Items tagged with 'Arts Center of the Capital Region'
DIY photography, and documenting Troy
snowy day @ualbany pic.twitter.com/3wAISrFP7a
— Patrick Dodson (@patrickdodson) November 16, 2018
Talented local photographer Patrick Dodson has two different classes coming up at the Arts Center of the Capital Region that could be interesting and fun -- and registration is now open:
March 3: DIY Photography
"Have you ever wanted to take on photography but don't have the budget for the latest and greatest gear? Learn some easy do-it-yourself tips and tricks to give your images a more professional look. This class will use supplies easily purchased from your local crafts store to modify light and add artistic elements to your photos. A DSLR camera is encouraged but this class can be taken using only a smartphone camera."
March 16-30: Explore Troy: Documentary Photography
"Explore and enjoy Troy! You will learn the basics of documentary photography and building a story. You will learn from award winning examples of visual storytelling and then work together to create a 'zine' of downtown Troy, telling the story of the people and shops that make the city unique." (It's three sessions on Saturdays.)
See the links for registration info.
More classes
As you probably know, the Arts Center offers all sorts of classes -- from dance to digital art to jewelry making to painting to pottery to writing (and many things in between).
The Business of Art at the Arts Center
This looks like a potentially helpful and interesting opportunity: The Arts Center of the Capital Region has organized a free course for artists to build their business and marketing skills. Blurbage for the "Business of Art":
Throughout this weekly, 7-month course, artists will learn the importance of developing their personal brand and managing their business in order to leave with the tools and confidence to turn their creative ventures into successful ones.
A cohort of 12 motivated artists from all disciplines will be selected for this program tailored to creatives in the business world. Throughout the course, you will learn how to talk about yourself as an artist and as a business, how to create and maintain a balanced budget, learn to use social media to its full potential, and identify and approach funders and mentors.
The course and cohort will challenge you to take chances and hold you accountable from beginning to end, and by the time you're finished, you will have the skills you need to run your business well.
See the link above details about eligibility and the application process. The course starts in November and runs in May of next year. The application deadline is September 16.
Here's the fall season for the Arts Center's "Social Media" crafts-and-drinks series
The popular "Social Media" drinks-and-arts series at the Arts Center of the Capital Region is back for a new season starting next week. Blurbage:
Each event provides an opportunity to try something new in our state of the art studios. Etch prints, throw on the wheel, make sweet treats, and much more! Every event includes a complimentary cocktail, so come over, get creative, and get social!
A schedule is below. This season also includes a few classes at the University Club in Albany.
"Writing Flash" at the Arts Center
This could be fun and interesting: The Arts Center is offering a "flash" writing course starting in July. Blurbage (link added):
For better or for worse, our culture is one with a short attention span. In this class, we will look at the shortest forms of writing, the micro-essay, flash fiction, or prose poetry. Writing flash can be a way to condense our experiences and ideas down to their most explicit core or their most delightful truth. We can only become better writers as we zoom in, learning to pay attention to each syllable and breath in our writing. By the end of the course, you'll have a series of flashes ready to send out for publication.
Maybe you can discover your own inner Lydia Davis.
The instructor for the class is Olivia Dunn, a writer and visiting assistant professor at Skidmore. (Here's a podcast interview with her from last fall about writing and micro essays.)
The first class is July 16 at 7 pm, and it meets Mondays for four sessions through August 6. The course fee is $125 for people who are not members of the Arts Center.
The Social Media drinks-and-art series is back for another season at The Arts Center
The "Social Media" drinks-and-arts series at the Arts Center of the Capital Region will be back for another season starting in January. Blurbage:
Join us on the 1st and 3rd Tuesday every month for Social Media! You'll meet new people and make art in a new medium. Every event will feature a signature cocktail or seasonal beverage paired with the art form we'll be experimenting with! Your first drink is on us.
A condensed version of the schedule is below, it ranges from pottery to burlesque to beer to pirates.
