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Art Guild of the Kennebunks announces ‘Pop-Up Art Exhibit’
KENNEBUNK, Maine — The Art Guild of the Kennebunks announce the “Pop-Up Art Exhibit” Thursday, Sept. 15 to Wednesday, Sept. 21. The event takes place at Pop-Up on Maine Art Hill, 5 Chase Hill Road, Kennebunk. Exhibit hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The exhibit features original artwork by 25 members of the AGK which will be available for purchase. Subjects include Maine scenic views, florals, seascapes, animals and a variety of other themes. Artists provide professional, framed works in oils, watercolor, pastel, pen and ink and mixed media.
Linda Van Tassell, president of the AGK, said, “We are excited to present the Guild’s second exhibit of the year. Visitors can select artwork for their personal collection or as gift for family and friends. Also, on display is “Spring Surprise” a watercolor by Peter Hoff, which is the prize of our annual scholarship raffle. The raffle benefits a talented, deserving art student at Kennebunk High School with a $500 scholarship.”
Raffle tickets can be purchased at any of the Guild exhibits throughout the year. The winning raffle ticket will be drawn at the end of the Guild’s Prelude exhibit in December.
For more information check the AGK website www.artguildofthekennebunks.com or call 207-324-0527.
Lore of the Jack-O’-Lantern book release party with Doctor Gasp and the Eeks
PORTSMOUTH — Join us at 3S ArtSpace at 319 Vaughan St., Portsmouth, on Friday, Sept. 30, for a theatrical book reading and music performance! Inspired by the spirit of Halloween and inherent nature of humans to share scary stories, the night begins with a reading of the Lore of the Jack-O’-Lantern novella, narrated by Brian Serven, who will be joined on stage by character voice actors including Beth LaMontagne Hall (Host of Long Story Short), Timothy Fife (Film Composer), and Andy Bryant. While the story is being read, illustrations from the book will be projected upon a screen. Doors open at 7p.m. and the event begins at 8 p.m. General admission is $20 and $15 for members. This event is all ages and seated.
After the reading, there will be a music performance by Doctor Gasp and The Eeks (Dan Blakeslee’s Halloween alter-ego). Purchase tickets at www.eventbrite.com/e/lore-of-the-jack-o-lantern-release-party-w-doctor-gasp-and-the-eeks-tickets-363275666297.
‘The Rhythms Within’ group exhibit
KITTERY, Maine — Haley Art Gallery’s 2022 season’s final exhibit ‘The Rhythms Within’ will open on Saturday, Sept. 17 and feature Murmurs of the Mirror series by Carlos Vega, paintings by Tom Glover, and metal sculptures and framed metal art by Chris Newcomb. The opening reception will be held on Saturday, Sept. 17, from 3 to 6 p.m. The exhibit remains on view until Nov. 19. In addition to original artwork, the Haley Art Gallery gift shop offers social impact gift items from around the world.
Tom Glover studied with John Laurent for over two decades, after meeting John at the University of New Hampshire. Glover’s work often involves thematic concerns and investigation from his world travels. Currently teaching at Sanctuary Arts in Eliot (ME), he has taught at the UNH, lectured at the University of Connecticut in the Fulbright Program to foreign educators and Science Education graduate students, and has been a panelist/lecturer on his own work, John Laurent’s, and the Ogunquit School of Art. His recent work is focused on Birds, Fenway Park, Deer Isle (Maine), and abstract combinatory paintings which he describes as “concentrations of the piers, docks, flotsam and jetsam one finds along the coast of Maine and New Hampshire”.
Chris Newcomb is an artist, author, actor, storyteller, and an avid gardener who integrates his metal art by creating unique spaces with plants, metal and steel sculptural elements and whimsical figures that turn ordinary spaces into “otherworld” spaces “to enjoy, to contemplate in, to simply sit and be.” He holds a BFA from East Carolina University and has worked on hand-built clay sculptures and vessels, paintings, found-object sculpture, cartooning, and has taught Creative Movie Making at the Maine College of Art (MECA). In translating his primitive print images into steel, he says using a plasma cutter “seems like the most natural extension” of his hands and of any tool he’s ever used.
