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Photo Sue Harrison
Castle Hill director Mary Stackhouse. |
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Castle Hill reaches for new heights
Sue Harrison
BANNER STAFF
After three decades, people have come to expect a solid line-up of summer classes from the Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill, and this year the staff has gone further than ever before to bring more classes covering a wider swath of the arts in a season that stretches into the fall.
Tucked away in the green Pamet Valley, Castle Hill's summer classes include nine in painting, three in drawing, one in illustration, four in printmaking, two in paper and book arts, one in video, two in metal, one in glass, five in sculpture, 12 in writing, six in photography, 10 in clay and a special selection for kids. The new fall line-up will offer a developmental intensive in clay along with the two weeks of The Tuscany Workshops created by Joel Meyerowitz and Maggie Barrett.
Castle Hill director Mary Stackhouse, an artist in clay as well as the administrator, is finally able to sit back and take a deep breath now that the schedule is set and the catalog printed and in the mail. She's excited about new classes, new instructors and a roster of returning teachers that's like a who's who of well-known artists and writers.
In the painting classes, Bob Bailey will be taking over painting fundamentals and leaving master drawing which he taught last year. Norvel Hermanovski, who owns an international mural company, will teach fresco painting in August. Sam Woolcott, a young woman from California, is filling the gap in abstract work.
'We've had calls for abstract but finding the right teacher is hard,' Stackhouse says. 'Woolcott seemed to have the right vocabulary for it ... and the ability to create a narrative within the abstraction.'
Returning paint instructors include Elizabeth Pratt (watercolor), Joan Hopkins Coughlin (landscape), Robert D. Hunter (landscape/oils), Selina Trieff (representation), Robert Henry (the figure) and Noa Hall (landscape). Leslie Jackson will teach drawing from the masters, Vivian Bower will present drawing landscapes in pastel and a master drawing class will be offered.
Truro artist Oren Sherman will head a new class in illustration. 'Castle Hill teaches fine arts and crafts and writing,' Stackhouse says. 'What gets lost are the applied arts. This is very definitely that. The skill is the issue. The mug has to work, the teapot has to pour.'
Returning printmakers are Sidney Hurwitz, (printmaking workshop), D. Cochran (polymer plate etching and Don Gorvett (reduction woodcuts). New this season are D'Amario and Linge, from the Pace Gallery in New York. They are technicians and artists and will get into the technical aspects of producing the artist's book.
For many printmakers, the natural progression is to making one's own paper. Sheryl Jaffee, a 3-D paper artist, will lead a new class in papermaking. Susan Lightcap will reprise her class in handmade books.
'We are sneaking into film through writing,' Stackhouse says of Lori Zippay's video class on theme and chronology. Zippay is the executive director of a video company that collects and preserves videos. Virtually everything on video that winds up being seen in the regular ways passes through Zippay's hands.
Last year, Castle Hill offered metal classes in jewelry for the first time. The basic metals class will be back, taught once again by Mary Beth Rozkewicz who will also introduce a new class in married metals. This year will see the beginning of a glass class when Michael Magyar brings kiln-fired glass courses to Castle Hill. Molds will be provided, and the class will delve into the different properties and kinds of glass.
Sculpture, a long standing staple, will see returning classes by Joyce Johnson (figure in clay), Paul Bowen (working with wood) and Anna Poor (experimental figure). New to the program are Poe Dismuke's class in constructions of sticks and stones and an extended environmental sculpture class with Roy Staab.
Writing classes are bigger than ever, taught by poets Alan Dugan, Mark Doty and Marge Piercy, biographer Justin Kaplan and memoirist Eleanor Munro. Pamela Painter will handle What If/Fiction, a class focusing on stretching the imagination, characterization and plot. Playwriting gets a boost this year with the addition of playwrights Sinan Unel and Wendy Kesselman.
Of Provincetown resident Unel, who will teach 10-minute plays, Stackhouse says, 'He is an underused major talent.'
Kesselman, who lives in Wellfleet, will take on longer works in progress, and workshop participants can either bring a scene from a full-length play or a one-act play in its entirety.
Pat Cooper returns with screenwriting, and piggybacking off that is a new class in short film that works on the transition from script to screen. The class is co-taught by Michael Levine from 20th Century Fox and actor Mitchell Whitfield. Author Anne Bernays and playwright-actress Lynda Sturner return with a writing and acting class that combines the two skills in order to work on the principal elements of fiction and drama.
Sebastian Junger, author of 'The Perfect Storm,' holds this year's Castle Hill Distinguished Artists and Writers Chair and will offer a two-hour workshop in August on reporting and using that information to create nonfiction literature. Junger, who follows Derek Walcott, Saul Bellow and Erica Jong in the Chair position will also give an evening talk open to the public.
In another special event, Obie winner and Oscar nominee Kevin McCarthy will present an evening performance in August. As in previous years, Castle Hill will also sponsor its Tuesday lecture series held at the Wellfleet Public Library, the Wednesday artist receptions, the Castle Hill Open House on Aug. 20 and the annual auction which will feature toys made by artists.
Photographers Marian Roth (pinhole workshop), Claire Flanders (photograph in mind) and Joel Meyerowitz (exploration) will return this summer. New in the photo realm is Maurine Sutter's five-day creative darkroom course. Working with their own negatives, students will experiment with papers and techniques in the darkroom and look at how the final piece can be presented best. Sutter also introduces hand-tinting of photographs in a one-day course. Another addition is Misugi Forssen's alternative photo processes, a four-day class that takes on Polaroid transfer, emulsion lift, cyanotype, Van Dyke brown printing and working with a variety of papers, fabric and glass as the print medium.
Clay, one of the backbones of Castle Hill's program, covers everything from dinnerware to abstract art pieces. Returning instructors include Bruce Winn (handbuilt tableware), Chris Parris (throwing and Raku), Mark Shapiro (pouring/drinking pots) and Jill Solomon (Sagger and pit firing). Thomas McCanna will return in clay sculpture and will add the construction of fountains to his hollow-form class.
Andrea Gill, a top-ranked ceramicist, will offer a new one-day class in large constructed pots. Adam Zayas, owner of the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works, will lead five sessions, also new, in tiles that covers historical use as well as hands-on construction of individual tiles and creating molds for a series of tiles. Susan Beecher will help students take regular shapes and turn them into a variety of new forms in her altered vessels class. And in Leslie Ferst's shape changing through addition and subtraction class, she will work to expand the students' idea of form through considering abstract and biomorphic changes.
Gay Smith will offer a five-session fall clay intensive in late September. 'People had asked for and we decided to try it, to see what the market is,' Stackhouse says. 'It's designed for people who have taken classes in the past. We know there is a large clay audience on the Cape and they are often busy in the summer.'
Stackhouse notes that Castle Hill is located on the site of a former farm; the farming family still lives next door. Barns and outbuildings have been converted to class and gallery space and the old windmill has become Castle Hill's trademark. 'This place is packed with history and it didn't turn into something else, it turned into Castle Hill,' Stackhouse says. 'The place is conducive to what we do. It's the funnel.'
To get a catalog or more information, contact Castle Hill at P.O. Box 756, Truro, MA 02666; phone at (508) 349-7511; e-mail: castlehill@capecod.net; or visit their web site: www.castlehill.org.
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Mar 23rd, 2000