HERMITAGE FELLOWS TO PRESENT MOST RECENT WORKS
Hermitage Artist Retreat fellows Visual Artist Fran Siegel and Composer Sebastian Currier will share the inner workings of their art forms in the Hermitage Palm House, 6630 Manasota Key Road, Englewood, on Thursday, December 29th beginning at 4:00 pm and ending just before 5:30, in time for the 5:45 sunset. The Hermitage will provide chairs for the inside event. Space is limited, so reservations are required and can be made by calling 941-475-2098, ext. 8.
“What a special treat to have Fran and Sebastian with us during the holiday season,” remarked Executive Director Bruce E. Rodgers. “Both are such accomplished and special artists that their program could be considered a gift from the Hermitage to our community. Please join us and learn about the creative art works of each of these unique fellows.”
Fran Siegel holds the George Pappas Visual Art Residency at the Hermitage. Her presentation will be about the project that she is just now completing for an upcoming exhibition at the Fowler Museum (UCLA) in 2017, as part of the Getty’s city-wide initiative Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA exhibition. Her project involved a Fulbright Fellowship to Brazil to conduct in-depth research. She will discuss her process of gathering information, interpretation, and translation into drawing. Her elaborate 40-foot woven layered drawing is a reconstruction of the Afro-Brazilian landscape of the Bahian island of Itaparica; seen as a microcosm for the study of sacred leaves identified for ceremonies, medicine, magic, and ancestral protection. With an MFA from Yale, Fran has exhibited around the world and has been written about in the Los Angeles Times, Art in America, ArtCritical, ARTnews, Asian Art News, The Brooklyn Rail, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Art New England, ArtWeek, LA Weekly, Arts, and Sculpture.
Sebastian Currier holds the Ina Schnell Music Residency at the Hermitage. He will talk about the piece he is presently working on, a cyle of intergalactic love songs for soprano, ensemble, and electronics. Deep-Sky Objects is set in the distant future, exploring intergalactic longing and desire. The text was written for Sebastian by award winning writer Sarah Manguso. For the project, Sebastian is collaborating on a version that includes video with Michele Beck, another Hermitage fellow, who will be there to add her thoughts on the project.
Sebastian’s music has been described as “music with a distinctive voice” by The New York Times and as “lyrical, colorful, firmly rooted in tradition, but absolutely new” by The Washington Post. His compositions have been played by the New York Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, the Gewandhaus Orchestra, Eos Orchestra, the BBC Wales orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra, the Kronos Quartet and more.
Hermitage Program Director Patricia Caswell added, “We are delighted to have the two sponsors of these artists’ residencies attending the program, as well. George Pappas and Ina Schnell are modern day Medici’s for supporting the work of these two renowned living artists. How wonderful that they are both in town and able to experience the work their support is ensuring.”
The Hermitage is a not-for-profit artist retreat located at 6660 Manasota Key Road in Englewood, FL. It invites accomplished painters, sculptors, writers, playwrights, poets, composers and other artists from all over the world for residencies on its beachfront historic campus. Artists are asked to contribute two services to the community during their stay and as a result, Hermitage artists touch thousands of Gulf Coast community residents with unique and inspiring programs each year. Hermitage community programs are partially sponsored by Philanthropist Gerri Aaron, the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs and the Woman’s Exchange. In addition, the Hermitage awards and administers the prestigious Greenfield Prize, an annual $30,000 commission for a new work of art, rotating among visual art, music and drama. The Hermitage also partners with the Aspen Music Festival and School to award the annual Hermitage Prize to a composition student during the Festival. For more information about the December 29th event or The Hermitage Artist Retreat, call 941-475-2098, ext. 5, or visit the website at www.HermitageArtistRetreat.org.
