Category archives: Uncategorized
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11 years ago
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Art for Progress will feature a special night of live music performances on Friday, June 29th from 4pm - 11pm at Solar One Park (East 23rd Street & East River) as part of the "Artists4Equality" Festival. We are so pleased to present such an exciting line-up of gifted bands, musicians, singers and song writers at Solar One Park on Friday night. Some are still a bit underground, while others have produced multiple albums and play regularly at the best live music venues in NYC, but all will be equally impressive. There's no doubt that Solar One Park will be the place to hear live music on Friday night.
Opening up the festival (5pm) will be AFP's long time member, teacher and board member Barry Komitor. Barry's an accomplished performer who will have a full back up band in tow to perform his soon to be completed album and some other favorites. It will be the perfect beginning to a spectacular night.
Next to take the stage at 6pm will be the multi-talented Lachi and her band. Lachi, who's music is most described as jazz-influenced, piano driven alternative rock, performs regularly at SXSW and CMJ in NYC. Lachi is known for her high energy, mesmerizing performances and exceptional song writing.
The newly formed electro pop duo Bonesugar will take the stage at 7pm and from what we're hearing their sound is influenced by Kanye West and Timbaland. Expect hip hop beats, live drums with indie vocals.
The next performer to take the stage, Idgy Dean, is the solo act of Brook[...]
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11 years ago
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We are gearing up for an incredible festival next weekend, and look forward to experiencing art and music in all their glory. With some of NYC's most innovative artists on board for installations, look no further than the East River.
For AFP's "Artists4Equality," Michael Alan will be drawing his life long love who will be donned in a hand made painted dress and custom designed accessories created by Alan. In a 5 hour act of love, devotion and romance, witness Alan, the line maestro, will create many drawings live while celebrating their love in a piece titled, "Love is the Only."
"Even the reclining male figure of Prostitution looks restless- the angular, attenuated limbs and their busy surfaces bring to mind one of Egon Schiele's more anxious self portraits." - Robert Shuster, The Villiage Voice, Best in Show
Kim Holleman is best known for her seminal work, “Trailer Park: A Mobile Public Park,” which has been featured in the NY Times and shown at several different sites in the city.
In Holleman's words, her installation at Solar One Park is an enormous Festival Flag which will fly in Stuyvesant Park. The fabric flag is huge, brightly colored and has metallic elements, so it acts as a terrific visual marker and color-pops against the sky. I designed to have some dimensionality too, so when it catches the wind, it fills out creating some interesting 3D shapes as it flows.
I had the idea that the patchwork in the flag was the perfect symbol for the gatherin[...]
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11 years ago
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We’re thrilled to be featuring three days of interactive, thought-provoking performance art at Solar One Park for our upcoming “Artists4Equality” Festival. Artists Caridad Sola, Sindy Butz, and Cocoon NYC will perform original pieces on all three days. We are so pleased to have these talented artists on board, and their performances are not to be missed!
Caridad Sola is known for pushing boundaries and creating emotional, thought-provoking art. If you have been fortunate enough to see one of her performances, you know that it is always fresh and exciting. Broaching topics from romantic relationships to politics, Caridad is sure to bring us performance art filled with energy and emotion.
We were fortunate to work with artist Sindy Butz during our “Mixed Greens” series last year. Through an artistic form of experimental dance called “Butoh,” Sindy creates edgy, ethereal performances. As an artist, Sindy Butz is not afraid to touch on human experiences that are common to us all, and cross racial and sexual boundaries. This time she will have us thinking of marriage and getting married.
Cocoon NYC, curated and led by artist Sherry Aliberti, is a project that revolves around multiple persons and experimental dance in a very special “cocoon.” Interactive and symbolic of life, their performances breathe energy and newness to the air.
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11 years ago
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Art for Progress is pleased to present its 2nd annual music and arts festival, Artists4Equality which will take place on Friday, June 28th through Sunday 30th at Solar One Park on NYC’s East River (East 23rd Street). Artists4Equality will feature three incredible days of music, performance and installation art from exciting emerging artists and more established headline acts.
Solar One Park is the perfect outdoor summer venue for the festival which will kick off on Friday evening June 28th. The opening night will feature live music performances from some of the most exciting emerging talent in NYC including the super talented Ellis Ashbrook, while Saturday’s focus will shift to DJ and electronic music culture with DJ Hector Romero headlining the evening. On Sunday, NYC Cielo resident DJ Tedd Patterson will headline the night as both live music and DJ’s share the stage.
