The Swellesley Report

More than you really want to know about Wellesley, Mass.

Wellesley museum scores $75k grant from Andy Warhol Foundation

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The Davis Museum at Wellesley College has a full slate scheduled for the cultural institution’s big Spring 2019 re-opening on Thursday, Feb. 7, 5:30 – 9pm. There are events for everyone from the educated art lover to the casual enjoyer, to families with kids in strollers. The museum will showcase special exhibitions through June 10 of artists working in mediums from painting to video to photography.  Here’s more information on upcoming events. 

Andy Warhol Foundation kicks in big money

In more big news for the museum, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts has awarded  the Davis a $75,000 grant to fund a September 2019 exhibition, Home’s Horizons by multimedia artist Fatimah Tuggar. The Nigeria-born artist, who received her MFA from Yale University, uses collage across sculpture, photomontage, video, and augmented reality. She has exhibited world-wide including at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and Mori Art Museum in Tokyo. The Davis exhibit will mark her largest solo exhibition.

Fatimah Tuggar, Home’s Horizons, 2019. Courtesy of the artist and BintaZarah Studios.

Curator Amanda Gilvin says, “I am honored that The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts has chosen to fund this exhibition on the path-breaking conceptual artist Fatimah Tuggar with a 2018 Exhibition Grant. Thanks to a 2017 Warhol Foundation Curatorial Fellowship, students and faculty from across campus are already engaging with Tuggar’s work and preparing for the exhibition. Her ambitious intellectual and artistic projects are ideally suited for the interdisciplinary learning fostered by the Davis.”

The grant money will also go to putting together a catalogue of her work, as well as support a new artwork, Deep Blue Wells, created specifically for The Davis Museum exhibit.

Beyond Wellesley: a sneak peek at the renovated Hood Museum at Dartmouth College

Beyond Wellesley: sneak peek at renovated Hood Museum at Dartmouth College

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I recently was let in for a sneak peek at the newly renovated and rebuilt Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. Joining me on the guided tour of the 62,000 square-foot building was a bunch of big-dawg types from places like The Guggenheim, Architectural Digest, The Boston Globe, and others, all eager to see the three-story building designed by architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien. Working within a tight footprint, the husband-and-wife team nearly doubled the exhibition spaces and greatly expanded the teaching areas. They did it partly by playing a giant game of Tetris, moving some walls walls and reconfiguring galleries, and partly by snitching space from an interior courtyard.

I hadn’t been into The Hood since just before it closed almost three years ago for for the $50 million expansion and renovation project. Back then visitors slipped in through a tucked-away entrance, and toured galleries that cried out for natural light. Now visitors boldly walk through an entrance that opens up onto the Dartmouth Green. Natural light pours into galleries in which the art benefits from brightness, but many galleries remain windowless to protect sensitive works.

Join me on my tour of Dartmouth’s newest building:

Hood Museum, Dartmouth College
Architects Billie Tsien (left) and Tod Williams deliver remarks at the press preview of the Hood Museum of Art, located on the campus of Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire.
Hood Museum, Dartmouth College
An installation of post-war art in the Hood’s new Northeast Gallery. The work at the far right is a recent acquisition, Wind Dancing With Spring Flowers, by American artist Alma Woodsey Thomas.
Hood Museum, Dartmouth College
A view across the renovated second-floor galleries, which feature installations of contemporary African art, Melanesian art, and contemporary Aboriginal Australian art. The acrylic and oil on canvas, left, is a recent acquisition by Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga titled L’attitude face a la Mondialisation (Attitudes Towards Globalization). 
Hood Museum, Dartmouth College
A view from the second-floor staircase to the lobby. It gets cold up in Hanover, and Dartmouth students have historically used the lobby of the Hood as a cut-through from one part of campus to the next. The renovation kept that feature partly as a way to avoid a potential uprising of students distraught over having to walk all the way around the building, and partly to send a welcoming message.
Hood Museum, Dartmouth College
“The $50 million it took to make the Hood project happen was funded 100% through philanthropy,” says John Stomberg, Museum Director. The museum has over 65,000 works in its collection.
Hood Museum, Dartmouth College
American art from the Hood’s permanent collection in the new second-floor galleries.
Hood Museum, Dartmouth College
Bob Haozous, Apache Pull-Toy, 1988, painted steel.
Hood Museum, Dartmouth College
Front entrance of the Hood, which opens directly onto the Dartmouth Green. The museum now has two floors of public exhibition spaces and study galleries, a third floor for administrative offices, and a lower level for object storage and exhibition preparation. The Hood was originally designed by architect Charles Moore, and it opened in 1985. See this New York Times story for more on Moore (deceased in 1993), and the Charles Moore Foundation’s less-than-enthusiastic response to the changes. Photo credit: Arifa Toor

 

 

 

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Wellesley Business Buzz: The Painting Place is coming to town; Scalliwags daycare arriving soon; local farmers extend reach

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Here’s a round-up of the latest Wellesley, Mass., business news:

The Painting Place coming to Wellesley

The Kid’s Place, a 7-days-a-week Needham-based studio established in 2000 that offers a slew of artsy drop-in activities from painting pottery to making slime, is rebranding itself as The Painting Place and moving a few miles down the road to Wellesley. The building in which The Kid’s Place resides is being torn down.

“The rebranding is the positive I’m taking from the negative of losing my current lease,” says The Kid’s Place and The Painting Place’s Samara Helfman. To be clear though, Helfman’s business will continue to serve kids even as it expands its audience to more adults, including local college students.

