PUBLIC PROGRAMS & EVENTS
Skowhegan offers events and programs organized by our community of alumni, faculty, artists and friends. See what’s happening below. We hope you can join us!
Current & Upcoming
EXPLORE
2024 Awards Dinner
HONORING
Howardena Pindell (F ‘80)
SKOWHEGAN MEDAL FOR PAINTING
Forge Projects & Candice Hopkins
VANGUARD AWARD FOR PIONEERING WORK IN THE ARTS
White Columns
GOVERNORS’ AWARD FOR OUSTANDING SERVICE TO ARTISTS
The Artist as Researcher: Exploring The New York Public Library’s Art Collections
We are partnering with The New York Public Library on a series of rare opportunities to explore the institution's remarkable collection of visual art resources alongside knowledgeable librarians and curators. There will be four free in-depth workshops that will focus on specific collections in the Wallach Division of Art, Prints, and Photographs.
Workshops will be held on Saturdays. Coffee and light bites will be offered at 10:30 AM before each workshop, with each program beginning promptly at 11:00AM. Attendance for each workshop is capped at 35 people. Since space is limited, we encourage you to sign up quickly, but also only for the workshops that most interest you and you are certain you are able to attend.
You Should Have Seen It: A Discussion with Christina Schlesinger and Mike Henderson, Moderated by James Lowry
This past winter, the Skowhegan Alliance published You Should Have Seen It, a zine of lost and destroyed artwork. Of its many incredible examples of loss and heartbreak, one story stood out as a critical moment in two artists’ practices. Join Christina Schlesinger and Mike Henderson in dialogue about their respective relationships with activism and archives, using the destroyed fresco mural they made on campus in 1968 as a launching point.
This discussion, moderated by James Lowry (archivist, curator, and professor at Queens College, CUNY), will focus on the nature of activist art and the politics of documentation. This panel will be conducted via Zoom and will take place on Sunday, May 12th at 3 PM. We’re looking forward to what will be a generative discussion and hope to see you there!
NYPL: Japanese Photographs, Photobooks & Artists’ Books
The history of Japanese photography is as long and rich as the medium itself, and offers the opportunity to study technical innovation and avant-garde theory alongside issues of memory, gender, and national and personal identity. The format of the photobook in Japan is especially important as a vehicle for experimental design, for collaborative expression, and for new ideas about the relationship between viewer and image. The NYPL Photography Collection contains a world-class holdings of Japanese photography, allowing for a deep, sustained survey of some of the most important and influential Japanese photobooks from the 20th century.
Join art librarian Chantal Lee and Assistant Curator of Photography Maggie Mustard as we study Japanese photography and photobooks from the 1930s to the present moment, including Horino Masao’s Kamera : me x tetsu, kosei (Camera, Eye x Steel, Construction) (1931), Ishimoto Yasuhiro’s Katsura (1960), Kawada Kikuji’s Chizu (The Map) (1965), the avant-garde photo-magazine PROVOKE (1968-69), Araki Nobuyoshi’s Sentimental Journey (1971), and work by Domon Ken, Ishiuchi Miyako, Kanemura Osamu, and Okabe Momo, among others.
Image: Osamu Kanemura, Radical Hybrid, 2019. Photo taken by Christian Erroi.
Ask Me Anything (Almost) With Amy Goldrich #1
Skowhegan is pleased to announce two educational sessions for Alumni and Faculty with Skowhegan Council member and art lawyer Amy Goldrich. Join Amy as she fields questions about a range of art-related legal concerns. Bring your hypothetical questions!
You Should Have Seen It: Publication Launch
Featuring stories and documentation of lost and destroyed artworks from Skowhegan alumni across 8 decades, the zine showcases 83 Skowhegan Alumni, curated by Rebecca Shippe (A '18) into four thematic chapters (“it was their fault”, “it was my fault”, “it wasn’t meant to be”, “it never was”), in addition to four commissioned essays. You Should Have Seen It aims to highlight the often ephemeral nature of art and the necessity of proper arts archiving by placing stories from various social contexts and media landscapes in conversation with one another.
2023 Awards Dinner
HONORING
Lonnie Holley (F '22)
MEDAL FOR VISUAL ARTS & MUSIC
Suzanne Deal Booth
GERTRUDE VANDERBILT WHITNEY AWARD FOR PATRONAGE OF THE ARTS
Visual AIDS
GOVERNORS’ AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING SERVICE TO ARTISTS
SkowheganPERFORMS 2023
We are thrilled to announce SkowheganPERFORMS 2023, a day of new, site-specific performance art by Skowhegan alumni. This event will coincide with the opening of The Socrates Annual. SkowheganPERFORMS will take place on SUNDAY October 1st, 1:30-6:30PM. Map and schedule attached!
SONG BIRDS! A night of performances
Astounding, prolific performers, birds coo, chirp, trill, warble, babble, wail, honk, cluck, screech, caw, chatter, whistle, tweet, and SING! Bird songs have inspired music in innumerable ways, with compositions and instruments imitating the range of a bewitching call, field recordings of birds layered onto songs, and duets harmonizing with birds themselves, as they sit on your hand or sing from a tree far away.
