Get updates via email
You can have Underground Arts delivered straight to your inbox.
Archive for category Impromptu, a blog
Scenario
Posted by Stephanie Hainsfurther in Impromptu, a blog on July 2nd, 2010
Book it
Stephanie Hainsfurther
I am holding ten books in my hand and not feeling the strain. That is one thing the Kindle has done for me this summer, lightened my armload. But not my reading list. I have whipped through all of the fiction bestsellers on their convenient menu and delved into nonfiction subjects that have intrigued me all my life. After all, how can I turn down the newest selections at just (mostly) $9.99 each? Kindle makes it way too easy to pile on everything I want to read. And like their creator, Amazon, they know just what I desire at the moment. Diabolical.
We’re feeling devilish, too, this month. Turn to page 4 in the July print edition of albuquerqueArts Magazine and be tempted by Wolf Schneider’s picks for your summer reading pleasure, all by New Mexico authors (and Melanie Sumner, a former Taoseño). I really like the idea behind “Singing Out: An Oral History of America’s Folk Music Revivals,” a work of literature about grassroots music pieced together from personal interviews. Cross-genre projects generated locally are a pet subject of mine.
You can’t find a better example than “LAND/ART New Mexico” (Radius Books, Santa Fe, 2010), the gorgeous, concisely written compilation just out thanks to 516 Arts, The Albuquerque Museum of Art and History, UNM’s College of Fine Arts, and The Fund at Albuquerque Community Foundation. The book’s project coordinator was Albuquerque’s own Suzanne Sbarge, who was also one of its photographers. This volume of photos and ruminations on what Land Art is and can mean to all of us reminds one of the transcendent installations and artists whose work we enjoyed last year. Look for entries by Andrew Connors, Lucy Lippard, Augustine Romero, Michele M. Penhall, Sherri Brueggemann and other local luminaries in visual art. Nature plus people. It can be a creative collaboration.
Yes, the multi-tasker in me adores twofers. Like soaking up the sun while reading. I am not a bookworm, I am now a book lizard, thanks to my brother Bill, who sent the Kindle as an early birthday present. It was his rhapsodic description of how Kindle had changed his business-traveling life that got me interested in the first place. Now I find that his Kindle has been appropriated by his wife, and Bill has a new iPad. (Wonder when mine will show up.)
–Stephanie Hainsfurther
Impromptu: A Blog – Scenario – Oh go away
Posted by E Christina Herr in Impromptu, a blog on April 23rd, 2010
Stephanie Hainsfurther
I have a zippy new convertible that is fun to drive and oh-so fast. After driving a stick for 15 years, though, the automatic is hard to get used to. I pretend my left foot is Velcroed to the floor so I won’t mistake the brake for a clutch. But it’s a trick to keep my hand off the gear shift. Throwing the car into “Park” as you approach a traffic light is not good for transmission or driver. I seem doomed to learn this lesson over and over.
Not that I can zip around the city with all of the traffic out there lately. Is that a sign the economy is improving? My husband thinks so. I think it’s because the weather is nicer. I drove with the top down the other day – and the heater aimed at my sandaled feet. Can’t wait for summer.
In the meantime, there is plenty to get out and see, around town and ARTward Bound. Brave the highway to see the new African American art and history exhibit at the Santa Fe Roundhouse, as Wolf Schneider writes in her May online story “Slice of life.” Swing by Indigo Crow in Corrales to pair fine wines with their fabulous food as reported by The Southwest Wine Guy Jim Hammond on p. 8 in the May print issue. Or drive on up to Cerrillos and check out the awesome architecture and contemporary art at Encaustic Art Institute, as Melody Mock prescribes in “That’s a lotta crayons” (p. 7).
Get to a few of this city’s many music venues—Low Spirits, the El Rey, One Up, the Launchpad and more—to hear local bands. Before you go, read what a dozen of those band members have to say about roots music, Americana style, in E Christina Herr’s music feature on p. 13. Also in this Music issue, catch the lowdown on classical music offerings all over the state, all season long, in “Sweet sounds of music” by associate editor and musicologist Peggy Herrington on p. 15. Jim Belshaw talks to Brad Ellingboe, director of the University Chorus, a popular concert group celebrating their 100th year (p. 5).
As for me, I’ll crank down the ragtop and amp up the SPF. Although I do admire the way Bryan Cranston’s craggy, sandblasted face makes him look like he’s spent his whole life in the Albuquerque sun.
–Stephanie Hainsfurther
Challenger Learning Center opens March 6
Posted by abq arts in Impromptu, a blog on March 8th, 2010
The first and only in New Mexico is launching their mission on March 6, 2010. 
Combining the natural of children and the excitement of space exploration, Challenger Learning Center New Mexico empowers students to make use of math and science skill while working together to solve problems, make decisions, and share in the victory of accomplishing a simulated space mission.
