The Edge Center Gallery resumes regular hours for it’s sixth season starting May 6 with the work of Bigfork students in 7th through 12th grades. The Gallery is open from 1 to 4 pm on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

Don’t forget that the Juried Show entries are due on Friday, May 7. Original entry forms stated that the entries were due on Monday, but that was an error; May 7 is correct. For details, check the Edge Center website at www.the-edge-center.org.

On May 19, there is an Artists’ Reception in the Gallery from 5:00 to 7:00 and the Bigfork High School Spring Concert at 7:00. Student artwork is some of the most interesting, imaginative and emotional work you will see in the Gallery. Art teacher, Roberta Steinhart, works with students on three components of art. Students learn artistic skills whether it is in contour drawing, using a camera effectively or mixing colors of paint. At the same time they are practicing effective composition -the arrangement of shapes and lines, color and texture, and darks and lights. The most important and subtle aspect of art that the young artists are learning is to create art that conveys meaning. Steinhart teaches the students about “finding their voice in art.” For Steinhart “art is a vehicle of communication” and it is important to have something to say. The student work often reflects aspects of their lives as emerging adults.

Creative problem solving is one of the ways that studying art can influence everyday life. Even if art students never pursue artistic activities in the future, what they learn about creativity can help them throughout life. For example, one of the projects that the 8th graders do in Art Class is “Circle, Dot, Line”.

Each student makes a picture using all the elements on the page, not moving them around, working from any direction and presenting something that hasn’t been done before. A number of solutions the 8th graders produced will be included in the Student Art Show.

Art work from classes in general art, two dimensional art, senior art, book arts and photography are part of the exhibit. On two fine spring days two contrasting projects were completed outside. In one the students did detailed pen and ink drawings of trees. In the other project, they worked together on huge pieces of paper with house painting brushes and rollers in black and white. The completely different approaches opened their eyes, and ours, to the many possibilities for artists in representing what they see.

The Bigfork Student Art Exhibit begins on May 6 and continues through May 22. The Artists’ Reception is from 5 to 7 pm on May 19 before the Bigfork High School Spring Concert with the Band and Choir, directed by Alycia Hoff. Enjoy a wonderful evening of students’ artistic expression in music and visual art. Refreshments will be served at the reception.

Edge Center Gallery 2010 Calendar

May 6-22 – Bigfork Student Art Show
Reception: Wednesday, May 19, 5-7 pm

May 27-June 26 – Snow Blind: Winter Paintings by Nicole Fredrickson
Reception: Friday, May 28, 5-7 pm

July 1-31 – Art on the Edge: Sixth Annual Juried Art Exhibition
Reception and Awards Ceremony: Friday, July 2, 5-7 pm

Call for Entries for the Art on the Edge

It’s time to start planning to enter the Edge Center Gallery Juried Exhibit that is in July. The way juried exhibits work is that emerging and experienced artists choose the 1 to 3 pieces of their own work that they think are most successful. They photograph them, copy them to a CD, and send the CD with $15 and an entry form to The Edge Center Gallery in Bigfork. At that point the CD’s are given to the juror who compares all the entries and chooses those that he or she thinks are the best and will create an interesting exhibit. The juror is looking for skillful composition, good craftsmanship, meaning, and creativity. The juror will be someone with wide experience in looking at art, who is from outside our area.

Getting the entry form is the first step. Call or e-mail Lynn to get one. See below. Getting up your nerve is the hard part. Yes, this year’s juror may not choose your work, but he might! Last year, Peggy Selander, who had never entered a juried show before, won first place for her painting “Indigo”.

“Art on the Edge: Sixth Annual Juried Exhibition” is open to all visual art media including Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, Ceramics, Glass, Textiles, Jewelry, Photography, Graphic Design, Woodworking, Printmaking and Mixed Media. The work must all be original, created in 2008, 2009 or 2010 and never shown before in the Edge Center Gallery. This exhibit is not restricted geographically.

Entering artists must send up to 3 images on CD-Rom (jpeg), an entry form, an artist’s statement (about 50 words) for the catalog, and a $15 entry fee to Edge Center Gallery, Box 304, Bigfork, MN 56628 by May 10, 2010. Artwork that has been selected by the juror must be delivered to the Gallery by June 28, 2010.

“Art on the Edge” will be July 1 through July 31, 2009 with the Artists’ Reception and Awards on Friday, July 2.