A Conversation on HARD RETURN: 9 EXPERIMENTS FOR THIS MOMENT
Skowhegan and Neuberger Museum of Art invites you to a conversation featuring the curators and four of the artists participating in the exhibition Hard Return: 9 Experiments for this Moment to reflect on the exhibition and celebrate the publication of the exhibition catalog.
Mended Hearts
Join the Skowhegan Alumni Alliance for the Mended Hearts Valentine's Day Party on Friday, February 24th at 6:30 PM at the Skowhegan Office in New York City! The evening will feature a live performance by Freddie June a.k.a. Shala Miller, video work by Cameron A. Granger, and a DJ set by Dreamer.
2022 Awards Dinner
6:30 PM COCKTAILS
7:30 PM DINNER
9:00 PM DESSERT RECEPTION and AFTER-PARTY featuring KILO KISH & DJ sets by AKU + NIKS
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2022
GUASTAVINO’S
NEW YORK CITY
HONORING
BYRON KIM (A '86, F '99, '13)
MEDAL FOR PAINTING
PRESENTED BY GLENN LIGON (F '98, '15)
ESSSAY BY ANNE COLLINS GOODYEAR, read here
ROY LICHTENSTEIN FOUNDATION & JACK COWART, FOUNDING EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
GERTRUDE VANDERBILT WHITNEY AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING PATRONAGE OF THE ARTS
PRESENTED BY CARMEN WINANT (A '10)
TOAST BY RUTH FINE (A '61)
ESSAY BY LEAH LEVY read here
Join us for an evening celebrating some of the most influential artists, arts advocates, and cultural philanthropists of our time. Skowhegan will hold its 52nd annual Awards Dinner on Wednesday, October 26, 2022, honoring artist Byron Kim (A '86, F '99, '13) with the Skowhegan Medal for Painting, presented by artist Glenn Ligon (F '98, '15). The Roy Lichtenstein Foundation & Jack Cowart, founding executive director, will receive the Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney Award for Outstanding Patronage of the Arts, presented by artist Carmen Winant (A '10). After-Party featuring two exciting performers, all held in Guastavino's.
All proceeds from the evening benefit Skowhegan, enabling it to successfully run its internationally-celebrated summer residency program, and uphold its need-blind admissions policy. Skowhegan artists are accepted based on their demonstrated talent and potential, not financial circumstance, a meritocratic process that is foundational to Skowhegan’s reputation for supporting the next generation of artists.
CONFERENCE CALL | Hetty Baiz and Jordan Seaberry
Hetty Baiz and Jordan Seaberry
Curated by Paige Laino
*Closed on Saturday, November 5.
Opening Reception: Thursday, October 13; 6:00–8:00PM
Exhibition Hours: Wednesday–Saturday; 10:00AM–5:00PM
Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture and the Skowhegan Alumni Alliance are excited to announce the fifth and final exhibition in CONFERENCE CALL: a series of five 2-person exhibitions featuring the work of Skowhegan alumni. Opening on October 12, the exhibition will feature the work of Hetty Baiz (she/her) (A '69) and Jordan Seaberry (he/his) (A '15), and is curated by Alliance member and Skowhegan Alumni & Archives Manager, Paige Laino (she/they). The show will have an opening reception on October 13 from 6:00–8:00PM and will take place at the Skowhegan Office in Chelsea, New York.
Both Jordan Seaberry and Hetty Baiz work, procedurally and conceptually, with layers: in his almost historic-scale painted collages, Seaberry layers the past upon the present; in her handling of the human form, Baiz layers intimacy upon anonymity upon handwoven textiles. Together, their work presents a dialogue between personal and communal experiences of aspiration and alienation.
About Hetty Baiz
Hetty Baiz creates paintings characterized by rich textural surfaces and interwoven layers of image, color and material. Made from complex processes that can include digital manipulation, printing, weaving, painting, drawing and burning with a torch, the final images in her latest work—life size figures and larger than life faces—are literally built into the material. Open-ended questions about transience and the nature of being—of identity, mortality, and time, are intrinsic to her work. Baiz was educated at Bard College, Cornell and Columbia. She has painted all of her life and was greatly influenced by her mother, an abstract expressionist painter and student of Hans Hofmann. She has shown her work in numerous solo and group exhibitions both nationally and internationally and has taken part in collaborative art projects in China, Tibet, Dubai, Australia and France. Baiz has taught art with an NGO that supporters underserved women in the informal settlements outside of Cape Town, South Africa, and this experience greatly influenced her latest body of work. https://www.hettybaiz.com/
About Jordan Seaberry
Jordan Seaberry is a painter, organizer, legislative advocate and educator. Born and raised on the Southside of Chicago, Jordan first came to Providence to attend Rhode Island School of Design. Alongside his art, he built a career as a grassroots organizer, helping to fight for, and pass multiple criminal justice reform milestones, including Probation Reform, the Unshackling Pregnant Prisoners Bill, and laying the groundwork for the “Ban the Box” movement in Rhode Island. Jordan serves as Co-Director of the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture, a people-powered nonprofit agency, and most recently worked as the Director of Public Policy at the Nonviolence Institute. He serves as Chairman of the Providence Board of Canvassers, overseeing the city’s elections; as a Board Member at New Urban Arts in Providence; and as a Board Member for Protect Families First, working on community-oriented drug policy reform. He has received fellowships from the Art Matters Foundation, the Rhode Island Foundation, and recently served as Community Leader Fellow at Roger Williams University School of Law. http://www.jordanseaberry.com/
CONFERENCE CALL | Exhibition Series 2022 aims to place work by artists from different Skowhegan cohorts in conversation with each other, and with the labor of operating a residency. It will feature the works of Skowhegan alumni: Pío Galbis (A '82, '21) and Buster Graybill (A '07); Gwendolyn Kerber (A '79) and Rocío Olivares (A '18); Baxter Koziol (A '17) and Molly Springfield (A '06); Pallavi Singh (A '15) and Jing (Ellen) Xu (A '16); Hetty Baiz (A '69) and Jordan Seaberry (A '15).
