TRABAJO MEXICANO/MEXICAN WORK

Dec 14, 2007 – Feb 9, 2008

In the past few years, immigration, particularly the immigration of undocumented workers from Mexico and other parts of Latin America, has once again become a hotbutton issue in the United States . The current controversy over immigration reform in the U.S. government illustrates the complexities surrounding the topic. We have long used terms such as “illegal aliens” or “undocumented workers” (each carrying its own political implications) to describe many of those who emigrate here from Mexico, but now other phrases are entering the discussion. As discourse surrounding labor and immigration has exploded into the national consciousness and Congress struggles to pass a new immigration policy, increasingly charged terms such as amnesty, guest workers, border fence, and Minutemen have come to define the way we think about these topics. This multidisciplinary project attempts to broaden the dialogue surrounding Mexican immigration and labor. We live in a valley with a growing population of Mexican descent. As lawmakers battle over the issue of immigration on a national level, the Mexican and Mexican-American artists in this exhibition will offer us all the opportunity to consider these questions as they relate to our local context.

VISUAL ARTS

Trabajo Mexicano/Mexican Work

The Center, Ketchum

Fri, Dec 14 – Sat, Feb 9

This exhibition will examine issues of labor and immigration through the lens of artwork made by Mexican and Mexican- American artists and will abandon the limiting vocabulary that dominates national debate. Working in a variety of media, the artists in this exhibition explore labor and immigration from specific points of view and force us to approach these issues with a new set of questions. How has NAFTA changed the labor market within Mexico? What is it like to grow up in the United States in a Spanish speaking family? What are the cultural disconnects and syntheses that emerge out of the process of immigration? What does it mean to label a person “illegal” or an “alien”? What kinds of jobs are undocumented workers finding? Why are people willing to risk their lives to enter this country?

Three of Raúl Guerrero's paintings from his Las Indias series will serve as a historical preface to the exhibition. Each painting traces the route of a Spanish conquistador onto the body of a nude woman he reproduces from a painting Diego Velázquez made as the Spanish Empire was beginning to crumble. Guerrero comments on the relationship between immigration, power and wealth and reminds us that the first immigrants to the Americas were Europeans. Enrique Chagoya tackles the clash of cultures that results from immigration with humor and candor in his prints and books. He borrows equally from pre- Columbian traditions and contemporary popular culture in the creation of wildly complex narrative images. Using vinyl and recycled border guard uniforms, Margarita Cabrera makes sculptures of household appliances, Hummers (made in Mexico) and backpacks for border-crossers that highlight the challenges that Mexican workers face on both sides of the border.

Ana Teresa Fernández makes photorealist paintings based on her performances of impossible labors (mopping the ocean, for example, or sweeping the beach) on the U.S./Mexico border in Tijuana . Celia Alvarez Muñoz draws on her memories of growing up in El Paso, Texas, in mixed-media work and photographs that explore the complications of moving back and forth between Spanish-speaking and English-speaking worlds.

Luz María Sánchez creates installations using sound recordings, found clothing and personal items that capture the ambience of the U.S.-Mexico border at the same time that they comment on the harsh realities that potential border crossers face.

Julio César Morales explores the “informal economy” of street vendors in Mexican-American communities in the U.S. with his vinyl cut-outs applied to the gallery walls.

It's the First Place to Be! at The Center, Ketchum

Fri, Dec 28, 5:30–6:30 pm

Join us for wine and hors d'oeuvres Open for Gallery Walk until 8pm

Docent Tours - Every Tue at 2pm

Retablos: Reinterpreting a Tradition

The Center, Hailey

Wed, Dec 19–Fri, Feb 15

Boise-based painter Alma Gomez takes a tradition with long roots in Latin America, the retablo, and makes it contemporary. Often painted on small pieces of metal or wood panel, retablos are images of saints and Virgins made to thank them for miraculous events. Some of these paintings, known as ex-votos, include narratives of the miracles themselves. Gomez's exquisite and intimate paintings depict saints who hold personal meaning for her. Her larger works blend portraits of the women in her family with images of the Virgin of Guadalupe and pre-Columbian goddesses in explorations of her own Mexican-American heritage. The exhibition also features historic retablo paintings dating from the 18th century to the 1930s.

Exhibition Celebration

Fri, Jan 11, 5:30–7pm The Center, Hailey

Join us for a celebration of Retablos: Reinterpreting a Tradition. Artist Alma Gomez will be present to discuss her work.

