MAY 2023 ARTBEAT

ARTBEAT

FIRST FRIDAYS ARTS WALK MAP INCLUDED

IT’S ALL IN THE TIMING

lively community discussion meeting last month to discuss invigorating Wenatchee First Fridays. The group generated ideas such as providing toolkits and FAQs on the upcoming wenatcheefirstfridays.com website to make it easy for businesses and artists to get involved; hosting learning opportunities for artists on a variety of topics to help you on your journey; and making our integrative map simpler to navigate.

BY MEG KAPPLER

Ireflected this month on the timing of things. There is always a desire to do more—especially when the weather gets nice—but nothing beats the feeling of timing it right and knowing that your efforts are unfolding at just the right moment to make the most impact.

How does that translate to NCW Arts? We are still evolving in our chrysalis, but we are SO close to unfurling our butterfly wings. Revamping the First Fridays experience, creating the Artist Index, and finalizing our new website will mark the last of our foundational work, and we look forward to enjoying the next phase with you. Time will tell if we timed it right! That said, you have already been incredibly helpful in this stage of our metamorphosis. We held a

This was the first of several community meetings we will hold about First Fridays as we continue to grow this exciting monthly event. Stay tuned for future dates and join in the conversation!

So what about the Artist Index, you say? There is no limit to the number of artists, musicians, performers, and arts organizations that we can include, so keep sending us your information! This will be a searchable database housed on our new website where regional artists and makers of all stripes can connect.

Visit our website homepage to preregister (ncwarts.org) and submit your information. We hope to launch the Index and the new website early this summer.

See you Friday for the May Arts Walk!

FEATURED OPPORTUNITY:

GET READY TO FILL IN THE GAPS!

Grant For Artists Progress (GAP) applications for 2023 open on May 15 and close on June 23. Three 2022 GAP recipients from Chelan County — Lorna Rose, Claire Seaman and playwright Michael Caemmerer — who are fairly new to the individual grant application, answer a few questions to prime us for the process:

What aspect of your project or process will this award support?

LR: My goal is to become a multi-disciplinary artist in the areas of writing and performing/storytelling. Many opportunities to perform original storytelling provide little to no funding, so most of my award will go toward the costs of transportation and housing.

CS: The GAP grant has supported the purchase of a new camera lens, covered travel expenses and allowed me to take time to concentrate on my project.

What advice do you have for artists who are considering applying for grant funding?

INDIGENOUS ENTERPRISE AT ICICLE CREEK

LR: Be as specific as possible. In the discipline statement, if there are themes that consistently come up in your project, let them know. On the progress statement, be specific about how this funding will help advance your goals. If this award will assist with renting studio space, say that. Break down the hourly rental costs of your local studio. Be razor-sharp specific.

MC: My best advice is just do it. Don’t second guess yourself or your work. At the very least, going through the application process will solidify your own ability to clearly talk about your work. That will open up all sorts of other doors.

CS: You have nothing to lose by applying! One application can be adapted for submissions to other grants and acts as a record of your project’s evolution at different stages.

For more information and helpful resources see Seattle-based Artist Trust website, artisttrust.org.

Swirling colors and the pulse of drums will fill Icicle Creek’s Snowy Owl Theater on May 12 and 13 as Native American performers representing tribes from all over the American West present dances that celebrate their heritage. Indigenous Enterprise has been praised by both the New York Times and Vogue for stunning visual artistry, and Jacob’s Pillow dance center calls them “explosively jubilant.”

Founded in Phoenix, Arizona in 2015, the performing group is a collective of young native Americans who travel the world to bring their culture to life for modern audiences through dynamic music and movement.

See icicle.org for time and ticket information for the three upcoming performances.

THE GRUNEWALD GUILD

The Grunewald Guild, a nonprofit arts retreat center in Plain, has opened its summer class registration. This year, visual artists lead sessions as diverse as pottery, drawing, mosaics, printmaking, watercolor, felting and photography; while literary artists teach reflective journaling, nature

YOUNG WRITERS

Young fiction writers can showcase their creativity in the 12th annual High School Writers Competition, co-sponsored by North Central Washington Libraries and Write On The River. $200 in prizes will go to the judges’ top three picks of a short story or the start of a novel. Online sub-

writing, memoir, songwriting and poetry. The full schedule of fifty 3-to 6-day classes launches June 18.

