News, thoughts and opportunities

Hi there! How are you doing today? I hope you’re feeling well and enduring this time of uncertainty and the seemingly never-ending pandemic. I’m looking forward when we can all see art, people, experience restaurants, community engagements and performances to name a few things, hopefully in the near future! In the meantime, I’m very grateful to be in your company here today. Thanks for visiting this page and my website!

Continuing what I shared in my last newsletter, I have a few things to announce which may be of interest to you!:

—Have you checked out the artists, critics, curators talking about their lives as a part of the Chautauqua Visual Arts Lecture Series? I have loved meeting and hearing so much about the luminaries we are honored to have share their lives and work with us. I hope you can look and listen in every second Tuesday evening of every month. Check out recordings from past talks and upcoming ones here.

—We just put up a ton of Resources to access on my website anytime including some interesting reads including this article. I wondered: what if galleries could do this? It’s a wonderful idea and model of giving.

—Are you writing letters regularly as I do? Well, if you are, you may want to check out these amazing artists making gorgeous stationery. Some of my favorites are Foglio Press, Sapling Press, Huckleberry Press, LetteredWest, CardCraftUS and Green Bird Press to name a few. I’m also obsessed with stickers for the envelopes by many artists which I will share soon. If you have some great suggestions of lovely stationery, feel free to comment and suggest here. I love supporting independent presses. Thanks!

—Consistent with the work I do with my books and advocacy for artists, I’ll be sharing profiles of artists who inspire me, who I have met along the way during my book/conversation tours, who are amazing how they are generous to other artists in partnership with SpeakEasy on Monday, February 22nd starting at 6pmPST/9pmEST. REGISTER HERE.

—Community building and empowerment is what happens when we all get together for the Creative Capital workshops I’m honored to direct. I’m performing another 4-part series that will start in March. REGISTER HERE.

—Have you applied to the Chautauqua School of Art Residency Program? If you’re 21 years of age without any educational restriction, love being an artist, want to experiment, explore, learn and enjoy at Chautauqua, why not join us? Applying is a win/win: anyone who does not receive acceptance into our program will receive a response and brief feedback on their application. In addition, we will host a Zoom gathering with those who did not receive admission into the School of Art residency program with an offer to take a Masters Session with one of our Lead Faculty. It’s so important to me that EVERYONE who applies for an opportunity receive something back from the process. APPLICATIONS CLOSE ON MARCH 2. APPLY HERE.

—Want to know more about residency programs? Join us for this panel on February 24 at 2pm hosted by the New York Academy of Art.

Thank you again for visiting. I hope to see you soon!

Warmly, Sharon

News, Resources, Exhibition and Signs of Solidarity

Hello, there! How are you? I hope you’re feeling well today. Thanks for stopping by here! It’s lovely that you would.

I’m excited to share with you more of the Chautauqua Visual Arts new website. Wow: not only do we have a lot of resources to share, we have galleries that will host interviews, conversations, opportunities for artists to share their work YEAR ‘ROUND. Chautauqua Institution is a nonprofit organization that promotes an inclusive, wide-ranging program of art and artists. I hope you’ll check it out, say hello and visit often!

We also have a blog to share news, articles and topics of interest. Here’s our first blog post.

I’m excited about yet again organizing a new lecture series, this time for the Chautauqua Visual Arts. This year, we have 9 lectures of thought leaders visiting each Tuesday evening from 6:30-8:30pm. Be a part of it: watch, learn, participate! You can find our lecture series on the Virtual Porch: porch.chq.org. Our next lecture will be with Salvador Jimenez-Flores on Tuesday, July 7, 6:30-8:30pm. Look out for a video of Mitra Khorasheh’s talk yesterday! It was wonderful. I’ll be sure to post it on social media and the CVA website soon.

On a personal note, Cheryl Numark & Cheryl Numark Art Advisory is hosting a solo on-line exhibition of 10 years of my paintings and drawings. I’m grateful to be working with Cheryl again, as we are dear friends and we have always collaborated so well together. Cheryl and I worked together while her gallery was in operation for over 10 years and have stayed in touch since. If you have a chance, check it out and her website full of projects and various art work she has placed. And say hello!: info@numarkartadvisory.com

Inspiration of late: Protesters all over the country, Mitra’s signs and symbols store, Hrag’s podcasts and Sarah Cooper’s performative sketches among many other things. How about you? Where are you finding inspiration lately? I’d love to know.

Finally, during a few walks around an empty Chautauqua, I’ve seen some signs of solidarity. I will be adding to them as soon as I have a chance to take another walk.