Unser Children’s Discovery Campus Board Member Al Unser notes that the Challenger Learning Center is a “great opportunity for children to see in a lab setting what it would be like to be on a shuttle and space mission.” He added that the Village of Los Ranchos de Albuquerque is an integral part of the Center and is committed to ensuring that the Center will benefit the community.
On January 18th, a team of professionals from the Challenger Center for Space Science Education began work in Los Ranchos for the formal installation of the CLCNM simulator that includes a realistic mission control room and a futuristic spacecraft. The center is almost ready to start the first mission!
Schools may make reservations for their classes to participate in the CLC mission experience beginning February first. Corporate groups are also encouraged to learn more about how they may participate in an out-of-this-world team building experience. Corporate sponsorship opportunities are also available.
Mission Control
Challenger Learning Center New Mexico is located on the Unser Discovery Campus:
1776 Montano Road NW in Los Ranchos de Albuquerque.
Call 505-248-1776 or email info@challengernm.org to reserve your place in space.
Go to Challenger Learning Center website for information, history and the mission of Challenger Centers can also be found.
21st Annual Diversity Leadership Council Forum on Diversity – March 25th
Posted by abq arts in Impromptu, a blog on March 8th, 2010
March 25th, 2010 @ 9:15 am
Radisson Hotel and Water Park
2500 Carlisle Blvd NE, Albuquerque, NM 87110
“Color and Difference Blindness is an Inside Job: Who’s Responsible?”
Moderated by KRQE News 13 Anchorwoman, Deanna Sauceda
Contact:
Hakim Bellamy
Social and Community Programs Coordinator
New Mexico State Office of African American Affairs
1015 Tijeras NW, Suite 102
Albuquerque, NM 87102
Office: (505) 222-9442
Toll Free: (866) 747-6935
Fax: (505) 222-9489
E-mail
Impromptu: A Blog – Stephanie Hainsfurther interview
Posted by Stephanie Hainsfurther in Impromptu, a blog on February 1st, 2010
albuquerqueARTS publisher Stephanie Hainsfurther
Stephanie Hainsfurther
is interviewed about art in Albuquerque
Impromptu: a blog – When all the artists are women
Posted by Stephanie Hainsfurther in Impromptu, a blog on January 1st, 2010
Robert Genn, plein air painters
A letter to our photo editor, Joan Fenicle,
from artist Robert Genn
When all the artists are women
December 11, 2009
Dear Joan,
Last night I was giving a short talk and signing books at one of our local art clubs. I happened to notice no men were in the hall. The club has many male members, they assured me, but apparently they don’t come out on rainy nights. Not to listen to me, anyway. I wasn’t crestfallen–I was being sociologically informed. I’ve always noticed the 80/20 split in these organizations, but I knew the full-female thing was just around the corner. Anyway, it was a combined lecture and holiday-season windup, the shortbread was good, and no one asked me to dance.
If you don’t mind, I’m going to lay some statistics on you. Of the 82 new people who signed up for the Twice-Weekly letter yesterday, 56 were women. That’s 68%–which pretty well mirrors our current ratio of 67% women subscribers. Maybe this means females might be more willing to listen to males than males are. If true, one wonders what percentage of males is willing to listen to females.
Yesterday, among the people buying my new book on PayPal, 65% were women. Funnily, more men paid by check-in-the-mail than women. One might conclude women are what social scientists are now calling “early adopters.”
Fact is, women are more into growth, self-improvement, networking and learning than men. In a recent UNESCO study, more women than men got university degrees in 75 of 98 countries. This goes for most professions with the exception of engineering, computer science and math. Some fields are being overwhelmed with women. The vet school in Guelph, Ontario, for example, reports 80% of current grads are women.
The fact that boys lag behind girls in school is well known and not peculiar to our times. Studies show that as early as grade nine girls crave learning more than boys. Apparently the boys are now lagging later and later. The new statistics might be alarming to some. Roles may be reversing. Are men going to be stay-at-home-daddies while the women go out into the world and slay dragons? Is breeding going to grind to a halt? Are women going to be all the doctors, lawyers and artists? And by the way, do men just not want to listen because they already know it all and need to get on with it?
Best regards,
Robert
PS: “It’s not ridiculous to say women will have the upper hand in a way they haven’t in the past.” (Economist Ross Finnie, University of Ottawa)
Esoterica:
The “demographic bomb,” as it’s being called, may have its short term benefits, but the longer picture is not so rosy, particularly for Western cultures. If women are busy building empires, where will the new customers be coming from? One more statistic and I’ll shut up and get back to my easel. In my four top galleries it looks like 27% of living artists represented are women. Ten years ago it was 24%.
