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Northshore Magazine

Arts On The Move

Salem Arts Association Has a New Home.

by Dinah Cardin (April 2020)

When describing his playful multimedia art pieces, artist Paul Nathan says, “There’s a certain...happiness." A dynamic collage features a parade more suited for New Orleans passing in front of the Salem Custom House. “They are light and joyous, but not simple,” says Nathan. This could be a good description for Salem itself at times.

A story full of serendipity has been unfolding on Derby Street in Salem. It started when Nathan retired from his work as a lawyer a couple years ago and turned his law office (an 18th-century yellow clapboard building near the water) into the Paul Nathan Gallery and Museum, where he could sell his original artworks and greeting cards stamped with his work. But he wasn’t seeing enough foot traffic. Then one day, when Salem Arts Association president Jim Bostick wandered in. a friendly conversation sparked a historic moment for the arts in Salem. Fast-forward to April of this year and the SAA has a new 2,600-square-foot home across the street from the Salem Maritime National Historic Site and near landmarks like the House of the Seven Gables and Mercy Tavern.

In contrast with the Rockport Art Association, which began in 1921, Salem’s is the youngest on the North Shore, formed in 2007 by a group on Artists’ Row. The Salem Film Fest and Salem Jazz and Soul Festival were starting up at the same time. The SAA now has a membership of more than 300, representing artists living all over the North Shore.

The organization has been housed in several locations, the most recent being a former Universalist church on Bridge Street. “Our openings were incredibly well attended. It was a really good feeling. But after the opening, nothing” says the organization’s vice president and exhibition curator. Heather Stewart, who lives in Lynn and focuses on Realist paintings.

Stewart is thrilled to have a more permanent home with 11 galleries, space for classes and workshops, and even an artist-in- residence program.

“I consider this a story of growth,” says Bostick, who works as a photographer and designer. One common goal is to bring back the community “clubhouse" feel that existed on Artists’ Row, when musicians would just turn up on a Friday, says Bostick, the new location includes a patio filled with potential on Kosciusko Street. Sunlit galleries are named after a few of the 50 wharves where goods were offloaded from Salem ships traveling all over the world, A first-floor gallery is named in memory of active Salem artist Ellen Hardy, considered the driving force behind the association. Bostick credits Hardy with saying “The word arts has an s for a reason." Keeping this in mind, the association is looking into expanding their offerings, even turning their basement into a black box theatre. “Ellen is smiling down on us.” says Bostick of his friend, who died in 2017. “None of this would have happened without her.”

The SAA has gained traction with a busy calendar of events, like their annual show inspired by a chosen exhibition at PEM. In Oc­tober, there is a fitting Dark Arts exhibit And in the spring is the playful Salon des Refuses, a tradition that started last year, featuring works turned down by the Salem Arts Festival. Now, when an artist’s work is rejected, the city hands them a flyer for the Salem Arts show, says Bos­tick, adding that this opportunity is a tradition going back to the French Academy.

On April 3, the public can attend the first member showcase in the new location. “I feel really strongly about letting people show their work," says Stewart, who has acted as juror, curator, and critic for exhibitions at prominent galleries in the region.

Bostick is coming to the end of his three- year term as president and is happy to hand off the SAA stronger than he found it. Some of that is due to hard work and some to the magic of Salem. In the meantime, the building also houses a small gallery just for Paul Nathan's work. “I think it s a win-win all around," says Nathan. "I see this as an adventure. The more people you have, the more energy."

May 2023 - Vibrant Art Scene Blooms in Salem - Northshore Magazine

September 2021 - Destination Salem Podcast Featuring Salem Arts Association and Artoberfest - Northshore Radio 104.9

March 2021 - Salem Arts Association Welcomes New Director and Artist in Residence - Creative Northshore

September 2020 - Salem Arts Announces Two New Exhibits - Northshore Magazine

July 2020 - Salem Arts Grand Opening Member Showcase Salem Access Television (SATV)

May 2020 - Salem Arts Association Launches Virtual ExhibitNorthshore Magazine

May 2020 - Gallery, Never Opened Due to COVID, Launches Online - Salem News

April 2020 - Arts On The Move - Salem Arts Association Has a New Home - Northshore Magazine (download PDF)

February 2020 - Salem Arts Association Moves to Derby Street Neighborhood - Salem Gazette

November 2019 - Autumn Member Showcase - Salem Access Television (SATV)

October 2019 - Dark Arts Exhibit - Salem Access TV (SATV)

September 2019 - Picturing America and Dark Arts Exhibitions - Salem Access Television (SATV)

August 6 2019: Dan Breslin Solo Show - Salem Gazette

June 2019 - Salon Des Refuses Salem Access Television (SATV)

May 2019 - Roots Exhibit at Salem Old Town HallSalem Access Television (SATV)

