Extremely exciting news for art students, especially those studying or living in Georgia-The Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) to Open Major Teaching Museum Devoted to Contemporary Art and Design on October 29, 2011! This is described as “a significantly expanded and re-imagined contemporary art and design museum conceived and designed expressly to enrich the educational milieu for SCAD students, professors, and art and design enthusiasts. SCAD Museum of Art re-opens to the public on Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011. Inaugural exhibitions at the new museum include solo shows by Bill Viola, Liza Lou, Kendall Buster, Kehinde Wiley, and selections from the SCAD Museum of Art’s Permanent Collection, including the Evans Collection of African American Art, presented in the new Walter O. Evans Center for African American Studies within the museum.”  From the websites: “SCAD has a tradition of fostering innovative and dynamic art experiences, and the SCAD Museum of Art advances this rich tradition,” says SCAD President Paula Wallace, who initiated and oversaw the development of the expanded museum in Savannah. “Rather than a place to view artworks in isolation, our museum is a kinetic think-tank, a collaborative wellspring of ideas and inspiration for SCAD students and professors.”  In keeping with the university’s mission, a year-round program of exhibitions, installations, performances and museum programs and events will engage with SCAD’s 41 majors and more than 50 minors—from fashion and fibers to painting and sound design. This programming will also provide students and professors across all disciplines a collaborative space to experience celebrated works of art and design, and to interact with the renowned and emerging artists who create them. Check out all of the information here: http://www.scad.edu/museum/
This Thursday, September 8th at 5pm, Dr. Asen Kirin will be presenting “Exuberance of Meaning: The Art Patronage of Catherine the Great.” This talk kicks of the VCC Lecture series for the 2011-2012 academic year, so make sure to put this on your schedule! Kirin will be discussing a current exhibition which, according to the Lamar Dodd School of Art website, “intends to make a contribution to the current knowledge of patronage in eighteenth-century Russia and to our understanding of the perception of Byzantine culture in the era of neo-Classicism.” Interestingly, the curator of this exhibit plans to “accomplish this goal with a relatively limited number of objects—loans from a small number of museums in the U.S.A.” “The exhibition will illustrate the complex dynamic between the collection of historical art and the commissioning of new works of art during the reign of Catherine the Great (1762-96). The focus of the exhibition is on the particular manner in which Catherine applied not only her knowledge of ancient and medieval glyptic art but also her collection of carved gems to new works of art that she commissioned. This was a deliberate continuation of the centuries-old tradition of placing pagan, Greek, and Roman carved stones onto sacred Christian liturgical and devotional objects. The empress not only shared the Enlightenment sentiment that carved gems were essential material vestiges from the past, but she was also fully cognizant of the cultural meanings associated with the practice of collecting cameos. Accordingly, she addressed these cultural meanings in her art patronage.” For more information, visit: http://art.uga.edu/index.php?pt=4&id=179#
This Labor Day weekend: if you’re in town for the UGA/ Boise State game today (or if you just like books!), check out the Decatur Book Festival! From 9:30am - 6:30pm today and 11:30am - 7pm tomorrow, authors will be setting up tents for readings, discussions, workshops, and more. Check out the schedule here for more information: http://www.decaturbookfestival.com/2011/schedule/index.php
Up now at the Georgia Museum of Art: American Letterpress: The Art of Hatch Show Print From the GMOA website: This exhibition illustrates the fascinating fusion of art with popular culture and music history. Featuring the work of one of the nation’s oldest and continuously printing shops—Nashville, Tennessee’s Hatch Show Print—it highlights the uniquely American posters produced to advertise everything from vaudeville shows, state fairs and stock car races to the Grand Ole Opry, Elvis Presley and Herbie Hancock.  The exhibition, created by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) and the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum, is supported by America’s Jazz Heritage, A Partnership of the Wallace Foundation and the Smithsonian Institution. For more information about this exhibition and others, visit: http://www.georgiamuseum.org/art/exhibitions/on-view/american-letterpress-the-art-of-hatch-show-print
