Jamaica Plain News (https://www.jamaicaplainnews.com/category/arts/page/5)
It's a simple question. Where is this beautifully-painted utility box located in Jamaica Plain? Put your guesses in the comments below. We'll provide the answer on Monday. Also, what is the picture of?
A trio of musicians led by a Grammy-nominated jazz pianist raised money for earthquake relief efforts in Turkey and Syria at the Hope Central Church in Jamaica Plain. Held on March 10, pianist and Berklee College of Music alum Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol, who lives in Boston, but was born and raised in Turkey, was joined by fellow Berklee alumni James Heazlewood Dale on bass and percussionist George Lernis. Proceeds of all ticket sales were donated to Turkish Philanthropy Funds Earthquake Relief Fund, with the event raising more than $4,000 to help families impacted by the devastating natural disaster. The concert is the first in a yearlong series of jazz fundraising concerts produced by New England Jazz Connections (NEJC) due to funding from the Boston’s Office of Arts and Culture. NEJC was founded during COVID by Jamaica Plain resident and Berklee professor Greg Loughman.
In 1891, a 23-year-old woman from Jamaica Plain won an architecture contest to design the Woman’s Building for the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago -- and while that should have been the beginning of a great career for Sophia Hayden -- her life's story ended being quite harrowing. While doing research, a Jamaica Plain Historical Society member learned that Hayden was from Jamaica Plain, and was the first woman to get an architecture degree at MIT. "We thought her story deserved to be better known and we always do an event for Women's History Month," said JPHS President Gretchen Grozier. On March 12, there will be a reading of the play Sophia Hayden Deserves Better by Stephanie Alison Walker. It is a fictionalized version of her story for dramatic purposes.
Jamaica Plain's Susan Krantz has been working with textiles since she was a teenager. At 9 years of age, her grandmother taught her to knit to distract her from being fidgety. Krantz then took sewing lessons while in high school from a woman who studied in Paris. Quilting was a spontaneous undertaking after purchasing a copy of Georgia Bonesteel’s first book Lap Quilting. Forty years later she is an avid quilter.
You still have time to see the an art show at the Arnold Arboretum featuring two Jamaica Plain painters. "Artists Redux" is an exhibit at the Arnold Arboretum’s Hunnewell Building Gallery in the Visitors Center through March 13 featuring work by JP painters Ginny Zanger and Lizi Brown. The Hunnewell Building is open every day 10 am to 4 pm
Photographer Yana Nosenko's solo exhibition I’m Glad You’ve Left opens at the Jamaica Plain Branch Library on March 2. Nosenko's exhibit explores immigration, displacement, nomadism, and familial separation, reflecting on her own experiences growing up within a Kazakh family living in Russia, and now living in the U.S. for the past few years with limited ability to travel outside the country, according to a press release. “I’ve been told that no one leaves home from an excess of happiness and comfort. One leaves, because it’s not possible to remain," said Nosenko. Her color photography reveals quiet interiors with unexpected details, nostalgic portraits, and a wistful atmosphere.
Local musicians will be performing at fundraiser for the JP Music Festival at the Midway Cafe on Feb. 18. The following are some of the songs that will be sung during the fundraiser that starts at 8 pm. A Lover Sings by Billy Bragg
All But Done by 9 Chambers
All I Want by Joni Mitchell
Are You Gonna Be My Girl? by Jet
Both Sides Now by Joni Mitchell
Brand New Love by Sebadoh
Corinna by Taj Mahal
Eighteen Years by Daughtry
Falling In Love by NOFX
Gone Daddy Gone by The Violent Femmes
Hopeless Romantic by Bouncing Souls
I Want You To Want Me by Cheap Trick
I'll Cover You from Rent
Imposters by Lenny Lashley
Interstate Love Song by Stone Temple Pilots
Just One of Those Things by Cole Porter
Love Minus Zero/No Limit by Bob Dylan
Our Lips Are Sealed by The Go-Go’s
Secret Heart by Ron Sexsmith
Son Of A Gun by The Vaselines (and later, Nirvana)
The Origin of Love from Hedwig and the Angry Inch
The Waiting by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush
You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) by Sylvester
The following is a summary of the Franklin Park Action Plan that includes recommendations for particular locations. Keep in mind that the Franklin Park Coalition board "regards many of these recommendations favorably," according to the plan's summary. But it is not an endorsement. The board has submitted comments on the Franklin Park Action Plan, including both endorsements and objections, to the Parks and Recreation Department in a separate document which will be made available on the Franklin Park Coalition website. You can register for a virtual public meeting hosted by the coalition about the action plan on Feb.
Jamaica Plain printmaker Quenby Bucklaew's Winter Landscapes solo exhibition is the first art show at the Jamaica Plain Library for 2023. Bucklaew has been inspired by her world travels, and utilizes bold shapes, a limited use of color, and tactile qualities resulting from a mixture of printmaking techniques. She captures her own ephemeral impressions of place and time, as well as the emotional impact they can have. Winter Landscapes includes travel-inspired prints from 2019, as well as new pieces created since the pandemic when she found inspiration in her own neighborhood by exploring the natural beauty of Jamaica Plain, and especially Jamaica Pond. Her multilayered compositions feature stark, snowy expanses punctuated by spindly tree branches, blurry city skylines, and the calm, reflective spread of the pond, all marked by the textured detail of woodblock and collagraph printing.
The latest art exhibit at the Jamaica Plain Branch Library pays tribute to the personal determination of overcoming everything the pandemic wrought. Forged in Isolation opened on Nov. 4. "March 2020 disrupted our daily lives and left us to navigate the feelings of loneliness and confinement. As artists this was exceptionally challenging taking a toll on our mental health while our resolve to create waned.