Painters Keys Twice Weekly Letters
To see Robert’s work go to: Robert Genn
Impromptu, a blog: Busy Bees
Posted by Stephanie Hainsfurther in Impromptu, a blog on November 1st, 2009
Stephanie Hainsfurther
The pewter disc around my neck sports a bee in flight and is suspended on a delicate beaded chain. This new favorite necklace was crafted by Jen Riordan of Mariposa Gallery (the place in Nob Hill with the unique, affordable jewelry). I often wear it during those three days a week that I flit from here to there, making honey. Money. Whatever.
Everywhere I go, artsfolk are buzzing around, too. The Albuquerque Art Business Association has just made a deal with the Hotel Andaluz to hang their member-galleries’ artwork in the in-house Cultural Center on the Mezzanine, with room on the kiosk for their ads and announcements. (Read the article online this month at abqarts.com). This brilliant move enhances Downtown tourism at the same time it promotes AABA’s ArtsCrawl and First Friday events. Get those hotel guests out on the street and into the galleries and watch the excitement trickle down to all of the Downtown, Old Town, Uptown, Edo, Nob Hill and Northeast Heights shops, restaurants and performing arts spaces.
The arts businesses aren’t strictly business, though – so many of them are all about education as well. Every theater in town has an educational outreach program that goes into the schools (and brings APS students to the theater) to teach drama, public speaking skills, dance and movement. These classes carry minimal fees and often don’t make a profit for those theaters or their teachers – they do it because kids need art in their lives, to help them think creatively, build confidence and have full lives. Right and left brains should be acquainted with each other, don’t you agree?
It’s time to bring the right-brained and the left-brained together in Albuquerque’s economic development efforts. You don’t have to keep pointing to the 2007 BBER report, “The Economic Importance of the Arts & Cultural Industries in Albuquerque and Bernalillo Counties” ($1.2 billion in revenues! $413 million in wages! 6% of all employment in the county! ) to know that. Just look around you. Arts and culture mean a lot to us here – they mean tourism, and quality of life, and plenty of economic development opportunities.
As I write this, artsfolk and business people are meeting to sketch an initiative on designating Downtown an Arts and Culture District, spearheaded by the Downtown Action Team and New Mexico MainStreets , attended by arts organizations and business groups with a stake in the plan. Let’s keep that type of collaboration going strong, to the benefit of all.
Arts people are business people, too. Busy bees, all of us, in these challenging times.
–Stephanie Hainsfurther, publisher AlbuquerqueArts Magazine
Estate Sale for Arts Lovers
Posted by Kelly Koepke in Impromptu, a blog on August 2nd, 2009
The estate of renowned local collector Jane Batten is selling a treasure trove of wonderful artwork, paintings, Native American pottery, fun and fancy objects d’art, whimsical lamps, punched tin sconces and extraordinary Persian rugs. Furniture – chairs, benches, tables, chests, and a church altarpiece are also up for grabs. A portion of the proceeds benefits the Arts Alliance.
Estate Sale for Art Lovers
Friday, August 7 and Saturday, August 8
8 am to 4 p.m. each day, or until everything goes!
Cash or credit card only. See the entire inventory at www.abqarts.org
Location: The landmarked chapel-turned home at 1934 Candelaria NW. From Rio Grand Blvd, drive east on Candelaria 4/10 of a mile. Turn right into the driveway (look for the signs) and park in back.
For more info, contact the Arts Alliance at 505-268-1920.
(De)claiming a woman’s life at The Vortex
Posted by Stephanie Hainsfurther in Impromptu, a blog on July 31st, 2009
Albuquerque audiences are being treated to a unique and lovely piece in “Passenger on the Ship of Fools,” the life of American writer Katherine Anne Porter as told by herself in three stages of life – as a young woman, a middle-aged woman, and the older woman who finished “Ship of Fools,” her bestselling novel. At the Vortex, three actors play Porter at these stages and a finer, more seamlessly integrated troupe you won’t find anywhere this summer. I saw Bridget Kelly, Vivian Nesbitt and Lee Kitts pull off three sides of the same character without drowning their separate talents in sameness. It was like trying the same Bloody Mary mix first with vodka, then with tequila and then with gin.
Not that Porter was Bloody Mary. Oh, she was a Southern lady (more straight bourbon than mixed drink, judging by the amber color of the liquid the actors toss down), and these three ladies do her proud. Have you seen it? Will you? I urge you not to miss it, especially if you’re a woman. Laura Furman and Lynn C. Miller have woven a play about identity and creativity, and how they are bound together, from the stuff of this woman’s extraordinary life.
“Passenger on the Ship of Fools” runs through Aug. 9. On Aug. 8 from 2-3:30 p.m., meet the co-playwright. Humanities scholar John Anderson and Katherine Anne Porter biographer, Darlene Unrue, at The Vortex. Bookworks offers related books for sale this month, too.
–Stephanie Hainsfurther
Entries (RSS)