March 2009 Archives
Mako in Philly!
Olana: Psalms of Ascent will be the artist's first exhibit in the City of Brotherly Love
Contact: Susan Hooks, White Stone Gallery,
215-482-7700
PHILADELPHIA, Mar. 24 / -- Makoto Fujimura, an internationally acclaimed contemporary artist using the ancient Japanese materials and technique of Nihonga, will be exhibiting at White Stone Gallery in Philadelphia. Olana: Psalms of Ascent (April 3 – June 21) will be the first Philadelphia exhibit for Fujimura, represented by Dillon Gallery in New York City. White Stone Gallery is located at 4219 Main Street, in the Manayunk section of Philadelphia. Gallery hours are listed at www.whitestonegallery.com.
Robert Kushner stated in an Art in America review, "The idea of forging a new kind of art, about hope, healing, redemption, and refuge, while maintaining visual sophistication and intellectual integrity, is a growing movement, one which finds Fujimura's work at the vanguard." Critic David Gelernter wrote, "Makoto Fujimura's paintings are a joyful gusher from a well that had long run dry... a superb artist who does honor to the Japanese traditions he uses, and helps fan life back into several magnificent western traditions -- traditions as new as abstract expressionism, as old as Christian art."
For the White Stone Gallery, Fujimura will exhibit devotional imagery made in the last two years. Says the artist, "These works are done in layers of thin minerals; small paintings often taking more than a year to complete. I began them as a personal devotional journey between art and faith, a type of 'Psalms of Ascent' for me. I realized recently that current world conditions call an artist to operate in the area of uncertainty to provide perspectives on hope and longing."
Part of the series relies on his visit to Olana, the former estate of the Hudson River Painter Fredrick Church, in upstate New York. Fujimura considers the Olana series to be his homage to Hudson River painters. Valerie Dillon of Dillon Gallery, says, "the 'Olana - Matthew Six' painting is one of his most impressive works to date."
The exhibit will run April 3 - June 21, with an opening reception on April 17 from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. White Stone Gallery represents fine art that expresses faith.
Makoto Fujimura served on the National Council on the Arts from 2003-2008. He was awarded the NEA Chairman's Medal in 2009. His latest book is a collection of essays entitled Refractions: A Journey of Faith, Art and Culture (NavPress, 2009).
Watch Mako Discuss Refractions
New IAM Podcast: A Conversation with Mae's Jacob Marshall
Click here to listen to the latest IAM Podcast, Part 1 of my conversation with Jacob Marshall, drummer for the band Mae.
For more on Mae, visit What Is Mae?
And be sure to check out Jacob's blog, My Contracrostipunctus.
Sewing Hope Benefit Fashion Show April 5
You're invited! To the 2nd annual Sewing Hope Fashion Event...benefiting Fount of Mercy's vocational training program, Sewing Hope.
Top designers in fashion, film, and theater are uniting to host a spring fashion show that will celebrate African culture and provide networking amongst related industries. Award-winning designers include Eric Daman of Gossip Girl, Juliet Polcsa of The Sopranos, Emmett McCarthy of Project Runway, and the renowned Broadway designers Paul Tazewell and Martin Pakledinaz.
The April 5th show, at China 1 Antique Restaurant and Lounge, will raise money for Sewing Hope, a program run by professional designers who travel to Uganda with Fount each year to train women in tailoring, provide much-needed machines, and help them launch their own businesses.
Event Details: Sunday, April 5th. 7-10pm (open bar till 9)
Suggested Donation: $75
China 1 Antique Restaurant and Lounge. 50 Avenue B.
DJ--Kamau Mucoki Raffle tickets sold for high-end items!
Donate for "tickets" online: www.sewinghope.net
After-party Details:
Sunday, April 5th. Doors open at 10pm $5 cover
China 1 Antique Restaurant and Lounge. 50 Avenue B
DJ--La Chipettes Raffle tickets sold for high-end items!
Buy tickets at the door--bring friends and dance the night away while supporting a great cause!
