AllAboutArmonk.com is a sponsor of Armonk Outdoor Art Show
Image:
October 3 & 4, 2009
Armonk Outdoor Art Show
The 2009Armonk Outdoor Art Show is scheduled for October 3 & 4, 2009. The Art Show is the major fundraiser for the Friends of the North Castle Public Library, Inc., which provides the ‘extras’ for the library and its North White Plain branch, as well as Whippoorwill Hall.
Please click on the Art Show’s Web site:Armonk Outdoor Art Show, to discover artists who are exhibiting at the 2009 Armonk Outdoor Art Show. Volunteer opportunities are available for the Art Show weekend and throughout the year.
North White Plains Library, 10 Clove Road, North White Plains, NY 914.948.6359.
Friends of the North Castle Library, Inc. support library programming.
Charlie Lagond & Friends at The North Castle Library. Photo: Howard Davies.
Lagond Is Back in Armonk with a Free Armonk Art Show Concert
Saturday, Oct 3rd
Doors open at 7:00pm Concert starts at 8:00pm Open seating Whippoorwill Hall at the Armonk North Castle Library
____
Whippoorwill Hall
Whippoorwill Hall is the performance stage of the North Castle Public Library, 19 Whippoorwill East, Armonk Branch. The stage of Whippoorwill Hall provides an intimate setting for a menagerie of performances, many of them supported by The Friends of the North Castle Library, Inc.
A comedic tour-de-force full of a witty series of misunderstandings, clandestine assignations, and misplaced jealousies that culminate in an evening of unparalleled fun! Set in turn of the century Paris, Raymonde mistakenly determines that her husband Victor is having an affair due to their recent lack of amorous activity. To prove her suspicions, Raymonde writes an anonymous letter to her husband requesting a romantic rendezvous at a disreputable hotel. Victor misinterprets the letter and sends his friend Tournel, a notorious womanizer, in his place. Hilarity ensues at the hotel where mistaken identities and revolving beds lead to more confusion and marital mayhem. .. Georges Feydeau is the master of the French bedroom farce. A Flea in Her Ear is one of his greatest works.
Performance Dates: November 6,7,8,12,13 & 14. Whippoorwill Hall, Armonk. Director: Pia Haas
The Childrens' Summer reading program is supported by the Friends. Library director Cris Ansnes notes, "232 children attended our Kick off event for the Summer Reading."
Pictured above is a cozy reading nook of the Childrens' room of North Castle Public Library, Armonk Branch.
IN RECOGNITION OF THEIR MANY CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE FRIENDS THE "FRIEND OF THE YEAR" AWARD IS PRESENTED TO
NANCY CORNELIUS AND JUDY MONIZ, 2009
Art After Dark Preview Party
October 1, 2009 at Swiss Re
Click Images to View
______
Latvian artist Marina Terauds has dedicated her work to printmaking (etching, mezzotint, aquatint, drypoint). All of Marina's prints are hand printed on her premises using traditional printing methods unchanged in over 400 years.
_____
The Jury Has Reached its Verdict
By Amanda Boyle
The Armonk Outdoor Art Show is one of the top ranked national outdoor art shows. We of the community greatly enjoy the show each year, and are, honestly, a little spoiled at the high quality of art that comes to the Town Park every Fall. But no one gets to the top of the art world without hard work. While strolling through the booths, it's easy to appreciate the work that an artist puts behind a painting or a piece of jewelry, but it might not ever strike a person that there is also quite a considerate process involved in picking all the artists for the show. All About Armonk sat down with one of the jurors of the show, Luis Perez, to learn more about the official six-week selection process.
It all starts with the application. An artist submits examples of their work for consideration by the ten-person jury. As the Armonk Outdoor Art Show is so recognized and respected, many artists know about it on their own, but sometimes the jury (all community members) will find an artist at another art show and recruit them to submit. The Show hosts 184 artists per year, and while this last year there was a decline in applications, there is, as always, a waiting list.
The jury’s selection process, if described quickly, is deceptively simple. Luis Perez, a juror who has sat on the jury for the past three years, described to All About Armonk the process. First the jury separates works of art into seven different categories, based on medium. The categories are Oils/Acrylics, Watercolors, Sculpture, Photography/Digital Art, Printmaking/Drawing/Pastels, Mixed Media and Fine Crafts. Even this can have its challenges, as one artist’s work could straddle different categories. Anyone can question the placement of an artist in one category, and the group will reconsider. If the jury is truly unsure about categorization, they will refer back to the artist's application. The categorization is very important, as one of the key parts of the selection process is keeping an equal balance of categories represented in the show. The jury would not want to have a show dominated by photographers, or have sculptors under-represented. Of course, this is difficult if one year an astonishing number of talented photographers, or painters, submit, but the jurors are objective and harsh: if there are many talented photographers, they will only pick the very best of those applicants. Every year, talented artists are turned down because of this.
