Saturday, November 14, 2009

CONVERSATIONS AT THE BARN , Saturday November 14th

We have had one of those exciting weeks where you're computer gets compromised and you don't know what information is left unscathed . So amidst this technical debacle the job of blogging  got put squarely to one side .  So apologies for this late post of Joan  Bankemper's invitation to meet
for "Conversations at The Barn" located at East Ridge Rd , Warwick , N Y. at 6pm Sat Nov.14th .

Joan wants to have regular meetings or conversations at The Barn . The goal is to create a dialogue about sustainability. This week she has invited four speakers  who have studied in four
diverse corners of sustainability : a curator, a lawyer an artist and a farmer. Each will give a short
presentation of their concerns in their respective worlds.

Joan will also be serving soup , hot cider and beer to wet you appetites but bring something for
something more substantial .

The guest speakers will be :  Guy Jones , of Blooming Hill Farm , Amy Lipton co founder of ecoartspace , Caroline G. Harris lawyer and artist  and Simon Draper artist and Hudson Valley
resident , originator of the HFA project .

It'll be an informal affair and I think you'll need to dress appropriately as it will i n the Barn !

This week saw the last of the Habitat studios in the city . Todd and I took down the studio at Solar 1 despite strong winds and persistent rains . I was encouraged to see that it had worn well and was surprisingly in good shape . This is the studio that had been seen at ecoartspace in the Spring then moved to East 23rd for Solar1 's CITYSOL event in July and then moved to one side
for the Out door Film festival there in September. 

Monday I took down the indoor studio at Work Space Harlem , on 141st and 5th Ave , and we hope to be having a workshop building a studio there in the new year . Keep posted !!

At some point we have to wrap up , and I mean that literally as well as figuratively the studio at SCEE, Philadelphia . It looks as if through the efforts of one of the summer's participating artists , Jeff Bailey , we will be moving the studio east to Burlington Community College NJ. We hope to be doing this in the Spring of next year and are currently planning how the project will take shape there . We hope to be able to involve not only artists and art students but other groups in other areas , especially engineering and culinary arts . I hope to see further applications of the studio manifesting itself as not only a studio but a kitchen , a work shop or 
a mix of things . Perhaps a hybrid space in which it takes on the character it needs to ,enabling
new ideas to come into the project . 

We are pioneering new alternatives with Scott Gibson , of ECOPIONEER . Scott has come up with a wonderful solar system that uses the run off water in a number of ways . He and I have been discussing this idea which came up in discussion between us a couple of weeks ago whilst brainstorming ideas with HFA and his emergency disaster response initiative for a Buckminster Fuller proposal . More on that project later . We intend on building this solar prototype at Scott's IFEE site in Kingston NY . ( Pretty soon weather permitting ). He has some parts of a studio on site and we need to get the structure up before winter hits properly .
We intend this site to be a mixed use site for the merging of design /engineering ideas and art.
Oh IFEE ,.... Institute For Environmental Exploration .....yeah iffey but it works !! For others ,..
Not another outdoor art area ?? But thats limiting .

I am also looking for a site in the Garrison Area for a project to start some time in late Spring , which we can discuss is now what month ?  I've been working with Andy Chmar of HHLT  to find a suitable site and host . This promises to be quite the project and we hope to be getting a wonderful sponsor for this venture which we hope will really start to connect some dots between green building, art , farming /land use , energy and sustainable economic strategy with community !!  YES a big goal but I think its the right place and time to have this discussion .If not here , WHERE !?  It is quite the back yard to a number of notable and talented individuals who are already thinking about these issues ! So a logistical , strategy filled winter is ahead .

The Garrison Project is still being conceived but the focus is how we might set up a number of the small habitat studios in a group and have the artists work collectively as well as with other organizations  and folks in the area which touch on the areas of food , land use , conservation as well as energy and the economy . The resulting site will also influence what events we can plan around this community experiment which we hope will put many an idea into practice !

Before I wrap up for the evening , any WRITERS please write to me with regard to the NEW studio (or Writer's Shack ) at SCENIC HUDSONs Poet's Walk Park , Rhineclif f NY .  We are re furbishing it to suit writers primarily of ALL disciplines ,.... prose to poetry , history to art 
plays to documentaries ..... 2 hours to 2 weeks .  We hope to get it re installed by early summer.
Contact me at  :    habitatforartists@gmail.com

Stay well , stay dry and please take a look at the NY Times current Book Review ....  

Some excellent reviews , most notably Harold Bloom's review of Peter Ackroyd's Canterbury Tales ....retold !!  Good stuff !!     Enjoy and digest    ... best  SD

 

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