Cutting edge performance and installation art will be featured all three days as we turn the park into a virtual adult playground of art & music.
Confirmed Artists: Hector Romero, Tedd Patterson, Ellis Ashbrook, Kim Holleman, Idgy Dean, Andy Slate, Gatto, Roxy Cottontail, Kevin Graves, Daniel Maldonado, Cat Del Buono, Berette Macaulay, Dennis Sebayan, Comandante Zero, Sindy Butz, Bonesugar, Atilla the Hun, Sal Leone, Sherri Aliberti, Barry Komito, Chaisley Lussier, Caridad Sola and many more TBA..
Artists4Equality will take place on gay pride weekend in NYC and will feature many artists from the LGBT[...]
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11 years ago
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On Tuesday March 12, the AFP music program at Humanities Preparatory Academy was fortunate to host Jeremy Danneman of ParadeOfOne for a special multimedia presentation to students. Mr. Danneman is a truly unique artist with a poignant social message that made a palpable impact on the students and their perspective on art, music and world events. The presentation involved showing students slides, playing both live and recorded music, and discussing his experiences having visited Rwanda and Cambodia, two countries that have been recently ravaged by genocide. He shared stories about and recordings of musicians he was fortunate to encounter in these locales, and collaborations he performed with them, despite having possessed no other means of communication with them save for an interpreter. His enthusiastic explanations of his motives for doing this type of work and colorful retelling of his experiences illustrated beautifully the potency of music and arts to bridge social divides, and to introduce a new, living meaning to cultural exchange and painful, but important world events. The presentations culminated with live performances by Mr. Danneman on saxophone and clarinet, and in one case included myself playing guitar in an impromptu musical improvisation that tied together the power of all the skills that students have been learning in class for the past semester. AFP would like to thank Mr. Danneman for visiting our classes, and look forward to hosting him again soon along wi[...]
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11 years ago
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This weeks AFP Art Ed blog entry features student, drummer and musician Jansen Bennett. Jansen was already an accomplished musician and world music enthusiast before we even met at the beginning of the school year. Having traveled to India with his mother, an accomplished actress, on a number of occasions, he developed a keen ear for the music of that region and a comprehensive knowledge of the instrumentation, musical concepts, and reverential spiritual focus that characterize and differentiate it from our own. Jansen plays percussion, including tabla (two drums, played with the fingertips, tuned to high and low pitches that are used in traditional Indian classical music), ghatam (a clay pot with three different tones), mridangam (a two sided drum from southern India), dholak (a northern Indian double sided barrel drum), and drum set; kemenche (a Turkish bowed instrument from the Black Sea region), guitar and bass. He also plays a variety of mouth harps (yes, like Snoopy), which come primarily from different regions in India, but some are from Italy or Hungary. An avid participant in the after school program, Jansen brings an openness and enthusiasm to Humanities’ music program that are rare in a high school student.
Interestingly, Jansen was also born 26 weeks premature. That’s not a typo, and makes him a miracle of modern medicine. He also lost his birth mother early in life. He sometimes is frustrated by the superficiality of high school social dynamics as a result of [...]
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11 years ago
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This week's update on the Art for Progress art education programs features a brief introduction to some of the students in the AFP music programs, as well as some photographs by Paula Parker from the AFP visual arts programs, including student artwork. Sherif, a senior at Humanities Prep, moved to New York City from Cairo, Egypt last summer, and was always an eager student in my music class throughout the past semester.
Sherif spent most of the first several weeks of the semester playing a D chord rather roughly on the electric guitar. Although I continuously suggested that he learn another chord, he continued to focus on the D chord, lifting one finger at a time to hear the variations. Since he seemed to derive such joy from that one chord, I encouraged him to listen to the tone of the strings and demonstrated to him that there were different sounds that could be evoked coaxing them out of the instrument rather than hacking at the strings. Sherif has since developed his D jam into a more coherent developing piece, and after I lent him one of AFP's classical guitars, he recently exchanged it for an electric guitar and is avidly practicing at home. Sherif fulfilled his arts requirements last semester, but continues to come by the music room at every opportunity and is a regular participant in the Tuesday afternoon student/faculty jam, playing drums, guitar, and occasionally gracing the microphone with his own inimitable brand of freestyle rapping/storytelling. Ever the eager[...]
