Friday, May 28, 2010

Learn to Photograph Your Artwork


Edna Davis is offering another great, inexpensive workshop:

Photographing Your Artwork
Sunday, June 27, 1:00 to 3:00 p.m.
$30
at
Tyme Gallery17 West Eagle Road
Havertown, PA 19083-2204
(610) 853-1215
Stop paying other people something you can do yourself. Let the photographs of your artwork look as good as your work. Learn how to photograph your art for less money than you would pay someone to shoot it. Let John Benigno take you through the simple steps.
John A. Benigno is a fine art photographer. Recent exhibits of his work include showings in the Art of the State Exhibition hosted by the State Museum in Harrisburg, the Lancaster Art Museum, the Art Association of Harrisburg, the University of Delaware, and the Center for the Arts in Southern New Jersey, to name a few.

John's work is represented in many collections, including the Philip and Muriel Berman Museum, the Woodmere Art Museum, the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in Halifax, the Lancaster Museum of Art, The Noyes Museum, the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas in Austin, and the State Museum of Pennsylvania.

The class will cover:
  • inexpensive lighting equipment and how to set it up
  • if you're using film, which film to use with your light source
  • using a tripod
  • which lenses are best
  • squaring up your art with your camera
  • backgrounds
  • shooting through glass.
Check out John Benigno's photostream on Flickr. Call Edna Davis at Tyme Gallery to register: 610-853-1215.  You must pre-register with your payment.

Follow @TymeGallery on twitter

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Stacie Brennan Shares the Main Line Art Center Experience with WHYY...

Creative Arts & Aging Network's Board Member Stacie Brennan is a movie star! Well, at least a video star. As Education Director of the Main Line Art Center, Stacie is the narrator of wonderful 3-minute video produced by WHYY. CAAN was fortunate to have Stacie as one of our panelists for our May 20th Event--The Arts for All Ages: A Creative Conversation.

Take a minute (actually, take 3 minutes) and go here to listen to Stacie and to view the WHYY Experience Video about Main Line Art Center
Since 1937, this Haverford-based organization has encouraged people to express themselves through the visual arts. Classes in prints, drawing, watercolors, sculpture, ceramics, jewelry and print making are offered by 70 teaching artists, both on site and in the community.
Main Line Art Center
746 Panmure Road Haverford, PA 19041
610.525.0272

Office Hours:
Monday - Thursday: 9 am - 9 pm
Friday - Saturday: 9 am - 5 pm
Sunday: Closed

Gallery Hours:
Monday - Thursday: 10 am - 8 pm
Friday - Saturday: 10 am - 4 pm
Sunday: Closed

Follow Main Line Art Center on Facebook and LinkedIn.

WHYY's Arts & Culture Service presents stories about interesting destinations across the Delaware Valley. These appear on television as "video postcards" between programs and may also be viewed at this site.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

A Successful Creative Conversation About Arts and Aging!

“Art is a safe place to live dangerously.”
~ Sheila Zagar
The Arts for All Ages: A Creative Conversation
May 20, 2010

Candice Thompson, William Way Community Center; Suzanne Hayward, CAAN Board & Community Arts Center; Meaghan Brown, CAAN President & United Way of Southeastern PA

The Arts for All Ages: A Creative Conversation is part of Celebrate Arts and Aging, the month-long festival presented by Philadelphia Corporation for Aging and the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance in honor of Older Americans Month May 2010

William Way Community Center was such a wonderful space to enjoy all the creative energy, new connections and reunion of great friends.

The evening began with networking, food and wine while we all enjoyed the music of  88 year old violinist, Eric Olson. Eric learned to play the violin when he turned 50. Eric was a carpenter, house builder, welder and steel worker through the years. When his children were in college, he found a retired violin teacher and has been playing and learning the violin ever since. He has played in a civic orchestra, was part of the Fiddlers of Rhode Island for 15 years and now plays with the Joyful Noise Singers. Eric continues to search for more opportunities to play his violin.

Then Sheila Zagar really got things moving! Sheila is a choreographer and performer, an instructor of dance, exercise and physical therapy and a CAAN member. She has worked in the Philadelphia Arts and Aging field for 26 years transforming the emotional and physical well being of older adults through dance and storytelling. For the last 19 years she has been creating Dance/ Theater works with older adults. Sheila’s work empowers the body, which taps into the wellspring of creativity, uplifting and healing the body, mind and spirit. In this place the possibilities for change are limitless and extraordinary transformations occur.

