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Arts on Main

Community Arts Center in Gloucester, Virginia

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Muralist Talk – “The Transformative Power of Public Art”

Artist in Residence Michael Rosato, who recently completed the newest Cook Foundation mural on Main Street, has created murals in 22 states in the past 27 years. Viewable from Main Street and Rt. 14,, the mural celebrates T.C. Walker and brings to life his impressive life story. The powerful effect of this art on our community will be the touchstone of Michael’s talk about public art.

 

Limited reservations for seating are available on a first-come basis by emailing
AIRDirector@gloucesterarts.org.  If requesting seats for a group of two or more people, please state whether they require 6 feet distance between themselves.

This event will be streamed live for public viewing.

Topic: Michael Rosato Talk: The Transformative Power of Public Art
Time: Oct 25, 2020 01:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
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About Michael Rosato

Painter Michael Rosato specializes in narrative murals, often painted with trompe l’oeile. His website includes images of many of his more recent works of public art. ​See​, michaelrosato.com. Rosato’s paintings can be seen in venues across the country in places as varied as the Oklahoma National Memorial in Oklahoma City, the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, the Smithsonian Museum in D.C., the Bacardi headquarters in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the Texas Rangers ballpark in Arlington, TX, the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Museum in Cape Charles, VA and the Chesapeake Country Mural Trail in Dorchester County, Maryland. He currently lives with his wife Heather on the eastern shore of Maryland.

Tagged With: artist in residence, Cook Foundation, Michael Rosato

AiR Mail from Mensah Bey

Graphic designer, printmaker and painter Mensah Bey is known for artwork based upon his interacting with a new community. How, he wondered, had Gloucester’s Main Street fared during the pandemic’s shut-down? By focusing his residency on this question, Mensah created a video featuring Kelsick Specialty Market’s owner, Paige Drewery. He then painted a complementary narrative painting, which will be on display with his other Gloucester-based works at Arts On Main through August.

Artist in Residence Director, Mollie Stewart, previewing some of Mensah Bey’s creations from his time in Gloucester. These and other paintings will be displayed at Arts on Main through August.

The Artist in Residence Program is sponsored by the Cook Foundation. For more information on the program please visit the Artist in Residence portion of our website.

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Agency Arts, AiR, AiR Mail, artist in residence, Cook Foundation, Mensah Bey

AiR Mail from Novelist Dan Berne

“[Here] are a few paragraphs I wrote two weeks ago. It takes place in 1937. Needing to escape the tedium of life, with her maiden aunts, my 17 year old protagonist Lydia secretly absconds to New York City with her friend Mary Ellen to meet up with Mary Ellen’s older cousin. Their plan is to attend a weekend dance marathon. After sneaking on a train from Cincinnati, they arrive at Penn Station.”


New York, October 1937

Mary Ellen’s cousin Freddie met them at Pennsylvania Station. Or rather, they met him. They had to step off the train and into the main waiting area before seeing him leaning against a marble pillar, hands in his pocket, a half-smoked cigarette cornered in his mouth. He was wearing a russet-brown suit and a chestnut fedora that was tilted toward his left ear. He barely straightened up when the girls approached him. He nodded toward his cousin, a “Hi ‘ya” barely escaping from under his cigarette. He looked Lydia up and down, nodding in apparent approval. 

“This way.” He turned without offering to help them with their suitcases. Outside the station, the noise and sheer amount of people was staggering. It made Cincinnati seem like a small farm town. It was nearing five in the afternoon and already getting dark, cold in the shadows between the buildings. But Lydia barely felt the chill. She inhaled the smells of car exhaust and construction dust and hot dogs and Chinese food, all seemingly wrapped around the soles of leather shoes. She absorbed the honks of taxis, the shouts and yammering of jackhammers. New York was big and noisy and dirty and dangerous. She was so entranced she nearly lost sight of Mary Ellen and her cousin. What was his name again? Freddie?

After twenty minutes or so, he led them inside a brick apartment building on East 15th. Lydia was hoping for a view of the streets, but Freddie channeled them downstairs to a basement apartment at the end of the hall. Apartment was overstating it. There was one decent-sized room with a window that looked out onto a broken concrete patch broken up by weeds and a dead lilac bush. The light filtering in gave everything a bruised, leaden cast. One side of the room was fitted with a refrigerator and a small electric range that was crusted with what was probably dried spaghetti sauce and who know what else. To the right was a narrow hallway with a bedroom door on each side.

To Lydia’s surprise, there were already six or seven people in the room, mostly her age. Freddie introduced them quickly: Neil, Roberto, and Carter, Jocelyn, Tilly, and Gwynne. They were the kind of names you never heard of in Cincinnati. Lydia had the feeling they were also not the kind of people you met in Cincinnati, at least not the ones she knew. No one seemed to pay them much mind, though before she knew it, Freddie had placed a martini glass in her hand. The drink was the color of sunset and smelled slightly of oranges. He had a glass for himself as well, though the liquid inside it was colorless.

“Cosmopolitan,” he said, turning so that he flanked her on her right side. 

Lydia had drunk alcohol before of course. Stolen gulps of sweet wine at home and pilfered swigs of Crab Orchard Kentucky bourbon behind the school bleachers. Neither was particularly pleasant except for that feeling of euphoria. She tilted the glass and sipped. 

“Hokey smokes. This is really good.”

Freddie smiled, arching his right eyebrow. “Everyone is drinking them.”

“You’re not.”

“I prefer straight vodka.” He sipped his drink, staring at the top of her dress. “You do know you’ve popped a couple of buttons, don’t you?”

She laughed. It sounded so funny from him, the way his mustached twitched when he said it.

