Thatch Grass Weavings and Painted Bamboo Installation

Terry Smith, a staff member donated thatch grass from his garden. He also bought indigenous artifacts, from South African, and his native American collection. He was in the Peace Corps and traveled to various countries in Africa.

 We stripped the canes and gesso them white so that the students from TLC could paint them with primary colors. The thatch grass was tied onto the fence that separates the school garden from the 40 arches of corn stalks that surround the school and the neighboring community.

Poles were repurposed and hung from the trees, like the pods, this was the coldest day of the year, below -2 wind chill, but we installed the art projects to bring art into the sacred space.

Jumpin Jambalaya Tribute to Grandmother's Circle

Kucha Brownlee & Baba Tony Brown

Kucha and Baba Tony Your Favorite Storytellers

CHARLESTON — The public is invited to a reception and storyteller program in the 
Tarble Arts Center atrium to close the month-long Arts-in-Education Residency with 
Alpha Bruton from 5 to 7 p.m. on Thursday.

Guest artists and storytellers Baba Tony Brown and D. Kucha Brownlee will present
 “Jumpin’ Jambalaya,” a diverse program including folk tales, call and response, poetry,
 and music.

Resident artist Alpha Bruton will discuss her installation exhibition, “Grandmother’s Circle,”
 including how she incorporated works that the students made during the residency into her 
exhibition. Refreshments will be served.

Funding for the residency is provided by a Ruth and Vaughn Jaenike Access to the 
Arts Grant, the Coles County Arts Council, the participating schools and Tarble Arts
 Center membership contributions.

The Tarble Arts Center is located at 2010 Ninth St. on the EIU campus in Charleston. 
The center is open from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday; and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
 Saturday; and from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday; closed Mondays.

 For more information, visit www.eiu.edu/tarble/.

A dynamic storytelling duo that combine their experience as performers to weave 
a rich tapestry of African,African-American and Spanish folk tales, frolicking fables, 
proverbs and dialect into their cultural performance
art storytelling.

This storytelling workshop primary goal is to provide an environment where lovers of story,  including teachers, storytellers and librarians, can concentrate on writing and telling stories  created for listeners (kindergarten through adulthood). Informative written materials and  interactive exercises will be used to inspire greater creativity, facilitate collaboration and  enhance performance styles, using techniques and strategies that are applicable in a  variety of settings including classrooms (kindergarten through college), business  conferences, community groups, and family settings. “I’m Just Sayin …” Writing and Tellin’ Our Stories

This storytelling workshop primary goal is to provide an environment where lovers of story,

 including teachers, storytellers and librarians, can concentrate on writing and telling stories
 created for listeners (kindergarten through adulthood). Informative written materials and 
interactive exercises will be used to inspire greater creativity, facilitate collaboration and 
enhance performance styles, using techniques and strategies that are applicable in a 
variety of settings including classrooms (kindergarten through college), business
 conferences, community groups, and family settings.

“I’m Just Sayin …” Writing and Tellin’ Our Stories

“I’m Just Sayin …” Writing and Tellin’ Our Stories

Sound and Video Installation a Narratives

 

The focus of the installation was the narratives that were given by guest artists that I interviewed. Contributors: Anita P. Lowe, Talver Germany, Diana Bruton, Christine Burks Alum,  Antionette Bruton, Toni Collie Perry, Taylor, and Jackie (workshop participants). Gave us great short stories about their grandmothers, and shared memory, the short films were put together randomly and between each segment, we added transitional scenes of driving to Table Mountain in the Pine Flat Dam area of Fresno Co., and my train ride from Chicago to California.

Tarble Arts Center Textile Art Workshop

Winsor Jr - Sr High School Loft

 

The core group project was textile arts, focusing on batik, fabric painting, and quilt making, incorporating individual works. The course was offered to school-aged children in grades 6-12 and adult community members, allowing for intergenerational exchanges and providing meaningful interaction with the artist for a variety of populations.

