From: SAQA.com [mailto:Jeanne.marklin@mac.com]
Sent: Tuesday, March 15, 2011 6:00 PM
SAQA MA/RI March 2011 News
Edited by Jeanne Marklin Co-rep for SAQA MA/RI
Welcome to new members - Donna Downer, Atara Halpern and Renee Wormack-Keels. We hope to meet you at SAQA meetings, and see your work in future SAQA exhibits.
There is exciting news to announce about the new Art Quilt Gallery in New York City. It is owned by the couple who own The City Quilter, and is dedicated to ART QUILTS. This is the only gallery in New York City, and possibly the East Coast, that will only exhibit Art Quilts, and has a similar mission to SAQA's. The opening is April 5, with Daphne Taylor's solo show. Sounds like a great chance for a trip to New York to support the venue, view the exhibit, and start dreaming about having our own work shown there!
The Fuller Craft Museum will host Michael James as a speaker on April 30th at 2:00. Michael James is a renowned Art Quilter, and the Department Chair and Ardis James Professor of Textiles, Clothing and Design in the College of Education and Human Sciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The Fuller will have a notice and ticket sales on their website this week. It would be great to meet afterward to discuss the lecture. We will work on getting a place to meet if there is interest from members.
Co-rep Valarie Pratt Poitier has set up a blog for the MA/RI region.
From Valarie:
Members our other New England States, the VT-ME-NH region, has set up a blog and after viewing the CT blog for quite some time now, I think it is time for us to join the wave. I have a basic blog up now and plan to add bits and pieces for the best of what Google has to offer... as we go along. The first offering will coincide with our March Newsletter.
Here are some of the areas I am considering...
Links to members website or personal blog
SAQA: yahoo group, calls for entry, SAQA U, Membership info link, and SAQA
Regional blog links.
News, Exhibitions, Workshops,
Email information for submissions to the blob for the co-reps.
SAQA Conference info (and other big news)
Pam Members
Welcome to New Members
Local events planned by SAQA members, quarterly meetings, meetings in members' homes
Listing of SAQA Publications
SAQA MA/RI blog link
SAQA Visioning Conference - This year's conference is focusing on making the most of your work - teaching, marketing, exhibiting, preparing for entries and all the tools needed. Check out the workshops and presentations and see if you can make it to Denver. The conferences are always a great opportunity to network. Lots of partying goes on too!
SAQA MA/RI meetings – Update…
There will be 2 SAQA meetings this Saturday - one at the New England Quilt Museum, and one for Western MA members in Greenfield. Co-rep Jeanne Marklin will be holding the meeting at Cheryl Rezendes's studio in Greenfield. The meeting starts at 12. Please bring a piece of work to share with other members. If you have a hanging method that you would like to share with the group, bring an example. A bag lunch is a good idea, drinks will be provided. We need to chip in a couple of dollars toward the use of the studio. SAQA member Elizabeth Keyes of Ashfield is in a group exhibit in Greenfield. The gallery is open on Saturday from 11-2, so if you're coming to the meeting it would be great to see the show before the meeting. Elizabeth will be at the meeting so we will have a chance to ask her about the exhibit. Future Western MA meetings will be held on April 9 and May 7. All are welcome to attend!
From co-rep Valarie Pratt Poitier regarding the meeting on Saturday, March 19 at the New England Quilt Museum:
We will have the opportunity to come together at one of our Regional meetings at 10:00 am the NEQM before the current exhibit of SAQA New England.
In addition to holding our regional meeting, we will share upcoming news, in progress or completed art works, talk about what we are doing or teaching, plan our next area exhibit, meet the artists of the current exhibit, and to invite our guests to become members.
Check out our new Blog...SAQA-MA-RI@blogspot.com we are planning to keep our newsletter going in the usual manner and to add its contents to the blog on the 15th of the month.
One important order of business Jeanne Marklin (who will be running the Western location meeting that day) will be stepping down in June 2011. We are therefore seeking a member to work with me during the remainder of my term and who will forge ahead after my service period is up.
