MEMBER SIGN IN
Not a member? Become one today!
         iBerkshires     Berkshire Chamber     MCLA     City Statistics    
Search
DownStreet Art Returns on Thursday
03:32PM / Wednesday, July 27, 2016
Print | Email  


DownStreet Art Thursday   July 28, 5-8pm

DownStreet Art is a program of
MCLA's Berkshire Cultural Resource Center
 

DownStreet Art Thursday Events: 

Holden Street Night Market: 5-8PM 
 

Shop a variety of local makers at DownStreet Art’s monthly night market:

A little something for everyone from farm-fresh baked good,s to handmade creations, to works of art. 

DownStreet Voices – contribute your story as we live stream the impressions of participants. 

Jason Velázquez, editor of Greylock Glass, describes the project as an artistic experiment that makes him a little nervous. “Anything that pushes the boundaries of public expression out significantly should make one nervous. That’s how you know you’re on to something.”

Visit local organizations including:
MASS Creative, MASS MoCA, MCLA Admissions and Hoosic River Revival

 
Berkshire Bank Stage
DysFUNKcrew 6:00 PM and 7:30 PM 
Formed in February of 2013, and featuring eight MCLA Alumni, dysFUNKcrew commits to a variety of dance styles including Hip-Hop, Modern, Ballet, Bellydancing, and Step. Their focus is to give back to the Berkshire community that they love by showcasing both their skills and talents. 

Lita Williams 5:00 PM
Lita Williams, now a resident of Berkshire county, is not your average musician. Her Hawaiian roots mixed with her Nashville training have created a very unique sound and a show with something for everyone. She continues to reach new milestones in her career and has laid a heavy focus on using her gift to help others. Hers is a show worth catching!
 
Ray Gifford 6:30PM
Ray Gifford is a Performing Songwriter with an eclectic taste in music and wide variety of influences. A strong and clear unique vocal style paired with solid guitar work make for enjoyable listening and relatable music.
under the Mohawk Marquee
Bad Drama Theatre Club 
5:30-6:15PM & 6:45-7:30PM 

Bad Drama Theatre Club will perform their original production of the second installment in a series of interconnected 15-minute plays that will be performed over the course of DownStreet Art Thursdays. The goal of the Club is to highlight the urban legends that are encompassed in North Adams history, and to provide opportunities for local community members to be involved with theatre productions about their town.

 

Creative Business Incubators

 
The Creative Incubator spaces are a new DownStreet Art initiative aimed to give artist entrepreneurs, a place to grow their creative businesses in a supported and inviting way. With the help of DownStreet Art, Creative Incubator spaces have been implemented in four formerly empty storefronts in downtown North Adams. Spaces range from working studios to gallery and performance venues.  
Outside - 10 Ashland St

Directed by Mandy Johnson and James Jarzyniecki

Dedicated to solo exhibitions by emerging artists, Outside includs a small shop of art and design publications.

Current Exhibition:

Allure a solo exhibition of new poetry, paintings and video Nicole Reber
 
Allure
gosh you look so great
as a living
beauty awards 2016
rewards careful
we prosecute
shoplifters to the fullest
extent of the law
of attraction
based on body first
mind second
home business
usual routine
makeup for ever
makeup for ever
I do this because it makes me feel beautiful.
 
Nicole Reber (b. 1989) is a New York based artist working within sculpture, painting, collage and language. Recent exhibitions of her work have taken place at HAP Gallery (OR), Black and White Project Space (NY), Knockdown Center (NY), and Kimberly-Klark (NY). She has spoken at NADA, MoMA PS1, and Printed Matter. She is a co-editor of Packet, a biweekly arts publication that has published over 80 issues in the past 3 years. The complete Packet archive was recently acquired by the MoMA Library.

Thin Walls Studio & Gallery -  87 Main St

This studio and workshop features the artwork of artist and visiting MCLA professor Joshua Ostraff who is working on a series of paintings and prints that examine what it means to be selfless, and to share with those around you. For DownStreet Art Thursday, Thin Walls Studio & Workshop invites the public to join artist Josh Ostraff to screen-print tuna which will be incorporated into an exhibition at MCLA Gallery 51 in January, 2017.

 

Butterfly Effect- 85 Main St

Collaborated on by three Elementary teachers - Christina King, Cheryl Wildermuth, and Julianne Jock - the hope is that their paintings would become artistic responses to visitors, and neighbors alike that come in contact with the gallery space. It is through this project that we hope to become more deeply immersed in the beauty of the Butterfly Effect, both witnessed and experience though the various roles these artists have had in this truly amazing community.
 

Common Folk- 33 Main St
Together we, inspire creativity, strengthen our artistry, and encourage each other to positively contribute to our community.

Opening Exhibition: ArtDoors

ArtDoors is a program coordinated by UNiTY Youth Development at the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition. This teen summer program explores cultural organizations and local hiking spots for 5 weeks. The program includes introductory art workshops. The work that the participants have been creating through the program will be shown during the month of August. 

What to expect?
A participatory art project! The group worked with local artist, Max Spitzer, to create a tree sculpture. Be a part of the piece and help us paint it the night of the opening.
 

DownStreet Art Exhibitions in non-traditional Spaces

Gwen Bird, Paper Cuts
MountainOne Bank Gallery - 93 Main St.

Early Reception 4 - 5 PM

Bird creates images by removing substance, cutting away layers to reveal the colors underneath. The pieces are composed of one to ten layers, and every part of each layer is connected, if tenuously, creating the challenge of designing the piece so it won't fall apart. Sometimes this is accomplished by making the pieces like stencils, with the bottom layer becoming the shape and the top layer working as the background. Other times, shapes are layered on each other.
Ben Mancino, Welcome to the Berkshires
Holiday Inn, 40 Main St.