CLASS

Family Day: Trabajo Mexicano/Mexican Work

Sun, Jan 13, 3–5pm at

The Center, Hailey

See description under Art Education

LECTURE

Cheech Marin on Chicano Art

Tues, Jan 29, 7pm

nexStage Theatre, Ketchum

$10 members/$15 nonmembers

While he is best known as one half of the hilarious duo Cheech and Chong, Marin is now gaining recognition as the owner of one of the world's largest collections of Chicano Art. He will discuss the unique contribution Chicano artists have made to American culture and fine art in his lecture and slide presentation.

PERFORMING ARTS

Perla Batalla in concert

Sat, Dec 15, 7:30pm

Please see the Performing Arts page fordetails about this concert.

A Family Concert with José-Luis Orozco

Fri, Feb 1, 6:30pm$5 / $10 non-members Liberty Theatre, Hailey

Join us as José-Luis Orozco, children's author, songwriter, performer, and recording artist takes us on a fun musical journey through Latin American history, language and culture. He sings traditional Latin American songs as well as original compositions in English and Spanish.

The whole family is invited to join him in singing, dancing and acting out songs on stage. Mr. Orozco's appearance in Hailey is a unique opportunity to see an icon of family entertainment in an intimate setting at the Liberty Theatre.

Lines in the Earth: Maps, Power and the Imagination

Fri, Oct 5–Fri, Dec 7

The Center, Ketchum

A surprising number of contemporary artists are making work that incorporates maps or cartography. Many use mapping to explore social, cultural and political geographies. Some use maps to rearrange the world; others use them to explore the way that maps reinforce political power. Still others use maps to create their own fictional worlds. This exhibition asks viewers to consider the ways artists have used maps as the basis for questioning the very order they impose.

Jane Hammond makes delicate artworks that pair startlingly lifelike three-dimensional butterflies with maps of countries in South America, the Middle East, Africa and Asia . She uses the butterflies to comment on precarious social and political situations as well as the possibility of flight and escape.

Joyce Kozloff considers the relationship between maps and power in her work. Her Boys' Art series uses military maps as the background for hand-drawn and collaged embellishments, some taken from her son's childhood drawings of wars. Viewers are invited to enter Targets, a 9 x 9 foot wooden globe, where Kozloff has reproduced government agency maps of parts of the world that have been U.S. military “targets.”

Dan Mills offers an amusing set of proposals for U.S. acquisition of new territories in his US Future States series. In these drawings and paintings, Mills provides darkly humorous commentary on the role of maps in geopolitical strategy.

Matthew Picton reverses the paradox that maps are two-dimensional representations of the world. He translates city road maps into delicate, painted Duralar sculptures that he pairs with layered transparency sheets that depict these same streets at different historical moments.

Conceptual artist Santiago Sierra's performances investigate issues of race, class and politics. The video Position Exchange for Two Distinct, 30 Metre Volumes of Earth records a 2005 project in which Sierra arranged for two bulldozers to excavate holes of precisely the same size on either side of the South Korea/North Korea border, exchange the earth, and then fill the holes.

Lordy Rodriguez makes meticulous ink drawings that use the visual language of topographical maps. He gives them vaguely geographical titles (Salt Flat Desert Valley or Barchan Dunes) but their lack of text and deeply abstract quality frustrate our desire to use them as maps.

Nick Lamia also makes maps based on worlds that exist only in his mind. The intimate scale of his ink drawings (most are 7 x 6 inches) creates the sense that we are viewing new worlds either through a microscope or telescope. Lamia sees his maps as a metaphor for our desire to chart the unknown.

It's the First Place to Be - The Center, Ketchum

Fri, Oct 12 and Fri, Nov 23, 5:30–6:30pm

Please join us for wine and hors d'oeuvres Open for Gallery Walk until 8pm

Docent Tours - Every Tue at 2pm

Lines in the Earth: Journals by Bruce Kremer

Fri, Oct 19–Fri, Dec 14

The Center, Hailey Open Wed–Fri, noon–5pm

Opening Celebration

Fri, Oct 19, 5:30–7pm

Artist Bruce Kremer has spent years keeping journals of his daily life. He fills the pages of his journals with drawings, collaged images and notes to create visually dynamic records of his days. A Wood River Valley resident and world traveler, Kremer often includes fragments of maps (or sometimes draws his own maps) in his journals. Marked with handwritten notations, Kremer's journals are records of personal travels and memories at the same time that they are historical documents.

