Amy Franceschini Receives Guggenheim Fellowship

Posted on Friday, April 23, 2010, by Chris Bliss

CCA visiting faculty member Amy Franceschini is the recipient of a prestigious 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship. Last week the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation released the results of its eighty-sixth annual competition for the United States and Canada. Franceschini’s Fellowship was awarded in the creative arts category, with fine arts as the designated field of study.

The Foundation awarded 180 fellowships to artists, scientists, and scholars selected from a group of some 3,000 applicants. Two CCA faculty members are among the 2010 Fellows; John Zurier, eminent adjunct professor in the Graduate Program in Fine Arts and undergraduate Painting/Drawing, also was awarded a fellowship.

Via CCA News

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WILD FOOD COOK-OFF BLOG!

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CALL FOR BROKEN THINGS:

If It Ain’t Broke
John Preus and Sara Black
Open Engagement: Making Things, Making Things Better, Making Things Worse
May 15 and 17th, 2010

Igloo Gallery
625 NW Everett #102
PDX, OR 97209

Dear Friends,

For our upcoming project If It Ain’t Broke we are soliciting the participation of four individuals, couples, groups or families who own a broken thing and who might like to see it ‘repaired.’
On Saturday, May 15th at the Igloo Gallery, we will host one-and-a-half hour ‘consultations’ regarding your thing, discussing its condition and imagining possible repairs.  Repairs will be taking place on-site on Monday, May 17th. You are welcome to participate or observe but are not required to attend the repair session.
If you are interested in participating, please contact us at: info@blackpreus.org by May 8th, 2010.  Please also consider the thoughts below as a point of departure for our meeting.

Three options are available with each instance of brokenness:
Return: re-approximate the state prior to brokenness.
Concession: landfill, death, surrender. At this point, we relinquish control to biology.
Transformation: material and/or functional qualities are diverted. We seek or uncover an object’s novel capacities.

As a contribution to Open Engagement, Sara Black and John Preus will engage in material philosophy over a “broken” object.  Together with the object’s owner, we will consider the role of function, context, history, intention, material… in diagnosing its condition, and work to determine the appropriate “repairs.” Each object becomes a vehicle for conversation and exploration of the nature of things, and our nature in relation to them. If It Ain’t Broke undertakes a kind of watchfulness, that in a moment of rupture and vulnerability, an object might reveal itself in a new light.
To learn more about If It Ain’t Broke please visit our website: www.blackpreus.org

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Ping Pong Diplomacy

For Open Engagement I will be sharing my passion for table tennis, aka ping-pong, with conference goers. I invite you to a conversation and open play on Saturday from 10am-12pm.   Our conversation will be with Portland’s own Judy Hoarfrost. At age 15, Ms. Hoarfrost was part of the famous 1971 “Ping Pong Diplomacy” trip to China, credited with the start of thawing relations between the US and China. An event that shares curious similarities with what many of us are trying to do. Ms. Hoarfrost is also co-owner of Paddle Palace, one of the largest retailers of table tennis supplies in the United States. She will talk about her experience, some history of table tennis in Portland and the sport in general.   After the conversation we will learn the basics of table tennis and have some open play with the Portland State Table Tennis Club. I am looking forward to hearing about Ms. Hoarfrost’s experiences and playing table tennis with you.   The Rec Center charges a $10 fee but paddles will be provided. We are limited to 25 participants so please RSVP to pht@umn.edu by May 7^th if you wish to participate. I think it will be fun!
Date and time: Saturday May 15, 10am-12pm Location: Portland State Rec Center (more details when you RSVP)RSVP: pht@umn.edu by May 7th Questions: Peter Haakon Thompson, pht@umn.edu, 612 205 6710

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