Thanks for reading, saying hello, being in touch! Hoping you’re safe and well.

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Funding and Opportunities in the age of COVID19

Hi there! How are you? I hope you’re feeling good despite what is happening in the world.

I don’t know about you, but since I have been at home due to the COVID-19 crisis, I have been worrying about health, health of my community, sustaining a creative life, money, lack of opportunities and the future unknown on a daily basis. But some resources and projects have given me some hope. I thought I would share of few of them with you here. Thanks for reading and supporting one another during this time of uncertainty:

NYFA.org: Emergency Grants
Creative Capital: COVID-19 resources, April & May Opportunities
National Endowment of the Arts: COVID-19 Resources for Artists and Arts Organizations
H/T: Samantha Fields: Biomythart, 4TH WALL AR APP, Play Music on the Porch Day
H/T: Jillian Steinhauer: COVID-19 & Freelance Artists

The Common Field convening starts on April 23! This is an opportunity to connect, learn from and be a part of a community of artist community leaders from all over the country. Registration is open now! Click here for more information. The convening is FREE.

I recently led this workshop, which I hope will happen again in the fall. Each time I conduct this workshop, I share information passed along by others. Who knows what our communities will look like then, but I’m happy to listen, receive and share. If you have anything to pass along, I’m happy to receive it and share with others.

For both artists and administrators, you may want to check out this webinar I was happy to conduct with artist Julia Bloom on mentorship for the Americans for the Arts. I learned a lot from Julia and grateful for the opportunity to work with her as well as the generous people at the Americans for the Arts.

Finally, thank you to all of the health-care workers, the volunteers, and the leaders in our own communities for all of the amazing efforts on our behalf right now. It’s such a strange and fragile time, and I am very grateful for those who are lifting up others.

Wishing you the very best,

Sharon

Oklahoma City, OK
February 2020

What I've been up to

This past February, I was in Oklahoma City to complete a large scale commission for a private, family bank. The landscape was beautiful and the project was a wonderful creative challenge for which I am grateful. You can view photographs of the piece here.

Upon returning home, I was surprised to see my name as a part of the “Substance 100” List. Thank you!

Between January 5 - March 12, I visited students and faculty at Syracuse University, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Ringling College of Art and Design, University of California San Diego, and Columbia College Chicago. Many thanks to all who welcomed me to your schools and students.

And I’m working on many projects in and out of the studio including four books, drawings, paintings, a new animation and experimental work. Thank you for your interest!

Windows at the Philbrook in Tulsa, OK

Through January 5, 2020 on view at the Philbrook Museum is “Windows,” a site-specific installation in the Philbrook’s main rotunda lobby. If you’re in Tulsa, Oklahoma the first weekend of November, I will be there to participate in public programming including a panel discussion open to all. Details to follow! In the meantime, you can see images of the installation here.

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A summer at Chautauqua

This past season was my first summer as the Artistic Director at Chautauqua School of Art and the Visual Arts at Chautauqua Institution. It was a messy, experimental summer with some incredible artists in residence as well as brilliant faculty. I thought I would share some photographs of the experience. I’m honored to have been with so many wonderful people in a memorable summer sharing a new, experimental pedagogy. For more photos, check out our Instagram account which showed many more wonderful images from the season: https://www.instagram.com/chq.art/ Many thanks to all!

Source: https://www.instagram.com/chq.art/

Your 2019 School of Art Core-Faculty at Chautauqua

As the new Artistic Director of the Visual Arts at Chautauqua Institution, I'm thrilled to announce the 2019 School of Art Residency Core Faculty. It is an honor to work with these exceptional people who will work with students and emerging artists in a residency program that is an incubator of inclusive and expansive programming in the visual arts composed of classes, workshops and one-on-one time covering all media:

Hrag Vartanian, Yasmeen Siddiqui, Alpesh Kantilal Patel, Wendy Red Star, Hasan Elahi, Jean Shin, Tia-Simone Gardner and Raheleh Filsoofi. 

Applications open December 1 to students and emerging artists who have not yet received national recognition for their work. For more information on this new program, click here. We look forward to seeing you June 22 - August 10, 2019!

Windows at the University of Wyoming Art Museum

Hi there! I'm excited to share a new installation which is now on view at the University of Wyoming Art Museum until September, 2020. If you're in Wyoming on September 13, I hope you'll come for a talk I will be giving and visit this installation, as well as celebrate with me the Museum's 25th anniversary. For more information, click here. In the meantime, here is a preview in a few pictures below. Hope to see you in Wyoming soon!

