all who are new to the visual arts. In response to requests from community leaders and educators, we've adopted a theme of Game On! to engage many more artists and citizens in playful, kinetic, and interactive public art.  We need your help to connect these projects to community-based groups, neighbors, and other  stakeholders of the huge, empty, Goffe Street Armory.

Check out their rewards! Some of the things they're offering are pretty neat.

ArtSpace: Summer Apprenticeship Program with Wardell Milan

Artspace Summer Apprenticeship Program 2016 from Artspace New Haven on Vimeo.

This summer, Wardell Milan will be the featured artist at ArtSpace, teaching his skills with creating photos based on collage dioramas. The program is open to high school students, and you can sign up for it by signing up online or by visiting ArtSpace at 50 Orange St. during the hours mentioned in the video.

Last year's artist, Titus Kaphar, was featured in Time.Com for his work with social justice (see link). This is just another example of New Haven providing the kinds of opportunities that make it the greatest small city in America.

Celebrate ArtSpace! 2014

Post by Artspace New Haven.

City-Wide Open Studios Today.

Here is what CWOS is like this weekend. You can attend all day. Directions below. It's free.
Website
Artist Directory

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CWOS AltSpace This Weekend

This weekend, CWOS AltSpace is the place to be. Watch the video of 2013's CWOS AltSpace and check out the map below the video to see where to go. This is CityWide Open Studios, New Haven's premiere art event brought to you by ArtSpace.

Read more about it [here].
The Alternative Space at The Goffe Street Armory

October 11 & 12, 2014

This video is from last year.

CWOS 2013: Alternative Space from New Haven, Connecticut on Vimeo.


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Book Signing at ArtSpace at 6pm

"Living and Sustaining a Creative Life"

6:00pm - Artspace 50 Orange St. 

Doors Open

6:00pm - 6:30pm 

"Living and Sustaining a Creative Life" for sale

6:30 - 7:30pm

Author and Artists from Smart Painting talk:

Sharon Louden, artist and author of "Living and Sustaining a Creative Life" will discuss her recently published collection of artist essays.  The conversation will open with a discussion of the motivations behind the book, which looks at the question of "day/professional labor" and "artistic labor" as forces that are always in tension with one another.  Following, contributing writers and artists Sharon Butler and Jay Davis' will read short exerpts from their contributions to Louden's text.  

The conversation will open up to involve two of the artists featured in Smart Painting, the current exhibition at Artspace. Namely, Blake Shirley and Sharon Butler as well as the show's curator, John O'Donnell.  Rather than host a routine Artist Talk, this conversation will provide an entrance point to discuss how everyday labor and ritual influences an artist's practice by manifesting in the material relationships at play in the artwork itself or informing an artists' process, conceptual toilings, psychological longings and overall sense of time.

We have invited multi-media artist Larissa Hall to join conversation to reflect on the video project she presented at CWOS 2013 which described the working conditions of artists who were also full time graphic designers, stay at home moms and waitresses, among other professions.  

A Party In Every Vacant Lot

This was the opening.  There are less people there now.

In nearly vacant lot, here in New Haven, you will find that there is inevitably a party going on.  That's just how we do in this town.

Eventually, perhaps a skyscraper like 360 State might take the small acreage of this plot; but in the meantime, let's enjoy it with a nice game of mini golf.  You're invited to play (wed-sat).

Artspace, the illustrious studio on the corner of Orange and Crown, hosts exhibits here in town all the time.  This autumn, treat yourself to a game of minigolf with your friends, on a course made, of course, by local artists here in town.

This Friday: Breathe on 9

Artspace in New Haven is having an exhibit on Friday as part of the On9 Experience.

This is Pinball Golf.  It's the KidAnalog exhibit which you will see at this event.  Other providers of mini golf courses at this exhibit include Matt Feiner of Devils Gear, MakeHaven, Silas Finch, and several others.  It's best to get there any time after work, and then stay until after it gets dark.

The name of the neighborhood event is "BreatheOn9" where there will also be outdoor tables in the street for Bentara, a fashion show, a mobile bus full of vintage items for sale, and much more.

Friday Afternoon Recap

Clouds and rain gave way late in the day on Friday, as people downtown were gearing up downtown for an interesting afternoon.  Into evening, we had several different things going on, aside from cooler than usual temperatures for the past couple days, and the first real glimpses of sunlight since Weds.

At The Grove, members discuss plans for the 48-Hour Film Project, which is now in progress until Sunday.  On the table were various different genres, and each were discussed with varying degrees of fervor.  Least fervorous of all were the "zombie" genre of film, as described by one member to be a significant challenge with regard to the amount of costume makeup involved.  The best hint we can come up with?  Let's put it this way, can you imagine a Western Detective movie?  If all goes well, that's what they're going to make, hopefully, within the constraint of the 48-hour timeframe they have to accomplish it.

Simulaneously, Michael Galvin of ArtSpace disregards all joggers and passers by as he meticulously arranges the gallery in that forum.  A special "Summer Apprenticeship Show" was opening that evening and is still on display.

You can visit the Artspace Website anytime to find out more about current and future shows.

You can also visit The Grove to find out more about what makes co-working space great, and
what makes it one of the best of such places in town. Membership is easy & worth looking into.

Colin McEnroe at ArtSpace

Colin McEnroe

Rephrased from the Artspace Press Release (converted to past tense)

Earlier Today, Colin McEnroe taped his show on Friday, February 22 at Artspace (50 Orange Street)! Colin was talking with guests, including Hank Paper from Best Video, about this year’s Oscar nominated films and making predictions about who will win. 

The mood was fun, festive, and opinionated. Audience members were encouraged to participate and ask questions.

The show was taped from 1:00 to 2:00 PM, so guests arrived by 1:07PM. The show will be broadcast live on WNPR (90.5 FM) and repeated tonight (Friday Feb. 22) from 8:00 to 9:00 PM.

Shannon Connors, Artspace’s Communications & Community Outreach Coordinator gave me the look of death when I nearly knocked over a painting during the taping of the show.  

Here is a short video about the experience: 


And here are tweets from all of the guests on today's show:
Tweets from @NhvOrg/today-s-show-on-npr