Carlos Vega, a Chicano artist who lives between New England and the South of Spain, was raised on the border between Mexico and the U.S., and studied in Paris, New York, and Cambridge, Mass. His work captures the hybridity of culture and spirit that is ever-changing in the Latinx community, one shaped and reshaped by places left behind and those to be found. Religion and spiritual belief—in all its manifestations and transgressions—are central to his work considering religion as much image, ritual, and the material, as an abstract belief. Vega works primarily with antique and vintage mirrors in historic frames that may tell their own stories. He further erodes the reflective surface of the mirrors to bring out what he believes the glass has retained of what it has seen. Some will imagine a collage, but he believes he is revealing portions of cultural and personal pasts. Other than existing images, he employs gold and other metal foil, paint, ink (oftentimes using a syringe that breaks through the layers of impressions), and powdered pigment. When not creating art, he teaches Medieval Spanish Literature at Wellesley College.
The gallery is open Thursdays through Saturdays 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Contact: Haley Art Gallery at 617-584-2580 or haleygallery@comcast.net. Visit haleyartgallery.com/.
Erin Harpe Country Blues Duo comes to The Press Room
PORTSMOUTH — Thursday, Oct. 6, Erin Harpe comes to the The Press Room stage at 77 Daniel St, Portsmouth, at 8 p.m. with her Country Blues Duo, winners of the Granite State Blues Society’s solo/duo Blues Challenge! Featuring the award-winning guitarist along with her husband, Jim Countryman on bass and backing vocals, the duo celebrates their new album “Meet Me In The Middle” winning the New England Music Award for “Album of the Year”! The album was called “today’s country blues at its very best” by Living Blues Magazine, who crowned Erin “one of the finest fingerpicking acoustic blues singers in the land”!
Erin Harpe Country Blues Duo are excited to represent New Hampshire with the Granite State Blues Society at the International Blues Challenge this January in Memphis!
Tickets are available at www.eventbrite.com/e/erin-harpe-country-blues-duo-tickets-413711059917.
Smuttynose Brewing hosts First Full Strum Music Festival
HAMPTON — Smuttynose Brewing, the largest craft brewery in N.H., announced the first ever music festival at their outdoor venue, known as Full Strum Music Festival. The two day event, taking place Oct. 8 and Oct. 9 will feature nationally recognized country acts Jordan Davis on Saturday and LOCASH on Sunday with supporting artists Danielle Bradberry and Nate Smith. Aside from the music, the event will feature local food trucks, lawn games, and of course Smuttynose Beer.
Tickets to the event can be purchased on Eventbrite. Prices start at $65 for general admission plus processing fee and includes parking in close proximity to the venue with shuttle service. VIP tickets, which include a private bar, pre-event entertainment, private entrance and restaurant dining with select menu can be purchased for $85 plus processing fee. The concert will take place outside on the four acre field adjacent to the brewery, rain or shine, and the campus will be closed to the public on event weekend so only ticket holders will be able to access the venue.
Tickets can be purchased exclusively online via Eventbrite and through the Smuttynose Brewing website at www.smuttynose.com/fullstrum.
Both artists will be the first ever to perform in a festival at Smuttynose Brewing. The Full Strum Music Festival joins an impressive line-up of events all year long on the brewery campus and across the state. For more information, visit www.smuttynose.com.
New Director to lead Rockingham Choral Society: Open rehearsals Sept. 13 and Sept. 20
EXETER — The Rockingham Choral Society recently announced the appointment of Kristofer Johnson as their new Artistic Director. Under Johnson’s direction, the 95-person choir will hold its first rehearsals of the fall semester on Sept. 13 and Sept. 20 at Exeter High School from 7 to 9 p.m. The Society will perform two holiday concerts in early December featuring programs of seasonal works by New England composers for choir and brass quintet.
