Contents for July 7th, 2025
CONTENTS (please click on the links or scroll down for complete information on each post):
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Goings On will take a week off and your next issue after today’s will come on Monday July 21. Thanks for reading!
Weekly Spotlight: Franklin Furnace 50th Anniversary Tribute exhibition, Brattleboro Museum of Art, Vermont, opening July 12
1. Justin Allen, Pamela Sneed, FF ALumns, at Dixon Place, Manhattan, July 14
2. Blaise Tobia, FF Alumn, at New York Public Library
3. Jody Oberfelder, FF Alumn, at Shibuya Bridge, Tokyo, Japan, July 19-20
4. Jeff McMahon, FF Alumn, at Art in Odd Places, West Hollywood, CA, July 25-27, and more
5. Aphra Behn, FF Alumn, at Jacob’s Pillow Curriculum in Motion Institute, 2025-26
6. Heide Hatry, FF Member, at Ivy Brown Gallery, Manhattan, opening July 8, and more
7. Halona Hilbertz, FF Alumn, at Verum Ultimum, Portland, OR, thru Aug. 2
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Weekly Spotlight: Franklin Furnace 50th Anniversary Tribute exhibition, Brattleboro Museum of Art, Vermont, opening July 12
Founded on Artists’ Books: Franklin Furnace 50th Anniversary Tribute
July 12 – November 2, 2025
Franklin Furnace has been a pioneer among organizations that support and promote avant-garde artists working in new and nontraditional mediums. While Franklin Furnace’s current programming focuses on conceptual and performance art, the organization was originally conceived, in 1976, to serve artists who were creating artists’ books. These books were, at the time, a new and somewhat controversial line of creative inquiry.
Because there were no other arts organizations that championed this genre of work, Franklin Furnace began collecting artists’ books to draw attention to the medium, and eventually built one of the largest collections in the world. The artists’ books on display were created during the 1970s, as this new art form took shape a half century ago.
— Mark Waskow, President and Founder, Northern New England Museum of Contemporary Art
August 7th, 2025 – Martha Wilson, Founding Director Emerita, Franklin Furnace, in conversation with Mark Waskow, at Brattleboro Museum of Art – stay posted for details soon.
https://www.brattleboromuseum.org/2025/05/28/opening-of-new-exhibits-8/
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1. Justin Allen, Pamela Sneed, FF ALumns, at Dixon Place, Manhattan, July 14
This month I’m reading from my book Language Arts at Dixon Place for their HOT Festival. Other readers include Janelle // jei Lawrence and Pamela Sneed! Here are the details and ticket link:
Dixon Place Presents Lip Service: Black Queers and Their Words
Monday, Jul 14, 7:30 PM
Dixon Place
161A Chrystie St
New York, NY 10002
Justin Allen
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2. Blaise Tobia, FF Alumn, at New York Public Library
Blaise Tobia, FF Alumn, has had seventy-one prints accepted by the photo collection of the Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs at the New York Public Library. They are vintage B&W prints made in 1978, while he was a full-time documentary photographer for the Cultural Council Foundation CETA Artists Project in NYC. The NYPL also accepted 30 prints from one of Tobia’s partners in the CETA documentation, George Malave. After the prints have been cataloged they will be available for viewing by contacting the Wallach Division.
Between 1974 and 1981, CETA (the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act) provided one million jobs in a variety of fields across the country, 20,000 of which supported artists and arts professionals. It was the largest instance of federally funded artists employment in the U.S. apart from the New Deal. NYC had about 600 arts jobs in total, most of them in community service, spread among five projects. The CCF project was the largest of these; it employed 325 artists (visual, musical, dance, theater and media) and 40 artist administrators. Both Tobia and his wife Virginia Maksymowicz, FF Alumn, worked for this project in 1978-79. It was a life-changing experience for them and they were eventually inspired to found the CETA Arts Legacy Project, which they co-coordinate. <ceta-arts.com>
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3. Jody Oberfelder, FF Alumn, at Shibuya Bridge, Tokyo, Japan, July 19-20
Life Traveler 2025 Tokyo
We invite you to experience Life Traveler on the
Shibuya Bridge, in Tokyo https://maps.app.goo.gl/Wp5AnBdJumVW1rVo9
Saturday, July 19th from 6:30-8:30 pm
Sunday, July 20th from 9:30-11:30 am
Conceived and directed by choreographer Jody Oberfelder
Performed by Jody Oberfelder, Mei Yamanaka and Maya Takeda, Maho Takeshita (Saturday only)
Life Traveler is an interactive piece performed on bridges. Since 2018, we have traveled to Munich, London, Düsseldorf, Minneapolis, Amsterdam, NYC, Philadelphia, Portland Oregon, Berlin, and Frankfurt. Dancers tote and dance with vintage suitcases, passing one along to someone crossing the bridge and we travel together. In this moment we offer an invitation to contemplate the present moment, age, history, and journey. The goal is to give the audience a one-on-one embodied experience, connecting with the space around you, to notice the ordinary and extraordinary in the midst of traveling through our lives, a chance to pause and reflect on presence while traversing a bridge
Life Traveler’s theatricity lies in its simplicity. The dancers, with interactive conversation, both physically and verbally, “wake up” the present moment. Those passing by become a part of an enhanced moving experience. Shall we travel?
