Visual arts calendar: What’s happening where
Harwood winner lends her support
An artist and freelance art educator who splits her time between Northern California and Taos, Solange Roberdeau is one of the 24 winners of the Harwood Museum’s Contemporary Art/Taos 2020 juried exhibition to be installed by July 11, if all goes as planned. Roberdeau is trained in gilding (applying metal leaf to a surface), a technique which she now teaches and uses extensively in her own work. The installation she is showing for the Harwood show consists of six recent works on shiramine paper drawn with sumi ink, acrylic and 21-karat gold leaf – covering two large walls. The total work is called “World Through the Body/Body Through the World (1-6).” Check out her website at solange-roberdeau.com – and the other winners at harwoodart.org.
Roberdeau is also lending support to the National Bail Funds fundraiser (communityjusticeexchange.org/nbfndirectory). Donate $50 to any national bail fund organization, send her the donation receipt via Instagram @solange-roberdeau or email sbroberdeau@gmail.com, as well as your mailing address, and she will send you an original drawing for your contribution.
Virtual dance gala
The Academy of Performing Arts continues its 15th anniversary season as new director Kathleen Martin holds her inaugural production – a virtual performance gala called “6 Feet Connected” – online, June 26 at 6:30 p.m. A.P Arts dancers (ages 6-16) will perform pieces that they studied and rehearsed during the quarantine, including solos and physically distanced group works – mixed classical repertoire as well as original contemporary works by locals Amber Vasquez-Thomas, Martin and Tuesday Faust and student Helen Henry. Moreover, A.P. Arts has teamed up with local chef Elijah Stafford of Aceq to provide a to-go menu that will be “served” at the gala.
“Our gala may not have a chandelier,” notes the A.P. Arts announcement, “it may not have white linen tables, and it may not have the allure of going out to a performance, but it will have heart, it will have sweat, it will have delicious food and it will have our future’s spirit.” Gala link provided with the purchase of a tiered ticket offering (from $25-$60). Go to taosdance.com.
Casualty of coronavirus
Sadly, the highly anticipated annual Taos Fall Arts Festival – begun in 1974, grown into a show involving 200 artists who submit an array of work to be housed over 10 days in late September, early October at Our Lady of Guadalupe Gym on Don Fernando Street – has been canceled for this year. In light of the theme “Taos Vision 2020: Return to the Land, Water, Sky” (in recognition of the 50th anniversary of the return of Blue Lake to Taos Pueblo), Jonathan Warm Day Coming’s painting, “A Place of Stories,” will be the poster commemorating the festival for 2020/21 and will be for sale on the TFAF website at taosfallarts.com.