MIFP moving soon!

FPAC's store at 12 Farnsworth Street is closing its doors this Friday August 31st at 6pm. We will be reopening October 1st at our new location:30 Channel Center Streetat the corner of A and Mt. Washington, just next to Barlow's Restaurant.It's just a short walk away, with plenty of metered parking on A Street, and 15 minute pickup and drop off parking on Channel Center Street.

FPAC would like to give a huge, heartfelt THANK YOU to Berkeley Investments, who gave us the space to grow and develop these past three and a half years. 

And thank you to Commonwealth Ventures, the owners of Channel Center, who are supporting us as we move forward. We are excited to help activate the retail streetscape of Channel Center and lower A Street, joining Barlow's, Mrs B's, Front, James Patrick Salon, and soon, Internal Matter.

During our three and a half years at 12 Farnsworth Street, Made in Fort Point has generated over $275,000 of income for local artists. Equally important, we have forged new relationships and collaborations among artists, and made many new connections with area businesses and residents. We can't wait to see what our new location brings.

Play Ball!

Play Ball!

July 2 – October 26, 2012

Opening Reception July 26, 2012 from 5-8 PM

Gallery at Atlantic Wharf

290 Congress Street

Fort Point Honors 100 Years of Boston baseball.  Featuring the work of Laura Davidson, Leslie Feagley, Joanne Kaliontzis, Jean Hangarter, Andrew Kirby, Danny O, Karen McFeaters, Sylvia Stagg–Giuliano, Anne Welch, Elisa H. Hamilton, Andrew Kirby, and Ian Kennelly.

Joanne Kaliontzis
Bill Carrigan, Heinie Wagner, Jake Stahl, Tris Speaker
20 x16 digital collage on panel

FPAC:  Humphrey Bogart once said, “A hotdog at the ballgame beats roast beef at the Ritz.”  As we all know Bostonians love their baseball and this exhibit explores the game that truly is an American past time.  What compelled you to create an exhibit around baseball?  How were the works for the show chosen?

IK: This is the forth or fifth baseball themed show I have been in since 2008. The first, '2332', in California was curated by Darlene DeAngelo at The Huntington Beach Art Center.  Play Ball! was modeled after this exhibit. Laura (Davidson) and I picked the 'team' based mostly on the previous work of all the artists involved or their individual interest in baseball… Training meetings we told everyone to make what they saw fit to show. A lot of leeway was given and every artist met the challenge.  This show is amazing and all the credit goes to this group of artists.  The team hit it out of the park.

Ian Kennelly

Sacrifice Fly, 2010

18 x 24 Gouache on Paper

FPAC:  Being at a game under the spotlights with the neon green grass staring back at you brings a sentimental longing of childhood to my thoughts.  Does the art in the show reveal nostalgic emotions?  What can we expect to feel from this show?

LD:  It was nostalgic for me to make the work, since I was drawing from tickets and other mementos from games. As I was working I was thinking about the people I went with and what happened at the park, and of course, the ballplayers.

FPAC:  Tell us about YOUR work!

IK:  My work is merely one fan's perspective.

LD:  My drawings are ink and wash depictions of tickets, baseball cards and other ephemera.

Laura Davidson

SSG:  Closer is one of my favorites, because it shows both the intense, almost volcanic forces that build up just before the delivery. Walk-off says it all the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat.

Photos by Sylvia Stagg-Giuliano

Top: Closer

Bottom: Walk Off

JK:  My images are based on Baseball cards from the Benjamin K. Edwards Collection, Library of Congress, circa 1909-11.  Originally these cards were the first baseball cards were found in cigarette packages, these are from the American Tobacco Company. The backside of the card blended into the background.  For the past year or so, I have been researching the origins and history of baseball in Boston for my clients, Historic Boston. While researching on the web, I found vast collections of images from the Boston Public Library and the Library of Congress. The baseball cards were attractive to me as they related to my work as a graphic designer and lover of paper ephemera. The integrated graphic forms are from printer's register marks.