Often referred to as plangi, tie-dyeing is a method of decorating cloth by isolating areas so that they resist the dye. Instead of coating sections of the fabric with a “resist” substance, such as wax, in order to isolate them, areas are bound with thread so that when the fabric is immersed in the dyebath the tightness of the yarn acts as a barrier to the dye and prevents it from penetrating to the tied areas. Other methods of tie-dyeing include folding, sewing or binding small objects such as seeds, pebbles or dried peas into the cloth.

 Tie-dyeing is practiced in many countries of the world, although the best examples can be found in India, Africa and Japan. The reason why the art of dyeing, and especially tie-dyeing, originated in countries with hot climates is because those are the areas where the best dye-plants can be found. For example, in Africa there is an abundance of wild plants which contain the coloring indigo, the traditional hue used in West African tie-tye. Another reason why dyeing is a native craft in hot regions is because the cloth can be easily laid out to dry in the sun once dyeing is complete

Grandmother's Circle Story by Toni Collie Perry

Adinkra Symbology Environmental Installation in Humboldt Illinois

Treatment and Learning Center, Humboldt

Dave Logsdon, Principal; Amy Wettig & Rich Holtz, coordinating teachers, Sean Fairchild (Tarble Arts Center-assistant).

Installation- the students began the residency today by painting spirit flags using Adinka Symbology. This workshop was conducted by Caryl Henry Alexander, during "the land" retreat in Auburn California. We will use the banners as spirit flags, and install them in the environmental installation.

Week Four, December 9-12th, on Monday, Dec, 9th we had a snow day, the school was closed, so we have to double on workshops to make enough art for the school installation. Today we made spirit flags and started painting our symbols on cardboard.

Adinkra Symbology

The Origin and Meaning of Adinkra Symbols

The adinkra symbols represent popular proverbs and maxims, record historical events, express particular attitudes or behavior related to depicted figures, or concepts uniquely related to abstract shapes.
Adinkra, originally produced by the Gyaaman clans of the Brong region, was the exclusive right of royalty and spiritual leaders, and only used for important ceremonies such as funerals – adinkra means 'goodbye'.

The area is considered rural and economically depressed. The ethnic composition of the schools involved (average of all schools) is 92.6% White, 2.23% African American, 1.3% Latino, .7% Asian, .23% Native American, and 2.9% Multiracial. Participants include students with disabilities and impairments mainstreamed into the classes with whom I worked. There are no art teachers at the school, so the students and staff were really excited about the AIR coming to their community.

The Tarble Arts Center, an AAM accredited museum, is a community arts center and Eastern Illinois University’s art museum. The Tarble is located in Charleston, a rural community of 21,500 (including E.I.U. students), 190 miles south of Chicago in east-central Illinois. The residency is funded by the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, by participating schools, the Coles County Arts Council, and Tarble membership contributions.

 

 

 

 

 

Ringing of the Bells on Hartman Street

CeCe Antoinette  Bruton, my 1st cousin- contributed an Ancestral Tribute to Princella  Hartman her grandmother, she was the first person profiled as a Hometown Hero. 

Princella Hartman died at the age of 107. Hartman was featured in the first edition of Hometown Heroes in 1995 for her work as a volunteer at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas. Hartman took the bus three days a week to help out mothers and newborns at the hospital. Hartman came to Dallas to run a boarding home during the Great Depression. She also worked as a private cook in homes and for the Dallas Independent School District.

The house Hartman lived in was purchased by her in 1934 and Hartman Street in the State-Thomas district of Uptown is named after her.

http://youtu.be/NKR-VJUn0Ao

Hartman's volunteer efforts resulted in honors from President Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and the City of Dallas. Hartman's family members said she never smoke or drank and exercised daily. Dominoes and reading were some of Hartman's favorite activities. Hartman lived long enough to see six generations of family members.

Read more: http://www.myfoxdfw.com/story/23520119/first-hometown-hero-princella-hartman-dies-at-107?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=9342225#ixzz2kSSYnQet

Grandmother's Circle: A Tribute

 An Installation by Alpha Bruton

• November 9 - December 15, eGallery

 http://www.dennews.com/the_verge/artist-alpha-bruton-takes-inspiration-from-native-american-heritage-in/article_edd22b62-4820-11e3-8a68-0019bb30f31a.html#user-comment-area

Alpha Bruton’s installation is a simulation of a ceremonial purification circle, in which objects and images are selected to “serve as cultural mirrors and the sites in which they are situated serve as part of a broader cultural commentary.” 

