Pinhole Photography Exhibit

Pinhole photograph by Ron Miller

Pinhole photograph by Joey Cedarquist

Pinhole Photography Exhibit

Opening Reception with
Weenie & Watermelon Feed

Friday, August 28, 7-9 pm
at The Harveyville Project

Learn how the matchbox cameras were made!
Grilled weenies and watermelon served!

Works on display Friday 7-10pm and Saturday noon – 4pm
Exhibit moves to Mission Valley the following week

Earlier this month, workshop participants fabricated their own homemade pinhole cameras. These simple cameras, made with a matchbox, film, and electrical tape-and with no lens or mechanical shutter-create beautiful, sometimes distorted, and dream-like pictures. We’ll display selections from participants of all ages, and show how the cameras were made. Roasted weenies, cold watermelon, and iced tea will be served. Everyone welcome!

Refreshments compliments of The Harveyville Project. Art Share is presented by the City of Harveyville and funded entirely by volunteer donations and a grant from the Kansas Arts Commission.

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Special thanks to Glenda Dixon, Caitlin McDiarmid & Todd Love, and Rachel Kaiserman for additional financial support for developing and mounting!

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This program is presented in part by the Kansas Arts Commission, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal  agency, which believes that a great nation deserves great art.

FREE Pinhole Camera Workshop Registration!

Stephanie Trevino's Pinhole Camera Photographs--FREE WORKSHOP 8/8

Pinhole Camera Photos by Stephanie Trevino, who will be leading the free workshop.

We’re proud to announce the first program of Art Share, a free community arts program presented by the City of Harveyville and funded by volunteers and the Kansas Arts Commission.

When: Saturday, August 8, Noon – 3pm

Where: The Harveyville Project (the old high school, 13149 Harveyville Road)

YOU MUST REGISTER IN ADVANCE. The workshop is free, but we need a headcount to have enough supplies for everyone.

What is a pinhole camera? A pinhole camera is a very simple camera with no lens and a single very small aperture. Simply explained, it is a light-proof box with a small hole in one side. Light from a scene passes through this single point and projects an inverted image on the opposite side of the box. Cameras using small apertures, and the human eye in bright light both act like a pinhole camera. (-Wikipedia)

ALL AGES WELCOME–Adults and children. Children under 8 will need a parent present to supervise them and handle the sharp tools. All students under 18 will need permission slips from their parents (available after 8/3, or immediately before class).

Photographer Stephanie Trevenio will lead the workshop and curate the subsequent exhibit. You will make your own pinhole camera and learn how to use it. Each student will shoot one roll of film at the workshop and leave it to be developed. If there is enough film remaining, we’ll send extra home with you, and you can return your additional shots for development by the end of the week.

Stephanie will select one shot from each student to be printed for a public exhibit the last weekend in August. There will be an optional informal workshop on matting prints later in the month if anyone would like to learn. The teacher will provide details.

We’ll have supplies for everyone  on hand, but if you have any of the following you’d like to donate in advance, we’d be thrilled! We’d also love volunteers setting up, putting up posters, spreading the word, etc. Please email or call Nikol or Stephanie at 785-589-2714 after 8/3 if you’d like to help! We’ll thank donors and volunteers on our upcoming Art Share web site.

Wish list:

black electrical tape
black sharpies
exacto knife
100 or 200 ISO 35mm film
Empty film cassettes (the yellow metal cassette the roll comes in)
For cash donations, scroll down to the bottom

Register now!

This program is presented in part by the Kansas Arts Commission, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal  agency, which believes that a great nation deserves great art.

You can support this or future Art Share programs with donations. Cash donations are strictly segregated into an Art Share account and used to directly defray excess project expenses (most likely developing, in the case of this program). Any surplus will be applied to future program expenses (buying supplies, etc.). Unless you request that we not name you, we’ll thank you on our upcoming Art Share web site. Your support is much appreciated!


Fiber School Registration is Open!

FALL FIBER SCHOOL October 1 – 6, 2009! You can enroll in one workshop or both. REGISTER FOR BOTH AND GET A FREE BONUS SESSION IN THE DYE LAB AND OVERNIGHT STAY SUNDAY!

FIBER SCHOOL=YARN SCHOOL + FELT SCHOOL (October 1-6) $750
(with free bonus dye lab & overnight stay Sunday)

YARN SCHOOL only (October 1-4) $450

FELT SCHOOL only (October 5-6) $300

REGISTER HERE!

Art Share is a go!

We’re thrilled to announce that the Kansas Arts Commission did award funding to Art Share, a collaborative project between the City of Harveyville and The Harveyville Project that will present four free art programs! Art Share will use Harveyville Project residents present free arts programs that may include classes, field trips, exhibits, etc.

It’s a fairly modest grant, and Arts Commission is currently funding these grants at 80% (with the remaining 20% to come at the end of the term, if it’s still available), so we’ll either need to scale back a bit, or have a little fund-raising to make up the deficit. We’ll also need volunteer help and some donated supplies (I’ll psot a wish list for each program), so if you’re interested, please let me know!

Our first program will be a pinhole camera workshop in early August, followed a few weeks later by an exhibit of the photographs taken. The class and exhibit will be led by Stephanie Trevino. I’m really excited about Art Share in general, and I’m also psyched about this class in particular. I’ve always wanted to try pinhole photography, but most of my solo photographic experiments have been dismal, so getting practical instruction will be such a treat. We should have the dates and additional information soon.