These evening have been very popular and often sell out well ahead. So if you're interested in going, it's not a bad idea to claim a spot earlier rather than later.
The Arts Center's Social Media drinks-and-art series is back for the fall
There's a new slate of dates for the popular "Social Media" drinks-and-art series at the Arts Center of the Capital Region. And the scheduled has been bumped up to two dates per month, the first and third Tuesday of each month.
Each night pairs a cocktail or season beverage with a different art form. The upcoming schedule ranges from figure drawing to pottery to salsa dancing to cupcake decorating.
Dates in the past have filled up, so claiming a spot earlier rather than later isn't a bad idea. Here's a quick look at the upcoming schedule...
iPhoneography -- and other photo classes -- at the Arts Center
It's easy overlook how amazing the cameras on mobile phones have become because they're so commonplace now. But the number of people who now have easy access to a high-quality camera would have been almost unimaginable a few decades ago.
The Arts Center of the Capital Region has a class coming up February 4 about making the most of these cameras. Blurbage for "iPhoneography":
We have them with us constantly; our phones are an extension of ourselves. In this workshop we will discover all the functions and features of our iPhone and iPad cameras. We will learn fun shooting techniques, and some stellar apps for editing. Students will need to bring their own iPhones and iPads.
The instructor for the class is professional photographer Katherine Wright.
It's Saturday, February 4 from 10 am to 4 pm at the Arts Center in downtown Troy. The class fee is $119.
Other photo classes
The Arts Center has a bunch of photography classes lined up over the next few months, including classes about food photography, pet photography, and using DSLR cameras.
Schedule for drinks-and-art series at the Arts Center extended
he Arts Center of the Capital Region is extending its popular "Social Media" drinks-and-art series with a new schedule of dates in the next year. Topics range from jewelry making to brewing to collage.
Series blurbage:
Visit the Arts Center on the third Tuesday of every month to meet new people and try making art in a different medium. Every event starts with an hour-long workshop designed for everyone to enjoy - from beginners to life - long artists - and ends with a specialty prepared cocktail or seasonal beverage that has been paired with the art form we'll be experimenting with. Please bring your ID - we'll also be serving beer, wine and soft drinks!
Many of the dates so far have sold out, so if you're interested in going, it's a good idea to claim your spot earlier rather than later. Tickets are $35 and include materials and snacks. Drinks are extra.
Here's the upcoming schedule for the new year...
New drinks-and-art series at the Arts Center
The Arts Center of the Capital Region has a new series of events that pairs drinks with DIY art projects. Blurbage for the series, called "Social Media":
Visit the Arts Center on the third Tuesday of every month to meet new people and try making art in a different medium. Every event starts with an hour-long workshop designed for everyone to enjoy - from beginners to life - long artists - and ends with a specialty prepared cocktail or seasonal beverage that has been paired with the art form we'll be experimenting with. Please bring your ID - we'll also be serving beer, wine and soft drinks!
For added fun, Star Bartenders Institute will be sending bartenders in training, so let's all learn together! We'll send you home every time with the work of art you created!
The events are from 5:30-7:30 pm are $25 to attend. That includes arts supplies and a drink.
The first event -- "Pottery & Mudslides" -- is tonight (Tuesday), and it's sold out.
The upcoming schedule for the fall is after the jump. If they continue to be popular, it's probably worth signing up sooner rather than later if you'd like to attend.
Scanning the class catalog for the fall season at the Arts Center of the Capital Region
The fall catalog of classes at the Arts Center of the Capital Region is out. And as we were (virtually) flipping through it, there were a handful of classes that caught our eye because they seemed interesting or unusual or fun.
And here they are...
Fence 2016
The annual Fence show recently opened at the Arts Center of the Capital Region and we stopped in this week to browse for a few minutes. It's worth a look if you have some time in Troy. There's an artists reception this Friday (May 27) evening during Troy Night Out.