"The most interesting thing I discovered in my research was that there was a baseball stadium located here on Congress Street that predates the Boston Wharf buildings... Our baseball show is located only a few blocks away from that site." - Joanne Kaliontzis

Joanne Kaliontzis

Studie for Babe Ruth, Ernie Shore, Rube Foster, and Del Gainer

24 x 34 digital collage on panel

From an image from the George Grantham Bain Collection, Library of Congress, circa 1915-1917

FPAC:  The Gallery at Atlantic Wharf is a new space for FPAC, can you tell us more about the space and what this brings to the community?  How does the space help shape the exhibit?

IK:  The show was originally intended for the Art at 12 Gallery so initial thoughts where specific for that large brick and beam space. We first told the team that any of us could go large or really experiment with that amount of square footage and near century old architecture. But as most know, news came through that Art at 12 and Made in Fort Point would need to move to a new location by late summer. Thanks to the heroic efforts of Gabrielle Schaffner, she was able to locate an alternate space for us, the Gallery at Atlantic Wharf. Though just over the Congress Street Bridge it certainly works well as one of Fort Point's neighborhood exhibition spaces. The hard part was guessing how much work we could collective install in the designated gallery area and the adjacent lobby spaces. I think the work really ties all the spaces together quite well and even works very nicely with the current BSA show 'Let's Talk About Bikes'. In the end we are quite lucky to be there and I look forward to future FPAC programming there.  A big thank you to Atlantic Wharf for trusting us with their space.

FPAC:  With Fenway celebrating 100 years, what is your favorite memory of the beloved ballpark?

LD:  There are too many - games with my mom and with Cheryl Forte. But I think the best was when Cheryl and I saw the Clay Buchholz no-hitter while we were sitting in Theo Epstein's box. That was a pretty unique experience.

SST:  Since I grew up in Ecuador, I don’t have memories of sharing a hotdog and peanuts with my dad at the baseball park. But I have GREAT memories of gorging myself on empanadas and pork sandwiches at soccer games!

FPAC:  Who is your favorite Red Sox player?

IK:  There are several players who contribute steady results and others spectacular performances but for me Mr. Tim Wakefield has been a standout Red Sox team member…I am sorry he has retired from the game but glad to see he did it in a Red Sox uniform.

LD:  I like David Ortiz. And Dustin Pedroia, and Youk. (But now, besides the Sox and Tigers, I'll be keeping up with the White Sox)

Read more about Play Ball! On ESPN

Summer Park Party

Wednesday, July 25th 

5:00-8:00pm 

Wormwood Park 

(corner of A and Wormwood Streets)

The Channel Cafe will be grilling hot dogs, and we'll have tasty tidbits from Barlow's, Flour, Lucky's, Sportello, beverages from Sagarinos.  Please bring food or drink to share.  Bubbles and chalk for kids and more.  Catch up with old friends, meet your neighbors - everyone is welcome.  We hope to see you all there!

To  offer to help out please email  gabrielle@fortpointarts.org

We need helpers for set up, moving tables to and from the park, clean up, and of course: lots of food and drink. Let us know what you can do or bring!

Fallen Cave Paintings: Mouhou, Touria, and Zahra

A three-woman exhibition featuring the adventure art of American artist Terra Fuller ("Touria") and the hand woven carpets of her two nomadic carpet weaving mentors, Zahra Ait Eshu and Mouhou Boussine. A cave dwelling nomad and subsistence farmer from Morocco are presented together in the exhibition Fallen Cave Paintings: Mouhou, Touria, and Zahra.

The FPAC Gallery is the final of four stops on The Moroccan Carpet Caravan, a tour that has the weavers traveling to New Orleans, Indiana, Santa Fe and Boston for a variety of carpet weaving workshops, sales, and exhibitions. Opening Reception Thursday, July 19th at 5:30 PM.  FPAC Gallery - 300 Summer Street

The Remodeling Project

The Remodeling Project by artist Heidi Kayser is a social practice and intervention, an installation and performance art project on the Fort Point Channel.  The project is funded and sponsored by The Fort Point Artists Community, the Friends of Fort Point Channel, New England Foundation for the Arts, and Boston Cyberarts.