Please volunteer or scout out possible members who have what you consider the necessary experience and energy to best represent you to SAQA and the art community. My email information is below so that you can forward the names on to me or directly to Pat Gould. Some of the abilities we are looking for include a person who is computer savvy, can organize and write the newsletter, or help with the blog, learn the SAQA website, check email and respond on a daily basis, and has the ability or organize meetings with speakers. Sounds like a lot of work but it is a shared responsibility and there is so much to gain from the experience, I really have learned so much and look forward to the coming year.
After the official meeting time, approximately 1:00 (at the latest) we will walk the museum as a group and look at the exhibit together and ask specific questions about techniques, materials used, and the types of machines used. We should all come away from this experienced inspired to either continue what we are doing or to try something in a different way.
If you are an instructor or have a business please bring business cards or a handout. This will be the perfect time to talk about what you do and what you offer.
There were many lessons learned during the No Holds Barred exhibit process and we should review some of them. We can talk about them and what we want to do in the future, what we can do differently, in addition, or not at all. So the floor will be open to everyone to share their input.
Also come prepared with ideas about what you would like to participate in regarding future exhibits. We are ready to start on our next SAQA project as a region and having your input is very important. The current plan to open the area up beyond the six states and we will discuss to whom and how many other regions to include. Depending on the ideas we may even open it up to all of SAQA.
As you can see we have a full schedule of items ! to discuss and hope you will be able to join us. Your voice is important! Our next meeting in Eastern Mass will take you through the SAQA site and talk about the call for exhibits section, and plans to help build the RI area.
Please RSVP to vprattpoitier@yahoo.com.
No Holds Barred at NEQM – Update…from our Events Coordinator…
Celeste Janey sent in the following summary of the show - it closes on April 9, so this Saturday is a great opportunity to see the show, and meet some of the artists:
No Holds Barred, quilting events will come to a close on March 19, 2011 when Valarie P. Poitier our MARI co-Rep and Curator presents at the New England Quilt Museum. As chair of the events, I'd say that the entire experience was a rousing success and a unique experience for the Museum.
- There were presentations by the exhibiting artists and Valarie in the No Holds Barred Exhibit on Jan. 29;
- Master Vol. 2 by Martha Sielman on Feb. 12, a preview of the upcoming book
- a slideshow, called "My Journey", by myself (C. Janey) on Feb. 19
- Wen Redmond did a demo of her Natural Print Making, called Plein Air Printing in Quilting Arts (Quilting Arts December 2010/January 2011), and a trunk show of her Artist Life on Mar. 5.
- Lastly, on March 19 will be our Regional Meeting, for this quarter, it is open to all all SAQA members and guests. The meeting begins at 10:00 AM with a Gallery walk planned for 1:00 pm. The Silent Auction will culminate this event on March 19.
Thank you New England SAQA members one and all for helping make a dream come true.
Celeste
Member News- Accomplishments, honors and announcements:
- Elizabeth Keyes and her artist critique group — Rebecca Clark, Cynthia Fisher, Helen Haddad and Elizabeth Pols — will be showing their work at the Artspace Gallery in Greenfield, Massachusetts (15 Mill Street). “Four Seasons/ 5 Artists” will include prints, pastels, paintings, fiber art, mosaics, and sculpture. The show runs from March 8 to April 15. Gallery hours are Monday-Friday 1-6, Saturdays 11-2.
- Rebecca Fricke's piece "Ina's Legs" was accepted into the SDA's Northeast Regional Juried Contemporary Fiber Exhibition at Rochester Contemporary Art Center, April 1 - May 9. The opening reception is April 1, from 6-10 pm.
- "Not Sew Square", the Quilt exhibit at the Haley House Bakery and Cafe in Roxbury MA, features Sisters in Fiber, Celeste B. Janey, Brenda Jones, and Valarie P. Poitier was extended to March 17, 2011. They were featured in the Baystate Banner.
- Sally Mavor has some very impressive news about a major honor for her work, and a positive recognition of fiber art: "I’d like to share the good news that my new children’s book, Pocketful of Posies: A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes, has won the Golden Kite Award for picture book illustration from the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. This is the first time that any kind of dimensional or textile art has won the Golden Kite. I will be traveling to SCBWI’s conference in Los Angeles in August to give an acceptance speech and teach a class on the joys and challenges of 3-d illustration."