To writers, poets, artists, and anyone else feeling inspired- a new literary zine in Athens is looking for submissions of your original work.  The Stray Dog Almanac, started “one warm July evening, damp with rain, after a tasty dinner of eggplant and a jug of beer,” when some art students recognized the need for a more prominent literary and artistic presence in the form of publications. Their name is derived from and inspired by the Russian Stray Dog Cabaret, part of the Silver Age that boasted the beginnings of many Russian writers, poets, and artists. Now’s your chance to become part of the movement. From the website: Stray Dog will be an almanac, which means we are interested in variety - from different voices as well as different subject matter and genres. Our call is open to all writing styles and writers, so that if you’ve had something for a while and have been waiting for the right opportunity, this is it! No theme, no constraints. Perhaps you’ve been too timid to show people your work or you may have never considered submitting work for publication before. We at the Stray Dog Almanac encourage you to challenge yourself and SUBMIT your work! We accept your poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction or black and white illustrations/comic strips. We have an arbitrary word limit of 5,000 words, but we will consider excerpting longer works. You may submit up to 5 poems and 2 prose pieces. E-mail your submission to straydogalmanac (at) gmail (dot) com with your name, the title(s) of your work(s) and, if you like, your affiliation with our Classic City (i.e. student, recovering student, downtown barkeep, professor, local band guru) by SEPTEMBER 28, 2011 to be considered for our winter 2011 publication! Please include the word “Submission” in the title of your email. All submissions will undergo a fair, blind review. Entrants will be notified of their acceptance by November 1, 2011. If your work is selected you will receive 2 free copies of our hand-bound almanac, not to mention ensuing fame and fortune. Our goal is to include as many different artists and writers as possible, but we must sadly admit that our space is limited. Please keep this in mind when submitting your work.  Visit the Stray Dog Almanac’s website at: http://www.straydogalmanac.com/
Tomorrow- Kristen Morgin, the Lamar Dodd School of Art’s 2011-2012 Dodd Chair, is giving a lecture at 5:30 in room S151. Her bio from the LDSOA website reads: Kristen L. Morgin was born in 1968 in Brunswick, GA.  Kristen is the eldest daughter of Lowell and Lucille Morgin.  She has three younger sisters. Kristen earned a BA degree from California State University, Hayward.  Kristen earned a MFA degree with an emphasis in ceramics from Alfred University in 1997.  Kristen currently resides in Gardena, CA. Kristen has held job positions as a gallery docent, a children’s playhouse set painter, a secretary in an auto glass shop, and a professor of art.  She currently earns her living as an artist.Morgin has had solo shows at Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles (2006) and Viento y Agua Gallery, Long Beach (2004). Selected group exhibitions include Trans-Ceramic Art 3rd World Ceramic Biennale, Icheon, Korea, 2005; Thing: New Sculpture from Los Angeles Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2005); and Because the Earth Is 1/3 Dirt Art Museum of the University of Colorado, Boulder (2004). For more information, visit: http://art.uga.edu/index.php?pt=4&id=173#
UGA 2011 MFA graduate An Pham is featured in the Atlanta Journal Constitution! Pham’s work is featured in Spruill Gallery’s “Emerging Artists 2011” show.  From the article: “The artist works with a wide palette of materials, from handmade paper and old books to plastic strips, scotch tape and – most wondrously in this exhibit — rubber bands. Pham crochets, plaits, knots, coils and otherwise manipulates this mundane item into mysterious sculptures, which she presents like the gifts they are in hand-made boxes. It’s a good thing that Pham wants you to touch them because they are irresistibly tactile. They also give off that rubber-band smell and, more profoundly, the feeling of intensity that comes from the hours of repetition and minute manipulations that making these works require. She manipulates books and their pages with similar inventiveness. I’m watching her.” Read the entire article here: http://www.accessatlanta.com/atlanta-events/lucha-rodriguez-at-swan-1143048.html Visit Pham’s website here: http://www.an-pham.com/
