Part of the High Museum’s “Road to Freedom” exhibit are portraits of freedom riders from Eric Etheridge’s “Breach of Peace” project. This past weekend, Etheridge moderated a panel at the Harlem Book Festival, which happened to make its way to C-Span. “Road to Freedom” is on view at the High until October 5th.

You can see pictures of Etheridge’s side of the installation on flickr.

Contemporary art from Georgia artists, including photographers, at Terminus, opens on Thursday night.

Carrie Mae Weems is currently showing at Jackson Fine Art as a part of “Four Women”, an exhibition with Kianga Ford, Jessica Ingram, Carrie Mae Weems, and Deborah Wiillis. The show will run through August 30th.

© Carrie Mae Weems, “May Days” from the series “May Days Long Forgotten”, 2003
Three chromogenic color prints / Framed with convex glass / 22 inches diameter /Edition of 8

Opening Reception Friday July 18, 2008 6:30 –8:30pm
Exhibition Dates: July 18 – August 30.

At “Culture Club” tonight, Julian Cox, Curator of Photography at the High Museum, will be speaking about “Road to Freedom: Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement, 1956-1968″. Details below, with an after lecture reception at Lumière Gallery, with their Southern Photographers exhibition.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008 @ 6:30 PM
at the The Englishman
425 Peachtree Hills Ave
Building 5 Suite 28
Atlanta, GA 30305

Jazz didgeridoo and chanting monks at the opening last night of Carrie Mae Weems’ provocative “Constructing History: A Requiem to Mark the Moment” at SCAD Gallery, Atlanta. More info here.

Opening reception is Saturday, July 12th, from 7-10pm.

Sheila Pree Bright gives an artist lecture at the High Museum next week.

GALLERY TALK: Sheila Pree Bright on “Young Americans”
July 24, 2008, 6:30 p.m.; Wieland Pavilion Lower Level Galleries
Atlanta-based photographer Sheila Pree Bright will explore the collaborative process behind her “Young Americans” portraiture project. For more information on “Young Americans: Photographs by Sheila Pree Bright,” please click here. Free with Museum admission, free for members.

If you’re interested in the legal issues surrounding the pending Orphan Works legistlation, you may want to check out this party at Lynne Farris gallery on Saturday:

An Orphan Works Opposition Party
Saturday, July 12, 7:30 PM
Lynne Farris Gallery
50 Hurt Plaza Southeast
Atlanta, GA 30303

404 202-5654
Admission Free/Open to the Public

The event is open to the general public as well as visual artists, musicians, writers and independent filmmakers. Learn about the danger to copyright posed by the pending Orphan Works bill. Ask questions about the legislation and how it will affect you. Find out what you can do to help. Decorate a postcard and send it to your elected officials to let them know that you oppose this bill. Blank pre-stamped postcards will be available at the party, along with the addresses of your elected officials. A $1 or $2 donation at the door will be appreciated to help defray postage.

This party is being organized by art licensing community members Joanne Fink, Brenda Pinnick and Kathy Fincher, and hosted by Lynne Farris of the Lynne Farris Gallery. Brad Holland and Cynthia Turner of the Illustrator’s Partnership will participate via speaker-phone. For more information about the orphan works legislation and opposition effort, please visit our website: www.owoh.org

Don’t Let Congress Orphan Your Work
Write Congress and fight for your copyrights: 2 minutes is all it takes.
http://capwiz.com/illustratorspartnership/home

Sign the Petition: A Million People Against the Orphan Works Bill
http://www.petitiononline.com/Stop2913/petition.html

For more information about Orphan Works go to the
IPA Orphan Works Resource Page for Artists

The Creative Loafing “Upcoming: Short List” has word of Sistagraphy’s opening this Friday, July 11th.

The Office of African-American Student Services and Programs at Georgia State University presents DISAPPEARING BLACK NEIGHBORHOODS Fri., JULY 11, a photo exhibit that highlights the pros and cons of gentrifying urban communities in Atlanta and other major U.S. cities. All images were shot by Sistagraphy, an Atlanta-based group of African-American women photographers, and aim to let the viewer conclude whether urban renewal is a good or bad thing. Through July 30. Free. Mon.-Fri., 8 a.m.-7 p.m.; Sat.-Sun., 12:30-4:30 p.m. Student Center Lounge, 44 Courtland St., Suite 346. 404-413-1530.

