News & Features
FALL UPDATE
A busy exhibition and presenter season for Make Studio artists!
• Greg Bannister’s piece “Blackbird” was featured In "Blackbird Singin’ in
the Dead of Night” at Outsiders & Others, Vancouver, BC, also used on the primary promotional materials and selling during the exhibition.
• 9 artists participated in a SEP/OCT 4-week clay workshop led by Bernadette Larimer from Baltimore Clayworks, with each creating multiple pieces and building upon different hand-building, glazing and decorating skills.
• 7 artists showed works in “Outside Forces”, the annual invitational exhibition at Art Enables. Our Washington, DC neighbors also co-hosted with us the 4th installment
of “Mutual Admiration Society", also celebrating Make Studio’s own invitational show “Cordially Invited”.
• Tyrone Weedon co-presented with co-founder Stefan Bauschmid about Make Studio and his artwork at the AIGA Design conference, hosted by MICA.
• Bess Lumsden led a clay charm-making workshop for 27 art educators as part of the Maryland Art Education Association (MAEA) Conference, which coincided with the exhibition “Logical Progression” at Montpelier Art Center in Laurel, MD, and featured work by
Make Studio and other progressive art programs from Maryland.
• 4 Make Studio artists were represented in Art in the Round at The Arc Baltimore
• Jennifer O’Neill and Alex Albert have works in the First Friday Cat Art Show "The Cat's Meow" at Found Studio Shop, Baltimore, MD.
• Chris Schallhorn and Ethan Smith are featured in Art Ability at Bryn Mawr Rehab Hospital in Malvern, PA
NEA GRANT
We are proud to share that the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has approved Make Studio for Grants for Arts Projects funding in the amount of $15,000 to support our professional studio programming for artists with disabilities.
This is the first time that we have received recognition from the NEA and we are honored and so appreciative to have received their consideration. In total, the NEA will award 1,135 Grants for Arts Projects awards totaling more than $37 million as part of its second round of fiscal year 2024 grants. “Projects like Make Studio’s exemplify the creativity and care with which communities are telling their stories, creating connection, and responding to challenges and opportunities in their communities—all through the arts,” said NEA Chair Maria Rosario Jackson, PhD. We look forward to working with the NEA to finalize the grant paperwork.
HIGHLIGHTS MARCH-JUNE '24
Over 10 Make Studio artists leading workshops and showing work in outside exhibitions!
• Jennifer O’Neill, Janel Jenkins, Eddie Kil, Tony Silva were selected for “Art of Possibilities” annual exhibition at Courage Kenny, Allina Health in Minneapolis, MN
• Janel Jenkins and Tyrone Weedon in “POP! Art with Mass Appeal” at
Annmarie Art Center and Sculpture Garden in Solomons, MD.
• Jules Hinmon in “A Playful Spirit” at Able ARTS Work in Long Beach, CA
• Various Make Studio artists in MAP’s annual Out Of Order (OOO) fundraiser
• Gemma, Katelynn, Julian, Zach, Margie, Jerry in
“Pink+Pets,”
Quickest Flip’s online gallery, part of their QF Laboratory series.
• Marcie Hill and Jennifer O'Neill facilitated a workshop at the Hereford Senior Center through Baltimore County Hereford Library to make art
about animals using paint and sewing notions like ribbons, lace, beads and buttons.
• Louis Middleton led a paint-along workshop at Hereford Library, guiding participants to create their own beach landscape using Louis’ impressionistic, colorful,
textural style. Louis guided participants in his tried-and-true process: starting with a sketch,
pre-transferred to the canvas, participants painted along with Louis color by color! As a final touch, participants added texture with paint markers.
• Thursday artists hosted visitors from Youth Ability in Cleveland, OH as part of their tour of Maryland. Make Studio artists shared thoughts about their studio experience and showed their artwork.
PRIMO
“A trio of artistic cousins show how we are better together.”
