RedLine launched its new series, The Artist’s Studio on Saturday, May 11.  The program is designed to create a new space for dialogue between artists and the community.  Each selected resident artist has complete creative license  to produce an event of their own unique design. The series began with a presentation and discussion led by Resident Artist André Daughtry on Aesthetics and Politics.  

Monthly Art

Date: Every First Monday

Time: 4-5:30 pm

Ages: Elementary age children, accompanied by an adult

Join the Denver Public Library and RedLine for a free Monthly Creative Literacy Activity. 

June 3 @ Blair-Caldwell Library

July 1 @ RedLine

August 5 @ Blair-Caldwell Library

September 2 @ RedLine

For more information please contact the Blair-Caldwell Library (2401 Welton St), 720-865-2401 or RedLine 303-296-4448

Stick it to Stigma: Support Harm Reduction

Date: Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Time: 5:30-7:30 pm 

The launch of Harm Reduction Action Center's crowd-funding anti-stigma campaign will humanize and de-stigmatize the face of injection drug use and raise money to support HRAC programs. Bring your friends, family members, and co-workers out to learn more about how syringe access, overdose prevention, and harm reduction policy are shaping the City of Denver. The multimedia presentation will feature portrait photography projection, an interactive and educational “deconstructed panel,” and the creation of a public art project. Support HRAC's life-saving work to keep our community healthy and safe.

About Harm Reduction Action Center

The HRAC is Colorado’s only public health agency focusing specifically on injection drug use. Programs include a comprehensive syringe access program, health education classes, overdose prevention training, on demand HIV and Hepatitis C testing, street outreach, access to mail, telephone and nutritious food.

Incarceration to Home

Damages: Collateral and Otherwise

Date: Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Time: 6-8 pm

Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition will host a workshop and conversation about what happens when returning citizens are released from prison to the outside. CCJRC will discuss with visitors the issues of family, housing/homelessness, employment, health and functioning in a changed world.

Art from Ashes

Date: Friday, July 12, 2013

Time: 6:30-8:30 pm 

The Pheonix Rising poetry and spoken word program creates supportive opportunities for youth in underserved, vulnerable neighborhoods throughout Colorado to move past their limitations and discover hope, humanity and self-determination through the power of words.

Deep Mapping: A Reading of Geographic Personal Essays

Date: Sunday, July 28, 2013

Time: 6-8 pm 

Deep Mapping: Composing and Reading Geographic Personal Essays. The focus of this class is to map one’s life both physically and mentally. Through this mapping we might find our way to places forgotten and may uncover what we define as home. By involving both marginalized members of the community and those of means, we hope to spark a conversation about our needs as humans. Readings of completed works will be held Saturday July 27 from 6-8pm.

About Lighthouse Writer's Workshop

Lighthouse is Denver’s literary center devoted to the craft of creative writing and building community among writers and readers. Lighthouse offers year round programming for literary artists and readers, including workshops, lectures readings and get-togethers, as well as career advancement opportunities for emerging and established writers.

Evolving Doors Dance 

Evolving Doors Dance performed S(LAB) at RedLine on the evening of April 27, 2013. The Spring Lab  2013 performance involved live drums and ukelele by Executive Director, Amy Shelley, and several choreographic works-in-progress by Artistic Director, Angie Simmons, with contributions from the dancers. 

After a brief preview on RedLine's patio, the performances moved freely throughout the exhibition hall, between movable walls, with the audience in tow for this informal showing of work. According to Evolving Doors Dance, the "fragments" performed at S(LAB) intended to "physically navigate line, texture, relationship, and juxtaposition, appealing to patrons of both visual and performing art." Watch the YouTube videos below and decide for yourself!

Videos 

Evolving Doors Dance 

Evolving Doors Dance on RedLine's Patio 

Evolving Doors Dance and Ukelele Performance 

Participating Dancers

Ying Zhu - Resident EDD Dancer

Serena Chopra - Resident EDD Dancer, RedLine Resident Writer

Annabel Reader - guest dancer, Costume Designer

Yael Japha - guest dancer

Charissa Bowditch - guest dancer

Gretchen LaBorwit - guest dancer

Exhibition Dates: July 16 - September 6, 2013

Reception: July 17, 7-10 pm, Members 6-7 pm

Location: 2500 Lawrence Street Denver, CO 80205

Hours: 9 am-5 pm Monday-Friday

Imagined Realities is a temporary exhibition at Sustainability Park that is dedicated to artistic research that explores the intertwined concepts of energy and sustainability. This exhibition considers concepts interwoven in both challenges and solutions to sustainable living – from the conundrum of envisioning utopia to the aura of the apocalyptic potentials that often drive sustainable endeavors.