 

                        Passing of the Flames, Fire Pit         Altar

 

 

 The artist has examined cultural signs and symbols and their use or interpretation. She believes that objects in the public sphere serve to communicate and reinforce certain cultural narratives, hierarchies, and social mythologies. A painter and an installation artist, Bruton synthesizes aspects of theater, sculpture, and other two-dimensional forms. 



 Crecy Ivory Burks &  Sallie Alpha Betta  Bruton

 

 

 

Video's installation six women share memories about their grandmother's: Diana Bruton, Antoinette Bruton, Christine Burks Allum  Toni Collie Perry, Talver Germany Miller, Anita Posey Lowe,  and other guest will be invited to add their memories through December 13th, 2013.

 



Vertical Mural by Talver Germany, and Triangle Spirit Flags Alpha Bruton

 

 Spirit flags West: Talver Germany Miller, Caryl Henry Alexander, Alpha Bruton- Spin

Fabric installation by Garrett- Goben

Spirit Flags East: LA Happy Hyder, Talver Germany Miller, Alpha Bruton- Fabric installation Garrett

 Banners  Freestone County Texas & Fannie County Texas, ceramic stars- Anita Posey LoweFabric installation Garrett

 Beginning of the altar, poles installation assisted by Sean Fairchild

 

Tissue paper, wrapping paper, brown paper bags, on cardboard tubes, repurpose Styrofoam boards

 

Altar: foundation- found object cardboard tubes, cowhide leather, photocopy images, oriental fans, rose pebbles, cloth, rosemary, sage, lavender, glass, yarn, plastic flowers, clothes pins, string, reeds, tape, ceramic slabs, bottles, water,

 

Four Directions- Mandela around the fire pit, constructed from colored  leather, installation assistant by Sean Fairchild Master in Ceramic 3D art, found objects, recycle repurposed clay pots, sculpture, clay, slip, mulch, cylinder blocks, burlap, cloth, mulch, bees wax, rebar, foam board led candles. Spirit Rods: Stan Padilla

 

Water Element: Buddhist Hand fountain, shells, glass, fishing line, batik, stain glass paper, Zen tray, wall tapestry

Glass was donated by Amy teacher from Humboth School, glass installation by Josh and

 

Bruton is the Tarble Arts Center’s 2013 Arts-In-Education artist-in-residence, and will be in residence at four area schools November 11 through December 13.  The residency is funded by the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, by participating schools, the Coles County Arts Council, and Tarble membership contributions.

Residency-related community activities will consist of core group classes, Bruton’s installation

in the Tarble’s Brainard Gallery, the Teacher In-Service, and a closing reception to showcase the students’ works produced through the residency. All of these activities will take place at the Tarble. Activities will be promoted through area newspapers, E-promos, exhibition announcement cards, the Tarble’s website and Facebook page.

The Tarble serves as the site where the majority of residency activities will take place. The

Tarble maintains a classroom that will be used for core group meetings and gallery space in

which the artist’s work will be on view during the residency. Additional sites are Jefferson

Elementary School, Charleston; the Pathways Program, Mattoon; the Treatment and Learning Center, Humboldt; and Windsor Jr.-Sr. High School.

Artist Alpha Bruton takes inspiration from Native American heritage in environmental installation - The Daily Eastern News: The Verge

Artist Alpha Bruton takes inspiration from Native American heritage in environmental installation - The Daily Eastern News: The Verge

"Art is Business"

The Ceremonial Circle Blessing "THE PASSING OF THE FLAMES"

 The Tarble Art Center is a wonderful location to find my true center. I began my personal journey in linking fragments of the past, connecting sketchy memories of the two women that have shaped my path, and are propelling me on to the next plateau of my artistic explorations. Sallie Alpha Betta, mother of Thomas Bruton my father,  and Crecy Ivory mother of Lois Lorraine my mother.

