Sharing our Press Release

Hello everyone!

It's been a whirlwind of a month for everyone working on the SALVAGE project. Linda Cunningham, Bronx-based artist and former F&M professor, helped by jurying about 295 entries down to the 100 pieces accepted into the show. She allowed Nicole & I to assist in the jurying process by sending her our collaborative top five favorite pieces as well as several of our individual favorites. This involved some quick shipping on Linda's part so we get CDs with the images files for all the entries. For interested artists, you should know that at the office an undergrad intern, Bonnie, had helped label the entries by numbers so everything would be anonymous.

Nicole and I worked on writing the acceptance and rejection letters, paying careful attention to make sure all pertinent details were covered for the participating artists. Those letters were sent out from the Phillips Museum on July 15th, so if you haven't heard from us yet you will soon! We used envelopes crafted from recycled envelopes that interns and volunteers worked on since the conception of the exhibition, mostly using old copies of ART News magazine. All the many extra envelopes will be bundled into small shares and sold at the opening reception!

Speaking of the opening reception, we want to share our press release with you so you can have all the details on things such as the reception. Maybe you can even pass it along through interested circuits if you are passionate about spreading the news! We used Google Documents, with allows users from different computers to edit a single document, to write and edit the press release over the internet. It reads as follows:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

CONTACT: Claire Giblin, curator, The Phillips Museum of Art, Franklin & Marshall College

717.291.4006, Claire.giblin@fandm.edu

It's not easy being green, especially if you run a museum. However two Franklin & Marshall graduates (May, 2009) have challenged both artists and F&M's Phillips Museum to "go green" with their innovative exhibit "SALVAGE: Reclaiming Recycling." The exhibit will run Sept. 3-Oct. 29, 2009 in the Rothman Gallery and the Sally Mather Gibson Curriculum Gallery of the Museum. An artists’ reception and awards presentation will take place Saturday, Sept. 19 at 1 PM in the Rothman Gallery. A screening of the film “The Story of Stuff” will be part of the day’s events, where artists will view a video of juror, Linda Cunningham, speaking of her selections and the exhibition.

With current emphasis on green initiatives, have you found the recycling motto “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” stale?

"The exhibit, comprising 100% used and found objects, will challenge people to rethink their relationships with 'disposable' objects," said Christine Batta, one of the student curators. "We want to challenge artists to reduce their carbon footprint, while making the public more aware of the different ways one can be more sustainable" added co-curator Nicole DeAugustine.

The former art history and anthropology double majors are both interested in green initiatives on the campus, as well as fine art's capacity to take the lead in social change. “We are hoping this show will help to emphasize the possibilities of re-use and recycling, salvaged and found object creativity. We’re also hoping that our campus will rise to the challenge of creative re-use,” stated Claire Giblin, curator of the Phillips Museum.

Works in the exhibit will be culled from a national call to artists, explained Batta, and will be juried by Bronx, N.Y. artist and sculptor Linda Cunningham. Cunningham is the Arthur and Katherine Shadek Humanities Professor of Art Emeritus at Franklin & Marshall.

In addition, the exhibition seeks to challenge the Phillips Museum to be environmentally responsible by using “green’ materials for all office activities related to the exhibition.

“Everything can be art and it is so exciting to see what people can do with used, found, and salvaged materials. The exhibit is not just about art, but art working as a catalyst and challenging the way we think as a whole,” commented Eliza Reilly, director of The Phillips Museum.

To read more about Salvage, a blog documenting Batta's and DeAugustine's directing process is available online at http://exhibitingprogress.blogspot.com.

More news on the way soon! I'll be posting some links relating to 'reclaiming recycling' later in the week!-Christy & Nicole

A post from Claire!

Hi everyone! Here's a message from our beloved curator at the Phillips Museum of Art, Claire Giblin:

Things continue to move forward in a truly productive way here at the Museum. This past week we visited a building site on campus and asked if we could glean used kraft papers and items from the project to create our posters for the exhibition. We were promised materials and the first recycled paper came in the form of a roll of discarded drawings from the building project. Mia and Bonnie have worked on creating stencils from old mylar. We'll be sending out a call to our campus community for used spray paints. We plan to spray paint posters and stencil used T-Shirts. It gets better all the time. I'm so glad I'm here to see this happen.

The Story of Stuff

Hi everyone!

Happy 4th of July! We're writing to let you know about a video we are arranging to include in a film series at The Phillips Museum of Art in conjunction with the SALVAGE exhibition. It's called The Story of Stuff, and I just watched it today to celebrate in my own little way the patriotism of environmental consciousness!

