Good news from RI Citizens for the Arts: state-wide funding for the arts/creative sector was restored to the 2011 budget by the House Finance Committee last night.  According to RICFA’s press release, the budget has the support of the Senate Finance Committee as well, although the full General Assembly still needs to approve the budget in the next few weeks.

While thanking House and Senate fiscal leaders for restoring arts and creative funding in a tough environment, RICFA notes that the Committee’s proposed budget fully restores the 1% for the public art program, the film tax credit, and $700,000 in grant funds through RI State Council on the Arts ($600,000 for discretionary grants and $100,000 for a Waterfire and RI Philharmonic collaboration this summer).  So, yay.

Barack Obama has an eye for talent—and it’s pointed at Rhode Island.

This weekend, Obama appointed Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri to the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities, which describes its mission as connecting people through various arts and cultural tourism.  Lahiri joins five other PCAH committee appointees, including visual artist Chuck Close, BET co-founder Sheila Johnson, and Ken Solomon, CEO of the Tennis Channel.

Lahiri, whose novels and short story collections include The Namesake, Interpreter of Maladies and Unaccustomed Earth, moved to Rhode Island as a toddler and graduated from South Kingston High.  (Her father Amar has been a librarian at URI since 1970, earning a master’s there in 1973, and his wife Tapati is currently a URI degree candidate.)  Lahiri’s memories of Rhode Island include observing some panic over an impending hurricane.  (What, no mention of bread and milk?)

Although she didn’t attend college in Rhode Island, Jhumpa has spoken at local commencements, given readings at Brown and URI, and received an honorary URI degree.  She also taught creative writing courses at RISD and Brown.

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The Hive Archive will host the LUNAFEST film festival and fundraiser on Friday, December 11, from 5-8PM at The Spot, 286 Thayer Street in Providence. Nine international short films by women filmmakers will be screened at the event.

The Hive Archive will also present Hive Distinguished Women in the Arts awards to two local recipients at a reception before the screening. Megan Hall, Health Care Reporter for WRNI and an independent radio producer; and Deb Ruggiero, host of Amazing Women talk show on 630 WPRO AM & 99.7 AM, Director of Community Development for Citadel Radio, and a State Representative. Reception with light refreshments begins at 5pm and the films start at 6:15pm.

Tickets are $25. Seating is limited. To reserve tickets email the.hive.archive@gmail.com or call 401.241.1714.

15% of all proceeds will go to The Breast Cancer Fund.

The Steel Yard is proud to offer our first Community Course specifically
for students ages 14-18.

In Eye of the Beholder, with Claire Wicks, students will learn will
examine our own creative urges to try to figure out what it is that
inspires us. We will be taking a brief look into the long history of
ceramic vessels that were made to impress, to awe, to confuse, and to
celebrate the technical as well as the symbolic meaning of culture. Large
and small in scale, these vessels have been made for millenniums to be
placed in sacred places, in exhibitions, and in homes. Students may work
in hand-building and wheel techniques and will also be exploring various
surface decoration methods. This class will allow students to create a
body of work that exemplifies their own exquisite visions. Class members
will not only focus on expressing themselves through art, but also through
their voices, via regular class and one-on-one discussions. This will be
an exciting experience, so come with an open mind and bring your creative
ideas! No previous ceramics experience necessary—this class is open to all
levels, but is only for students between the ages of 14 and 18. Materials
and tools will be provided. Enrollment in this course includes additional
monitored access to the studio on Sunday evenings from 6:30pm to 9:30pm.

Price: $255.00
Dates: 10/03 – 11/21
Time: 10:00 am – 1:00 pm (3 hours)
Class Days: Saturdays
Number of Classes: 8

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Website: www.thesteelyard.org

Come view new works by Hilary Merzbacher, recent graduate of the RISD Illustration Department and the latest to be LAUNCHed. (You can meet Hilary at a reception on Friday August 28th.) LAUNCH at the Gail Cahalan Gallery has been designed exclusively to bridge RISD senior students and recent graduates with the local community as an initial public viewing. Featuring works from graduates and seniors across all disciplines of fine art and design, LAUNCH offers an opportunity to view, connect, and witness the ripe transformation of emerging talent.

Gail Cahalan Gallery, Providence Piers (show will be up for Gallery Night this Thursday)

Part of the excitement of swimming in the ocean is the terror of the unknown underneath the surface of our churning, murky Atlantic. When my sisters and I were kids paddling in the waves, we would always end up singing a cheery, musical ditty we made up that goes “Swimming in the ocean, drowning in the sea”. To this day we sing our personal one-line melody when swimming. It innocently hints at the seductive mix of surreal beauty and dangerous grotesquery hidden below the water’s surface.