Make Studio, Art Enables (Washington, DC), and Riera Studio / Art Brut Project Cuba (Havana, Cuba) are proud to present “PRIMO,” a two-site exhibition that brings together work by artists from all three progressive art studios.
On view at both Art Enables and Make Studio, this exhibition marks the Riera Studio artists’ U.S. debut. We invoke the word “primo” as both English slang for “excellent” and the Spanish word for “cousin.”
The works on view display a wide range of artistic visions, while stylistic and thematic similarities reveal a meaningful kinship. Groupings of works sharing recognizable threads–– e.g., “warm glow”,"little ones in a big crowd","artifacts from the future—are gathered together in a conversation that spans borders. The artworks speak to one other and are also part of a larger discourse, that of the rich history of self-taught and other artistry described as “outsider”. While the genre definitions have evolved over time, the heart of what they define persists— self-taught artists who express themselves on the margin of the established cultural mainstream.
All three participating studios celebrate these unique perspectives, their crucial place in the larger arts landscape, and the crucial connectivity that is amplified when we are together.
Art Enables • APR 27 – JUN 8, 2024
2204 Rhode Island Ave. NE, Washington, DC 20018
Gallery hours: MON - FRI, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., SAT 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. & by appt.
OPENING RECEPTION: APR 27, 5 - 7 p.m.
art-enables.org
Make Studio • MAY 4 – JUN 15, 2024
3326 Keswick Rd. Baltimore, MD 21211
Gallery hours: TUE - FRI, 9:30 a.m. – 4 p.m., SAT 10:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. & by appt.
OPENING RECEPTION: MAY 4, 5 - 7 p.m.
Additional hours will be announced on social media.
FEB 2024 • Exhibit Update
Make Studio artists currently featured in exhibitions in CA, IL & MD:
• Woody, Eddie Kil, and Tyrone Weedon in "Perennial Hug”, Arts of Life's annual exhibition at Circle Contemporary North Shore (Chicago, IL) from Jan 25-Mar 15.
• Woody, Kareem, Nadine Baldwin, Erika Clark, Seth Jackson, and Iragi Nkere in "Totally Open: Black Arts Celebration", an exhibition honoring Black artists in the greater Baltimore region hosted by Baltimore County Arts Guild (Catonsville, MD) from Feb 1-Mar 1.
• Woody's "Fresco at the National Palace, Mexico” in “CORE: Defining Ourselves" hosted by Able ARTS Work (Long Beach, CA) from Feb 2-April 12. This piece was selected for a juror's prize!
• Jules, Zach, Katelynn Herty, Alex Albert, and Marcie Hill are showing work in "Tails of Comfort: Exploring our Connections with Animals" at OCA Mocha (Arbutus, MD) from Feb 7-March 15.
2023 Exhibition Round-Up
Make Studio artists continued to be busy with exhibitions activities throughout the second half of 2023, and have already made a strong start to 2024. Highlights from 2023 include:
Zach Manue’ls autobiographical comics on living with autism were shown in "Destroy the Gap",
an exhibition engaging in disability discourse through aesthetics at Bowling Green State University (OH). He as well as Louis Middleton had their innovative landscape works in "Beyond the Horizon: Explorations of Landscape" at
Annmarie Art Center and Sculpture Garden (Solomons, MD). Another Louis piece, "The Grand Ole Opry”, was featured in the Quickest Flip invitational show, "Today is the Greatest"
at NIAD Art Center (Richmond, CA). Zach, Louis, Jules Hinmon, Chuck Fischer, Kareem Samuels, and Jerry Williams participated in Arc of Baltimore’s annual art auction, Art in the Round.
Margie Smeller was accepted to join the White Columns artist registry. Margie, Kareem, Jerry, Janel Jenkins, Dontavius Woody, Tony LaBate,
and Gary Schmedes had artwork exhibited in "Outside Forces" at Art Enables (DC).