The ArtSalon Goes to Easthampton !
Eastworks Community Room
116 Pleasant Street
Easthampton, MA 01027
doors open 6:00 pm, Presentations begin at 6:30 pm
$5-$15 Suggested Donation
Easthampton, MA (December 14, 2023) – The ArtSalon is a dynamic social evening of engaging presentations by established and emerging artists in the Pioneer Valley. The ArtSalon provides an opportunity for artists and designers of all mediums to present their work and ideas. Come meet and join the artists, creators, critics, and collectors in a friendly, social gathering of conversations about the arts in our community. Presenting artists are Laura Boban, Tori Lawrence, Maddie McDougall, and Veronica Melendez.
This month’s ArtSalon will be held at Eastworks. https://eastworks.com/
The evening begins at 6:00pm and presentations start at 6:30pm.
Laura Boban is a visual artist + educator based in Western Massachusetts. In her work she deconstructs recognizable items and transforms them in unfamiliar ways, often pushing the boundaries of quilting and the materiality of cloth. Laura received her BFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2008 and was a high school art teacher for ten years. In 2020 she received her MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University with a focus in textiles. Laura has exhibited her work and research in various art spaces across the U.S. including the ICA in Richmond, VA, SECAC Annual Conference and MARN Art + Culture Hub in Milwaukee, WI. Her current exhibition, Inter Lace, is on view at Eigengrau, a new gallery space at Grey Matter Books in Hadley, MA.
Tori Lawrence is a choreographer who creates site-specific performances and multimedia installations. She’ll be teaching in the dance department at Smith College this upcoming Spring, and has been a guest professor at Bennington College, Middlebury College, and the University of Kansas. She received her MFA in dance at the University of Iowa. Recently Tori has been working on a new multimedia project in Norway, where she’s been in residence at Lademoen Kunstnerverksteder, DansiT, and USF Verftet. This past November 2023, she installed a new work SJØRADIO inside USF’s gallery space in Bergen with collaborators/musicians Passepartout Duo. She has been awarded artist residencies at Yaddo, Djerassi, Playa, Chez Bushwick, Charlotte Street Foundation, and Ucross Foundation. Tori is the founder of an upcoming artist residency space called Atland, which will host artist residencies and summer festivals.
Maddie McDougall (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist, educator, and arts organizer based in Easthampton, MA. Her studio practice uses painting as a tool for grappling with concepts ranging from childhood, illness and trauma, queer and feminine identities, survivorship and reincarnation. These ideas transform from canvas to installation, performance and video. McDougall also founded Resilient Community Arts in 2021, based in Eastworks. The organization’s mission is to sustain efforts for social progress and equity through affordable arts programming.
Veronica Melendez is an interdisciplinary artist, publisher, and curator. Having been raised in and around Washington D.C amongst one of the largest Central American populations in the U.S, her work centers the many ways people in the diaspora create home. Her work has been featured in the Washington Post, NPR, VICE, Hyperallergic, and The Brooklyn Rail among others. Veronica is also founder of La Horchata Zine, an arts publication highlighting creatives from the Central American diaspora. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Photography, Creative Arts and Visual Culture at Hampshire College.
The ArtSalon is a fiscal project of A.P.E. Ltd. with ongoing support from individuals, foundations, state and local grants.