The Public Art Academy's Artist-in-Residence program, which is bringing artists from all over the country to spend some productive time in the local art scene, officially began Tuesday, when the first half of the summer batch moved into studios at the Pajama Factory, 1307 Park Ave., and temporary homes on Millionaire's Row, provided by Edward Lyon.
The program is in its second year and was conceived by PAA board member Rosalie Frudakis, who is the president of Frudakis Studio Inc. in Philadelphia, to expand the horizons of Williamsport's art scene by introducing "emerging and accomplished" artists from disparate states and cultures.
This year, the program welcomes 13 residents, including Jakub Makalowski, Chelsea Coon, Sophie Grant, Emily Bowser, Jennifer Gunlock, Susannah Mira, Daniel Bilodeau, Jackie Brown, Uka Otani, Lucy Englem, J. Morrison, Misako Oba and Alida Frey.
PAA founder Michael Pilato said, "We were quite pleased with the applicants and are thrilled about the artists we chose. The review process was difficult - but we certainly got some top-notch talent."
Program Director and Pajama Factory tenant Becky Reiser, who came to the factory last year as a part of the residency, said, "We're getting the word out there. We got over 40 applicants this year, which is much more than last year."
The artists will perform 10 hours of work a week - mostly consisting of factory renovation projects - as a part of their summer stay. "They can do the hours at their own pace," Reiser said. "And they are free to make art the rest of the time."
Along with making art, the artists will inevitably contribute to the local economy, a fact that, Pilato said, will not be overlooked.
"Franco's [Lounge], The Bullfrog Brewery, Peter Herdic House, Plankenhorn's, Vinnie's Pizza and Otto Book Store all have offered discounts for the artists who are coming in for the summer," Pilato said.
Pilato is confident the artists will be warmly welcomed into the community. "We're lucky to have great people in this town who care about the arts," he said.
The artists will use the factory's expansive Floating Gallery, which was recently the spot for the Bald Eagle Art League's student art show, as their studios.
Current tenants of the factory will provide workshops for the residents - tentative topics include woodworking, printmaking and photo development - during their stay.
On July 30, at the end of the program, there will be an Artist-in-Residence exhibition, which will display artwork that the residents have made through the summer. The show also will be the grand opening of PAA's space downtown (the old Coffee and Tea Room).
The Artists
Makalowski, of State College, received his bachelor's degree in sculpture from Penn State University. He recently participated in the Art Alliance Studio and Gallery's 2010 Juried Group Exhibition. About his art, he said, "In large, I explore the ideas of evolution and change, and when it is not readily visible, I concentrate a lot of my thinking on the human condition."
Chelsea Coon, of New Milford, Conn., is a student at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She was awarded first place in ceramic sculpture from the Kent Art Association in 2008. She said, "By placing various materials onto my paintings and leaving only the outlined resin, I am able to address the constant search for understanding of our creation and the need to find purpose for our existence."
Sophie Grant, of New York City has a bachelor's degree in painting and drawing from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She recently exhibited in a show called "Heed the Machine Illustrious," at the Spark Contemporary Art Space and Mireille Mosler Ltd., in New York. She said, "In my work, I reckon with the human experience of fading, fighting and weathering bodily trials and treatment. Latency situates my work within a circuit of lived experience."
Emily Bowser, of Philadelphia, has a bachelor's degree in sculpture and a bachelor's in English from Penn State University. She recently participated in "Spectrum: Contemporary Color Abstraction" at the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts in Wilmington. She said, "Sensitivity to materials is a significant aspect when conceptualizing and visualizing my work for its final outcome. The use of non-traditional sculptural materials functions as a way to activate multiple senses and ideas for the viewer."
Jennifer Gunlock, of Studio City, California, has a bachelor's degree from California State Polytechnic University and a master's degree in drawing and painting from California State University. She participated in "ProVISIONal Art" at the Orange County Center for Contemporary Arts in Santa Ana, Calif.
She said, "Each drawing develops by collaging and transferring disparate photographic elements followed by obscuring and re-rendering these images to fabricate an imaginary structure."
Susannah Mira, of La Union, N.M., has a master's in environmental art from the University of Art and Design in Helsinki, Finland.
She exhibited in "Return to Scale" at Forum Art + Culture in El Paso, Texas. She said, "My work suggests that art can come from the environment we've created, which, in turn, contrasts human-made surroundings and systems with what we inherited from the natural world."
Daniel Bilodeau, of Sarasota, Fla., has a bachelor's degree from Ringling College of Art and Design. He studied at the Studio Art Center International in Florence, Italy and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. Recently, he exhibited at the seventh Biennial National Art Exhibition at the Visual Arts Center in Punta Gorda, Fla.
He said, "The subject of my paintings are pictures frozen in a moment of creation. They are orchestrating an identity, a result, a future for themselves just as we do all the time."
Jackie Brown, of Princeton, N.J., has a bachelor's degree from Hamilton College and a master's degree from Virginia Commonwealth University.
She studied abroad at the University of Melbourne in Melbourne, Australia.
She recently exhibit at The Clay Studio in Philadelphia and will exhibit at the Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts in 2011. She said, "Through the use of gooey, porous surfaces, I attempt to provide a sense that the work is alive. The material specificity of each component is as ambiguous as the forms themselves."
Uka Otani, of New York City has a bachelor's of fine art from Tama Art University in Tokyo, Japan and a master's degree from the Rhode Island School of Design. She has exhibited at Pepper's Gallery in Tokyo and the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston. She said, "My work creates a membrane that shifts viewer's perception in physical and cognitive spaces. Through the lenses of phenomenological and sociological studies, I explore clear materials; primarily glass, water, melted sugar and light."
Lucy Engleman, of Oberlin, Ohio, is a student at Oberlin College. She studied at the Hellenic International School of the Arts in Paros, Greece. She recently exhibited "Perfection is a Trifle Dull" at Fisher Gallery. She said, "My work comes out of an interest in the stories not told, the secrets not passed down and the narratives that do not dominate."
J. Morrison, of Brooklyn received a bachelor's degree from Kent State. She recently participated in "How to Draw an Apocalypse at the P.P.O.W. Gallery in New York. The artist said, "I have been interested in the 'take-one' aspect of an artwork with a performative component. Similarly, the act of collaboration always has been important to my work - either with a single partner or in a group setting."
Misako Oba, of New York City has had numerous exhibitions in France, Germany and Japan besides the U.S.
The artist studied at Speos in Paris, France, at the International Center of Photography in New York and at the Lower East Side Printshop, also in New York. The artist said, "My work explores human life as a journey - a 'Journery of life and lights,' a metaphor of our lives, which has both deep examination of my soul as well as an exploration of universal experiences."
Alida Frey, of Brooklyn has a bachelor's degree in painting from Boston University Collete of Fine Art. She exhibited in "Lost in Sound" at Station 171 in Brooklyn. She said, "I find myself confronted with particular contradictions between eroticism and innocence, ecstasy and melancholy, fantasy and reality - the individual and every woman."