This inspired the new show “Mermaids: Urbane & Arcane” opening this Thursday at Firehouse 13 and running through August 1st. No cutesy Disney mermaids or tourist pleasing pretties here. It will showcase art work made for the show from Valerie Kitchin, Victoria Lockard and Jessie Lee Perry. My sisters are models in some of Valerie Kitchin’s luscious photographs. Expect an aquatic carnival vibe, with performance art by Awesome Science and a short film from Moira Brady and Brian Birch.

Party on from 9pm to 1am with electronic dance music and aquatic videography from DJs Christopher Wade (from LoveLife), Tim Howe and Danny Satori. The cover is $3 for those arriving after the opening show, cash bar.

6pm to 9pm, Thursday, Firehouse 13, contact; mermaids.providence@gmail.com

Woolly Fair! Wooled of Wheels.

We made sure we were home this year for this event, having heard so much of what we missed that it was worse than being sick (repeatedly) when the circus came to town as a kid.

Come join the celebratory mayhem of sheer creative fun, our own Little Rhody’s Burning Man. Is it an art fair, a creative flare, a woolly bare, a roustabouts lair? Who knows but you, since you become part of the syzygy once you roll into the orbit.

$15 for folks with jobs. $10 for students. For tickets or preregistration go here.

If you have a wheeled creation idea, it may not be too late to register. Be here, and be sphere. Er.

July 25, 6pm to 1am, 532 Kinsley Avenue

If you haven’t been by the Dirt Palace’s front window in a while it is time to take a look. Safety School by Joe and Will Buzzell fills the window with what at first seems to be nothing more than traffic signs strewn about. But as you get closer you can see that in fact the piece is littered with bits of very important information. Small signs contain information about different social services, some public some private, that low income households could find useful. I think it is the selflessness and pure practicality that makes this window so charming.

Safety School will be up until late July.

As Beth already noted—and yes, that WAS a shameful cover, Time—tonight marks Providence’s fourth Pecha Kucha (say it with me: pih-CHA kih-CHA) Night.  Pecha Kucha is Japanese for the sound of conversation, and if you don’t practice saying it correctly, the whole group will be forced to recite it every time.  (Plus, if you say “PET-cha KOOTCH-ah,” someone may mistake that for a very forward invitation and throw a drink in your face.  No one likes to waste a drink.)

At PKN, 8-12 presenters speak for 6 minutes and 40 seconds each (20 slides, 20 seconds per slide).  After attending several sessions, I can say the concept works well, which is reassurance Pecha Kucha doesn’t really need after successfully pulling these off in 196 cities worldwide since 2003.  The time limit keeps any Chatty Cathys in line, and the mix of designs and projects ranges from fun to weird to flat-out awe-inspiring.  Some of the ideas for solutions to 21st-century problems make me proud of our local designers, students, and instructors, and if you just want to show how pretty your art is, heck, I’m more than happy to learn about what you do and what inspires you.

If you’re not a polished professional or didn’t go to RISD, don’t worry; no one will laugh at you.  The supportive attitude of the crowd and the enthusiasm of folks who line up to present will keep this going for a long, long time.  There’s also a different theme each month, which helps connect the presenters even while their material is so varied.  Tonight’s presenters include Matt Grigsby, Alida Sun, Gabriel Feld, Arley-Rose Torsone, Amy McDermott, Josh Silverman, Donald Richardson, and Yarrow Thorne.  They seem like a diverse crowd, but they’ll all present something related to exploration, which just has to be fun.

And yes, I’ve whined about the long stretches of schmoozing at PKN (a full hour before the presentations and another 45-60 minutes halfway through), but I am just not a schmoozer.  For those who are, it’s not a bad opportunity to network or just chat about shared interests while the anti-socialites grab themselves a drinky-poo.

Tonight, doors at 7:20 p.m., Local 121, 121 Washington Street, Providence (event is free, drinks aren’t)

Today is the final day of RISD’s Annual Graduate Thesis Exhibition featuring work from 14 art and design disciplines including ceramics, industrial design, glass and photography. (Reviewed by Bill Van Siclen in the ProJo)

Artist Elizabeth Skadden sends out this invitation,

… my final thesis work was a reconstruction of the [AS220 Mercantile] building … I am inviting anyone/everyone to come to the show on its last day … and take things out of my installation. i want pieces of mercantile to exist elsewhere so come on over and check out what you want. please email me and let me know what you took so i can map it. also remember that the walls in the installation are up for grabs, so if you want them, they come down on sunday. also if you feel weird about taking things out of convention center, just write me and tell me what you want and i will save it for you.

So you could do that.

