Notes from the field.

Internationally recognized media artist Dorothea Braemer has been named Executive Director of Squeaky Wheel/Buffalo Media Resources. A member of the Philadelphia-based Termite TV Collective and the former Media Center Manager and Program Director at Scribe Video Center in Philadelphia, Braemer has produced numerous half-hour television programs, and has won top awards at many prestigious festivals. She has exhibited her personal media work at MoMA, the Museum of Television and Radio, and a variety of international festivals. Braemer has been the recipient of grants and awards from the Sprague Foundation, the Bread and Roses Community Fund, the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts, as well as many other foundations, and has taught film analysis and video production at Villanova University. Squeaky Wheel Board Member and University of Buffalo Professor of Media Study Tony Conrad declared "We are thrilled to be able to attract this outstanding media educator and artist to Buffalo." Braemer began her Executive Directorship of Squeaky Wheel on March 17. For more information, visit www.squeaky.org

Bruce Springsteen benefit concerts for Doubletake rescue the magazine from financial turmoil. When Robert Coles, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, child psychiatrist, and Harvard professor, needed to raise money to save Doubletake, the quarterly magazine he founded in 1995 and continues to edit, he contacted Bruce Springsteen. Cole and Springsteen have been friends for the past seven years and share an enthusiasm for American literature. At the time Cole approached the musician, Doubletake could no longer afford to publish its fall 2002 issue, primarily due to the growing slump in the advertising market, and had not been able to pay certain writers for months. After Springsteen's two acoustic performances in February, nearly $1 million was raised for the magazine. Doubletake will be publishing its belated fall issue in late spring. For more information, visit www.double-takemagazine.org

The Pittsburgh Foundation has awarded media artist and educator T. Foley a $10,000 grant. Foley has exhibited her work at various venues throughout the U.S. and is currently the Director of the K-12 Media Literacy Arts Education program at Pittsburgh Filmmakers. Her focus as an educator is on creating opportunities for students, parents, and teachers to better understand the language of photographic media. She has presented workshops such as "Race in Animated Media, from Peter Pan to the PJs" that underscore her interest in the representations of race and gender in animated media. Foley has also served as a consultant to the Pennsylvania State Department of Education, to the Chautauqua County Arts Council in New York, and she teaches and lectures at various institutions and venues. The Pittsburgh Foundation grant was awarded to Foley in recognition of her outstanding achievement as an artist living and working in Pittsburgh. For more information, visit www.pghfilmmakers.org

The Dieu Donne Papermill Workspace Program has announced its selected artist participants for 2003. Nina Bovasso of New York City, Beth Campbell of Brooklyn, and Elise Ferguson of Brooklyn were chosen by a panel of artists and curators to receive a $700 honorarium and seven days in the Dieu Donne studio with full assistance and materials. The Workspace Program gives emerging New York State artists the opportunity to produce new projects in handmade paper, allowing artists from all disciplines to explore the applications of paper as a viable method of art-making. A total of 82 applicants were reviewed by the selection panel this year, and in addition to the three artists selected from this pool, alternates Karlos Carcamo of Richmond Hill and Sarah Oppenheimer of New York City were also chosen. Visit www.papermaking.org for more information

The Fotostiftung Schweiz and the Fotomuseum Winterthur will be joining forces to create the new Center of Photography in Winterthur, Switzerland. Both institutions will operate on the same building site being constructed in Gruzenstrasse in Winterthur, but each will continue to produce its own exhibition program. The Fotostiftung Schweiz will still focus on the development, conservation, and presentation of Switzerland's photographic heritage, while the Fotomuseum Winterthur will host an array of changing international exhibitions and will remain committed to showing international photography. Occasionally, both institutions plan to organize large-scale, overlapping exhibitions and to collaborate on accompanying events, yet each will primarily be run separately. The goal of pairing the two art establishments is to promote the medium of photography more comprehensively, in order to showcase not only so-called "art photography" but also socio-cultural and historical photography of all kinds. The Center of Photography in Winterthur will open officially on November 14, 2003. For more information, visit www.fotostiftung.ch or www.fotomuseum.ch