Community Mapping Project

How can we use maps to learn more about our community? Artist and mapmaker Lize Mogel makes site-specific maps and inserts them into public places. Past projects resulted in maps posted on city bus shelters or painted into street intersections. She visited the Wood River Valley in September 2007 and worked with student and adult volunteers to produce Migration Map, which offers surprising insights into both human and animal migration patterns within the valley. Look for the Migration Map to show up in unexpected places around the valley and stop by The Center to learn more!

LECTURE

Middle Easts: Mapping the Political Geography of a Troubled Region with Rob Satloff

Mon, Oct 15, 7pm

As an expert and active player in Mideast policy, Dr. Satloff is uniquely qualified to discuss the ways in which the division and distribution of land have affected the people and nations of the Middle East.

CLASSES

Tango Classes with Jenna Rohrbacher and Joe Leonardo

Fri- Sun, Oct 12-14

See Performing Arts page for full descriptions.

Family Day—Mapping

Sun, Oct 21, 3–5pm at The Center, Ketchum, Free

Please see Art Education page for full description.

Teen Workshop—Mapping

Sat, Nov 3, 2-4:30pm at The Center, Hailey, Free

Please see Art Education page for full description.

PERFORMING ARTS

ZUM in concert

Sun, Oct 14, 7:30pm at Presbyterian Church of the Big Wood, Ketchum

Please see Performing Arts page for details about this concert.

Ensemble Galilei and Neal Conan

First Person: Stories from the Edge of the World

Fri, Nov 16, 7:30pm at Presbyterian Church of the Big Wood, Ketchum

Please see Performing Arts page for details about this concert.

What We Keep:

An Exhibition on Books and Memory

Fri, Aug 3–Fri, Sep 28

Opening Celebration & Gallery Walk

Fri, Aug 3, 5:30–8pm

Artist walk-through with Michele Oka Doner at 6pm

In this exhibition, three artists explore issues of memory, history and knowledge. Their works, which range from beautifully rendered paintings to library-like installations, prompt questions about how, why and what material we choose to keep as individuals, families and cultures. Combined, these artists offer questions about the continuity of human knowledge, the arbitrary nature of recordkeeping and the vulnerability of memory. We create words and texts, and then libraries and storehouses to hold items that may be cataloged but rarely referenced. What is this human impulse to record, collect and store? What do these items reveal about cultural values and our own humanity?

Xiaoze Xie's luminous canvases tell a tale of neglect and decay. The meticulously painted images of newspapers and historic records found in libraries in his homeland, China, refer to the relationship between history and time—how time erodes and alters our memories of what has happened. Painted in extreme close-up or from odd angles, the images may at first appear to be landscapes or abstractions.

Michele Oka Doner's piece explores the tension between past and current knowledge. Her installation is thick with historic materials on the flora and fauna of Florida, but palm fronds, skeletons, shells and stones are carefully placed among the books, which gives a sense that to disturb any of it is to disrupt the whole. The work leaves us wondering whether it is a natural history display or a reference desk. Do these worn books retain knowledge that is relevant? Accessible?

Nina Katchadourian also rummages through libraries for inspiration for her Sorted Books series. In rearranging the bindings of books, she creates a new narrative that is unique but built on the foundation of already published and collected tomes.

It's the First Place to Be!

Fri, Aug 31, 5:30–6:30pm

Join us for wine and hors d'ouevres

Open for Gallery Walk until 8pm

Docent Tours

Every Tue at 2pm

EXHIBITION AT THE CENTER, Hailey

Silver Lining:

Pass Mine Artists' Books

Wed, Aug 8–Fri, Oct 13

Produced by the Idaho Center for the Book at Boise State University, Silver Lining: Pass Mine Artists' Books includes 10 handmade volumes inspired by historical materials from the Pass Mine, about 12 miles west of Hailey. The exhibition also features oil portraits of the Pass Mine owners, documents and artifacts from the mine and photographs of the mine and surrounding area. Part of the Pass Group lode mining claims (16 claims over approximately 200 acres in operation from 1879 to the 1930s), the Pass Mine shut down in 1899 following the death of Horace K. Thurber. A historical account asserts that his wife, Nancy, blamed the property for her husband's death and therefore decided to close the mine, which had produced lead, silver and zinc (galena). In 1994, the Pass Mining Company donated its land holdings and related historical materials to Boise State University , which sold the property in 2001. Each year from 2000 through 2006, graduate Book Arts students at BSU were asked to produce a bookwork incorporating Pass Mine materials. This exhibition contains a selection of those artists' books.

