The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has partnered with the White House in its “We Can Do This” campaign to encourage people to get their COVID-19 vaccine so that all arts venues can open and welcome audiences.
According to the NEA, this includes using venues as vaccination centers, providing arts experiences at those centers, contributing creatively to public messages, or simply sharing the information.
U.S. Multi-State Deadline: July 10, 2021 – Galatea Fine Art announces a call for artists for its upcoming exhibition, ‘New England Collective XI’. Grace Ryder-O’Malley, Provincetown Art Association and Museum…
Sometimes art can surprise us in the strangest of places. Whether it be through a museum rediscovering a piece tucked away for decades unseen in their collection, or when a collector passes away and leaves a trove of unsorted pieces, it can make for an exciting find for the person happening upon it as well as the world at large as it’s revealed. And who would’ve thought that at a donation centre just north of Toronto, a woman would happen upon a David Bowie painting for just $5?
Discovered by a woman at a Goodwill in South River, Ontario, the painting itself was what drew the anonymous purchaser in at first. Upon further examination, she discovered it signed and dated by the legendary art-rocker from 1997—the same year as the artist’s industrial influenced album Earthling was released.
Labelled DHead XLVI, this places this work amongst Bowie’s Dead Heads series, a collection of portraits across the mid-90s with non-sequential Roman numerals attached to them. Depicting a phantasmal visage in sharp profile, the swirled acrylics of rusty and cool tones around the ghostly, featureless face are par-for-the-course of the singer’s visual style and evoke the palette of his Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane years. While his visual arts practice is lesser known to the public, Bowie was an avid painter his entire life, taking much inspiration from abstract portraiture and German expressionism, and his work can be seen in liner notes and on covers of certain albums—such as the 1995 concept album Outside, which shares not only the style but the naming convention of the Dead Head series.
“The Dhead – Outside” by David Bowie.
DHead XLVI is going up for auction through Toronto auction house Cowley Abbott. The piece is expected to fetch between $9,000 and $12,000, which certainly isn’t a bad return on a $5 thrift find. The auction will run from June 15th to 24th, and after lockdown measures had gallery doors shuttered for many months, the piece is in fact available to view in person upon appointment.
The death of David Bowie in 2016 was a loss mourned the world over (quite especially by this writer), with him bidding adieu to all via his final studio album Blackstar. He left behind a massive body of work that dove deeply into his own mind as well as conjured a reflection of the world he saw around him. A keen observer and depicter of the people and places that he met along his worldly travels, there is always his distinct and inspiring fingerprint upon any and all of the works he was involved in. And while DHead XLVI may be a subtle and simple piece of the fractal that made up his character, the discovery of a David Bowie painting tucked away inside a Goodwill still feels like the discovery of a little bit of stardust.
International Deadline: July 14, 2021 – The New Jersey Photography Forum is the largest group of exhibiting fine art photographers in the New York area. We are calling all artists to enter our juried exhibition. Awards…
International Deadline: July 7, August 7, September 7, 2021 (updated) – LoosenArt announces new artist calls for its online and group exhibits in Rome. Open to Photography, Digital Design, more. No fees…
International Deadline: August 13, 2021 – The San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts seeks submissions for the 7th Salmon Sculpture Competition in memory of Pam Salmon, a juried exhibition of outdoor sculpture. Cash awards…
E. San San Wong, Barr Foundation program director and GIA Board of Directors alumni, wrote recently a piece on why centering racial equity is necessary for achieving Barr’s Arts & Creativity program goals.
In this post she describes where the Barr Foundation is headed in its intentions to integrate racial equity more explicitly across its strategies. She also mentions the recent “Solidarity Not Charity” report commissioned by Grantmakers in the Arts.
To further investigate this line of economic systems change, Barr, Hewlett and Rainin foundations supported Grantmakers in the Arts to explore how the grantmaking community can support culture-workers and artists through an increasingly just economy. Earlier this year, Grantmakers in the Arts released Solidarity Not Charity: Arts & Culture Grantmaking in the Solidarity Economy, a commissioned report and interactive website that provides an overview of the Solidarity Economy, culture-workers’ role in it, and what grantmakers may do to support it through recommendations and an action checklist.
United States Artists announced Lulani Arquette, GIA Board of Directors alumni, and Roberto Bedoya, current GIA Board Member, as recipients of the 2021 Berresford Prize, “an annual award that honors cultural practitioners who have contributed significantly to the advancement, wellbeing, and care of artists in society,” details the announcement.
“Lulani Arquette and Roberto Bedoya are complementary figures in the field that have both created new possibilities for artists, and will each receive the $25,000 award this year. Their visionary approaches engender cooperation, promote thoughtful civic engagement, and advocate for artists on a local and national level,” states the press release.
Image – Courtesy: Lulani Arquette & Roberto Bedoya
Image montage: Steve Cline
“What is the #ShiftThePower movement and how much has it achieved?,” writes Alliance Magazine discussing a webinar aimed to answer these questions with a panel of activists and professionals working with small, grassroots organizations within local communities.
“Bringing insights from across the philanthropy ecosystem, the panel reflected on power relations within the sector and how supporting the growing field of community philanthropy can activate change,” details the article.
The New York Life Foundation in partnership with the Afterschool Alliance announced $1.5 million in new grants to 36 youth development organizations to support disadvantaged middle school youth during the out-of-school time (OST) hours.
According to the press release, this year, 20 one-year grants “focus on supporting OST programs’ work to advance racial and social justice efforts.”