The Dia Art Foundation has announced the completion of Dia:Beacon. Located in Beacon, NY, 60 miles north of Manhattan on the bank of the Hudson River, the former printing plant has been renovated to house Dia's collection of contemporary art. Dia:Beacon includes 240,000 square feet of gallery space located in three connected buildings that are linked with an additional train shed. Dia's rehabilitation of the site took approximately two years to complete, and was carried out in collaboration with the artist Robert Irwin and the architecture firm OpenOffice. Works dating from the early 1960s to the present will be featured in the new museum, with each gallery space dedicated to the work of a single artist and designed to fulfill the particular needs of the art it contains. Art installation at Dia:Beacon will be completed in May 2003, and the museum opens to the public on May 18. For more information, visit www.diaart.org

The Galleries at Moore College of Art and Design, Philadelphia, have appointed Brian Wallace as the new Director of Exhibitions. Wallace has had ten years of museum experience curating exhibitions, commissioning new works, and developing artist residency programs. From 1989 to 1995. Wallace worked as the Media Arts Exhibit Developer for the Historical Collection at the Computer Museum in Boston; from 1996 to 1997 he was assistant curator at Cooper-Union and from 1997 to 2002, was curator of the Seattle-area Bellevue Art Museum. Wallace has also organized independent exhibitions, conferences, and other events, served on the advisory committees and governing boards of non-profit organizations, and reviewed artworks and institutions for numerous public and private foundations and cultural agencies. Upon his appointment, Wallace stated "I'm excited about the chance to capitalize on the legacies of the Goldie Paley Gallery and the Levy Gallery for the Arts in Philadelphia, and I'm looking forward to working with the artists, the Moore community, and partners across Philadelphia on significant shows and programs." For more information, visit www.moore.edu

After years of planning and archival research, Indiana University Art Museum announces the compilation of the first retrospective of the Midwestern photographer Art Sinsabaugh (1924-1983). A student of Harry Callahan (his first), Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, and Arthur Siegel, and an educator himself, Sinsabaugh is highly admired in the photographic world for his beautiful and innovative work. With a dual interest in abstraction/form and the environment, he is best known for his revolutionary use of a large scale "banquet" camera to capture panoramic views of the Midwestern urban and rural landscapes, particularly those in transition. Working in large series, he sought to create an all-encompassing "census" of the American landscape. The exhibition, "American Horizons: The Photographs of Art Sinsabaugh," is scheduled for debut October 2004 at the Chicago Art Institute, and will travel thereafter to various other venues. Open dates exist in 2005 and 2006 for institutions interested in presenting the exhibition, and inquiries should be made to Nan Brewer at Indiana University Art Museum by email at [e-mail]. A handsome book, with a comprehensive essay by photo historian Keith Davis, will accompany the exhibition. To learn more about the exhibition, visit www.

The Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation opened its 5-story facility in Paris on April 29th at 2 Impasse Lebouis. The premier show, "Henri Cartier-Bresson's Own Choice," with works from his private collection, will run until July 26. Concurrently, a Henri Cartier-Bresson retrospective, "De qui s'agit-il?" will be held at the Bibliotheque Nationale de France in Paris through July 27.

Additionally, the HCB Foundation, in partnership with Banque NSMD and NSM Vie, has created the HCB Award. It is intended for photographers who have already completed a significant body of work, with an approach close to that of reportage. A single prize of 30,000 Euros ($30,000) will be awarded biannually, with this year's selection to be made in June. The year following the reception of the prize, the winner will have an exhibition of his/her work at the HCB Foundation and a catalogue of the work will be published. Photographers of all ages and nationalities are eligible, but must be nominated by an institution, and not through self-referral. Although nominations for 2003 are now closed, information on the Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation and future awards may be obtained at www.henricartierbresson.org

The Association for Cultural Advancement through Visual Art in London has announced the winners of its 8th annual First Base Awards. The awards are given to twelve artists in various disciplines in their first year after graduating from college. Awardees receive a free studio for a year, professional training, and the opportunity to develop their careers through participating in a range of visual art projects, events, and exhibitions. Recipients of this year's awards are as follows: Guy Allott, Tanya Benardout, Susan Collis, Leah Elsey & Sonia Uddin, Martine Feipel, Bernhard Frankel, Rob Grose, Laura Jane Holden, Aviva Leeman, Antonia Low, Seb Patane, and Joanna Wilson.