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Director of the Visual Arts at Chautauqua Institution

Hello, all! Some news to share: I'm grateful for the opportunity to grow the Visual Arts at Chautauqua Institution, a unique residency program from the foundation and legacy Don Kimes has built, as the new Director of the School of Art starting September 1. I'm super excited to collaborate with a team of powerful, exceptional people who will move artists forward. Thank you Don Kimes and Lois Jubeck for your belief in me and all of your amazing work at Chautauqua; thank you Deborah Sunya Moore and Michael Edward for having me on board, and thank you to the few people who encouraged me to take this on from the very beginning (you know who you are). I'm forever grateful to you and excited to take this journey with you. See you all at Chautauqua next summer! 

ARTnews 
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Hyperallergic

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"Small Works" at Trestle Gallery

Hello all!

The past three weeks I have been looking through a pool of 746 applications for the “Small Works” exhibition at Trestle Gallery opening on July 26 in Brooklyn, NY. Even though exhibitions have been juried for many, many years, I thought I would share the process by which this one was juried. 

Every year Trestle Gallery offers a call for their annual “Small Works” exhibition. 

Submission guidelines for the call were the following, as were stated on the Trestle Gallery website: 

- Pieces may be no bigger than 12" on the longest side - we accept 2D and 3D framed and unframed works of all media. If a work is framed, the frame can be a maximum of 2" larger than the piece itself, making the max dimension 14"
- You may submit up to 3 works for consideration
- Images must be in JPEG format, 1000 pixels on longest side
- CV and Statement must be submitted in PDF form
- National and international artists are welcome to apply. As a non-profit we don't have a shipping budget, so should an artist be selected they will have to cover the cost of shipping to and from the gallery.
- As a non-profit gallery, Trestle splits all sales 70/30, with 70% going to the artist.

The cost to submit up to three images was $10.00 with Submittable taking a percentage.

The fee I am receiving will be $250.00.

Due to space restrictions, I could only choose 64 artists out of an applicant pool of 746:

50 people who considered themselves women
13 people who considered themselves men
1 person who considered themself non-binary

Most of the 64 artists accepted live outside of New York City.

It took me three weeks to get through the process and I learned a lot. Here are the reasons why I didn’t accept some works in the exhibition:

–Context is everything. The work must be in context with each other and fit together in harmony as to my vision of this exhibition. 

–Some pieces were not photographed well at all. It would really help if artists would care for their work and show how serious they are about their work by investing in good photography. Those with photography of poor quality were immediately put aside.

–Some of the photography did not show the work as an object and looked cropped, therefore, I couldn’t get a sense of the entirety of the work.

–Some people tried to show a lot in one photograph but were not so definitive as to what they wanted to submit. It wasn’t clear.

Those chosen had modest statements that talked about their work, images were well photographed, and worked well in context, in concert with other works put together. If there was a theme, I would say that there was an intangible lean toward identity, vulnerability and a certain tension I look for. As I’ve always said, there is no such thing as a “rejection.” It’s just a difference of opinion.

As I have said in the past, if there is a fee there should be at least comments given to those whose work was not accepted. I have also commented on the flawed Hopper Prize as being problematic. I gave a comment to each person whose work I did not include in the exhibition, basically reflecting my thoughts on one of the responses above. I also offered my email address to every participant to put on their mailing list. In my opinion, this is the least a juror can do for each artist who applies for such a call. 

In addition, Trestle Gallery is offering to the artists who were not selected an on-line exhibition of their work: one piece per person with no additional fee. For this, Trestle Gallery has committed funds toward the on-line exhibition for 6 months. This is fantastic and I totally applaud Trestle Gallery for doing this. Every organization needs to take note as this is easy to do and not expensive -- a great model to replicate.

I’m grateful to Jen Nista and Rhia Hurt for their amazing hard work through the process. They were absolutely lovely to work with. 

Installation will take place from July 24-26, with the opening on 7/26 from 7-9pm. If you want to stop by and say hello, I’d be happy to see you. 

I realize this was not sustainable for me to do this work at a fee for $250.00. However, my thought is by doing so, I could lay some ground work so we can perhaps change how these calls are carried out. 

Many thanks to all who submitted to this and for having me as a juror for the “Small Works” exhibition at Trestle Gallery. I'm so proud to have participated in this process. I recommend it for every artist to experience at some point in their lives. Hoping to see you on July 26!

Warmly,

Sharon