NESEA to Host Northeast’s Green Building Open House Oct. 13, 2012
The age-old adage, ‘seeing is believing,’ is certainly true when it comes to convincing people to install solar, wind, geothermal systems and make energy efficiency improvements. When people see these technologies for themselves, it goes a long way toward making them comfortable enough to implement them at their own properties.
Case in point, the 2012 Green Building Open House Tour (GBOH) hosted by the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA) http://www.nesea.org/gboh/ in partnership with EnergySage. The GBOH is the largest sustainable energy event in the northeastern U.S., showcasing homes, businesses and public buildings with clean energy systems, and energy efficient designs, systems and products. Last year, more than 11,000 people toured more than 500 properties in the Northeast to see firsthand the sustainability improvements happening in their communities.
The 2012 Tour will take place on Saturday, October 13th featuring properties in ten northeastern states from Maine to Delaware. People interested in learning more about these energy improvements in a real-life setting, can visit the host properties in their area, or just review the profiles online in the corresponding virtual tour hosted here on EnergySage.com.
Home and business owners who’ve already installed a clean energy system or made efficiency upgrades to their properties can share their experiences and results with others by serving as a host property on the tour and/or by creating a project profile for the virtual tour. Instructions for both options can be found here on www.EnergySage.com. The profiles serve a vital purpose, dispelling misconceptions about everything from aesthetics to cost and benefits and helping to convince people about the suitability of these technologies in a variety of settings.
The GBOH tour is focused on bringing sustainable energy into the mainstream. Tour participants get to see these systems in action and learn from their peers who have successfully implemented renewable solutions. They leave the tour feeling inspired, better informed, and more likely to start using these technologies themselves.
For a complete listing of EnergySage properties on the open house tour, go to: http://www.energysage.com/projects/nesea-gboh-listing
______________________________________
Where Sculpture, Tradition and Sea Lore Find Common Ground
The 21st Annual WoodenBoat Show took place at Mystic Seaport, June 29-July 1, 2012, displaying a fleet of wooden boats, large and small, old and new, power, sail, and oar. If ever there were place where the aesthetics of sculpture and functional design converge, wooden boats would be proof-of-concept.
During the three days of the 2012 WoodenBoat Show, the star of the event was Mystic Seaport’s 1841 whaleship CHARLES W. MORGAN. The 113-foot-long ship, the world’s last wooden whaleship and the last of America’s working square-riggers, is in the middle of the most extensive refit in her history. It is being conducted at the Seaport’s Henry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard. The huge hull, which has been hauled out of the water for the project, will once again dominate the waterfront at the south end of Mystic Seaport when is it re-floated in 2014.
Shipyard director Quentin Snediker led afternoon tours of the ship, and Mystic Seaport historian Matthew Stackpole gave a presentation about the ship’s colorful history—37 voyages to all the world’s oceans over 80 years of working life — on Sunday morning.
Skills demonstrations were held in the Shipyard, representing many of the time-honored techniques used in boat building. Many of these demonstrations involved work by the shipyard’s skilled shipwrights, directly on the ship itself. Two planks, hot from the 40-foot-long steambox to make them easier to bend, were installed during the show. True to the original construction style, wooden peg fastenings called trunnels, a shortened form of tree nails, were driven and explained. Techniques of using broadaxes and adzes, tools used by the original builders in 1841, were also demonstrated.
“These skills demonstrations provide a real inside view into the work taken on by Mystic Seaport’s shipwrights,” said WoodenBoat Senior Editor Tom Jackson, who published an article about the restoration in the May/June 2012 issue of WoodenBoat. “I worked alongside many of them, and I can’t emphasize enough how important their work is to the future of this ship, one of the greatest treasures of America’s maritime history.” By way of contrast, working boat builders will also demonstrate modern boatbuilding methods, both of the traditional type that 19th century boat builders would recognize and the new methods brought on by powerful glues such as epoxy. “Our goal is to inspire people, if not to build their own boats, then to come away with a newfound respect for the boat builders of today and of earlier times,” Jackson said.
* * * * *
Hyper-Realistic Sculpture, by Carole Feuerman, Unveiled at SOHO’s Petrosino Square
On Sunday, May 20, 2012 a larger-than-life sized painted bronze sculpture, Survival of Serena (Bronze) was unveiled at the newly redesigned and renovated Petrosino Square, in the SOHO section of New York City. One of the few designated ‘green spaces’ within several blocks, the recent installation will be the first of many under the city’s Parks & Recreation department’s “Art in the Parks” program. Sculptor, Carole Feuerman’s piece, a tranquil figure resting in a dripping inner tube, was selected to bring a touch of summer to the streets and neighborhoods of lower Manhattan and will remain on display until the end of September.
