Gallery | #LEARN from the past
Peruse past gallery and learning experiences that are too cool to not share.
For previous camps for youth, see our Teen + Kids page.
For previous gallery events and exhibition, browse Exhibit | On View.
I may occasionally wax philosophically about events and overshare. If this interests you, look for more on the blog and on Substack.
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Pigments from Petals | 7.25.24
Art, Ecology, Culture: Lyceum at Silo City | Buffalo NY
A collaboration six months in the making : July 25, 2024 we hosted the first learning workshop at Silo City for Lyceum, a program created in active collaboration with Lyceum Director of Arts Olivia McCarthy, in keeping with Lyceum's mission of using art, ecology and culture to revitalize the post-industrial landscape of Buffalo's waterfront Silo City complex.
Future sessions will be held on August 3 and August 18.
2024 truly is the year for Pigments from Petals: this simple, cathartic teaser class that introduces students to natural dyeing and connection to plant friends is becoming our most requested class.
For this session, ten students gathered under the central UB School of Architecture and Planning's Trellis installation and foraged the grounds for invasive specimens to use as materials for flower pounded botanical prints as artifacts of their time, together with materials I was able to forage from Dara Friedman and Josh Smith's 2022 River Hill pollinators site; a labyrinth of beneficials shaped like both lungs and Buffalo's cityscape. It was a perfect evening, and students were treated to a tour of the space, which is normally only open to the public during daylight weekends, and the late day shadows of Maureen McCarty's AGAIN. Sex Death and Other Altered States was a special treat. With luck and support, this workshop session marks the beginning of a long and profitable series of accessible art making for the public that helps fund the vital efforts to bring this area back into fruitful public use.
These silos and elevators are relevant not just to Buffalo, but have international connections, not the least of which is a tenuous connection to the Bauhaus movement of Weinmar, Germany. I wrote about this back in 2021 when I interviewed fellow artist Matthew Bach for the East Aurora Advertiser. As one of my first arts features, it's near and dear to me for all sort of reasons.
Read more about this exciting new collaboration with Lyceum, why it matters and how to be a part of future sessions
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Plein Air Weaving | 7.21.24
Olmsted Camp | Sardinia NY
Our retreats to Olmsted Camp continue and continue to amaze. Our second session was a full roster of weaving students who spent a sun-filled Sunday learning to manipulate warp and weft and left fulfilled and chock full of a new skill. We are so grateful to the family and to Springville Center for the Arts for making this creative collaboration possible.
Our final summer session will be exercises in Force + Light on August 11: a day of foraged botanicals and print-making using cyanotype and flower pounding to capture the dog days of summer two-ways.
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Weave: Series | 7.15 + 7.22.24
Roycroft Campus | East Aurora NY
An abbreviated two-date series for students to both Learn and Challenge themselves. While originally planned as Plein Air experience, WNY weather had other plans. We started our session in the Castiglia Art Center and while we did finish our second session outside, it was certainly ...airy.
This summer's weather has been almost as erratic as the news and election cycle. Just when you think you have a bright, clear spot, some unexpected "crazy train" comes in to derail you. This was most evident on July 22; the second session of our originally intended Plein Air Weaving. I also have a "Wild Weaving" Series - this was not it. But WNY weather had other plans. We set up on the lawn at campus on a perfect sunny evening and settled in to weave. Forecast called for light rain around 10pm - perfectly timed. Good feelings abounded. A few sprinkles later, we retreated out of abundance of caution to the generous overhang of the Power House. Within minutes, a rolling "thundercell" set up shop directly over East Aurora, bringing driving rain, hail and severe lightning. After debating the merit of "making a run for it," we settled in and decided as a group to ride out the storm. We had to move our chairs frequently to dodge the rain, and there were several short lived moments where we were sure we had made a mistake, but we can truly say we participated in Wild Weaving, and the results were amazing. Much fun was had, and dare I say, the drama of the storm distracted the students from the anxiety of creating enough to get out of their ways. The results were terrific, and we're already looking forward to a more involved series in the Fall (INSIDE).
Our next summer weaving sessions will be
Rochester Museum of Science Cumming Nature Preserve: Aug 4
Foraged Forms | 7.7.24
Olmsted Camp | Sardinia NY
Our opening retreat in the Olmsted Summer Learning Series - Off Loom Weave and Foraged Forms: an adventure in unconventional basketry and sculptural weaving. Made possible by the support of Springville Center for the Arts and the family of Harold LeRoy Olmsted.
In this four-hour session, participants learned the basics of twining and basketry technique using soft, easy to manage materials before a guided forage session for vines, runner, fronds and green elements from the grounds of Olmsted Camp: a private secluded camp on the edge of the Cattaraugus Creek gorge 20 minutes south of East Aurora, built by artist and architect Harold LeRoy Olmsted and managed into the present day by his descendants.
I wrote about Olmsted and his magical camp here, in 2022. This article, unbeknowst at the time, laid the foundations for this collaboration.
We will be back at Olmsted for Plein Air Tapestry Weaving on July 21 and on August 11 for "Force + Light" - a retreat using cyanotype and flower pounding to create botanical prints from foraged flowers.
Pigments from Petals | 6.26.24
Masterson's Apiary Center | East Aurora, NY
Expression of Natural Pigments in plants is the basis of natural dyes. The methods and executions vary. While typically we extract and express through water, hammers also serve as a perfect beginner's foray. Each June we gather under the wisteria canopy at Masterson's for National Pollinators Month. This year weather forced us into the greenhouse, and we spent our time listening to the rain while we worked. Not only was it cathartic, the light was beautiful. A feast for the senses.
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Pigments from Petals | 6.19.24
Castellani Art Museum | Niagara University
"Who says you can't bring a hammer to an art museum?"
- Ellen Owens, Director, Castellani Art Museum
An exploration of force and the beauty of expression. This session was birthed out of the dream of making a scene at a very institutional sort of place, and the idea of making art museum accessible. Held outside, elevated on the portico of the Castellani overlooking the Niagara University campus main thoroughfare, we fulfilled our mission of making a beautiful mess, enduring 90 degree heat and creating beauty out of just the right balance of artfulness and savagery.
Thank you, Evan, Ellen and CAM for trusting in the vision and making this possible! Look for more of these events at Silo City in July and August 2024.
