ROCKETBLOG!

Residency Opportunities at Ox-Bow

rocketgrants — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 17:04:19 +0000

Ox-Bow is a school of art and artists’ residency located in Saugatuck, Michigan. It was founded in 1910 by artists from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago who wanted to create a school and residency within a naturally beautiful environment that fostered an artist-run culture where the exchange of new ideas, the creation of new work, and camaraderie could thrive. Today, Ox-Bow continues to offer this unique combination of a pristine natural landscape with an artists-run spirit and approach producing a singular experience for their residents.

The artists that participate in this residency often remark on how productive their time was at Ox-Bow, both in terms of the amount of work they made there, but also in terms of how the atmosphere at Ox-Bow recharges them with fresh energy, ideas, and connections to bring back to the studio after they’ve left.

Residencies at Ox-Bow run anywhere from 2-5 weeks (depending on the season), but the impact of the experience influences the work that residents make long after.

For more information on the residency programs and upcoming deadlines, visit their website .

Interview with Professor Donald D. Stull

The Story of Chickens — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 02:10:38 +0000

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN

While seeking local individuals who have invested time into the study of the poultry industry, I was pleased to discover the book titled, Slaughterhouse Blues: The Meat and Poultry Industry in North America. (Wadsworth, 2012). The second updated and expanded second edition, which came out in February, includes a chapter on animal rights and welfare. Donald D. Stull, Ph.D., M.P.H., professor of anthropology at the University of Kansas, was kind enough to share in this interview, perspectives gained through his many years of research. Prof. Stull is an applied cultural anthropologist who has conducted basic and applied research throughout the United States. For the past 25 years his work has focused on the meat and poultry industry in North America, rural industrialization and rapid growth communities, and industrial agriculture’s impact on farmers and rural communities. Don was editor-in-chief of Human Organization, the leading international journal of applied social science, from 1999 through 2004, and president of the Society for Applied Anthropology from 2005 to 2007.

Statement from the Rocket Grants program about The Story of Chickens

rocketgrants — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 23:30:03 +0000

Amber Hansen’s project “The Story of Chickens – A Revolution” is funded by a program called Rocket Grants, which in turn receives its funding from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. This program is a collaboration between the Charlotte Street Foundation in Kansas City and the KU Spencer Museum of Art in Lawrence, but all the selected projects are driven by artists and occur in the public realm. There are no exhibits of any kind that occur in the spaces of either of the partner agencies.

The Rocket Grants program is specifically intended to fund artists in our region who wish to engage with the public in meaningful ways. We recognize that artists may choose to address issues that are controversial or unpopular, and support and encourage the freedom of expression that typifies our national culture. The role of artists as agents of social change, or as forces who generate thinking and dialogue around critical issues, is an important feature of contemporary art practice – and, we believe, contemporary life.

The application and selection process is a rigorous one. Artists submit project outlines, motivations, historical grounding, examples of previous work, budgets and more. The award selections in 2011 were made by a panel of five jurors – two national figures and three from the Kansas City region – all of whom are distinguished artists and arts professionals. These five individuals engaged in lively, thoughtful discussions and reviews that resulted in the final choices.

We realize that there are many individuals who have ethical or moral standards that differ from those expressed by this artist. The questions that are being posed by many in this debate are ones that the artist has deeply considered herself, and around which she hopes to raise awareness and dialogue. We trust that the decisions she makes with the development of this work will be considered, respectful and useful to our community, and we hope that dissenting opinions will be similarly intended and delivered.

Shotgun!

rocketgrants — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:36:44 +0000

Following their whirlwind tour, the Art Practical team is looking forward to sharing their impressions and conversations in the March 1 issue of the publication. But they are eager to present perspectives beyond their own and reiterate their invitation to the KC community to submit Shotgun Reviews.

Shotgun Reviews are an open forum where the broader community is encouraged to contribute reviews and commentary. They are short format pieces (250-400 words) that, as the name implies, offer quick and timely responses to an exhibition, event, or project.

If you are interested in submitting a Shotgun Review for this special issue, please contact Art Practical editor Alyse Mason Brill for more details. A maximum of four shotguns will be included. The deadline is February 21, and reviews will be accepted on a first-come basis.

Reflections and Chemistry

rocketgrants — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:55:39 +0000

Click to view slideshow. WOW! What an amazing weekend! The untiring curiosity, gravitas, humor, intelligence and kindness of the visiting Art Practical team were simply inspiring. Patricia Maloney, Victoria Gannon, Christian L. Frock and Elyse Mallouk kept up an intense schedule to meet with as many institutions and artists as possible in their brief 3-day stay in Kansas City, and throughout it all they somehow maintained their determination to be just as fresh and present for the last encounter as the first.