For more information:
www.fountofmercy.org
www.sewinghope.net
info@sewinghope.net
New IAM Podcast: A Conversation with Andy Crouch
Alison Stigora's "Burden/Offering"
Burden/Offering:an altarpiece in eight progressions
by Alison Stigora (featured in IAM's Encounter 09 Exhibition)
March 15 - May 3, 2009
Sundays 9:00a + 11:30a
Covenant Fellowship Church
One Fellowship Drive
Glen Mills, PA
For more information, visit Alison Stigora's web site.
Call For Submissions - Visual Art Competition: Solidarity Generation
Visual Art Competition: Solidarity Generation
The World Youth Alliance invites young artists from across North America to join the Art Competition Solidarity Generation. Winning pieces will be displayed at the WYA North America Decade of Dignity and Development conference at Yale University from September 25th-27th 2009. WYA is accepting submission of visual arts pieces, including painting, drawing, collage and mosaic pieces and illustration.
Entries will be judged according to its adherence to the theme Solidarity Generation, essentially, in its ability to combine contrasting elements such as light and dark or ideas such as new and old and create that a piece that is unified, creative and moving.
The winner will receive art supplies, a waiver to attend the DDD conference at no charge (including the travel to the conference and transportation cost for art work) as well as has his work viewed and critiqued by art critics from Christie's and other renowned art institutions.
Deadline: April, 30
Entry Fee: $10
More information on our website
IAM's Kevin Gosa Speaking in Boston
IAM's Conferences and Membership Director, Kevin Gosa, will be one of the presenters at the upcoming Veritas Forum at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, March 11-14, 2009.Mia Chung
World-class concert pianist
Mia Chung is a world-class concert pianist, described by the New York Times as "Uncommonly insightful, individualistic, lively" and "technically dazzling". In 1997, she received the Avery Fisher Career Grant, the highest recognition for young concert artists in the United States and her debut recording on the Channel Classics label was selected as "Best of the Year".
An active recitalist, known for her combinations of performance and engaging talk, Mia has performed in major concert halls around the world. Chosen as an Artistic Ambassador by the United States Information Agency in 1993, Ms. Chung toured Thailand, Singapore, Tonga and the former Soviet Union, becoming the first American pianist to perform in Kazakhstan, Kirghizstan and Turkmenistan.
Mia grew up in the Washington, D.C. area. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College and received a master's degree from Yale University and a doctorate from the Juilliard School. Mia is currently Artist-in-Residence and Professor of Music at Gordon College.
Gerald Gabrielse
Leverett Professor of Physics at Harvard University
Gerald Gabrielse has been a Professor of Physics at Harvard University since 1987 and chaired the physics department from 2000-2003. He has given nearly 345 invited talks at scientific conferences and university colloquia, and is the author of more than 135 scientific publications.
Gabrielse has been honored by Harvard, both for his teaching and for his research. In 2000, his "Reality Physics" course for non-science students earned him the Harvard's Levenson Teaching Award for exceptional undergraduate teaching by senior faculty. In 2004, Gabrielse received Harvard's George Ledlie Prize for his scientific accomplishment of creating and observing antimatter atoms -- a prize awarded every two years to someone affiliated with the University who "has by research, discovery or otherwise made the most valuable contribution to science, or in any way for the benefit of mankind."
Gabrielse’s physics research activities are currently focused upon antihydrogen experiments, upon measuring the electron magnetic moment and the fine structure constant, and upon precise laser spectroscopy of helium.
Kevin GosaAward-winning saxophonist and Conference Director for the International Arts Movement
Kevin Gosa is a progressive saxophonist and two-time co-recipient of the DownBeat Magazine Award for Best Collegiate Instrumental Chamber Ensemble. He challenges people’s preconceptions about how the saxophone should sound and what it should play, by performing what is generally considered 'classical' music in places where it's not often heard. Based in New York, Kevin has performed at The Knitting Factory, the Bitter End, the Joyce SOHO, the Tribeca Performing Arts Center, the Bowery Poetry Club, the Stain Bar, as well as Grace Church Van Vorst and the Brennan Courthouse in Jersey City. Kevin has turned his attention recently to composition. One of his original compositions for solo saxaphone – “The Number One” – will be of particular interest to students at MIT!
