Monkeys & Magnolias by Ardmore

Monkeys & Magnolias

17th to the 24th of May 2013, Patrick Mavros, London

The Patrick Mavros shop in the Fulham Road is proud to be hosting Ardmore Ceramic Art for the second year running from the 17th to the 24th of May for its Monkeys & Magnolias exhibition. The silversmiths from Zimbabwe and the ceramics studio from South Africa both pay rich tribute to the flora and fauna of the African countries from which they sprung and both ateliers were founded by artistic families – those of Patrick Mavros and his sister-in-law Fée Halsted of Ardmore.

During the summer of the 100th Chelsea Flower Show one will be transported to the tropics, bushveld and lush highlands of Southern Africa by the wondrous works of Ardmore Ceramic Art. Ardmore’s fifty Zulu, Sotho and Zimbabwean artists will magically unleash from their clay troops of baboons and monkeys who we hope will run amok and bring some witty nonsense to the dinner tables of London. Over the years the Ardmore artists have made monkeys a metaphor to portray the foibles of human error and like their real-life counterparts these ceramic monkeys make one smile at their child-like frivolity.

Whether it is the delicate floral painting of Wiseman Sithole, Siyabonga Mabaso, Virginia Xaba and Punch Shabalala, or the life-like sculpting of Thabo Mbhele and Bennet Zondo the art of Ardmore will bring back fond memories of the heady scents and shrill cries and calls of the African wild to the metropolis this summer.

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Double Takes at the Jamestown Arts Center

 

doubletakes_7_15Internationally acclaimed dancers take the stage for two nights at the Jamestown Arts Center

The Jamestown Arts Center (JAC) presents DOUBLE TAKES, an interactive dance and video performance,for two nights this summer, Friday & Saturday, August 30 & 31 at 7:00pm. The performance will feature independent dancer, choreographer, and teacher Lance Gries, as well as extraordinary New York dancers, including Jodi Melnick (Melnick has danced with the Twyla Tharp Company, Mikhail Baryshnikov and is one of New York dance’s favorite free-lance performers.) Jeanine Durning (Durning is a truly independent dance and choreographer artist, hugely respected for her fierce physicality and artistic vision.) and K.J. Holmes (Holmes is one of the world’s leading performers and teachers of contact improvisation. Time Out calls her a “legendary improviser.”), who will collaborate in an improvisational dance as they respond to moving images. After the performances there will be a Q&A.

From 1985-1992, Gries was a member of the Trisha Brown Dance Company. His work with that company has been honored with a New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award and a Princess Grace Foundation Award. Lance Gries performed “Etudes for an Astronaut” as the inaugural dance performance at the Jamestown Arts Center in the summer of 2011. Tickets are $15 general public/$12 JAC Members and $25/$20 for both performances. Sponsor a dancer for $250. If you sponsor a dancer by August 15 you will be invited to a casual dinner with the dancers on Saturday, August 31 at a beautiful home in Jamestown. All sponsors will receive a one-year family membership to the JAC.

Tickets are available for purchase online at www.jamestownartcenter.org and at the door: These shows will sell out – get your tickets early!

As part of Lance’s residency and upcoming performances of “Double Takes,” he will teach two master classes. Easy Moving Contemporary Dance (Ages 13+ and Adults) will take place on Tuesday, Aug. 20 from 6:30pm – 8:00pm and Movement for Young Dancer (Ages 6 – 12) will take place on Thursday, Aug. 29 from 9:00am – 10:15am. Please see JAC’s website for more information regarding these classes. Adult contact improvisation class with K.J. Holmes will be taught at Island Moving Company on Thursday, Aug. 29 time TBD.

Lance Gries is an independent dancer, choreographer and teacher based in New York. Since 1990, he has created and presented solo and group choreography in various venues in New York City such as The Kitchen, Danspace, Judson Church, La MaMa Experimental Theater and The State Theater at Lincoln Center, as well as cities throughout Europe, Australia and South America. His most recent solo evening, “Etudes for an Astronaut” was nominated for a 2011 New York and Performance “Bessie” Award.

Lance is a renowned teacher, having taught workshops and master classes throughout the world. He recently premiered “The FIFTY Project” (recipient of a Princess Grace Special Project Grant) in celebration of his fiftieth birthday this year, and invited fifty dancers from around the world to meet him in a fifty-minute open dance. A video installation of these meetings was presented at La MaMa Experimental Theater in March 2013: “Double Takes” is a continuation of this projects that combines interactive dancing with the video. His next choreographic project will be live performance entitled: “Immanent Field” and will be presented by Danspace in New York City, March 2014.

 

Jamestown Arts Center

In the winter of 2009 a boat repair shop was purchased with support from local families and public and private foundations. With extensive renovations, donations of funding, time and sweat equity, the Jamestown Arts Center opened for classes and events in July of 2011. Classes, workshops, and camps are offered in painting, drawing, ceramics, printmaking, photography, design, needlepoint, leather crafting and creative movement for all age levels. Events include art openings and presentations, spoken word, dance, music, film and theater.

The mission of the Jamestown Arts Center is to engage, enrich and inspire our community through extraordinary arts experiences.

