316 OPEN HOUSE

316 Art is having their Annual Open House Friday November 7th and YOU ARE INVITED!!! This is a super cool event! Did you know there are working artist studios blocks from Central Academy? 316 Art @ 316 SW 5th Street, houses about 30 artist studios ranging from cartoonist, furniture makers, jewelers, potters, painters, you name it!!! Feel free to extend this invitation to your family and friends.

Yan Pei-Ming: Life Souvenir

THURSDAY NOVEMBER 20TH @ 2:30 WE WILL MEET AT THE ART CENTER FOR A GUIDED TOUR OF THIS SHOW. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR OWN RIDES. PLAN ON A HOUR FOR THE TOUR AND TIME TO SKETCH AND REFLECT. BRING YOUR IWB. COST PER PERSON IS $2 DUE TO ME ON NOVEMBER 13TH.

September 19, 2008 – January 4, 2009- Art Center on Grand "Yan Pei-Ming’s large-scale, monochromatic paintings demand notice. Like boisterous children, they engage audiences with their energy, impact, and size. Yan’s vibrant and fluid canvases and watercolors merge traditional Chinese visual traditions with elements of Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art. Twenty paintings comprise Life Souvenir, continuing Yan Pei-Ming’s career-long interest in memory, incorruptibility, and, above all else, human emotion. Large canvases presenting nameless soldiers face sizeable watercolors on the opposite wall depicting anonymous infants. The soldiers are painted in black and shades of grey, while the infants are painted in red. Each of these colors holds symbolic meaning in Chinese tradition: white is the color of death and dying, while black celebrates life and symbolizes “real innocence” to the artist. Red is the color of purity and virtue, a fitting parallel to the depiction of children. This exhibition is accompanied by a full-color catalogue with essays by Art Center Director Jeff Fleming and Mami Kataoka, senior curator, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan." Above article from The Art Center website Gallery Talk @ The Art Center Thursday, December 4, 6:30 pmJeff Fleming, directorFREE admission More stories... Artzine Artcadja

Shoe Layout Due 10.20.08

GUIDING QUESTION- What can a pair of shoes say about a culture? Research anything and everything SHOE and create a IWB layout of an interesting aspect of shoes you discovered in your research. To get started check out the Beta Shoe Museum, hanging shoes on electrical wires, boots on fence posts, shoes in trees, shoes as sculpture , shoes as function, shoes as fashion, the symbolism of shoes, indoor shoes vs. outdoor shoes, shoes of war, shoes of peace, etc. This IWB layout will serve as your theme for October's studio work.

The Shoes on the Danube Promade

The Shoes on the Danube Promade was created by a man named Gyula Pauer and is a memorial on the bank of the Danube in Budapest. It is a memorial to the people who fell victim to the Arrow Cross Militiamen in Budapest and depicts their shoes left behind as they were cast into the river after having just been shot during WWII. There were shoes of men, women and children, including the shoes of a toddler posted above. I was struck by the little shoes. I could not imagine holding a gun up to a toddling toddlers little head for the beliefs he is too young to possess. This made me think about this story and want to know more about what happened. So I researched the history of this instillation piece. During WWII between 250 and 400 workers worked around the clock to prevent its Jewish population from being sent to the many concentrations camps that marked the war. They were housed at the Swedish Embassy and other buildings in the area. On January 8, 1945 all of the inhabitants were rounded up and taken away to the banks of the river by the Arrow Cross Execution Brigade. Still wanting to prevent a massacre, 20 policemen armed with bayonets rescued them all, and helped them to flee the country. The survivors remember how they were lucky to escape the fate that their loved ones endured the Christmas the year before, being shot and thrown into the cold Danube river. This is the site where Jewish men, women, and children lost their lives. The place where they were shot for their beliefs and thrown into the icy winter waters as a means of extermination only after they removed their ever so valuable shoes. They may have lost their lives, but the memory and their shoes remain forever.

Shoes Studies

@ HOME

Our patience has paid off! We have made it to our new home, The Academy Studio @ the Wallace Building! Here are some updated pictures to share with your families.

DSM World Food Fest

I am so excited to experience DSM World Food Festival for the first time this year. I highly recommend you also attend. You can get $1 "tastes" of food from all over the world. It would make for an interesting page in your IWB. Be sure to record your surroundings and "tastes" in drawings. The vendors will also be giving away recipe cards of what you order. Perhaps try making your favorite "taste" at home...of course documenting everything in your IWB along the way! There will also be a world bazaar and live entertainment. Food, shopping and entertainment, it does not get much better than that! Let me know if you plan to attend.

• What:U.S. Cellular® World Food Festival
• When:October 10-12, 2008
• Where:Downtown Des Moines’ East Village on E. Locust and E. 5th St
• Times:Friday, October 10 - 11 a.m. - 10 p.m.Saturday, October 11 - 11 a.m. - 10 p.m.Sunday, October 12 - 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.
• Why:A taste event celebrating Iowa’s unique and diverse culinary traditions.
• Cost:FREE to attend

Festival Inspired IWB Pages

By Mrs. Green

Channel 12

As I was doing things around the house tonight I heard a familiar voice. It definitely caught me off guard. I began to wonder if I was thinking about IB Art so much that I could hear the IBers in my head. Luckily I realized that I had Channel 12 on and much to my surprise there was one of our own. Nice work lil' B! Click here to get the full story.