08/06/2019

ACE Artisan Shop Closure

You may have noticed the Artisan Gift Shop at Arts Center East is temporarily closed. After continued hard work and planning, we are ready to make preparations for a bigger, better, and brighter Artisan Shop! Plans are in the works to expand the Artisan Shop so we can showcase more of the community’s artisans.

Preliminary plans are being made to swap the Artisan Shop and the administrative office. This will give our artisans more space, better light, and an overall better experience of displaying and selling their work. When the Artisan Shop re-opens, it will be open not only while exhibits are in the galleries, but between exhibits as well. Shop inventory will also coincide with holiday shopping, the changing seasons, and eventually, with themed exhibits.

As for the ACE staff, our offices will move into the old Artisan Shop and adjoining closet. With a few adjustments, the ACE staff will have delineated, out-of-the-way office space, allowing Arts Center East to showcase its art, and not its paperwork.

This expansion also means we will be able to include more artisans in the shop! Artisans who are interested in displaying and selling their work in the new shop can contact the office for more information.

ACE’s 2019 Artisan Shop is supported in part by the Greater Hartford Arts Council’s United Arts Campaign with major support from the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving to better serve our local shoppers.

07/25/2019

Gallery Dedication

On June 29, Dr. Ellen Marmer celebrated her 80th birthday. To honor her dedication, vision, and commitment to Arts Center East and the Vernon Community, the ACE board of directors unanimously voted to rename our main gallery space after Dr. Marmer.

If you would like to join us in honoring Dr. Marmer, you can make your donation using the donation button below.

Please visit the new Dr. Ellen L. Marmer Gallery soon!

07/23/2019

Animalia Exhibit Opening

Sunday, July 21 the Animalia Exhibit opened at Arts Center East. The galleries were packed with artists and art-lovers alike.

This exhibit constituted one of our biggest intakes yet, with over 250 pieces submitted for jurying. 121 pieces are included in the exhibit, comprising mediums from wood cuts to photography to stoneware to oil paintings and more. One of the most notable pieces, perhaps, is the approximately 200lb wooden alligator sculpture created by Randall Nelson.

Animals of all species are well represented throughout the galleries: insects, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals. The exhibit has something to entice every art-lover or animal-lover.

Best in Show was awarded to Belongings, an oil painting by Layne, reminiscent of works by Matisse.

Animalia Exhibit Award Winners

Best in Show: Belongings, Layne, oil

Best in 3D Art: Genuine Alligator, Randall Nelson, sculpture
Best in Drawing/Pastel: The Work of Man (Railing), Nan Runde, graphite
Best in Mixed Media: Silent Visitor, J. Bogan Romanowski, mixed media
Best in Painting: The Pose, Charles McCaughtry, aquarelle
Best in Photography: Gold Finch & Echinaecea,Bill Byers, giclee

Honorable Mention in 3D Art: Octopus, Michele Peterson, clay
Honorable Mention in Drawing/Pastel: Io, Enchanted, Carol Chaput, graphite
Honorable Mention in Drawing/Pastel: Position is Everything in Life, Barbara Groff, pastel
Honorable Mention in Mixed Media: The Fragile Hour, J. Bogan Romanowski, mixed media
Honorable Mention in Painting: Dove, Jean Dalton, acrylic
Honorable Mention in Painting: Siblings, Lorraine Ficara, watercolor
Honorable Mention in Painting: A Cup For You, Nan Runde, oil
Honorable Mention in Photography: Waiting for Sea Ice, Madeline Duval, giclee photograph
Honorable Mention in Photography: Horse Bath, Mallorie Ostrowitz, photography

View the full list of accepted works.

Animalia is on display now through August 18, Thursday–Sunday, 1:00–5:00pm. Many thanks to our staff and volunteers for all their hard work coordinating this exhibit!

Simultaneously, the Annual ACE Students Exhibit also opened on Sunday in the Eureka Gallery. Students from all ACE classes and workshops in the past year (since the previous Annual ACE Students Exhibit) were invited to showcase their art in this exhibit. Several students took advantage of the opportunity, and on display are works from zentangle® classes, watercolor classes, abstract art classes, and sketching classes.

View the list of included works.

The Annual ACE Students Exhibit is also on display now through August 18, Thursday–Sunday, 1:00–5:00pm.

07/15/2019

Artist Member Spotlight: Rebecca McMann

Rebecca McMann is a photographer from Ellington, Connecticut who creates images using digital manipulation and prints the final product on aluminum. Her work has been shown in a number of Connecticut galleries and exhibitions, including Arts Center East’s Annual Members Exhibit and Annual Photography Exhibit.

Rebecca has always considered herself to be artistic, but only recently has come to think of herself as an artist. “I went to school and became a sign artist after high school, but that seemed different, somehow, from the Fine Arts.” She initially practiced sign lettering and design, as well as calligraphy. “The lettering arts were my first love.” In 2015, she turned her interests to photography and how she could digitally change her photographs. “I started sharing my manipulated photo creations on Facebook. I got a lot of encouragement to continue, so I started an Etsy shop, and then my own web store.” From that point, Rebecca considered herself to be “on the artist’s path.”

Though sign lettering and calligraphy are no longer her primary medium, she follows the work of a number of artists, like Rob Cooper. She also admires the work of Alphonse Mucha, a 2-D Art Nouveau artist from the Czech Republic, and Kelly Taylor, a fellow ACE Artist Member.

Focusing now on photography and digital manipulation, she coins her own work as “Strange. Beautiful. Abstract.” Her work is detailed, often fixating on small parts of a larger subject, and plays with color saturation, light, and shadow. “One thing I appreciate about photography is how manipulatable it is. I can emphasize or de-emphasize certain elements by use of color, blurring, and contrast, etc., and, especially, by the way I crop the image. This is very similar to the way I arranged the elements in my lettering work and how I could use lighter or heavier fonts to draw the eye where I wanted it to rest.” Rebecca’s work follows an artistic philosophy of “ostranenie: encouraging people to see common things as strange, wild, or unfamiliar; defamiliarizing what is know in order to know it differently or more deeply.”

Rebecca describes her artistic process as “difficult to explain” because the digital manipulation techniques require multiple steps and end up being a “drawn-out process” that she cannot necessarily replicate the same way again. While not a teaching artist at the moment, Rebecca has given artist talks at the D’amour Museum of Fine Arts in Springfield, MA, where she had a year-long exhibit from May of 2017 through April of 2018, which she greatly enjoyed. And though her artistic process may be difficult to explain, she is happy to give demonstrations of her aluminum printing process.

More of Rebecca’s work can be seen, and purchased, on her website.

07/02/2019

Arts Center East Has a Kiln!

Arts Center East has been working with Rusty Kiln, and our new kiln has officially been installed!

A ceramics class will be offered, beginning this Fall. But before we can get the ceramics and, soon, pottery program off the ground, we are looking for donations of materials to help get us started:

• Large pieces of plywood (in decent condition) to reinforce shelves and for canvas boards
• Large pieces of heavy canvas
• Large rolling pins
• Any ceramics or art carving tools
• Art Aprons
• Large sponges
• Pottery fettling knives
• Needle tools
• Wire clay cutters

All proposed donation offers can be emailed to artscentereast@gmail.com.

And mark your calendars for a fundraising concert on October 6. Take Note! will perform at Arts Center East, and all donations will go to the ceramics program, with the intention of purchasing a slab roller.