Barefoot in “Lemolo & the Kaleidoscope Dance”

Barefoot Collective along with MLK Ballet perform in “Lemolo & the Kaleidoscope Dance”

Three-time Spaceworks participant Barefoot Collective is part of an upcoming event we want you to know about!

The Warehouse Presents: Lemolo & The Kaleidoscope Dance 


A collaborative event featuring Lemolo playing their entire debut album “The Kaleidoscope” alongside choreographed performances from The BareFoot Collective and MLKBallet.  The event will take place Saturday, July 6, 8pm at Urban Grace, 902 Market Street, Tacoma, WA, 98402.  Tickets are available at Brown Paper Tickets.

Click here to learn more about the event

OPENING TONIGHT: Marilyn Bennett directs timeless comedy “The Importance of Being Earnest”

“The Importance of Being Earnest” at the Lakewood Playhouse

Spaceworks alumni Marilyn Bennett, creator of Toyboat Theatre, is directing “The Importance of Being Earnest” by Oscar Wilde.  The performance is presented by the Lakewood Playhouse, who indeed declares: 

“You are cordially invited to the sumptuously delicious, and extremely amusing event of the season.  A serious play for trivial people, full of mistaken identities, fine fashions, romance, great intellectual sparring… and lots… and lots… of tea.”

The show opens tonight, June 13th, at 8pm and runs through July 14th.  For a complete listing of showtimes and to purchase tickets visit the Lakewood Playhouse website (www.lakewoodplayhouse.org) or call 253-588-0042.

//

Call for Artists – Special Artscapes Project

Chalk Walls at 11th and Market Streets

Spaceworks Tacoma and Downtown On The Go are seeking applications for a special Artscapes  project at 11th and Market in downtown Tacoma. Deadline to apply is June 25 at 5pm PST

If you have a creative idea of how to transform the side of the building in downtown Tacoma, please send us your ideas! The theme is transportation and the goal is to add to the livability of downtown Tacoma. Click here for guidelines, application checklist and a link to the online application.

We invite artist(s), artist teams and/or community groups to submit proposals to transform the current “Chalk Walls” into temporary 2-dimensional, site-specific installations (Artscapes) . The Artscapes will be up for a period of 6 months and the artist will assume maintenance of the installations.  This project offers a stipend of $2,000 total (for materials, artists’ time and maintenance) for all panels located on 11th and on Market Streets. Applicants can propose to create an Artscape on only one side of the building, i.e. 11th street OR Market Street, for a stipend of $1000 per street side.

//

 

Get the Spaceworks Monthly Newsletter

Prints from Tacoma Wayzgoose 2013. Artists are: Ric Matthies, Chandler O’Leary & Jessica Spring, Charles Wright Academy Printmaking, Pacific Lutheran University Printmaking.

You are invited to subscribe to the new Spaceworks Enewsletter! You can expect to receive it just once a month to get the latest news from Spaceworks Tacoma. The newsletter will highlight our awesome projects, let you know about upcoming events, provide reports and pictures from recent events you might have missed out on, and we will fill you in on our efforts to make Tacoma a strong and vibrant community. Join us! Click here to subscribe.

Spaceworks is Hiring!

Spaceworks is hiring! If you’re interested in making Tacoma a more vibrant, active city and think you’ve got what it takes to work with a diverse range of local artists, entrepreneurs, landlords, non-profits, and community members, we want to hear from you!

We’re looking for a 32-40hr/wk Spaceworks Coordinator to facilitate all three of the Spaceworks tracks:
a) Creative Enterprise provides designers, creators, and other fledgling entrepreneurs the chance to test new products and services in a physical space.
b) Special Projects offers dedicated practicing artists the chance to pursue projects and develop work in any discipline.
c) Artscapes temporarily places visual art installations in interior window storefronts.

For more information and a detailed job description, visit: http://www.tacomachamber.org/content/spaceworks-coordinator-job-opening-chamber.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Fab-5 hits new high with indoor graffiti commission

Art in 3-D: opening party for the new Fab-5 mural at DCI headquarters in Kent. The art work extends through two floors and into the backrooms.

Fab-5 is taking graffiti art to new heights and kicking off 2013 on a high note: team artists Kenji Stoll, Chris Jordan, Troy Long and Travis Galindo recently completed a $90,000 art commission at the Kent, WA, headquarters of global electronics company, Digital Control Incorporated (DCI). They’ve created a multi-dimensional, two-story indoor mural that wraps around corners and hovers colorfully over workstations. It’s a work that’s sure to redefine “graffiti” and catapult it to a new level – one that integrates spontaneous, free-form painting with elegantly designed work space.