 On the property of Anita P. Lowe Auburn CA-

The question is how to reconstruct this outdoor installation, into an indoor gallery?

Construction – The purification ceremonies are generally built with great care, and with respect for the environment and for the materials being used. Many traditions construct the purification ceremonies in complete silence, some have a drum playing while they build, and other traditions have the builders fast during construction.

Artist Assistant, Master’s candidate Shawn Fairchild, contributed misfired ceramics from his studio, to repurpose in the creation of the “passing of the flames”.

Placement and orientation of the structure within its environment are often considered to facilitate the ceremony's connection with the spirit world, as well as practical considerations of usage. We began building by finding the center of the gallery, 9’ 4 ½ ‘ from the wall.

Rituals and traditions associated with sweating vary regionally and culturally. Ceremonies often include traditional prayers and songs. In some cultures drumming and offerings to the spirit world may be part of the ceremony, or a sweat ceremony may be a part of another, longer ceremony.   wanted an atmosphere of Zen, during the construction, students needed to feel, and play, with the paper, clay, slip, cracked pots, fabric.

 Undergraduate- Garrett Goben- Studio Drawing

Orientation – The door may face a sacred fire. The cardinal directions may have symbolism in the culture that is holding the purification ceremonies. The structure may be oriented within its environment for a specific purpose. 

The purpose here is to recreate the "THE PASSING OF THE FLAMES".

To transfer or bestow one's role, position, responsibilities, etc., to someone else. 

My grandmother is unable to stand long enough to cook such a large meal, so she's passing the torch to us to make Thanksgiving dinner this year.

Artist Assistant, Master’s candidate Shawn Fairchild
Undergraduate- Garrett Goben- Studio Drawing
Stephanie Aarons (music major)

Grandmother’s Circle -Tarble Art ECenter

Tarble Art Museum

 2010 Ninth Street on the campus of Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, Illinois

Nov. 9 - Dec. 15, eGallery

Grandmother’s Circle -

A Tribute to Crecy's People and to Sallie Alpha:

 An Installation by Alpha Bruton

Alpha Bruton’s installation is a simulation of a ceremonial purification circle, in which objects and images are selected to “serve as cultural mirrors and the sites in which they are situated serve as part of a broader cultural commentary.” The artist has examined cultural signs and symbols and their use or interpretation. She believes that objects in the public sphere serve to communicate and reinforce certain cultural narratives, hierarchies, and social mythologies.

A painter and an installation artist, Bruton synthesizes aspects of theater, sculpture, and other two-dimensional forms. Her work has been exhibited in numerous venues internationally, Berlin, Canada, Mexico, Chicago, New Jersey, Baltimore,  in California (Auburn, Fresno, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento).

Guest artists, contributors to the installation, Caryl HenryAlexander, LA Happy Hyder, Talver Germany Miller, Antia P. Lowe, J. Andreas Porras., Myths Stories, and Living Tradition with the Visual Arts Development Project in Auburn California.

Bruton is the Tarble Arts Center’s 2013 Arts-In-Education artist-in-residence and will be in residence at four area schools between Nov. 11 through Dec. 13. The residency is funded by the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, by participating schools, the Coles County Arts Council, and Tarble membership contributions. The Tarble Arts Center, a division of the College of Arts & Humanities, is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.

Diana Bruton, telling our story of eight generations of the "Crecy, Sallie" women, a research project that has taken a decade of compiling for a publication.

Jose Montoya, Artist, Activist , Musician, Sacramento Poet

Reposted: Original Article By Bill Lindelof and Stephen Magagnini Published: Thursday, Sep. 26, 2013 - 6:09 pm

Jose Montoya, Sacramento poet, and artist

 

Jose Montoya, a nationally known artist, poet, and musician, has died. Montoya, an art professor at Sacramento State for 27 years, was a co-founder of the Royal Chicano Air Force, an influential Chicano political artists group. Montoya died Wednesday at the age of 81.

Sacramento County Supervisor Phil Serna, whose father, the late Sacramento Mayor Joe Serna Jr. knew Montoya well, said that the Sacramento community had lost a gentle soul with an extraordinarily creative mind.