Jan Michener is a professional actress and a teaching artist with the Philadelphia Theatre Company and Philadelphia Young Playwrights and a CAAN member. She facilitates hands-on interactive theatre and playwriting workshops with older adults and high school students. Since 2005 Jan has facilitated a weekly Living History Storytelling Project at the Kennett Area Senior Center (KASC) and is facilitating a 10 session Guided Life Writing Workshop at the KASC. Jan was director of the Philadelphia Senior Center’s (PSC) theatre group 2008 - 2009, wrote and directed three plays with the PSC drama group, and is a member of Second Circle Intergenerational Theatre Company, an improvisational company which explores social action and building community.

Benita Cooper is a Harvard-trained architect with a soft spot for seniors and another for words. In addition to leading a full service architectural and interior design firm, she is the founder, director of a multimedia and multigenerational storytelling
project with a rapidly growing physical and digital network and author of the blog The Best Day of My Life So Far. Her work with older adults from the Philadelphia Senior Center is inspired by her friendship with her grandmother, which she is currently writing about in a narrative nonfiction. The working title of the book is Po Po and Ling Ling. For more information, please visit Benita's website.

Stacie Brennan is the Education Director at Main Line Art Center and a CAAN Member. During her six years of working at the Art Center, she has helped to develop a variety of new visual arts education programs and opportunities for community engagement including the expansion of the Art Center’s outreach offerings to diverse audiences. She is currently completing an M.S. Education from the Museum Leadership Program and is focusing her thesis studies on how Community Art Centers can provide more inclusive creative experiences for individuals with and without disabilities.

Philadelphia-based artist Lindsay Sparagana teaches photography at The University of the Arts and works extensively in the Philadelphia arts community. In 2008 and 2009, she received the NewCourtland Artists Fellowship through The Center for Emerging Visual Artists. In 2010 she spent two weeks in La Carpio, Costa Rica teaching arts and crafts and painting a mural with the local children. Sparagana works with both traditional and digital photographic processes. Her work has been exhibited locally and internationally.

Meaghan Brown moderated the evening's panel. Meaghan is the Community Impact Manager for Healthy Aging at the United Way of Southeastern PA, and is the President of the Creative Arts & Aging Network. With a Masters Degree in Gerontology, Meaghan was previously the Director of two Adult Day Centers providing care for adults with functional and physical impairments in Dealware County. Prior to her work in the Philadelphia region, Meaghan created an accessibility program for the National Gallery of Art and spent several years working with low-income older adults in Tucson, Arizona.


...and a good time was had by all!

Friday, May 21, 2010

MindAlert Live Web Seminar Series--FREE!

The American Society on Aging (ASA), with funding from MetLife Foundation, is offering a FREE MindAlert web seminar series. Whether you are in the Aging field or the Arts, be sure to mark your calendar for these three upcoming web seminars:

May 27, 2010 at 1:00 PM EDT
presented by Stuart Kandell, PhD

The performing arts help elders connect with one another and improve their overall health. Using the Stagebridge model, you will learn simple techniques for employing storytelling and improvisation with groups of elders, recognize the elements of creating/expanding performing arts programming in elder settings, and be inspired.

June 3, 2010 at 1:00 PM EDT
presented by Cheryl Svennson, PhD
Life review techniques assist middle-aged and older persons move through transitions in the later stages of life. Learn how you can adapt techniques such as memory priming questions based on the common themes of life to fit various venues and diverse populations.

June 10, 2010 at 1:00 PM EDT
presented by Robin Lea West, PhD
Design your community’s roadmap to memory improvement based on the highly successful, evidence-based methods designed at the Everyday Memory Clinic. Discover the key elements of any successful memory training program and how to implement training in your own community.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Calling All Photographers: Take a Picture of the Pitcher And Make the Big League!


Edna Davis, owner of Havertown's Tyme Gallery has "teamed up" with the minor league Camden Riversharks to conduct a juried photography competition. The First Place photograph will be hung in Campbell’s Field for visitors to see and four runners up will have their photographs displayed on the big screen during the July 10th game at Campbell’s Field.