Each pairing is curated by one or two members of the Alumni Alliance: Jesus Benavente (A '12), Rebecca
Shippee (A '18) and Annette Cyr (A '76, '21), Michael Scoggins (A '03), Danny Greenberg (A '18) and Eleanor Kipping (A '18), and Paige Laino (Alumni & Archives Coordinator). Additional information about upcoming exhibitions in this series is forthcoming.
The Skowhegan Alumni Alliance is a group of alumni who generate off-campus programming for the international alumni community.
CONFERENCE CALL | Pallavi Singh and Jing Xu
Pallavi Singh and Jing (Ellen) Xu
Curated by Daniel Greenberg and Eleanor Kipping
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 15, 6–8PM
Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture and the Skowhegan Alumni Alliance are excited to announce CONFERENCE CALL: a series of five 2-person exhibitions featuring the work of Skowhegan alumni that will run from May through November 2022.
Established in 1946, Skowhegan is an intensive summer residency program for artists which takes place annually in Madison, Maine. The exhibition series will take place at Skowhegan's New York space in Chelsea, and will open on September 5, 2022 with the fourth exhibition featuring the work of Pallavi Singh (A '15) and Jing (Ellen) Xu (A '16) organized by Alliance members and alumni, Danny Greenberg (A '18) and Eleanor Kipping (A '18).
About Pallavi Singh
Pallavi Singh (b. 1988) completed her Master’s in Fine Art (Painting) from College of Art, Delhi in 2011. Singh’s work focuses on social constructs and challenges to gender stereotypes, an exploration of sexuality, personal care and grooming behaviours, and corporate spectacles. Singh has been the recipient of several awards including the Vermont Studio Center Artist Opportunity Fellowship, USA (2019), the Inlaks Scholarship at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, USA (2015) and the 10 th Sovereign Asian Art Prize, Hong Kong (2013-14), and most recently, being shortlisted for the TAF Emerging Artist Award South Asia, London (2021). Pallavi Singh lives and works in New Delhi, India and is represented by Art Heritage (New Delhi, India).
About Jing (Ellen) Xu
Jing (Ellen) Xu is a multidisciplinary artist born and raised in Inner Mongolia, China and currently based in Queens, NY. She received a B.A. in Sculpture from Xiamen University, China and an MFA from the University of Washington in Seattle. Xu has participated in residencies at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Wassaic Residency, Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts and Vermont Studio Center. She has received a BRIC Media Arts Fellowship and the Artist Fellowship from Hamiltonian Gallery.
CONFERENCE CALL | Exhibition Series 2022 aims to place work by artists from different Skowhegan cohorts in conversation with each other, and with the labor of operating a residency. It will feature the works of Skowhegan alumni: Pío Galbis (A '82, '21) and Buster Graybill (A '07); Gwendolyn Kerber (A '79) and Rocío Olivares (A '18); Baxter Koziol (A '17) and Molly Springfield (A '06); Pallavi Singh (A '15) and Jing (Ellen) Xu (A '16); Hetty Baiz (A '69) and Jordan Seaberry (A '15).
Each pairing is curated by one or two members of the Alumni Alliance: Jesus Benavente (A '12), Rebecca Shippee (A '18) and Annette Cyr (A '76, '21), Michael Scoggins (A '03), Danny Greenberg (A '18) and Eleanor Kipping (A '18), and Paige Laino (Alumni & Archives Coordinator). Additional information about upcoming exhibitions in this series is forthcoming.
The Skowhegan Alumni Alliance is a group of alumni who generate off-campus programming for the international alumni community.
CONFERENCE CALL | Baxter Koziol and Molly Springfield
Baxter Koziol and Molly Springfield
Curated by Michael Scoggins
Opening Reception: Thursday, August 4, 2022; 6:00PM –8:00PM
Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture and the Skowhegan Alumni Alliance are excited to announce CONFERENCE CALL: a series of five 2-person exhibitions featuring the work of Skowhegan alumni that will run from May through November 2022.