 

“He was someone who could use spoken word to conjure poignant imagery and promote a healthy contemplative state,” said Serna. “His poems gave us pause to reconsider our individual and cultural condition.”

Montoya was born in Escobosa, New Mexico, and grew up in central California. He worked with labor leader Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers.

He was Sacramento’s third poet laureate, named to the post by the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission in 2002. He is the author of collections of poetry such as the acclaimed “In Formation: 20 Years of Joda.”

In interviews, Montoya said he learned arts from his mother, whose own artistic endeavors involved decorating church interiors. He also was the founder of Sacramento State’s Barrio Arts program.

Jose Montoya, one of the original members of the Royal Chicano Air Force, retouches the mural he and several other artists painted in 1977 at Southside Park. Montoya and the artists have been working on the mural, which has been vandalized, for more than two weeks. Monday, August 20, 2001, Sacramento, Calif.


THE SACRAMENTO BEE

blindelof@sacbee.com

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/09/26/5771355/jose-montoya-1932-2013.html#storylink=cpy

 

Getting Your Sh*t Together Online Radio by GYST Radio | BlogTalkRadio

Getting Your Sh*t Together Online Radio by GYST Radio | BlogTalkRadio

"Art is Business"  VADP is mentioned in this radio show.... Check out my interview.

Liza Simone of Phantom Galleries LA in Los Angeles is currently the host but there will be guest hosts in cities nationally and internationally.  The Pop-Up Research Station will be a place to glean information. We see the Pop-Up Research Station as the portal to documenting our legacy, giving emerging curators and artists, new to the world of creative placemaking, a “Tool Kit” that has already been 20 years in the making, researched, developed, and implemented by artists who have carved out niches and built new communities from empty storefront to monthly art walks. 

 

GYST Radio on Blog talk will cover snapshots of artist stories, host real discussions on the problems we face, offer a support system as well as soliciting advice on how to avoid the potholes moving forward.  The interviews done for GYST Radio on Blog talk are conversational and geared toward the artist’s mindset, but will be helpful for those interested in our projects as a research tool.

Visual Arts Development Project Report Card

Report Cards- Do It Yourself

Take a moment and construct a survey question that best answers questions you may have about your individual contribution? Then, under each applicable project, I would like to put your comments on the blog. This report will serve as a tool for the board of directors' end-of-year report. Thank you in advance for helping me construct this document.

Table of Contents:

Introduction/Definitions/Explanations

Purpose of this whole thing
Methodology-

Tool Kit-
Tools for interacting with artist support projects, Blog interface, Facebook

Relationship Building:
State and Local Partnerships- Partnership with Placer Arts Council
Establishing VADP as a non-profit organization (Letters of Incorporation, By-laws)

Topics: 2013, what suggestions do you have for 2014?
Introduction to the concept- "Land Trust," Sacred Land, Sacred Place, Purification Ceremony, Commitment to Live, Lunar Moon, Building a Labyrinth Clay Workshop, Ceremonial Circle Training, Making Symbols, Making Paint from Natural Vegetation,

Photo by Andrea "YaYa" Porras

Environment

Overall evaluation of VADP Retreat

Cross-cut w/ disability/accessibility

Cross-cut w/youth

Cross-cut w/seniors

One Prominent Environmental Issue, please give an example.

Why did you participate in this Retreat?

Placer Arts Council will be the VADP fiscal receiver; how can they support future professional development training.

Would you suggest the Retreat be in a private or public space?

Cost Share (Amounts and Rankings)

• Travel
• Airfare
• Rail (Amtrak, BART, RTA)
• Car Rental
• Bus-
• Mileage/Gas receipts
• Supplies (In-Kind/Donations)
• Value of donation- (list the item or items you donated)

• Meals

Did you help in preparing community meals? What are your suggestions for preparing meals in the future beyond BYOB?

• Cash Donations

Did you contribute a cash donation to assist with the cost of the Retreat? How much?

If so, were you given a donation letter for your records?

Facilitators/Faculty:

How did you prepare for the workshop? If so, how well did you prepare?

Where are others encouraged to participate?

