The party will benefit the Dayton Metro Library Foundation. In addition to the $150 per person ticketed event, a free, family-friendly Community Open House, hosted by the staff of the Dayton Metro Library, will be held in late May or early June. For more information, visit DaytonMetroLibrary.org/TheMainEvent or call Megan Cooper at (937) 496-8516.
Grants awarded to local artists
Here’s exciting news — six Montgomery County artists have been awarded grants for professional development opportunities through a new program funded by the Montgomery County Arts & Cultural District and administered by Culture Works.
The Artist Opportunity Grant program, announced earlier this year, invites individual artists of all disciplines to apply for funding to support career-enhancing professional development opportunities such as residencies, conferences and exhibitions. Applications are reviewed by an independent panel of artists, arts administrators, educators and community leaders.
Based on the funding recommendations made by the panelists at a public meeting in mid-November, $11,022 will be awarded to this year’s grantees: Nicholaus Arnold, gallery director at The Blue House Gallery and an instructor of printmaking and photography at several local institutions; Glenna Jennings, a visual artist and assistant professor at the University of Dayton; Ashley Jonas, co-founder of The Blue House Gallery and an adjunct professor; Gina Handy Minyard, founding artistic director of Magnolia Theatre Company and theatre magnet director at Stivers School for the Arts; Christin Rondeau, a soprano, voice teacher, and director of the St. George’s Orff Ensemble; and Francis Schanberger, a prolific photographer.
Opportunities being funded by this grant cycle include local and international exhibitions, two artist residencies, and professional training in music and theater. Minyard received funding to pursue certification in the Michael Chekhov Acting Technique, which isn’t currently taught anywhere in Dayton.
“As actors, we are always looking for new ways to uncover truth and bring that to the characters we portray,” she said. “The opportunity to learn and share this technique helps me to attract artists who are looking for professional training, as well as bring my students at Stivers another way of approaching a role.”
Matt Dunn, executive director of MCACD, emphasized that the panelists considered not only the quality of applicants’ work but also evidence of their commitment to strengthening the local network of artists and the community as a whole. “Since this was the first year of the grant program, it was important to the panelists that we set a standard of excellence,” he said. “Our six grantees are individuals who are not only producing incredible artistic work but who are constantly challenging and expanding the role of art in our community.”
The application for the next cycle of Artist Opportunity Grants is set to open in fall of 2017. More details will be available on cultureworks.org in the coming months.
Malarkey will perform in Yellow Springs
Michael Malarkey, who appeared in musicals at the Antioch Amphitheater YS Kids Playhouse in the 1990s, is today best known as Enzo in the CW drama, “The Vampire Diaries.” An accomplished musician, he’ll return to town for a one-night-only concert at the Dayton Art Institute on Thursday, Dec. 29. The event will benefit the YS Kids Playhouse.
Born in Beirut, Lebanon, and raised in Ohio, Malarky trained in England and is now an Atlanta-based musician and actor. After singing in various punk and hardcore bands in his younger years, Malarkey began to teach himself the guitar and began to write songs that eventually developed into his own style of “story-telling, soul-searching alternative folk.” He is currently completing a debut record.
Tickets for the 8 p.m. concert are $25 in advance and $30 at the door. VIP tickets are $75 and attend a Meet & Greet with Michael at 7 p.m. as well as a Q&A session. To buy tickets, visit www.yskp.org/concert.
Live Nativity at St. Paul’s Church
From 6-8 p.m. tonight — Sunday, Dec. 18 — St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Oakwood will present its third annual live Nativity. It will take place on the green space at Far Hills and Dixon, next to the church at 33 W. Dixon Ave.
Parish members will recreate the roles of Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, town folk and the Three Kings and the crèche scene will include live animals and lights. Warm beverages, treats and winter campfires will keep you warm! The event is free.
A Christmas Shop will be held inside the church, in a room accessible from the outdoor site. The Shop will offer stocking stuffers, holiday confections, cold weather wear.
Fiction writer’s books illuminate art history
It was a treat to hear author B.A. Shapiro, in town recently for a presentation and booksigning at the Wright Memorial Public Library in Oakwood. Her visit was part of the Jewish Community Center’s Cultural Arts and Book Festival.
Her New York Times bestseller “The Art Forger,” is based on the infamous art heist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. In Dayton, she was discussing the research for her latest novel, “The Muralist,” the story of a budding American painter who works for the Works Progress Administration in New York City in 1940. Some of the other characters are based on famous Abstract Expressionist artists — Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner. The plot also incorporates Eleanor Roosevelt, one of Shapiro’s heroes.
Most fascinating to those of us in the audience was her writing process. With her strong math background, she created her most recent novel by using Excel spreadsheets, bar graphs, bubble maps, pie charts, Scattergrams and intersecting and overlapping normal curves. She shuffled multi-colored file cards to create her story, and developed charts to track the timing, location and tension level of each chapter.
“From my experience, and contrary to popular belief, there’s nothing particularly sexy about writing a novel,” she says. “Yes, there are those moments when the world disappears and it’s just you and your imaginary friends or when you believe — usually falsely — that you’ve written a truly great sentence, but these are very few and very far between. Mostly, writing’s about getting your butt in your chair and working through the painful parts to reach those beautiful words, ‘The End.’”
For more information, check out bashapirobooks.com.
Juried art show to add new art forms
“Landscape2017,” a juried art exhibition designed to heighten public awareness of preserving local greenspaces through art, will include Photography and 3D hanging art this year.
The show is sponsored by the B-W Greenway Community Land Trust & the Fairborn Art Association. A different location in the Fairborn or Medway area is chosen as the subject of the paintings each year. The 2017 location is the Estel Wenrick Wetlands and the Mad River Entrance, which is the area east and west of Spangler Road, north of Interstate 70.
The juried competition is open to all artists 16 years and older, living within 200 miles of Fairborn. Work may be oil, acrylic, pastel, watercolor, print, drawing, mixed media, photography or 3D hanging art less than 5 pounds in weight. Size many not exceed 30 by 40 inches. A non-refundable entry fee of $20 for a total of three works must accompany the entry form. All entries will be received at the Fairborn Art Association Gallery, 221 N. Central Ave., Fairborn, Ohio (in the rear of the building) on July 2, 2017, during the hours of 1-3 p.m. and 5-7 p.m.
The judge for Landscapes2017 is well-known artist Jean Koeller, who teaches painting at Stivers School for the Arts. The award ceremony with cash prizes at the opening reception will be held on July 9 at the Fairborn Art Association Gallery. For additional information, contact Bob Coates at (937) 689-4855 or email bobctwin@woh.rr.com or email info@bwgreenway.org
Each week, arts writer Meredith Moss shares news about the people and events making arts news in our region.
If you have information you’d like to have included, contact Meredith: MMoss@coxohio.com
Please include a daytime phone number and a photo when available.
About the Author