Established in 1946, Skowhegan is an intensive summer residency program for artists which takes place annually in Madison, Maine. The exhibition series will take place at Skowhegan's New York space in Chelsea. The third exhibition in this series will open on August 1, 2022 featuring the work of Baxter Koziol (A '17) and Molly Springfield (A '06) organized by Alliance member and alum, Michael Scoggins (A '03).
Molly Springfield uses outdated technologies for the basis of her art practice. Baxter Koziol creates new works of art from discarded materials and various detritus. Our collective memories are triggered by the past lives of these objects but with their reclamation and transformation into artworks they are reborn and given new meaning for us to discover. Both artists are creating works that are visually very different but there is an unlying connection that is based on process as well as looking to our past to find a way forward.
About Baxter Koziol
Baxter Koziol studied at Maine College of Art & Design (BFA 2017) and has attended residencies at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Monson Arts, Hewnoaks, Ellis-Beauregard Foundation, and Surf Point Foundation. He lives and works in Portland, ME.
About Molly Springfield
Molly Springfield makes graphite drawings that use photocopies of printed texts as their source material. Her drawings have been exhibited widely, including solo exhibitions in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Cologne, Germany, as well as in exhibitions at The Drawing Center and the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Springfield's work is included in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She received her MFA from the University of California, Berkeley in 2004 and was a MacDowell Fellow in 2016. She lives and works in Washington, DC.
CONFERENCE CALL | Exhibition Series 2022 aims to place work by artists from different Skowhegan cohorts in conversation with each other, and with the labor of operating a residency. It will feature the works of Skowhegan alumni: Pío Galbis (A '82, '21) and Buster Graybill (A '07); Gwendolyn Kerber (A '79) and Rocío Olivares (A '18); Baxter Koziol (A '17) and Molly Springfield (A '06); Pallavi Singh (A '15) and Jing (Ellen) Xu (A '16); Hetty Baiz (A '69) and Jordan Seaberry (A '15).
Each pairing is curated by one or two members of the Alumni Alliance: Jesus Benavente (A '12), Rebecca
Shippee (A '18) and Annette Cyr (A '76, '21), Michael Scoggins (A '03), Danny Greenberg (A '18) and Eleanor Kipping (A '18), and Paige Laino (Alumni & Archives Coordinator). Additional information about upcoming exhibitions in this series is forthcoming.
The Skowhegan Alumni Alliance is a group of alumni who generate off-campus programming for the international alumni community.
CONFERENCE CALL | Gwendolyn Kerber and Rocío Olivares
Gwendolyn Kerber and Rocío Olivares
Curated by Annette Cyr and Rebecca Shippee
Closing Reception: Tuesday, July 19, 2022; 6:00PM – 8:00PM
Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture and the Skowhegan Alumni Alliance are excited to announce CONFERENCE CALL: a series of five 2-person exhibitions featuring the work of Skowhegan alumni that will run from May through November 2022.
Established in 1946, Skowhegan is an intensive summer residency program for artists which takes place annually in Madison, Maine. The exhibition series will take place at Skowhegan's New York space in Chelsea. The second exhibition will open on June 20, 2022 featuring the work of Gwendolyn Kerber (A '79) and Rocío Olivares (A '18) organized by Alliance members and alumni, Annette Cyr (A '76, '21) and Rebecca Shippee (A '18).
Gwendolyn Kerber writes of her on-site painting process “I am standing in the pond up to my knees … no longer a vista but the very place where our human bodies meet the natural world.” Rocío Olivares creates scaled down facsimiles of suburban in-ground pools. She describes herself “reflecting on the execution of a desire of domain that private pools crystalize, looking at pools as a fantasy exercised over nature.” The exhibition will put in conversation two divergent approaches to water, containment and expansion.
About Gwendolyn Kerber
Gwendolyn Kerber is an American painter based in Berlin and Bucks County, PA. She holds an M.F.A. in painting from Yale University, a B.F.A. from the Cleveland Institute of Art and a B.A. from Hampshire College. Kerber has been the recipient of several awards and residencies, including The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (1979), a residency at the Vermont Studio Center (2013), The Dagaocun Artist in Residency Programme in Beijing (2008) and The Berlin Collective Artist Residency Program at the APT studios in Brooklyn (2014). Her work has been exhibited in Berlin, New York, Philadelphia and in Beijing. In 2013 she was a Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant recipient.
About Rocío Olivares
Rocío Olivares is an interdisciplinary artist and educator born in 1990 in Santiago de Chile. She received her BFA from Universidad Católica de Chile and a MFA from Columbia University. Her work has been exhibited in places such as Dilalica (Barcelona, Spain); The Place (Barcelona, Spain); the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts (New York, USA); Museum of the Moving Image (New York, USA); Drawing Center (New York, USA); Cindy Rucker Gallery (New York, USA); MuseumsQuartier (Vienna, Austria); Marinaro Gallery (New York, USA); Sean Kelly Gallery (New York, USA); the Jewish Museum (New York, USA); Mana Contemporary (New Jersey, USA); LeRoy Neiman Gallery (New York, USA); Museum of Visual Arts (Santiago, Chile); Bicentenario Gallery, Mapocho Station (Santiago, Chile); Museum of Contemporary Art, Quinta Normal (Santiago, Chile), among others. Rocío has been a resident of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2018) and the Whitney Independent Study Program during 2018-2019. She was a recipient of Fulbright Scholarships and Chile Scholarships for Master's studies abroad. She currently lives and works in Santiago de Chile.
