Phoenix receives NEA grant for urban design project

(Phoenix Business Journal, JUly 18) The city of Phoenix received a $25,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for urban design. The funds will be used to redesign a downtown street to improve pedestrian accessibility to the city’s Downtown Phoenix Public Market. An artist/design team will be hired as part of a city of Phoenix Office of Cultural Affairs public art project to redesign one long block of Pierce Street in front of the market from Central Avenue to First Street.
“This project will bolster our efforts to revitalize Phoenix’s unique urban core as a connected oasis of shaded sidewalks, plazas, streets and open spaces,” said Mayor Phil Gordon. “The project, using sustainable materials, also will complement our ongoing downtown development efforts."

"We are honored and delighted to be a part of the project," said Cindy Gentry, executive director of Community Food Connections, the nonprofit that operates the market. Read more here.

SCOTTSDALE CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS APPOINTS NEW DIRECTOR
 
(SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. July 14, 2010) – Dr. William H. Banchs, president and chief executive officer of the Scottsdale Cultural Council, has announced the appointment of Cory Baker as director of Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts and vice president of the Scottsdale Cultural Council.

Baker has been serving as interim director of the Center since January and will assume her new position immediately. She will fill the position left vacant by Artistic Director Jeffrey Babcock.
 
“With her 10-year history with the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, Cory Baker will bring stability and continuity to the organization at this important juncture in its history,” remarked Banchs. “This, together with her experience and expertise in the field of the performing arts, will be vitally important to ensure our success in the future.”
 
Baker joined the Scottsdale Cultural Council in 2000 and has worked at the nonprofit arts-management organization in several capacities. Since 2003, she has served as Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts’ director of performing arts, working closely with staff on all aspects of programming, budgeting and the management of production and operations. More recently, as the Center’s interim director, she oversaw the conclusion of the 2009–10 season and booked the performances for the 2010–11 season. From 2000 to 2003, she served as the Scottsdale Cultural Council’s audience development coordinator, implementing specialized marketing and outreach initiatives and community partnerships.
 
“This is the most exciting time for the Scottsdale Cultural Council and Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts,” added Baker. “We have an amazing staff and dynamic new programming initiatives. I look forward to working collaboratively with our colleagues at Scottsdale Public Art and SMoCA to advance the arts in Scottsdale.”

Baker serves on the boards of directors of the Western Arts Alliance and California Presenters, both membership organizations of touring and performing-arts professionals engaged in promoting and presenting the performing arts. She is also the hub-site representative for the National Dance Project, a program administered through the New England Foundation for the Arts that supports the production and touring of dance in the United States and beyond. Originally from Philadelphia, Baker has lived in Arizona since 1996 and earned bachelor’s degrees from Arizona State University in sociology and religious studies.

Downtown Chandler, AZ: Home of the 2010 Southwest Arts Conference

(Arizona Commission on the Arts: PHOENIX, AZ July 13, 2010)-On July 29 and 30, 2010, more than 300 Arizona arts administrators, artists, arts educators, arts advocates, board members and more will visit Chandler, Arizona to attend the 33rd annual Southwest Arts Conference. In the following post, Communications Intern, Nichole Sessego introduces SWAC attendees to the downtown Chandler area. Nichole is currently studying Communications and Philosophy at Arizona State University.
This year, the home of the 2010 Southwest Arts Conference is the downtown area of Chandler, AZ. Chandler is one of the fastest growing cities in the country, with a rich history and bright future. One of Chandler’s main priorities as a city and community is to preserve and advance its arts and culture, making it an ideal backdrop for the Southwest Arts Conference.
Chandler was the first planned community in Arizona, and has been able to keep its traditional down-home feel while expanding into a modern and diverse community. The downtown square is home to historic buildings such as the hotel San Marcos, which was co-designed by the famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright and the founder of Chandler, Dr. A.J. Chandler. The surrounding downtown area is made up of multiple small and unique businesses that wholly embrace the local culture and engage Chandler visitors and residents alike, through events such as art-walks, music festivals and numerous other family events.
Currently, downtown Chandler is in the process of making the grand addition of a new city hall, which will add a widely anticipated “urban edge” to the downtown area. The new city hall will act as a sleek and modern border to the original historical downtown district. The new addition brings the promise of more pedestrians, synergy, and excitement to the already thriving downtown area. Engineers designed the new city hall in a manner that would encourage business activity in the area, as well as add a sleek, urban element without disrupting the historical feel of the downtown district.