I think that the film series planned for the museum reflects the message we want to send that art and museum spaces play a role in social issues and dialogues as much as any other public material or space. As much as art has been full of self-reflexive trends throughout the 20th and 21st century, we think it still has the potential to be social relevant and in fact, a leader.  The Story of Stuff stressed the point that the problem lies not only in how we dispose of materials, but in how we view their consumption.  This idea aligns with our idea behind the subtitle of "Reclaiming Recycling"- that recycling goes beyond how we remove things from our home, but also involves how we use objects and decide when they are disposable.  We hope SALVAGE artworks inspire viewers to rethink a passive relationship with recycling and engage in active recycling of materials that is both a creative outlet and a way to curb consumption of new materials.

"Recycling is not enough. Recycling will never be enough."

There are a lot of great resources on the Story of Stuff website to aid in hosting a screeningincluding group activities, discussion questions, and poster templates that we can take advantage of to flush the 20 minute film out into a full event. If you aren't local and cannot come to ours, consider holding your own!

We were recommended this video by an art professor at Franklin & Marshall College, Linda Aleci, who is also very active on the Buy Fresh Buy Local team for Lancaster. It just goes to show how incredible of an experience it is to work on a project at a college museum, with all the interesting and inspiring people that are invested in the space.

Stay tuned for more updates about SALVAGE progress and about sustainability!

Celebrate a sustainable and healthy vision of America today!

-Christy & Nicole

Summer updates

I can't believe that July is almost here!

The summer has brought forth new updates and more time to work on the exhibition. A couple of weeks ago, Christy and I traveled to New York to meet up with Claire Giblin, Carol Galligan, and our juror Linda Cunningham. We were able to sit down and discuss the logistics of the exhibition, while exchanging ideas and thoughts about the exhibition, which is becoming more and more of a reality as the months roll by. It was great finally meeting Linda because she brought a fresh perspective to Salvage and really had some great ideas for moving the work along. 

In the next couple of weeks, those who entered pieces for the exhibition will find out whether or not they will be included in the show. We are really looking forward to what the next few weeks will bring us and it seems like everything is falling into place. More news soon to follow. Until then...

-Nicole

our campus mailbox was overflowing!

Sooo today I filed 43 entries that came over the weekend and that wasn't even all of them!  There are so many beautiful, exciting pieces that this is going to be a stunning show!

Secondly, to answer a question posted to the blog about when artists will hear back about results- that will be by July 15th.

Also, here are two articles about some of our kindred spirits in the art world- enjoy!

Communicating Across Barriers Few Could Imagine

Recycled Artwork for Forward Thinkers

(sorry, you have to be signed up for NYtimes.com to see this one)

-Christy

victory!

Yesterday we had the opportunity to meet with President of the College, John Fry, to talk about our project and potential support. We applied for some grants through the College, but the Committee on Grants favored underclasspeople summer and semester research projects versus the work of graduating seniors. 

Fortunately, our timeline for the project worked in our favor because the project is in the next fiscal year, the President could support our exhibition. We are excited that we have secured funds for the awards and printing. Now less financial pressure will be placed on the museum.

In other news, as of Wednesday we had 34 entries and expect a whole lot more over the next few days because the postmark day is tomorrow, May 1st. Due to the large volume of entries, we had to develop a system for organizing the entries and uploading the digital images. We are really looking forward to the next couple of days and hope to see some more really cool and exciting pieces.

Until next time...

Christy and Nicole

Updates from the Phillips Museum Office!

Hello everyone!

Here's a long overdue update on SALVAGE!  A lot has been going on in the Phillips Museum Office in preparation for the show.  For starters, we've received 21 entries so far!  We've been super inspired by the entries so far, and I can promise this is going to be an amazing show. Considering we've gotten close to 175 prospectus requests by email, I guessing we'll be getting a lot entries this week, as the May 1st application deadline is looming!

We're saving envelopes from entries to recycle into our own piece for the show- a display of the title of the show that will go on the wall in the stairwell down to the Rothman gallery.

We've also been focusing on seriously "going green" with mailing materials for the show.  Museum staff and volunteers have all been working on a project to turn old magazine in the office into envelopes.  You can see how many we've done so far and below are some of my favorites!  It's really pleasant to work on cutting out the magazine pages and to see where the images lie on different parts of envelope!

We're also experimenting with how to recycle old Phillips museum postcards and postcards coming to the museum into SALVAGE promotional cards. 

We've also been getting our press release together, brainstorming plans for the opening reception and getting tasks ready for a summer intern who will be getting on board with the project next month!

Stay tuned for more SALVAGE news that will be coming regularly!

Thank you everyone for all your support,

Christy and Nicole