CONFERENCE CALL | Exhibition Series 2022 aims to place work by artists from different Skowhegan cohorts in conversation with each other, and with the labor of operating a residency. It will feature the works of Skowhegan alumni: Pío Galbis (A '82, '21) and Buster Graybill (A '07); Gwendolyn Kerber (A '79) and Rocío Olivares (A '18); Baxter Koziol (A '17) and Molly Springfield (A '06); Pallavi Singh (A '15) and Jing (Ellen) Xu (A '16); Hetty Baiz (A '69) and Jordan Seaberry (A '15).
Each pairing is curated by one or two members of the Alumni Alliance: Jesus Benavente (A '12), Annette Cyr (A '76, '21) and Rebecca Shippee (A '18), Michael Scoggins (A '03), Danny Greenberg (A '18) and Eleanor Kipping (A '18), and Paige Laino (Alumni & Archives Coordinator). Additional information about upcoming exhibitions in this series is forthcoming.
The Skowhegan Alumni Alliance is a group of alumni who generate off-campus programming for the international alumni community.
CONFERENCE CALL | Pío Galbis and Buster Graybill and Pío Galbis
L-R: Buster Graybill, Burden of the Beast, 2016; Pío Galbis, Shot, 2017- 2021.
Pío Galbis and Buster Graybill
Organized by Jesus Benavente
Opening Reception: Thursday, May 19; 6:00PM–9:00PM
Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture and the Skowhegan Alumni Alliance are excited to announce CONFERENCE CALL: a series of five 2-person exhibitions featuring the work of Skowhegan alumni that will run from May through November 2022.
Established in 1946, Skowhegan is an intensive summer residency program for artists which takes place annually in Madison, Maine. The exhibition series will take place at Skowhegan's New York space in Chelsea, and will open on May 18, 2022 with the first exhibition featuring the work of Pío Galbis (A '82, '21) and Buster Graybill (A '07) organized by Alliance member and alum, Jesus Benavente (A '12).
For this show, artworks by Pío Galbis and Buster Graybill will pay equal respect to formal art conventions and informal materials, fully utilizing the unusual backdrop of Skowhegan's office space. Pío presents a range of complex paintings and drawings that span the last seven years to this past summer (when he returned to Skowhegan for a rare second time as part of the special alumni residencies in 2021) to the present. Buster, working both 2- and 3-dimensionally, makes use of Skowhegan's space, inside and out. R.MUTT (Renegade Modernist Utility Travel Trailer), his handmade survival trailer/mobile art studio sculpture, is being driven from Texas to New York for the exhibition. R.MUTT will be parked in front of Skowhegan's space and on view until Saturday, May 21, 2022.
About Pío Galbis
Pío Galbis is a painter who lives and works in Brooklyn. He has exhibited at White Columns, the Everson Museum of Art and The New Museum. He has been awarded grants from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant and the National Endowment for the Arts, the Bronx Museum AIM fellowship, and a MacDowell residency. Pío was also a participant at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture twice.
About Buster Graybill
Buster Graybill is an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio in the Department of Art and Art History. He utilizes sculpture, installation, video, and photography to traverse cultural boundaries and reconnect with often overlooked objects, materials, and places found in the rural landscape. Graybill has exhibited throughout Texas, as well as in Boston, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, and Guanajuato, Mexico. Glasstire, an online contemporary art journal, ranks Buster Graybill as one of the top ten artists living in Texas. He is an alumnus of the Skowhegan Artist Residency and the Artpace International Artist-in-Residence program, as well as a recipient of grants from the San Antonio Artist Foundation and the Idea Fund, a program of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
CONFERENCE CALL | Exhibition Series 2022 aims to place work by artists from different Skowhegan cohorts in conversation with each other, and with the labor of operating a residency. It will feature the works of Skowhegan alumni: Pío Galbis (A '82, '21) and Buster Graybill (A '07); Gwendolyn Kerber (A '79) and Rocío Olivares (A '18); Baxter Koziol (A '17) and Molly Springfield (A '06); Pallavi Singh (A '15) and Jing (Ellen) Xu (A '16); Hetty Baiz (A '69) and Jordan Seaberry (A '15).
Each pairing is curated by one or two members of the Alumni Alliance: Jesus Benavente (A '12), Rebecca Shippee (A '18) and Annette Cyr (A '76, '21), Michael Scoggins (A '03), Danny Greenberg (A '18) and Eleanor Kipping (A '18), and Paige Laino (Alumni & Archives Coordinator). Additional information about upcoming exhibitions in this series is forthcoming.
