Hip Young Things

The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art is not only one of the major academic institutions of the city it is also one of its greatest museums. This double aspect of the facility is uncommon in schools though it represents one of the progressive and holistic aspects of the arts fields. There are two parts to visual arts and many scholastic programs focus on the techniques of creating the art, while having a premiere gallery adds prestige and demonstrates one of the ultimate goals with any art, which is to have it seen by as many people as possible. The museum is well supported by the residents of Philadelphia as well as many of the tourists who are staying in some of the city’s finest hotels .

In addition to the above mentioned attributes of the academy, the museum and school is the oldest in the nation. Charles Willson Peale , who was a respected painter and scientist, along with the sculptor William Rush and other artists established the academy in 1805. The current building in which the museum exists was built in 1876 and it was designed by the architects Frank Furness and George W. Hewitt. It has been designated as one of the Nation’s historic landmarks and demonstrates the history of arts and architecture in Philadelphia.

As part of its mission, the museum has collected great masterpieces from American painters since it was first established. It also includes in its prized collections some of the great works of previous instructors of the academy as well as honored alumni. The works in collection include contemporary as well as 19th and early 20th century works. In over 200 years of existence, the PAFA has mounted over one thousand exhibits. In addition to the various special academic events and exhibits there are various public programs that popular with individuals who are not otherwise associated with the school or museum. Some of these include special lectures, presentations and discussions among other things.

When I made the choice to move to vancouver island , it was a decision I based on two people who had influence my life. The first person, was my father. He was born and raised in Seattle, Washington. I had been there once, or so I was told as I was too young to remember it. But the way that he spoke about the Pacific Northwest…in the middle of a summer in Phoenix, just made me wish that I was there.

There are many beautiful cities in Canada to consider moving to toronto , Montreal, Ottawa…but I wanted Vancouver. The second person, who played a role, in seconding my opinion, was an artist who owned a house on the island. I had seen her photographs of ship yards, of the long white masts pointing to the blue and grays of the sky, all the while back-dropped by the mountains and water…both of which were equally blue and gray. I listened to her stories of nights spent having a bit of wine and talking with the locals. I thought about this and knew that I was kind of over, for the time being, the reds and oranges and the white hot heat of the Arizona desert. I needed something completely different.

I needed a new apartment , I needed new air to breath, and I needed new things to see. See, I’m a painter too, and what we see every day, for some reason, affects how we feel every day. Like picasso in his blue period , I was needing some blue. And I wanted to be in a town, where the locals actually talked with one another. A place where sending a text about having coffee, seemed a ridiculous alternative to just having coffee. It is a very good thing, to take oneself out of the day to day, familiar environment from time to time. To see not only what you discover, but what in turn…just happens to discover you.

Centuries ago, in marshland territory, Dutch and free African settlers in the 1700s, cleared the area and created a pasture, naming it Noortwyck.  The English arrived and conquered the settlement, now known as New Netherland in 1664, and after that became a hamlet distinct from New York City to the South.  It officially became a village in 1712, and then referred to the following year as Grin’wich, and so the famous site of Greenwich Village in New York became a reality  two hundred and ninety-seven years ago.  It grew in size, in 1822, when an epidemic of yellow fever hit New York and citizens fled to the better air of Greenwich Village.  Today, the Village serves as a landmark of Bohemian culture, and a central area for new ideas and movements of all kinds, including politics, art, and culture.  Once the 20th Century began, it was the home of experimental theater and art galleries and small presses.  Today, you’ll find one of the largest legacies in this small area, the Whitney Museum of American Art.

You’ll also find the Cherry Lane Theatre, begun in 1924.  This is the Big Apple’s oldest and continuously operating off-Broadway theater.  It was originally a farm silo in 1817, then a tobacco warehouse, and a box factory.  Then Edna St. Vincent Millay and members of the Provincetown Players transformed the structure in to the Cherry Lane with the play The Man Who Ate the Popomack.   This was a vital company in the 1950s, developing the Theatre of the Absurd and The Living Theater.  It became known as a place where aspiring playwrights could perform their work.

