Announcing Class/Workshop on International Opportunities for Artists in Santa Rosa, CA, Feb. 7, 2015, 1-4PM

Jane Putting Handmade Paper on a Coral Wall to dry during Fulbright Residency in Penghu, Taiwan

Jane Putting Handmade Paper to dry on a Coral Wall during Fulbright Residency in Penghu, Taiwan

Register now at the Santa Rosa Junior College Continuing Education Site:

https://portal.santarosa.edu/CommunityEducation/ListCourse.aspx?CourseVrsnNbr=01082901&ID=2015320

“Going Global with Your Art Career”

Jane Ingram Allen, Instructor

Jane Ingram Allen is an international artist, art professor, curator and critic living in Taiwan from 2004 – 2012, going there in 2004 as a Fulbright research scholar to be an artist in residence in 14 different communities over a 2-year grant period. Jane has done international art projects and residencies in many countries including the USA, the Philippines, Japan, Nepal, Brazil, Thailand, Bali (Indonesia), England, France, China and Taiwan. She also curates international exhibitions and has served on juries and review committees for Fulbright visual arts grants, foundation art grants and many international art projects and exhibitions.

Expanded Course Description:

GOING GLOBAL WITH YOUR ART CAREER – International Opportunities for Artists

This 3 hour Workshop/class with instructor Jane Ingram Allen is being offered at Santa Rosa Junior College, Saturday, Feb. 7, 1PM to 4PM, 1588 Emeritus Hall, Santa Rosa Campus, Santa Rosa, CA

This course is for artists who are ready to expand their art career internationally and travel to other countries for residencies, exhibitions and other opportunities. The course will cover the following:

  1. How to communicate internationally and adjust to cultural differences.
  2. What promotional materials should you prepare to go global with your art career.
  3. Different international opportunities such as artist in residencies, art competitions, exhibitions at galleries and museums and teaching or lecturing in other countries
  4. How to find out about international opportunities through Websites, networks, publications and other sources
  5. How to make successful proposals and applications
  6. What can international opportunities do for your career
  7. How to get funding for international art opportunities
  8. Sharing and Discussion of materials from participants

https://portal.santarosa.edu/CommunityEducation/ListCourse.aspx?CourseVrsnNbr=01082901&ID=2015320

My Work to Be Exhibited in California Bay Area Group Show

06-Allen_Point_Reyes_Site_Map (back) 02_Allen_Sitka_Salmon_River_Estuary_Site_Map (front)

I will have several mixed media handmade paper artworks that I created recently at residencies in Point Reyes, California, and Sitka Center for Art & Ecology in a group show of Northern California Artists. The show is called “Transitions” and curated by Patricia Watts and will be at the Marin Community Foundation in Novato, CA from January 21 to May 15, 2015. The opening reception is Wednesday, Jan. 21 from 4:30 to 6:30 PM. Hope to see you there if you are in the Bay Area.

I am copying below the press release about this exhibition.

Marin Community Foundation Hosts “Transitions’”

Novato, CA (January 5, 2015)—The Marin Community Foundation will host an exhibition,“Transitions,” from January 21 to May 15, 2015, featuring thirty North Bay Area artists aged sixty years and older.

The exhibition will be held at the Foundation’s offices at 5 Hamilton Landing, Suite 200,Novato, CA.

A public reception will be held Wednesday, January 21st from 4:30 – 6:30 pm.

In early November 2014, a Call for Artists was made to North Bay counties including Marin,Sonoma, Mendocino, Napa, and Solano, for artists over sixty years of age whose recent work displayed some form of transition in their art or their life. Artists typically make several transitions throughout their careers, including changes in medium, changes in studio space,and changes in subject matter. The artworks selected represent transitions in the lives ofolder adult artists both metaphorically and literally.

