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ArtsWorcester,museumo er ‘Inside Voices’

Richard Duckett

Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK

As ArtsWorcester opens a new exhibition, “Inside Voices,” on March 18, the small but in uential and popular nonpro t arts organization with galleries at 44 Portland St. has been quietly reopened for visits by the public since Feb. 4.

Whether viewed in-person or online, “inside Voices” is “the 9th reiteration of our terri c partnership with the Fitchburg Art Museum, and a really vibrant and competitive members’ show,” said ArtsWorcester executive director Juliet Feibel.

For this year’s “Call and Response” with ArtsWorcester and the Fitchburg Arts Museum, one hundred ArtsWorcester artists are exhibiting work in a wide range of media in response to a loan of 10 works from FAM’s permanent collection.

In turn, the Fitchburg Art Museum’s curatorial sta will select 10 works from “Inside Voices” to be exhibited at FAM with the selected works from the museum’s collection.

ArtsWorcester member artists were asked to consider a wide range of interiors, including domestic environments, psychological subjectivity, bodies, architecture and sculptural containment for “Call and Response.” “We invite you to turn inward and explore these interior spaces for their potential energy and revelatory power,” artists were told.

Artists had to respond not only to the theme, but directly to one (or more) of 10 artworks on loan from the Fitchburg museum.

These vary in form and style and include Will Barnet’s lithograph “The Reader” depicting a young woman on a bed reading a book with a black cat beside her; Fritz Gerliger’s black and white photograph of the interiors of a stack of pipes looking like telescopes, titled “Steel Pipes”; an Abelam artist’s “Mask”; and Irving R. Wiles’ oil on canvas “Reverie” from 1900 showing an elegantly dressed young woman apparently taking a nap in a chair.

The 100 ArtsWorcester artists who submitted work “was about a quarter less than what we normally see for this collaboration, but we expected that, given that the artists were asked to engage speci cally with the loaned works from FAM, instead of their general theme. It was a greater challenge,” Feibel said.

It was also art created in a pandemic. Was there one particular FAM work that seemed to inspire artists or any sort of emerging common theme?

“Every work in the loan had multiple artists cite it as their in uence. There simply wasn’t a single work, or even three, that commanded the most attention, which tells us there was something for everyone, and that our colleague at FAM, Marjorie Rawle, made wonderful choices with her selection,” Feibel said.

“As the works came in for installation, some commonalities made themselves clear,” Feibel said. “The prevalence of windows in the artwork was the rst thing we noted, which makes perfect sense, really. What is more inside/ outside than a window? There are many bodies and faces in the exhibition, much more gurative work and more nudity than we normally see. Tim Johnson, who installed the exhibition, describes it as ‘moody,’ and I think that’s right. But there’s also much more humor and visual play than I would have expected, given the season and social darkness of the weeks in which these artworks were created.”

John Ginto ’s “Kosmonaut” inkjet collage photograph is inspired by Gerlinger’s “Steel Pipes.”

“Soon after the pandemic lockdown began in March 2020, I decided to start making on my computer collaged images from my original photos as well as appropriated images,” Ginto said.

“Probably within a week after the total lockdown began last March I started to incorporate writing over the photos using di erent colors and densities for each letter. In this way I felt I was desecrating my images as well as enhancing the image with color as well as imposing my will over my photographs much like the pandemic was imposing its will over me.”

Random words eventually morphed into becoming the actual title of the photograph, Ginto said, and he started to use Russian words for the titles using the Cyrillic alphabet. “So the title of my work in the ‘Inside Voices’ exhibit, ‘Cosmonaut,’ is actually the Russian word for ‘astronaut’ … “

In Gerlinger’s photo, “I was attracted to the concentric circles within the pipes as well as the fact that you looked through the pipes to see what was visible at the other end, much like what would happen in my photo where the letters ‘O’ (there are two cosmonaut) became concentric circles as well as allowing you to look through the letters to the images underneath,” Ginto said.