A reception for emeritus, curated by Nancy Lukasiewicz, will be held this Sunday from 2-4pm in the Lyndon House Arts Center.  emeritus is a show of emeritus and former professors such as JERRY CHAPPELLE, ROBERT CLEMENTS. TOM HAMMOND, JAMES L. HANNA, RICK JOHNSON, GLEN KAUFMAN, JACK KEHOE, JUDITH McWILLIE, RON MEYERS, ANDY NASISSE, W. ROBERT NIX, GARY NOFFKE, RICHARD J. OLSEN, BILL PAUL, ART ROSENBAUM, LANNY WEBB … The Lyndon House is located at 293 Hoyt Street in Athens. North Jackson Street dead ends at Hoyt Street. For more information, visit: http://ga-athensclarkecounty.civicplus.com/index.aspx?nid=4192
UGA’s student newspaper, the Red & Black, reviews the upcoming exhibition of Lamar Dodd School of Art faculty work. MMXI will be opening TONIGHT- August 19 from 7-9pm.  From the article: “There will be traditional approaches in terms of everything from the portrait to working with a microscopic camera,” said Jeffrey Whittle, gallery director at the Lamar Dodd School of Art. “Something that you couldn’t see with the naked eye, someone will be able to see in the show, as well as things that are from the artists’ imaginations; something completely invented.” http://redandblack.com/2011/08/19/university-exhibition-mixes-faculty-avant-garde-art/
This weekend is the first back in Athens. Start it off right this Saturday night! From 7-10pm, Trace Gallery will host an opening for “Surprise the Sky,” a group exhibition for Lauren Gallaspy, Erin McIntosh, and Zuzka Vaclavik. All three women are showcasing amazing works. For more information, visit the Trace Gallery website: http://www.tracegalleryathens.com/ See you there!
In the wake of Borders stores closing, independent bookstores are finally getting a chance to flourish once again. For all of you in Athens, make sure to check out Avid Bookshop, which will be getting a “brick and mortar” location at 493 Prince Ave come fall 2011. For details on how to help out with move-in and set-up, visit: http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=3bc866e3d40298c386e279ffc&id=4d06a3e1ee&e=fb3f4bdb6b To visit Avid Bookshop’s website (for new AND used books): http://www.avidbookshop.com/
Up at the Lamar Dodd School of Art through August 5th- “Another Angle” by MFA student Elizabeth Owen. Gallery 101 will not disappoint! Check out more of Owen’s work on her website: http://www.owenstudio.net/
Keep up-to-date with the Lamar Dodd School of Art instantly on twitter! http://twitter.com/#!/ldsoa
UGA alumni are staying extremely busy. Jessi Wohl (MFA ‘10) and current MFA candidate Justin Plakas have work in an exhibition at Zeitgeist. Together, their works “create a dialogue about the clandestine nature of suburban life,” according to Laura Huston’s review in the Nashville Scene. Read the review in its entirety here: http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashville/at-zeitgeist-work-by-two-artists-addresses-the-weirdness-of-suburbia/Content?oid=2580027
It’s that time of year again…ATHFEST is upon us!  From Flagpole’s Art Notes: This weekend marks AthFest’s 15th year and, along with showcasing dozens of local bands throughout the five-day festival, local artists will also be part of the scene. The 46 artists presenting their work at the AthFest Artists Market this year are primarily Athens-based, but some are traveling from North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama and Florida to attend. A few returning artists areJamie Calkin, Chris Hubbard (CHUB), Robert Smith of BlackSmith Guitars, Chuck Hanes of Misty Mountain Pottery, ReCycle Jewelry by Russell Williams and Ken Turk Glass. Newcomers to the festival include Mandy Elias, Sergio Ruano of Spoke-N-For, Jason Thomas of Red Rocket Farm,Letter Landmarks, Gabriel Brown and Kathleen Masters. Art market Chair Sean Cook worked with two other jurors, Pat McCaffrey of Swampware Pottery and glass artist Susan Staley, to select the artists. Cook says that the group is really excited about presenting their work and that he “loves them all.” Drop by Washington and Hull streets to say hello, check out the artwork and take some home with you! The Artists Market is open Friday, June 24, 5–10 p.m., Saturday, June 25, noon–10 p.m., and Sunday, June 26, 12:30–8 p.m. Read more: http://flagpole.com/Weekly/ArtNotes Check out Athfest’s website for more information: http://athfest.com/
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