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Jul 122013
 
Part of Josh Gumiela's 2012 Circuit Benders' Ball installation. Photo by Ryan Hogan.

Part of Josh Gumiela’s 2012 Circuit Benders’ Ball installation. Photo by Ryan Hogan.

Calling all new media artists! I’m partnering with Mike Kluge (Future Night at Boheme Collectif) to curate an electronic art show during the August 3rd Wedgewood-Houston Art Crawl. The event is Wedgewood- Houston’s big push into the First Saturday art events. Participating galleries include Fort Houston, Zeitgeist Gallery, threesquared, Seed Space, the SNAP Building and Ovvio Arte.

Mike and I are curating a one-night show at the SNAP Building (South Nashville Action People), culminating with a performance by Watkins professor Morgan Higby-Flowers. Many thanks to Ryan Schemmel at Fort Houston for sponsoring our curation.

We’re now accepting exhibit submissions. We’re looking for interactive installations, circuit-bent gear, reactive video and sound sculptures, flashing lights and things that go buzz. Since the event is coming up so soon, we’re especially interested in work that’s ready to go. You can exhibit multiple works, and it’s ok if the works have been previously exhibited. This show is free and open to the public.

To submit, send an e-mail at tony@theatreintangible.com and tell me your name, exhibition ideas and any relevant links.

The gallery will be up from 6pm to 11pm on Saturday, August 3rd. Load in begins at 5pm and ends at 6pm. That’s not much set up time, so we encourage work that is easy to install.

Jun 072013
 
Stage and multi-use area

Fort Houston

Truly amazing news, folks! First off, if you haven’t been keeping up with our coverage of the Fort Houston saga, start here and here. The Nashville Scene has a great piece covering the essentials here.

Fort Houston went before the Board of Appeals yesterday over the prospect of getting a parking variance. This would basically allow them to host classes at their NoHo facility, even though they lack the required number of parking spaces as dictacted by city codes. Because their landlord originally resisted the variance, Fort Houston’s prospects were looking dire.

I’m happy to learn that the city granted Fort Houston the parking variance! This means that Fort Houston will soon resume classes like Greg Pond’s much-heralded 3D Printing and Arduino workshops.

Sean Maloney over at the Nashville Scene blog Country Life has the scoop. Check out his full article here.

May 302013
 
Greg Bryant

Greg Bryant

 

There are several great shows happening this weekend, including at least three featuring Theatre Intangible participants.

Joe Nolan says June’s First Saturday Downtown Art Crawl will be one of the biggest of the year, and I have no reason to doubt him. A highlight for music fans will be T.I. participant Joe “Jocephus Brody” Hudson’s new monthly music series at The Space Gallery. The first installment will be Textbook Punk (T.I. participant Chris Murray of Square People). This all goes down Saturday night from 6pm to 9pm at the Downtown Arcade.

On Sunday, you have a tough choice: Space music or free improv. There’s Gerber & Gerber w/ Torben Asp at Notable Blends at 5pm or The Greg Bryant Expansion feat. Paul Horton, James DaSilva, Giovanni Rodriguez and Josh Hunt at Nine48Jazz at 6pm. The Gerber brothers, Greg Bryant and Paul Horton have all appeared on T.I. in the past.

Notable Blends is the private coffee club of the Davis brothers (of Davis Cookware in Hillsboro Village). Todd and Tony Gerber blew minds at the Tim Kaiser Brick Factory show last year. Torben Asp is a space musician from Denmark who will be in town for this very special show. Dr. Michael O’Bannon from Atlanta will be doing the video projections. Plus, FREE coffee! Sunday, June 2nd, 5pm, Notable Blends, 434 Houston Street, Nashville, Tennessee 37203.

Nine48Jazz is one of Nashville’s most intimate jazz clubs. The Greg Bryant Expansion performance will be the LAST performance in their current space. Soon after, Nine48Jazz will be moving to a new location on Rosa Parks Blvd. Expect really amazing free improv music. More info on the Facebook event page. Sunday, June 2nd, 6pm, Nine48Jazz, 948 35th Av. North, Nashville, Tennessee 37209.

Greg has a great podcast called JazzWatch, featuring interviews with jazz greats. Check it out here.

Gerber & Gerber appeared on this T.I. episode. Greg Bryant and Paul Horton appeared on this one. Chris Murray, this one.

 

 

May 232013
 
Fort Houston's woodshop

One of the many rooms in community creative space Fort Houston

Back in April, I wrote a blog titled “Fort Houston and the Nashville Art Scene Need Your Help!” The piece talked about the vitality of the Wedgewood-Houston arts community and vaguely discussed Fort Houston‘s difficulties in passing the city’s complex coding process. I entreated everyone to write letters to the mayor and city council reps. But I could only tell you part of the story — partially out of deference to Fort Houston while they attempted to resolve matters privately, partially because I didn’t know the whole story.

This morning the Tennessean published an article called “New artists warehouse Fort Houston runs into codes issues.” (In the print edition, it’s titled “Arts Space Seeks Zoning Variance.”) In the article, reporter Joey Garrison uncovers further layers of Fort Houston’s difficulties and reveals disputes with the Houston Street property landlord. The landlord’s arguments in the piece don’t make any sense whatsoever, and I’m convinced he’s not being honest about his motivation. Fort Houston’s lease runs out in November, and I don’t think it is likely that the landlord will renew it (especially after the Tennessean article). The only solution seems to be buying the property outright, but that would require a wealthy benefactor.

There are further layers of intrigue as yet unpublished … other players, other factors; but it would be irresponsible for me to discuss the rest until Fort Houston opens the dialogue. For now, Fort Houston needs your support like never before. Tour the facility. Talk with the staff. Ask what you can do to help.

Many a cadre of talented young people in Nashville have attempted to put together creative spaces like Fort Houston. It’s an incredibly-difficult enterprise. Most fail after less than a few years. But this one is special. Over the past three years, I’ve witnessed firsthand the Fort Houston founders’ high levels of professionalism, work-ethic, future-planning, business savvy and innovation. They are the best and brightest of Nashville’s creative up and comers. If this can happen to them, it can happen to any new arts organization. The question we really need to be asking our city leaders is this: “You have shown you are willing to support large commercial enterprises with questionable ties to the arts community. But are you willing to support young artists, new organizations, bottom-up development, the true future of Nashville’s art scene? Think hard on that before you reply. Your answer determines our future support of YOU.”

And before you read the Tennessean article, read Fort Houston Co-Founder Ryan Schemmel’s introductory remarks to the article here.