what is bau ?

b a u = b e a c o n a r t i s t u n i o n

bau exists as the collective effort of artists to broaden a path toward greater exposure for their own work, and the artistic community of which they are a part. As a mechanism for generating an audience, bau intends to be a center of creative, collaborative engagement, and intellectual exchange.

bau is being formulated as a stage for creative exploration that is liberated from the constraints of overly polished presentation for the sake of public consumption. Though not a new concept by any means, such “pure” endeavors are currently lacking in the cultural landscape of Beacon, NY. A main premise of the intent of bau is to serve as an extension of the artist’s studio. A venue, that carves out a space somewhere in between the workshop and the showroom. An environment that more strongly manifests the internal machinations of the artist’s mind and hand while mixing in the wild card of public scrutiny.

bau strives to build a structure for creating and exhibiting artwork that will engender a network within the local creative community that will spawn artist led actions promoting a robust artistic ecosystem in Beacon, and the surrounding areas. Collaboration is at the heart of the existence of bau. bau is an interaction; a series of intersections where individual efforts meet in alignment to push forward an agenda that feeds the participants creatively.
The very effort of bau is one of organic pressure. Preferences of the individual artists conjoin, and collide to form this entity, the character of which will be long in developing. With this collective quality already present in its core, bau will seek to promote collaborative exchanges among the artistic community both practically and aesthetically.

By means of forming, and strengthening the network of artists within the region, bau will support and produce programs of interchange, and discussion among producers, and audiences…

___________________________

The inaugural opening of bau took place on January 8, 2005, with a group installation by the six founding members Chris Albert, Kathy Feighery, Peter Iannarelli, Gary Jacketti, Harald Plochberger, Angelika Rinnhofer.

bau MISSION STATEMENT

bau exists as the collective effort of artists to broaden a path toward greater exposure for their own work, and the artistic community of which they are a part. As a mechanism for generating an audience, bau intends to be a center of creative, collaborative engagement, and intellectual exchange.

bau is being formulated as a stage for creative exploration that is liberated from the constraints of overly polished presentation for the sake of public consumption. Though not a new concept by any means, such “pure” endeavors are currently lacking in the cultural landscape of Beacon, NY. A main premise of the intent of bau is to serve as an extension of the artist’s studio. A venue, that carves out a space somewhere in between the workshop and the showroom. An environment that more strongly manifests the internal machinations of the artist’s mind and hand while mixing in the wild card of public scrutiny.

bau strives to build a structure for creating and exhibiting artwork that will engender a network within the local creative community that will spawn artist led actions promoting a robust artistic ecosystem in Beacon, and the surrounding areas. Collaboration is at the heart of the existence of bau. bau is an interaction; a series of intersections where individual efforts meet in alignment to push forward an agenda that feeds the participants creatively.
The very effort of bau is one of organic pressure. Preferences of the individual artists conjoin, and collide to form this entity, the character of which will be long in developing. With this collective quality already present in its core, bau will seek to promote collaborative exchanges among the artistic community both practically and aesthetically.

By means of forming, and strengthening the network of artists within the region, bau will support and produce programs of interchange, and discussion among producers, and audiences…

bau membership

P R O S P E C T U S
F O R
M E M B E R S H I P


bau is growing

bau/beacon artist union, the artists’ collective (currently 8 members) operating a gallery space on Main Street in Beacon, NY is expanding its membership.

Since January 2005 bau has been organizing and curating exhibitions of member and guest artists every month. These critically acclaimed shows have been accompanied by numerous auxiliary events, such as film/video screenings, art talks, theatrical and music performances and socio-critical presentations. Thus bau became a meeting place for the art community in the Hudson Valley area, attracting a growing number of visitors from the city.

bau’s success is based on its mission as an independent exhibition space run by its member artists.

To operate the gallery space continuously and professionally, incurring cost are divided among all members, and are determined for each upcoming year (approx. $100/month per member).
A bau membership requires a commitment for one full year. Meetings are held regularly every month. All members participate in administrative roles.

bau is a profit oriented incorporated enterprise where a percentage of sales - currently 10% of members’ sales - are reinvested to help bau grow. Members' financial contributions are used for bau's operating expenses. Any additional assets from sales, donations or fundraising are used for bau's development.

A bau membership offers members the opportunity to present their projects in one solo show and one optional group show each year. Besides the possibility of mounting shows bau provides a stage for the realization of experimental projects, opportunities for voluntary curatorial tasks, and becoming connected to a fast growing network of artists, curators, galleries, media and collectors.

A bau membership is not limited to artists working in the field of visual arts.

If you are interested in a bau membership and would like to become part of the bau project please let us know about you.