Claire Lima took Wiles’ “Reverie” as her inspiration for “The Place of Shifting Consciousness,” consisting of wire, wool, seed pods, roses, wild grass and acrylic paint.

“I was initially drawn to the title, ‘Inside Voices,’ because this was something I had been exploring with my art in the previous year. Most of my work has to do with my relationship to place but as those places became more and more con ned due to the pandemic, the interior places within came more to the forefront,” Lima said.

“I xated on ‘Reverie’ as my inspiration piece for those very reasons. The painting is all at once majestic and contemplative and its stillness draws you into the internal story as much as the external. When creating ‘The Place of Shifting Consciousness,’ my aim was to turn the painting inside out in a way, to expose internal landscape, speci cally those moments of pure consciousness between thoughts, on the face of the gure rather than within. Then I stuck a white rose in it, like tucking it behind her ear,” Lima said.

Edmy Ortiz’s “My Chromebook Reader,” oil on canvas, has a cat at the center as a girl reads from her Chromebook in a work inspired by Barnet’s “The Reader.”

Nastassia Hunt, “Pillow for Two,” oil on canvas, 14” x 11” ARTSWORCESTER

Old Sturbridge Village learns a few new tricks

Veer Mudambi Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK

It’s a great turnout for “Garden Thyme,” a series of agricultural workshops and programs at Old Sturbridge Village. More than 115 people have joined the sta , on a Saturday morning, at the village greenhouses to learn the do’s and don’ts of caring for heirloom seeds indoors. The sta members speak to a rapt audience — almost triple that of a usual event, even before COVID. No social distancing protocols are being breached however — all but 10 of the attendees are tuning in via Zoom as part of the Virtual Village program.

Certain business models were more vulnerable to COVID-19 than others. The feasibility of remote working and social distancing became the deciding factors of what kept a business a oat. Anything that relied on in-person interaction or crowds had a grim prognosis, facing layo s and general downsizing to survive. This would seem to be the case for institutions such as OSV — a “living museum” focusing on daily life in the 1790s to 1830s New England with a strong emphasis on personal interaction. Instead, the museum is approaching its 75th anniversary not only open to in-person visitors but with all its sta and having expanded with a Virtual Village component.

Plans to expand the museum’s digital platform had been in the works for some time but had been progressing slowly. COVID provided the fuel to boost e orts into high gear. True to its name, the Virtual Village includes online 3D models of the buildings to explore, thanks to a longtime supporter who works as a 3D photographer.

“This time last year, the whole world shifted,” said Rhys Simmons, director of interpretations and costumes, and the museum had to shift with it. Simmons’ department includes the costumed historians, or interpreters, whom visitors interact with at the museum. These professionals are not only well versed in the history of that period, but practical experts in the crafts of the time, such as blacksmithing, agriculture and textiles.

Through the Virtual Village, sta worked to convey the entire OSV experience to an audience even while the museum itself was closed. However, the interactive and hands-on aspect, the back and forth conversation with interpreters, said Simmons, is what truly brings in the visitors and allows OSV to live up to its name a “living museum.” The question was how to translate that quality to a digital format?

“We had a few days when we kind of knew that [the shutdown] was coming,” said Simmons, “and sent people home with a lot of craft projects.” Many of the interpretive sta were able to take their work and tools home, from textile projects such as quilts and mittens to even a potters wheel.

Jean Contino, coordinator of domestic crafts, was in the process of making “stays,” or corsets, when the pandemic hit and shutdowns began. The stays used at OSV are utilitarian garments women would wear at that time while doing heavy work — sti enough to provide support, yet exible enough to allow freedom of movement. Contino found that remote work was not so much an equipment issue but that if she hit a hurdle, she couldn’t run next door and ask one of her colleagues. So emails and photos ew back and forth, making the collaborative process more cumbersome due to the distance.