“Imagined Realities is really about thinking through all of our aesthetic, social, philosophical, and pragmatic relations to the world in which we live,” stated Courtney Lane Stell, guest curator for the exhibition. “Here, artists encourage a critical, reflective, and engaging approach to this topic - a topic that is normally approached through political or commercial avenues. This exhibition is not about answers it’s more about a pluralistic dialogue.”

                                                                                                                          -Cortney Stell, Curator

 The exhibition will include seven, newly commissioned sculptural works that engage the concept of sustainability and humanity’s relation to the earth and nature. The artworks within the exhibition were selected for their ability to broaden definitions of sustainability as well as illuminate and discuss current ideas in relation to art disciplines.

Participating Artists: Don Fodness, Matthew Harris, Lisa Moses and Adam Brock, Alvin Gregorio, Brian Evans, Trine Bumiller, M12, Daniel Hipolito and Rebecca Vaughan.

Aesthetics and Politics:

The relationship between art, politics and activism

Artist: Andre Daughtry

Date: Saturday, May 11, 2013

Time: 6-8 pm

Cost: $10 program admission, free to members 

This lecture is intended to help explore the relationship between the arts and political life of society. The philosopher Jacque Ranciere is very well known for his writings on the subject. Ranciere considered the ability of the two domains of activity to be intrinsically linked because of their striking similarities in relation to the expansion of human perception, thinking and possibilities in relation to living.

Please come out and enjoy an exploration of this interesting subject matter with fellow RedLine members in a discussion led by artist-in-residence, Andre Daughtry.

RedLine's new program series, "The Artist's Studio," features one resident artist every month. Taking place during RiNo Second Saturdays, the featured artist will produce an event of their own design. With the resident artists' complete creative license and flexibility, each event will be a unique happening. This program seeks to more closely connect RedLine members and visitors with our resident and resource artist community and their work. For more information, please click HERE or contact Louise at louise.martorano@redlineart.org.

RedLine Open Studio

Dates: First Tuesdays

Time: 6:30-8:30 pm

Cost: $5 suggested materials donation for non-members

RedLine Open Studio welcomes artists of all skill levels to work alongside peers every first Tuesday in the Community Studio. Each session ends  in a half hour voluntary, informal peer critique. All media are welcome. If you do not want to pay the materials donation, please feel free to bring your own supplies.

Not Exactly Homeless Breakfast

Date: May 3, 2013 

Time: 7:30-9 am   

Location: RedLine 2350 Arapahoe Street Denver, CO 80205

Registration: Please RSVP to Audrey at apotter@redlineart.org

What Can You Do?

Photo by Cong Lu 

S(LAB): Real People. Real Moving.

Date: Saturday, April 27, 2013

Time: Please arrive by 7 pm

The Artist's Studio

Dates: Second Saturdays

Time: 6-8 pm

Cost: $10 program admission, free to members

RedLine's new program series, "The Artist's Studio," features one resident artist every month. Taking place during RiNo Second Saturdays, the featured artist will produce an event of their own design. With the resident artists' complete creative license and flexibility, each event will be a unique happening. This program seeks to more closely connect RedLine members and visitors with the resident and resource artist community and their work.  

2013 Calendar

May: Andre Daughtry 

June: Justin Beard

July: Jaime Carrejo

August: Donald Fodness

October: Laura Shill

November: Blake Sanz

December: Zach Reini

2014 Calendar

January: Chinn Wang

February: Katie Caron

March: Amber Cobb

April: Alvin Gregorio

May: Katie Watson

June: Nikki Pike

August: Heather Doyle-Maier

September: dylan scholinski

Drawing by Jared David Paul, 2013

PANDA: Performance Art Night Denver Aaaaaa

Date: Saturday, May 18, 2013

Time: 7 - 9 pm

Copyright for All Photographers

Presented by APA Colorado

Date: April 25, 2013

Time: 7 - 9 pm

Cost: General Admission $20/ Students $15/ APA members $10

MoP - Month of Photography Denver is a celebration of fine art photography through 100+ collaborative public events throughout Denver and the region for the month of March - April 2013. We are joining multiple museums galleries and schools surrounding ideas in fine art photography creating an exciting artistic and educational event for the city of Denver and the region.

http://mop2013.blogspot.com   

Interview with Serena Chopra - Part 2

The following interview with is continued from last week. Please click here to see part 1. Serena's book, This Human, will be celebrated with a booksigning, reception and reading on Thursday, April 11, 6:00-9:00 pm.

When you started college did you intend to become a writer and poet?