What was the feedback from participants?

Please give a list of all your invited guests, along with contact information, for our mailing list. I would also like to add them to our blog, so they can contribute comments, images, or recommendations.

  

Recommendations:

I have no idea how many more questions we would want to put in this exercise, but I think it should end with a question like, "Looking over your answers to these questions, did the retreat meet your standards?"

Artist - Donor Fundraising Campaign 2013-2014

Labyrintheme Back to Our Senses

Reposted from American Alliance of Museums

The Labyrintheme project has brought together theatre makers, museum staff and enthusiasts, teachers, the staff of educational institutions, and students from a considerable number of countries.

We call our handbook for trainers Back to Our Senses because we found during the piloting phase of the project that this is the main resource that sensory labyrinth theatre has to offer: a renewed perspective on the ways we perceive and acquire information through our basic senses.

 While everything around us competes in terms of getting bigger and louder it also risks becoming two-dimensional and, frankly, quite boring. We found that this context is actually a great opportunity to surprise our audiences and visitors by becoming three-dimensional: focusing on creating an image inside the head and not in front of the eyes. The ‘theatre’ element comes in when we learn how to tune the five senses so that we create controlled sensory images and share these images on a human-to-human level rather than through a patronizing I-will-provide-knowledge experience. It also helps objective information to become personal again by means of storytelling. But more of this inside.

The handbook is dedicated to all of you who have already found such an experience interesting and are willing to replicate it and/or adapt it to similar contexts. It’s a DIY guide that also makes constant reference to situations we’ve encountered in our Labyrintheme experience and may become subjects for further exploration.

We hope you enjoy it, and please help us make it better by reaching us at http://labyrintheme.org and https://www.facebook.com/Labyrintheme.

Resources:
- See more at http://labyrintheme.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&layout=blog&id=11&Itemid=63&lang=en#sthash.pPtQjxbj.dpuf

PlacerARTs in Auburn California Welcomes VADP

ARTspace for Teaching and Learning-

Angela Tahti (Arts Services) -- Auburn

As Executive Director of the Arts Council of Placer County since 1997, Angela Tahiti collaborates with artists and community volunteers of all ages, public officials, and business leaders to improve Placer County's quality of life through the arts. She develops, administers, and promotes a wide variety of community arts programs, including visual, performing, and literary arts presentations; a Regrant Program; Arts in Education Programs; and cultural tourism initiatives such as the Auburn Art Walk, Autumn Arts Studios Tour, Library Garden Summer Series, Jazz at 808, AGROart Competition, Feats of Clay and the One Root Festival.

Her "Director's Message" in Perspectives, Placer Arts' quarterly arts newsmagazine informs members and the local community about the state of the arts locally and statewide. In addition, Ms. Tahti is Sierra Nevada Arts Alliance liaison to the Sierra Nevada Conservancy and County Arts Lead to the California Department of Education for Placer County Office of Education.

ARTspace, located on the lower level of The Arts Building, is designed to bring Artists and Student Artists together in a teaching and learning environment.

ARTspace provides various ongoing workshops and classes for students of all levels and is available to rent for workshops and events such as birthdays and other celebrations.

Visual Arts Development Project will be coming to The Arts Building 2014-

Hosting our first Executive Board of Directors Meeting- to Plan our Annual Retreat

We are now taking perspective- to be submitted to Andrea "YaYa" Porras, Executive Director and Curator of the International Society of Altar Making.

The VADP’s Goals for the next three years are to develop our residential artist’s studio program, to provide artistic experience to the Sacramento community, and to outline rural communities in the San Joaquin Valley, Placer County, and Fresno County, where existing partnerships have been developed. In addition, to collaborate and extend programming for that intersect with poets, musicians, performance artists, and installation artists.

Year one: We have hired a volunteer project director to develop programs for the resource center and seek additional operational support funding.

The long-range goals are to concentrate our fundraising efforts, cover administrative activities, provide technical assistance for faculty, and provide curriculum development training for new faculty members.

Donate today: All donations are tax-deductible. Please mail to: VADP, 808 Lincoln Way.
Auburn, CA 95603