Then starts the jury viewings. The jury has previously viewed work on slides, but they are making the switch to digital disks.
The jury wants to avoid not only repetition of medium, but also repetition within a medium. If they realize that a category is becoming too redundant, they will reconsider the entire category. For instance, they might see that they have a lot of pastels with the same subject matter: lots of flowers and landscapes. They want to avoid the works blurring together for the viewing public. They will re-evaluate the chosen works, taking note of color, price, quality of drawing, the size of the work (too small? too big?) as well as whether or not the artist has shown here before (this can either help or hinder them, depending on public feedback and the judges’ personal interactions with the artist).
Across all categories, there are basics that the jury looks for: design and composition, color, function or non-function, craftsmanship and technique. When the jury votes, they rank each work on a scale from one to five. Works are put up blindly, without the artists’ names, to avoid any biases. Sometimes, a few works will be put aside to reconsider.
The jury has found in the past that one of the most difficult categories to decide on is abstract art. As anyone who has viewed abstract art knows, it is a very particular and personal experience. The jurors are always being objective while choosing and voting, and they have to be especially careful of this with abstract works, really focusing on design and composition, instead of subject matter.
The Art Show starts, the people of Armonk and beyond pour in, and the jurors are still working. The jury greatly appreciates public feedback on the show, whether it be word of mouth or artists’ responses via e-mail once the show is over.
The Art Show committee offers the help of two interior design consultants—Susan Geffen and Debbie Gottlieb—for artists to set up their booth, if needed. After all, presentation is key.
During the show, jurors go around visiting all the booths, to see if the artists need anything and also to see how the public is responding. Many artists gain a following. Sometimes if a certain artist isn’t asked back one year, and many people ask about where he or she went, the jury will take note of that.
To view 2009 Armonk Outdoor Art Show exhibiting artists click here.
184 participating artists came from four countries and 28 states. Charles Strain came from Harrisburg, MO with his 500 pound bronze patina sculpture, Bather.
Dave Taylor's fire, steel and rust outdoor sculptures can be found about town.
Mark MacKinnon's Portfolios Symbiosis 2009 Pigment prints on 100% cotton archival fine art paper, using an HP Z3100 12 color printer.
Arny Weinstein of A.W. Scopes fine handcrafted kaleidoscopes. Kaleidoscopes speak a universal language, understood by people young and old, of any culture -- like visual music.
Ailyn Hoey's September in Charcoal
"I arrange the elements in my charcoals to resonate with feelings of place on a very primitive level."
A Story of Conviction Judging The Exhibiting Artists
By Michelle Boyle
Every
year at The Armonk Outdoor Art Show there is new panel of three judges.
Once chosen, a letter of introduction goes out in the spring confirming
and formalizing their commitment.
The judging takes place Saturday of the Art Show starting at 10:00am with a rain delay date of Sunday if needed.
Equipped
with a clipboard and a list of the artists, the judges go out
separately and view the field of 184 exhibiting artists. They reconvene
for lunch to discuss their observations, narrowing down the list.
Their
mission is to determine which artists will be recognized and awarded
1st, 2nd, 3rd and honorable mention in each of the seven categories.
The categories are Oils/Acrylics, Watercolors, Sculpture,
Photography/Digital Art, Printmaking/Drawing/Pastels, Mixed Media and
Fine Crafts. After lunch the judges are out again as a group to review
and come to some conclusions. The threesome is asked to make their best
judgment and the art show accepts their choice. Co-chair Jane Cahn
said, “When the judging is over we know that some may agree with the
choices and others may not.”
2008 Art Show judge Ellen Jean Keiter is a curator of Contemporary Art
at the Katonah Museum of Art. She has judged almost 20 shows and
commented, "It was an honor to be asked to judge the Armonk Art Show
and by far has been the largest number of artists I have every judged."
She said of the show, “It was a wonderfully exhausting
experience.” It is a full day process: first thing on the agenda is an
individual look through the artists’ booths. She found the quality of
work to be very high. The day required a lot of walking back and forth
since the categories of artists are interspersed.
Judging
requires a good memory to compare artists and the discipline to take
lots of notes. Keiter gives a lot of credit to the co-chairs of the
committee. “It was extremely well organized, all laid out by artists
and media. The co-chairs did a great job and were there to help us.”
The
three judges agreed on a lot of things and not on others. Keiter adds,
"Part of the process is back and forth, listening to each others’
opinion. But they were pretty much in sync." Once they narrowed it
down to the artists they liked, the order of the winners was not
difficult. Last years judges were all in the art field and had judged
shows before. Keiter said, “It becomes a story of conviction of who’s
worthy of the awards.”
The judges were in agreement of the
Best in Show: Douglas Thayer. “The quality and craftsmanship of his
benches were spectacular, really stood out as something so different
from other exhibitors,” commented Keiter. “Sometimes the judges are
required to think out of the box.”