The name change should make The Painting Place more welcoming to grown-ups who want to drop in or arrange parties, corporate events, etc. The new space is much bigger than the old one, Helfman says.

the painting place

“We are keeping The Kid’s Place alive during the transition as we want to maintain kids’ painting and birthday parties,” she says. “We’re going to focus on both kids and adults instead of primarily kids.”

The Painting Place will relocate to 380R Washington St., behind where White’s Bakery will soon open at Playhouse Square. Legit Activewear, which is now on the Belclare strip at the other end of town, used to be in that spot.

If all goes according to plan, the business will open in Wellesley in March.

Scalliwags Daycare opening in Wellesley

A new daycare center with the rascally name of Scalliwags is readying its space at 445 Washington St., in that complex across from Whole Foods where Zoots and a nanny/tutoring business used to operate.

Scalliwags is seeking employees now to engage with your infants and toddlers.

scalliwags wellesley

summer.campSummer camps registration has begun

But don’t panic. And don’t be fooled by Busy January Kids who claim they “just want to hang out and chill all summer.” Those kids will quickly turn into Summer Bored Kids by the beginning of July. Find out all about summer camps here in Wellesley and beyond on our Summer Camps page.

 

Beth Israel Deaconess Healthcare headed to Wellesley

Look for Beth Israel Deaconess Healthcare to come to the Wellesley Professional Building at 372 Washington St., in March. They’re accepting new patients and making appointments now.

It looks like the team includes a handful of team members previously with Newton-Wellesley Primary Care (We’d had inquiries about Drs. Elisabeth Brewer, Edward Shashoua and Genevieve Anand, for example, and they are now listed as being on the Beth Israel team. For at least Drs. Brewer and Anand  this will mark a return to a building where they worked years ago for the Marino Center).

 

Beth Israel

Farmers to You adds a third Wellesley spot

Farmers To You, an online farmers market, is adding Wellesley Office Park as a new pickup site. Customers can order food from local farmers currently delivering to more than 25 pickup sites and hundreds of homes in the Boston area, will open its third site in Wellesley at the Wellesley Office Park at 55 William St., on Thursday, January 31. The 2600+ tenants at the office park will have the opportunity to order food from local farmers and pick it up in tote bags each Thursday from 3:30-5pm. Farmers to You also delivers at Babson College and at the Wellesley Farmers Market at 309 Washington St.

Charity Buzz

Wellesley resident lacing ’em up against Bruins alums for charity

Wellesley resident Michael Ryan will be among the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute doctors, researchers, and staff who will play a charity hockey game against Boston Bruins alumni to benefit the Jimmy Fund, which supports cancer research and patient care at Dana-Farber. The Dana-Farber Rink Rats’ game will be held Saturday, February 2, from 2:00 p.m – 4:00 p.m. at Warriors Ice Arena in Boston. Ryan is in development at Dana-Farber.

To support a participant or for more information, please visit www.jimmyfund.org/rinkrats.

Rink Rats 2

 

Boston Marathon cycling fundraiser

Come Cycle for a Cause with Boston Marathon-bound Wellesley moms Kim Ebeling, Mona Marimow, Dorothy Strzelecki and Kate Wallace and sweat for something meaningful. On Wednesday, January 30th at 7:30pm the runners-in-training are teaming up with B/SPOKE Wellesley for a charity ride. 100% of the proceeds will go towards their Boston Marathon fundraising efforts for the Good Sports Organization and the Shawn Thornton Foundation. Purchase tickets here.

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Hachioji Kuruma Ningyo Puppet Theater at Wellesley College, March 5

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The Hachioji Kuruma Ningyo Puppet Theater will come to Wellesley College’s Jewett Auditorium on March 5. This rare opportunity to experience a full-scale production of kuruma ningyo puppetry with chanting and live shamisen music will be brought to the College in partnership with the Japan Society of Boston. In the show, Nishikawa Koryu V, the fifth grand master of the Hachioji Kuruma Ningyo Puppet Theater, will perform three female-centered stories from classic Japanese literature.

Image: Hachioji Kuruma Ningyo Puppet Theater © Hachioji Kuruma Ningyo Puppet Theater.

Kuruma ningyo is a unique style of puppetry in which artists perform while sitting on a wooden box with wheels (or, rokuro kuruma). Unlike the more widely known style of Japanese puppetry known asbunraku, which requires three puppeteers to manipulate a single puppet, the use of the rokuro kurumaallows a single puppeteer to manage one puppet. This innovation allows for more dynamic performances, as the performer can move flexibly with the puppet.

WHEN: March 5, 2019
TIME: 6pm – 8pm
LOCATION: Jewett Auditorium, Wellesley College, 106 Central Street, Wellesley, MA 02481

Fantastical Fish to school kids at Winter Wednesdays finale

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On January 30, children ages 5-10 are invited to explore “Fantastical Fish: Watercolors of Tropical Fish by Wellesley’s Sherman Denton” in the Wellesley Historical Society’s final Winter Wednesdays program of the season.

ellow Triggerfish, Nassau - Copy
Denton watercolor of Yellow Triggerfish (via Wellesley Historical Society)

While his brothers preferred collecting butterflies, Sherman Denton was entranced by fish. Denton traveled around the globe at the turn of the twentieth century to search out and paint exotic fish. Create your own watercolor of a fish or make a bookmark featuring a Denton fish. The program takes place in the children’s room of the main library from 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Drop in anytime; there is no need to register and no admission fee.

Winter Wednesday’s is a series of weekly programs for children ages 5-10, each one featuring a different historical topic. Children learn history in a hands-on way, using arts and crafts, games, and other fun activities. For a full schedule of Winter Wednesday’s programs, visit www.wellesleyhistoricalsociety.org or call (781) 235-6690.

This program is made possible in part by a grant from the Wellesley Cultural Council.