Events related to the exhibition:

Reading by Gregg Olsen

Thu, Sep 27, 7pm

At The Center, Hailey

Free of charge

Gregg Olsen will discuss his book, The Deep Dark, which explores the human toll of Idaho 's worst disaster. On May 2, 1972, fire broke out in the Sunshine Mine in Kellogg, Idaho, killing 91. Olsen's book on this historical event is required reading for all Boise State University incoming freshmen.

Cowboy Poetry Event—A Sense of Place

Tue, Sep 11, 7pm

NexStage Theatre, Ketchum

$10 members/$15 non-members

World renowned cowboy poets Wally McRae and Paul Zarzyski will read their latest work and discuss how sense of place has affected their poetry and perspective. While here, the poets will be working closely with Silver Creek Alternative School students.

Profit & Loss

Opening Celebration & Gallery Walk

Sat, May 26, 5:30–8pm

Artists' walk-through at 6pm

The photographs, paintings, and tapestries on view expose and explore the ramifications of globalization, hyperconsumption and a culture increasingly dependent on corporate largesse.

Boise-based artist Stephanie Wilde's monumental work Harmed, with its repeated images of people falling, is a response to the scandal at energy giant Enron. Rob Conger's artwork honors philanthropic corporate CEOs through latch hook rug portraits. Minerva Cuevas's photographs document Dodgem, an installation in a Mexico City amusement park in which she pasted the logos of international petroleum companies onto bumper cars. The work of Jooyeon Park explores the proliferation of Western products, language and pop culture and the cultural “skips” that result from the assumption that because the exchange of language is present, comprehension and understanding are also present. Marcus Kenney constructs detailed collages from remnant materials that have been tossed out. The found materials are rearranged into statements about a consumer culture that produces an enormous amount of salvageable waste. Matthew Cusick is an emerging artist from the Bay Area who has been using maps as a surrogate for paint and as a way to illuminate the sociopolitical history of trade and territory. Gabriel Kuri's large-scale tapestries of sales receipts investigate the systems and structure of trade.

It's the First Place to Be!

Fri, Jul 6, 5:30–6:30pm

Join us for wine and hors d'ouevres

Open for Gallery Walk until 8pm

Docent Tours

Every Tue at 2pm

FILM SCRENINGS Profit & Loss

Enron—The Smartest Guys in the Room (2004)

Thu, Jun 7, 7pm

Center Gallery, Ketchum

Based on the best-selling book, this film is a multidimensional study of one of the biggest business scandals in American history, in which top executives from the seventh largest company in the country walked away with over one billion dollars while stockholders and employees were left with nothing. The film features corporate audio and visuals that reveal the colossal personal excesses of the Enron hierarchy.

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)

Thu, Jun 14, 7pm

Hailey Classroom

Willy Wonka announces that five lucky people will be given a tour of his factory and shown the secrets of candy making, after which one will win a lifetime supply of Wonka chocolate. Nobody wants the prize more than young Charlie, but his family is so poor that buying even one bar of chocolate is a treat. But Charlie, along with four odious other children, gets the chance of a lifetime to tour the factory. Along the way, mild disasters befall each of the children in turn as the audience (and Charlie) learn some not so subtle lessons about greed, gluttony and selfishness. This Oscar nominated version of Roald Dahl's story stars Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka.

Profit & Loss

A multidisciplinary project

Sat, May 26–Fri, Jul 27

The early years of the twenty-first century have seen some of the greatest corporate scandals in history, with thousands of workers out of jobs and savings and a growing divide between rich and poor in one of the most developed nations on Earth. Consumption of Western goods has proliferated throughout the world. The media direct us to buy, buy, buy, and we increasingly define “the good life” by the amount of stuff that we own. At the same time, a few corporate philanthropists have dedicated fortunes to solving problems such as the crisis in health care, poverty and global warming. This project seeks to promote civic dialogue about the issues of greed, excess, consumerism, corporate responsibility and the distribution of wealth. Visual arts exhibitions, film screenings and discussions with authors and philanthropists will look at current corporate practices and explore philanthropic and scholarly propositions for countering the effects of greed.

LECTURES & DISCUSSIONS RELATED TO THE EXHIBITION

Barbara Ehrenreich

On Not Getting By in America

Wed, Jun 20, 7pm

$15 members/$20 nonmembers

NexStage Theatre, Ketchum

After listening to the rhetoric surrounding welfare reform, which promised a better life to anyone who worked, Ehrenreich wanted to find out how someone lives on $6 or $7 per hour. Ehrenreich documented her experiences working for minimum wage in her book Nickel and Dimed: On Not Getting By in America (2001), which spent months on the New York Times bestseller list and is now available in paperback. A reporter for the New York Times, Harper's and the Progressive, Ehrenreich is a contributing writer to Time magazine and has published 13 books.