April 2019 - Member Showcase Exhibition at Salem Old Town HallSalem Access Television (SATV)

March 2019 -  Young at Art, Ellen Hardy, Paula Beaulieu, and Scholarship Fundraiser ExhibitSalem Access Television (SATV)

December 2018 - Fall Member Showcase 2018 - Salem Access Television (SATV)

October, 2018 - Two Exhibits: Untold Stories and Dark Arts 10-5-18 - Salem Access Television (SATV)

August, 2018 - Land & Sea, Raymond Gilbert Solo Exhibit - Salem Access Television (SATV)

July, 2018 - Go Away Exhibit - Salem Access Television (SATV)

March 2018 - Inspiring The Arts - Salem Magazine (Download PDF)

January, 2018 - Salem Cultural Council 2018 Grant Recipients - Salem Cultural Council

December 28, 2017 - Reflecting on 2017 Events in SalemSalem Gazette

November 2017 - Salem Arts Association Member Showcase - Salem Access Television (SATV)

July 17, 2017 - Salem Arts Association: ReVision Opening Reception - Salem Access Television (SATV)

May 5, 2017 - ReVISION Exhibit Opening and Awards - Salem Gazette Video

March 9, 2017 - Salem Arts cuts ribbon on new digs - Wicked Local Salem

March 5, 2017 - Grand Opening Festivities on Salem Access Television - Salem Access Television (SATV)

February 22, 2017 - Salem Arts Announces New Move - Salem Gazette 

February 18, 2017 - "The Bridge at 211" Welcomes Salem Arts Association - Creative Salem



Have news! Members, email your news to: Publicity@SalemArts.org with the subject line "NEWS BLOG POST" if you want your event, show, or news posted in our "News" section. Additionally all posts also go to our Twitter page.

We encourage members to share posts from this news feed on Facebook and all your social networks. 


  • Saturday, April 04, 2015 12:39 PM | Anonymous

    Tuesday April 7 from 6-8pm come celebrate the community-service initiative and art program with Salem's elementary school students.  There will be a reception, exhibition, and auction.  Admission is one unexpired can of food or other nonperishable food item per person.  More information can be found at PEM.org.

  • Saturday, April 04, 2015 9:46 AM | Anonymous

    Are you an artist who likes to perform, display and/or sell your work, or lead an art-making activity? The annual Salem Arts Festival (June 5-7, 2015) is your chance! The call for artist deadline is April 10, 2015.  Participation information is available online. 

  • Thursday, April 02, 2015 12:45 PM | Anonymous

    For 50 years, the Marblehead Festival of Arts, a year-round all-volunteer organization, has produced a summer arts Festival over the July 4th holiday.

    This year's festival promises to be outstanding, a days-long free event comprising art exhibits, performances, a logo contest, a culinary arts reception, a street festival, and more. The call for art is located on their Art exhibits page. 

    Check out their webpage for special events being planned for the 50th Festival Celebration, which will run concurrently with the festival, July 2–5, 2015.


  • Thursday, April 02, 2015 11:32 AM | Anonymous

    The Winthrop Art Association 2015 Festival and Craft Fair will be held from April 24th - 26th at the EB Newton Cultural Center, Winthrop, MA. They are seeking artists to enter the Festival with original art works and crafters for the Craft Fair. Entry forms are due by April 15th according to the instructions on the formsVisit their website for more information about the festival.

  • Friday, March 27, 2015 12:05 PM | Anonymous

    Collectors within the Artistic Community

    Presenter: Maggie Cavallo: Curator of Education, Montserrat College of Art

    The art collector plays a complex role in contemporary art communities. Hear stories of influential collectors who dedicated time to developing emerging artists; learn methods and guidelines for developing a holistic art collecting practice.

    Thursday April 9, 2015
    7:00-8:30 pm
    Marblehead Arts Association
    8 Hooper Street Marblehead Ma 01945
    $25 members/ $50 non members*
    Reservations & prepayment requested; Call 781-631-2608 or email: info@marbleheadarts.org
    Visit: www.marbleheadarts.org or call 781-631-2608 for more information

    *First of a two part series included in the fee. An onsite visit to Montserrat will follow on Thursday, April, 23 6:30-8:30pm. Maggie and Montserrat's Take20 team, a group of student gallery teachers, will bring participants for a closer look at leading Montserrat student work and for a visit to a Senior Thesis Exhibition with students working in a variety of disciplines.

    "The art collector plays a complex role in contemporary art communities. Today, many individuals collect purely for the investment value of a work of art and collecting has, for ages, been a tried and true method for proving one’s cultural capital. The interest and agency of art collectors often influence the careers of working artists and the styles of art that are celebrated and produced. Beyond the financial or cultural gain, the contemporary collector should be aware of her important role within the fabric of artistic communities. how might she make the most of her connections with works of art and artists?"