Currently, until March 14th of this year, you can see Extinction by Gabe McKinley, starring two TV stars, James Roday of Psych, and Michael Weston of House and Six Feet Under.  The play is a dark comedy about friendships and what happens when they’re about to become extinct. You may want to stay near these places, so look for these  small hotels in Greenwich Village and New York.  You’ll find these accommodations offer a great deal of charm and character and even architecture.  Stay close to the places you want to see, and do it with the comfort and service that fits you best.

The Ogunquit Museum of American Art is a small gallery space that is also the only museum in the state of Maine that is devoted soley to American art. The museum was founded in 1953 by Henry Strater who designated Charles S. Worley Jr. as the primary architect for the building in which the museum is housed. Since its original establishment the building has gone through many renovations and adjustments though the intention of the museum remains strong and the permanent collection continues to grow. At present, the permanent collection includes over 1600 pieces. The museum is open in the summer months, which coincides with the main tourist season and this is great news for the guests in the Ogunquit hotels who enjoy great art with their great vacation.

Among the artists that are included in the permanent collection is the New York born Steve Hawley. He was born in Brooklyn in 1950 and studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, where he received his diploma and also his graduate diploma. After graduating he began instructing at the school as well as at Tufts University in Medford, MA. Hawley has received a great deal of critical recognition and positive viewer response. He has been featured in articles that have appeared in American Art Now, Weekend Art World and the New York Times among many other magazines and news papers. Some of the galleries that are currently featuring his work include the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, The Arkansas Art Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, The Portland Museum of Art and of course the Ogunquit Museum. Since the museum is located on three acres of land right on the coastline of Maine, it stands to reason that an afternoon there would be the perfect compliment to any summer afternoon.

The Smart car is an idea whose time has come.  It’s extremely fuel efficient, has an ultra low emissions rating, ranks very well in safety tests, and perhaps more importantly, makes it easier to find a parking spot.  Those are just some of the reasons Mary Myrick, the leader of Public Strategies, chooses to drive this charming little vehicle in Oklahoma City.  Its bright green appearance adds a curiously whimsical touch to an oddly-shaped vehicle, as if driving itself were an act of artistic expression.

Making every moment into a moment of art is something that’s been building in Oklahoma City.    It’s the largest city in the state, and has en extremely active arts community.  The local scene here produces and presents excellent new works of public art, music, theatre and performance art, as well as a stunning visual arts repertoire, in every media imaginable.  Public Strategies is committed to seeing this trend continue, because it speaks to a lively civic mindedness, and this is always a wonderful way to open the roads for the public good in general.

There are, of course, other reasons that the car might suggest Mary Myrick‘s commitment to the community as a whole.  It speaks of an investment in the future, consuming less of our valuable resources, and also taking up less space.  Streamlining vision doesn’t mean losing the spark of magic that makes life worth living, and there’s flair in everything.  Her work with the public and private sectors is a testimony to how commitment, determination, and a generous spark of magic can enter into any enterprise, and small acts can make large waves in the fabric of reality.  The client-centered principles that guide Public Strategies serve to remind all of us that the real vision is yours, and it’s our job to help you turn it into tangible actions.

