Portsmouth Book and Bar in “Maine Today” magazine

Nice write up in Portland-based Maine magazine.

 

PORTSMOUTH, NH: EXPLORE THIS FUN LITTLE CITY’S BREWERIES, PARKS, SHOPS AND TRY TO MEET EMILIO

Written by: Heather Steeves – staff writer – hsteeves@mainetoday.com

The second I turned 15-and-a-half (legal driving age in New Hampshire), my friends and I went to Portsmouth, the cool place to hang out away from our parents. It’s been a few years since then, but I’m happy to find Portsmouth hasn’t lost its cool factor.

Portsmouth is often compared to Portland — maybe Portland’s cute little sister who really likes indie rock, french toast and Rocky Horror. The two have a lot in common: They both love the ocean, beer and twisty old streets. They’re both historic, walkable and filled with art stores that have to satisfy locals and tourists. Portsmouth has so much that we’re going to have a full guide up soon*. Plus, at only 50 minutes away, Portsmouth is a lot closer to Portlanders than Rockland, Bar Harbor, Bangor and most of the rest of Maine.

You could spend an entire day window-shopping in Portsmouth, and if you go you probably will. Poke around the book stores, cafes, thrift shops (there are lots of them, some with sequined pants, just sayin’), breweries and historic neighborhoods or catch a show/movie at the beautiful Portsmouth Music Hall.

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THE BASICS

DESTINATION: Downtown Portsmouth, NH, about 50 minutes from Portland.
HOW MUCH: $9 for a flight of beer.
WHO: You, probably. Portsmouth is best if you have another reason to go, like if you are already planning to catch a concert.
WHY: It’s close by, quirky and super walkable.
WHEN: Autumn and spring are nice because everything is open, but the tourists have migrated elsewhere.

If you go, here are some places to check out:

collage_booksbeer

BOOK & BAR

Every little city needs that killer coffee-beer-books-wifi combo space. In Portsmouth, it’s Book & Bar.

After some window-shopping in downtown’s Market Square, this is a nice little (air-conditioned/heated – pick your season) respite. You can order a local beer with a grilled cheese (with hot pepper jelly) or coffee and a cookie while perusing the Pollan, Atwood and Nabokov hardcovers in the sale section. A few New Hampshire beers (or ciders) are usually on tap, plus some other New England breweries, lesser-known West Coast brews get a couple taps too.

It can get pretty busy. The cafe doesn’t offer wifi on the weekends to cut down on all those aspiring novelists who might otherwise spend all Saturday morning at the counter with their MacBooks. Darn aspiring novelists.

Book & Bar is at 40 Pleasant St. It’s open every day 9 a.m.-10 p.m., open until midnight on weekends. More info at bookandbar.com.


This is Emilio. He may or may not let you into his yard sale. He probably won't sell you something, according to my experience. But I'm cheap.

SEE IF THE YARD SALE STORE IS OPEN

“Good stuff — not cheap” is an understatement, or overstatement, depending. It’s the sign I saw at about 93 Daniel St. I was headed to get a cappuccino at the German caffe next door (Kaffee Vonsolln — it was great, btw) when I saw Emilio come down his steps and unchain his sign. When I asked if he was open, he began to test me. He pulled out a drawing of a mouse in a white tuxedo with the caption, “Here’s looking at you, kid.”

“What’s this from? This fine drawing with watercoloring?”
“Casablanca.”
“How did you know that? Do you know where the word ‘hearth’ comes from,” he asked.
“No,” I said.
He gave me an etymology lesson.
“Are you open?” I asked.
“No. I have to clean up first. Go get a coffee and then I’ll let you in. You know, in Germany you don’t order the coffee. You buy some chocolate, sit down and begin shaving it. They’ll bring you a cappuccino. You put the chocolate on and (smacked his lips).”

After a cappuccino next door (perhaps not coincidentally, with chocolate shavings), I headed back to find Emilio hadn’t cleaned up (he apologized), but was instead arguing with a customer. No, he would not sell that. No, he can’t do $10 for that.