When I started undergrad I was on a dance scholarship to CU Boulder. I was a ballerina, but the program was mostly modern technique based and, though I am a modern dancer now, I became discouraged at the time. I knew I wanted to do something artistic, but I was feeling a bit trapped and uninspired in the dance program. I had kept a journal since I was a kid and always wanted to be a writer, but didn’t know if it was something I was good at or should pursue; I loved to write, though. I spent hours in my dorm room, engrossed in my notebook. One morning, while waiting for a dance class to begin, I found a copy of the campus literary journal with a flier for a campus undergraduate writing award folded inside. I thought it would be so neat to be published, so I submitted a poem to the journal and a piece of fiction to the contest. My poem was selected for the journal and my story won the contest. I then signed up for the introductory creative writing workshop the following semester and eventually applied for the undergrad creative writing program, which is what my BA is in. I also attended the masters program in creative writing at CU, which I finished in 2009; I’m now at DU as a PhD candidate in creative writing. And so today, today—it happened so organically, and nearly unintentionally.

With your numerous creative outlets, where does your inspiration lay? Who (or what) are your greatest creative influences?

That is a big question. The possibility for inspiration is vast and in any moment. I believe that an artist works constantly. I am never “off the clock,” so to say; because it is my job to observe and create, I always have to be on. Inspiration can come from a class or a book, on a walk, during a fight, in a dream, at lunch—I keep pens and paper at very distinct locations around my house and on my person at all times so I can take a note at any moment. I am never at rest; my head is always going—critically and sensually consuming the world around me. No moment is lost time or useless; whatever I perceive is potential.

As far as specific historical and contemporary inspirations, I try to read and see as much as I can, so my current influences are constantly shifting; what I notice or am attracted to changes depending on what is attracting my curiosity at the time, and how I perceive relates to the writing or art I am working on. Right now, I am inspired by Milton’s absolute genius, the body, the human, the recent shooting tragedies, Romanticism, Modernism, Dorthea Lasky, Pina, female reproductive organs, solitude and loneliness, aggression, the breaking point of language, architecture, urban planning, zoo animals, machines and mechanisms, dead materials, clutter, Wagner operas, Lilly Mae Martin, Kurosawa, Clifford Still, gardens, deserts, and obsessive compulsive disorder.

I know that you've done a reading in a salvage yard before. What are some other unusual places you've created, exhibited or read your work?

I haven’t exhibited in many weird places other than the salvage yard. I am part of a theater group, GASP (Girls Assembling Something Perpetual) and we host plays in my home, which we turn into a really neat theater. Other than that, does Craig’s List count as a place?

Some of RedLine's previous resident artists have moved on to other residency programs in Denver to as far away as Denmark. Where would be your ideal place to create new work?

I love Denver; I feel so blessed to have such a vibrant creative community here. After I graduate, I’d like to move to San Francisco or Paris or any place that is a dream, I suppose.

Image: Reiner Riedler, from the series Fake Holidays: Horizon #1, Tropical Islands, Germany, 2007,
Represented by Sous Les Etoiles Gallery NYC

A RedLine and MoP Celebration

A thank you celebration to the supporters and participants of MoP

Date: April 24, 2013 

VIP and Members: 6-7 pm   

Public: 7-10 pm

The exhibition is The Reality of Fiction- a survey of photographers work who explore the subject of reality and fiction in this new millennium. The photographs range from serious social documentation to humorous and absurdities of our modern culture, including portraits of extreme plastic surgery, hyper realistic fake babies, fake holidays, fake relationships, fake realities, UFO Polaroids and much more.

Participating artists:

Emily Peacock - Reiner Riedler  - Phillip Toledano - Sarah Martin - Sally Stockhold - Rebecca Martinez - Greta Pratt  - James Soe Nyun - Joe Clower - j.frede  - Katie Taft - John Bonath - Christine Buchsbaum - Conor King - Michael Ensminger -  Edie Winograde - Pablo Gimenez Zapiola - Lori Nix - Liz Greene - Harry Walters - Adam Milner -  T. John Hughes - Nina Berman - Sarah Haney - Susan Anderson -Justin Beard - Zach Reini

MoP - Month of Photography Denver is a celebration of fine art photography through 100+ collaborative public events throughout Denver and the region for the month of March - April 2013. We are joining multiple museums galleries and schools surrounding ideas in fine art photography creating an exciting artistic and educational event for the city of Denver and the region.

For more information on Month of Photography events throughout Denver, please visit www.mopdenver.com 

Interview with Serena Chopra - Part 1 

RedLine resident writer, Serena Chopra, has just released her first full length poetry book-- This Human. The accomplishment will be celebrated with a book-signing, reception and reading on Thursday, April 11, 2013 from 6-9 pm. Friends of Serena, Michael Flatt (author, Absent Receiver) and Noah Eli Gordon (author, The Year of the Rooster), will also read at the event. 

“This Human maintains that the human is the only mechanism by which beauty is known. A human is an individual being with an anatomy that has the capability to perceive beauty and a mind to interpret and reason beauty.”