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4. Jeff McMahon, FF Alumn, at Art in Odd Places, West Hollywood, CA, July 25-27, and more
FF Alumn JEFF MCMAHON presenting new participational work, Activate Your Anthem! in collaboration with musician William Roper, as part of Art in Odd Places/Voice Festival https://voice.artinoddplaces.org/
and
FF Alumn JEFF MCMAHON script (Ob)scene published in After Orlando: The Pulse Nightclub Plays (NoPassport) Ed. Caridad Svich
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5. Aphra Behn, FF Alumn, at Jacob’s Pillow Curriculum in Motion Institute, 2025-26
Excited to announce I have been accepted into the 2025/26 cohort of the Jacob’s Pillow Curriculum in Motion Institute — a career development opportunity for emerging, mid-career, and seasoned choreographers to keep our artistry alive and growing! #danceisforeverybody. Aphra Behn
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6. Heide Hatry, FF Member, at Ivy Brown Gallery, Manhattan, opening July 8, and more
ONLY AT DUSK
Ivy Brown Gallery
Tuesday, July 8
I am so happy to announce my solo exhibition
ONLY AT DUSK
A Tribute to Flaco the Owl
Opening Reception:
Tuesday, July 8, 6-8pm
Ivy Brown Gallery
675 Hudson St, NYC
(elevator entrance: 22 1/2 9th Ave.)
Ivy Brown Gallery is proud to present a solo exhibition by Heide Hatry, honoring Flaco – the Eurasian Eagle Owl whose bold escape and survival in New York captured the city’s imagination. As a fellow immigrant who arrived in America to pursue her artistic calling, Hatry found a deep personal connection with Flaco’s brief but poignant journey. The show features unique book-based objects, assemblages, and artifacts inspired by Flaco. Many works incorporate objects relating to him, like his pellets that Hatry collected beneath his Central Park perch, forming a poetic, material bond between artist and bird. Some pieces appear in Flacofolio, a collaborative artist’s book with poet Leonard Schwartz (Spuyten Duyvil Press), while others are being exhibited for the first time.
“…The rich archaeology of these excavated books connects Flaco with an intertextual field of associations and references through which the artist invokes her personal memory of a shared cultural experience.” —Johanna Drucker
“A beautiful ode to New York City… a spiritual treasure.” —Philip Lopate
“Hatry has also escaped from her artworld cage and what better tribute to nature’s brave non-human souls than her witty and heartfelt assemblages.” —Lucy R. Lippard
More upcoming things
ARTBOOK @ MOMA PS1
Until Monday, July 7
Display of my original Flaco art books
Flacofolio and Flaco books are available
22-25 Jackson Avenue, Queens, NY
BARNES & NOBLE UPPER WEST SIDE
Wednesday, July 9, 7 pm
Book launch of Flaco and Flacofolio
with Jonathan Hollingsworth, Heide Hatry, and Leonard Schwartz
2289 Broadway, NYC
THE NEW YORK CITY POETRY FESTIVAL
Saturday and Sunday, July 12 and 13, 11am – 6 pm
Flacofolio book signing
Governors Island, Nolan Park, NY
IVY BROWN GALLERY
Tuesday, July 15, 7 pm
Artist talk and live music
675 Hudson Street, NYC=
WORD BROOKLYN
Wednesday, July 30, 7 pm
Book launch of Flaco and Flacofolio
with Jonathan Hollingsworth and Heide Hatry
126 Franklin Street, Brooklyn, NY
I would be delighted to see you at one or more events.
Very warmly,
Heide
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7. Halona Hilbertz, FF Alumn, at Verum Ultimum, Portland, OR, thru Aug. 2
Delighted to be included with “Little Glitter King (Bees Hibernate in Flower Stalks)” in “3 WISHES” at Verum Ultimum Gallery in Portland, Oregon. I WISH I could be there!
OPENING Sat July 5, 8-10pm: 3 WISHES
Verum Ultimum
1513 SE 42nd Ave
Portland, OR 97215
You are invited to the Opening Reception for Verum Ultimum’s newest exhibition, 3 WISHES. Featuring 27 artists and 30 works of original art…These evocative works promise to delight!
Catalog available on blurb.com
#3Wishes #VerumUltimum #HalonaHilbertz
Halona Hilbertz
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Join Franklin Furnace today:
https://franklinfurnace.org/membership/
Goings On for Artists is compiled weekly by Rohan Subramaniam, Archive Intern, Summer/Fall/Winter 2024/2025
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