“She won’t leave me alone,” he told me about another customer who was trying to buy … anything, it seemed. I poked around the Audrey Hepburn mugs, the $150 heavy cast iron dutch oven (one of the only priced items in the store) and the stuffed animals before finding something useful. I snagged a small hand-held panini press (shaped like two scallops) that you might bring camping and a chess grater. I pulled $5 from my pocket and handed Emilio the money.

“Oh no no no,” he said, taking the aluminum (tin?) camping panini press from me. “What do you want to do with this? What do you think this is for?”
“Paninis? Maybe for making eggs when I go camping,” I said.
“This is very old, valuable,” he said, “you put your bread here, then your filling here, then put it over heat,” he said. “I can do it for $15.”
“Sorry,” I said, putting the money back in my pocket.
“Take this for example,” he said, taking a mashed potato hand-masher from a jar near me. “You buy this at Wal-Mart it will cost you $7. But it will break and you’ll need to buy four of them in your life. You buy this one for $15 and you’ll only need one.”
“True,” I said.

He shook my hand, asked my name and said goodbye.

Emilio’s yard sale store doesn’t have a name. I suspect he lives there. I suspect he won’t sell you anything. If you go, bring cash and your Latin books — he’ll appreciate it.

Emilio’s place is near Kaffee Vonsolln (79 Daniel St.), doesn’t have hours, probably doesn’t have a phone, no website and no name.  


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NOW GO TO THE PARK

After all that haggling, how about some serenity? Six minutes (walking) from Emilio’s yard sale store is the ever-pretty Trial Gardens in Prescott Park. The park is green and occasionally has free music (every Wednesday night) or theater (most weekend days) or movies (Monday nights). But it also has wharfs where you can watch the Terns dive (or the teenagers make out, as the case may be).

You’re now near Strawberry Banke (an outdoor living history museum) and State Street, which has a bunch of shops. Pickwick’s Mercantile has gifts like tea, bracelets, cologne, hand-made candles, etc — everything beautifully arranged, right down to the store’s color-coordinated bookshelf, offering a rainbow of spines. There’s also a cupcake shop, a dog boutique, The Red Door Lounge (for a late-night drink and some music every Monday night).

Prescott Park is on Marcy Street. It’s free. All the program listings are available at prescottpark.org.

*Don’t worry, we will have The Friendly Toast in the guide.


MORE MAINE MINI ADVENTURES

Get out of dodge (at least for a little while) with a mini adventure. These excursions can be done in a day – sometimes an afternoon – and will hopefully lead you to places you’ve never been. This is Maine, after all, and we all need some adventuring.

CHECK OUT ALL THE MAINE MINI ADVENTURES


 

 

 

Roger Miller brings Surrealistic game night to Portsmouth Book & Bar

The very word “surreal” is an appropriate summation of guitarist, composer, artist and gamer Roger Clark Miller.

His interests have taken him on a path of existence that would be very hard to make up. From his days as a co-founder of seminal Boston rockers Mission of Burma, to the heady arrangements constructed by the Alloy Orchestra, and all of his musical endeavors in between, Miller knows no artistic bounds. Chase that which calls to you and navigate as best you can. Let the muse be your guide.

When Miller sets foot in Portsmouth Book & Bar on Saturday, May 17, he’ll be continuing to carve out another path he’s ventured down lately: that of the coordinator of his very own surrealistic games night.

The evening also will showcase his DJ skills, as he’ll provide the soundtrack to the night’s events.

If there’s any certainty of what will occur on Saturday, it’s that no matter what preconceived idea one may have in mind as to what may occur, the evening will definitely be out of the ordinary.

SPOTLIGHT: Tell me a bit about the evening you have planned. What inspired you to create this type of event?