Join the Artist for a reception at the Holiday Inn

An exhibition of photos by award winning photographer Ben Mancino. “Welcome to the Berkshires” series gives viewers an insight into the most beautiful locations the Berkshires has to offer. Mancino’s unparalleled vision of photography is portrayed through the exclusive use of natural lighting and regional landscapes.
Don Orcutt and Pamela Acosta
Adams Community Bank Gallery - 31 Eagle St.

See the exhibition during normal banking hours

Both Orcutt and Acosta use their work to explore the theme of wonder, and the mystery surrounding the human psych.

When describing the inspiration behind her work, Acosta says “The idea of quests is something that has become a very important element for my work lately. I create visual narratives about a myriad of beings searching for the missing elements of their existence or simply their purpose. This community of curious seekers and wanderers represent different aspects of my own life voyage but they also act as a bridge to the viewer and others who also find themselves in a enveloped in a quest of their own.”
 
Don Orcutt, a Berkshire native, also uses his work to explore the theme of wonder. He mainly works with painting and sculpture and has had his work exhibited in various venues around the Berkshires as well as in St Petersburg, Florida.
Paul Chojnowski, Infrastructure Series 
Bright Ideas Brewing, 111 MASS MoCA Way

Stop in for a beer and see more art.

The newly opened Bright Ideas Brewing on the MASS MoCA campus will be host to Paul Chojnowski's Infrastructure Series for the entirety of the DownStreet Art season.

Berkshire artist Paul Chojnowski creates drawings in a non-traditional way. He "draws" by scorching, sanding, and torching large pieces of plywood to create realistic works of art. Also on display are newer works in the series, which are smaller and created by manipulating water colored paper instead of wood, then suspending that paper from custom made mahogany boxes which are illuminated from behind by LED lights creating an image suggestive of stained glass. 
 
 

In the Galleries:

Melanie Mowinski, Wayfinding
MCLA Gallery 51 - 51 Main St.
for more information

Join Melanie Mowinski in celebrating the opening of her solo exhibition of new works. In her words: Wayfinding is about trusting the way and understanding the many paths to get to the same destination literally and figuratively. Some are direct others are tranquil. Some avoid obstacles. And others are just variety and keep your mind alert for new things. I define this as cultivating a wilderness state of mind.
Exposed: Heads, Busts, and Nudes
Group show of ceramic figural sculpture by masters from 1970–present
Ferrin Contemporary, 1315 MASS MoCA Way  
For more information
 

Tour the exhibit with Leslie Ferrin, gallery director and curator of the exhibition at 7:00 PM

This group of noted American and British sculptors explores themes that range from social realism to otherworldly surrealism to abstraction of form. The overview illustrates how early practitioners in California’s Bay Area during in the 1960s and 1970s, such as Robert Arneson, Viola Frey, and Stephen De Staebler, continue to inspire artists today. Known for their use of clay in combination with painted glaze surfaces, these artists challenge presumptions and their work defies easy categorization as sculpture, decorative arts, or studio craft.

 

Lionel Smit
Cynthia-Reeves
1315 MASS MoCA Way 
For more information

Tour the exhibit with Cynthia Reeves, gallery director at 7:00 PM

Smit’s interest in the themes of duality arose organically. He writes: “I wanted to merge the idea of the abstract and the naturalistic form. I love Rorschach images, and so I started doing drawings that incorporated two faces, identical but with different attitudes. It seemed to capture the whole idea of peering into the psyche, of seeing in a different way who we are. My work is very involved with identity and, in the past few years, I predominantly started working with the faces of the Cape Malayan woman, a culture of people that evolved through Colonialism. The image of the double head also has a relationship to Janus, the Roman god of beginnings and transitions, that of looking into the future while simultaneously looking into the past.”

Berkshire Art Museum
159 E. Main St.
For more information

BERKSHIRE ARTISTS OF THE CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS CENTER 1990-1999
This exhibition showcases the work of nine artists who had a close association with the Contemporary Artists Center and to the Berkshires –exhibition on Three Floors

Dale Bradley, Christopher Gillooly, Brandon Graving, Robert Henriquez,   Henry Klein, Barbara May, Robert Schechter, Maria Siskind, David Zaig.

COLORS  – Sarah Sutro

ART AND ARCHITECTURE: Keith Bona, Peter Dukek, Howard Itzkowitz, William Sweet

 

Not to be missed...

 
Makers Mill – 73 Main St.

Join Makers Mill for an Open Studio. We will be opening our doors for Downstreet Art 2016! Stop in for a tour of the space, to see what our members are creating, and to learn more about our growing Makers' Mill community!
 

After Parties!

 
Stay late and #getdown with Magic Island & Anonymous Animal
Common folk - 33 Main St
$5 - 10 tickets online or at the door
8PM
for more information

Magic Island is a 4-piece catchy, groovy, indie rock band from Leominster, Massachusetts. Since their formation in early 2013, they’ve played countless shows throughout New England and the East Coast supporting their 3 releases. Catch their hip-swaying, head-bobbing, dance-inducing live show as their island expands throughout the planet. 
 
Hailing from many parts of Massachusetts, Anonymous Animal is electronic, indie, dance machine headed by collaborators Joe Aidonidis & Barny Lanman. With a constantly revolving line-up, it's safe to say that no one has every seen the same Anonymous Animal set twice. Their music changes from venue to venue as well as the instruments they play.

 

0Comments
More Featured Stories
NorthAdams.com is owned and operated by: Boxcar Media 102 Main Sreet, North Adams, MA 01247 -- T. 413-663-3384
© 2011 Boxcar Media LLC - All rights reserved