“It’s a long story,” she said, not wanting to get into what happened with the train cop. “Mary Ellen and I will them sew back on.” She looked around. “Where is Mary Ellen anyway?”

Freddie tilted his head toward the hallway and bedrooms. “Back there. Taking a nap, I guess.”

“Ah.” 

Lydia drank more of her cosmopolitan, turning her attention to the animated conversation in the larger room. Neil and Roberto were arguing as to whether Amelia Earhart could still be alive, Roberto sure that she was.

“Roberto, you’d masturbate to that photo of her in Life,” Tilly laughed.

“So would I,” Jocelyn quipped. 

They all laughed, but no one seemed aghast to hear her say it. Someone mentioned the Japanese and Chinese fighting somewhere. Everyone seemed worried about the rise of fascism and nationalism, though whether or not these were one and the same, Jocelyn and Carter thoroughly disagreed. It was also dizzying.


About Dan Berne

DAN BERNE grew up in a working-class family in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he worked in his way through college, with jobs in drugstores, warehouses, U-bolt factories, and cement plants. He moved to the west coast in 1979, settling in the Portland area in 1990. He has been an active member of a select writing workshop led by author Karen Karbo for ten years. His short stories and poetry have been published in literary magazines and has won a literary award from the Pacific Northwest Writers Association. Dan owns a market strategy consultancy and is currently writing a book on market transformation. He lives with his wife Aliza in Portland, Oregon. The Gods of Second Chances is his debut novel. More can be found at his website danberne.com.

Author Statement

Nothing energizes me more than the art and craft of writing. Shape. Sound. Sensuality. For me, a well-crafted sentence or paragraph is umami on the page. Storytelling is a deep part of what makes us human, of what binds us together down through the generations. 

I seek to create compelling tension in every scene, in every chapter, and in the spaces in-between. I then try to marry that with language that lifts off the page.

I love sharing the craft of writing with others. There’s always something new to experience. I conduct a weekly writing work group, as well as writing workshops and seminars. I also coach individual writers. 

Much of my writing focuses on character and landscape, and how those interact to create a narrative. My current novel, The Gods of Second Chances, is set in eastern Oregon during the late 1930s. The protagonist is a young woman. As a male writer, it’s been a good creative challenge to bring this character fully into life.


The Artist in Residence (AiR) program in sponsored in part by the Cook Foundation. To learn more about the AiR program click here. 

Interested artists may inquire about the program via email: Mollie Stewart, Director, Artist in Residence Program at Arts on Main: airdirector@gloucesterarts.org

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: AiR, AiR Mail, artist in residence, arts on main, Cook Foundation, Dan Berne, Historical Fiction, Novelist, Writer

AiR Mail from Abigail McBride

I cherish the time I’ve spent with the Gloucester arts community, and I’m looking forward to giving a demonstration and workshop as soon as we can re-schedule them. To whet your whistle for the portraiture workshop, see my three videos below- never before shared publically! 

I have been thinking about how vital the act of recording our loved ones with an act of art is right now. I find myself wishing I could make portraits of all the family members I can no longer meet with in person. Something they could give to their kids to pass on that would be extra meaningful because it was made from love. Art is useful for bearing witness to our loved ones and our sacred familiar places. It is also a wonderful healing of the heart to pour oneself into creativity. 

Grace and Peace,

Abigail

Skull Demo with Forehead Focus

The Forehead Ribbon

Transition Planes on the Head

The Artist in Residence (AiR) program in sponsored in part by the Cook Foundation. To learn more about the AiR program click here.

Interested artists may inquire about the program via email: Mollie Stewart, Director, Artist in Residence Program at Arts on Main: airdirector@gloucesterarts.org

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: abigail mcbride, AiR Mail, artist in residence, Cook Foundation, drawing class, Drawing Demo

Nancy McCarra, shares a few snippets from her first week in Gloucester.


October 21: Painted a cloudy day from the pier at Goshen Farm in the afternoon.


October 22: Gave my presentation and talk at Arts on Main relating my artistic journey. Also brought 6 paintings to be displayed at the gallery through November.

Late afternoon I painted another cloudy day scene at Goshen. Avoided the rain by standing in the garage.


October 23: Up early to capture the sunrise.


October 23: Painted the same scene as Monday, this time a sunny day.

October 25: I was able to further develop this sunny day landscape in the morning. The water was very calm and smooth with a brighter reflection on the surface so I adjusted the color to show that.


The Artist in Residency (AiR) Program is sponsored in part by the generosity of The Cook Foundation.

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: AiR, AiR Mail, artist in residence, Cook Foundation, Gloucester County Virginia, gloucester virginia, plein air, Residency

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has awarded Arts on Main a $100,000 Challenge Grant to inspire new gifts for the organization’s next phase of capital and program initiatives. Click here for more information.

Press Release March 2022

_______________________________________

 

Your support guarantees a place for all to enjoy the arts in Gloucester, Virginia.
Become A Part of Arts on Main!



 

Download the 2020-2021 Annual Report

 

Meredith Timberlake, Executive Director

(804) 337-8976

Alisa Potter, Gallery Manager

(804) 824-9464

Blair Waters, Gallery Coordinator

(804) 824-9464

 

Gallery Hours

Open Wednesday – Saturday
Noon – 5:00pm
Closed Sunday through Tuesday
Call: (804) 824-9464

Open Studio

Every Friday Morning, 9am-Noon
Free Painting Sessions!
Open Painting Studio

Art Classes

Ongoing classes in all mediums for kids of all ages.
Art Class Registration Info

Volunteer Opportunities

Are you looking for ways to volunteer in the community? Arts on Main has wonderful volunteers and would like you to join them. Call the gallery for more information. 804.824.9464.

 

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Activities at Arts on Main are partially funded by the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Arts on Main is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

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