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OCA Newsletter :: June 2018

 

June Newsletter

 

Thank you for supporting the 41st annual Atlanta Jazz Festival. We are honored to continue this proud tradition and provide a platform for seasoned and young musicians while sharing jazz’s rich cultural experience with our residents and visitors. We kicked off this year’s festival with our popular 31 Days of Jazz series, providing unique, jazz-enriched experiences across the city throughout the month of May. 

Despite the threat of May showers, Jazz Festival Weekend was blessed with beautiful weather and Piedmont Park was the perfect venue for one of the best concert weekends in festival history!

This year the Atlanta Jazz Festival presented an exciting array of talent on three stages that displayed the vitality of jazz music and its continued impact on distinct cultures. From artists like Alexandria Jackson, The Bad Plus, Jon Batiste with the Dap-Kings, Dianne Reeves and more, the festival was a testament to the dynamic and diverse power of jazz!

None of this would be possible without the faithful and continuous support of people like you or the board of directors of Atlanta Jazz Festival, Inc. Furthermore, we thank all our sponsors, media partners, patrons, donors and musicians whose support and contributions helped make this event a success. Again, the City of Atlanta thanks you and we hope to see you next year!

Sincerely,

Camille Russell Love
Executive Director
City of Atlanta – Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs.

Bloomberg Philanthropies Expand to Atlanta

 

Bloomberg Philanthropies has expanded its Arts Innovation and Management program to include Atlanta and six other cities! They will invest more than $43 million in small and midsize cultural organizations. For more information, click here and select “Start Application”.

The Public Art Team Wins UDC Award

The Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs is pleased to announce the Public Art team has won The Urban Design Commission Award of Excellence for the Journey to Freedom: Women of the Civil Rights mural project by artist Lynn Marshall-Linnemeier, with photographs from Dr. Doris A. Derby, Susan Ross and Shelia Turner.

The Journey to Freedom mural project honors the contribution of women to the Civil Rights Movement. The project uses mural walls, photography and figurative sculpture to visually represent the narrative of women fighting for social justice. 

Hardy Ivy Park Artist Call

The Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs’ Public Art team seeks local art proposals for its Temporary Art Program in central Atlanta to display in Hardy Ivy Park, a location in downtown Atlanta.

Please share this post with any local, Atlanta-based artist you know.

For more information, visit the submission page.

SAVE THE DATE
August 11, 2018 
Chastain Arts Center 50th Anniversary Celebration
10 AM – 5 PM 


Sights & Insights Regional Art Show Reception

June 15, 2018 at 6 pm

Chastain Arts Center & Gallery and Dunwoody Fine Art Association Present:
The 2018 Southeastern Regional Art Show
SIGHTS & INSIGHTS
Monday, June 18 to Thursday, July 30

A juried art exhibit to give regional artists the opportunity to display their artwork in a prestigious Atlanta gallery. Participants can win up to $1500 in Awards.

Opening Reception, Friday, June 15 at 6 pm  

Elyse Defoor “Unbridled” Artist Talk 
June 6, 2018 at 12 pm

Thomas Swofford “Here & There: The People and Park of Atlanta and Georgia”
Monday, June 11, 2018            

The Office of Cultural Affairs is proud to announce a new exhibition in the Mayor’s Gallery at City Hall, featuring local photographer and illustrator Thomas Swofford. The exhibition, entitled “Here & There: The People and Parks of Atlanta & Georgia“, will open to the public on Monday, June 11, 2018
 
Thomas Swofford is a nature and city photographer living in Atlanta, whose images have displayed in small businesses and non-profits throughout metropolitan Atlanta and several Georgia State Parks. He first started taking photos at the age of 12, when he first picked up a 1978 Olympus camera, and continued practicing and learning the trade throughout high school and college.

Thomas attended Georgia State University, where he studied Print Journalism and Environmental Geology. His desire for an objective view and powerful passion for nature led him to further his education in those fields while keeping his camera ready at all times.

Rusty Miller: The Compassionate Eye in Forgotten Atlanta
June 14 – August 10, 2018

The City of Atlanta’s Gallery 72 is honored to present the first solo exhibition of Rusty Miller’s vintage and later photographs of Atlanta, circa 1960s to 1970s, in “The Compassionate Eye in Forgotten Atlanta.”  The exhibition, in collaboration with curator Susan Todd-Raque, features a selection of 50 photographs portraying the people in various communities now gone or changed forever.
 
