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Artists, educators to share expertise in groundbreaking learning approach

A distinguished group of artists/educators in the expanding field of STEM education is collaborating on a Paseo Pop-up event entitled STEAM Frontiers: From New Mexico to the Edge of the Universe, to be held at David Anthony Fine Art (DAFA) on Saturday, June 20, 2015, starting at 1pm. Through interactive demonstrations and discussion, artists Andrea Polli, Agnes Chavez, and Christina Sporrong will introduce a learning approach that crosses the frontier between formal and informal learning, expanding the typical curriculum to include design and creativity.

STEM (acronym for the academic disciplines of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) programs nurture students to think critically and have an engineering approach towards real-world problems while building on their math and science base. By incorporating Art into the model, students learn to tackle real-world problems with a more integrative approach, hence STEAM.

STEAM Frontiers is part of New Media New Mexico 2015, founded by Currents in Santa Fe, and will showcase programs developed by each of the panelists that have successfully and ingeniously merged art and science into a twenty-first century learning prototype. Polli, Director of the Social Media Workgroup, a research lab at UNM that investigates social and ecological impacts of media technology, will lead the panel and discuss her integrative projects with students and Americorps volunteers engaging STEAM at The Paseo.

Chavez, who is Associate Director of The Paseo and the founder of STEMarts Lab specializing in collaborative youth projects fusing new media art and science, will be presenting her latest project entitled Projecting Particles. The artist will discuss outcomes of her physics-inspired projection art installation, which was invited to the 12^th Havana Biennial, and her recent residency at CERN. Sporrong founded The Toolbox, a workspace for youth and adults that bridges new technologies with old world tools and shares it with the community of Taos. She along with her team member, Liz Neely, will share the latest news on Taos’ first Maker Space and how it will provide unique STEAM learning opportunities for the community.

Click here to see her works

Tina Mion is describing The Juggler at the opening reception for her show, Carpe Diem, at David Anthony Fine Art November 22. Those in attendance interacted with her inspiration and process. We’ll keep you informed of future presentations, this show is up through March 1, with works remaining indefinitely.

Tina has provided original watercolor studies of The Spectacular Death Spoon series for purchase. She has never before offered the sale of her studies.

Amy Winehouse, “One of history’s most unique exits”
Study in watercolor for the Spectacular Death Spoon series.

Handcrafted furniture by David Mapes continues to be a mainstay of the gallery. Pictured is a custom media cabinet with hand-embossed hollyhocks in copper. Made in Taos.

Sculpted Hot Glass by Martin Janecky, Czech Republic.

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The month-long biennial features well-known glass artists with over 200 works of art glass on display and numerous events

The Taos Institute for Glass Arts (TIGA) announces the 2014 Taos Art Glass Invitational, a month-long series of exhibitions, lectures, workshops, and demonstrations, including live glass blowing. The invitational takes place from Saturday, October 11 – November 9, 2014, with multiple events happening throughout the weeks and every weekend. This fifth invitational, which became a biennial event in 2010, features more than 200 works of art from the national and international art glass arena, alongside top artists of the region working in glass, displayed at seven participating galleries. It includes both juried artists and featured artists whose work will be exhibited in the small, accessible art-historic environment of Taos, a place long known as an epicenter of the visual arts.

“The Taos Art Glass Invitational is a ambitious logistical and creative undertaking that will not only shine a light on the many artists whose work will be exhibited, but on the art glass movement itself and how Taos is playing a large part in this movement,” said Betsy Ehrenberg, founder of Glass Alliance – New Mexico, a regional chapter of the Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass. “It serves as yet another reason Taos remains a center for creativity and a draw for visitors who seek to experience this culture,” she added.

The invitational kicks off on Saturday, Oct. 11, 2014 with an Official Grand Opening—exhibitions of both juried and featured artists at the seven participating galleries. The galleries are David Anthony Fine Art, Copper Moon Gallery, Total Arts Gallery, Mission Gallery, RC Gorman’s Navajo Gallery, El Monte Sagrado Grand Bohemian Gallery, and the Wilder-Nightingale Gallery. Winning juried artists will be announced early in the invitational. The winning categories include Best in Show, Best in Sculpture, Best in Wall, Best in Functional, Best in Wearable, Most Original, Most Technical, and Best Expression. All work included in the invitational is available for purchase.

The 2014 Invitational featured artists, invited by the TIGA board, represent excellence in glass internationally and include Herb Babcock (USA), Hiroshi Yamano (Japan), Paul Stankard (USA), Martin Janecky (Czech Republic), and Paul Scwheider (USA).

“This invitational represents some of the most distinguished artists working in glass from around the world and will continue to put Taos on the map as a center of art glass,” said Delinda VanneBrightyn, the president of the board of the Taos Institute of Glass Arts and founder of the Taos Art Glass Invitational. “The medium of glass is cutting edge, involving both science and art. Its luminosity and translucence offer a world of unexplored territory for the artist and collector alike,” she added.

More about the featured artists:
Inspired by Scandinavian glass and schooled in both the United States and Japan, Hiroshi Yamano is considered a master artist and teacher whose work in is the collection of Museum of Arts and Crafts, Itami, Japan and many others collections around the world. Herb Babcock is a pioneer of fine art glass in America, and an influential teacher and advocate for over four decades. Martin Janecky, from the Czech Republic is the recipient of the Salvador Dalí World Prize by the European Union of Arts. Janecky creates representational sculptures of musical instruments and vintage-inspired circus performers characterized by a haunting gothic lyricism.

Artist-philosopher and admirer of Walt Whitman, Paul Stankard is recognized for the intricate, fragile beauty of flamed-worked still life sculptures of botanical and insect life in clear crystal. In 2004, New York’s Museum of Arts in Design staged a retrospective of his work, “Paul Stankard: A Floating World.” Paul Schwieder, born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, speaks of the “grand sweeping gestures” of the Canadian prairie as an influence upon his molten glass forms. Currently living in Umeå, Sweden, he studied at the Orrefors Glass School in Sweden as well as at the University of West Bohemia in the Czech Republic. His creative breakthrough came when he began sculpting blown glass with a sandblaster, which gave him the ability to augment or diminish elements of the originally conceived form.

Photo credits: Sini Majuri, Finland, Firebird, Twice Blown Graal Glass, 17 x 15 cm.; Linda Ethier, (Oregon), Forest Nest, Pat de Verre, 10 x 5 in.; Kerrick Johnson, (Tennessee), Keen, Cold Worked Blown Glass, 12 x 12 x 8 in.

For more about the Taos Art Glass Invitational, visit www.tiganm.org/invitational.html

The Mission of the Taos Institute for Glass Arts (TIGA) is to expand the understanding and appreciation for the Contemporary Glass Art Movement through classes, workshops, lectures, demonstrations, special events and exhibitions. TIGA serves and integrates the needs of artists, students, collectors, architects and designers. TIGA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization which was born when a group of local glass artists purchased equipment that was brought to Taos Pueblo by famed artist Dale Chihuly for his educational program. www.tiganm.org