Class size is limited. For more details on schedule, cost, residency and to register, go to Grunewaldguild.com.

mission is due by May 15. There is no entry fee.

Go to writeontheriver.org or to ncwlibraries.org for criteria and submission information.

Join fine local musicians and their talented friends from afar for a spring weekend full of jazz and swing music on May 5-7. At the Leavenworth Jazz Association’s in-

augural festival you can learn dance steps, study the craft, or just relax on the grass at Icicle Creek’s Meadow Stage or in the Snowy Owl Theater to hear hot and cool renderings of new arrangements and classic favorites.

Find more about venues, ticketing, times and musicians at leavenworthjazzfestival.org.

Photo by Jim Levitt - Trumpeter, composer and educator Jared Hall brings his renowned quartet to Icicle Creek Center for the Arts’ Snowy Owl Theater on Saturday, May 6.

NEW AGE, OLD WORLD, HIGH-TECH, LOW-IMPACT ART

susan lagsdin

Hungarian-born Timea Tihanyi holds not only a Doctor of Medicine degree but bachelor’s and master’s degrees in ceramics (from Semmelweis University in Budapest, the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston and the University of Washington, respectively). Both an artist and a scientist, she is a University of Washington professor of interdisciplinary art.

Her exhibition “To Go Gentle” (a reference to the Dylan Thomas poem Do not go gentle into that good night) is currently at the MAC Gallery on the Wenatchee Valley College Campus and will continue there until May 19. It includes 3D printed porcelain, a video, and large wall pieces made of porcelain, polyethylene tarp, and blown glass.

Tihanyi’s diverse academic background, coupled with her enthusiastic embrace of contemporary technology, has led to award-winning, multi-faceted artwork that has been shown internationally. She explores what knowledge is attainable through direct physical experience, and what can only be known through abstract theory and logic.

She values recycled and upcycled raw materials, which the artist says stems from her childhood. “Surrounded by scarcity during an authoritarian political regime in the 1970s-80s Hungary, I grew up making things,” said Tihanyi. “The material world in the Eastern Block was cobbled together endlessly from hand-me-downs.”

Tihanyi’s work is also biographical, sometimes echoing Hungarian folklore, past gardens and loved ones’ gestures while melding her experience with both traditional and high-tech processes. “While I mostly work with technological tools such as 3D printers, scanners, software, and code in ceramics,” she said, “I still use my hands extensively.”

You can see Timea Tihanyi’s “To Go Gentle” and meet the artist at a First Fridays reception from 5 p.m. until 7 p.m. on May 7. The MAC Gallery is at 1300 Fifth Street, Wenatchee.

SCAN FOR DIGITAL INTERACTIVE FIRST FRIDAYS MAP!

FIRST FRIDAYS AFTER HOURS

Online

Spring has sprung and we’re ready to head outside — namely to the Blossoms & Brews Beer Garden at Memorial Park (2 South Chelan Avenue) in Wenatchee. Wrap up your First Fridays Arts Walk at the official afterparty of the NCW Arts Alliance this Friday, May 5. Beer, wine, seltzers

and ciders are on tap and there will be tons of tunes coming from the main stage. The cover charge will be just $3. Come get into the local Spring festival spirit with us anytime from 6 pm to closing.

Happy First Friday!

FIRST FRIDAYS ARTS MAP

1. MAC Gallery

“To Go Gentle,” mixed media installation by artist and ceramist Timea Tihanyi, reception 5-7 pm. Exhibit continues through May 19.

2. Lemolo Café & Deli

Small paintings in a variety of styles by artist Len Harm. Open until 6 pm.

3. Two Rivers Art Gallery

Watercolors by artist Richard Daugherty, reception 5-8 pm, with local wines and live music.

4. Tumbleweed

Marsha Baerlocher with Stupid Stitch! will present upcycled, sustainable clothing, 4-7 pm.

5. Ye Olde Bookshoppe

Handmade journals and notebooks by Bookshoppe owner AnaMaree Ordway, 10 am to 6 pm.

6. Pybus Art Alley

Photographs by Guy Miner, plus beverages and bites, 5-7 pm. Live music by Dos Dudes on the main concourse stage, 6-8 pm.

7. Wenatchi Wear Various indigenous artists, 10 am to 6 pm.

map courtesy of the Wenatchee Downtown Association wendowntown.org