Send your submission package to:

bau/ beacon artist union
161 Main Street
Beacon, NY 12508

845 440 7584
bauinfo@optonline.net
www.beaconartistunion.com


Submission deadline: October 1, 2006

After reviewing your information we will respond within 4 – 6 weeks. We will be happy to arrange a personal interview.
To help us with the reviewing process, please send us your package earlier than the 1st of October, if possible.

Submission package:

• Current artist resume with exhibition history
• Artist statement describing your work
• Your expectations of being a bau member and the skills you want to bring to bau
• 6 – 8 images of recent work, 300 dpi jpegs (max size 8x10) on a CD
• Printed numbered image list




bau/beacon artist union
Beacon, July 2006

John Fasulo

Mike Aquaviva, barber, 1972

JOHN FASULO


"For the best part of the last twenty years, my career has been as a cameraman in the TV industry in NYC. Images flew by my eyes, some were worthy of capturing; most were not... But it was a great job and paid the bills. Photography, on the other hand, was always a passion.
At the age of nine or ten, my grandfather gave me a Kodak box camera that he had used for years. One of the first images that I captured with that simple camera was of a electric engine at the Harmon Shops of the NYC RR. My grandfather was a machinist there and we would often visit the shop on the weekend.

I have been photographing in Beacon for many years. My on going project and one that encompasses all of my work is entitled, " Beacon and Beyond: Photographs from Around the Corner and Around the World". While I have a passion for trains and the sea, I have taken some of my best images here at home. The photos of Mike Aquaviva, my barber when I was a young boy; Dave Knapp in his paint and glass store; Izzy Stone the jeweler; all capture a sense of time and place that is Beacon.

My photographs of trains in Hof, West in 1974 Germany also have a lot of meaning for me.
These images were taken in the fall of 1974. They portray the end of an era. This was the alst division of German railways to still be all steam. A year after these images were taken steam power came to an end and the facility at Hof was torn down.”

Dave Knapp's Paint Store

Izzy Stone, Beacon, NY 2005

Waitress, Alps Sweet Shop

John Spurr, iceboater, Tivoli Bay

Poughkeepsie, NY, Rail Road Bridge Fire 1974

Livonia, NY, The Engineer 1974

An Era Ends in Germany, Hof, 1974

I first went to visit relatives in Germany in September of 1974. It was the first of many trips back to my roots. My grandfather had left Germany in 1923 along with my grandmother and my mother who at the time was a year old. An uncle that I met on that first trip told me, “You have to go to Hof”. When I asked why, I was told that Hof was the terminal for the last division of German Railways to still be all steam and that it would soon be gone with modernization of the line. I left the next day for Hof on an early morning train. It was an all day trip, with a change of trains and short lay-over in Munich. That evening my train entered the rail yard at Hof and snaked past yard engines and the roundhouse where at least six engines could be counted in the dim light. Steam was everywhere. The tracks glistened in the light rain that fell and whistles echoed in the distance. The air had a pungent smell of burning coal. In front of my eyes was a dream come true. Here in the middle of the 20th century were some of the last real working steam engines in the world. This was not a tourist railroad, this was the real McCoy! As my train pulled into the Station at Hof, I gathered my things together. I found a small Pension to spend the night at. As I tossed and turned in my bed, the sounds of the nearby rail yard kept me awake. I listened as long freights moved through the yard and disappeared in the night. The next morning I dressed and ate quickly. I walked back to the train station and found out that the division Superintendents office was a short walk away. When I entered the office, I was confronted by a clerk asking me what I wanted. I explained that I had come a long way and wanted permission to photograph the steam engines in the yard... I was told, rather bluntly, that, “it is verboten, you can’t go in the yard, it’s too dangerous’. That seemed to be the end of the conversation as far as this surly clerk was concerned. I, however, had not come all this way to be turned away by a nasty clerk. Back at the train station, I sat on a trackside bench and pondered what to do next. A railway policeman came up to me and asked about my camera equipment, and if I was interested in photographing the trains. I told him about my encounter with the railroad clerk. He frowned and told me to follow him. We went into the superintendent’s office and passed the clerks desk without stopping. I gave him a glance and a slight smile. Upstairs, we entered the superintendent’s office. I was introduced and was welcomed with coffee and cake. It seems that he was a big fan of the New York Central Railroad and was delighted to find out that I had come all this way to take photos of his steam engines. We talked about the railroad here and I told him that my grandfather was a machinist for the NYCRR and had worked on the engines that pulled the famous 20th Century Limited. After about a half hour, the head machinist was called and asked to give me a tour and to be allowed to photograph in the train yard. I had a wonderful tour of the roundhouse. After about twenty minutes, I was told that I could take all the photos that I wished and go where I pleased. But I was told, “Remember, this is a working rail yard. ... Be careful”
With that, I was on my own. I spent the day taking photos and talking with the workers in the roundhouse. It was a day that I wouldn’t forget. It seemed that I was transported back in time to another era. All around me, steam prevailed. It could have been Germany in 1930. Not long after my visit, the facility was demolished and the last scheduled steam on German railways vanished forever. Steam power, except for tourist railway and smaller, narrow gauge lines had disappeared from the landscape.
In 1995, I was in Germany again and not far from Hof. I decided to take a look at what had become of the railyard there. It was unrecognizable. The roundhouse and turntable were gone, as was the coaling station and watering towers and ash pits. In place was a modern steel diesel shed. I Left without taking a photograph. Returning had been a mistake. I was comforted, however, with the knowledge that more than twenty years before I had captured images that would endure.
In 1998, after months of discussions with the director of the German Railway Museum in Nuremberg, the museum purchased a number of photographs from my series in Hof. They were some of the last images taken that portrayed the end of the steam era at Hof. I had been in the right place at the right time. Like my friend and mentor, American photographer David Plowden, I was, ‘One step ahead of the wrecking ball’.

