The Blog
IAM gets talked about on Persued By A Bear
Read the article here!
http://pursuedbyabear.typepad.com/actressnyc/2011/12/meet-l-a-chandlar.html
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Folding Cosmos Japanese Tea House: A Shalom Project of The Folding Cosmos Committee & IAM
Folding Cosmos Japanese Tea House: A Shalom Project of The Folding Cosmos Committee & IAM
Throughout the week preceding the tenth anniversary of 9/11, the International Arts Movement hosted tea time at the organization’s midtown office, Space 38|39. IAM offered a cup of comfort and empathy through the Japanese art exhibit and interactive tea ceremony entitled ‘Folding Cosmos’. It’s the stories, the particulars, that all add up to make the events of September 11, 2001 so painful and shocking and resonant. For one who was not in New York City on that day, I feel as if I don’t belong at some of the commemoration events; I am a foreigner to this grief. I am detached. But it’s the personal accounts that allow us to feel and to feel for one another. ‘Folding Cosmos’ was not a large observance in a stereo-speakered stadium, but an intimate and participatory cultural confluence. It was a stance of solidarity and an embrace of empathy in a macrocosmic meeting place.
International Arts Movement was founded by Makoto Fujimura in 1991. Eleven years ago, the Japanese artist and his family lived only a few blocks from Ground Zero. And so on the tenth anniversary of 9/11, Fujimura read an excerpt from Fallen Towers and the Art of Tea, an essay from his book Refractions, its provenance being a blog encouraged and enabled by his children. What was once a collection of essays that Fujimura might describe as "incomplete gestures" is now one of several cultural artifacts that sprang from his reflection upon the events of that day. Refractions is a piece that became a published work with generative force.
Also from the ashes of 9/11 came Tribeca Temporary. Seeking to demonstrate something larger through his work, something wholly different from the ‘egofest’ of the contemporary art world, Mako Fujimura and other ‘Ground Zero’ artists collaborated to establish TriBeCa Temporay, a not-for-profit art gallery. Here was a space where, according to Fujimura, “incomplete gestures were acceptable, even preferred.”
After Fujimura’s reading, we were invited to step into the ‘Folding Cosmos’ for tea. Two benches squared around a table that swirled with a fluorescent oil, almost like a magic eight ball rolled topsy turvy, but with neon streaks simulating cosmic light. Fluorescent oil sliding through thin Plexiglas tubes stood in for the corners of the tea house within the greater space. Each person received a sweet pastry, as we awaited our tea. Inconspicuously kneeling, the tea master was hard at work, never breaking form, never taking a break. Ladling hot water over the green matcha essence, she whisked the mix together into a frothy broth of energy. Each bowl-like cup, an ample serving, had been thrown or cast by an IAM-affiliated potter. Each was special and delightful in its design--and used in the presence of the potter. A twice turning of the cup, cup by cup, and every guest received their tea in turn. Each serving received individual attention, yet was crafted in the same careful fashion by the tea master. What a gift for New York City in 2011 to receive from Japan--only months down the road from the earthquake and tsunami that swept away some 12,000 people, displacing hundreds others. ‘Folding Cosmos’ was given out of mourning, from people still reeling from their own loss to others remembering their grief.
An internationally recognized artist, Fujimura has already reached far beyond Tribeca. Yet a new project set to launch this year, Generative Japan, will focus more on revitalizing the arts as an essential step toward healing in that nation. As an effort of the International Arts Movement, he hopes to see more projects unfold, like the ‘Folding Cosmos’, as restorative acts. Around Christmas of this year, Fujimura will travel to the northern provinces of Japan to give back and to see how he as an artist and how art itself can work towards the long-term regeneration of Japan. No matter how “incomplete” the gesture might be.
A Letter from the Executive Director
Ten years ago my wife and I were invited to an IAM conference. There, amidst 250 other attendees, we found our tribe. We found language with which we can express the way beauty and goodness transform us and our world. Because of IAM I have a language to raise two creative boys in a great but challenging city. Because of IAM, Laurie and I are inspired to invest in our community, create, dream and be generative with our lives. In many ways, I am who I am today because of IAM.