Visit The Jamestown Arts Center

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Block Island Poetry Project Celebrates 10 Years

Lynne Speaks
It takes a certain breed to capture the world with words. A poet’s ability to extract the nuances of life is reserved for those with a unique perspective. For ten years, Block Island off the coast of Rhode Island has been a gathering ground for these explorative thinkers.  On August 18, the Block Island Poetry Project (BIPP) commemorated a decade of poetic collaboration with its Event in the Tent. The community of poets gathered for an evening of poetry sharing as a fundraiser for the poetry anthology, Where Beach Meets Ocean, a collection of 103 poems from more than 95 poets sampling years of creative work and poetic excellence. Lynne Bryan Phipps was among the artistic camaraderie that night, sharing her poem, The Spaces Between, which is featured in Where Beach Meets Ocean.

Starr
Accomplished poets including BIPP founder Lisa Starr and guest James Stevenson, poet, author, illustrator, former cartoonist for The New Yorker, and op-ed columnist for The New York Times, read selections from Where Beach Meets Ocean. Virginia Dare, Jayme Hennessy, and the Block Island Singers sculpted the creative mass with their musical interludes that bridged the poetry selections and led to an outpouring of energy and passion.

“This event is near and dear to my heart because it embodies everything that Inspirited Living is all about. It heartened, it inspired and it encouraged all of us to embrace our creativity as a community.”

Rhode Island Poetry Laureate, Lisa Starr, began the Block Island Poetry Project (BIPP) in 2004 while looking for a means to combine her passion for poetry with her duties as innkeeper of the Hygeia House, a historic Victorian inn on Block Island. She began hosting groups of writers and poets to share their work over long weekends. Lisa came to realize her calling to bring writers together in a creative and collaborative environment and the over the next couple years the group met more and more frequently.  Starr and her fellow poets fostered a constructive atmosphere combining improvisation with attention to craft that served to develop the writers holistically. According to Starr, “The Block Island Poetry Project rejuvenates and reconnects members to their own particular passions, enabling them to return home with a clearer vision of how they can best serve the world.”

Lynne Bryan Phipps Poem

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IYRS Supporters Raise $885,000

IYRS Supporters Raise $885,000


IYRS Supporters Raise $885,000 at School’s Annual Summer Gala Sponsored by Fidelity Investments & Jaguar

Newport (R.I.) July 9, 2013 — On the evening of July 6, over 600 individuals flocked to IYRS for the school’s Annual Summer Gala sponsored by Fidelity Investments and Jaguar. Gala-goers enjoyed cocktails inside Restoration Hall amidst examples of stunning student craftsmanship, dinner under a cloud of white tent, and a special live performance by Jimmy Buffett and his band. But these IYRS supporters gave more than they got at this elegant evening under the stars along Newport’s waterfront: together with sponsors, attendees raised $885,000 for the school. Some of these monies will be used for technology and equipment purchases that keep students at the vanguard of technology in the fast-evolving fields of marine and composites manufacturing.

“IYRS continues to build support for the extraordinary student outcomes and the school’s education model,” said IYRS President Terry Nathan. “More than 85 percent of our graduates are employed on or about the time they complete their programs.  At a time when the conversation in America is about training more people to make and build things, an IYRS education is preparing people for life-long careers of working and thinking through their hands.  It is a compelling and important story.”

Earl and Elizabeth McMillen of McMillen Yachts—who have been ardent supporters of IYRS since the school’s early days—served as event co-chairs to orchestrate a successful evening.

“We have been delighted and honored to support IYRS over the past seventeen years,” said Earl McMillen. “IYRS has supported our yacht restoration business with capable, bright and motivated shipwrights. It is an educational institution which gives its students the ability to follow their dreams and pursue a career that satisfies them on all levels.”

The evening included both a live auction during the sit-down dinner and an expansive silent auction. Senior Auctioneer C. Hugh Hildesley of Sotheby’s—who has conducted some of the auction house’s most prestigious sales, including those of the Estate of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and the Collection of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor—conducted the live auction. The top-earning auction item of the evening was a painting by maritime artist John Mecray of the 1885 schooner yacht Coronet, which is now being restored on the IYRS campus. Other live-auction items included a seven-day charter on the stunning 105-foot sailing ketch Whitehawk, a stay in an oceanside villa in St. Barths during the St. Barths Bucket megayacht regatta, and a Lloyd McCaffrey miniature model of the Bounty. Gala guests were also enthusiastic bidders in a reverse auction for Equipment, Tools & Technology, ensuring that students continue to have access to the state-of-the art equipment that is critical to their training.

This year’s Gala attracted a strong lineup of sponsors. Joining title sponsors Fidelity Investments and Jaguar were: the Argo Group, Bacardi, BankNewport, Boat International, Condé Nast Publications, Pamela & Andrew Constantine, Bob Eichler, Friendship Yacht Company, Hess Corporation, The Hinckley Company, The Hilton Group at UBS, Dan MacDonald and Three Golden Apples, McMillen Yachts, Newport Harbor Corporation, Coronet Restoration Partners, Tradewinds Aviation, Vareika Fine Arts, Whitehawk LLC, and Wimco Private Villas.

IYRS is a marine trades and technology school that trains individuals for careers in the marine and composites industries and associated fields that utilize wood- and composites-building technology. The school trains craftsmen and skilled technicians in three full-time programs—in Boatbuilding & Restoration, Marine Systems, and Composites Technology—that all emphasize experiential, hands-on learning and career preparation. Students learn to make, restore and maintain things with a heightened sense of purpose and craft, making them in demand across industries. The school maintains two campuses in Rhode Island: a waterfront campus on Newport’s historic Thames Street, and a Bristol facility located amidst an active hub of composites and marine-industry activity. The school’s Composites Technology Program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration.

For more information, visit www.iyrs.edu.

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