- Nancy Crasco has a couple of announcements: m"I have work in the Surface Design Association's Regional Juried Show, "One Passion, Many Voices" at ARTworks!, 384 Acushnet Avenue, New Bedford. The exhibit is up through April 3. I am also teaching in two locales: An eight week, quilter friendly Design and Composition course at the Arsenal Center for the Arts in Watertown, MA on Saturday mornings from 10-12 from April 9 - June 11. For the brochure go to: http://www.arsenalarts.org/. A four day workshop entitled From the East, focusing on Asian textile construction, at Haystack in Deer Isle, ME from May 12-15th. For the brochure go to: http://mainecrafts.org/
- Susan McCraw's quilt "Fascinatin' Rhythm" was juried into the exhibit "Media, Materials and Meaning" at the Cambridge Art Association, 25 Lowell Street, Cambridge. The exhibit dates are March 8-29.
- Wen Redmond, one of the co-reps for SAQA ME/VT/NH, will be at booth 348 at Craft Boston from March 25-27. Ann Brauer will be vending there as well - a chance to stop by and say hello to two SAQA Art Quilters! The show is accessible from the Silver Line.
- Ann Brauer will be at the Paradise City Arts Festival this weekend in Marlborough.
Does anyone know Tracy Stillwell? Her email keeps bouncing back, and a phone call hasn't been returned. I'd like to correct her email address so she'll be receiving SAQA news.
Exhibits
From SAQA -
Exhibit deadline extended! We need your artwork! In order to create a strong 30-piece exhibition, a juror needs a pool of approximately 100 pieces. Even if all the pieces submitted are truly wonderful, they won't necessarily work well together to make a cohesive whole. With only 32 members who entered work for "A Sense of Adventure," we don't have a large enough group to create a strong exhibit.
We have therefore extended the DEADLINE to March 31, 2011.
This is an important opportunity for you to have your work seen by over 100,000 visitors. It will travel throughout the United States to a variety of museums and to the three International Quilt Festivals. Your work will be included in the full color catalog - we print 1,000 copies. Many of our previous exhibitions have also been featured in the major art quilt magazines - we just w! ere featured in a 10-page spread in Spain's Arte Patchwork magazine, as well as in Australia's Down Under Quilts, Quilter's Newsletter, and Quilting Arts.
If you want your work to be seen, this is your chance!
Theme: A Sense of Adventure asks you to expand your personal comfort zone. Beyond the five senses of sight, sound, smell, taste and touch is the sense of adventure. Webster's defines "adventure" as:
1 a : an undertaking usually involving danger and unknown risks
b : the encountering of risks (the spirit of adventure)
2 : an exciting or remarkable experience (an adventure in exotic dining)
Use techniques you've never used before. Plumb deep within yourself for a personal sense of adventure. Share your adventures through this exhibit.
Juror: Dr. Jacqueline Atkins, Chief Curator and the Kate Fowler Merle-Smith Curator of Textiles for the Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, Pennsylvania. She lectures and writes on American and Japanese quilts and textiles, contemporary fiber art, and American folk and decorative arts. Dr. Atkins has served as a judge for the Japan Quilt Grand Prix contest (Tokyo, Japan) since 2004 and is a member of the Board of Directors for Studio Art Quilt Associates, Inc.
Managing Curator: Nancy Bavor (nbavor@gmail.com)
The full prospectus: http://saqacallforentries4.com/
Travelling outside of the area? Check the Events calendar on the SAQA website for fiber exhibits.
Upcoming SAQA VT/NH/ME event:
SAQA New England Weekend
Residence Inn, Colchester, VT
March 25-27, 2011
SAQA VT/NH/ME is proud to announce this exciting opportunity for SAQA members.
Two workshops are being offered:
"Approaching Galleries" - Rae Harrell, owner of Rae Harrell Gallery
and "From a Juror's Perspective" - Valarie Poitier, guest curator and SAQA Co-chair of the "No Holds Barred" exhibit at the NE Quilt Museum and SAQA MA/RI co-rep.
Also included in the weekend is a Friday night dinner, show & tell, and a studio tour.
A special rate is being offered at The Residence Inn www.mariott.com/btvco 802-655-3100
RSVP by March 17th to msartquilt@gmail.com
That's it for March - please send your news with links to jeanne.marklin@mac.com.
Hope to see you this Saturday at the Museum (NEQM) or in Western Ma at Cheryl Rezendes's Studio!