Russell Stough Miller (1933-1992) grew up in Atlanta and decided he wanted to be a commercial photographer rather than work in the family printing business. Rusty Miller followed his personal passion on the weekends by documenting the residents of Old Fourth Ward, Vine City, Summerhill, Washington-Rawson and Buttermilk Bottoms, where there were unpaved streets, electricity was rare and life went on as usual, outside of the turmoil during the 1960s Civil Rights Movement activities in downtown Atlanta,  
 
Stored away for more than 20 years by friends and then his daughter, Miller’s photographs now give visibility to those who were marginalized and invisible to the world at the time.  There is a simple connection to people, their spirit and their hearts, rarely seen in photography today.  Each image is a fresh experience captured.  Children laughing and giggling as they squish into a makeshift go-cart made from a fruit crate or as they roll old tires in a race down a hill.  Whether sitting on a porch or hanging near the local grocery store, men and women are making small talk on a hot summer day and watching people go by.  We see life in Atlanta’s neighborhoods soon to be destroyed or negatively affected by the building of the Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.  The bus series from the 1970s shaped another setting for Miller to quietly study the moods of the passengers; some lost in thought and distant from Miller, others aware of his camera.
 
This is where we need YOU, the people of Atlanta!  Please come and help us identify who the people are and where the places were.  Their history is unfinished and we would like to give recognition to those who have been forgotten.
 
Opening reception June 14, 2018 from 6 pm

 Panel Discussion: Memory, Race, and Erasure in Urban Atlanta.
July 6th, 2018 from 7 pm to 9 pm

Panelist: Paul Crater, Maurice J. Hobson, Kelly Kristen Jones, and Mtaminika Youngblood

For more information please contact the gallery at 404.546.3220 or KSipp@AtlantaGa.Gov.

Cultural Venues Selected to Participate in 2018-2019 Cultural Experience Project

The Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs is pleased to announce that 27 Atlanta-area cultural venues were selected to participate in the 2018-2019 Cultural Experience Project (CEP). This year marks the program’s 14th year, and we are thrilled to welcome this year’s venue partners to the program.
 
The Cultural Experience Project was created to ensure that every Atlanta Public Schools (APS) student – pre-K through 12th grade – has access to at least one cultural experience each year he or she is enrolled in an APS school. The program is a partnership between Atlanta Public Schools and the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs. Funding for the program is made possible by the generous support of public and private foundations and companies, as well as donations by individual donors. Additional information about the program’s supporters will be announced in the fall.
 
Please join our office in welcoming this year’s partner venues (see below). We are excited to work with their staff and look forward to hearing about the many phenomenal experiences APS students will have.

Alliance Theatre 
Artsbridge
Atlanta Ballet 
Atlanta Botanical Garden  
Atlanta History Center
Atlanta Opera  
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra 
APEX Museum 
Ballethnic Dance Company
Chattahoochee Nature Center 
Chick-fil-A Backstage Tour                                
Children’s Museum
College Football Hall of Fame
David J. Sencer CDC Museum
Georgia Aquarium

 Giwayen Mata
High Museum of Art
Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum
Moving in the Spirit
Museum of Design Atlanta
National Center for Civil and Human Rights
Oakland Cemetery
Rialto Center for the Arts
The King Center
Theatrical Outfit
True Color Theatre Company                                                     
ZuCot Gallery

Horizon Theatre Company: Citizens Market

Click here for more information on tickets.

CamoFlyJet’s: Trap-Happy Playlist Opening Reception



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OCA Newsletter :: April 2018

 

April Newsletter

 

ATLANTA JAZZ FESTIVAL RELEASES FULL LINEUP OF 2018 ARTISTS

Highlights include Jon Batiste with The Dap-Kings, Dianne Reeves, The Bad Plus and Jazzmeia Horn, to name a few.

In a video announcement released Tuesday March 27, 2018, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms revealed the artist lineup for the 41st annual Atlanta Jazz Festival. The lineup includes a variety of jazz sounds and stylings presented on three stages: The Legends Stage, The Contemporary Stage and The Next Gen Stage. The country’s longest running free jazz festival will take place for two days over Memorial Day Weekend: Saturday, May 26 and Sunday, May 27, in Piedmont Park. For the first time in the event’s history, Saturday will feature a special all-female jazz lineup.

Restoration of Homage to St. Eom’s Pasaquan

The Office of Cultural Affairs is pleased to announce the completion of the Homage to St. EOM’s Pasaquan artwork restoration. The artwork was created by the late Eddie Owens Martin as a part of Folk Art Park during the 1996 Olympics. The piece pays homage to the original work located in Buena Vista, Ga. The Homage to St EOM’s Pasaquan incorporated large cast-concrete totems painted in vibrant colors, surrounded by brightly-painted mandala designs that vaguely reference Pacific-Islander sculpture and aboriginal artwork. The City of Atlanta provides stewardship to the piece and was made possible through the generous help of the Community Foundation, GPC Renovations, and artists: Jan Riley, Addison Adams, and Adrian Barzaga. The site is expected to be open to the public Mid-April.