Giving in the 21st Century

Panel Discussion on Philanthropy

Mon, Jul 9, 7pm

Center Gallery, Ketchum

As we move into the 21st century philanthropy is changing and has become a topic for public debate. Prosperity has resulted in a proliferation of foundations and the creation of new ways of giving. Microfinance and venture philanthropy have given birth to web-based organizations that make it possible for a school teacher in Oregon to provide stretchers to a hospital in Nepal or an artist in Wisconsin to provide a business loan to a shoemaker in Ecuador. Some of the nation's most successful entrepreneurs have taken their experience to the nonprofit sector, revolutionizing the philanthropic model. This panel of pioneers, including Matt Flannery of kiva.org, Rand Runco of Ten Friends, and Carol Lewis of Philanthropy Northwest, will offer insight into the new world of giving.

Profit & Loss has been generously supported by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, the Jeri L. Waxenberg Foundation and the Mitchell Wolfson Senior Foundation. This program has also been supported in part by a grant from the Idaho Humanities Council, a state-based program of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

At THE CENTER, HAILEY -

Down in the Valley:

Recent Paintings by Aaron Pearson

Fri, Jun 1–Fri, Aug 3

Opening Reception

Fri, Jun 1, 5:30–7pm

Gallery hours in Hailey: Wednesdays through Fridays, 12-5 - open First Thursdays in summer until 7pm

Artist Aaron Pearson depicts subject matter associated with traditional genres of painting: landscapes and figures. The paintings he creates, however, are anything but traditional images of places or people. Instead, they are layered abstractions that explore memory and its fallibility. Pearson is interested in the way memory filters images, allowing them to shift and to take on new shapes within the outlines of our minds.

Pearson's small figurative paintings draw on the long tradition of religious icon painting—images of saints and Virgins. His faceless figures, which he creates through thin layers of paint, refer not to specific people, but to what he calls the “silhouetted ghosts of my present.” His often much-larger landscape paintings are rooted in the landscapes of Idaho , where he spent his childhood. Like his figures, they don't represent specific views of places, but impressions of those places layered through time and memory.

Born in California , Aaron Pearson grew up in the Wood River Valley . He currently lives and works in San Diego.

Off the Page

A multidisciplinary project on children's illustration

Fri, Mar 23–Fri, May 18

Artists have been telling stories with images for thousands of years, first on walls and then in books. Today, the average American child spends more than thirty hours per week in front of a television or computer, and sales of children's books have been declining since the mid 1990s. Despite these startling figures, illustrators and artists continue to seek new ways to present ideas, to expand our imaginations and to introduce us to new worlds. Families still sit down together every evening to read a storybook.

With this project, The Center hopes to expand the definition of illustration and to explore the ways we continue to tell stories to each other. The featured artists are among the most successful and award-winning illustrators working today. They give color to the words of others as well as to their own stories. Their works assert the importance of creating fine art specifically for children, and they also demonstrate that illustration, an ancient art form, is as vibrant and alive today as it ever has been.

Families are invited to engage with the artwork, to find their own stories in the pictures, to spend an afternoon reading books together in the gallery and to meet artists.

EXHIBITION AT THE CENTER, KETCHUM

Fri, Mar 23–Fri, May 18

Paintings and working sketches by Chris Raschka, R. Gregory Christie and Peter Sís, many from well-known stories, will be on display at The Center gallery in Ketchum. In addition, R. Gregory Christie will create an original mural at The Center as part of the exhibition.

R. Gregory Christie received the Coretta Scott King Award for his very first illustrated book, The Palm of My Heart: Poetry by African American Children. His illustrations have been described as fantastic, poignant, emotional, and dramatic. His acrylic paintings are a compelling blend of realism and distortion. Without too much detail, he creates a world in each page. Often, Christie creates figures with huge and detailed heads, while the bodies are simple, limp attachments— immediately signaling to the reader that it is the internal world of his characters that is most important.

Chris Raschka went from working on a crocodile farm in India to working in a home for handicapped children in St. Croix before beginning his career as an illustrator. In the years since, he has won both the New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated Book for Children and the Caldecott Award more than once. Publishers Weekly calls him “one of the most original illustrators at work today.” His illustrations deal with subjects as wide ranging as jazz musician Thelonius Monk, table manners and the origin of a sardine. With a witty combination of masterful painting and whimsical imagery, he has written and illustrated more than 30 books and built a loyal following.