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11 years ago
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Art for Progress arts education programs have been doing great work this winter, with visual arts programs in place at Landmark High School and Quest 2 Learn NY and music programs at Quest, Humanities Prep, Hudson High School for Learning Technologies, and, most recently, at James Baldwin High School, all in Chelsea.
The Humanities music program, led by teaching artist and musician Barry Komitor, has added an after school student/faculty jam on Tuesday afternoons to two regular classes per day, enabling students to apply the knowledge and skills they develop during school music classes. In a dynamic group environment, they learn an entirely different set of skills and considerations. The group has learned “Zombie” by The Cranberries, and “Twist and Shout”, among other songs, and has regular blues and freestyle jams. Komitor also teaches drums after school at Quest 2 Learn on Mondays, and has begun offering guitar and piano lessons after school three days a week, subsidized by grant monies thanks to the Sansom Foundation. These lessons are to serve students from former AFP programs in the Bronx and Brooklyn, which lost support or funding, including: Christopher Columbus High School Campus in the Bronx (which comprises Bronxdale High School and Pelham Prep as well as the Collegiate Institute for Math and Science [CIMS], all providing students that are participating) and The Academy for Conservation and the Environment in Canarsie, Brooklyn. Lessons are available one of the da[...]
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11 years ago
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HOSTED by: NOoSPHERE Arts, Art for Progress, Amber De Vos, Mike Kronenberg, D'stroy And Rebuild, Joseph Meloy, Moody and many more invite you to a be a part of a positive cause.
Michael Alan will be showing over 20 new and old works, drawings, paintings and prints for Auction in the project space of NOoSPHERE Arts On Saturday, January 19th at 7pm.
The goal of the exhibition is to raise funds to help Alan who has been struggling physically with 2 major injuries in the last year. One of those injuries occurred as a result of a serious car accident in June 2012. Sales on works and donations from friends, family and all attending will be a good starting point to help Alan move on from these hard troubles, and get him the help he needs.
It's been an uphill battle after unsuccessful spinal surgery, dealing with permanent nerve damage and a serious brain injury. This benefit will hopefully allow some relief for Alan by raising money towards his outrageous medical bills, and getting better medical attention than what he has received.
We hope to see you on January 19th. You can help make 2013 a better year for the New York-born and raised, wild child artist Michael Alan. This show is made possible by the help of NOoSPHERE Arts, a fun non-profit artist space in the Lower East Side.
Special Thanks to Klemmens Gasser and Tanja Grunert for their support and concern. Special Thanks to Frames and Framers of Short Hills and Printmor for their help and donations.
This show w[...]
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11 years ago
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Thanks to all who attended our opening at Gallery Bar this past Friday. It was an exceptional night, and we were pleased to have many of the participating artists in attendance. The show will run through January 3rd. If you have the opportunity to check it out, please do. We also have some photos below for your viewing pleasure.
It's been a very busy year for AFP. In March, we leased the Armory on Lexington Avenue in partnership with Fountain Art Fair to produce one of the largest art exhibitions in NYC during Armory Week. This past summer we hosted AFP's first annual 3 day music & art festival- Brooklyn Beat Festival and then launched a 3 month series of music & performance art at the same venue.
In November, we were thrilled to host Michael Alan's "Living Installation" and work with his crew of incredible artists. The show was a great success, and we look forward to working with Michael in the future.
To round out the year as we began, "What's Your Religion" opened on Friday night at Gallery Bar. As mentioned above, the exhibition will run through January 3rd.
AFP's Art Education Program continues to grow and flourish. We are currently working with 5 schools and hundreds of students providing music, visual art and theater classes. We just received this new promotional video that was created by Jewel Fiore, a college level film student.
As of January 1st 2013, AFP will no longer charge a fee for artist memberships. Applications will still need to be approved, [...]
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11 years ago
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Art for Progress presents “What’s Your Religion”
Group Art Show. Opening: Friday, December 14th, 7PM – 10PM
The exhibition runs through January 3rd
“What’s Your Religion” delves into the broad perspective of what motivate/inspires people to approach life in a certain way. The artist’s perspective can be personal or just a general perspective on the topic. Is it religion or faith that leads the way? Is it money, power, fame or being of service to others? What’s Your Religion?
Featuring artwork from Ted Barr, Jef Campion, Hunter Clarke, Bill Claps, Pablo Damas, Lance Dehne, Carmen Ghecca, Berette Macaulay, Juan Manuel Pajares, Jeanne Wilkinson and Kristina Zallinger
Gallery Bar
120 Orchard Street
New York, NY 10002
(212) 529-2266
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