Jonathan Kuhn, Director of Art & Antiquities for New York City Parks & Recreation, speaking at the event, noted that Feuerman’s striking sculpture is part of a tradition of displaying temporary public art in the parks that originated in 1967, and affords numerous contemporary artists an opportunity to exhibit their work in what he termed “the outdoor gallery.” “Feuerman’s work exceeds the bounds of mere mimicry. It floats above the sidewalk with an aura of mystery—a fish out of water—and reminds us of our common experience and physicality.” Kuhn said.
The recent city-funded $2 million face-lift of newly-expanded Petrosino Square is the result of a community-based effort, led by Georgette Fleischer, founder of Friends of Petrosino Square, who lives within view of the once-neglected landmark. “We wanted to beautify the park so it could serve as a meeting place for residents and visitors to the neighborhood, alike. Setting aside a large, open spot at the northern end of the triangular space, away from trees and benches, serves as a high-visibility location for sculpture that will periodically be placed here by the city. It will be an exciting use for the historic space.”
Feuerman’s award-winning resin sculpture, Survival of Serena, for whom this bronze version is modeled after, has been displayed in locations as far-flung as Beijing and Venice; but she noted in her comments at the unveiling that “this new bronze version looks most at home right here in New York.”
* * * * *
New England Museum Association Holds 93rd Annual Meeting in Hartford, CT
The subject is cultural diversity and the role of the museum in a changing world. More specifically, museums and historical sites are examining their evolving role in their communities—urban regions, cities and towns—where rapidly shifting demographics and altered economic factors are influencing institutional programmatic decision-making. The long-standing role of the museum as a repository for America’s history, both artistic and cultural, is transitioning, as the ethnic and racial make-up of those very locales is in rapid flux.
Left: An oversized white swan graces the NEMA proceedings and entertains attendees to the rhythmic beat of Caribbean drums as they await the start of the Keynote Session, Museums in the Mirror: Reflecting relevance in a Diverse Culture.
With growing percentages of African-American, Latino and Asian populations joining the mix of those joining the mainstream culture, museums are anticipating and planning for the shifts in programs, events and exhibitions that will address the interests and needs of those groups. Museum collections and archived materials will have to be re-purposed to attract new members and visitors in the doors; acquisition strategies are shifting to reflect ethnic diversity, and programming is being tailored to address the interests of younger audiences with a perspective on the world shaped by global diversity and a perspective shaped by instant access in the Internet Age.
Right: (from left to right) Kay Simpson, Springfield Museum, V.P. NEMA; Ken Yellis, museum & cultural organization project development specialist, Newport, RI; Marilyn Cruickshank, Educational Consultant, Massachusetts.
_________________________________________
‘Digital 2011: The Alchemy of Change,’ Opening reception, October 2, 2011, The New York Hall of Science, Queens, NY
(left) Art & Science Collaborations, Inc., Director, Cynthia Pannucci, with Art Murphy, beside his photographic studies of prehistoric, pelagic, Devonian fossils, found in the Hudson River Valley of upper New York State.
Part of an ongoing series of exhibitions organized by the Art and Science Collaboration at www.asci.org
The theme is chemistry, in any of its artful manifestations:
“The images in Digital`11: The Alchemy of Change echo the centuries-long struggle of chemistry to find effective modes of visualization. Alchemical imagery often sought to locate chemical transformation in a cosmic perspective, making the unfolding of creation a chemical process couched in allegory. Alchemy’s schematic symbolism of the elements became John Dalton’s atoms. Today, fuzzy micrographs rub shoulders with computer-rendered molecules and abstract depictions of electron orbitals. They are all here, reminding us how important visual codes have been in chemistry’s efforts to convey what can’t be seen.”
—Philip Ball, writer, author and exhibit co-juror
“The sheer variety of the works produced by all the artists highlights exactly what ASCI wanted – to open the public’s eyes to the nature of chemistry. Not just the chemistry found in laboratories so secluded from our day-to-day lives, but something active all around us and more than that – something we can find inspirational. The works which make up the final exhibition illustrate how many different strands branch out from this initial concept, and it is this diversity which made judging this competition all the more difficult but all the more interesting. The works which caught my eye were those which took on a playful or personal approach.”
–Robert Devcic, owner/curator, GV Art, London Gallery
(right) ARTES publisher, Richard Friswell, with Helen Glazer, ARTES contributing writer and photographer, beside one of her hand-colored, Cloud Series, photographs.
Exhibit runs until February 5, 2012 at the New York Hall of Science, in a beautiful, re-purposed, post-modern building on the grounds of the 1964 World’s Fair in Flushing, Queens, NY.