MILLER: When I delved into Surrealism in the mid-70s, I found a way to create dream-like settings without the psychedelics, if you know what I mean. My friends and I would play the “Exquisite Corpse” drawing game on a regular basis. I expanded my interest in Surrealism during Mission of Burma (see our first 45, “Max Ernst”), and incorporated imagery and stories from my dreams in the lyrics. As I delved further, I discovered the word games, frottage drawing (using a pencil or other drawing tool to make a rubbing over a textured surface), and my son ended up creating “The Dream Game” for his fifth-grade project in Quincy (Mass.)! This “Dream Game” is played on a board with dice: by following the directions on the board you spontaneously write down a very phantasmagorical/dream-story, and it really works.

So eventually I had a good pile of games that I enjoyed playing with my friends, so why not do it in public? So far I’ve done it at Mass MoCA (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art), Real Art Ways in Hartford, Conn., and the I.C.A. (Institute of Contemporary Art) in Boston. It’s always great fun.

The setting is that everyone sits at a table supplied with paper and drawing/writing tools. I explain the “Exquisite Corpse” drawing game, and people go at it! I stroll the tables explaining the various word games, and explaining the rules to the “Dream Game” and how to utilize frottage drawing to create interesting visual compositions. An extra plus is that everyone at a table quickly gets to know each other as they play the games.

The more you put into it, the more you get out of it. It’s up to the players, really. I love walking by tables and no one is talking, they’re all concentrating on writing words or drawing. Then when the paper is full, they open the paper up and read the surrealist sentences to each other or show the drawings. It’s really a blast, and sometimes astounding results are achieved, all through surrealist activities. Of course, these are the same games the Surrealists played in the ’20s and ’30s in Paris and other places.

SPOTLIGHT: The other element of interest here is the fact that you DJ these events. Tell us a bit about the soundtrack you provide. How does music enhance the overall experience?

MILLER: A very wide variety of music and styles will be included. From rock, there’s Roxy Music and Brian Eno’s early work, some Mission of Burma songs qualify, especially with my use of dreams in lyrics. Both the “Dream Interpretations” from my “Elemental Guitar” CD, and music from some of my other bands: Exquisite Corpse (of course!) and with my brothers Benjamin and Laurence, M2 and M3. Of course John Cage, Steve Reich, and some just abstract sounds. Not all of this music is ‘technically surrealistic,’ but it suits the evening. Often people will come up to me and ask what piece is playing. I like that.

Basically the music is mildly disorienting — helpful for surrealist activities — and encouraging towards the unusual — also helpful for surrealist activities. Often abstract.

SPOTLIGHT: What do you know about the Book & Bar? What excites you about producing this event at the venue?

MILLER: I know (co-founder) Jon Strymish — isn’t that enough? He has taken a number of pretty cool photos of Mission of Burma, the Binary System, and other ensembles I’ve been in. On the CD called “Monsoon” — me; William Hooker and Lee Ranaldo (from Sonic Youth) — most of the photos are by Jon. I like his style. I figure his club would have style as well, based on that. I’ve heard nothing but good stuff about the place, and it seems a great venue for the games. Good size, casual vibe, high-quality beer!

SPOTLIGHT: Do you have any history with Portsmouth, N.H.? Did Mission of Burma ever play the (late) Elvis Room by chance?

MILLER: The Alloy Orchestra has played The Music Hall on a couple of occasions, always fun. I don’t think Burma played Portsmouth, but I can’t always recall where we played way back in the day (1979-1983). It kind of p——- me off that my bands don’t play New Hampshire much, so here’s a chance to change that, even if this ain’t a band …

SPOTLIGHT: What are you looking for people to take with them when they experience an event of this nature? What’s the communal feel?

MILLER: That by working together you can create something totally unexpected. The end result is inherently collective. The Surrealists claimed that the unconscious/subconscious of the players was revealed, and I have found that, to some degree, that is definitely true. I’ve walked by tables where people are discussing why they drew a particular image, based on what was going on in their life. And it’s just plain downright fun in a social fashion. Everyone’s making art, even if they don’t normally do that! What’s the problem with that? Nothin’ but fun.