What is the Fence show? Blurbage:
Now in its 51st year, the Fence Show got its name when members' artwork was exhibited on the iron fence surrounding Washington Park in Troy, the original location of the Arts Center. Today, the exhibition typically features approximately 500 pieces, displayed salon style (floor-to-ceiling) in our galleries. All levels of skill and ability are represented, from novice to professional.
One of the things we like about this exhibit is that it's usually a mix of works -- all sorts of materials, styles, and subjects. And this year's exhibit -- with 382 pieces by 231 artists -- is no different, with works ranging from illustration to painting to photography to sculpture.
The Fence show is on display through June 26. The annual Fence Select exhibit opens July 16.
Every Which Way and Art of the Heirloom
We stopped into the Arts Center of the Capital Region this past Friday to catch a look at two fun exhibits currently on display.
Every Which Way
Every Which Way by Abraham Ferraro includes his series of Directions sculptures made of packing boxes and labels, and interactive pieces with giant light switches. The exhibit is colorful and active and fun. That's a pic above.
Hudson Valley Seed Packs: Art of the Heirloom
You already know we're fans of the Hudson Valley Seed Library packages. (And the seeds are good, too!) So it was great to see this traveling exhibit of some of the art from which the package designs draw. There are a few quick examples after the jump.
Both exhibits are up through April 24.
Write there and then
A couple of upcoming writing classes at the Arts Center of the Capital Region caught our eye:
Graphic novels
April 14-May 19, 6:30-8:30 pm - $188
Memoirama
April 16, 6:30-9:30 pm - $95
Marion Roach Smith returns to teach her very popular one-day class about writing memoirs. Blurbage: "A possible subtitle for this one-shot class could easily be Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Memoir, but that's a little wordy, isn't it? We'll talk about being too wordy, as well as every other aspect of writing what you know, in this unique, rarely-offered class. Multi-media, highly entertaining, this is the class you say you never have time to take in the 6-week, wait-listed version that is regularly offered. Highly informative, after this class students will be able to write memoir, whether it be a college essay, a blog, a letter home, an essay for public radio, an op-ed for the newspaper, or a book-length memoir." (Roach is also teaching the six-week version this spring.)
East Coast Screen Print Biennial in Troy
Clips from pieces from some of the artists whose work will be on display (clockwise from top left): "They Said Stones" by Shawn Bitters; "Canopy" by Taryn McMahon; "Demos Onoiroi" by Mark Hosford; "Laugh Riot" by Midwest Pressed (Tim Dooley and Aaron Wilson).
This September the first East Coast Screen Print Biennial is coming to the Capital Region, and it's a pretty big deal.
Screen printing as an art form has been around since the early 1900s, tracing its roots to industrial printing. And most of us have screen printed items in our houses, probably in clothing and other textiles. Even so, there hasn't been a recent large scale exhibition in the United States to showcase the art form.
Local artist and RPI faculty member Nathan Meltz decided to change that. So he organized the biennial at the Arts Center of the Capital Region in Troy to celebrate the artistic side of the medium and showcase many of the different paths this artform can take.
"Subliminal Transcriptions"
We gotta admit when we first read the description for "Subliminal Transcriptions" -- an upcoming light installation at the Arts Center of the Capital Region -- with its mentions of "transcription" and "topography" and "minuscule conditions" we were kind of like... huh? But then we saw the photo above.
Interesting. Beautiful.
"Subliminal Transcriptions" is the creation of Yael Erel, an architect currently in an RPI grad program for architecture and lighting. She's also the co-founder of a lighting design company called lightexture. Here's a short Etsy video about the company from a few years back.
Exhibit blurbage:
Subliminal Transcriptions grew out of a project to understand and control projected reflections from light fixtures, along with the drawings they produce. While working as a luminaire designer, an accidental discovery allowed Erel to realize the complexities evident in the simplest materials and smallest textures. "It all started with a piece of double sided tape" said Erel. When amplified with a reflector, the minuscule and seemingly invisible surface textures were revealed beyond what the naked eye could see.