Creating historical clothing, however, requires more materials than just a needle and thread. Original pieces from the museum’s collection, clothing and books that served as a reference, could not be so easily taken home, and Contino often used the OSV website for images, or digital copies of books. If all else failed though, there were still essential workers on site, caring for the animals and crops who were willing to take a detour to the library. “We certainly relied on people who were there for the leg work and they were very understanding,” said Contino. “It was a real team effort.”

As the interpreters like Contino continued their work at home, they documented their progress and sent along the material to the marketing team — anything from simple photographs and instructions to short videos. “Two to three weeks into the shutdown, I knew we needed to make it bigger than just a couple of posts and really start collecting stories,” said chief marketing o cer Christine Tieri. A more robust content pipeline was essential, she said, once it became clear that COVID wasn’t going anywhere soon. Content creation efforts were soon placed under the Virtual Village umbrella. “That made everything into puzzle pieces that t together rather than individual projects all over,” said Tieri.

Contino’s department ended up making kits that families could pick up on-site, along with online video guides. These DIY kits for pine cone wreaths and knitting stockings got the audience involved and took them a step past the screen. “We were very excited to be able to do that for our audiences,” said Contino, “balancing the historical context with the practical aspect of the craft.”

“Learning through doing has always been a tenet of Old Sturbridge Village,” said Simmons, the idea being to better understand that period through the skills needed at the time, like forging, animal husbandry or textiles.

The videos made by sta at home continued as short, timely segments in tune with the seasons — fall focused on harvest, and spring covered planting and livestock. Recently, the museum took it a step further and held a members program through Zoom — Garden Thyme, held on select Saturdays, spotlighting the greenhouses and the upcoming growing season. Oftentimes, the worry is virtual events will not yield as great a turnout as their in-person counterparts but Simmons estimates there were about triple the number of an average in-person program, which would usually draw about 20 to 40 people.

“That’s the kind of lesson that we could extrapolate out for other programs,” he said. “Since people are becoming more and more comfortable with zooms and virtual events, that will have to be part of our pro le going forward.”

With a membership base of about 6,000, many of whom are scattered around the country, digital content would allow OSV to interact with an audience far beyond their physical visitors. “We’ve been telling the story of the 1830s for 75 years,” Simmons said. While the museum’s mission statement has remained unchanged, the same cannot be said for the audience, and OSV “needs to engage them where they are.”

Many peer institutions, as Tieri called them, don’t use social media except to announce opening and closing dates. Tieri wanted material that would let the museum go beyond that. “Everyone had COVID news so we wanted to be that breath of fresh air,” she said. But to generate that content, they needed the right tools.

Before the shutdowns, Tieri shared that they didn’t even have a second camera. When she realized OSV needed to build up capability, she asked, “what do we need if we’re going to go out in the village and start [ lming] stu ?” Turns out they not only needed another camera but also a microphone, lights and even extra battery packs, so that was the rst step. It was a case of ying by

A ballroom converted to a socially distanced classroom at Old Sturbridge Village

Charter School. OLD STURBRIDGE VILLAGE

Voices

Continued from Page 5D

The cat is Bella, “a stray kitten we rescued from my parents garage that we quickly fell in love with,” Ortiz said.

“ ‘My Chromebook Reader’ is a modern day representation of the changes we’ve had to embrace this past year. Not only did children have to adjust to a different sense of technology, we also had to find ways to help them cope with all of the everyday radical changes. In this particular event, our cat Bella served us as a coping mechanism which benefited and distracted my kids throughout the pandemic,” Ortiz said.

Barnet’s “The Reader” immediately reminded Ortiz of of an image she has ingrained of her daughter Alba “sitting, focused on her reading while she simultaneously pets Bella, our family cat. I recalled taking a photo image which I quickly found and used it as inspiration for my art piece.”