If IAM has had a similar effect on your life, would you consider making a year-end donation?
In the five years since I said “yes” to a kind, soft-spoken Japanese-American painter – a hard thing NOT to do if you know him – and took the reigns as Executive Director, I have seen inspiring growth in our movement. Four years ago we didn’t have dozens of local partners and affiliates, a creative space in New York City, nor a brilliant and hard-working staff team. This year we celebrated our 20th anniversary at Encounter 11 with nearly 600 people from all over the United States and abroad. Our resources, media, website, and programming are used by people in 145 different countries. This week the staff and I received calls and emails from friends, old and new, rehumanizing their communities in Stockholm, Hong Kong, Bangalore, London, Tokyo, Los Angeles, Seattle, Charlottesville, and Oklahoma City. This truly is International Arts Movement.
Given the world’s present economic and social instability, the conversation we steward is even more essential for the thousands of artists and creative catalysts serving, creating, collaborating and investing in their communities. And as we cultivate this conversation of art, faith and humanity we hope to see it resonate with tens of thousands more. But with more growth will come greater obstacles and needs. It’s the best kind of challenge to have, but a challenge nonetheless.
IAM is a movement of relationships. We are artists, entrepreneurs, doctors, educators, clergy, cultural leaders, and students. We are catalysts, inspired to rehumanize by engaging in our spheres of influence and infusing beauty, truth, and goodness into our world as signposts of what ought to be. The ideas and philosophies of a movement are most powerful when people are inspired to act, to create, to build, to restore, and to rehumanize – and that is happening more and more the world over.
Would you consider making a year-end donation to support the ongoing work of IAM?
As we have said for years, “you are IAM,” and we are grateful for the pivotal role you play in this movement.
Yours,
Bryan Horvath
Executive Director
International Arts Movement is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Contributions are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.
Online donations made after December 24, 2011 may not post until 2012.
Give the Gift of Art this Christmas Season
This Christmas season, instead of buying your Christmas gifts from just anywhere, why not support the passion and work of a local artist? Besides supporting local and independent artists, you are giving a unique and personal gift to someone you love. Here are a few options to get you started:
1. If you are in the New York City area this coming Thursday night (Dec. 1), you can come make merry with IAM at Space 38/39 at 7pm and buy a ticket for our small works auction.
2. Research your own city to find local artists through http://worldartistdirectory.com/ or just a basic google search. You might be surprised by what you find!
3. If you want to branch out, check out Etsy.com, if you haven't already. You can spend hours on the site and find some one-of-a-kind gifts.
4. If you feel like being creative yourself, check out the Craft Blog: Your daily source for craft projects and inspiration.
If you have any other sources, please let us know!
Happy art supporting this Christmas season!
IAM Christmas Party & Small Works Auction
Call for Artwork
International Arts Movement is calling artists around the world to donate pieces to our 5th Annual Christmas Small Works Auction on Thursday, December 1, 2011.
This popular event provides exposure to IAM artists while giving art lovers access to high-quality, reasonably priced small works of art to hang in their home or give as a gift. Proceeds will help to fund new programming at IAM.
We gratefully accept original printings, drawings, photography, and sculpture. Please complete this form before submission. All work should be shipped to: 38 W. 39th St., Floor 3, NYC, NY 10018 by Friday, November 25, 2011.
Further questions? Please feel free to contact Meaghan@iamny.org
Come make merry with IAM!
Join us at Space 38|39 for goodies, drinks, and live music. Buy a ticket for our small works auction. Bid on a gift for yourself or someone else in our silent auction (only at the party!). Meet other IAMers and hang out with staff and friends. Leave with a small token of our wishes for your happy new year. Come for the whole time, or just drop by on your way to your evening activities!
Can't be in New York? Send your greetings via Twitter (@IntlArtsMvmnt).
RSVP to rsvp@internationalartsmovement.org. We'll see you there!