Information and entry forms may be requested by sending your name and address to Edge Center Gallery, Box 304, Bigfork, MN 56628 or contacting Lynn Nachbar, 218-743-6018 or jacknac@bigfork.net. Soon you will be able to print a form from the website, www.the-edge-center.org. Or pick one up at the Edge Center.

2010 Events

APRIL

• 10-11 Fargo’s Theatre B – The Year of Magical Thinking –Sat. 7pm Sun. - 2pm

• 18th Itasca Community Chorus – 3PM

• 29th Pat Surface – afternoon school 2:10pm Eve. 7PM

• Piatagorsky Concert – watch for details

JUNE

• 4th week – MUSICAL Fiddler on the Roof – Edgewild Players

JULY

• 17/18 Stages Theater – Willy Wonka

AUGUST

• 14th Piano Bar Music – Northern Lights Trio – 7PM

SEPTEMBER

• 12th Pretenders and Friends 50’s-60’s Rock n’ Roll Band 2pm

OCTOBER

• TU Dance Company – Watch for dates

DECEMBER

• 12th LaPlante Family Bluegrass Christmas Concert – 2PM

Help Keep the Gallery Going Strong

Were you in the Edge Center in Bigfork during the end of December and early January? If so, you noticed how empty the Gallery was. That was the down time between the Holiday Gift Show and the Permanent Collection that is on view during other events from now until the EOW Art League exhibit in April. Seeing empty walls makes us all appreciate how much the exhibits add to the overall experience of going to the Edge Center.

Could you help keep the Gallery vibrant and available? There are lots of ways to do this.

Become a “Friend of the Gallery”. Your donations of $25 go a long ways toward allowing the Gallery to present diverse and fascinating exhibits. Send a check to Edge Center Gallery, Box 304, Bigfork, MN 56628, include a donation with your Edge Center membership. or easiest of all, use the GiveMN.org Donate button on the Edge website www.the-edge-center.org.

If you are an artist, you may want to enter Art on the Edge: Sixth Annual Juried Art Exhibit, which will be on view in July. The submissions are due in mid-May. A juried art show has a time-honored way of being organized. An independent juror is picked because of his or her involvement in the visual arts. The juror’s experience may be as a working artist, a gallery or museum curator, an art teacher or all of the above. He or she is paid to select from submitted artwork those pieces that they think are the strongest. Inevitably some pieces are rejected. The local Gallery committee has no input on this selection and the juror’s decisions are final. There will be more information in next month’s Watts News. Keep up to date by checking the website www.the-edge-center.org.

Do you have bookkeeping, carpentry, or computer skills? We could use you. Would you like to cook for one of the receptions? Would you like to help hang exhibits, or organize workshops, or use a printer? We could use you. Are you good at writing grants? We could really use you! Call Lynn at 743-6018.

This is the time of year when the Gallery committee organizes for the following season. It is a great time to get involved by volunteering or sharing ideas. We hope to hear from you.

Edge Center and Gallery Events for 2009

*July 3- August 1: Art on the Edge
Fifth Annual Juried Art Exhibit
Opening Reception: July 3, 5-7 pm

*August 6 to September 5: Threads of Art:
Explorations of Textiles
Opening Reception: August 7, 1-4 pm

August 7 (8 am) – Arts & Crafts Fair

August 15 (7 pm) – Piano Bar Event
Sit on stage for Piano Bar atmosphere. Music by Ron Olson Trio

August 21, 2009: Wine in the Wilderness Wine Tasting
Fundraiser at Richies Bar, Marcell, Minnesota
Tickets are $30

August 22 - John Perkins
Returning by popular demand with his folk music! Tickets will be $5.00 for adults and $2.00 for students.

August 30 – Expressions Concert
Showcasing area youth with Piano, Vocals and Instrumentals. Tickets $5.00

September 8 & 10 (3-6 pm) – Auditions for Broadway at the Edge

*September 10- September 26: Nature’s Edge:
Acrylic Paintings by Angie Sievers
Opening Reception: September 11, 5-7 pm

September 13 (2pm) Pretenders & Friends
This popular band offers a wide variety and refreshing blend of Rock n' Roll, Country and Western, Love Songs and Easy Listening. After a busy summer of Concerts and performances they look forward to returning to one of their favorite places. This group will definitely offer you an afternoon of enjoyable music

September 19 - Pianist John McKay
Early October - The Piatigorsky Foundation Classical Concert.
Information available in late summer.