Aaron Brodeur’s “Headspace” is made of pine, Douglas fir, found wood, steel, wire, carved trucast, sawdust and ash compound, poly-fil, acrylic and spray paint on sewn canvas.

“The inspiration occurred instantly from both the ‘Inside Voices’ theme and (the Abelam artist) ‘Mask,’” Brodeur said. “The theme parallels the intent and direction I take in all my work. ‘Mask’ has limitless conceptual content, and gestural and formal qualities that I naturally gravitate to. The authenticity, rawness and usage of sourced natural materials is an aesthetic that I am greatly influenced by.”

If the exhibition had happened before the pandemic, does Brodeur think his “Headspace” would have looked and felt different?

“Pre-pandemic I would’ve mostly thought about masks as being something used to perform a work-related task, or as an object worn symbolically or ritualistically,” he said. “Now, masks are an essential item to not leave home without, along with a phone, wallet and keys. This pandemic has been a constant source of fear and anxiety, which has leached into the work. If the pandemic wouldn’t have happened, I think ‘Headspace’ would have taken on a less defensive look and feel.”

“Inside Voices” will be on view in ArtsWorcester’s main galleries and online beginning March 18. Gallery capacity will be limited to 10 visitors at any time, and all visitors are required to wear masks or face coverings. Gallery visitors are required to reserve a free, 45-minute appointment in advance on Eventbrite before entering. ArtsWorcester gallery hours run Thursdays through Sundays, noon to 5 p.m. The exhibition will be on view through Sunday, May 2. For more information, visit www.artsworcester.org.

ArstWorcester shut down its galleries on March 16, 2020, as the pandemic began to hit locally then reopened to the public in early July.

“After Thanksgiving, however, when the case loads began to rise so dramatically, we moved to gallery visits by appointment only,” Feibel said. “But running in-person operations for a non-essential business — a business that can deliver so much online — in the midst of a public health crisis sat ill with me. Inviting people from multiple households to gather in public, even if all were fully masked, felt like the wrong choice for our community and for our city. On Dec. 10, I decided it was no longer safe for one of our employees to ride the bus to work, and as we were organizing rides to and from the gallery for them, I had to ask myself: if riding the bus in this community was risky, why on earth were we trying to run an art gallery? So I closed the galleries again.”

Feibel said “I can’t tell you how difficult a decision this was, given the lack of guidance from the state, and a weird social pressure to continue on like everything was just fine. It wasn’t! But we had prepared a slew of digital activities and programs in anticipation of a fall or winter spike, so we were ready. We’d also built a lot of flexibility into the exhibition schedule, so that the shows on view could finish their gallery hours after we reopened, whenever that might be. Only the decision to buck the pressure and close again was hard; the rest was easy.”

As for the decision to reopen to the public again, “This part made sense! I simply looked at the case numbers for the first week of December when I closed the galleries again, and decided that when they returned to those levels, we’d reopen. Fortunately for us all, the numbers were far below that point when we finished off those December exhibitions, and they’re less than half of that now,” Feibel said.

How has the response been to reopening — are there lots of people coming in, or are people cautious?

“People are still cautious, and we are still running visits by appointments,” Feibel said. “We all worried that having to schedule an appointment online or by telephone, even a free appointment, would be a deterrent to visiting. But we learned that if people love art, they won’t mind giving up a little spontaneity.”

Long-term results from what has been endured but also learned include the fact “Gallery exhibitions online are here to stay, and that’s great for our artists and our geographic reach. Some educational programs will stay online, because they’ve been even more successful there,” Feibel said.

“My guess is that some visitors will continue to be apprehensive about large gatherings indoors for some time, but many will be eager to ‘sardine right back in,’ as one visitor said the other day. Those crazy crowded events, however, will have to wait until our staff and volunteers are fully immunized, even if that has to include a booster shot against variants. It will be worth the wait.”

“Reverie,” by Irving R. Wiles, 1900, oil

on canvas. FITCHBURG ART MUSEUM

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