Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Downtown Presbyterian church DIG SHOW 2011 call for works

CALL FOR ART / $1,000 PURCHASE PRIZE / ART DUE THURSDAY. MARCH 3RD

2011 D.I.G. THROUGH ART SHOW – THEME: "COMPASSION FATIGUE"

THE DOWNTOWN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH – 154 5th AVE. SOUTH





“D.I.G.” means Dialogue: an Interaction for Growth.





Dear Artist,



The Downtown Presbyterian Church (DPC) of Nashville, Tennessee is pleased to announce this year’s winter/early spring art show, The D.I.G. Through Art Show. This year’s theme is Compassion Fatigue. DPC’s annual D.I.G. show, now in its 12th year, is meant to provide our community with a chance to come together and “D.I.G. through art.”



Artists are welcome to submit work in any medium. Entry requires a $15.00 per piece fee (two pieces maximum). Paintings and other 2-D work cannot exceed 6 x 10 feet. 2-D works must be dry, framed, and ready to hang with wire. Sculpture must be easily moveable. Installations must be approved for space reasons. Work must be delivered to the church on Thursday, March 3 at 3.00 p.m. Artists will be accepted into the show on a first-to-respond basis--please see attached entry information below (which can be also be emailed in). Works will be judged and a winner selected by a local jury comprised of seasoned art instructors, gallery curators, and/or clergy. DPC will be pleased to present the winning artist with a purchase prize check of $1,000.



There are no restrictions on the artwork except that the content be suitable to all ages, since it will be on display to the entire church body and the downtown community – young and old. DPC reserves the right to not show any work.



The grand opening reception and presentation of the purchase award will be on Saturday, March 5th beginning at 6:00 p.m. This event coincides with the regular first Saturday downtown community Art Crawl and the church’s monthly art show and live music activities.



The D.I.G. show began at DPC in 1998 as an extension of the church’s artists-in-residency program. Today, the church hosts nine artists who each have their own dedicated space in the building. These shows have explored different themes each year. Previous themes have included last year’s “Anti-depressant," as well as "Embodiment,” “Icons and Idols,”“Incarnation and Risk,” and “Human Sacrifice.”



Lent is the church season of 40 days (not including feast days) before Easter. This year, Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, March 9th and continues through Holy Week, ending just before Easter Sunday, April 24th. The season is symbolic of both the 40 years of Israel’s wandering in the desert and the 40 days of Christ’s fasting and temptation in the wild. DPC feels this is an appropriate season to invite artists to join the church in wrestling with challenges and complexities of faith.



Alongside the themed art show, the church will again host a film series in DPC’s downstairs chapel on Thursday nights during the weeks of Lent. A light meal (held at 6.00 p.m.) will be provided weekly in DPC’s Fellowship Hall before each film (starting at 7.00 p.m.). After each film, guests are encouraged to stay for a short discussion, sharing impressions and ideas from the motion picture.



Important Facts:

· Limit: 2 pieces maximum per artist

· Entry Fee: $15.00 per piece per artist (checks payable, please, to: Downtown Presbyterian Church)

· This is a first come first serve show. Your entry fee reserves your space in the show. Please send the check in right away to reserve your space using the form below. Space in the show cannot be guaranteed without an artist supplying their entry fee (see following page).



Important Dates:

• Art Piece Creation Period: November 15, 2010 to March 1, 2011.

· Art Drop Off Date: Thursday, March 3 (3 PM to 5 PM)

· Grand Opening Reception: Saturday, March 5th from 6 PM to 9 PM with winner announced at 7.00 p.m.

· End of Show Date: Easter Sunday, April 24th (after worship activities)

· Retrieval of works: Monday, April 25th (between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.)







Yes! I would like to participate in the 2011 D.I.G. Through Art Show, “COMPASSION FATIGUE.”