The project is an 8 x 8 floating wood dock, moored between the Summer and Congress Street bridges in Fort Point Channel and is quoted by Kayser as a "performative micro-environment." Kayser kayaks to the floating dock dressed in her business suit and "remodels" the scenery. The dock has metamorphosed from a garden with a picketed white fence to an office with computer.   Later a lawn grew into a backyard fashioned with a clothesline and ironing board.  In the backyard picnics and one person parties that seemed almost "VIP" made the channel come alive. Finally the garden and the garden Gnome arrived. Truly the cherry on top.  


Now when passing by the "little dock that could" is listed for rent and many have stopped to ponder if this is just what they were looking for in life all along.

The project is about shared ideas of space - literally thinking "outside" the box, throwing ideas of where art lives overboard, and making people think about the boundaries between public and private activities in urban spaces.  

The Polaroid Project

At the Fort Point Art Walk this spring (May 11-13) artist Ryuji Suzuki is snapping photos, not all that unusual giving this is an artist open studios event… or is it?  Ryuji has it, yes he does!  The camera we all know and love, the Polaroid!  Oh how those instant photos that you can hold in your hand make us warm and fuzzy inside!

“A picture 
is exposed on a piece of instant film. After a bit of waiting, you peel it apart 
and get a 3 by 3-inch print. That's the original and the only copy of the image, 
small and not very sharp; it won't show wrinkles... the reason why people smiled 
better in 1990s” – Ryuji Suzuki

The Polaroid Portrait Project during FPAC's Art Walk is a photo collaboration between Ryuji and Fort Point residents and visitors.  An installation of tiny lovely squares, Ryuji takes photos from his studio (Midway Studio, 15 Channel Center,  #218) to include as part of the photo montage on his wall.

The first 100 visitors to Studio 218 will experience the portrait process and get to take their photo home!  (While supplies last.)  Stop in during Artwalk or contact Ryuji today to be part of this collaboration.  Contact information:   E.  rs@silvergrain.org   P.  617 326 7770

SNAPSHOT - FPAC catches up with the artist to get the inside scoop of the Polaroid Portrait Project:

FPAC:  Why a Polaroid Portrait Project?  What is it about tangible and instant photos that appeal to the public?

RS:  It will be shocking to some people that a Polaroid picture took two minutes before you could actually see the image. Of course, regular photography took hours or days back then, but pictures were also something special. With iPhone and Instagram, people can snap a picture of all sorts of random things to post on facebook and it can be viewed world-wide in a few seconds. But, because of the convenience, cheap camera phones and saturated communication channels they are addicted to, pictures lost all of the special meaning. You actually had to have an actual print, whether a Polaroid or a drugstore 4x6 from Kodacolor Royal Gold 400 negative film with ugly orange date code, and sit next to someone to share the exciting experience. Those days aren't coming back... but we can still experience a bit of that, and see if people find a new meaning in one picture that can't be deleted

FPAC:  Your work often tells a story of your subjects.  Is the story fashioned by you or do you let your surroundings influence how the tale unfolds?

RS:  For my commercial work, it really depends on how the assignment is defined. But most of the time, it is a mix of deliberate planning and happy accidents. But when I can shoot at a leisurely pace like some of my fine art work, I tend to take time to look for something specific or set up the scene deliberately. Either way, I do believe in telling a story, conveying an idea or showing a character in each photograph. These are the things that make people react and think.

FPAC:  What story are you hoping to tell about Fort Point and the Polaroid portraits?

RS: This is not about my story, but more about their story. I'm being a catalyst, where I'm disrupting the brain reaction a bit, and encouraging people to think and tell their own story. Fort Point locals get to do this in advance, so that their stories can be told with the picture during Art Walk. Someone already told me that she remembered one Polaroid photo taken at her fifth birthday party. I'm actually looking forward to finding people sharing their stories on facebook, twitter or blogosphere after Art Walk.