The Surrealist games inherently produce imagery rubbing up against imagery that wouldn’t normally happen. So one sees connections in things one normally wouldn’t think of. I believe that is useful in day-to-day life, to make life more interesting. The unexpected — it can be marvelous.

SPOTLIGHT: What is the most surreal experience you’ve had while hosting one of these events?

MILLER: For me it’s mostly work! For three hours I don’t stop talking and explaining and listening to people’s word-games or looking at their drawings. Honestly, most of my life it’s about ME creating things. Here, it’s about me supplying the experience to OTHERS, making it easy for them to create. I love it, actually. When I see participants amazed at what they created, or just laughing at them, that makes me totally happy. I love seeing things being created, by myself or others. But I’m usually pretty tired by the end of the three hours! Probably the most surreal part of these events is the dreams I’ll have later that night …

Says the aforementioned Strymish: I’m really excited about this event …; Watching Roger play guitar in Mission of Burma when I was 17 was a life-changing experience, and seeing his integrity and thoughtfulness in everything he’s done since has been an inspiration. So I am stoked to be able to bring this to Portsmouth and see the inspiration go forward.

 

Book and Bar makes “top reasons to visit Portsmouth, NH”

Known for the tax-free shopping, the waterfront views, and the historic sites, the city of Portsmouth sits just 60 miles north of Boston. Nestled near the mouth of the Piscataqua River, it stretches 16.8 square miles. The population is 21,233.

The history: Settled in 1623, Portsmouth prides itself on being the nation’s third oldest city. It served as an epicenter for the rail and sea industries and was a focal point on the Eastern seaboard until the late 1800s. The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (across the river in Maine) was established in 1800 as the country’s first naval shipyard. Today, the region is noted for its beautiful historic charm and many attractions. For example, the USS Albacore Museum is a retired 1953 US Navy submarine, giving visitors a glimpse at life on the water. TheStrawberry Banke Museum is another popular family site. The outdoor museum covers 10 acres and traces Portsmouth’s earliest English settlement’s history through the many historic houses and exhibits.

The shopping: Downtown Portsmouth is lined with cute boutiques and shops.. Walk down Congress Street and circle around the many side streets for a variety of art, antiques, clothing, local goodies, books, fine jewelry, and more. Market Square is located in the center of downtown and is the start of many local walking tours. Visit the galleries, browse the old-fashioned shops, and explore 0ne of the many 17th-century buildings. Tugboat Alley is considered a local tradition, with nautical-themed gifts and collectibles for all ages. The Book and Bar is located in the Old Custom House, offering a relaxed, no-media atmosphere with a wide selection of used books and small cafe. The best part about shopping in Portsmouth? No sales tax.

The Portsmouth waterfront, overlooking the Piscataqua River. Trip Advisor

The harbor: The seaport city overlooks the mouth of the beautiful Piscataqua River, a short, wide river that divides New Hampshire and Maine. Take a guided tour or walk solo along thePortsmouth Harbor Trail. The path passes more than 70 historic and scenic sites and provides a taste of the local charm and culture. Another great way to take in the scenes is by boat. Board one of the daily scheduledPortsmouth Harbor Cruises, narrated tours where guests learn about local wildlife, folklore, and waterway history.

Prescott Park: Established by former resident, Josie F. Prescott, this gorgeous waterfront attraction provides a free and accessible public park to residents and visitors. Stretching along the river from State Street to Mechanic Street, Prescott Parkis over 10 acres of lush flower gardens, walkways, seating, and grass areas designated for recreation. Perfect for a picnic visit. The “formal garden” showcases fountains, tree-lined walkways, a flower wall, and a rose garden. In the summer months, the park is home to the Prescott Park Art Festival, a series of outdoor musical performances, plays, and a juried art show.