Kevin received his Bachelors and Masters degrees in Saxophone from the University of Kansas. He is an active member of and Membership/Conference Director for the International Arts Movement, attends the Village Church; enjoys writing poetry; and ran the 2007 ING New York City Marathon in just over 4 hours. For a little extra fun, Kevin plays guitar, bass guitar, and mandolin.
Eric Gregory
Assistant Professor of Religion, Princeton University
Eric Gregory joined the faculty of Princeton in 2001. His teaching and research interests include religious and philosophical ethics, theology, political theory, bioethics, and the role of religion in public life. In 2007 he was awarded Princeton's President's Award for Distinguished Teaching. A graduate of Harvard College, he did graduate studies in theology at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and received his doctorate in religious studies from Yale University. He is the author of Politics and the Order of Love: An Augustinian Ethic of Democratic Citizenship (Chicago, 2008), and various articles on religion and social ethics, including “Before the Original Position: The Neo-Orthodox Theology of the Young John Rawls” (Journal of Religious Ethics, 2007). He has received fellowships from the Erasmus Institute, University of Notre Dame, the Safra Foundation Center for Ethics, Harvard University, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. His current project examines secular and religious perspectives on global justice in light of the reception history of the parable of the Good Samaritan.
John Hare
Noah Porter Professor of Philosophical Theology at Yale Divinity School
John Hare is a British classicist, ethicist, and currently Noah Porter Professor of Philosophical Theology at Yale Divinity School. Educated at Oxford and Princeton, he was Professor of Philosophy at Lehigh University from 1975 to 1989. He was Professor of Philosophy at Calvin College from 1989 to 2003. He has been Professor of Philosophical Theology at Yale University since 2003.
Hare's best-known book, The Moral Gap, develops an account of the need for God's assistance in meeting the moral demand of which God is the source. In God's Call he discusses the divine command theory of morality, analyzing texts in Duns Scotus, Kant and contemporary moral theory. In Why Bother Being Good? he gives a non-technical treatment of the questions, 'Can we be morally good?' and 'Why should we be morally good?'. He has also written a commentary on Plato's Euthyhphro in the Bryn Mawr series, and Ethics and International Affairs, with Carey B. Joynt. His interests extend to ancient philosophy, medieval Franciscan philosophy, Kant, Kierkegaard, contemporary ethical theory, the theory of the atonement, medical ethics and international relations (he has worked in a teaching hospital and for the Foreign Affairs Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives) and aesthetics (he is a published composer of church music).
Ian Hutchinson, Moderator
Head of Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, MIT
Robert Randolph, Panel Moderator
Chaplain to the Institute, MIT
Peter Singer
Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University
Peter Singer is Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University and Laureate Professor at the University of Melbourne. He first became internationally known after the publication of Animal Liberation in 1975, which had a significant impact on the Animal Rights Movement. Singer has been described by The New Yorker as “the most influential living philosopher” and named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. His work dealing with ethics and aspects of human life has generated intense debate within the academy as well as in the wider community.
Singer was educated at the University of Melbourne and the University of Oxford and has taught at the University of Oxford, La Trobe University and Monash University. He was the founding President of the International Association of Bioethics and, with Helga Kuhse, founding co-editor of the journal Bioethics. His many books include: Democracy and Disobedience; Practical Ethics; The Expanding Circle; Marx; Hegel; The Reproduction Revolution, Should the Baby Live?, How Are We to Live?, Rethinking Life and Death; One World; Pushing Time Away; The President of Good and Evil; and, with Jim Mason, The Ethics of What We Eat. His latest publication is entitled The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty.
The Blog
The IAM Global blog discusses news and updates for the entire International Arts Movement.