Name

Phone #

Email

Address





Please print this page, complete information, and enclose a check for $15.00 made out to “The Downtown Presbyterian Church.” Please then send to:





The Downtown Presbyterian Church

(memo line, please: “2011 D.I.G. SHOW”)

154 5th Ave. North

Nashville, TN 37219





Should you need further information or assistance, contact Beth Gilmore via email at beth.gilmore@gmail.com

Thursday, November 4, 2010

november's First Saturday Gallery Crawl promises new exhibits galore

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT » ART November 04, 2010 Nashville Scene

November's First Saturday Gallery Crawl promises new exhibits galore
Crawl Space
by JOE NOLAN

Not only is there art at "The Crawl," there is an art to navigating it. This month, the downtown migration of art openings and exhibits features new faces, a local art celebrity and a whole handful of shows opening under one sometimes-overlooked roof. But armed with a game plan, you can negotiate the high points with the dangerous grace of an art-drunk drift racer.

You've come to the right place!

The big news at November's First Saturday Gallery Crawl is the debut of COOP, a new curatorial collective that will program half of the new Twist Etc. space at 75 Arcade in the coming year. The group's first effort is "Wraslin' With God," a performance piece by Reverend Ethan Acres of the Church of the Holy Fool. Acres' work evokes religious ecstasy from the absurd, borrowing tropes from that cuckoo corner of Christianity that includes drive-thru churches, JumboTron sermonizing and heavy metal for Jesus. Hey man, you had us at "ecstasy." Acres' performs promptly at 7:30 p.m.

COOP plans to present new and under-represented artists, and their non-commercial agenda is a nice fit with Twist's mostly art-for-art's-sake programming. Twist's new show of photographs by Shane Doling is a great example. Holiday Child is a series of narrative outdoor images that feature a hooded man dressed in a suit and tie. The hood casts Doling's subject as both a blinded captive of a kind and a masked killer of a sort. Doling has also worked with video, and the viewer can think of these images as stills from an unseen film about both the loss of innocence and the endurance of wonder. It's the kind of work that resonates with the interior landscape of an attuned viewer, even if it clashes with the couch.

On the other side of 5th Avenue, Tinney Contemporary opens a new show by New Orleans artist, Sidonie Villere. Villere's multimedia paintings are covered in unlikely textures, but it's her minimal, organic sculptures — often resembling stones or bones covered in gold leaf and steel spray paint — that we really want to get our hands on.

If you didn't see Whitney Wood Bailey's cave art-inspired, psychedelic paintings at Rymer Gallery in October, you have a second chance this month. Half of her show stays up while Rymer makes room for Sound Spectrum, the latest exhibit by Herb Williams. One of Nashville's most popular artists, Williams has had a busy year. His Plunderland exhibit in New York's Rare Gallery was a room-sized installation that signaled new heights for the artist's craft and concepts. Spectrum is a homecoming of sorts that finds Williams exploring the parallels between social networking and mixtape culture. This time around, his ubiquitous crayons are cast as compelling, colorful negative space.

The Arts Company opens with two new painting series that take their cues from a particular pop-cultural artifact. Denise Stewart-Sanabria paints hyperrealist canvases and, while we usually prefer more abstract work, the subject here makes her stuff look good enough to eat. Stewart-Sanabria's twin exhibits, Donuts Behaving Badly and Seven Deadly Sins, read like a food-porn double feature that aims to decide the Dunkin' Donuts vs. Krispy Kreme debate once and for all. The gallery will also feature Chris Beck's found-object work. The artist's Real Housewives of the 1950s is an exhibit of multimedia, metal wall-sculptures that nod to both folk art and mid-20th century Life Magazine photography.

Don't forget to stroll a few blocks up Broadway to the Tennessee Art League to check out their reception for no less than five new gallery shows. Our favorite is Kristina Lyle's exhibit of cut paper collage paintings opening in the TAL's Ethel Smith Gallery.

The fall will always be the best time of year for gallery crawling. The weather is perfect, the art is at its best and everyone tends to become a busier browser once Halloween has come and gone and we begin sliding down that slippery slope toward the hectic holiday season.

No pressure.

Happy crawling!

Email art@nashvillescene.com.