Art is For Lovers" an Evening of Fine Food, Wine, and Art
"Art is for Lovers" An Evening of Fine Art, Fine Wine, & Fine Food
Thursday, November 17, 7pm
38 West 39th Street, Floor 3
$100/person
Join IAM on November 17 at 7pm for a delightful evening of fine wine, fine food, and fine art from the state of Virginia.
This autumn we are exhibiting a group of Charlottesville based artists from New City Arts, a regional affiliate. In conjunction with that impressive exhibit, we are hosting a wine tasting fund-raiser in NYC.
The theme of the evening is "Art is for Lovers" and so naturally, we are placing special emphasis on the region with the art, musical performances, and food & wine.
James Hall will lead guests in tasting a variety of wines from the Shenandoah Valley. Makoto Fujimura will speak on the power of art to communicate love within community. And Bison will decorate the evening with their folksy tunes.
Roasted winter vegetables on a bed of arugula with a balsamic rosemary reduction and spiced pumpkin seeds
Potato and blue cheese soup shots with slow-roasted tomato and white
bean tapenande
Beef ragu over broad noodles with shaved parmesean
Seating is limited to 40, so reserve your spot now!
Call for Artists: The 6th International Arte Laguna Prize
The 6th International Arte Laguna Prize is dedicated to visual artists from all over the world and it is divided into 5 sections: painting, sculpture, photographic art, videoart and performance, virtual art.
The awards total amount is 170.000 EUR, including:
5 money Prizes of 7,000 EUR for the winner artists, one for each section.
6 Art Residencies: Loft Miramarmi - Vicenza, Carlo Zauli Museum - Faenza, Glass School Abate Zanetti – Venice, Art Stays - Slovenia, iaab – Basel, Technymon India ARTresidency – Mumbai.
2 Business for Art: STILE Original Design offers a money prize of 8,000 EUR and the development of an art project; another project will be offered by the jewelery company FOPE of Vicenza.
2 International Festivals: participations in Open in Venice and Tina B in Prague.
26 Personal Exhibitions in International Art Galleries: a network of international galleries to introduce the artists to the market of Contemporary Art. Each gallery will select an artist for organizing a solo exhibition.
Furthermore 110 finalists will be chosen by an international jury to participate to the collective exhibition in Venice, and their artworks will be published in a bilingual catalogue.
Jurors are: Igor Zanti - Art Critic; Alessio Antoniolli - Director Gasworks of London; Chiara Barbieri - Publications Director, Peggy Guggenheim Collection; Gabriella Belli - Director MART of Trento and Rovereto; Ilaria Bonacossa – Freelance Curator; Soledad Gutierrez - Curator at MACBA Barcelona; Kanchi Metha - Curator Indian Pavillon Prague Biennale; Ludovico Pratesi - Director Centro Arti Visive Pescheria of Pesaro; Maria Savarese - Freelance Curator ; Ralf Schmitt - Director Preview Berlin; Alma Zevi - Art Critic.
The application fees are: 50 EUR for one artwork and 90 EUR for two, but for artists Under-25 are 45 EUR and 80 EUR.
There is time until th 11th of November to submit artworks.
Application form: http://www.artelagunaprize.
Info:
Arte Laguna Prize
tel. +39 041 5937242 (int.4)
info@artelagunaprize.com
www.artelagunaprize.com
On Beauty: Lecture and Discussion at Friday Arts Project
Friday Arts Project is hosting a lecture and discussion session on Oct 13th on the topic of Beauty at Space 157 (157 East Main Street, Rock Hill, South Carolina)
Time: 7pm-10pm
"A subject that has been discussed for millennia, “Beauty” is still important today…maybe more so. But WHAT is it? Why is it important? And how is it related to the Art community and the non-artist community? Is it mere “window dressing”—confined to that which we see in the visible world, or is it perhaps a deeper thing? What is the source of Beauty? Is it a brute power—in and of itself—like “the Force” in Star Wars? Is it even valuable to simple everyday life?"
Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/
Sounds so interesting, anyone who lives near by should check it out!
WYA Manhattan International Film Festival 2012
The World Youth Alliance (WYA) invites young directors from around the world to submit original short films that effectively and creatively portray human dignity and authentic accounts of the human experience.
The short films of the finalists will be featured at the Manhattan International Film Festival Januart 27th-28th, 2012 at Marymount Manhattan College.
Submission Deadline: December 1st 2011
Please visit http://wya.net/ourwork/
Tribute to Michel (Mike) Doreau
Last month, International Arts Movement lost a dear friend. Michel (Mike) Doreau and his wife, Kathy, have been part of IAM since participating in our very first IAM Docent weekend. Since then, they have attended three Encounters, donated money to name the IAM Library in honor of their good friend, Peter Cook, and have emailed us periodically to express their joy and support for the movement.
I remember speaking with Mike at Encounter 10. He was very fatigued, and had to miss part of the program to rest. Shortly after that event, Mike was diagnosed with cancer. After rounds of chemotherapy and radiation, he was well enough to join us again at Encounter 11, much thinner from his illness, but remaining very hopeful for the future. I got to introduce my then-fiancé to him, and we had a brief conversation. Then in April, we had an email exchange in which he shared that his condition had worsened. I sent him a picture from my wedding. He sent me news that his cancer had returned. At that point, he knew it was not curable, but was hopeful for a treatment that would manage it "over a period of years."
The staff of International Arts Movement has started many staff meetings in prayer for Mike and Kathy. When we got news of his condition over the summer, we sent flowers and art; Mako created a small piece especially for them, as part of a calling he has to offer beauty to those who are sick.
Then, a few weeks ago, I received an email from Kathy: on Sunday, September 11, "our dear Mike passed away."
Mike and Kathy were introduced to IAM by another long-time part of our community, poet Patricia Cook. To honor Mike, I asked Pat to write a tribute for us to share with the wider IAM community. She has done so, and beautifully. We are grateful.
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“When Jesus saw [Mary] weeping . . . he raged at his own spirit, and harrowed himself... Jesus once more was inwardly raging, and went to the tomb.” John 11:33,38 (trans. Richmond Lattimore)
“I've met someone as insecure as I am,” my husband said of Mike in 1967 after their first day of graduate school at Carnegie Mellon. Ironically both went on to significant careers: Pete at IBM, Mike at DEC, and each had Gordon Bell as his mentor. From then on, our house became a home for Mike as well. He often spent the night, especially on weekends. Our children, six months and two, loved him and he them. On Saturday night we would prepare our Sunday school lesson (the first of a series on Job), which Mike would join in, though all this new to him. He sat with Pete during Narnia stories, Bible Stories in Pictures for Little Eyes, and prayer with the children. Once he said, “That story sounds familiar.” He had been given The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe as a prize at an Episcopal grade school in New York.
Michel T. Doreau's backgound fascinated his friends. Born in Paris in 1944, his father a journalist from Rochelle; his mother an American from Newport, Michel would often take or invite us to the house she had leased there. We walked across the road to events, for a meal, or to swim at the Spouting Rock Beach Association. Michel's joie de vivre became most intense when sharing that delight with friends – whether a meal at Bailey's Beach (the informal name), cooking steaks on the grill, touring the Breakers, or an evening cliff walk and returning after dark through a thick fog.
Mike's maternal grandfather was Edward Knight He loved to recite family history: the Knights, railroad magnates and defendants in the first antitrust suit; a patent for one of the earliest sleeping cars; Claradon Court on Bellevue Ave., one of his mother's childhood homes. Or the aunt who wrote a letter to Hitler during the occupation of France asking him to check on the welfare of her son. A German soldier subsequently showed up at the father's door and asked after the son's welfare. She received a reply that he was indeed well. The Doreaus had been neighbors of the Jacqueline Bouvier family, their Beach Club membership in Newport also shared with the Kennedy clan. Mike, however, never conveyed pride or name-dropping; but rather spoke with a chuckle, a slight shake of his head almost as though it were not his background he alluded to. No matter who you were, he spoke with the same “approachable charm.”