“Elegant Appalachian landscapes and portraits from his books reflect a 30 year photographic story of a rapidly disappearing culture. His talk will address this fascinating area of the South.”

© Tim Barnwell

Saturday, July 12, 2008, 10:00 AM, @ Lumière

Nafisa Valita Sheriff, a member of Sistagraphy, has a show opening on the 25th at the Buckhead Library.

THE IMAGEGRIOT
(Photos Tell Stories)

The Buckhead Library Announces its Summer Photographic Art Exhibit entitled, “The Imagegriot” by Nafisa Valita Sheriff. The exhibition will be at the library from July 25, 2008 through August 28, 2008 and can be seen during library hours: Mon & Wed 10am – 8pm, Tues & Thurs. 10am – 6pm, Fri & Sat. 11am – 6pm. The Artist Talk and Reception will be held on Sat. August 2, 2008 from 3-5pm, refreshment will be served. The artist is a local Buckhead resident, showing her first solo works. Ms. Nafisa is a member of AAC, APG, MOCA, RPS, Sistagraphy and WIF. This event is free and open to the public,
For information: Call 404-372-8114 or Email imagegriot@yahoo.com
The Buckhead Library
269 Buckhead Ave. NE.,
Atlanta, Georgia 30305
404-814-3500

ACP 9 participant Jane Kerr has a show opening today at Church of the Atonement called “Scene from the Road”. Opening reception is Sunday, July 13th.

If you haven’t already swung by the High to see the “Street Life” exhibit, curator Beth Hancock will be talking about the show this Thursday night, at 6:30. Info at high.org.

Carrie Mae Weems has a new installation up at the ACA Gallery @ SCAD, via the National Black Arts Festival, and here’s the press release:

Contemporary artist Carrie Mae Weems explores the human rights movement in the United States and abroad in an upcoming multimedia installation titled, “Constructing History: A Requiem to Mark the Moment.” The exhibition, commissioned by the Savannah College of Art and Design and the National Black Arts Festival, will be on display July 1 – Aug. 31 at the ACA Gallery of SCAD, 1280 Peachtree St. The artist’s reception will be held July 15, 6-8 p.m.

In a Feb. 29 New York Times review, art critic Roberta Smith wrote of Weems, “No American photographer of the last quarter-century … has turned out a more probing, varied and moving body of work. None has made more adventurous use of the photographic medium, adding performance, film and installation to the serial print format.”

In Winter 2008, Weems taught an innovative special topics course at SCAD-Atlanta as a Distinguished Visiting Faculty member. She and her students conceptualized, planned and created the commissioned “Constructing History” film and a related series of photographs. The human rights-focused project was inspired by the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Drawing on archival films and media, Weems worked with SCAD students, the National Black Arts Festival and other volunteers to reenact significant historical moments. Participants created props and costumes, designed sets, coordinated production, and acted in vignettes, which were captured on film and serve as the basis for the installation.

Weems said, “Through the act of performance, with our own bodies, we are allowed to experience and to connect the historical past to the present—to the now, to the moment. By inhabiting the moment, we live the experience; we stand in the shoes of others and come to know first-hand what is often only imagined, lost, forgotten.”

The civil rights movement in the United States helped spawn global concern for human rights. Race and gender issues continue to resonate in the American political arena as, for the first time, a woman and a black man vie for the Democratic nomination for president. The international spotlight on their campaigns, as well as ongoing human rights violations throughout the world, makes Weems’ installation particularly timely.

Weems, who received the 2008 Skowhegan Medal for photography, earned a Bachelor of Arts from the California Institute of the Arts and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of California, San Diego. She studied folklore at the University of California, Berkeley, with the late Alan Dundes, and has been an artist in residence at The Art Institute of Chicago, The Fabric Workshop and the Rhode Island School of Design. Weems’ work is included in public and private collections around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Museum of Modern Art and the Williams College Museum of Art. She lives and works in New York.