FPAC:  Your reference the 1960’s and pop culture from both that time period and your own youth in the 80’s and 90’s as influences on your work.   Tell us more!

RS: When I talk to people older than me, they seem trying hard to forget about the time after Jimmy Carter but before Bill Clinton, together with everything else from that era. But when I talk to people younger than myself, people don't care who the 40th president was but they like the pop culture from 1980s. I grew up in Japan in 1980s, and people paid attention to Bon Jovi and Aerosmith not Dow Jones average or Reagan's jokes. I was bored with color TV, VHS tapes and Madonna back then and found music and b&w video from 1960s very fresh. Finally in 2012 I appreciate 1980s and 1990s and I actually listen to music that I used to ignore or ridicule.

A New Brew in Fort Point

Finally all of our artist prayers have been answered!  BEER is coming to town. FPAC caught up with the folks (Jean-Claude & Esther Tetreault) from new Fort Point brewery, Trillium.  Jean-Claude shares the secrets of his craft below and why Fort Point will be Trillium's new home.

FPAC:  How did you decide on the name Trillium?

JC:  I'm a bit of a botany nerd, in addition to being a beer geek, so I’ve actually loved the trillium flower for quite some time. The flower, an American woodland wildflower, symbolizes what we are trying to achieve in our beers. Ephemeral beauty, balance, and a sense of place.  

“These beers are what we envision might have been made today, if a centuries old beer culture had naturally evolved in New England.” 

Of course, its not yet possible to source all of our ingredients from a local source, we do this as much as possible. We feel that using ingredients that are characteristically and naturally American, grown, harvested and gathered as close to the brewery as possible, we can really embody the 'farmhouse' notion that we are striving to achieve, which can be a little tricky in an urban setting such as Fort Point. So, until we can build a brewery on some farmland ourselves, that means working with companies like Valley Malt, Buckle Farm, Four Star Farms to source local grain, malt, fruit and spices...and we're even growing some of our own hops on my uncle's farm. We're sourcing neutral wine barrels from places like Saltwater Farm Vineyard (where Esther and I were married) and Jonathan Edwards to age some of our 'wild' fermented farmhouse beers. We're really excited for the first lot of spent spirit barrels to come available from Bully Boy and Grand Ten, two new Boston distilleries. We're even working on culturing and nurturing fermentation microbes natural in the air around us to develop a truly unique and local beer

FPAC: What made you decide to move to Fort Point?

JC: Finding relatively affordable, small scale, light industrial space in greater Boston is really tricky. We're competing with Biotech/Pharma and other companies that command a very high price per square foot, which originally didn't have us considering any Boston zip codes. We were initially looking in places where some other breweries have recently cropped up (ie. Chelsea, Everett), but when a lease fell through at the last second at a location in Everett, a colleague of our real estate agent knew of a spot worth exploring on Congress street in Fort Point that met some of the criteria we had laid out. The space was in pretty rough shape, but had some solid bones. The seemingly endless opportunity of Fort Point was sort of a 'no duh' part of the decision. My good friend/designer and I looked at the place, squinted really hard, and developed a vision for what was possible.  We knew we were in for the long haul with the zoning variance process, so we had time to roll up our sleeves to clean out the years of rust, dust and debris. Just looking around, we knew were were in a very special place, and will hopefully be part of the continued revival of this little part of Fort Point. The immediate rush of support from Friends of Fort Point, FPAC, Greentown Labs, and countless residents and businesses has energized us through this very arduous process of building a brewery. The welcoming experience has been pretty unbelievable, considering it happened before folks even had a chance to try our beers!

FPAC: Will the new brewery be doing public tours?

JC: Due to the small footprint of the space and the inherent space, cost and liability limitations that would be needed to allow the public in to a manufacturing/production floor; we won't be able to do a true walk-through type of tour. We will, however, have an attached retail space that will have a partition wall framed with reclaimed windows (from the demolition of 319A street) that will allow visitors a vantage point to see the production floor, the brewhouse, fermentation vessels and wooden barrels (and maybe a busy brewer or two!).