This exhibition includes approximately one hundred artworks selected by three jurors:Megan Wilkinson, former Executive Director of the O’Hanlon Center for the Arts in MillValley; Satri Pencak, independent curator in Sonoma County and former curator of the Sebastopol Center for the Arts; and consulting curator for the Marin CommunityFoundation, Patricia Watts, former Chief Curator at the Sonoma County Museum in SantaRosa.

Artists Include: Jane Ingram Allen, Sonja Bakalyar, Yvonne Brown, Jan Buscho, Mima Cataldo, Ellen Levine Dodd, Holly Downing, Tim Graveson, Arlene Helfrich, Scott Hess,Bonnie Himberg-Mumford, Lars Johnson, Toni Littlejohn, Linda MacDonald, Lin Max,Catherine McCauley, Zea Morvitz, Elaine Nehm, Cayen Robertson, Elizabeth Sher, Susan Leibovitz Steinman, Jeremy Thornton, Patti Trimble, Shelia Tuffanelli, Sally Weare, Shane Weare, Barbara Winer, Stephen Whisler, Karen Worth, Kathleen Youngquist.

NOTE TO EDITORS: If you would like high-resolution images of these or other works by these artists, contact Vikki Garrod at 415.464.2527 or vgarrod@marincf.org.

About the Marin Community Foundation

The Marin Community Foundation is the primary center for philanthropy in Marin County,CA and is one of the largest community foundations in the U.S. It manages the assets of theLeonard and Beryl H. Buck Trust and over 450 funds established by individuals, families,and businesses. The Foundation makes significant improvements in communities aroundthe world in two ways: by spearheading initiatives for long-term, sustainable change inMarin, and by distributing grants from donor-advised funds locally, across the U.S., andaround the world. Now in its 28th year, the Marin Community Foundation has assets ofover $1.6 billion, with annual grant distributions of approximately $60 million.

Link

My Interview with Taiwanese artist Yi-Chun Lo in ART RADAR ASIA

Tags

, , , ,

view of "Banana Justice" installation by Yi-Chun Lo at CAI Gallery, Acton, MA

view of “Banana Justice” installation by Yi-Chun Lo at CAI Gallery, Acton, MA

In this week’s edition of the online journal ART RADAR ASIA you can see my interview with Taiwanese artist Yi-Chun Lo. Yi-chun is currently an artist in residence in Acton, Massachusetts at Contemporary Art International, and has been creating a site-specific installation all with banana peels. Check the interview and lots of photos of Yi-chn’s newest works at http://artradarjournal.com/2014/12/05/taiwanese-artist-yi-chun-lo-talks-bananas-and-economics-interview/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=taiwanese-artist-yi-chun-lo-talks-bananas-and-economics-interview&from=feedblitz_403966_4864629
Yi-Chun was one of the artists I selected for the 2010 Cheng Long Wetlands International Environmental Art Project, and she created an outdoor installation with bamboo and oyster shells titled “Listening.” For more information about the Cheng Long Wetlands environmental art project take a look at the Blog at http://artproject4wetland.wordpress.com
Entries for the 2015 art project in Cheng Long are due by January 16, 2015.

Announcing a New Eco-Art Project in Taiwan!

logo for NMMST art project

I will be working with the National Museum of Marine Science and Technology in Keelung, Taiwan, to curate a new eco-art project in Taiwan.  This art project will feature outdoor interactive environmental sculpture installations by international artists on the theme of ocean sustainability.  Selected artists will come to Keelung, Taiwan to create their works from May 14 to June 8, 2015.  Please contact me by email at nmmstartproject@gmail.com for the Call for Proposals.  Artists selected will receive a stipend, airfare, accommodations, meals and volunteer help to create their works on and around the Museum grounds.

Here is the website of the National Museum of Marine Science & Technology in Keelung, Taiwan:

http://www.nmmst.gov.tw/enhtml/index

Hope to see your proposal by email before the deadline of February 15, 2015.

Announcing the 2015 Cheng Long Wetlands Environmental Art Project in Taiwan

Hello everyone,  I will again be curating the international environmental art project in Cheng Long, Taiwan!