The “Constructing History: A Requiem to Mark the Moment” commission was made possible by the Savannah College of Art and Design with the National Black Arts Festival.

Sam Mahone, who worked with SNCC in ‘63 on voter registration drives in Georgia, will be doing a gallery talk for the “Road to Freedom” exhibit this Thursday, July 3rd.

Pamela Pecchio who participated in the ACP 9 Portfolio Review, has a solo show called “Habitations” at Daniel Cooney Fine Art (in NYC) that opens on Thursday, June 26th. On the full-circle front, Daniel Cooney is one of our reviewers for the ACP 10 Portfolio Review this October!

ACP swung by Opal Gallery on Friday for the opening of Carl Martin’s show “1986-2007″. Fortunately, our friends at Art Relish brought a video camera and interviewed Mr. Martin.

Carl Martin: 1986-2007 from Art Relish on Vimeo.

Lumiere Gallery has an exhibition called “Southern Exposures” this summer featuring four Southern photographers; Thomas Neff, Tim Barnwell, Lucinda Bunnen, and Mark Maio. The opening is on Thursday, June 26th, from 6:30-8:30. And there will be an artist’s talk from Thomas Neff on June 28th, at 10am, and lectures from the other three, as well, in mid-summer.

Next weekend, June 28th & 29th, the High Museum will have two more complimentary programs to their “Road to Freedom” exhibit. Here are the details:

PANEL DISCUSSION: Memories from the Movement
Saturday, June 28, 2 p.m., Rich Theatre
Join Civil Rights heroes including Congressman John Lewis, Ambassador Andrew Young, activist Dorothy Cotton, introduced by High Curator Julian Cox for an afternoon of remembrances and dialogue around the contributions of the courageous champions of justice who struggled to make equality a reality for all. The panelists will reflect on their experiences in the Civil Rights movement in light of the High’s current exhibition “Road to Freedom: Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement, 1956-1968.”  The discussion will be moderated by Alexis Scott, journalist and publisher of the “Atlanta Daily World,” the city’s first black-owned daily newspaper. This program is free and seating is limited. Tickets are available through the Woodruff Arts Center Box Office at 404-733-5000 and online at www.high.org. Tickets to the Museum are sold separately.

 
FILM AND DISCUSSION: “Voices of Freedom”
Sunday, June 29, 3 p.m., Hill Auditorium
America’s civil rights movement found its strength in the people who took to the streets to support it.  “Voices of Freedom” re-visits several key events and places shaped by America’s great nonviolent revolution. This 20 minute video was filmed, edited, and produced by award-winning documentary filmmaker, Neal Broffman, son of the late Morton Broffman whose photographs are included in the exhibition “Road to Freedom.” The film will be followed by a discussion with Julian Cox, curator of “Road to Freedom: Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement, 1956 – 1968,” and a Q&A. Free with Museum admission and free to Members.

Creative Loafing’s David Lee Simmons discusses Sheila Pree Bright’s “Young Americans” exhibition, which is currently on view at the High Museum. Have a listen!

In Coan Park, in Edgewood, Matt Haffner gave a great talk yesterday about his latest piece, which is part of the “A (new) Genre Landscape” public art exhibition in Atlanta-area parks this summer.

Carl Martin, an Athens-based photographer, will be presenting work from the last 20 years at Opal Gallery this Friday night. The exhibition will run through August 2nd, and there will be an artist talk on Friday evening, as well.

Check out the “Men of Georgia” project on Carl’s site.

This Friday marks the opening of Lori Waselchuk’s “Grace Before Dying” at Kiang Gallery, and Ms. Waselchuk will be giving an Artist Talk this Saturday, June 14th, at noon. The project “explore(s) the last days of terminally ill prisoners and the remarkably humane care given by prison volunteers”, and was completed at Angola State Prison, in Louisiana.

Opening Friday, June 13, 6:30 –8:30pm
Artist talk Saturday, June 14, noon

Matt Haffner (video here) will be discussing his new work that’s part of this summer’s “large-scale public art installation” called “A New Genre Landscape.”

The talk’s in Coan Park [map]
Saturday, June, 14th, at 4pm.
More info over on Matt’s blog.