The Skowhegan Alumni Alliance is a group of alumni who generate off-campus programming for the international alumni community.
75th Anniversary Benefit Celebration
6:30 PM COCKTAILS
7:30 PM DINNER
9:00 PM PERFORMANCE WITH Norm Lewis
TUESDAY, APRIL 4, 2022
RAINBOW ROOM
NEW YORK CITY
HONORING
Ann Gund, Chair, Board of Trustees (1998–2022)
Special Toast for her exceptional service to Skowhegan
Join us for an evening celebrating some of the most influential artists, arts advocates, and cultural philanthropists of our time. In 1971, to mark its 25th Anniversary, Skowhegan hosted its first Awards Dinner in New York City at the Plaza Hotel. Almost 50 years later, the event remains the School’s single largest annual fundraiser. The evening begins with cocktails, followed by dinner, and culminates with an After-Party featuring two exciting performers, all held in the Cipriani 42nd Street’s iconic location.
All proceeds from the evening benefit Skowhegan, enabling it to successfully run its internationally-celebrated summer residency program, and uphold its need-blind admissions policy. Skowhegan artists are accepted based on their demonstrated talent and potential, not financial circumstance, a meritocratic process that is foundational to Skowhegan’s reputation for supporting the next generation of artists.
Festive attire.
Block Party
Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, one of the country’s foremost educational experiences for artists, marks its 75th Anniversary with a public Block Party and series of events and special projects.
On Saturday, October 9, 2021, a Block Party will be held in front of Skowhegan's New York space on West 22nd Street between 6th and 7th Avenues from 12:00pm–5:00pm. The event is organized by the Alumni Alliance—a diverse group of recent alumni who spearhead Skowhegan's off-campus alumni programming—and the Skowhegan Council, a group of supporters and alumni dedicated to advancing Skowhegan's mission and program. The Block Party, performances, and activations will be free of charge, and food and drinks will be available on a donation basis.
The outdoor festival will celebrate Skowhegan’s expansive artistic community and will feature work from over 40 participating alumni artists. Outfitted with picnic tables and benches, a main stage will offer live performances including a drag show by Anthropussy (Eli Hill A '19) and a rotation of live DJ sets by Ashley Teamer A '14, with more to be announced. Visitors can view and participate in various site-specific installations that include a fully interactive badminton set handmade by kg A '17; an artist interview project over tea by Michele Brody A '96; a durational performance filmed in Bangladesh by Kabir Ahmed Masum Chisty A '15; plastic bag portraits by Nobutaka Aozaki A '15; a modular installation by Maya Hayuk A '11; and a haircut performance by Finn Schult A '17 and Tommy Coleman with Nancy Regan the Roomba.
Visitors will also have the opportunity to take photos in front of several commissioned large-scale backdrops featuring artwork by Helen Glazer A '75, Simonetta Moro A '03, Lily Prince A '91, Vabianna Santos A '13, Tricia Townes A '98, and Xander Wrencher A '18. Displayed along the block will be an installation featuring digitally printed flags by artists Brian Alfred A '99, Jonathan Ehrenberg A '11, Rachel Frank A '05, Michelle Hauser A '81, Sarah Hotchkiss A '10, Gary Jameson A '72, Jim Leach A '15, Juliet Karelsen A '96, Liu Kincheloe A '13, '21, Anna Kunz A '09, Jennifer McCandless A '95, Perry
Meigs A '98, Paolo Morales A '15, Birgit Rathsmann A '04, Edra Soto A '00, Fabian Tabibian A '10 along with handmade flags by Gabriela Salazar A '11, and Jessica Segall A '10.
Two limited run items will be available only at the Block Party: a Costume Party Zine with illustrations by Michele Brody A '96, Lauren Cohen A '10, Jonathan Ehrenberg A '11, Linda Ford A '02, Baris
Gokturk A '16, Sarah Haviland A '85, Wayne Hodge A '06, '21, Jack Hogan A '19, Tim Hutchings A '96, Frank Hyder A '73, Megan Marlatt A '85, '21, Tracy Miller A '92, Alicia Paz A '98, Kuldeep Singh A '14, Furong Zhang A '98, '21; and an enamel pin by Laylah Ali A '93.
Block Party packages are available on Skowhegan’s website, beginning at $75, and include one ticket to the after-party at The Fleur Room featuring DJ April Hunt from 5:00pm–7:00pm. Proceeds from the event support Skowhegan’s program and mission.
Endless State Opening
VIRTUAL OPENING & CONVERSATION WITH THE JURORS:
Thursday, January 7, 4PM EST
The Skowhegan Alliance is pleased to present an exhibition of recent works of Skowhegan Alumni made during the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic juried by Xinyi Cheng (A '14), Yui Kugimiya (A '10), and Jagdeep Raina (A '17). This is the first exhibition of its kind to be organized by Skowhegan.
Read more, HERE.