Located in the neighborhood of the Boeing Co., DCI headquarters is about as big as an airplane hangar, and it provided Fab-5 with an unimaginably exciting palette. The warehouse is a model of swank industrial design with large central spaces where there are no cubicles – instead, banks of large, lush plants and crystal-clear window dividers section off work areas. Because the company specializes in electronics, the place is immaculate – but in the most appealing way. Dogs are allowed visiting privileges, there is a pingpong table on the mezzanine, and for focused quiet time, there is a submarine-size tropical aquarium that is filtered from beneath by small, living mangrove trees. The company is a leading designer of drilling guidance systems with offices in Germany, China, India, Australia, and Russia.

Spaceworks alums Chris Jordan and Kenji Stoll at the dedication of the Fab-5 mural.

The challenge for Fab-5 was to create a visual environment that dozens of engineers and designers would all be amenable to working in (plastered in graffiti?), and that would complement the space’s clean architectural style. Oh, and a deadline of two months – that alone would keep the Five in respirator masks and working around the clock last summer.

The result of their efforts: an immersive environment that is over the top, and hard to describe. On the walls, cumulous clouds of color give birth to silhouettes of gadgets related to drilling guidance systems; Jordan and Stoll, the team’s liaisons, spent hours interviewing the engineers about their work and its components, and recorded motifs that would be catalysts for thought. Color and design merge to create a dynamism that keeps the eye moving from floor to ceiling and around corners. They didn’t hold back; as Jordan pointed out, going for generic graffiti effects would have doomed the work to the pleasantly dull realm of chain restaurant art. At the mural dedication, visitors were plainly awed by the work. Most importantly, the clients, founders Peter Hambling, and John and June Mercer, were elated.

We caught up with Kenji Stoll to ask him how the commission was executed, and how the four artists in Fab-5 managed to keep the collaboration rolling smoothly.

New Year’s plans up in the air? Studio 54, at TAM!

You might not see Bianca Jagger riding a white stallion onto the dance floor, but it’s sure to be a night of unequaled glamour as Tacoma Art Museum brings Studio 54 to Tacoma to ring in 2013!

On Monday, December 31, get set for your 15 minutes of fame at the party of the year…Dance your way into the New Year starting at 9 pm in the style of Andy Warhol as TAM recreates the scene of America’s most iconic nightclub.

DJ Marc Sense of Integral DJ will spin vintage vinyl along with today’s sounds. Watch dance performances by Studio 6 Ballroom then shake your own groove thing for prizes (glam it up in disco threads, people!). Enjoy drinks poured by The Mix, a photo booth by 1000 Words, and food for purchase in the TAM cafe.

This 21+ event is expected to sell out. For a more intimate evening, buy tickets to one of the VIP areas and indulge in pampering that promises to take you to the next level. There are three different passes to choose from:

· Studio 54 Party Pass, $50
Includes Andy Warhol exhibition access, photo booth fun, party favors, and a champagne toast at midnight.

Gutsy Tacoma artist takes on t.v. taxidermy challenge

Barnyard animals bring out the best in taxidermy enthusiast, Cat Grey. Photo: Vicky Winters

It’s official – Tacoma artist Acataphasia Grey will star on Immortalized, a new reality show about the world of competitive taxidermy debuting February 14, 2013, on AMC. “Cat” was shooting in Los Angeles last month, one of eight challengers on the program, whose formula she compares to the insanely popular Iron Chef. Although there is no cash award for the winner, contestants fight tooth and nail “for bragging rights at the top of their field,” she says.

Grey is no stranger to show business. Now a full-time artist, she was once the art director of a Bainbridge Island production company where she managed projects such as shooting video for M-TV. In 2010, she got a call from Go Go Luckey Entertainment, a Los Angeles-based production company specializing in reality and scripted television, asking her to brainstorm ideas for a reality show about “rogue taxidermy”. Not only did she seed concepts, eventually she was invited (in a final format unfamiliar to her) to be a contestant on the show along with other experienced taxidermy artistes.