We may even be presenting a second program in August! More on that as we work out the details.

If you’re a prospective resident interested in participating in Art Share, we’ll be posting the proposal requirements soon.

New babies at Cupcake Ranch!

Yes, it’s true! We have two new residents at the Harveyville Project. They’re still too little to name (we want to make sure they’re good & strong first), but intoducing: the little boy and the baby!

It turns out that Agnes, the shyest, daintiest of the sheep, had a little secret. Miss Agnes apparently came to us knocked up, and Sunday morning & afternoon, Ron & I delivered 2 adorable little lambs. Read all about it here. I have a whole new level or respect for farmers. I wasn’t planning to breed them (they’re a spinner’s flock), so didn’t do anything special in caring or feeding her–I never even read the lambing chapters in any of my books. So we alternated between running back to the school & calling for advice, and just winging it. Huge ordeal (Ron, who was already sick, ended up with a bad fever), but really awesome, too!

Hopefully they’ll make it  (Agnes isn’t an especially keen mom, but she does seem to be warming up to them) and those of you coming to the Sunflower Spring Knitaway or Spring Yarn School will get to meet our newly-named little bundles of joy. They’re really tiny and cute.

In the meantime, I’ll try to add some better pictures. And here’s their mom, Agnes.

Spring Forward!

We’re moving into the green season here at The Harveyville Project. I’m probably going to regret planting so early, but I’ve just started my experimental hay bale garden (spoiled hay courtesy of one of the many Green Acres-style lessons I’ve learned in the last year), and the poor little starts are hanging in there, despite the fearsome winds we’ve had all day (steady 30-40mph with gusts to 50). Hopefully, you’ll be eating fresh-grown goodness next time you’re here!

Even if my bales fail, my friend June’s husband Tom’s planting a little extra for me in their gianormous garden, and I’m going to help them harvest & can. So between that & the Sundog CSA, I’m looking forward to heaps of fresh local produce.

April 6 is shearing day at Cupcake Ranch, so if you’re interested in seeing sheep get liberated from their home-grown wooly sweaters, let me know. Keep in mind that we only have 4 sheep, so the whole thing will probably wrap up in about an hour.

We’re offering private workshops starting this year, and our first, a private (well, semi-private… more on that in a sec) workshop is this June 6-7, a custom Felt School taught by the fabulous Shannon Okey. We’ve got room for a couple more students, so we’re offering a limited public enrollment. This will be an intimate workshop with tons of hands-on attention! Details & registration here.

If you’re interested in a private workshop (days or overnight) and you have a group of at least 6, let me know your ideas & we can discuss possibilities. Craft options include spinning, knitting, crochet, dyeing, etc. If you’re a teacher with a group who is looking for a venue, we’re set for that as well.

I’m also in the very, very early states of organizing Cheese School, a cheese-making workshop. If this sounds like your dream come true, let me know & I’ll put you on the notification list.

Happy springtime!

xo

Nikol

Camp Pluckyfluff + Spring Yarn School = FREE bonus!

Been busy all weekend (and into this week) dyeing up fiber for Camp Pluckyfluff, yum! We still have a few spots open. If you’re in the Midwest, this is a wonderful chance to join the Handspun Revolution and spin with the inimitable art yarn spinner and author Lexi Boeger! It’s one of only two Midwest Pluckyfluff camps this year, and the only one that includes all your meals/snacks/accommodations/supplies/equipment on site. So it’s a great opportunity to take a fabulous workshop in an equally fabulous environment with minimal fuss if you’re traveling. Yes, I’m very very very excited!

Spring Yarn School registration is also open now! There’s even a 4-monthly-installment option to help with your budgeting. And because all this fiberlicious excitement is making me feel expansive: If you attend both Camp Pluckyfluff and Yarn School, you will get a free 4-hour Dye Lab session (including fiber) the Sunday night or Monday after Pluckyfluff!

Bye bye 2008, Hello 2009!

One of my many plans for 09 is to get back to the monthly wrap-ups I meant to do in ’08.

2008 at the Harveyville Project saw two Yarn Schools, Felt School, the advent of Cupcake Ranch (read: laying hens and fiber sheep), a Vans catalog shoot, and a Kid Congo record, for starters! It was a busy year, and ’09 promises to be equally whirly.

Photos by Justin Kosman, September 2008.

I’m bound and determined to buckle down with the grant-seeking this year. I have two major projects I’d like to fund: a more formal, robust residency program headed up by a long-term resident coordinator, and a quarterly artist-in-residence program with a concurrent community arts workshop. If you’re a flush benefactor type or a university program coordinator who wants a lot of bang for his or her funding buck, let me know.

In the meantime, we’re funding our gradual improvements with more workshops. In addition to Camp Pluckyfluff, we’ve got Spring Yarn School  May 7 – 10, and a few private craft retreats planned for the first part of the year. We’ve decided to take a break from Prom this year (back next year). And there’s a cheese-making workshop in the planning stages. We’ll also start offering private workshops in 2009 for groups of 6 or more (knitting, spinning, felting, cooking basics, pantry builders, sausage, etc.).

But for now, we’re just trying to take the chill off.

xo

Nikol