FEATURING:
Brian Alfred (A '99)
Avantika Bawa (A '08)
Farrell Brickhouse (A '71)
Sue Collier (A '79)
Bully Fae Collins (A '17) and Jonathan Chacón (A '17)
Karishma D'Souza (A '17)
Esteban del Valle (A '11)
Maggie Ellis (A '17)
Mark Ferguson (A '94)
Hadrien Gerenton (A '18)
Mark Haddon (A '91)
Elisa Harkins (A '15)
Michelle Hauser (A '81)
Kunlin He (A '18)
Erick Hernandez (A '17)
Ditta Baron Hoeber (A '62)
Jack Hogan (A '19)
Terry Holleman (A '65)
Kyung Jeon (A '03)
Gary LaPointe Jr. (A '13)
Amanda Lechner (A '18)
William Leech (A '73)
Jon Marshalik (A '14)
Lilly McElroy (A '06)
Nancy Modlin Katz (A '78)
Julie Nagle (A '10)
Ann Oren (A '09)
Liza Phillips (A '89)
Daniel Rich (A '04)
Pallavi Sen (A '17)
Kuldeep Singh (A '14)
Matt Smoak (A '19)
Felipe Steinberg (A '14)
Joan Steinman (A '82)
Eve Sussman (A '89)
Brian Zegeer (A '10)
2020 Awards Dinner
WE INVITE YOU TO A VIRTUAL CELEBRATION
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2020
7:30PM PROGRAM PREMIERE
ANN L. GUND, BOARD OF TRUSTEES, CHAIR
FOUNDATION FOR ART & PRESERVATION IN EMBASSIES
SKOWHEGAN IMPACT AWARD
PRESENTATION FEATURING JENNIFER DUNCAN, JO CAROLE LAUDER, EDEN RAFSHOON, ROBERT STORR A '78, F '02, AND DARREN WALKER
PERFORMANCE VIDEO BY JACOLBY SATTERWHITE A '09
EL ANATSUI F '07
SKOWHEGAN MEDAL FOR SCULPTURE
PRESENTATION FEATURING NANA OFORIATTA AYIM, CHIKA O. OKEKE-AGULU AND GUESTS
INTRODUCTION BY ABIGAIL DEVILLE A '07
BARBARA HUNT MCLANAHAN IN MEMORIAM
SKOWHEGAN GOVERNORS’ AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING SERVICE TO ARTISTS
PRESENTATION FEATURING CAY SOPHIE RABINOWITZ, CHRISTIAN RATTEMEYER, ERIC RHEIN, AMY SADAO, AND ELLEN F. SALPETER
INTRODUCTION BY JENNIE C. JONES A '96, F '14
MUSIC PERFORMANCE BY IAN ISIAH + MISTERVACATION
INTRODUCTION BY DERRICK ADAMS A '02, F '13
SPECIAL APPEARANCES BY
DANIEL BOZHKOV A '90, F '11, '16
ANGELA DUFRESNE F '17
STEVE DIBENEDETTO F '19
NEIL GOLDBERG F '15
GORDON HALL A '13
SHAUN LEONARDO A '04
ALIX PEARLSTEIN F '04
SONDRA PERRY A '13, F '19
ALISON SAAR F '93
FOLLOWING THE PROGRAM, JOIN US ON INSTAGRAM LIVE FOR AN AFTER-PARTY SET
IG: @SKOWHEGANART
VISIT OUR AWARDS DINNER HISTORY FOR MORE INFORMATION ON HOW TO WATCH THE FULL PROGRAM.
L.O.L. (Lots of Love)
The Skowhegan Alumni Alliance and the Skowhegan Council invite you to
L.O.L (LOTS OF LOVE): A post-Valentine’s party for the Skowhegan community.
7PM - vibecheck.mp4, video work by Devin Kenny (A ‘09)
8PM - Let my body eat the sun, performance by Christie Blizard (A ‘18)
9PM - DJ Yessi (A ‘19)
Event Image Design, Naomi Safran-Hon (A '12)
Symposium on Artists and Audience
The Skowhegan Alliance is planning a one-day event that will focus on how artists build an active relationship with an audience into their art work. We will think about how some artists who engage in "social practice" integrate a loose idea of "public" into their projects, while others develop projects that are aimed at building a very particular community. The event will consist of four hour-long conversations on Saturday February 1, 2020 at the Skowhegan Office on West 22nd Street. Join us, come listen and talk.
Due to space limitations, RSVP is recommended. Email plaino@skowheganart.org with the discussions you plan on attending.
11AM-12PM Session A: Creating (with and for) Community
Sreshta Rit Premnath (A ‘09) talks about his publication project Shifter that is generated out of public discussions and gatherings. Pallavi Sen (A ‘17) talks about using Instagram as a way to start her video work and connecting to an audience through it.
12:15PM-1:15PM Session B: Focusing audience and community in a project practice.
Christopher Udemezue talks about RAGGA. A platform founded by Christopher Udemezue, RAGGA connects a community of queer Caribbean artists working across a wide range of disciplines—including visual art, fashion, and poetry—to explore how race, sexuality, gender, heritage, and history inform their work and their lives. A vibrant community deeply committed to education and grassroots organizing, RAGGA fosters a network and an extended family that makes space for solidarity, celebration, and expression.