Emerging Artist’s Exhibition Opening Reception

April 12th, 2018 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm

The City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs presents this year’s Emerging Artist Exhibition, the opening reception  of the exhibit will be held Thursday, April 12th from 6 – 8 PM at the Chastain Arts Center. This exhibit is designed to support practicing artists residing in the City of Atlanta. The public is invited to come meet this year’s recipients: Charlina Rose Smith, Bella Dorado, and Lauren Peterson. Come out and support these local artists!

Ernest G. Welch Fellows MFA Exhibitions

April 2nd – April 6th

Maryam Palizgir’s : “Folded Mystery”
 
Folded Mystery project is the metaphors for how we exchange knowledge, how perception widens our perspective, and how observation deepens our understanding of the reality in which we live. I seek works of art that activate once the viewer is involved. Folded Mystery is about challenging viewers’ perception and multi-perception embodiment through 2D and 3D drawings, sculptural paintings installations focusing on the interaction of geometric abstract forms, colors, reflective objects and layering grid-like materials in space. I intend to focus on the complexity of space by making sculptural installations that allow me to look into and through things. I also bring photography into this exchange. I am preoccupied with finding new ways of seeing through the experimental cross-fertilization of drawing, sculpture, and photography, which stimulated a philosophically oriented questioning of vision and perception.

Aaron Kagan Putt’s “Another Failed Attempt”
 
Aaron Kagan Putt was raised in the dry heat and saguaro speckled landscape of Tucson, Arizona, not far from the border with Mexico. He ventured often between these divided territories, developing an intense interest in travel and cultural hybridity. Much of his work investigates the intersection between culture and its material manifestations on the landscape.
 
The works in Another Failed Attempt explores the impulse to manipulate material and forms as a means to achieve personal and societal transformation. Adopting a hybrid and nomadic form, this series of sculptures and paintings probe themes of utopian architecture, self-improvement and the human desire to memorialize.
 
Putt has been awarded grants by the Minnesota State Arts Board and his work has been exhibited internationally. He lives and works in Atlanta, Georgia and is currently a Master of Fine Arts and Master of Art History candidate at the Ernest G. Welch School of Art and Design at Georgia State University.

Elyse Defoor “Unbridled” 
April 12th –June 7th 2018

On April 12th, 2018 Artist Elyse Defoor’s exhibition “Unbridled” opens at Gallery 72.   “Unbridled” features bodies of work in sculpture, photography, and other media, that explore the emotional dichotomies of the human experience through meditations on marriage, restraint, death, rebirth and unbounded freedom. Through the creative use of ceremonial and mundane materials Defoor brings the viewer into spaces of mythic resonance and lived memory.
 

Art & Urban Resilience Discussion Panel and Reception
April 18th , 2018 6:30 pm to  11 pm

Over the recent years, the global community established a political and social trajectory of development known as the sustainability movement. The sustainability approach to development integrates dimensions of economic growth, social cohesion, and resilience. They are captured under 17 Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the global community at the United Nations in September, 2015. Among the specific goals are: Goal 3 – Good health and Well-being for People, Goal 11 – Sustainable Cities and Communities, Goal 12- Responsible Consumption and Production, Goal 13 – Climate Action. The goals among other embed universal ambition of preserving the world we live in for future generations.
 
Atlanta  is no stranger to these ambitions, in fact, it has recently joined the 100 Resilient Cities campaign and adopted a resilience strategy that pursues the vision of sustainable growth in Atlanta’s local context. What is unique about the vision is the very key role that art and culture occupy. Art and Culture become vehicles to achieve ambitions of resilience urban future of Atlanta, ready to absorb acute and chronic shocks and disasters – from environmental degradation to racial inequality, and urban sprawl. The role of art and culture in defining the progressive direction of Atlanta’s growth is very distinct from other urban centers. From civil rights movement and socio-political change to Captain Planet and the environmental movement, art held a key role in promoting grassroots driven behavioral and political change in Atlanta city context. This trend is still very much alive today among the existing artist community in Atlanta, who create public a (community) art within the local and global themes of social cohesion, development, and environmental protection.
 
Building on the historical contributions of art to change, the Urban Catalyst Lab and the Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs is putting together a local and global expert panel to discuss the role and capacity of art to address the current global and local issues of development, and to initiate and facilitate social, behavioral and political change. Using concrete current and historic, local and global examples, the panel will explore the role of arts in building urban resilience and sustainability, and show the inherent link between art and sustainable urban growth.
 
The panel will include the recent local to global art community intervention in Johns Creek, a focus on the past and  current exhibitions at Gallery 72,  and the development of the upcoming art + urban resilience lab,
 
The panel will engage speakers from Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs and Office Resilience, local and international artists to discuss how art, policy and change align to achieve sustainable urban future.

