I’m nearly halfway done with my summations of each day to come during the wild festivities ahead, so now is a good time for a quick break in our program, to alert you to a parallel activity, that will figure into the big weekend come June.
As you may know, NHIA and the Sharon Arts Center have been doing a huge project renovating the Grove St gallery; I’ve walked through, it’s bonkers. We at the Glass Museum are excited to be curating the grand re-opening, which will be happening Friday May 13th. We’ve put together a great show featuring visual artists that have been a part of Thing in the Spring over the years, integral to fostering the deep community that we are so honored to have had a part in creating.
The show will run from Friday until July 3rd, with a closing ceremony of sorts on June 10th, during this year’s edition of The Thing in the Spring.
But let’s get back to this Friday. A number of the artists will be there; a lot of amazing work; our board of directors; and Mr. Nat Baldwin will be there. Nat has played in town a couple of times, he of the mighty Dirty Projectors. The upright bass is his band, and he accompanies it ably with his voice, which oft employs an acrobatic falsetto.
Nat’s focus drives not only his music, but the audience experience. His songs contain a high level of emotional complexity while also, at times, operating within minimalist structure. I saw him in Portsmouth once, and as we walked around after his performance, I told him how much I loved his song “Knockout”, and asked if he had read Harry Crews. Turns out that that song was indeed referencing the main character in the Crews novel The Knockout Artist, handed to me by poet Ed Hyland, who, as we talked about the song (and Harry Crews) on that early August night, was fading into the ether surrounded by love and signed first editions.
Making that connection with Nat, while knowing the man who made such a connection possible was on his way to a different plane, meant a lot to me, and when I hear him sing “Knockout,” my heart breaks.
Mary and I recently delivered the work to gallery director Sam Trioli, and seeing it all in one place, we got a strong impression of the many dimensions of the show, and also of The Thing in the Spring as a whole vehicle.
A couple days before, painter (and freeform cosmonaut) Paul Flaherty, photographer Pat Ireton, and the one and only Dredd Foole, arrived at our home to deliver their submissions to the show. Paul drove up from southern Connecticut with a car full of his oil paintings, all wild and soulful. Each piece is a window into an introspective joy that resides underneath layers of cantankery and fury, and seeing them all gathered, as well as getting to gather ourselves with these wonderful human beings for a few hours, swatting black flies and sipping beers, it dawned on me what this show will be for me. Seeing a group of people is ambiguous; who knows what lies within each one?
I’ve said before that these artists are particularly special in their combination, and looking at all of their work, it’s easy to see. Every part of the show resonates that manifestation of values to which John Dewey often referred, and as you peer into each artist’s contribution, the nuances will both provide an insight into the maker, and a reflection of yourself.
And speaking of reflection, Michelle Aldredge and Corwin Levi, will have reign over the downstairs gallery with two presentations. One is a show of the work featured in their forthcoming collection Mirror Mirrored: A Contemporary Artists’ Edition of Grimm’s Tales. Some of the artists are Carrie Mae Weems, Kiki Smith, DJ Spooky, Tomokazu Matsuyama, Anna Von Mertens, and many more, all of whom are laying down serious work here on Earth.
Adding to an already impressive body of work showing at the gallery reopening, is Aldredge & Levi’s own 100 Views of Monadnock, an installation of postcards referencing the mountain from 1900 to 1995. With nods to Hokusai, Lovecraft, and Thoreau, they’ve taken these historic snapshots of this prehistoric formation, and framed it within the modern concerns of archival, appropriation, and conservation.
Please join The Glass Museum, The Sharon Arts Center, NHIA, Nat Baldwin, Michelle Aldredge & Corwin Levi, and all of the inspiring artists presented, in a real celebration of art and community this Friday May 13th from 5-7. The show will run through July 3rd, and we hope the resonations captured within vibrate in, on, and around your own.
Eric Gagne is CEO of the Glass Museum and co-founder of The Thing in the Spring.