Party animals: vignettes like this one on the streets of Paris have inspired Cat Grey. Photo courtesy of the artist

Grey’s ironic flair with deceased and/or stuffed animals has been on display in Tacoma in elaborate installations based on Victorian tea parties, created with support from the Spaceworks program. She lives here with her cat, Mr. James Peterson.

Her earliest contact with “taxidermy and preservation” was as a child growing up in Australia. When she was 15, a family rabbit died, and she began experimenting “with alum and things like that.” But her trials were repeatedly interrupted by a grandmother’s dog who had a penchant for eating her experiments.

Grey says she didn’t mind her trials being destroyed by the dog because her aesthetic goals always outpaced her scientific ones: “The process didn’t interest me at all, it was the results I wanted.”

Tacoma Arts wins $25,000 InnOVATION Grant

The arts in Tacoma and the Spaceworks program have received a big boost with a $25,000 innOVATION Grant from arts-programming network Ovation in partnership with Americans for the Arts! Ovation developed the innOVATION Grant Program to fund and recognize the impact of artists and the arts in community revitalization efforts nationwide. Tacoma was one of three recipients in the inaugural year of the award; the other two cities are Fort Collins, CO for its Beet Street project, and Lanesboro, MN for the Lanesboro Arts Center.

“[We're] very excited to be recognized nationally for the work we are doing and look forward to partnering with Ovation TV to continue to spread the word about Tacoma’s talent,” said City of Tacoma Arts Administrator, Amy McBride.

“Cities and towns across the country are inviting arts and culture to the table to define and address civic problems; to inspire, challenge, imagine and build new civic futures; to boost image and identity; to drive revitalization and economic growth,” said Robert L. Lynch, President and CEO of Americans for the Arts. “Projects, with art at the center, that are both authentic and fresh, are creating jobs, re-activating old spaces, connecting neighbors, increasing tourism, and offering hope as communities look forward. It is time to publicly recognize the best examples of these efforts. Ovation is providing that opportunity.”

In addition to the $25,000 grants, two $10,000 awards were given, to Bethlehem, PA, for Arts Quest, and Washington, DC, for CulturalDC.

Voting is still taking place for the “Viewers’ Choice Award” of $15,000 at
http://ovtn.tv/viewerschoice
. Americans for the Arts is amongst the most prestigious and influential arts organizations in the country. Congratulations, Tacoma!

Artist Randy Cezan extracts form from chaos

Sculpture by Randy Cezan.

“Images of colliding galaxies were the direct forms that I have attempted to represent with these sculptural forms,” says artist Randy Cezan of his new art installation, Large Interacting…on exhibit in the windows at 950 Pacific Avenue in Tacoma.

“The title of my [work] was taken from one of the early Hubble  images I encountered, ‘Large Interacting Galaxies’.” Cezan’s artwork captures the elegant clockwork dynamism of the universe – but conjures up a myriad of forms found in nature as well. His sculptures are informed by investigations of the environment in which he discovered “micro and/or macro examples of repeating patterns in nature.” For example, pieces of driftwood found on the beach at Pt. Defiance for him evoked meteorological associations: “The spiraling intermingling of wood grain was reminiscent of eyes, multiple funnel cyclones, as well as cloud formations.”

“Interacting Galaxies” by Randy Cezan.

The mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot coined the term “fractal” to describe such repeating forms: “I conceived and developed a new geometry of nature and implemented its use in a number of diverse fields. It describes many of the irregular and fragmented patterns around us, and leads to full-fledged theories, by identifying a family of shapes I call fractals.”

Cezan’s sculptures will eventually be mounted as mobiles; stunning behemoths with convex curves and concavities that suggest dinosaur skulls, helixes, vortexes and of course, massing stars and galaxies. Their powerful forms seem already to move of their own internal force. Carved from polystyrene and measuring 20ft. across and 15ft. high, the trilogy weighs just 100lbs.

Micro and macro worlds collide in “Large Interacting…”.

Cezan says Large Interacting…illustrates a theory about social engagement as well as science and geometry. “My comment is how human interaction even in its mildest forms involves change in the people who genuinely interact. You can think of these shapes starting as regular spiral galaxies until gravitational pull distorts their uniformity. I propose that something similar happens when people interact: Neither party comes out unchanged. When one is open and listening, the ideas, opinions, and emotions of another register and create change, whether mild or profound.”

Cezan’s Spaceworks installation appears to span light years, but Large Interacting…“is the product of 15 months pondering and more than six months of work.” Check it out at 950 Pacific Avenue through February 28, 2013.