When booking your five-star hotel, New York City, one of the truly great cities in the world, beckons.  One of the most diverse cities on earth, New York is home to people of all backgrounds, cultural traditions, and languages.  There is a long and complex history of migration to New York City, and a vast number of tourists who pass through here every year.  It is no surprise, then, that it has such a solid reputation for service and hospitality.  It is a tradition here, in fact, and our hotels are the best of the best, with extremely high standards of service, and the finest in luxury accommodation.  Blending old world charm with new world innovation, our hotels will put you in the center of the action, simultaneously providing you with the utmost in relaxation.
After a delicious night’s rest, and a fine meal served by our world-class gourmet chefs schooled in the highest traditions of international cuisine, you will be rejuvenated and ready to have adventures in the city.  One of the major attractions in New York City is the art, of course.  The city attracts some of the best minds in the art world, coming here to contribute and benefit from the excitement over new creative ideas.  You will very likely come across some of the works of the renowned artist Mark Rothko.  Born Marcus Rothkowitz, in 1903, in the part of Russia now known as Latvia, he came with his family to Portland, Oregon in the U.S. when he was still in elementary school, escaping the growing anti-semitic sentiments of old Europe.
He was a Yale drop-out, and found his way to New York City’s Upper West Side, where he saw his future in a life-drawing class.  He began studying and practicing art here, finding affinity with his teacher Max Weber, who spoke of art as a way to express emotion and spiritual inklings.  Some of his finest early work is closely related to the surrealist school, linking images to the unconscious as described by Freud and Jung.  Mark Rothko was also obsessed with developing a theory of art that contradicted classical art school training, and taught instead to unlock the creative potential by focusing on how children make art.  This found its way into his later work when he began to focus on form and color.  His most famous works are simple colors and shapes, and this earned him free entry into the abstract expressionist school.  As with any movement that tried to claim him, Rothko denied the accuracy of any labels, and moved in his own directions, following his own peculiar muses until the end of his life.

When the centerpiece of any trip is the hotel, Florence has some sublime offerings.  Our hotels put you in the heart of Italian culture, with sumptuous accommodations to make the journey heavenly.  Florence is one of the true cultural centers of the world, with a rich history that has attracted artists for centuries, and continues to do so to this day.  The legacy of the Medicis lives on, and our lodgings are a divine blend of tradition and innovation, taking the best design sensibilities of the past and transforming them to a present that reflects modern sensibility.

The people of Florence have exquisite taste, and a definite love of their splendid past.  With this, there is also a love for the new, attracting artists who are willing to look to the future and present their findings in artistic forms.  One fantastic way to sample the best of the new wave of art is at Florence’s MUV Music and Digital Arts Festival.  2009 marks the fifth year of this exhilarating event, and it certainly seems to be evolving with the times.  The theme of this year’s festival is environmental sustainability, and artists in all the represented disciplines are requested to present work that is devoted to the future of the planet.

As one might guess from the name, MUV Festival presents some of the most interesting and exciting new work in digital visual art, electronic music, and experiments in audiovisual technologies.  The city that is usually accustomed to art that hangs on museum walls becomes a large installation, pushing the boundaries of the form.  There is naturally an emphasis on electronic music, with techno digital djs from all around the globe spinning the hottest beats to youth culture.  There is also a great deal of emphasis on the new technologies, and how they might present themselves to large crowds.  There are exhibitions, performances, and even workshops in Max/MSP, so that aspiring artists can learn the technique

Looking at images of impressionist paintings as a child in a book I was amazed. These paintings were so pretty, I like the textures and bright colors of the works. As I grew up I learned more about he school of painting and the philosophy. No wonder the paintings were so colorful there were actually supposed to be paintings of light more than paintings of form and object or color. Those are secondary to the light. They cannot be perceived visually without light. The first time I was fortunate enough to see some great impressionist works was at the National Gallery in Washington DC. This is an enormous museum filled with thousands of art works from virtually every age, era, time and type. The impressionist paintings are all in one series of galleries. I love to look at the paintings examining the texture and brush strokes. How one artist mastered water and another flowers, another sky, another clouds. How the atmosphere was captured in landscapes of hot humid summer afternoons. The paintings are ground breaking in their approach. Painting light, making light the primary focus of painting and thinking of color in scientific ways relating opposite and contrasting colors side by side not because it is exactly what is being seen but communicates to us on a deeper level. Having access to see the paintings in person over the printed images is invaluable. The ability to see the textures and the brush strokes of the paint and layering of the colors just cannot be deserved from a printed image, no matter how good the image is. From the best Cape Town hotels I was able to stumble on a small museum with a nice showing of impressionist work. There were some lesser known pieces of some very famous artists and fine pieces of lesser known artists works there on exhibit. It is always nice to stumble on a good showing of art.