PORTLAND

MECA graduates to compete in snow-sculpting event

For the second year in a row, a team of graduates from Maine College of Art has been invited to compete in the annual U.S. Nationals Snow Sculpting Competition Feb. 1-5 in Lake Geneva, Wis.

Tim Wade, Jake Knight and Ryan Hauge will carve a 10-foot, 3-ton cylinder of snow in competition with the nation’s best snow sculptors. The team will compete for a chance to participate in the International Snow Sculpture Event at the 2012 Quebec City Carnival.

L.L. Bean is sponsoring the team. However, it is still looking for local funding to cover the cost of airfare. Those interested in sponsoring the team or making donations can go to bit.ly/g1zJwG for information.

Follow the team’s progress at www.usnationals.org/schedule.cfm. 

Five Portland students named to all-state groups

Five students from Portland public schools have been named to all-state musical groups based on auditions.

Julia Kang, a violinist at Deering High School; Gabriel Doss, a cellist at Portland High School; and Nick Brown, a Deering clarinetist, were chosen for the All-State Honors Festival Orchestra.

Doss is principal cellist of the Deering-Portland-Casco Bay High School Orchestra, Kang is this semester’s concertmaster, and Brown is principal clarinetist of the Deering Concert Band.

Andrea Levinsky and Sydney Kucine from Deering will be in the All-State Honors Chorus. They both perform with the Deering Chorus and Select Chorus. 

Audio Slam competition seeks entries by Monday

WMPG’s Blunt Youth Radio is sponsoring an Audio Slam competition. Entries should be produced works of audio. Based on poetry slams, the audio slam uses minutes of audio, not poems. Producers enter a piece, which is played and judged in one-minute rounds, for a total of four rounds. The event will be at Space Gallery, 538 Congress St. Entries may be any style or genre, and may have previously aired. A cash prize of $500 will be awarded.

E-mail cholman@usm.maine.edu or call Claire Holman at 650-5835 for instructions. The deadline is Monday.

FREEPORT

Freeport artists are invited to participate in exhibition

The Destination Freeport Committee invites Freeport artists to participate in a juried exhibition of work at the Flavors of Freeport Event, March 25-27. Work should be 10-by-10 inches, framed and ready to hang. All original work created in the last two years is welcome, including painting, collage, hand-pulled prints, drawings and photos.

The jurors are Freeport lodging owners. Send one digital image along with your name, address, phone contact, e-mail address and website to info@whitecedarinn.com. Deadline is Jan. 16.

All work in the show will sell for $200; $125 will go to the artist, and $75 will be retained for the charities supported by the event.

SOUTH PORTLAND

Three singers will perform at ‘Music for Maddie’ benefit

Three singers will honor Maddie Simpson of Cape Elizabeth when they reunite to perform a benefit concert on Jan. 23. Simpson is living with the challenges of ALS while continuing to work in her family-owned Shoppers True Value Hardware store in South Portland. All proceeds from the concert will support the ALS Association of Northern New England.

State Rep. Emily Ann Cain, Kelly Caufield and Matthew Small will join pianist Nicholas Place to present “Music for Maddie” at 4 p.m. Jan. 23 in the sanctuary of the First Congregational Church, 301 Cottage Road, South Portland.

The concert of musical theater and popular songs will be the first time all three singers have shared the stage since they were members of the University of Maine Singers more than a decade ago.

Cain, of Orono, is the new minority leader of the Maine House of Representatives and a fundraiser for the University of Maine’s Honors College. Caufield, of Gray, is one of Greater Portland’s most talented musical theater actors. Small, of Boston, is a career counselor for Emerson College’s School of the Arts. Place, of Portland, is a graduate student in a dual-degree piano program at Boston Conservatory and a former accompanist to the Windham Chamber Singers.

The ALS Association leads the fight to treat and cure ALS through global research and nationwide advocacy while also empowering people with Lou Gehrig’s disease and their families to live fuller lives by providing them with compassionate care and support. “Music for Maddie” tickets will be available at the door for $10.

MONHEGAN

Applications being accepted for Monhegan residencies

Applications are being accepted for the Monhegan Artists’ Residency for emerging Maine artists. This summer, the program will provide five-week residencies on Monhegan Island for two visual artists.

The application deadline is March 4. For guidelines and details on selection criteria, a history of the program and a list of past residents, visit www.monheganartistsresidency.org. Applicants will be notified by late March.

The residency program provides living quarters and separate studio space and a $500 stipend. The 2011 residencies run May 28 to July 2 and Aug. 27 to Oct. 1. Only Maine residents are eligible to apply.

Artists who are in the process of developing a clear and original artistic vision, and are working in any genre or style and in media such as painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, sculpture or the digital arts are invited to apply. Quality of work is the primary criterion for selection.

A jury of art professionals will select the 2011 artists. This year’s judges are Diana Tuite, Mellon Curatorial Fellow at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art; Duane Paluska, painter, sculptor and owner of Icon Gallery; and painter Mary Harrington, a former Monhegan artist resident now living in the Boston area.

Previous artist residents include David Vickery, Connie Hayes, Marguerite Robichaux, Terry Hilt, Lynn Travis, Nicole Duennebier, Joe Kievitt and Christopher Keister.

Founded in 1989, the Monhegan Artists’ Residency program is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit supported by individual donors, art galleries, corporate sponsors and foundation grants.

CAMDEN

‘Good Idea’ grant will fund remarkable book research

Alison Kuller of Camden was recently awarded a “Good Idea” grant by the Maine Arts Commission.

The funding will allow her to conduct research on remarkable books that have been treated by book conservators around New England in an effort to demonstrate the value of the book as an object significant in itself, aside from the information in the text.

Examples of this may include foredge paintings, which were executed on the edge parallel to the spine so that when the book is closed they’re not visible, but when the book is open and the pages are stacked in a slant, a painting is visible. Books made of unusual leather, such as reptile skins, will be included, as will books with unusual clasps that are designed to reflect the content of the book, and old whaling logbooks rebound by sailors with scraps of torn sailcloth.

Kuller has spent many years working in conservation labs at Harvard University’s Widener Library and at the Northeast Document Conservation Center in Andover, Mass. Some of the work she observed and worked on during that time inspired her to find a means of making it more available to a wider audience, as it is not frequently on display.

She has been astonished, at times, to see how contemporary the design and how ingenious the construction of many books have been over the years, and with what care they have been assembled.

Kuller plans to interview book conservators who have treated books they consider remarkable, and to illustrate how the books were analyzed and cared for. She has conducted treatments that range from removing mold from books to washing them to release acids, then mending and rebinding them.

In addition to her work in book conservation, Kuller also binds new books and has exhibited her work in several galleries in Boston and midcoast Maine.

 

 

 

 

Copy the Story Link