Rochester Contemporary (RoCo) of Rochester, NY, is the recipient of a $32,150 matching grant from the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) Capital Projects Program for the renovation of its new gallery space at 137 East Ave. Scheduled for completion in 2003, the unique and highly visible arts space in downtown Rochester's cultural district will offer expanded exhibition, conference and educational space, a video/film viewing room, as well as "lab space" opportunities for member artists. RoCo's goal is to increase the recognition and awareness of art and culture as a vital part of our daily lives by presenting challenging, high quality exhibitions and performances in all media. Additional info may be obtained at: www.rochestercontemporary.org

The Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh has closed its department of Film and Video, and has eliminated its CMA Cinema program, in order to meet budget reduction goals for 2003 and beyond. The cuts are part of the Carnegie's $4 million budget reduction, which the organization announced is necessary due in large part to the declining value of its investments and reduced endowment income. Though the film and video department is closed, the museum will continue to maintain and actively add to its video collection through the contemporary art department and will continue to exhibit film and video artworks.

The New Museum of Contemporary Art in Soho announces the launch of a newly designed and expanded website, www.newmuseum.org. Designed by Honest (www.stayhonest.com), the site boasts easy access to 25 years of exhibition history, public program transcripts, a greatly expanded online store, and educator lesson plans. The New Museum also recently announced plans to build a new 60,000 square foot facility at 235 Bowery.

The Walter Phillips Gallery in Banff, Alberta, Canada, has reopened following a brief closure for renovations. The Gallery, along with Banff International Curatorial Institute, will be hosting presenters from around the world at Obession, Compulsion, Collection: A Symposium on Objects, Display, Culture, and Interpretation from May 6-10. The symposium, an interdisciplinary event, will examine the role of the art object in a broader context of visual and display culture, with keynote address by David Wilson, founder and director of the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles, and a performance by Native Performance Artist James Luna.

January 19, 2003, marked the birth of the Nederlands Fotomuseum. The Nederlands Foto Insitute, the Nederlands Photoarchives and the National Photo Coservation Studios, have united under a new name, nearly ten years after they moved into their facilities on the Witte de Withstraat in Rotterdam. The museum is subsidized by the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science and the City of Rotterdam. The Fotomuseum can be accessed on-line at nfa.seegetit.com and at www.nfi.nl

The Lois and Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art in Cincinnati announces its Grand Opening with a gala dinner on May 30, along with other member events through June 5. Located at 44 East Sixth St., the new facility, designed by Zaha Hadid, will open to the public on June 7. Regarded as one of the most innovative contemporary architects working today, Ms. Hadid is internationally recognized for her architecture and urban design as well as for her paintings and drawings. The Contemporary Art Center, founded in 1939, is one of the country's first institutions dedicated to contemporary arts and will present the newest developments in painting, sculpture, photography, architecture, performance, and new media. The premier exhibition, "Somewhere Better Than This Place: Alternative Social Experiences in the Spaces of contemporary Art," features the multimedia work of 35 international artists and artist collaboratives whose contemporary artwork fosters progressive social relations. For additional information, call the CAC hotline at [phone]

Vancouver Art Gallery announces the opening of an experimental gallery space designed for the presentation of new media art. The space, designed by Vancouver architect Oliver Lang of Lang Wilson Practice in Architecture Culture (LWPAC), functions both as a new model for presenting contemporary art and as an independent installation. It is called Next and is a laboratory for new art and ideas in a wide array of media. The project reflects the Vancouver Art Gallery's commitment not only to presenting new art, but also to presenting new ideas in exhibition display and architecture. By reconfiguring the walls, floors and ceiling, LWPAC has reconceptualized the standard white cube exhibition space, and has made the viewer an active participant. For further details, visit www.

The George Eastman House, Rochester, NY, has recently restored Cecil B. DeMille's 1923 silent film epic, The Ten Commandments. DeMille's own master nitrate print, which was nearing complete deterioration, was used as source material. Unlike the earlier (1964) Eastman House preservation which produced a black and white print, this new restoration was accomplished frame by frame using the Desmet color process, re-creating breathtaking color sequences originally produced using the Handschiegl color process. In addition to its world renown photographic archives, the Eastman House's motion picture archive houses 25,000 film titles and 3,000,000 pieces of film related publicity stills, posters, scores, scripts, and precinema artifacts. It is also home to the L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation, founded in 1996 as the world's first permanent program to offer hands-on training in motion picture preservation and restoration. The Eastman's Dryden Theatre is the world's largest archival screening facility, and offers almost daily screenings of classic and contemporary films, both foreign and domestic. For more information, visit www.eastman.org