Please announce this opportunity to artists in your network.

Artist in Residency/Call for Proposals)

2015 Cheng Long Wetlands International Environmental Art Project in Taiwan

Artists from all countries are invited to send a proposal for a large-scale site-specific outdoor environmental sculpture installation to be created during a 25-day residency in Cheng Long, a small coastal village in southwest Taiwan, working with elementary school students, residents and volunteers. The 6 selected artists will receive an artist’s fee of US$2,000, airfare, accommodations and meals; for more information visit http://artproject4wetland.wordpress.com

Theme for 2015:  “Fragile – Handle with Care”

Residency in Cheng Long, Taiwan: April 9 – May 4, 2015

Deadline for Entries: January 15, 2015

To Apply: Send the following to Curator, Jane Ingram Allen at allenrebeccajanei@gmail.com  Proposals in Chinese to Ms. Chao-Mei Wang at chenglong.artproject@gmail.com

  1. Description of proposed sculpture including dimensions and materials (limit one page, sent as attached .doc or .pdf file).
  2. Artist Statement about how your art relates to the theme and including your experience working with children and communities and how you will involve them in your artwork (limit 1 page sent, as attached .doc or .pdf file).
  3. Sketch of your proposed artwork (attached .jpg file of less than 1 MB).
  4. 6 images of previous related works (6 attached .jpg files, each less than 1 MB)
  5. Image list about the 6 images, including title of work, date made, materials used and location of the artwork (sent as attached .doc or .pdf file)
  6. CV or Resume (sent as attached .doc or .pdf file) including present address, nationality, education, awards, residencies and exhibitions)

Best wishes,

Jane Ingram Allen, Curator and Artist

“California Delta Rivers in San Francisco Exhibition, opening Sept. 11

California-Delta-Rivers-at-Capital-OneMy wall installation “California Delta Rivers” is now installed at Capital One Bank Cafe 360, 101 Post Street, San Francisco, in the exhibition “What River Are You Made Of….”.  The artwork is handmade paper and string and attached like a wall drawing….the challenge was getting it up and around the door! The piece is now about 15 feet x 11 feet.  This piece was originally made for an exhibition also about water and the environment for a WEAD exhibition at Los Medanos College Gallery in Pittsburg, CA, and now it has been expanded to include the San Francisco Bay and highlight the Tuolumne River that is the main source of water for San Francisco and Bay Area residents.  This exhibition is organized by Wholly H2O and curated by Elizabeth Dougherty.  Please come to the opening reception on Thursday, Sept. 11, 6:30 to 9PM at the Capital One Cafe, 101 Post St…..or tell your friends about it.  The exhibition remains on view through October 3, and gallery hours are Mon. – Fri. 7AM to 5PM.  See the website at http://www.whollyH20.org for more information.

Artist in Residency in Hua Yuan Village, Hsinchu County, Taiwan – May 25-29, 2014

Tags

, , , , , , ,

Jane Ingram Allen – Artist in Residency Project at Hua Yuan Elementary School, Hua Yuan Village, Wufeng Township, Hsinchu County Taiwan

Dates:  May 25 – May 29, 2014

This photo shows my finished Hua Yuan Site Map artwork that was created during the residency using local plants to make the handmade paper and thread created from local plants.

Image

HuaYuan Village is in rural Wufeng Township in the mountainous southern part of Hsinchu County, Taiwan. The area is inhabited mostly by aboriginal peoples of the Taiya tribe, and the elementary school has become a sort of cultural center for the community. The school has about 37 students in grades one through 6, and the kindergarten has about 20 students. I worked there for 4 days as an artist in residence with sponsorship by the school and the forestry bureau and the Taiwan Education Bureau and Foreign Affairs Bureau. My project was to teach the students and some local adult volunteers about hand papermaking using local plant materials and create a Huayuan Site Map that would celebrate the Tong Cao or the pith paper plant for which this area is known. Tong Cao or pith paper is made from the inner stem or pith of the plant Tetrapanax papyrifer.   The aboriginal people in this area grew the plant in small farms during the days of the Japanese occupation of Taiwan, and the growing and preparing of this plant for pith paper was a major industry for Hsinchu in this time period, though now it has almost disappeared.   Efforts are now being made to revive interest in this plant and its use for crafts such as making artificial flowers and small paintings, and to encourage the local people to grow it again and preserve the culture and heritage of this village.  This is a photo of the pith paper plant in Hua Yuan village.