MacArthur Fellows are selected for the “originality and creativity of their work and the potential to do more.” Peter Sís received the award for his picture books for children, an incredible honor. His intricately drawn stories are elegant, detailed, and compelling to adults as well as children. Born in the Czech Republic, Sís came to the United States in 1984, and by 1986 he had won the Caldecott Award and established himself as a leading artist in the field of children's illustration. With more than 20 books published and numerous awards, he is internationally known for his distinct and elegant style.

Docent tours every Tues at 2pm

EXHIBITION AT THE CENTER, HAILEY

Wed, Mar 28–Fri, May 18

Leslie Patricelli 's small-scale images are big on color, with layers of acrylic paint that make her babies, binkies, and elephants pop off the page. Her board books for toddlers have earned her an admiring audience due to her charming imagery and familiar topics. Her books include Yummy YUCKY, BIG Little, and Quiet LOUD, and she is at work on her seventh and eighth books for Candlewick Press. In addition to exhibiting her work in Hailey, Patricelli will spend a week in the Wood River Valley teaching classes for families, teens and adults.

STAGE THE PAGE

As part of Off the Page, Off Center Stage theater company will present Stage the Page, an exciting, interactive afternoon of creative writing, performance, improvisation and music.

A valley-wide competition was held among Wood River Middle School students to find an original short story. Off Center Stage has chosen a story written by Dakota Barnes and from it, they've generated a theatrical version of this story and adapted it to the stage using sets, lights, costumes, a cast of 5 and the imaginations of all the children who attend. Don't miss this exciting opportunity to see how a story makes it from the page to the stage! The play will have its premiere on April 5, then on April 14 & 28, the play will be staged for the audience and then it will be followed by an interactive theater project for everyone called "Story on the Spot".

“Story On The Spot” will give children a chance to experience the thrill of creating a story through verbal expression. With the gallery exhibition as a backdrop, children will act out a completely new story building on their collective imaginations. As the story is created, it will be recorded, printed and ready for each child to take home as a reminder of the creativity in all of us.

Thu, Apr 5, 5:30–6:30pm    Premiere of Stage the Page

Suns, Apr 14 & 28, 3-4        Full Stage the Page event

                                                           Part One, staged short story

                                                           Part Two, Story on the Spot

ARTIST VISIT & TALK

R. Gregory Christie

Thu, Mar 22, 7pm, Center Gallery, Ketchum 

As part of Off the Page, exhibiting artist R. Gregory Christie will travel to Sun Valley to create a one of a kind mural in The Center gallery. On Thu, Mar 22, visitors will have the unique opportunity to see the mural in process and hear from a world-renowned illustrator. Christie will speak about the process of illustrating a story, the relationship between image and text and the reason that he paints such big hands and skinny necks.

CLASSES

Become an Illustrator with Lisa Whitworth

Mon–Fri, Mar 26–30, 9am–noon

Spring break art class for ages 7–10

Project: Wood River Mural 2007 with Matt Connor

Mon–Fri, Mar 26–30, 2–5pm

Spring break art class for ages 11–16

Make a Book with Leslie Patricelli

Sat, Apr 21, 2–6pm

Free teen workshop

Free Family Day with Leslie Patricelli

Sun, Apr 22, 3–5pm

A is for Apple with Leslie Patricelli

Mon & Tue, Apr 23 & 24, 9am–3pm

Adult & teen class

See class listings for details and fees.

Darfur / Darfur

March 14-19, 2007

These events are being presented by Sun Valley Center for the Arts, Wood River Jewish Community, and Global Grassroots.

Darfur/Darfur: Photography Exhibition

Wednesday, March 14 - Monday, March 19

The Center Gallery, Fifth St. & Washington St. , Ketchum

This traveling exhibition of digitally projected photographs provides a profound visual glimpse into this rich, multicultural region while exposing viewers to the horrors of the ongoing humanitarian crisis. The exhibition includes photographs taken in Darfur by
former U.S. Marine Captain Brian Steidle and photojournalists Lynsey Addario, Mark Brecke,
Helene Caux, Ron Haviv, Paolo Pellegrin, Ryan Spencer Reed and Michael Safdie. The exhibition was the vision of Leslie Thomas, the curator.

Opening Reception and special performance

Thursday, March 15, 5:00 - 6:30 pm

During the opening, actress Bahni Turpin will perform a monologue written by playwright Winter Miller that portrays a Darfurian mother speaking to her child.

