The Arts Nexus

12/18/2020

The Arts Nexus Spotlight Organization: Art Enables
Art Enables is an art gallery and vocational arts program dedicated to creating opportunities for artists with disabilities to make, market, and earn income from their original and compelling artwork. In addition to earning income from art sales, artists build the skills, relationships, and experience necessary for a successful career in the arts. We offer our artists the creative space, materials, and marketing support they need to develop and succeed as professionals.
Thank you for all that you do!

12/17/2020

As you already know, our team at The Arts Nexus loves to talk about the intersection between arts & business. We are dedicated to promoting arts entrepreneurship by giving artists the tools to balance their artistic and financial success. Today, we present to you our favorite 9 BUSINESS TIPS FOR ARTISTS which we have been slowly rolling out on our Instagram page !
Please feel free to ask us questions, share these tips with your networks, and add your own commentary or experiences. We want this to be an open forum and meeting place for all artists to share how they discovered where .
Graphic design by: Sarah Elaz

12/16/2020

The Arts Nexus Spotlight Artist: Bryanna Millis
Bryanna Millis () is a multidisciplinary artist exploring how we create reality through what we believe. Through research, site-specific documented actions on the land, and two and three-dimensional works using painting, photography, and collage she seeks to access the subconscious and break open calcified beliefs about what is possible. Her work draws from spiritual, philosophical, and poetic traditions and the five elements of alchemy—water, air, fire, earth, and spirit—through materials including pigments made of hand ground desert stones, nets, fabrics, boats, feathers, and burnt objects. Bryanna holds a Bachelor’s in Communications and Fine Arts from the University of Pennsylvania and a Master’s in Development Economics from The Fletcher School at Tufts University. More of her work can be seen at Bryannamillis.com or on IG .
"My most recent work, conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, is a series of hand cut collages and photographs, accompanied by poems, that reflect on the seven operations in the alchemical transformation of the soul, or “The Great Work”. The first of these steps is Calcination, the process of destroying the ego, attachments to material possessions, and the way we think the world should be."
Image details: It's been a long time since my body. It's been a long time since time - Cut paper, 14”x14”, 2020
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/08/05/almost-human/amp

12/10/2020

The Arts Nexus Spotlight Artist: Martina Sestakova
Martina Sestakova () engages in textile design, painting, and art education. Martina creates scarves that invoke stories from life experiences. Her scarves have been featured on Voice of America and at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (DC). In her watercolor paintings, she communicates words through colors and shapes. Her artworks have been shown at the Adah Rose Gallery (MD) and Latela Curatorial (DC) and other art institutions. As an art educator, Martina offers online workshops and brings creativity to communities with limited access to the arts, such as individuals in correctional institutions. Martina Sestakova resides in Kensington, MD.

12/08/2020

The Arts Nexus Spotlight Artist: Clara Cornelius
Clara Cornelius () is visual artist, graphic designer, illustrator, creative strategist, hyper creator, type nerd, and lover of all the small details. She straddles a professional design practice and a visual arts practice, bringing a vibrant, bold, diverse style to both sides of her work.
As a visual artist, Clara uses context and perspective to explore the chaos and contrast of being human, and the magic in the everyday, ordinary, and fleeting.
Clara combines many artistic processes: marbling, screen printing, hand lettering, and photography to build complex collage pieces and installations on fabric and paper. Her work often includes patterns, created symbols, and woven graphic elements.
As a designer, Clara uses a highly collaborative approach, focused on positive, transparent communication. With the opening of her elastic creative practice, Studio Cornelius, she has developed a body of work that combines strategic expertise and joyful experimentation.
Currently Clara is working on a body of work exploring paper marbling through a contemporary lens. She creates marbled compositions that use wild, bold color and builds collage pieces that experiment with scale and context. Seen here is a work in progress of a vintage dictionary that Clara is marbling to create a wall-sized work.

12/06/2020

The Arts Nexus Spotlight Artist: Sarah Elaz💫
is a NYC-based dancer, choreographer, and musician. She is passionate about exploring the relationship between live music and dance through collaborative improvisation. She began her professional dance career in Boston, MA with Danza Orgánica, led by Marsha Parrilla. After recovering from a torn ACL, she moved to Israel to train with Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company. Now based in NYC, Sarah is a dancer in the show "SHE, A choreoplay on sexual violence, Sandra Bland, and healing". She is also very involved in the NYC live music scene and has danced with musicians such as KITTEN The Band, The James Brown Dance Party, Bridget Barkan, Miss Dukes & The Package, and more. Sarah the bassist and dance choreographer for the pop-group Jimmy and THE BAND.
Sarah’s most recent series of work is a collaboration with herself - based out of her Brooklyn living room. These composite videos are a personal take on some of Sarah’s favorite songs where she plays both the guitar and bass parts, accompanied by an improvised dance performance. In these videos Sarah continues her study on the relationship between music and dance by embodying each section of the music in a different form simultaneously. She hopes to perform these videos for a live audience eventually. You can view her work on her Instagram Page, Facebook, or on our Instagram !

11/23/2020

Did you attend our Art & Politics virtual meetup a few weeks ago? If you couldn’t make it, or want to refresh your memory, the discussion is now on our YouTube channel!
Huge thanks to Show Goes On Productions, Jinah Parker, Ellen Rittberg, Mathew Patrick Heggem, Emileena Pedigo, and all of the participants for your contributions to this discussion.
We hope to bring you more virtual meetups and events like this in the future, so please follow us on Facebook and Instagram to stay in the loop!
And if you want to continue the conversation with our two spotlight guest speakers - check out their websites!
https://www.jinahparker.com/
http://www.ellenpoberrittberg.com/

The Arts Nexus and Show Goes On Productions invite you to be a part of the collective awakening. Mathew Heggem and Emileena Pedigo lead a discussion on the r...