First:
  • Photographers must bring action photographs to Tyme Gallery June 5th or 6th from noon to 3:00 pm for jurying
  • The initial entry fee is just $10.00.
  • Contestants are permitted to bring in 3-5 photographs, and framing is not necessary.
  • Photographs will be juried on Sunday evening June 6.
  • Ten photographers will be picked from this group.
  • Contestants will be notified of their status on Monday, June 7.
  • The chosen photographers will go to a game of their choice at Campbell’s Field from June 7th through June 26th to photograph the players.
Then:
  • Admission to the field (good seats!) will be provided for each photographer and a friend. (And no, you're not limited to a picture of the pitcher!) 
  • The entry fee for this part of the competition is $25.00.
  • From the shots taken by the ten photographers picked, five images will be selected.
  • The top five images will be presented to the Riversharks.
  • The Riversharks will select the winning photograph. which will be displayed in the Diamond Club Café, an exclusive club box.
  • The other four photographs will be displayed on the big screen during the Riversharks game scheduled for July 10th.
Call the Tyme Gallery at 610-853-1215 for more details.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Celebrate Arts & Aging in May!

Research shows the arts are good for you, whether you’ve discovered a passion for painting or dance late in life, been a professional artist or simply enjoy being part of the audience.

This whole month of May, Philadelphia Corporation for Aging (PCA) has joined with the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance to create Celebrate Arts & Aging, "We’ve partnered...to create a bigger and better version of the annual arts celebration which has been known as ‘Seniors Celebrate the Arts’ for the past seven years,” said Joan Zaremba, director of marketing and corporate relations for PCA.

Museums, theaters and cultural venues are offering special discounts to older adults during May. Check the Phillyfunguide for classes and workshops and exhibits of art and performances by older adults.

For the cost-conscious, Phillyfunguide's Funsavers are a real find; subscribers receive a weekly email, delivered on Thursdays, with offers of 50% off on theater, music, dance, museum exhibits, comedy shows and sporting events. Subscriptions are free, but you will need to have an email account to participate. To sign up, go online to www.phillyfunguide.com, click on Funsavers and fill out the subscription form.

More information on Celebrate Arts and Aging activities is available from the PCA Helpline at 215-765-9040.

Yes, Creative Arts & Aging Network is participating in Celebrate Arts and Aging. Come out to The Arts for All Ages: A Creative Conversation at William Way Community Center this Thursday, May 20. Go here for details. Hope we see you there!

Friday, May 14, 2010

NewCourtland & The Center for Emerging Visual Artist present Art is Ageless 2010


Meaghan Brown and I went to the Art is Ageless Exhibit Opening Reception last night. Wow! 

2424 Studios was the scene of fantastic art produced by the NewCourtland Comfort & Joy™ Program with the Center for Emerging Visual Artists.

Meaghan Brown, CAAN President

Philadelphia Senior Center-Tioga &
Kenderton Elementary with
Artist Antonio Purl


Philadelphia Senior Center-Main &
Local University Students with
Artist Pedro Ospino


Maplewood Manor with
Artist Mariel Waloff

Cliveden & Blair Christian Academy
with Artist Diane Podolsky


Care Pavilion &
Local University Students with
Artist Maria Anasazi

Germantown Home with
Artist Rachel Shoham

Tucker House & Local University Students
with Artist Marguerita C. Hagan

NewCourtland LIFE &
Northern Home for Children
with Artist Lindsay Sparagana *

* Lindsay Sparagana will be part of the Interactive Art Panel at 
Mark your calendar and RSVP here.

CAAN encourages you to go see this wonderful art exhibit showcasing the intergenerational artistic achievement of older adults, school-aged children and local artists.
Comfort & Joy™ has garnered national attention and has given voice to seniors while encouraging them to remain involved and active in their communities.
May 13-May 26, 2010
Monday - Friday from Noon - 4pm
2424 E. York Street, Philadelphia, PA 19125



Both Art is Ageless 2010 and The Arts for All Ages: A Creative Conversation are part of Celebrate Arts and Aging, the month-long festival presented by Philadelphia Corporation for Aging and the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance in honor of Older Americans Month May 2010.

Friday, May 7, 2010

10 Really, Really Good Reasons to Care About Social Media

Reason #7--because Facebook is now the operating system of the social web. It has won the social networking war... If Facebook were a country it would be bigger than the USA and 3rd largest in the World.



OK--so here's the question.  We have a Facebook Page. Do YOU have a Facebook Page? 

For some help to get going, check out our Let's Review Facebook... post.

Now, Take Notes!  Comment on this post and share your Facebook Page with us. We promise to become your Fan.  Just share your link with us and, yes, we'll "Like" you!

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

American Idol Tryout?

Enjoy!