FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Livermore Valley Arts
Contact: Ruth Egherman (925) 583-2306
Exciting Bothwell News: Artist in Residence Bringing Inflatable Sculpture Workshop
Just in Time for Spring Break in Downtown Livermore
Livermore, CA – (March 10, 2023) –
An exciting new opportunity for teens just in time for Spring Break is coming to the Tri-Valley. Livermore Valley Arts is thrilled to bring direct from the Boston area Artist in Residence Catherine Judge for a fabulous Inflatable Sculpture Workshop, where teens will brainstorm, design, and build a large-scale sculpture, large enough to walk through! In this exciting project-camp, open to teens ages 13-18 during the 2023 Spring Break, young people will integrate art with earth sciences, social studies, and advanced technologies, encouraged to investigate the creative process as it relates to their life experiences. Ms. Judge holds a Master of Science in Visual Studies from M.I.T. and specializes in programs that examine the intersection of “Culture and Nature,” fostering community dialog and understanding, and, celebrating the capacity of young people to truthfully express their spirited common goodness through art. Participants of this one-of-a-kind project will be thrilled to see a project from inception to larger-than-life completion at a public art event on the final day of the workshop. The teen in your life is invited to share in this exciting Spring Break opportunity, through the Bothwell Arts Center, from April 5th through the 8th, in Downtown Livermore. (Scholarships are available if needed; for more information, contact [email protected].)
This workshop is collaborative art-making that will have teens create a meaningful work of art for their community. Three full days of creation at the Bothwell Arts Center from April 5-7 will culminate in a Saturday event on the Bankhead Plaza on April 8, open to the community (location will be changed in case of inclement weather). At this comprehensive workshop, students will: practice active listening skills, learn about and create public art, develop observation skills, develop an understanding of relative “scale,” enhance model-building skills, practice presentation skills, gain a basic understanding of pneumatic principles, experience geometric shapes, learn about effective collaborative team building, and above all, have fun. Space is limited to 15 students so that each teen gets the most out of this unique workshop experience. Inflatable sculptures are large-scale environmental installations designed completely by the students. They are made of very affordable materials: plastic sheeting, duct tape, and are inflated with box fans. The plastic sheeting can be colored, and as one can see, it is possible to create a myriad of shapes. The sculptures can be observed from the exterior as well as experienced from the interior. Students often choose to create sound and/or lighting elements to enhance the theme, which are endless. For example, previous students at Saint Anselm College, in their workshop, during a particularly bleak winter, brought an inflatable antithesis to life, deciding to create an inflatable sculpture that depicted the transition from the darkness of winter to the floral promise of spring. Another crop of students created an underwater world, with one zigzagging through the inflatable, moving from the beach to the depths of the sea. Most students have not had the chance to see their creative ideas evolve from words on a page to a sketch and then from a scale model to a sculpture large enough to walk through, which is an empowering experience. The sculptures can be rolled up and stored for future events — they completely transform any environment where they are inflated (they can travel from school to school, be used for other curricula — as a place of inspiration for writing, a place to do math, discuss environmental issues, or even draw inspiration from for something that relates to the sculpture’s themes).
C. M. Judge is an intermedia artist who utilizes a variety of media in her work that focuses on the physical confluence of the spirit. Trained as a traditional painter, she found that her paintings became sculptures, that her sculptures became installations, and that now her installations have become drawings which in turn become paintings and videos. This multidisciplinary approach to art-making fuels Ms. Judge’s fascination for the creative process — the artist’s individual working process as well as the process of bringing that work into the public realm. Catherine has taught courses in both two-dimensional and three-dimensional art disciplines at museums, colleges, and universities in the New England region. She is a visiting artist listed on the New Hampshire Council for the Arts and the Massachusetts Cultural Council rosters. Ms. Judge’s educational outreach has centered on collaborative art-making that has resulted in over eighty large-scale public art projects. Her current book project, Creative Energy: Sharing the Process, is inspired by 16 years of artist residency work. Ms. Judge’s artwork has been exhibited throughout the US, Europe, and Japan. She has realized many projects during a 19-year collaboration with Japanese video artist Atsushi Ogata, two multimedia works with Paula Rendino Zaentz, and an international video collage titled FemLink, co-curated with French video artist Véronique Sapin. She is a co-founder of the Central Massachusetts WCA chapter. Livermore Valley Arts is thrilled to have someone with as exciting and comprehensive a background as Ms. Judge as an Artist in Residence this April, leading Tri-Valley teens on this exciting Spring Break journey.
The Bothwell Arts Center is located at 2466 8th Street in Livermore. For more information or to register the teen in your life for the Inflatable Sculpture Workshop April 5 through 8, call 925-373-6800, visit the box office windows, or visit livermorearts.org
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