Arizona Museums to Open Their Doors to Military Families This Summer

(Arizona Commission on the Arts: PHOENIX, AZ May 25, 2010) – Six Arizona museums will offer free admission to all active duty military personnel and their families from Memorial Day through Labor Day 2010, according to an announcement made on Monday, May 24, 2010 by the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Blue Star Families, a national, nonpartisan, nonprofit network of military families from all ranks and services.
“Arts organizations have traditionally opened their doors and programs for service men and women over the course of history,” said Arts Commission Executive Director, Robert C. Booker. “The Arizona Commission on the Arts is pleased to see these Arizona nonprofit museums participating in this program.”
The Blue Star Museum initiative involves over 600 museums throughout the country which have agreed to offer free admission to members of the military and their families. In Arizona, the six museums are:

Arizona State Museum:
http://www.statemuseum.arizona.edu/
Tucson, AZ

Desert Caballeros Western Museum:
http://www.westernmuseum.org/
Wickenburg, AZ

Heard Museum:
http://www.heard.org/
Phoenix, AZ

Museum of Northern Arizona:
http://www.musnaz.org/
Flagstaff, AZ

Phoenix Art Museum:
http://www.phxart.org/
Phoenix, AZ

Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art:
http://www.smoca.org/
Scottsdale, AZ

The Mini Time Machine Museum:
http://www.theminitimemachine.org/
Tucson, AZ

“America’s museums are proud to join the rest of the country in thanking our military personnel and their families for their service and sacrifice,” said NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman. “I cannot imagine a better way to do that than welcoming them in to explore and enjoy the extraordinary cultural heritage our museums present. The works of art on view this summer will certainly inspire and challenge viewers – and sometimes they will just be a great deal of fun.”

Lisa Sette Gallery Artists Represent U.S.
at 17th Biennale of Sydney

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. 2/19/10 -- Of only 166 artists selected to participate in the prestigious art event, three are represented by Scottsdale, Arizona’s Lisa Sette Gallery.
The works of Lisa Sette Gallery artists Enrique Chagoya, Claudio Dicochea and Angela Ellsworth will be exhibited at the 17th Biennale of Sydney alongside a select roster of 166 emerging international artists and art-world luminaries such as Louise Bourgeois, Yayoi Kusama, and Bill Viola.
Two of the Lisa Sette Gallery artists participating in the Biennale are Arizona residents, both with connections to Arizona State University: Painter Claudio Dicochea is a recent graduate of ASU’s Master of Fine Arts program, and multimedia artist Angela Ellsworth is an assistant professor at the university.
Biennale of Sydney Artistic Director David Elliott was a guest critic of ASU’s Future Arts Research, a cutting-edge cultural laboratory engaged in an ongoing dialogue about new technologies in the arts, desert aesthetics, and human rights issues. Elliott subsequently made studio visits to a small group of Arizona artists and galleries and in an unprecedented honor, ultimately selected three artists represented by Scottsdale, Arizona’s Lisa Sette Gallery, for inclusion in the Biennale.
An esteemed curator and cultural critic, David Elliott was recently a founding director of Tokyo’s Mori Art Museum, director of the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Sweden, and the first director of the Istanbul Modern in Turkey.  Elliott originated the theme of the 17th Biennale of Sydney: “THE BEAUTY OF DISTANCE: Songs of Survival in a Precarious Age,” remarking that “the aim of this Biennale is to bring together work from diverse cultures, at the same time, on the equal playing field of contemporary art, where no culture can assume superiority over any other.”

New Director appointed to Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture

PHOENIX, Ariz. 12 /11/09–Bob Allen has been appointed the new director of the Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture, effective Jan. 4.

A city employee since 1996, Allen is currently the deputy director of the Phoenix Convention Center, overseeing the Venue Management Division. In his new position, he will have oversight of the city’s Public Arts Program, the Arts in Education Program, grants services and community initiatives, and cultural bond projects.

While with the Convention Center, Allen oversaw the commission of $3.2 million in new public art for the center’s expansion project. For the 2001 and 2006 citizens’ bond elections, he authored two successful bond proposals resulting in $34.7 million in facility improvements for Symphony Hall and the Herberger Theater Center. In 2000, he developed the Phoenix Stages program and worked closely with major industry promoters and community arts organizations at the historic Orpheum Theatre.
Prior to joining the city, he spent more than 20 years in arts management as a presenter, producer and fundraiser. He produced award-winning multicultural festivals and performances in various San Francisco Bay-area venues. Allen also commissioned new, original work for the stage, with a primary emphasis on women and minority artists. He also worked in Chicago, as a multi-arts presenter at Columbia College and with the staff of the Goodman Theatre. Allen is also an accomplished visual artist.
The Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture was established by the Phoenix City Council in 1985 to advance the growth and development of the city’s arts and cultural community.

Two Tucson Artists awarded Joan Mitchell Grant
 
TUCSON, Ariz. 12/ 11/09 --- Tucson artist, Bailey Doogan, has just been awarded the prestigious Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant, one of two Tucson artists out of a select group of 25 to win awards of $25,000 to pursue their medium. Represented in Tucson by Etherton Gallery, Doogan is currently Professor Emerita of Painting and Drawing at the University of Arizona after a 30 year teaching career there.
 