A footnote. I continue to photograph railroads. Now that I am retired from the television industry, I have more time to devote to photography. I traveled across Canada by rail on the Canadian Pacific in the 70’s, and recently on Amtrak to Montana. I now have a digital camera but still prefer to shoot black and white and work in a traditional darkroom.

John Fasulo
2005

Hof, West Germany 1974

Hof, West Germany 1974

Hof, West Germany 1974

Hof, West Germany 1974

Fishkill Creek, Beacon, NY 2006

Charlotte Schulz @ Para/site 12.10.05

ParaSite @ The Iron Fish Trading Company Presents:

Charlotte Schulz
Object Lesson: Drawings & Notebooks
Dec 10th - Jan 28th, 2006

Opening Reception Saturday December 10th, 5 - 8pm.
*Music provided by Mr. Roboto.

Please join me for the opening of "Object Lesson: Drawings & Notebooks" by Beacon based artist Charlotte Schulz. On display will be drawings, books, sketchbook pages, photographic references and notebooks the makes evident the complex vocabulary and process that lie behind Schulz beautifully rendered drawings.

Schulz drawings begin with words; seeds of ideas discovered in books and then translated into pictures. From this initial idea, a story develops that weaves these written ideas together with her own thoughts and feelings. Events, memories, transformations, and insights are all set down. Through the careful blending of charcoal and delicate erasure, Schulz knits together diverse images and spaces selected from photographic and art historical references. Evolving into a complex web of vignettes that merge into one another or dissolve into white. A world is created where a plane flies through a room, a sheep stands elevated on a platform, a book gives off vapor, a city lays on a stretched piece of cloth. We view this world as if seen through an inverted telescope-a partial version of the macrocosm on a sheet of paper.

Charlotte Schulz has exhibited her work in a number of galleries and museums including Brooklyn Fireproof gallery, Aljira Center for Contemporary Art, Tampa Museum of Art, The John and Mable Ringling Art Museum, and The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Connecticut. Honors and awards include a New York Foundation for the Arts, Artists Fellowship, a Pollack-Krasner Foundation Fellowship, a State of Florida Individual Artist Fellowship, The Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture and MacDowell Colony residency programs. Charlotte Schulz has a MFA and BFA from the University of South Florida, in Tampa, Florida.

Dec 10: Spire Studios Hosts Benefit Auction & Quarterly Open Studio

Spire Studios: Quarterly Open Studios, Auction and Fund Raiser for Grace Smith House

Saturday, December 10- 7:00pm

Spire Studios - 45 Beekman Street - Beacon, NY 12508 - 845.231.3275

Spire Studios will host a silent auction on Saturday, December 10^th, in conjunction with its well known quarterly open studios, to benefit the Grace Smith House of Poughkeepsie. Benjamin Krevolin, Director of the Dutchess County Arts Council, will serve as host and auctioneer to sell art works donated by local artists. 100% of the proceeds will go to Grace Smith House, Inc., a non-profit organization that provides shelter and social services for victims of domestic violence. Its Executive Director, Judy Lombardi, will be in attendance to introduce visitors to the agency’s benefits.

Bidding for the “small works,” which include both emerging and well known artists from throughout the region, will begin at $50. Photos of works and silent bids can be placed online at www.spirestudios.org.

Spaces for artists interested in donating work to the exhibit are still open. Please contact the studio for more information.