Saturday, noon to 8pm, Rhode Island Convention Center, Exhibit Hall A, 1 Sabin Street

(Photo:Gigi Gatewood)

I must confess, this poster stopped me dead in my tracks.  If you are unfamiliar with South by Ernest Shackleton, the account of his insanely grueling two-year expedition in the Antarctic, then it won’t mean much. I’m assuming that this Sophie Shackleton ‘09 is a descendant and I am wildly curious about the show.

SoloFest2009 at Brown University is already under way, and runs through May 3rd. I have not found a description of this particular performance.  Clearly she means to reference her famous ancestor’s monumental adventure of survival, but for all I know it’s an avant garde interpretive dance. I just don’t know.

For the uninitiated (and it is a cult) South would make a fantastic beach read for the summer, as it makes you feel very very cold. Halfway through I had already lost two fingers and the tip of my nose. And ladies, as you read about these uncomplaining, brave and resourceful men, look around you.  A young man of my acquaintance recently fussed about the terrible pollen… just saying.

Free, Friday, Strasberg Studio off Leeds Courtyard at Brown
7:00pm and 10:00pm — ‘Mr. Glass’ by Jonathan Dent
8:30pm and 11:30pm — ‘South’ by Sophie Shackleton

I’m guessing little of Rhode Island’s FY 2010 budget is soothing. But a watercolor on the budget’s cover called “Leave Your Troubles Behind” is offsetting the despair (or at least has to be better for morale than, say, plywood-boarded homes). Kudos to artist Donna Kenney Kirwin for winning the 2009 “Scenes of RI” show with this painting of the Block Island ferry and for stating,

“Hopefully, this scene reminds people of the peaceful feeling that a day by the ocean can bring.”

We have some alarming issues in Lil’ Rhody, but as Ms. Kirwin helps remind us, we’re still lucky to live in the Ocean State…At least until someone sells the nickname to plug our deficits.

(Photo: RI State Council on the Arts.)

Last year on a sweltering August day I was handed a small envelope containing two tickets to see David Sedaris. It was a birthday gift from my mother. I looked at her and said, “This is eight months away!”. In my mind eight months away meant a lifetime. I could ride a motorcycle across the country (I don’t know how to ride a motorcycle); I could be in Maine writing the great American novel surrounded only by an expansive pine tree forest. How dare she predict such a predictable future? I felt gypped.

So I have great seats for David Sedaris’ reading at PPAC on April 6th. It starts at 8pm and as far as I can tell from the website they still have tickets. It will be great. David Sedaris on Letterman

Monday, April 6, tickets $33 - $60.50

[editor's note: cool mom]

Before that cannoli has me licking my monitor, here’s some more wood sculpture news–particularly if you’re missing that woodsy thing recently dismantled at Brown:

Last night we spied some [RISD students? high school students? random enthusiasts?] erecting whimsical wood sculptures of various sizes in Davis Park (across from Nathanael Greene Middle School).  Winds that brought our recycling bins halfway down the street seemingly left these untouched, as they still looked great this morning.  They are cooler than this clip art but will probably succomb to the elements/a time limit.  Check ‘em out soon.

Interrobang!?, a web and print ‘zine for the arts in RI, is seeking submissions for its inaugural issue.

From their website:

Our goal is to provide a formal venue for voices of all kinds, whether it be fiction, nonfiction, creative essays, fine art, or experimental music and video. This is is city suffused with talent: We want your stories, your pictures, your music, your oddball esoterica.

Interrobang focuses on the local community with a regional grasp, but will consider submissions from elsewhere as long as they follow our guidelines. So don’t be shy: Show us who you are.

There are no fees for submitting, and (currently) no cash prizes for selection – just complimentary copies of the print edition, byline and bio. Deadline for submission is March 1, 2009 for the inaugural issue, though they will take submissions on rolling basis year ’round.

To find out more, visit Interrobang!? online and read their submission guidelines.

You may be in luck.  Madoff scandal victim Brandeis University is closing down its Rose Art Museum late this summer and selling thousands of works by artists like Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Nam June Paik, James Rosenquist, and Roy Lichtenstein.  In addition to its collections, the Rose hosts public programs, live jazz on the second Sunday each month, and random lunchtime string quartet performances.  Today’s Boston Globe reports the museum’s closure and art sale, which understandably angers donors and their families, will create funds to reinvest elsewhere at the university.

“This is not a happy day in the history of Brandeis,” [Brandeis President Jehuda] Reinharz said last night. “The Rose is a jewel. But for the most part it’s a hidden jewel. It does not have great foot traffic, and most of the great works we have, we are just not able to exhibit. We felt that, at this point given the recession and the financial crisis, we had no choice.”

I don’t know about you, but I find this depressing as heck.  Rhode Island universities, please don’t follow suit.