Zoning Board Approves AVA Gallery Studio Expansion
Click here to read the 7/22/15 Valley News article Zoning Board Approves AVA Gallery Studio Expansion by Nora Doyle-Burr.
A One-Day Bus Trip to the New York Botanical Garden In Conjunction with the Exhibition Frida Kahlo: Art – Garden – Life
Wednesday, June 17
$95 /AVA-members; $125 /non-members
AVA is pleased to announce a one-day bus trip to the New York Botanical Garden on Wednesday, June 17 in conjunction with the exhibition Frida Kahlo: Art – Garden – Life. The cost is $95 for AVA members; $125 for non-members.
This heavily discounted tour is made possible thanks to the generous support of Jane and Peter McLaughlin, and includes transportation, light refreshments on the bus, admission fee to the botanical garden, and film showings during the bus trip.
The chartered bus, which will leave AVA at 6:30am on June 17, is scheduled to arrive at the New York Botanical Garden at 11:30am. It will depart at 5pm, with an estimated 10pm return time to AVA.
Frida Kahlo: Art – Garden – Life (on display through November 1, 2015) will feature fourteen of Kahlo’s paintings and works on paper-many borrowed from private collections-highlighting the artist’s use of botanical imagery in her work. The exhibition will include some of her lesser-known yet spectacular still life paintings, as well as works that engage nature in unusually symbolic ways, including Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird (1940); Flower of Life (1944); Still Life with Parrot and Flag (1951) and Self-Portrait Inside a Sunflower (1954).
The New York Botanical Garden’s Haupt Conservatory will be filled with the colors of Kahlo’s Mexico, greeting visitors with an evocation of the artist’s garden at the Casa Azul (Blue House), her lifelong home in Mexico City. A scale version of the pyramid she created to display pre-Hispanic art collected by her husband, muralist Diego Rivera, will feature traditional terra-cotta pots containing desert plants found in her garden. The exhibition also includes a reimagining of Kahlo’s studio overlooking the garden, as well as the organ pipe cactus fence located at Rivera’s studio in nearby San Ángel.
Among the films to be shown during the bus trip is Bone Wind Fire, a 30-minute visual meditation on the work and inner lives of Georgia O’Keeffe, Emily Carr and Frida Kahlo. Directed by the Canadian painter Jill Sharpe, the film reveals each artist’s distinct creative concerns and processes through their letters and diaries. Sharpe presented this film at AVA in fall 2013, in connection with the film series Focus on Film – As Art, On Art.
Click here to purchase your $95 ticket as an AVA member.
Click here to purchase your $125 ticket as a non-member.
Wine Tasting with Dan and Whit’s and the Norwich Inn to Benefit AVA
May 6, 5-7pm
The legendary Dan & Whit’s and its neighbor, the Norwich Inn, have joined forces to offer monthly wine tastings at the Inn for the benefit of local nonprofits. The wine tasting to be hosted on Wednesday, May 6, from 5-7pm, will benefit AVA Gallery and Art Center.
Tickets bought after 2pm on the day of the event, or at the door (if space allows), cost $20.
The owners of Norwich Inn, Joe and Jill Lavin, will provide cheese platters, and several local vendors will bring food to sample-all in the spirit of complementing the wines that will be featured.
AVA will receive a percentage of the proceeds from the tickets, as well as from each bottle that will be sold at the Norwich Inn during the wine tasting event.
Space is limited, so buy your tickets now!
Our thanks go to Dan & Whit’s and the Norwich Inn for their support of local nonprofits in general and of AVA in particular.
Cheers!
AVA 2015 Silent Auction Sponsors and Contributors – Thank you!
AVA to Receive a $10,000 Challenge Grant from the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation
To participate in this important challenge, please contact AVA Gallery and Art Center by phone at 603-448-3117, or by email at info@avagallery.org.
AVA Gallery and Art Center (AVA/Alliance for the Visual Arts) is pleased to announce that a $10,000 challenge grant for operating support from the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation (NHCF) will be awarded upon the completion of the grant’s matching requirement. This generous grant will support and enhance AVA’s education, exhibition, and community programming, including numerous free and low-cost programs, while the organization simultaneously works to reach its $3.5 million capital campaign goal.
This challenge grant will help AVA achieve its primary goals of reaching more diverse audiences, increasing membership, and broadening opportunities for artists, while sustaining current programs and operations during AVA’s capital campaign. In addition to rotating exhibitions of work by local and regional artists, AVA offers a comprehensive year-round art education program for adults and children of all ages and abilities, as well as vacation art camps for children and teens. Scholarships are available for all ages, and internship opportunities are in place for high school and college students.
AVA also a offers a number of free and low-cost programs for all ages, including CAOS (Community Arts Open Studio), CAOS for Toddlers, a Senior Art Class in collaboration with the Upper Valley Senior Center, Art Lab in conjunction with the Special Needs Support Center, Art for Kids in collaboration with students from Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, and ART STOP!, a free after-school program for students in grades 5 – 8. Films, artist talks, and The Mudroom (live storytelling) are all part of AVA’s extensive community programs.
In awarding this grant, The New Hampshire Charitable Foundation recognized the challenges of sustaining ongoing operations during a capital campaign period, while also acknowledging the positive impact that AVA’s rich programming has on the community.
AVA’s $3.5 million capital campaign—”Branching Out, Deepening Roots”— will make possible a new facility dedicated to the pursuit of three-dimensional studies and explorations, thus offering increased opportunities for artists and community members alike. The campaign will also fund the creation of a new exhibition space to accommodate a broader variety of art; the expansion of AVA’s environmental initiatives, including the installation of solar panels and efforts to become carbon neutral by 2017. The establishment of a reserve fund to help position AVA for a vibrant future is also among the goals for the capital campaign.
One of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation’s goals is to help the community maximize its support of AVA by doubling the dollar value of each donation. Supporters who have recently given to AVA may direct an additional gift to go specifically toward the challenge. New and upgraded memberships and first-time contributions, as well as donations that exceed previous gift levels, also qualify for the NHCF’s challenge grant.
To participate in this important challenge, please contact AVA Gallery and Art Center by phone at 603-448-3117, or by email at info@avagallery.org.
AVA Receives Business of the Year Award from the Lebanon Chamber of Commerce
During a festive reception on December 10, 2014, the Lebanon Chamber of Commerce presented AVA Gallery and Art Center with the 2014 Business of the Year award. Paul Boucher, the chamber’s Executive Director, praised AVA for providing “unique experiences for people of all ages and abilities.” The chamber also acknowledged AVA for having been “an excellent economic partner for downtown,” pointing out how our events and programs help draw visitors to the city’s restaurants. Appropriately, Robert Meyers and Jim Reiman, owners of Tree Tomatoes Trattoria, which was named the Business of the Year in 2013, introduced AVA at the award ceremony, citing our organization’s numerous accomplishments over the nearly twenty-five years that we have been located in Lebanon.
We were particularly pleased to share the evening with City Councilor Nicole Cormen who was named the 2014 Citizen of the Year and praised for all the outstanding volunteer work she does in the community.