The opening reception for the installation is June 6 from 5-9 pm. The installation will be on display in the Arts Center's black box theater June 6-8.
Yep, the Arts Center has advertised on AOA.
Swissted at the Arts Center
This could be worth a stop: Swissted, in which Troy native -- and now NYC-based -- graphic designer Mike Joyce mashes up punk rock and Swiss modernism, will open at the Arts Center of the Capital Region on Saturday (April 13). From the blurbage:
Drawing from his love of punk rock and Swiss modernism, two movements that have almost nothing to do with one another, Mike has redesigned vintage punk,hardcore, new wave, goth, grunge, and indie rock show flyers into International Typographic Style posters. Every single one of the shows represented actually happened.
Joyce's Stereotype Design studio has worked with a bunch of music clients, including Iggy Pop, Katy Perry, The Stooges, The Strokes, Maroon 5, Natalie Merchant, The Lemonheads, Morphine, Heart, and Aretha Franklin.
The Swissted exhibit will be up at the Arts Center April 13-21. On April 18, Joyce will be there for a reception and book signing from 6:30-8:30 pm.
Yep, the Arts Center advertises on AOA.
Grants of as much as $5k from the Arts Center
Heads up: the Arts Center of the Capital Region has started the process for its next round of community arts grants -- individual grants can include as much as $5,000 in funding. During the last round the Arts Center distributed a total of almost $90k.
There are three types of grants. From the blurbage:
Community Arts Grants fund nonprofit organizations that produce high-quality arts and culture programming in the community.
Arts Education Grants fund cultural organizations or teaching artists to support programs that integrate the arts into non-arts curriculum in K-12 public school classrooms.
Individual Artist Commissions provide funds to individual artists to create new works that engage their local community.
Applicants must show up at an information seminar -- there are a bunch of them over the next month-and-a-half. Check the schedule at the link above.
Five grand can go a long way in the right (creative) hands. Maybe those hands are yours.
The deadline for applying is October 5.
Yep, the Arts Center does advertise on AOA.
Applications open for street painting competition in Troy, and this year's Fence Show
Casey's AOA-sponsored entry in last year's competition.
The Troy River Street Festival -- one of our favorite local summer festivals -- is coming up June 16. And that means applications are now open for the annual street painting contest at the festival.
The competition includes space for 75 artists, a range of age-specific categories, to chalk designs on a panel of sidewalk along River Street. And there's $1,000 in prizes.
The entry fee is $15. And the competition does fill up -- so the earlier you apply, the better.
Fence
Speaking of arts and downtown Troy... the call for entries is now out for the annual Fence Show at the Arts Center of the Capital Region. The Fence Salon will open June 16. This year's juror, Jim Richard Wilson from the Opalka Gallery at the Sage Colleges, will select works from the salon for inclusion in the Fence Select show that opens July 27.
Yep, the Arts Center advertises on AOA.
Level at the Arts Center
From Everyday The Same Dream by Molleindustria.
Looks fun, interesting, and geeky: Level -- a new exhibition of independent video games -- opens this Friday at the Arts Center of the Capital Region. From the blurbage:
Level presents the games in an immersive environment that simulates a 1990s American video arcade. Each game has its own working cabinet, which allows visitors to play free of charge. The game cabinets are designed and fabricated by We Are Architects with assistance from regional game enthusiasts and friends. Collaborators include Donna Fitzgerald's class at Parson's Child and Family Center, circuit bending sound artist Peter Edwards, and regional furniture maker Leonard Bellanca.
The Friday opening is the Level Festival:
Alongside the exhibition's debut of a wide variety of video games in an immersive, arcade-style environment, Level Festival will feature a booth of vintage games and systems by local game enthusiast boutique Pastime Legends and genre bending electronic music. With support from iEAR Presents!, Level Festival features four intriguing performances by musicians that work in a range of electronic sounds, unconventional instrumentation, and take influence from games and other facets of pop culture. Level Festival performers include Evidence (Stephan Moore and Scott Smallwood), Matthew Carefully (Matthew Loiacono), Bubblyfish (Haeyoung Kim), and Extreme Animals (Jacob Ciocci and David Wightman).