The food: Whether you’re in the mood for fine dining or a casual bite, Portsmouth has a ton of tasty options for any foodie. The city is home to dozens of restaurants featuring just about every cuisine imaginable.Lexie’s Joint is a laidback burger joint with a twist, serving up classic burger recipies or a make-your-own burger option. It also has a variety of grilled items and melts. Shio is another popular pick, featuring classic Japanese fare from sushi to Shumai. A great go-to is the Friendly Toast. Located on Congress Street, the family-friendly restaurant serves breakfast all day and a range of tasty and unique sandwiches and main dishes.

 

August shows at Portsmouth Book and Bar

 

Great music coming to Portsmouth book and bar in August.  All shows free of charge.

 

 

August 1st:  Laura Cortese  9:00 pm

Cortese’s rich alto voice colors the Scottish and English traditional songs with very contemporary tonality and phrasing.

 

August 2nd:  Margaret Glaspy and Nick Hakim  9:00 pm

Sultry indie- jazz singer whose music is simple, fascinating, and beautiful. Not to be missed.

 

August 3rd:  Rockwood Ferry  9 pm

Hailing from Ithaca, NY, Rockwood Ferry brilliantly blends roots, jazz, and progressive folk.

 

August 5th:  Noun, Modern Hut, Little Big Bear  9 pm

Two Indie/punk acts from New Jersey NOUN (Marissa from SCREAMING FEMALES) and MODERN HUT along with twee-pop songwriter LITTLE BIG BEAR.

 

August 17th:  Pesky j. Nixon  9 pm

Drawing influences from contemporary urban balladeers, rowdy southern bluegrass, and the sardonic yet wry wit of New England’s localized folk scenes.

 

August 24:  Willie “loco” Alexander & Preacher Jack   9 pm

Punk rock pioneers, boogie woogie balledeers, frontman of the 1960’s proto-punk outfit the Lost, a party that shouldn’t be missed.

 

August 29th:  Kawehi    9 pm

Hawaiian born Songwriter who plays contemporary music with electronic and toy instruments.

 

August 31st:  Animal Hospital  9 pm

Boston-based Animal Hospital consists of Kevin Micka and is based on the idea of building a piece of music up from scratch into a completely fleshed out arrangement often containing enough parts to employ many musicians.

Austin country musician Billy Eli to perform Portsmouth Book and Bar!

FRIDAY, JUNE 21 9:00 p.m. > BILLY ELI

Texas songwriter Billy brings his “country that rocks and rock that’s country” to Book & Bar with his band featuring world class musicians. Comparisons to Billy’s style have been made to Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, and Steve Earle. billyeli.com

 

bookandbar.com

Indy rock legend Ken Stringfellow to perform at Portsmouth Book and Bar

SATURDAY, JULY 6, 9:00 p.m. > KEN STRINGFELLOW

Founding member of The Posies, member of R.E.M for ten years and with Memphis’s Big Star for seventeen years, Ken comes to us from his home in Paris for a night of solo performance from his new record “Danzig in the Moonlight” and beyond. Ken’s shows are legendary, pushing minimalism to its core definition, often performing without using the house PA. His voice soars, cries, leaps from barely audible to room-filling anguish, joy, sorrow and humor. Ken’s live shows have been raved about in packed audiences from Lithuania to Lima, from Taipei to Tasmania, from Johannesburg to Trinidad. kenstringfellow.com

 

bookandbar.com

Ken Stingfellow to play first ever show in Portsmouth, NH.

Mark your calendars for Ken stringfellow coming to Portsmouth Book and Bar on July 6th. I have been a fan of his since the Posies in the 1990s, through his solo stuff and his work with REM, Big Star and others. Should be a great event.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SXxsLdWJ5Q

REdesign: libraries – Speaker Bios for event at Worcester Art Museum, May 3, 2013

Matthias Waschek, PhD, became Director of the Worcester Art Museum in November 2011. Originally from Germany, Dr. Waschek wrote his PhD on French art theory of the end of the 19th-century, which encompasses thinking about the Fine and Decorative Arts, as well as architecture and literature in a globalizing world. Dr. Waschek served as Head of Academic Programs at the Louvre Museum in Paris from 1992 to 2003. His broad range of publications, along with his teaching (Ecole du Louvre, Parson’s School of Art, Sciences Po, Université de La Rochelle, etc.), had one major focus: exploring the relationship between artwork, artists and their public. He was instrumental in enhancing the Louvre’s academic profile by creating a series of international symposia and lectures on art historical and archeological themes.