An American Witness to Genocide in Darfur

Lecture/Slideshow by former U.S. Marine Captain Brian Steidle

Thursday, March 15, 7:00 pm

NexStage Theatre, Main St. , Ketchum

Former Marine Captain Brian Steidle was one of only three Americans to serve as a military observer for the African Union in Darfur , Sudan . He will share his exclusive photographs from areas no journalist has been able to access and offer a riveting look at what he
experienced on the frontlines: being fired upon and taken hostage, seeing villages of up
to 20,000 burned to ashes, witnessing widespread and systematic atrocities and hearing heart-wrenching testimony from villagers.

Literary Event with Brian Steidle and Gretchen Steidle Wallace

Friday, March 16, 4:00 pm

Community Library, Fourth St. & Spruce St., Ketchum

Free of Charge

Brian Steidle and Gretchen Steidle Wallace will be reading from their recently published book, The Devil Came on Horseback: Bearing Witness to the Genocide in Darfur, published by PublicAffairs followed by a book signing.

The Devil Came on Horseback: Documentary Film Screening

Saturday, March 17, 5:00 pm

NexStage Theatre, Main St. , Ketchum

This will be the first private screening of this amazing film since its debut at Sundance Film Festival in January. A documentary about Brian Steidle's experience in Darfur, The Devil Came on Horseback , produced by Break Thru Films in association with Global Grassroots and Three Generations, will have its first private showing in Sun Valley before launching a nationwide tour. The film exposes the violence and tragedy of the genocide in Darfur as seen through the eyes of a lone American witness. You can view a trailer of the film by visiting www.globalgrassroots.org and clicking on The Devil Came on Horseback box. The directors of the film, Annie Sundberg and Ricki Stern will be in attendance in addition to Brian Steidle and Gretchen Steidle Wallace.

The film screening is a benefit for Global Grassroots, a non-profit organization which offers social entrepreneurship training and seed funding for women's ideas for social change. Contributions from this screening will go to Global Grassroots both to support its work with genocide survivors in Africa, as well as for advocacy and outreach associated with the documentary film to raise awareness of the Darfur crisis.

Gala Reception to Benefit Global Grassroots

Saturday, March 17, 7:00 pm

Gail Severn Gallery, First Ave. & Fourth St. , Ketchum

A fundraising event to benefit Global Grassroots. Please visit their website for more
information. Come meet Gretchen Steidle Wallace, founder of Global Grassroots, as well as Brian Steidle, the filmmakers, and a special speaker.

All contributions will go to further the work of Global Grassroots.

We wish to thank the program sponsors of Darfur : A Call for Compassion: Mr. Edgar Bronfman, Kiril Sokoloff, Alan and Wendy Pesky, Richard and Judith Smooke, and Larry and Rebekah Helzel.

SUBVERSIVE MOVES

A multifaceted visual arts project, Subversive Moves consists of an exhibition in Ketchum curated by local resident and former Los Angeles gallery owner Jeanne Meyers, an installation in Hailey by Seattle-based artist Matt Sellars and the Contemporary Arts Forum, a series of lectures by cutting-edge collectors and curators.

EXHIBITION AT THE CENTER, KETCHUM

Subversive Moves

Fri, Jan 12–Fri, Mar 9

Opening celebration Fri, Jan 12, 5–7pm

Artists' Walk-through, 6pm

Docent tours every Tues at 2pm

Should all art hang quietly on the wall?

Can art be good and still be fun(ny)?

How do you know if what you are looking at is art?

The three artists in this exhibition answer such questions in surprising ways. They want their art to move you and you to move their art. Their work is complete only when the viewer participates in and activates the work by moving through/with/into it.

Dominique Blain's maze, Something/Nothing, is a floating room that beckons the viewer to enter without knowing what awaits within. Blain's work asks questions such as: How do we participate in the world? How do we react when what we see defies expectation? Blain has made several public art pieces in Montreal, where she lives and works. She exhibits widely in North America and Europe .

Paul Kos's piece, Memory Survives Silenced Tongues, transforms the viewer into the clapper in a bell. Based in San Francisco, Kos was recently the subject of a major retrospective, Everything Matters, at the Berkeley Art Museum and at the Grey Art Gallery at New York University.

Camille Utterback's Untitled 6, from her “External Measures” series, plays (and encourages play) with a wall, a camera and a body. In the process she transforms the wall into a playground, a painting and a hybrid of the two. Her work engages participants in a dynamic process of kinesthetic discovery. Utterback lives in San Francisco and exhibits internationally.

For Gallery Walks: The Center, It's the First Place to Be!