Jeanine Oleson (A ‘00, F ‘18) discusses “Photo Requests from Solitary.” People held in solitary confinement units are invited to request an image of anything at all, real or imagined—and promised that people on the outside will fulfill their requests. The resulting photographs provide an archive of the hopes, memories, and interests of those who live In isolated confinement while seeking to provide support and make visible their condition.
1:15PM-2 PM Lunch
2-3PM Session C: Participatory Education
Paul Pfeiffer (F '05, '10, '16) and Sarah Workneh (co-director, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture) talk about the idea of a school as a way of experimenting with ideas at their inception, within the studio and within group relations.
3-4PM Session D: Moving images and Audience
Birgit Rathsmann (A ‘ 04) and Cory Tamler talk about extending the temporary community of the film set and the screening room, integrating audiences into the creation of film, video and performance projects, the difference between urban and rural space, and Cory’s project in Maine.
In Conversation: Carrie Moyer and Sheila Pepe with Jaime DeSimone
Tabernacles for Trying Times
In anticipation of their collaborative exhibition at the Portland Museum of Art, Associate Curator Jaime DeSimone will moderate a conversation with Sheila Pepe (A '94, F '13) and Skowhegan Governor Carrie Moyer (A '95, F '10).
The exhibition will include over 40 works, made both independently and collaboratively, since Sheila and Carrie met at Skowhegan in 1995.
This event is free and open to the public. Seating is limited and available on a first come basis.
Portrait of the artists. Photograph by Rachel Stern.
2019 Barbara Lee Lecture Series
Lectures begin at 8:30 PM and are free and open to the public.
Participating Artist:
Steve DiBenedetto, June 14
Chitra Ganesh (A ‘01, F ‘13), June 24
Sung Hwan Kim (A '01), June 17
Sondra Perry (A '13), June 11
Lan Tuazon, June 19
Malik Gaines and Alexandro Segade, June 28
Teresita Fernández, August 5
Josh Kline, July 19
Lucy Raven, July 12
Juan Sanchez (F '90), July 26
Silvia Federici, August 2
2019 Awards Dinner
6:30 PM COCKTAILS
7:30 PM DINNER
9:00 PM AFTER-PARTY
TUESDAY, APRIL 23, 2019
CIPRIANI 42ND STREET
NEW YORK CITY
HONORING
Anonymous Was A Woman, Susan Unterberg
Governors’ Award for Service to Artists
Francesco Clemente, F ’83
Skowhegan Medal for Painting
Paula and Peter Lunder
Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney Award for Outstanding Patronage of the Arts
Lorraine O’Grady, F ’99, ’13
Skowhegan Medal for Conceptual and Cross-Disciplinary Practices
Join us for an evening celebrating some of the most influential artists, arts advocates, and cultural philanthropists of our time. In 1971, to mark its 25th Anniversary, Skowhegan hosted its first Awards Dinner in New York City at the Plaza Hotel. Almost 50 years later, the event remains the School’s single largest annual fundraiser. The evening begins with cocktails, followed by dinner, and culminates with an After-Party featuring two exciting performers, all held in the Cipriani 42nd Street’s iconic location.
All proceeds from the evening benefit Skowhegan, enabling it to successfully run its internationally-celebrated summer residency program, and uphold its need-blind admissions policy. Skowhegan artists are accepted based on their demonstrated talent and potential, not financial circumstance, a meritocratic process that is foundational to Skowhegan’s reputation for supporting the next generation of artists.
Festive attire.
Closing Walkthrough with Shaun Leonardo
GALLERY WALKTHROUGH WITH SHAUN LEONARDO (A '04)
Shaun Leonardo’s multidisciplinary work negotiates societal expectations of manhood, namely definitions surrounding black and brown masculinities, along with its notions of achievement, collective identity, and experience of failure. His performance practice is participatory in nature and invested in a process of embodiment, promoting the political potential of attention and discomfort as a means to disrupt meaning and shift perspective. Leonardo is a Brooklyn-based artist from Queens, New York City. He received his MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, is a recipient of support from Creative Capital and Guggenheim Social Practice and was recently profiled in the New York Times. His work has been presented in galleries and institutions, nationally and internationally, and featured at The Guggenheim Museum, the High Line, Recess, and VOLTA NY. elcleonardo.com
Distance and (missed) Connections
READINGS AND A DISCUSSION WITH NEGAR AHKAMI (A ‘04) AND CYRIACO LOPES (A ‘02)
Exhibiting artists Cyriaco Lopes and Negar Ahkami will discuss how themes of distance and connection, or missed connection, inform their distinct artistic practices. The artists will discuss the creative potential they each find in observations of things that don’t quite line up or when disparate people, cultures, ideas or even things try to connect. The discussion will begin with Negar reading LOOK, the Solmaz Sharif poem that inspired the curators of Distance, and Cyriaco will read from the missed connections (man for man) from Craigslist which inspired his pieces on view.