The Joan Mitchell Foundation was established in April 1993 as a not-for-profit corporation following the death of abstract painter, Joan Mitchell in October 1992. The Foundation strives to fulfill the ambitions of Joan Mitchell to assist the needs of contemporary artists and to demonstrate that painting and sculpture are significant cultural necessities.
 
The Foundation engages in a rigorous review process before making its final selection; artists are nominated and their work juried by an anonymous panel of prominent visual artists, curators, and art educators from all over the country.
 
Bailey Doogan, well known locally, has garnered a national reputation for her diverse accomplishments. Doogan?s body of work includes film, three dimensional constructions, and painting and drawing. Her 1977 animated film, SCREW; A TECHNICAL LOVE POEM won numerous awards. Her paintings and drawings have been exhibited in diverse solo and group venues including: The New Museum of Contemporary Art, and Alternative Museum, New York, NY; Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum, CA; The San Antonio Museum, TX; The Speed Museum, Louisville, KY; among many others. Her paintings and drawings are in public collections that include The Brooklyn Museum of Art, NY; Tucson Museum of Art, and the University of Arizona Museum of Art.
 
Doogan?s most recent Tucson exhibition was Translations, held at Etherton Gallery earlier this year. She was also honored with a retrospective at the Tucson Museum of Art in 2005.
 
The other Tucson recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant is Will Wilson, Co-Director of the Barrio Anita Community Mural Project (BAMP) in Tucson and former visiting faculty at the University of Arizona.
 
For more information about the Joan Mitchell Foundation or Bailey Doogan please contact Etherton Gallery at (520) 624-7370 or info@ethertongallery.com

Arizona Commission on the Arts Executive Director, Robert Booker, named as one of the Nonprofit Arts Sector’s 25 Most Powerful and Influential Leaders
 
PHOENIX, Ariz. 11/20/09 – Executive Director of the Arizona Commission on the Arts, Robert Booker, was recently recognized as one of the 25 most powerful and influential leaders in the nonprofit arts sector.  Nominations are made by leaders from large and small organizations across the country, representing all artistic disciplines and demographics within the national arts industry.  The list, published to a well-known arts blog authored by Barry Hessenius and hosted by the Western States Arts Federation, also lists recently confirmed chairman of the National Endowment of the Arts, Rocco Landesman and Americans for the Arts President, Bob Lynch.  Booker is one of only two state arts agency directors to be recognized on the list, which notes his “authoritative voice” in the state arts agency network and his accomplishments as an experienced leader “able to deal with a variety of ups and downs.”
 
Booker was named to the board of Grantmakers in the Arts, a national arts philanthropy organization, in October 2009, and received the 2008-2009 Distinguished Service Award from the AriZoni Theatre Awards of Excellence.  He has served on the board of the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, and in 2006 was honored with the organization’s Gary Young Award, a lifetime achievement award for outstanding individual leadership in the arts.  Prior to his work in Arizona, Booker played many roles at the Minnesota State Arts Board, including eight years of service as the Executive Director.  Booker joined the Arizona Commission on the Arts in 2006.  
 
To view the entire list, visit http://www.westaf.org/blog/

Gordon Knox named new ASU Art Museum Director

TEMPE, Ariz. 11/18/09– The ASU Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts announced the appointment of Gordon Knox as the new director for the ASU Art Museum. Knox, currently a core collaborator for the Stanford Humanities Lab (SHL) at Stanford University, will begin his duties as museum director on a part-time basis on Jan. 11, 2010, assuming the position full-time July 1.

Knox, whose work explores the transformative role of the arts in society, was recently recognized by Forbes Magazine for his work on collaborative projects at the SHL that brings together experts in the arts, humanities and sciences and engages them in on-the-ground efforts to effect social change.

Previous to the SHL, Knox was the artistic director of the Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga, CA, developing projects such as Edge of Desire, the only West Coast exhibition of a comprehensive collection of recent art from India, and FUSE, a new media collaboration with the CADRE laboratory at San Jose State University. Knox also was the founding director of the Lucas Artists Program, a residency program at Montalvo that identifies exceptional international artists and supports them as they develop new work while in residence in eleven newly designed live/work studios.

During the 1990’s as the founding Director of the Civitella Ranieri Foundation in Italy, Knox envisioned and established a center for the arts designed to advance and widen the discourse of contemporary cultural practice by engaging the voices and thinking of practitioners from all parts of the world and providing them with excellent conditions to advance their work. Civitella quickly became a new model for international, multidisciplinary residency programs.

As a part of the transition to Knox’s directorship, current interim director Heather Lineberry has been named Interim Associate Director and Senior Curator, effective on Knox’s arrival. In that role, Lineberry will work closely with Knox as an administrative partner while also continuing to pursue her curatorial interests.

