Tag Archives: Art in Embassies

Second Time Around

Considering all the disfunction in Washington and its impact on our relationships abroad, it’s heartening to know that there are elements of our government that are concentrating on supporting positivity. Art is a link that bridges divides between cultures while also celebrating their similarities. The US State Department’s Art in Embassies program is an entity that works successfully toward just that end.

A couple of weeks ago I received the very welcome honor/request that I loan another of my pieces through Art in Embassies, this time to Patrick Murphy, the new US ambassador to Cambodia. The piece he chose will hang within his residence for the length of his tour in Phnom Penh. It was an added delight when the curator shared with me that Ambassador Murphy is a Vermonter and wanted to showcase artists from his home state.

My previous post The Universal Language, touches on the idea of art as a means of bringing countries together. If you’re looking for some uplifting holiday down-time, follow the links within it to the PBS series Craft in America which has two fabulous episodes you can stream online, highlighting the ongoing cultural exchange between the US and Mexico. The post also shares further information about the Art in Embassies program, an opportunity I would encourage all US artists to explore.

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And speaking of Craft in America, if you’re a shibori fan, tune in on December 27th (check your local PBS listings) to see Judith Content discuss her work in the episode Craft in America: Quilts.

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah!

One Thing Leads to Another

Alyson Stanfield > Beyond the Studio podcast > Andrew Simonet > Artists U > Making Your Life as an Artist

A huge thank you to Alyson Stanfield of Art Biz Success, who recently put out a call to her Facebook connections for recommendations of podcasts and audio books, and then shared the link to the responses with her newsletter subscribers. I felt like I’d won the lottery in unearthing this treasure trove of new (to me) artist-recommended podcasts to listen to and to learn from while I work. After subscribing to about a dozen(!) of them, I struck gold with the very first episode I heard.

Artists Amanda Adams and Nicole Mueller state that their mission for their podcast, Beyond the Studio, is to help figure out the business of being an artist by “div(ing) deep into the work that happens beyond the studio”. I went back to the beginning of their archives and listened to their inaugural bookclub episode with Andrew Simonet. Simonet was a moderately successful (his words, not mine) choreographer and theater director for more than 2 decades and has transitioned into becoming an author as well. He knows something about the challenges of creative work.

Pennsylvania Peach ©2019 Elizabeth Fram, Ink and colored pencil on paper, 11 x 8.5 inches Like colors seem to have a way of seeking each other out. The cover of this recent issue of Art & Antiques magazine could have been designed to pair with this peach at its peak ripeness and the cheerful summer napkin that kept its juice off my chin as soon as this drawing was finished.

Along the way, he founded Artists U which is based in Philadelphia and is “an incubator for changing the working conditions of artists”. The goal of Artists U is to help artists build a sustainable life and practice. I encourage you to go to the site to read more about them, and then, without delay, download the free book and workbook Making Your Life as an Artist. I don’t care what discipline you work in, this is one of the best, short reads/resources for moving forward with your work that I have come across to date.

One thing definitely leads to another, and the generosity of information-sharing lifts us all.
So with that in mind…pass it on!

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This week My First Peony made its way back from it’s 3+ year stint at the US Embassy in Riga, Latvia, where it was part of the Art in Embassies program. It came back in perfect condition, wrapped exactly as instructed (an occurrence that, unfortunately, rarely happens when work returns from venues far and wide). I feel privileged, especially at this point in history, to be a part of a program that values artwork for its ambassadorial capacity.
If only this piece could talk…

The Universal Language

“There are two kinds of borders: borders in the minds and physical borders. And often it is art and artists who cross these borders and exchange, way more easily than most.” Kiff Slemmens

Have you watched Borders and Neighbors, the two latest episodes of Craft in America? If not, you have a treat in store for you. Highlighting the ongoing cultural exchange between the US and Mexico, both episodes feature master artists whose work addresses contemporary issues while continuing to honor and embed layers of tradition within their processes.