The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation has announced the winner's of its 79th annual United States and Canada competition. The 2003 Fellowship winners include 184 artists, scholars, and scientists selected from over 3,200 applicants. Fellows are appointed on the basis of distinguished achievement in the past and exceptional promise for future accomplishment. The 2003 Fellows in Photography are Joann Brennan, Fred Cray, Justin Kimball, Anne Rearick, Paul Shambroom, Wendel A. White, and William Earle Williams. In Photography Studies, David Levi Strauss was the sole recipient. According to Foundation president Edward Hirsch, since its inception in 1925, the Foundation has awarded over $220 million in Fellowships to over 15,200 individuals. This year's winners share $6,750,000, with 89 institutions being represented by one or more fellows, although a number of those named have no academic affiliation. A full list of winners is available at www.gf.org

Malick Sidebe is awarded the 2003 Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography. The prize, SEK500,000 ($60,000) and a gold medal, will be presented at a ceremony in Goteborg, Sweden on October 25, 2003. A new exhibition of Sidebe's work, curated and organized by the Hasselblad Center, will be opened in conjunction with the ceremony. Largely devoted to Malian youth in the 1950's and 1960's, Sidebe's work captures an important period in West African history. In bestowing the award, the Foundation noted that Sidebe's portraits and documentary photography "uniquely captured the atmosphere and vitality of an African capital in a period of great effervescence ... (he) captured a time of paradigm shift and youthful insouciance, curiosity about the rest of the world, pride, and confidence in the rest of the world."

At a recent Paris auction, April 15-17, 2003, held at Drouot-Richelieu, photographs garnered $4,450,000 in sales. The highest selling images, all over $65,000 each, were works by Hans Bellmer. These included two hand-colored black and white photographs, The Doll, 1936, which sold for $185,000 and The Doll, 1933-35 which went for $110,000. Yet another of the series, a straight black and white image, The Doll, 1936, went for $130,000. Man Ray's Sunflower, 1934, used by Andre Breton in L'amour Fou, sold for $80,000. Other top earners were Optical Parable, 1934, an 8" x 8 1/2" print by Manuel Alvarez Bravo, at $130,000, and his Striking Worker Assassinated, 1934, at $48,000. The House Where I Live, My Life, What I Write, 1934, by Brassai, sold for $21,000.

The California College of Arts and Crafts, San Francisco/Oakland, will confer an honorary doctorate degree on Ann K. Hamilton at the 96th Commencement Exercises on May 10. Ms. Hamilton studied textile design at the University of Kansas, and later received her MFA from Yale University. While her degree is in sculpture, textiles and fabric have continued to be an important part of her work, which includes installations, photographs, videos, performances, and objects. Hamilton's sensual installations often combine evocative soundtracks with cloth, filmed footage, organic material, and objects such as tables. She is a 1993 recipient of the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship and was the American representative at the 1999 Venice Biennale, where she addressed topics of slavery and oppression in American society. After teaching at the University of California Santa Barbara from 1985-1991, she returned to Ohio, her birthplace, where she now lives and works.

Jessica Smith has been appointed Curator of American Art at the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, CA. Smith holds a Ph.D. in Art History from Yale University where she was awarded several important fellowships and awards. She earned her Bachelor's degree from Harvard University, graduating summa cum laude in 1991. Smith has been with the Huntington since 2002. The Huntington also announces the upcoming 16,000-square-foot addition to its American art gallery, doubling the size of the Virginia Steele Scott Gallery. Los Angeles based architect Frederick Fisher and Partners will design the $6 million building, slated for construction in Fall 2003.

Leonard Leher has been chosen as the Dean of the School of Fine and Performing Art at Columbia College, Chicago. Leher, who has been acting dean since 2001, holds an MFA from the University of Pennsylvania. The recipient of numerous academic and artistic awards, Leher, a printmaker, has exhibited nationally and internationally. His work is represented in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., as well as in many other museums and collections in the United States and abroad. Prior to coming to Columbia College, Leher was the Chairman of the Department of Art and Art Professions at New York University, the Founding Director and Chair of the Department of Art at Arizona State University, and Chair of the Department of Art at the University of New Mexico.

The Potrero Nuevo Fund awards a total of $37,500 to three Bay Area community art projects. The 2003 award recipients are "Mind if I Call You Sir?," a documentary video project by Karla E. Roasales and Veronica Majano investigating queer identity; "Interrogating the Foreigner," a music/literary performance project by Pireeni Sundaralingam and Colm O'Riain that addresses racism in a post 9/11 society; and "November," a documentary video by Paul VanDeCarr that examines the Jonestown mass suicide and the murders of Mayor Moscone and Harvey Milk in 1978. The annual grant program awards up to 4 prizes, each a maximum of $12,500, to artistic projects that use literary, media, performing, or visual art in the service of social or environmental awareness.