He and Kathy were my companions at IAM events beginning in 2007 just after my husband's sudden death. They joined me for a lovely weekend that helped to fund IAM's work. We had the privilege of three IAM Encounters together following that. Their faithful care for me included coming from Boston to cook Thanksgiving dinner, my first holiday alone. I remember Mike as one of two men who wept by Pete's casket. He and Kathy took care of me for about a week and a half after. In spite of the pancreatic cancer Mike was battling, they still visited several times this year. We had planned a trip to Italy for this October.
September 10, 201l the phone rang for the second time in less than half an hour. The first, my son, who was getting married the following Saturday, had arrived in New York from Burlingame, California, and wanted to drop by to check out boxes sent in preparation for the wedding. But before he came, the second ring was Kathy telling me they were calling in the family. Mike was in ICU and nothing more could be done for him. He was on a respirator and just being made comfortable. Even up to the previous week, Mike and Kathy had been planning to attend the wedding.
I got off the phone, wept, yelled, screamed no. I called two of my three children to tell them of Mike's condition. Each said, “Mom, you're going to Boston.” “I can't.” “But why not?” “I have things to do before the wedding.” Both questioned my response. My daughter listed things to take. My younger son arrived and held me as I cried. The phone rang again -- daughter with further thoughts. Then she wanted to talk to Jonathan. Off the phone, he said, “Mom, you're going to Boston.” I still could not concentrate. Not even first step. I thought of Susan, my housemate. If she went with me, maybe?. She asked, “But what do you think you should do?” I still didn't know, and I couldn't work it out. I needed a shower, took one, knew I had to go.
So I woke on September 11th in Boston across the street from Massachusetts General Hospital and was the second visitor to see Mike that day. Because Mike could not talk through the mask of his respirator, he printed notes on paper held by a clipboard. I said, “Because you cannot come to the wedding, I came to see you.” He printed, having some difficulty but determined to manage, that he was glad I was there. He had written to his first visitor, “It is hard to say goodby to your friends when you know you are dying. I'm still making plans for what I will do next with them.”
Mike became uncomfortable. So they rearranged his bedding and got him in the position he wished. I wanted to give him a new sheet of paper because it was hard for him to fit the notes on the rest of the page. He had begun writing in former margins and around corners, but for some reason he did not want a new one. His mind totally alert, he mentioned various people by name including the surgeon who came in and that he had performed the first surgery for cancer fifteen years previously. He asked about the wedding and how things were going with each of my children. We spoke of Pete and of the first day they met.
But the pain increased. Eventually, he called for the nurse and had to begin meds which he had not needed the day before. Kathy, Edward (Mike's youngest son) and his wife, Bekah, came in. Edward and Bekah left for church; Kathy and I talked quietly as Mike slept. Then his whole medical team arrived.. Kathy decided we would go to the waiting room where other visitors joined us. Kathy's family from Pittsburgh arrived.
Eventually the waiting room filled with Mike's visitors. I decided I should go in and say goodbye. I told Mike how much I had always loved him. Speaking in spite of the mask, he said, “I love you too; we have been good friends.” I said, “Yes, the best of friends.” He leaned his head forward so I could kiss him goodby on the cheek. He died that night. Mike, Mike. The last goodby -- the hardest goodby I have ever spoken to a conscious person.
_______________________
We are tremendously grateful to have known Mike Doreau and to have had him and Kathy with us for some very fun times celebrating the rehumanizing effects of art that is good, true and beautiful. From attending the American Ballet Theatre with docent/dancer Karen Lacy to Jazz at Lincoln Center with docent/saxophonist Kevin Gosa to touring sculptor Julie Allen's studio and enjoying a meal at Katz's famous deli on Houston Street, I will cherish the memories of these experiences, and the conversations that filled them, with Mike Doreau.
The Blog
The IAM Global blog discusses news and updates for the entire International Arts Movement.