Fri, Feb 16 & Fri, Mar 9, 5:30–6:30pm

Join us for wine and hors d'oeuvres

Open for Gallery Walk until 8pm

CONCURRENT EXHIBITION AT THE CENTER, HAILEY

Common Soil: An installation by Matt Sellars

Fri, Jan 19–Fri, Mar 16

Opening celebration Fri, Jan 19, 5:30–7pm

The Center, Hailey is open Wed-Fri, 12-5.

Based in Seattle, sculptor Matt Sellars grew up in Spokane and in Idaho, where he watched barns and silos disintegrate as rural life began to change and small family farming declined. Common Soil consists of several small sculptures of these kinds of buildings as well as a large barn that hangs from the ceiling of the gallery. With many of its slats removed, the barn invites viewers to step inside and view the world through the gaps in its walls and to consider whether the structure is partially finished or in the process of decay.

CONTEMPORARY ART FORUM

A series of lectures on contemporary art

Jan 26, Feb 22, Mar 1 & Mar 8

Community Library, Ketchum—Free

Why is so much of today's art so difficult to “get”? What's the point of making a work of art that's only temporary? Why is the scale so often monumental? Why do so many artists make work that you have to interact with? Designed to explore and explain contemporary art to the curious, this forum will offer an insider's look at the contemporary art scene. Three internationally respected curators and a voracious collector of cutting-edge contemporary art will provide perspective and experience, as well as some answers.

Ruth Bloom

Collecting Contemporary Art: A Current History of Curiosities

Fri, Jan 26, 7pm, Community Library, Ketchum

This discussion is for the interested and curious novice, though even art world sophisticates are sure to learn a thing or two. Bloom will talk about finding your way into and through the most exciting, rich period of artmaking in world history. After a brief glimpse of art history and a discussion of the various movements of the past forty years, she'll speak about collecting, including how to approach dealers, how to look at art, which magazines to read, when and what and how to buy, and how to live with your purchases. She'll focus on the machinations of the art world players, where to fit in, and most of all, how to enjoy it!

Ruth Bloom has been a public school teacher, arts educator and arts advocate for over 30 years. She is a collector and a former gallery owner who has helped develop major collections for corporations and private collectors.

Regine Basha

Beyond the White Cube: Curating Outside the Museum

Thu, Feb 22, 7pm, Community Library, Ketchum

This presentation will outline some alternative ways of presenting contemporary artwork and producing site-specific projects with artists outside the traditional museum and gallery setting. The discussion will highlight experimental ideas and practices circulating in the curatorial field from the mid ‘90s until today.

Regine Basha is an independent curator living and working in Austin, Texas. Her most recent exhibition is Cantata for Twelve Choirs and Several Salamanders: Daniel Bozhkov Recent Work at Arthouse at the Jones Center, Austin . Her essays on art have appeared in numerous exhibition catalogs and art journals.

Mary Jane Jacob

An Everyday Art

Thu, Mar 1, 7pm, Community Library, Ketchum
While some people live with art at home, artists have also used the home as a location for artmaking in recent decades. Mary Jane Jacob will discuss home-based projects she has undertaken with artists. From works set in private domestic interiors to those in public view on city streets, this talk will look at projects that confront issues of home ownership and land redevelopment and seek to have a humanistic, ecological and artistic impact on the urban and rural scene.

During her decades-long career, Mary Jane Jacobs has created more than 50 exhibitions and commissioned over 100 artists' projects. In the 1980s, as chief curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Jacob staged some of the first U.S. retrospectives of important American and European artists. She is currently Professor and Chair of Sculpture at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Dan Cameron

Falling Forward: Risk and Responsibility in Presenting New Art

Thu, Mar 8, 7pm, Community Library, Ketchum   

Rarely limiting themselves to a single medium, contemporary artists make and define art in multiple ways in order to challenge our understanding of our place in the world. Using innovative technologies, artists have blurred the boundaries between painting, sculpture, performance and installation, producing art that is both provocative and an agent for social change. As a result, some contemporary art is difficult not only to understand but even to approach. Cameron will address the problem of visual literacy and the challenges of looking at contemporary art, with special emphasis on presenting contemporary art to museum audiences.

Dan Cameron has been professionally active as a curator and critic since 1980. An exhibition he curated in 1986, Art & Its Double, is today considered a high point in exhibitions of new American art in Europe. As Senior Curator at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City, he guided the museum to a program of new art that was global in scope. He is one of the most widely published art critics in the world and serves on the graduate teaching faculty of Columbia University, New York University and the School of Visual Arts .