As Executive Director and Curator of the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts (2003-2011), Dr. Waschek published extensively on 20th Century and Contemporary Art. He shaped the identity of the Foundation as a young and experimental institution with a strong community impact by clarifying its mission “as a laboratory and a sanctuary.” Waschek is widely respected for his innovative programs and exhibitions, as well as his talent for establishing robust strategic partnerships with community stakeholders and businesses. During his successful tenure at the Pulitzer, he built a stable organizational and financial structure to ensure long-term strength and sustainability. In order to raise the Foundation’s institutional profile and impact, he grew the annual operating budget by 52% over six years and increased professional staffing considerably. Throughout his museum career Dr. Waschek has generated numerous collaborations between universities and museums to develop experimental programs, such as a partnership between the Pulitzer Foundation and the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis. Dr. Waschek hopes to make the Museum an urban player in Worcester, strengthening an already existing culture of creativity, innovation and cohesion. His goal is to maximize the Museum’s regional impact, to engage the local community including more than 30,000 college students, and to make the institution organizationally and financially more sustainable for the next chapter of its growth.
Kristin Waters, Ph.D. is Professor of Philosophy at Worcester State University, and a resident scholar at the Brandeis University Women’s Studies Research Center.  Recently she was named the first Presidential Fellow for Art, Education and Community and in this role serves as a liaison between the university and museum facilitating pilot programs to engage WSU students and faculty, and working towards making WAM a university museum. Her recent scholarship reclaims the philosophical work of women and African Americans situating it historically and within contemporary intellectual frameworks.  Her book, Black Women’s Intellectual Traditions: Speaking Their Minds (UPNE 2007), co-edited with Carol B. Conaway was awarded the Letitia Woods Brown Memorial Prize for best anthology from the Association of Black Women Historians.  The 2000 collection, Women and Men Political Theorists: Enlightened Conversations (Wiley) remains one of the few race and gender-inclusive political theory collections.  Her most recent book chapter, “Past as Prologue: Intersectional Analysis in Nineteenth Century Philosophies of Race and Gender” appears in Why Race and Gender Still Matter: An Intersectional Approach, will be published by an imprint of Cambridge University Press in March, 2014.

Kulapat Yantrasast, a native of Thailand, is the co-founder and principal of wHY Architecture which he founded with fellow architect Yo-ichiro Hakomori in 2003 in Los Angeles, and opened with a New York location in the spring of 2012. Newsweek magazine’s recent article on architecture noted wHY Architecture as one of the most innovative architectural practices of the new generation, and their philosophy of integration of creative thinking with timeless design, along with their focus on intelligent and high-quality construction, have gained them a reputation for their architectural works and projects for the arts and culture all over the United States. In 2007, wHY Architecture completed the Grand Rapids Art Museum, which became the first new art museum in the world to receive the LEED certification for environmental design. Current projects include the expansion and renovation of the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky, the oldest and largest art museum in the state, a series of gallery design and collection installations at the Art Institute of Chicago and at the Harvard Art Museums, the Art Bridge at the Great Wall of Los Angeles, and the new Tyler Museum of Art in Texas as well as many residential and commercial projects. Other recent art cultural projects include the new Pomona College Studio Art Hall facility in Claremont, California. Prior to wHY Architecture, Kulapat worked as a close associate with Tadao Ando and served as a project architect on many projects during 1996 – 2003, which includes the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in Texas, the ARMANI / TEATRO in Milan, the projects for the Calder Museum in Philadelphia, the Fondation Francois Pinault in Paris and the project for the Sterling and Francine Clark Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts, that he continues to work on with Tadao Ando. Kulapat graduated with degree in Architecture from Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand, and received his Masters and Ph.D. in Architecture from the University of Tokyo under a scholarship from Japanese Government. He lectures regularly in the US and worldwide, and since 2005 he has served on the Artists’ Committee of American for the Arts, the nation’s oldest organization for the support of the Arts in society. He was also awarded the prestigious Silpathorn Award in 2009 from the Government of Thailand for outstanding achievement and notable contributions to Thai contemporary arts and culture; in doing so he became the first architect to receive the award. In 2012, he was named as one of the 100 Most Powerful People in the Art World in Art+Auction’s annual Power 100 issue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Michael Edson is the Smithsonian Institution’s Director of Web and New Media Strategy. Michael has worked on numerous award-winning projects and has been involved in practically every aspect of technology and New Media for museums. In addition to developing the Smithsonian’s first Web and New Media Strategy, the Smithsonian Commons concept, and the Smithsonian’s multi-award winning Web and New Media Strategy Wiki, Michael helped create the Smithsonian’s first blog, Eye Level, and the first Alternative Reality Game to take place in a museum, Ghosts of a Chance. Michael is an O’Reilly Foo Camp veteran and was named a Tech Titan 2011: person to watch by Washingtonian magazine. Michael has a BA from Wesleyan University. He has worked at the Smithsonian for 20 years.