FPAC: Brewing is an art craft all its own.  What is the process? (For those of us who are not up on our Hops and fermenting)

JC: Yes, brewing is a craft, for sure...and has nearly limitless opportunities for creativity and expression. But, the basic process for brewing beer is fairly straightforward. Beer is made of water, malt/grain, hops and water. The brewer will crush malt (which is simply grain that has been sprouted and kilned) and mix it with some warm water. The warm water will dissolve the starches and proteins in the grain to make an oatmeal like mixture. The warmth of the water activates the enzymes naturally present in the grain, which break down the starches in to various kinds of sugars. Once the starches are converted to sugars, the brewer will then rinse the grain with more warm water to get the sugary liquid (call 'wort'...pronounced 'wert') out, which then gets transferred to the boil kettle. The wort is heated to a boil. The brewer will add hops at various points in the boil. Hops are the resinous flower of a really incredible plant. Depending on the kind of hops and when they are added in the boil, the brewer can contribute to hops-contributed bitterness, as well as characteristic aromas/flavors of floral, spicy, citrus, fruit to the finished beer. When the boil is completed (usually somewhere between 60 and 90minutes), the brewer will rapidly cool the wort down from boiling to ~60-70F and then add a culture of yeast. Beer yeast is a unicellular organism that can consume the sugars in the wort and turn it in to alcohol, carbon dioxide and a myriad of flavors and aromas that can turn a sugary, malty, hoppy liquid in to the amazing thing we know as beer. This is known as fermentation, and can take anywhere from a few days to a few months, depending on the type of beer and fermentation microbes that are added. We'll then package the beer in to kegs or bottles. There are some beers will then be served immediately, as they are enjoyed as fresh as possible, while that really need some time to condition to come in to their own after quite a bit more time. Once the beer leaves the brewery, we hope that the experience of beer will be enhanced, not only by the right glassware or food pairings, but most importantly the friends family it is shared with and moment in which it is enjoyed.

 

FPAC: How many beers does Trillium currently produce and what is your favorite?

JC: Oh, we have dozens and dozens of recipes that we have already brewed. There are probably hundreds more that are swirling around our heads, but haven't made it to the kettle yet. We plan to focus a good percentage of our production on 4 core brands, but will also have a steady stream of small batch releases...there are just too many different kind of beer we want to make to limit ourselves.  If you follow our facebook and twitter account, you'll see hints of what beers we have in store as we tweak and improve recipes on our pilot brewery. 

FPAC: With the craft beer craze that is sweeping New England, how does Trillium hope to stand out from the rest?

JC: We couldn't be more excited about the incredible rebirth of brewing and beer culture in Boston, New England and all across the country. Craft brewing is an increasingly crowded but still a relatively small segment of the overall market. Ultimately, we strive to make beers that are truly memorable and world-class. We hope to reach a balance in them that appeal not only to the hardened beer geeks, but also to folks with a burgeoning appreciation for better beers

FPAC: On your site you talk about the local artisans who help collaborate with Trillium to help enhance your craft. Any future plans for Trillium to team up with some local artists?

JC: Absolutely. Gabrielle Schaffner and I have had a few exchanges where we discussed all the different collaboration/inspiration opportunities there could be. We're excited about the possibilities here, so stay tuned via FPAC for more on these opportunities in the coming months.

FPAC: When is the expected move in date?

JC: Oh, we've been banging away at our 369 Congress Street location since January 2011. Most of that time has been spent waiting for community hearings, the zoning variance hearing/approval and the building permit, which we finally received in February 2012. If you've walked by recently, you'll continue to see some big changes to the exterior; there's an equally dramatic change going on in the interior as well. There are loads of things that can (will) go wrong, but we're really hoping to brew our first batch of commercial beer toward late summer/early fall of this year.


Log onto http://www.trilliumbrewing.com/ to learn more!

* All Photos courtesy of Trillium Brewery