The panelists include: 
William Massey: Atlanta based artist, ColorATL
Hanif Kureshi: Indian artist, S+art Delhi Street art Festival
Kevin Sipp: Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs
Michelle Wiseman: Mayor’s Office of Resilience
Lynda Smith: Johns Creek Convention and Visitors Bureau
Ruxanda Renita & Ana Gabriele Sabancevaite: Urban Catalyst Lab

RECEPTIN PARTY
Virtual Reality Art by Jessica Anderson
Music by DJ Stan Zeff 

Contracts For Arts Services Application Workshops

Call For Panelists for 2019 Grant Cycle

Contract For Arts Services Emerging Artists Award Recipients

April 12th, 2018 6:30pm – 8:00pm

On Thursday, April 12th at the Chastain Art Center Gallery from 6:30pm to 8:00pm, the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs will recognize three Emerging Artist Award recipients in the categories of Dance and Visual Arts. The artists will be honored with a reception and an exhibition of their work.

Each year, the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs through the Contracts for Arts Services program recognizes rising stars in the arts through the Emerging Artist Award which promotes the work of professional artists of notable talent and ability living and creating are within the city of Atlanta.

This year’s recipients are:

Gabriella “Bella” Dorado
Bella Dorado is a choreographer, performing artist, educator, and producer. Her movement is characterized by a driving sinuous flow and explorations of vulnerability and the dark places full of risk and magic. Learn more about the artist by visiting her website.

Lauren Peterson
Lauren Peterson is an interdisciplinary artist who creates new systems for devalued objects, focusing on the potential ontological ramifications of a consumption-based society. Learn more about the artist by visiting her website.

Charlina “Rose” Smith
Rose uses photography for activism, to discuss social issues that reflect the present time, and to tell the story of the black experience in America. Learn more about the artist by visiting her website.

OCA Selected as Winners of KaBOOM! Play Everywhere Challege

On Saturday, March 3rd , The Play Everywhere Tour, powered by KaBOOM! and Target, visited Atlanta, bringing families and kids together for FREE, fun-filled family play. As part of the Tour, the Play Everywhere Challenge winners were announced, awarding $720,000 in total grants for creative projects that encourage play in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston and Miami. The City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs has been selected a Play Everywhere Challenge winner. We have been awarded a $25,000 to help support our project “John Lewis’s Ride to Freedom.” The project includes incorporating a play space on the PATH Trail in Freedom Park near “The Bridge” artwork dedicated to Congressman John Lewis. The play space will focus on the 1961 Freedom Riders Route from Washington, DC to New Orleans, LA. An artist derived play-scape on the PATH trail would consist of outlines of states the Freedom Riders traveled incorporating games and activities for kids to follow the Freedom Riders path. The second element will be a bus play structure to represent the Freedom Rider’s bus. The bus will allow for several kids to play at a time, while also engaging them in facts about the Freedom Riders and significant events along the route. The families in the area, as well as other visitors, will have a place to play and exercise while also learning about one of the greatest civil rights leaders; Congressman John Lewis. KaBOOM! is the national non-profit dedicated to giving all kids the childhood they deserve through great, safe places to play. The Play Everywhere Challenge and Tour are part of a broader effort led by KaBOOM! and Target focused on engaging communities to help families make active play a part of everyday life. By the end of the year, KaBOOM! and Target will bring more than 260 new playspaces to life, reaching more than a half-million kids across

Hooked on Books
With
Whiskey & Ribbons

The Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs and the Department of Human Resources hosted critically acclaimed author, Leesa Cross-Smith to introduce her first novel, Whiskey & Ribbons. Cross- Smith concluded her week in Atlanta by engaging with City of Atlanta employees in a brief conversation and book signing. She talked about the structure of the novel, how she has written it as “a fuge… a piece of music with three voices and three narrators. I’ve written the book for black women.” Whiskey & Ribbons is told in three intertwining, melodic voices: Evi in present day, as she’s snowed in with Dalton during a freak blizzard; Eamon before his murder, as he prepares for impending fatherhood and grapples with the danger of his profession; and Dalton, as he struggles to make sense of his life next to Eamon’s, and as he decides to track down the biological father he’s never known. If you missed Leesa Cross-Smith during her time in Atlanta, there is another opportunity to hear more about Whiskey & Ribbons and meet Leesa, at the Decatur Book Festival August 31 – September 2, 2018. Learn more about this wonderful author, her warm and bright spirit, and other works of fiction here.

Buried Truths

In 1948, three black farmers decided they’d had enough. They were going to vote in rural South Georgia, where white supremacists held power by suppressing the black vote. Pulitzer-Prize winning author, journalist and Emory University professor Hank Klibanoff explores the mysteries and injustices of history through civil rights cases that few have seen.  How far would white supremacists go — on the streets, in the courtrooms, in the legislatures — to preserve their racial dominance? And, most importantly, why? Who were we back then? The truth is restless, relevant and revealed.

Click here for more information. 



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