Phoenix artist Jen Urso Awarded Pollock-Krasner Grant

PHOENIX, Ariz. 11/13/09 – Jennifer Urso, a Phoenix artist whose drawings, multimedia and performance work dwell on effects of time, process, and loss, was awarded a grant from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation for the 2009-1010 granting cycle. Urso's work has been seen in Phoenix at Modified Arts and The Icehouse, and Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Smack Mellon, NYC and in Rio de Janeiro at Durex Arte Contemporanea. Her recent web-based project White Space chronicles her travel by foot between the two towns she grew up in –Reading and Lansdale, PA.

"The Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Inc. awarded 125 grants totaling $2,093,140 to visual artists and organizations internationally in fiscal year 2008-2009. These grants support the artists' personal and/or professional expenses for one year. Since its inception in 1985, the Foundation has awarded over 50 million dollars to artists in 72 countries.

Pollock-Krasner grants have enabled artists to create new work, purchase needed materials and pay for studio rent, as well as their personal and medical expenses. Past recipients of Pollock-Krasner grants acknowledge their critical impact in allowing concentrated time for studio work, and in preparing for exhibitions and other professional opportunities such as accepting a residency.

Grants are awarded to professional visual artists internationally, based on dual criteria of artistic merit and financial need. Painters, sculptors, printmakers and artists who work on paper are eligible to apply.The Pollock-Krasner Foundation was established in 1985 to assist individual working artists of merit with financial need through the generosity of Lee Krasner (1908-1984), a leading abstract expressionist painter and widow of Jackson Pollock."

For more information about the foundation and grant opportunities, visit www.pkf.org

Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art Announces New Director

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. 11/9/09 – Dr. William H. Banchs, president and chief executive officer of the Scottsdale Cultural Council (SCC), has announced the appointment of Timothy Rodgers, Ph.D. as director of the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA) and as a vice president of the Scottsdale Cultural Council. Rodgers currently serves as the Chief Curator at the New Mexico Museum of Art (NMMoA) in Santa Fe and during the past summer, he was the distinguished juror for the ‘09 Arizona Biennial at the Tucson Museum of Art.

Rodgers’ extensive career has been involved in writing about, curating, teaching and lecturing on modern and contemporary art. In recent years, his efforts in Santa Fe’s arts community have been instrumental in helping to secure membership, funding, art donations and bequests. He is also credited with re-focusing NMMoA’s exhibition program, and publishing several important exhibition-related catalogues that have raised the level of the museum’s recognition and prestige.
 
Rodgers’ appointment was the result of an intensive, year-long search led by a SMoCA search committee. He will fill the position left vacant by SMoCA’s former director, Susan Krane, and will begin his duties in Scottsdale in mid December. 
“We are absolutely delighted to have someone join us with such broad museum administrative expertise and a well-rounded array of skills,” said William Banchs. “Tim possesses a rich educational background in contemporary art along with a profound understanding of the curatorial process. He embraces the important role of a museum in enriching the quality of life in a community and is committed to positioning SMoCA as a source of civic pride in Scottsdale and throughout the region.”

Tim Rodgers said, “I am extremely pleased to be joining the Scottsdale Cultural Council (SCC) as Director of the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art and as a Vice President of the SCC. The high caliber of the SMoCA staff and the intelligent and beautiful past exhibitions has made the Museum a cornerstone for the cultural life in the Valley. The chance to continue and expand upon the excellent work undertaken by SMoCA is a rare opportunity. I look forward to re-connecting with the vibrant art and cultural life of Scottsdale and the Arizona region. For me, this is a much-welcomed homecoming to a dynamic city filled with opportunity and optimism.”

Rodgers received a Ph.D. from Brown University in History of Art and a B.A. degree (summa cum laude) from Arizona State University. An experienced art academic, writer, lecturer and curator, first at Brown University and later tenured at Lawrence University, Appelton, Wisconsin, Rodgers served as the Curator of the Wriston Art Center Galleries and Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art. In 1999, Rodgers was named Director of Lawrence University London Study Abroad program in England and in 2004, he became the Chief Curator at NMMoA.
 
Rodgers has implemented a wide-range of both modern and contemporary art exhibitions that have contained works by artists such as Takashi Murakami, Andy Warhol and Polly Apfelbaum with an emphasis on southwestern artists including Agnes Martin, Maria Martinez, and Florence Pierce. In addition to his teaching and curatorial work, Rodgers has delivered more than forty art presentations at venues including Orange County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; Georgia O’Keeffe Museum of Art, Santa Fe; Tucson Museum of Art, Arizona; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, among many others. 

SMoCA’s current interim director Barbara Meyerson expressed her enthusiastic support for Rodgers and the future of the Museum. “I have thoroughly enjoyed working with SMoCA’s talented staff and really believe that Tim will lead and inspire them to do great things!”