    Maggie Cavallo Bio:

    Maggie Cavallo is a curator and educator based in Boston, MA dedicated to providing dynamic experiences with, through and for contemporary art and artists. Much of Cavallo’s curatorial work is characterized by experiential and performance-based practices and the understanding of every arts experience as inherently a learning experience. Past projects includes: The Highest Closet at Montserrat College of Art, A New Cosmic Mix: now in 5D! at the Charles Hayden Planetarium and SPACE CASE: Zillaboston Online Residency. Cavallo works currently as the Curator of Education at Montserrat College of Art, a Teaching Fellow at Harvard Graduate School of Education, a lead Teaching Artist with the Urbano Project and Gallery Instructor at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She received a BA in Media, Society and the Arts from SUNY Purchase and an Ed.M in Arts in Education from Harvard University. | www.zillaboston.com

    About the MAA:
    The Marblehead Arts Association is located in the historic King Hooper Mansion, at 8 Hooper Street, Marblehead. Six galleries of exhibits by association members and guest artists change every six weeks and education programs and special events are offered throughout the year. The MAA Artisan Shop features one-of-a-kind crafts including jewelry, pottery, glassworks and textiles by our artisan members. The Mansion is available for private parties, meetings, weddings and other events. For more information, please call 781-631-2608.

  • Thursday, March 26, 2015 6:30 PM | Deleted user

     

    Arts Marketing with

    Jackie Ganim DeFalco

    Thur. March 26, 6:30 - 8:30 pm 
    $10 members/$15 non-members
    King Hooper Mansion,
    8 Hooper St. Marblehead

    To register contact: 781-631-2608781-631-2608 or
    info@marbleheadarts.org

     

     

    "In the world of technology marketing, we are all trying to tell the story.  Not always easy to turn complex notions into interesting stories despite access to the world’s best marketers.  So, turning this on it’s head, it’s equally difficult for artists to tell some of the world’s most interesting and poignant stories – as they lack the marketing expertise and in some cases, the courage – afraid to toot their own horn." - Jackie Ganim-DeFalco


          

            8 Hooper St. Marblehead, MA 01945 marbleheadarts.org 781-631-2608781-631-2608

  • Saturday, February 28, 2015 8:44 AM | Deleted user

    Hello Artists or Friends of Artists,

     The Brush Art Gallery and Studios is asking artists who have had an affiliation with us to participate in a fun project that will help us raise money for our art scholarship program.

    We are having our 4th annual Four By Four For Education fundraiser for our University of Lowell Art Scholarship Program on April 11.  This fundraiser will feature 150 - 200 little 4"x4" works of original art.  These canvases will be displayed in our gallery beginning March 7 and sold the day of the fundraiser. The money raised from sales will go to the program which awards a scholarship to a deserving student majoring in the visual arts. 

     

    We are asking our affiliated artists if they would like to participate. We will provide you with a 4 inch by 4 inch canvas. We invite you to create whatever you wish with whatever media and materials you like.  If you need to remove the canvas from its frame and replace it with fabric, metal, paper, glass, etc., please do so.  The only restrictions are:

    1. you use the canvas we provide;
    2. the outer dimensions of the finished work not exceed 4 x 4. 

    Because this is a fundraiser, we really regret that we cannot compensate you for your labor, but invite you to attend the fundraiser as our guest.

     

    The deadline for completion of your canvas is Feb 28.

     

    For more details and an on-line registration/canvas request form, please click/go here:

    http://www.thebrush.org/4x4

     

    This will be a fun event and we hope you'll participate!

     

    Jim Dyment
    Executive Director
    Brush Art Gallery & Studios
    256 Market St, Lowell, MA 01852

    director@thebrush.org
    www.thebrush.org

    Hours: Tuesday- Saturday 11:00 - 4:00 PM, Sunday, 12 - 4 PM

    (Winter Hours: Jan through Mar 31: Wednesday - Saturday 11:00 - 4:00 PM, Sunday, 12 - 4 PM)

  • Wednesday, November 26, 2014 3:24 PM | Ellen Garvey

    View the statements from candidates for SAA officers and board members at http://www.salemartsassociation.org/2014-Elections.  Ballots for this contested election will be mailed to the address on file for all active members, and voting will be at the annual meeting and celebration on Dec 8.  Be an educated voter!

  • Saturday, November 08, 2014 1:20 PM | Deleted user

    THE SALEM MOOSE FAMILY CENTER
    PRESENTS
    OUR 5TH ANNUAL HOLLY FAIR

     

    OUR ANNUAL CRAFT FAIR WILL BE HELD ON
    NOVEMBER 8TH 2014

    FROM 9:00 AM TO 2 PM

     

    RESERVE A 6 FOOT TABLE WITH 2 CHAIRS TODAY FOR
    $25.00.  BOOKING DEADLINE IS OCTOBER 25TH

     

    THERE WILL BE RAFFLES DRAWN AT 1:45
    REFRESHMENTS SERVED ALL DAY.