It cannot be coincidence that these shows have surfaced this fall.
And while I can’t say for sure they were created in response to the divisive rhetoric that has become so prevalent in our country, their message offers hope that the arts are, and will remain, a universally inspirational and reassuring means toward building and maintaining connections between people and nations.

I hope you find the programs to be as rich as I did, and if you are lucky enough to be in Los Angeles between November 16, 2017 and February 25, 2018, there will be an accompanying exhibit, Borders and Neighbors: Craft Connectivity Between the U.S. and Mexico, that “honor(s) the spirit of creativity that transcends physical and cultural barriers and that unifies our cultures”.

I wish it weren’t so far away; I’d love to go.

“Art is the most profound human expression. Art creates bonds even if we don’t speak the same language. We communicate through art and have a universal language.” Carlomagno Pedro Martinez

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Along the same line of thinking…

Catalogue Cover

Last week I received an envelope from the State Department that contained three copies of the beautiful catalogue they produced illustrating the Art in Embassies exhibition I am participating in at the U.S. Embassy in Riga, Latvia. The following is a quote from the introduction:

…the U.S. Department of State’s office of Art in Embassies (AIE) plays a vital role in our nation’s public diplomacy…selecting and commissioning contemporary art from the U.S. and the host countries. These exhibitions provide international audiences with a sense of the quality, scope, and diversity of both countries’ art and culture. …AIE exhibitions allow foreign citizens, many of whom might never travel to the United States, to personally experience the depth and breadth of our artistic heritage…

Catalogue Page

It is so important to acknowledge and honor art as a powerful voice, speaking a universal tongue that underlines our human similarities more than our differences, especially at this point in history when nationalism seems to be rearing its ugly head. You can read more about Art in Embassies in this post.

Art in Embassies

This week I watched a huge and pristine art-shipping truck rumble back down my driveway after collecting and crating my piece “That First Peony”, then carrying it off to begin the first leg of its journey to Riga, Latvia.

In late March I was contacted by one of the curators from the U.S. Department of State’s Art in Embassies program, asking if I would be willing to loan this piece to the U.S. Embassy in Riga for two years. I was honored and beyond thrilled to say yes! And now the piece is finally on its way.

If you are unfamiliar with Art in Embassies, I encourage you to visit their website. I believe the exhibition in Riga should appear on the site once all the work has been compiled and installed. In a nutshell:

The AIE program was established by the Museum of Modern Art in 1953, and formalized as a part of the Department of State by the Kennedy Administration in 1963. It is one of the United States’ premier public-private partnership arts organizations, with over 20,000 individual and institutional participants, and a presence in some 200 venues in 189 countries worldwide. AIE furthers U.S. diplomacy through the power of the visual arts by expansive, international cultural exchange initiatives.

As then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton affirmed during a recognition luncheon marking AIE’s 50th anniversary, “Advancing U.S. values and interests sometimes requires old-fashioned diplomacy, such as meetings with foreign leaders, or using new technology to reach out to people and ‘give them a voice’. But art is also a tool of diplomacy. It is one that reaches beyond governments, past all of the official conference rooms and the presidential palaces, to connect with people all over the world.”

To be able to participate in such a legacy is an enormous privilege.

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There was an interesting article about Chuck Close in the Times this week in case you didn’t see it: The Mysterious Metamorphosis of Chuck Close. Tucked in among Wil S. Hylton’s long descriptions of the changes that seem to be enveloping Close, his life, and his art, was the following statement, which I find to be brilliant:

“It seems to me now, with greater reflection, that the value of experiencing another person’s art is not merely the work itself, but the opportunity it presents to connect with the interior impulse of another. The arts occupy a vanishing space in modern life: They offer one of the last lingering places to seek out empathy for its own sake, and to the extent that an artist’s work is frustrating or difficult or awful, you could say this allows greater opportunity to try to meet it. I am not saying there is no room for discriminating taste and judgment, just that there is also, I think, this other portal through which to experience creative work and to access a different kind of beauty, which might be called communion.”