Each semester, the choral society’s first two rehearsals are opportunities for prospective new choral society members to join returning singers and to determine if they are interested in becoming regular members of the choir. Placement auditions are held at the end of the second open rehearsal on Sept. 20.
The group is open to singers aged 16 and older. There is a brief placement audition for new members and dues are waived for high school and college students. Auditions do not require any advance preparation. Soloists are always chosen from the membership.
In addition to his new role as Artistic Director of Rockingham Choral Society, Kristofer Johnson is the Chair of the Department of Music and Director of Choirs at Phillips Exeter Academy where he holds the Michael V. Forrestal ’45 Chair for Music. Johnson conducts the Concert Choir and Choral Union at Phillips Exeter Academy as well as coaching and performing vocal chamber music with students. From 2010-2019 Johnson served as music director of Concord Chorale in Concord, NH. A career educator, Johnson has taught on the faculties of the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University, Plymouth State University, Oberlin Conservatory’s Vocal Academy for High School Students, Proctor Academy, and Canterbury School.
Johnson has a reputation for developing lively, vibrant choral sound and expressive performances while fostering community through devotion to choral singing. A champion of new composition, he has overseen the commissioning and premieres of many works for choir. Student and adult choruses under his baton have toured in the United States, Great Britain, Latvia, Estonia, the Russian Federation, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Austria, the People’s Republic of China, Vietnam, and Hong Kong. Singers from his voice studio have won regional and national singing competitions and have been accepted into many of the country’s leading voice performance programs.
Johnson holds a Bachelor of Music degree in vocal performance from Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and a Master of Music in choral conducting from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. He is an active tenor soloist and choral/vocal clinician.
“The Rockingham Choral Society is thrilled to have Kris joining us as our new Artistic Director in time for our fall rehearsals,” notes Charles Smith, President. “Kris’ reputation for excellence and his passion for building community through singing is a perfect fit for the society’s membership and our long history.”
More information can be found at www.rockinghamchoral.org or on the group’s Facebook page.
New exhibit opens at the Gateway Gallery at Great Bay Community College
PORTSMOUTH — The Gateway Gallery at Great Bay Community College announce the opening exhibition of the 2022-23 academic year with “CONNECT, COMBINE, REFLECT” by Rollinsford, N.H. based artist Shiao-Ping Wang. Representative of the woven and ephemeral nature of human experience, “CONNECT, COMBINE, REFLECT” presents a collection of abstract paintings inviting viewers to take a moment of pause and reflect upon the intangible and fleeting nature of much of our daily lives.
Featuring six large scale paintings, Ms. Wang has created a group of works that joyfully welcome inspection and contemplation within the gallery space. Using a combination of acrylics and Flashe, an artist’s grade vinyl paint, the layered works shift in color as viewers move through the gallery and as the day progresses. The subtle nature of this dynamic presentation ensures a multitude of unique viewing experiences, perfectly reflective of Ms. Wang’s inspiration for the work.
In addition to the careful and considered use of color, Ms. Wang also incorporates signs, symbols, and patterns to create points of literality within the abstract works. Sinuous lines become understood as knotted thread when viewed next to repeated fabric-like patterning, and the comparatively harsh geometry of punctuation marks and geometric shapes present the viewer with ample opportunities to draw connections between the works and throughout the gallery space.
The exhibition is now open to the public and will remain on view until Oct. 14. A closing reception for the exhibition will be held in October, with further details to follow. The Gateway Gallery is located in the main lobby of GBCC’s Portsmouth campus at the Pease Tradeport, 320 Corporate Avenue, Portsmouth, N.H. Any inquiries regarding the exhibition can be made to the gallery curator, Andrew Super, via email at asuper@ccsnh.edu. Exhibit is open during regular campus hours. For info please visit www.greatbay.edu/hours-directions.
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