September 27 – Piano Concert
Featuring area students of local teachers. Tickets $5.00

*October 1- November 1: Elements:
Northern Printmakers Alliance exhibit
Reception: October 2, 5-7 pm

October 17 - Monroe Crossings
October 30, 31 (7 pm), November 1 (2 pm) - “Broadway on the Edge,”
staged show tunes

*November 5-December 12: Holiday Gift Show and Sale
20 Artists
Opening Reception: November 7, 5-7 pm

Mid-November - Wild Sound and Lights at the Edge
EdgeWild Players go nuts

December 14 – Blandin Male Choir

January 28-30, 2010 – The Laramie Project
Bigfork alum, Aaron Gabriel, directs 7pm & 2pm Sun.

*Edge Center Gallery Hours: Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays 1:00 to 4:00

Wine Tasting Benefits the Gallery

Wine in the Wilderness, the annual benefit for the Gallery, takes place on Friday, August 21 at Richie’s Inn in Marcell. Beginning at 7 pm, guests are seated and served 7 courses of wine accompanied by appropriate gourmet appetizers. Each wine will be introduced and briefly explained by Effie Neighborhood Tavern owner Marshall Olman. The committee for this event has spent the winter comparing wines in order to choose ones that are both great tasting and great buys, in case you want to purchase them for your own table in the future. This is a fun and delicious evening. Only 72 tickets are being sold and they go fast. To buy tickets, contact Nichole Baker at 218-832-3529 or email her, Marshall Olman at the Effie Neighborhood Tavern, 218-743-3286, or Richie’s Marcell Inn, 218-832-3906. Tickets are $30 each.

Art on the Edge: Fifth Annual Juried Exhibit

Twenty artists have been selected for Art on the Edge: Fifth Annual Juried Art Exhibit at the Edge Center Gallery in Bigfork. The 39 artworks are in the Gallery from July 2 through August 1. The Opening Reception for this show is on Friday, July 3 from 5:00 to 7:00. The Awards ceremony is at 6:30.

Juror Cecilia Lieder chose Bigfork artists Joy Anderson, Jeff Argir, Char Bailey, Harold Dziuk, Karen Haberle, Owen Hagen, Gene Madsen, Lynn Nachbar, and David Richter. Donna Rae Anderson and Isaiah Hoppe are from Deer River, Helen Ahlbrecht and Tamara Bennett are both from Bovey while Staci Taylor is from Cohassett. Elizabeth Blair, St Paul, Catherine Hanson, Duluth, Ross Hilgers, Moorhead, Scott Rollenhagen, Big Falls, Dawn Rossbach, Menahga, and Peggy Selander, White Bear Lake, are all part of the exhibit.

The juror of this exhibit, Cecilia Lieder, has been an artist-printmaker for over 35 years. She is a native of Minneapolis who now lives in Duluth’s East Hillside neighborhood. Her work is well known in the region and in the Boston area. In 2007, she received the Arrowhead Regional Arts Commission George Morrison Arts Award for lifetime achievement in the arts. In 2006 she was awarded the Depot Foundation Artist Award for art and arts activism. Cecilia has received a McKnight/ARAC Artist Fellowship. Activism in the local arts community, directing a public arts project and helping to found and direct the Northern Printmakers Alliance (1999) and the Northern Prints Gallery are among her many accomplishments. She has also served on the Duluth Public Arts Commission and as the director of the Talley Gallery at Bemidji State University.

Meet the juror and artists at the Opening Reception on July 3. The Awards Ceremony will take place about 6:30. Northern Pines Orthopaedic Clinic is the underwriter of the exhibit. ACS Telephone, First State Bank of Bigfork, Edge of the Wilderness Realty, Northland Dental Clinic, and Kocian’s Family Grocery are sponsoring Awards for the top two entries in 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional art. Bigfork Valley Hospital once again is sponsoring the People’s Choice Award where the viewers can vote for the art they think is best. The voting will take place on July 2, and on July 3, up until 6:15 at the Opening Reception.

The Gallery is closed on the 4^th of July. The Gallery is open from 1:00 to 4:00 on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. The Edge Center Gallery is next to the Bigfork School.