11/20/2020

CALL FOR ARTISTS: The Arts Nexus is currently seeking DMV based visual artists to present their work for 1 - 3 months at Three-Whistles, as well as the Church of The Holy City - National Swedenborgian Church. We are offering the opportunity to showcase your work in the local community while connecting with audiences on a deeper level through virtual and in person programming. Selected artists will receive support in facilitating onsite and online sales of the artwork. Fill out our form to be considered! —> https://bit.ly/artsnexusartist

11/19/2020

The Arts Nexus + Born Brown: All Rights Reserved® SPOTLIGHT Event... Happening THIS Weekend!
Building a Better Fishtrap / A'we deh ya ("All of us are here")
Saturday, November 21 | 4 - 5:30pm EST | Live on Zoom
Created by Paloma McGregor
Hosted by Movement Lab at Barnard College
Please RSVP here to join: http://forms.gle/XP32PRFeSJB3yibB9
Get a peek into the research and development of A'we deh ya ("All of us are here"), a new work by Paloma McGregor, artistic director of Angela's Pulse (angelaspulse.org). A'we is a multi-disciplinary call-and-response between colony and mainland, being created in alignment with local efforts to thwart disaster capitalism in St. Croix, US Virgin Islands, in the wake of the destruction caused during the 2017 hurricane season. More information -> https://movement.barnard.edu/events/memosa-angelas-pulse-awe
The project, which focuses on Paloma's homeland St. Croix, is rooted in her dad's vanishing fishing tradition and explores the animating questions: What do we take with us? Leave behind? Return to Reclaim? Through the Fishtrap Method, Shared Practice and these conversations with special guests we are activating a call and response between geographies, cultures and practices; as well as between the past and future of A'we deh ya. We will be building our collaborative muscles as a group of dancers, writers, visual artists, music makers and dreamers while doing embodied research together.
Please join them for a process sharing event and bring an object or photo that has personal/familial/cultural significance!
Photo by Erik Carter.

11/11/2020

We are excited to introduce to you our two spotlight guest speakers for tomorrow’s Art & Politics meetup: JINAH PARKER and ELLEN RITTBERG. There is still time to register -> http://bit.ly/ArtPoliticsMeetup

JINAH PARKER describes herself as a multi-faceted dancer, choreographer, educator, playwright, and healer with a Master’s Degree in Dance Education from New York University and a B.A. in Dance from the University at Buffalo, (Phi Beta Kappa). Her work has been hailed as "passionate and necessary” by the New York Times. Jinah’s artistic work is integrative combining dance and wellness, which can be seen in her most recent creation “SHE, a Choreoplay,” a dance and theatrical performance that focuses on ending violence against women and girls, healing, and empowerment. “SHE is an artistic mirror for our past and present political and social climates. “With ‘SHE,' Jinah Parker triumphs Over A Culture that Abuses Women” (The Village Voice) and extends beyond the stage with interactive conversations and educational tools. Embracing lifelong learning to enhance her work, Jinah recently received a license in Neuro Linguistic Programming under the teaching of Jeffrey V. Noble and founder Richard Bandler. She now works with clients one on one in her private coaching practice while integrating these tools within her artists residencies. Jinah’s work also includes teaching dance and performing internationally while receiving generous accolades and support from well-known artists such as Eve Ensler, creator of The Va**na Monologues;” actress and best-selling author Gabrielle Union; in addition, to support from NBA Hall of Famer Grant Hill, Elle magazine and The National Organization of Women.
https://www.jinahparker.com/

ELLEN POBER RITTBERG is an award winning journalist whose essays and features have appeared in the NY Times, HuffPost, Reader’s Digest, Newsday and large online platforms. Her humorous how-to book, 35 Things Your Teen Won’t Tell You, So I Will, was published by Turner Publishing. Her play, Sabbath Elevator, is slated to reprise-zoom on 11/22/20 at 8 pm EST. Her play, Sci Fi, appeared at NY Summerfest in 2019. Poetry and fiction publications include Great Weather for Media’s 2019 anthology, Brooklyn Quarterly, Griffel Long Island Quarterly, Poetrybay, Raw Art Review, The Write Launch, Santa Fe Writers Project, and the bilingual Persian Sugar in English Tea, vol. 1. Her full length poetry manuscript is slated for publication in June 2021 by Kelsay Books. She is the author of a humorous self-help book about caring for a decline parent, due out any day now. Look for the cover reveal!
http://www.ellenpoberrittberg.com/

11/05/2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9SF36XrenQ&feature=youtu.be

Have you registered for our upcoming Art & Politics meetup yet? This virtual meetup, produced in partnership with Show Goes On Productions, will focus on activating social change through creative expression.

Meanwhile, check out this from the organizers: Mathew Patrick Heggem interviewed Emileena Pedigo and discussed the important topic of how to sustain an Arts business. During that chat Emileena introduces the Sustainability Cycle: Exploration, Inclusion, Evolution. Now more relevant than ever!

If you want to learn more about Show Goes On Productions - - > www.showgoesonproductions.com

AND there is still time to register for our meetup! - - > http://bit.ly/ArtPoliticsMeetup

Mathew Heggem interviews Emileena Pedigo for THURSDAY THROWDOWN, February 15th, 2018. The two discuss how to sustain Arts businesses and Emileena introduces ...