Image

 

My work with handmade paper from the plants of Taiwan has been ongoing since 2004 when I first came to Taiwan with a Fulbright grant.   During my two years on the Fulbright grant I traveled to 14 different areas of Taiwan and made handmade paper for my artwork from 135 different plants…but I did not go to Hsinchu. I became familiar with the pith paper plant, but did not have a chance to try it for papermaking. I had experimented with the pith paper for making contemporary artworks in 2010-13 and joined with other Taiwanese nature educators and craftsmen and some foreign artists, papermakers, historians and conservators to start a movement to revive the cultivation and culture of this plant. I published an article about the pith paper revival in Taiwan in the magazine Hand Papermaking in Summer 2013 (http://magazine.handpapermaking.org/previous.htm).

 

During this artist in residency in Hua Yuan village I worked at the school with some local volunteers and the school children to make handmade paper from local plants: paper mulberry bark, Japanese silvergrass leaves and the bark and leaves of the pith paper plant (Tetrapanax papyrifer or Tong Cao ). The local mulberry bark was a great source of fiber for handmade paper and so was the Japanese silvergrass, but the pith paper outer bark and leaves did not yield any fiber that would make paper. However, this material did work well to make an interesting handmade paper when some mulberry bark pulp and Japanese silvergrass pulp were added with the Pith Paper plant material in the vat. The resulting mixed pulp yielded handmade paper with a unique dark color and interesting rough texture, and I used this paper and the mulberry bark and silvergrass paper to create the Huayuan Site Map artwork.

 

My Huayuan Site Map artwork was composed with sheets of A-4 size handmade paper that I made in my modified Asian technique. The handmade paper sheets were joined with thread made from local plant fibers mixed with some common cotton sewing thread. The local plants used for thread were Boehmeria nivea (Ramie or China grass) and Alpinia zerumbet (Shell Ginger). The stems of these plants yield great fiber for thread and rope. During my residency one of the local men brought his 80-year old mother to the school to show us how to make the thread from the inner bark of stems from the Bohermeria nivea plant.  Here is a photo of the aboriginal woman in Hua Yuan taking the outer skin of the Ramie plant to make thread.  She used a split bamboo piece to scrape the bark and leave only the plant fiber for the thread.

woman separating bark from stem for thread

I made my HuaYuan Site Map in the shape of the Pith Paper plant leaf. This plant has a huge multi-lobed leaf, and it is up to about 2 feet in size. On one side of my site map I created a map of the area showing the two intersecting rivers and the roads, village houses, school and other important buildings such as the 7 churches. Many sheets of handmade paper created from local plant materials by me, the school children and volunteers were used to create this artwork. On the other side of my site map I included collaged photos of some of the local sites along with painted images representing the local culture. The finished site map was donated to the school and hung for public display in the school.

Jane working on Tung Chou site map

 

During the residency I taught the local volunteers, teachers and students how to make paper from the local plant materials, and they are planning to continue with the hand papermaking in Hua Yuan village.   Although thisImage residency was short, I feel it was very successful in reviving some interest in the pith paper plant and local culture, and it introduced them to another craft (hand papermaking) that can make good use of local natural materials in a sustainable way that will not harm the environment. This is a beautiful natural area of Taiwan with clean air and pure water and has much potential for eco-tourism and introducing people to tribal cultures and raising environmental awareness.  ImageImageImageImageImageImage

 

Photos on this Blog are by Timothy S. Allen (http://allentimphotos2.wordpress.com)