The public program at KCAI and the Rocket Grants brunch at PLUG Projects (see the slide show) were a provocative opportunity for us all to examine our own arts community in both an objective and introspective way. The metaphors that immediately came to mind to describe the roles that AP performed here were those of a mirror and a catalyst. But this is not really accurate because those two agents, by their nature, cause transformation without being changed in themselves. The powerful model that Art Practical demonstrated was rather an acknowledgement of the mutual growth in understanding and practice that happens when people commit to kind, creative and critical conversation, and we could feel the shifts in perception, experience and practice that will mark their own way forward.

Importantly, we have extended our own community to a new place in the world, with an open communication channel between us. The challenge that this opportunity throws down before us is to define what is special about the history and character of the Kansas City region, so that we are able to manifest the unique and fitting possibilities it affords us. Many of us have private, idiosyncratic opinions and interpretations about what art could and should be in this time and place. The benefits to be gained by sharing these, risking disagreement, and even having to reevaluate what comfort means, clearly fall to both individuals and the greater community we establish. Let’s keep talking, writing and exploring together!

What are the ways in which we celebrate and yield, gracefully or unconsciously, to the environment we inherit? Where do we tear down and begin again? And off which features might we bounce like daring trampolinists?

We: Art Practical +the Rocket Grantees

PLUG projects — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 03:42:22 +0000

During Art Practical‘s recent visit, all current and previous Rocket Grantees were invited to Plug Projects for a discussion about the effect of the Rocket Grant program, experimental programming, and dynamics behind the art ecology of Kansas City. Patricia Maloney pointed out that one of the things she had noticed in meeting one on one with grantees was that the Rocket Grants seemed to be generating “opportunities for we(s) to happen”. The group assembled had different takes on what a “we” could be: a group of performers collaborating in an office building, a man and his backyard engaging suburban passers-by, a performer creating videos with a group of residents in a retirement home.

All told, the collective “we” in the the room spoke a lot about the merits of the program: the validation it lent, the risks it afforded, the specific projects it enabled. It will be curious to see what the writers and editors of AP have to say about what they heard. What is the impact of the Rocket Grant Program in Kansas City? Of experimental artworks in our community? We’ll look forward to the AP issue and its point of view on our projects’ collective affect.

One minute video with Jessica Johnson about a visit to the Spencer Museum of Art by Art Practical

Judith G. Levy — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 20:40:28 +0000

Discourse about Discourse

PLUG projects — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 19:53:57 +0000

Dialogue about dialogue.

That’s how we spent Thursday night, at the Art Practical Open Forum at KCAI. Patricia Maloney’s publication, an online forum based in the San Francisco Bay area, demonstrates that its possible to contribute in a meaningful way to the local critical dialogue while gaining national visibility and readership, given some committed contributors and a boost from funding sources very similar to our Rocket Grant Program. The community generated arts journal, in operation since 2009, is about to reach sustainability after 51 issues. Their secrets include emphasis on meaningful content, a profit/nonprofit hybrid business model, and integration within existing entities with aligned missions.

Maybe that’s not a bad starter recipe for Kansas City to generate its own venues for critique and dialogue about the arts. From the interaction with the crowd gathered, it was clear the topic of critique is important to Kansas City’s creative community. The exact manifestation(s) of what’s to come is less clear, but I can certainly see it being informed by our visitors from the Bay.

One minute video with Patricia Maloney, the director of Art Practical

Judith G. Levy — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 03:22:15 +0000

Field Trip Announces 2012 All-Star Production Lineup!

fieldtrippublishing — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:23:47 +0000

In the 2012 year, Field Trip Publishing will be collaborating with 10 regional artists on the conceptual development, design & production of a finely crafted, hand-made multiple to be released in a limited edition. These art objects will be made available through many local and national boutiques and art spaces, live public appearances, as well as the the Field Trip online shoppe.

The Production Lineup consists of (go ahead, click them!):

We are just thrilled to be working with such a diverse cast of characters, and want to keep you informed of all the developments! So stay on it! Visit us at www.fieldtrippublishing.com, connect with us on Twitter, like us Facebook… or, just tell your high school science teacher about us the next time you bump into him at the gas station! I’m sure he’d dig it.

Yours, Field Trip Pub.