Arts Link announces the winners for the 5th cycle of its Independent Projects Awards. This initiative allows Central and Eastern European artists and arts managers working in all disciplines to realize significant projects with U.S. arts organizations across the country. Awards went to Emil Hrvatin of Slovenia; Damijan Kracina of Slovenia; vadim Larchikov and Olga Veselina of Ukraine; Dijana Milosevic of Serbia and Montenegro; Kiril Prashkov of Bulgaria; Frantisek Skala of the Czech Republic: and two members of the Legendary Poptones of Bulgaria. Arts Link is a public-private partnership of CEC International Partners, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Trust for Mutual Understanding, and the Ohio Arts Council, with Additional Funding from the Kettering Fund and the Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation. Further information on the awards is available at www.cecip.org

CEPA Gallery, Buffalo, NY, receives a $10,000 gift from an anonymous NYC Foundation, along with a two-year $60,000 grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. The anonymous, unrestricted, $10,000 gift was in response to the severe and unprecedented funding cuts by the City of Buffalo and the effect that this had on CEPA Gallery. A trustee of the foundation noted that "CEPA Gallery is far too important an institution to the national art world for us to stand by and watch you suffer." She went on to say "The spirit of the arts has never been more important as an alternative to the conflicts and violence which are so prevalent in this increasingly dangerous time. CEPA Gallery has been and continues to be a place that focuses on artists and art that presents alternative voices." In addition to the anonymous gift, CEPA has also been awarded a two-year grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts for exhibition programming. The award comes at a crucial time as CEPA is in the process of implementing a strategic plan developed using the highly coveted Warhol Initiative grant, received by CEPA in 2000. CEPA is a not-for-profit art center dedicated to promoting photo-related and electronic arts. CEPA offers programs in the visual arts, artist residencies, and education. For more info visit [e-mail]

The Museum of Modern Art announces chief curatorial appointments. John Elderfield succeeds Kirk Varnedoe as Chief Curator, Department of Paintings and Sculpture at MOMA, and Kynaston McShine has been appointed Chief Curator at Large. Both have extensive histories with the institution. Mr. Enfield has been the Museum's Chief curator at Large since 1993 and has served in other capacities as well. Mr. McShine served as Senior Curator of the Department of Painting and Sculpture from 1980 until 2001, when he took over as Acting Chief Curator of the Department. These are the first of a series of important curatorial appointments to be made as the museum prepares for the opening of its new building in 2005.

Swann Auction Galleries report record prices for a number of titles at their December 5, 2002 auction. A rare copy of Some of the Account of the Art of the Photogenic Drawing, London, 1839, by William Henry Talbot, the earliest separate publication on photography, brought $39,100 at the auction. $4600 was paid for a scarce copy of Exhibition of Photographs at the Camera Club, New York, 1899, a catologue commemorating Alfred Stieglitz's first solo show. Camera Work 42/43. New York, 1913, in the original mailing box, went for $9200. A Group of 64 stereo views from the 1870-80's of Yellowstone, North Dakota, Montana, and Native Americans, sold for $18,400. Steiglitz's warm-toned silver print, Georgia O'Keefe and Frank Prosser, Lake George, 1931, brought $3,910, and Bernice's Abbott's New York at Night, silver print, 1932, printed 1960's, sold for $6670.

The Ransom Center of the University of Texas at Austin announces the publication in late 2003 of Avedon at Work, a collection of photographs and journal entries by Laura Wilson of Dallas, TX. Wilson accompanied Richard Avedon as his assistant during his 1980's commissioned project to photograph the American West. Avedon's resulting book, In The American West, became one of the most famous photographic books of the century. Wilson's images and journal entries lend insight into the methods of this master photographer and how this significant work was produced.

Invention Submission Corporation of Pittsburgh announces the invention of a video game controller that would create a lighted effect while a gamer is playing any video game. The light emitted by Shooting Star would be bright enough to be seen in a regularly lit room and would be especially brilliant in a darkened or dimly lit room. Shooting Star is currently available for licensing or sale to manufacturer's or marketers. The concept might also prove useful to videographers and other media artists. For more information, write Dept. 01-DLL-935, ISC, 217 Ninth St., Pittsburgh, PA 15222; call [phone] ext.1368, or visit www.isc-online.com

COMPILED BY BETSY PHILLIPS AND GENEVIEVE WALLER