Less than three weeks till Open Studios, the busiest weekend of the year at Fountain Street Studios.
The gallery's planning
10x10, a group show of work by Fountain Street Artists, each on
10x10 in. birch panel, each priced at $150, each one of a kind!
Our goals for the 10x10 group show are to promote Fountain Street Studios as a whole, to show at a glance all the fantastic art the building has to offer, and to encourage each visitor to be an active participant and to really LOOK at the art.
But mostly, to have FUN!
Open Studios draws a very diverse crowd- everybody from friends, families looking for an afternoon out, first timers trying on the idea of buying original art, to seasoned collectors. We're hoping that the weekend's events in the gallery will appeal to most people wherever they are on this continuum.
Our plan for the show is to make have the pieces on the wall unlabeled. We’ll provide printouts of the wall of the FSS show to each visitor to take away with them, with images, names and studio numbers listed. We’ll also print a sheet with artist names omitted, so a guest can go on a ‘scavenger hunt’ to see if he/she can match a piece in the gallery with an artist’s work in the studio. Guests can take one or both sheets.The idea is to ask visitors to take a good look at the work in the gallery, remember and recognize it upstairs, by making a game of it. It’ll be FUN, but you won’t have to play.
We're having a ‘make your own’ 10x10 public art event where anyone can make their own 10x10 on paper, hang it on a separate wall, and take it home with them at the end of the day. We will videotape the installation as it grows and changes. It’ll generate publicity, it’ll draw in visitors, it’ll be FUN!
We're also hosting a concurrent show of work by middle schoolers at McAuliffe Regional Charter Public School, a public school in downtown Framingham that draws students from several towns in the region. The kids have been creating their own 10x10 in. works on paper to display in the gallery.
We'd like to thank the Local Cultural Councils of Medway, Natick, Southborough and Weston for helping to sponsor these events.
Our reason for opening the gallery in the first place was to create and foster community, and to spread an appreciation of the importance of art in our lives every day. It may sound all touchy-feely, but we really believe this. 10x10 is how it all comes together!
Open Studios draws a very diverse crowd- everybody from friends, families looking for an afternoon out, first timers trying on the idea of buying original art, to seasoned collectors. We're hoping that the weekend's events in the gallery will appeal to most people wherever they are on this continuum.
Listening to Lisa Barthelson and Virginia Fitzgerald speak at the gallery last weekend I realized how telling and accurate this was for the work of these two artists. Both of them spoke of the importance of materials in the creation of their pieces. Lisa mines the history of her family by incorporating outgrown, discarded, everyday items, and by printing, layer upon layer, sees the underlying beauty and resurrects them in a new form. Virginia tells the story of the complexity of womanhood with whatever material speaks to her. The artists both spoke of artists who inspire them- Andy Goldsworthy, Louise Bourgeois, many others. In turn, they inspired those of us who heard them speak. We were fortunate that Lisa and Virginia’s conversation was videotaped by Framingham Public Access Cable, and will be broadcast soon in Framingham and surrounding communities. We’ll keep you posted!