- Serena Chopra, excerpt from This Human

Interview

You created a multi-media piece for RedLine's 2012 resident artist exhibition, Material Engagements that included a mono print and a recording of one of your poems- “House of Shores.” Is this the first time you've exhibited visual art or has it been a long-time passion?

I have exhibited visual art before, but in a very small way—local restaurants and whatnot—nothing as formal as the RedLine. My gratitude goes out to RL for giving me the opportunity; visual art is a passion that I have not academically or otherwise formally pursued, but is a necessary part to my overall creative practice. I am also a dancer, performing now with Evolving Doors Dance Company, and I consider the three “genres” of art (writing, dance, and visual art) to simply be different modes or expressions of the same impulse. Through these three expressions, I find my way through whatever ideas or imaginings I am contemplating.

Do you consider the visual artwork an extension of your poetry?

In this way, I absolutely consider the work at RL as an extension of the poem, and of the entire book (of poems) I am currently composing. The poem, “House of Shores”, that is recorded for the visual piece is part of the book I am working on and is somewhat representative of the entire book. I plan to open up the scroll and continue the visual piece alongside the composition of the book. There exists a partnership, for me, between writing and visual work: some artists or writers work on multiple paintings or books at once; I work on one project through multiple modes, simultaneously. This is how I find “the idea to be discovered,” as our adored William Carlos Williams articulates.

The visual work says things that I cannot find words for; as I articulate the visual work, I come to understandings that open new points of access, which the language can then attempt to work towards in new ways. I often discover the poem in a visual articulation or movement of it; I discover the expression of movement in a poem or a visual articulation; and I discover the visual substance in the dance or poem. If I had any talent at music, I’d throw that in there too; what really is the difference except in tools and product? The process is the same. I think this is the capacity of expression, and its capability.

So you also have a background in dance?

Dance was my first art. I’ve been at it since I was two, so it is where I learned what expression was, what it meant, how I held it in my being, and its significance. Dance also taught me to be critical, to ask questions of aesthetic and intention. Finally, dance taught me that the only way to gain momentum is to ditch the ego, to just create because you have to, because that is what is to be done. This is a necessary value for my art-making process—it is what allows me to explore and work through a variety of artistic modes, and it is what encourages me to experiment.

Have you ever incorporated an element of dance into a poetry reading?

Whereas music accompanies dance, dance and poetry are exactly the same thing for me. When I dance I am thinking with my body and the thoughts are in a language that resembles poetry. When I write, I feel the language as movement rather than words communicating ideas. More precisely, dance and poetry are the same expressions for me. So my concern is, if I express something through movement, then how do I incorporate poetry without it feeling like a repetition of that movement, or worse, a blatant telling of the movement’s intention. So blending the two is tough for me. But I’ve seen it done beautifully, in particular by one poet, Ronaldo Wilson, and it is so moving.

And that being said, I do sort of dance when I read my work aloud because the act of composition is a dance. When I read aloud there is movement, but it is not a dance performance as such, it is the gestures of the language and composition—I cannot read without those gestures, they are a significant part of the expression of the poem. I feel these gestures are available when the poem is read on the page, but when I read it aloud, I use movement to translate what the audience cannot see happening on the page. Similarly, when I dance I am reading the audience poetry, but I am not speaking.

Boys To Men

Date: Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Time: 6 pm

Location: Wonderbound: 1075 Park Avenue West Denver, CO 80205

Inocente Film Screening

Date: Sunday, June 2, 2013

Time: 4:15, 4:30 pm 

Location: Sie FilmCenter 2510 E. Colfax Avenue Denver, CO 80206

Tickets: $25, Click HERE to purchase

Join RedLine and Not Exactly artist, Inocente, for a screening of the Academy Award Winner for Best Short Documentary, Inocente, at the Sie FilmCenter. Q & A and reception with Inocente will be held after the screening.

Intensely personal coming of age feature documentary about a young artist’s fierce determination to never surrender to the bleakness of her surroundings. At 15, Inocente refuses to let her dream of becoming an artist be caged by her life as an undocumented immigrant forced to live homeless for the last nine years. Color is her personal revolution and its extraordinary sweep on her canvases creates a world that looks nothing like her own dark past. 

Told entirely in her own words, we come to Inocente’s story as she realizes her life is at a turning point, and for the first time, she decides to take control of her own destiny. Irreverent, flawed and funny, she’s now channeling her irrepressible personality into a future she controls. Her talent has finally been noticed, and if she can create a body of work in time, she has an opportunity to put on her first art show. Meanwhile, her family life is at a tense impasse – – if she legally emancipates herself from her mother to strike out on her own, she’ll risk placing her brothers in foster care, but to stay is unbearable. INOCENTE is both a timeless story about the transformative power of art and a timely snapshot of the new face of homelessness in America, children.