    THANK YOU

  • Tuesday, October 28, 2014 9:19 AM | Deleted user

     

    Montserrat College of Art Awarded Interdisciplinary Learning Method Grant

    from Davis Educational Foundation Grant

     

    Beverly, MA – A generous grant from the Davis Educational Foundation is recognizing Montserrat College of Art’s creative teaching style, developed by the college’s academic leadership team, which emphasizes learning that is interdisciplinary, team-taught and project-based.

    Last spring the Davis Foundation announced that Montserrat would receive a $150,000 grant over two years for the Gateway project, which emphasizes this experiential teaching style.

    The grant will provide funding for two new programs that serve, respectively, as gateways into and out of college. Funding will support the two parts of the Gateway Initiative, including: planning, implementation, outcome assessment and, creation of curricular models (best practices, guidelines, handbooks, documentation, templates, online resources) for future use.

    Montserrat College of Art President Steve Immerman said, “Montserrat recognizes the need to go beyond the traditional classroom structure to introduce experiences that relate directly to those students will encounter in their professional lives. We are grateful to the Davis Foundation for provding this opportunity to offer new teaching methods to Montserrat students.”

     1.  FX (the Freshman Experience)

    Offered to freshman in the first semester, FX serves as a gateway from high school into college. The course is team-taught, interdisciplinary, and integrates studio practice with historical and cultural analysis. Methodologies from studio art and liberal arts (particularly art history) are combined to provide a holistic introduction to the visual arts while helping students to acclimate to college-level academic and studio work. This combination of rich content and tactile experience is designed to fully engage students as visual learners. The aim is to break down preconceptions about art, art making, and contemporary studio practice.

     This 3-credit course features a closely coordinated series of lectures, museum/gallery/studio visits, research, writing, class discussions, team-based and individual projects. Small group meetings for discussion, research, and studio immersion complement three keystone lectures and field trips to the Peabody Essex Museum, Mass MOCA and New York City. The course is designed to function in the way that artists interact with the world, across disciplines at the intersections of research, writing, collaborating, current culture, and making.

     2.  StudioXL (the Studio for Experiential Learning)

    StudioXL serves as a gateway out of college and into the professional world. It provides students with a series of carefully structured opportunities, offered outside the traditional classroom/studio, that build skills such as team-work, collaboration,  project management, and working between disciplines in real world settings.  Some, if not all projects, will have community partners, bolstering our relationships with the local and regional businesses and community-based organizations that fuel the creative economy of the North Shore.

     The college has appointed Kate Luchini, formerly of the Lynn Museum and Peabody Essex Museum, as the director of Studio XL.

     The enormously successful pilot project in StudioXL was a team-taught collaboration with Footprint Power at Salem Harbor Station. Montserrat structured it a course called Across the Bridge: Three Perspectives, it combined fieldwork, research and art making. Students examined and documented the decommissioning of the coal-powered Salem Harbor Power Plant, now Footprint Power, which funded the project. Thirty students guided by three faculty members developed a visual and narrative legacy of the plant and the community of people who worked there, through writings, paintings, photography and video, sculpture and installation, and design. The project culminated in an exhibition in the turbine hall in June 2014 that was seen by more than 1000 visitors; it concluded with an evening poetry reading among the turbines, which was organized by the director of the Impossible Places Poetry Tour. That night the turbines sounded for the last time and the dismantling began the following day.

     The second StudioXL project for fall 2014 is a course called Food and Culture. In contrast to the power plant project, this course was initiated in-house; it combines cultural history, research into food economies and politics, resulting in the production of creative work. Among the local partners are the Food Project and Beverly Bees.

     More collaborations are being planned for future semesters.

     For more information about this grant, please contact Montserrat College of Art’s Dean of Faculty and Academic Affairs Laura Tonelli at laura.tonelli@montserrat.edu or 978.921.4242978.921.4242 x 1601.

     Montserrat College of Art is a small, private, residential college of visual art and design, founded in 1970, by artists, for artists, educating the creative problem solvers of tomorrow. The college offers the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, continuing education classes and four galleries exhibiting works by international, national and regional contemporary artists, intended to offer art education beyond the Montserrat classrooms through a series of public lectures, gallery talks, catalogs and events. www.montserrat.edu


     

    For Immediate Release

    Contact: Elizabeth Gianino

    Media Relations Coordinator

    elizabeth.gianino@montserrat.edu

    978.921.424 x1121

#SalemArts

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