The exhibition is organized by We Are Architects. The opening festival starts at 4 pm Friday and runs until 10 pm (it's free). The exhibit runs through May 25.
Speaking of Troy and video games: The annual GameFest symposium and exhibition at RPI is this weekend.
Yep, the Arts Center advertises on AOA.
From Scratch Club classes
The From Scratch Club has something new simmering: cooking classes.
FSC members will be teaching a bunch of cooking classes at the Arts Center of the Capital Region this summer. On the FSC slate at the Arts Center:
- The Art of Tarts
- Waterbath Canning 101
- Makin' Bacon
- Brioche Workshop
- Waterbath Canning 101
- Jelly, Jam, Preserve: What's the Difference?
- Summertime Condiments
- DIY Home + Body Sampler
- Food Preservation 101
- Home Dairy 101
FSC has also announced "classes in a bag," in which they'll bring the class to small groups:
With a minimum of you & 4 friends/family members/co-workers, we will come to your home (or business) to teach a class of your choice! Each class will be 2 hours in length (unless otherwise noted) and will include a 30 minute prep & clean-up period.
The first class at the Arts Center is June 3 -- it's "Art of Tarts" with DreamPuff Marshmallows' Ginny O'Neill.
The Arts Center advertises on AOA
Scenes from mac 'n cheese class
Yum.
Check it out: Sebastien went to Christian Noe's macaroni 'n cheese class at the Arts Center last night:
[I] had a really good time, and brought a lot of leftovers. Christian Noe is a genuinely nice, fun guy, he and his sister walked us through 3 pretty yummy Mac&Cheese, including his [Macaroni 'n Cheese Bowl-]winning Buffalo Macaroni and Blue Cheese. ...
He walked us through a good old Mac & Cheese then the 8 of us (7 women and myself) teamed up in pairs and made our own Buffalo Mac and Blue Cheese as well as a new recipe he came up with for the class, Smokey Tex Mex Mac & Cheese with Fire Roasted Green Chilis (hopefully he will start selling it at the Farmer's Market in Troy and enter it in the next Bowl). ...
I hear he is doing the homemade sausage class too, I recommend you give the guy a try, you won't be disappointed.
The sausage classes are November 14 and December 7.
Noe is behind Nighthawk's Kitchen, which you might have seen at the Troy Farmers' Market. He was a judge for the Troy bracket in this year's Tournament of Pizza -- and we very much enjoyed meeting him.
A few more of Sebastien's photos from the class are after the jump. He also has a photoset posted on Flickr.
(Thanks, Sebastien!)
The Memoir Office
Earlier this year local writer and St. Rose professor Daniel Nester set up at the Arts Center of the Capital Region as part of a public writing project called "The Memoir Office."
The result of that project -- The Memoir Office: The Writer is Present -- is out today as a Kindle "single" (it's 99 cents):
Inspired by performance artists who take their work to the public, Daniel Nester set up shop in an art gallery lobby in Troy, NY and started to write about himself. He brought a desk, chair, office lamp, and a plant. He called it The Memoir Office. The result, The Memoir Office: The Writer is Present, is a 12,000-word piece of first-person writing--part journal, part memoir, and part essay.
So, why release The Memoir Office as an e-reader single? Nester explained today on Google+:
It's too long for a single article, too short for a book, and not really viable as a book. The long form of it really suits the material, if that makes sense. Plus, I am getting into my Kindle a lot these days and buying and reading a lot of these singles things myself. Hat into ring and so forth.
A clip of a portion released this past July in Painted Bride Quarterly is after the jump. (Yes, like an excerpt of an excerpt.)
... said KGB about Drawing: What's something that brought you joy this year?