About Grace Smith House - www.gracesmithhouse.org

The mission of Grace Smith House, Inc. is to enable women and their children to live free from domestic violence through:

- Providing shelter and apartments, advocacy, counseling and education;

- Raising the consciousness of the community regarding the extent, type and seriousness of domestic violence; and

- Initiating and taking positions on public policies in order to provide options which empower victims of domestic violence.

About Spire Studios - www.spirestudios.org

Spire Studios is the first artist studio complex devoted to keeping affordable studio space available to artists in the City of Beacon. Now occupying over 8500 square feet on 3 floors the facility has ten studio spaces, two exhibition spaces, a yoga studio and a design studio. Open studios are held quarterly and have become one of Beacon's premier arts events. 17 artists currently occupy the space and work in a wide range of media including painting, sculpture and photography.

Spire Studios offers a number of continuing free events open to the public including, bi-weekly movie screenings, a weekly open house and a monthly critique series.

If you are an artist interested in donating a small piece to this worthy cause, please contact info@nynarts.com or info@maykr.com

Gallery talk at Dia:Beacon, Oct 29 1pm

Please join us this weekend at Dia:Beacon for the latest in our series of free monthly Gallery Talks

Rhea Anastas, Faculty at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, on Fred Sandback

Saturday, October 29, 2005, 1pm

Dia:Beacon
Riggio Galleries
3 Beekman Street
Beacon, New York 12508

Gallery Talks at Dia:Beacon are a series of presentations that take place the last Saturday of every month at 1 pm and are free with admission to the museum. Focused on the work of the artists in Dia's collection, the one-hour presentations are given by curators, art historians, and writers, and take place in museum's galleries. Reservations are suggested. Please call Dia:Beacon at 845-440-0100 ext 44.

Current hours at Dia:Beacon are 11 am to 4 pm, Thursday through Monday (closed Tuesday and Wednesday). The museum is easily reachable via Metro-North Railroad (the MTA's Hudson Line station in Beacon is within walking distance of the museum). Trains leave Grand Central Terminal for Beacon every hour. Full schedules are available on the MTA’s website at http://www.mta.nyc.ny.us/. The museum is also reachable by major roadways. Driving directions are available on Dia's website at http://www.diaart.org/dia/visitor/index.html.

This series is made possible through the generosity of The Dyson Foundation, The Karan-Weiss Foundation, and Jane W. Nuhn Charitable Trust.

A portion of November admissions will be donated to Museums Helping Museums: A National Relief Effort for the Gulf Region.

Opening @ Collaborative Concepts, Oct 15 5-8 pm

Flow: Navigating the Super Paradigm

curated by Karlos Carcamo

October 15^th - Nov 13^th, 2005

Reception: Saturday, October 15^th, 5 – 8pm

*Music by DJ Sleeper

Collaborative Concepts

@ Bulldog Studios

52 Fishkill Ave (Entrance to CC on Verplank Ave.)

Beacon, NY 12508

845.528.1797

Gallery Hours: Thu – Sun, 12 – 5 or by Appt.

Directions: Train – Metro North Hudson River Line to Poughkeepsie, get off at Beacon Stop. 15 minute walk along Main Street to Fishkill Ave, one block north to Verplank Ave. Driving – Route 9D to Beacon, I-84 west to exit 12 (Beacon), I-84 east to exit 11 (Beacon).

Participating Artists Include: Allison Gildersleeve, Elia Gurna, James Sheehan, Charlotte Schulz, Karen Ostrom, Hiroshi Kimura, Eva Lee, Eleanor White, Matt Harle, Deborah Davidovits, Mary Temple, Tricia McLaughlin, Gregory Slick, Mathieu Borysevicz, Susan Magnus, James Walsh, Kazumi Tanaka, Carlos Ancalmo, Quintin Rivera-Toro, Jen Bradford, Christopher Albert, Stephanie Diamond.

“Flow: Navigating the Super Paradigm” is a multi media exhibition consisting of work by 22 contemporary artists using a broad spectrum of work including painting, sculpture, drawing, photography and video. Referencing the term “Super Paradigm” to describe the growing New York art world by Village Voice art critic Jerry Saltz. The exhibition will explore the vast “flow” of ideas and diverse methods contemporary artists use to navigate through this “Super Paradigm”. In the process creating work that is at times self-reflective, and personal while remaining aware o f the issues affecting the world, the nature of their artistic practice, and contemporary art today.

This exhibition is the first in Collaborative Concepts new gallery space located at Bulldog Studios in Beacon, New York. The artists in the exhibition hail from Puerto Rico, Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, Connecticut, Beacon, and other areas of the Hudson Valley.

"Flow: Navigating the Super Paradigm” will be on view at Collaborative Concepts from Oct 15th^h through November 13^th, 2005.