 

 

 

 

Adam Reed Rozan is the director of Audience Engagement at the Worcester Art Museum in Massachusetts, overseeing education, the studio class program, marketing, design and visitor services. Previously, he was the Audience Development manager at the Oakland Museum of California, and before that, served in various functions at Harvard Art Museums, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Children’s Museum, Boston Public Library and Boston Museum of Science. His expertise is in visitor engagement through online and onsite innovative programming, and in-gallery/exhibition exploration. Rozan is a frequent lecturer and writer on museum engagement and contemporary art, and holds a Master of Liberal Arts degree in Museum Studies from Harvard University Extension School.

 

 

Jeff Goldenson works at the intersection of libraries, technology and fun. He is the designer in the Harvard Library Innovation Lab where he imagines and builds new library projects, from policy to software to experiences.  He’s Co-Teacher, Harvard Graduate School of Design Seminar 09125, The Library Test Kitchen, a workshop where – with the financial support of the Harvard Library – students design and build their own library projects.  Previously, Jeff was an artist-in-residence at EdLab, Teachers College, Columbia University.   He earned a Masters of Science from the MIT Media Lab and a BA in Architecture from Princeton University.

 

Tona J. Hangen is a social and cultural historian of the 19th and 20th century U.S. at Worcester State University in Worcester, MA, where she also serves as the Assistant Director of the Commonwealth Honors Program. She holds a Ph.D. in American Civilization from Brandeis University and a B.S. in Anthropology/Archaeology from MIT. She is the author of Redeeming the Dial: Radio, Religion, and Popular Culture in America (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002) and a contributing author to the recently published Cambridge History of Religion in America and to the Oxford Handbook of Mormonism (in press) and the forthcoming Routledge Companion Volume to Religion and Popular Culture. Her essays on media and religion have appeared in Radio Cultures: The Sound Medium in American Life, edited by Michael Keith, and in Radio Reader: Essays in the Cultural History of Radio, edited by Michele Hilmes and Jason Loviglio. Her research interests include popular culture, media, religion, women’s history, digital humanities, and the pedagogy of history. She has consulted with Teaching American History programs affiliated with the American Antiquarian Society and the Five Colleges consortium in Northampton, MA.

Molly Rubenstein joined the Artisan’s Asylum staff in July of 2011. First working as volunteer Outreach Coordinator and then Director of Operations, she is honored to be serving now as Interim Executive Director. Molly’s professional background is in community organizing, education, and the performing arts — she seeks out systems through which a community of people can explore new things and engage in a common vision. Her previous work with the public policy initiative Workplace Flexibility 2010 strengthened her conviction that there should be other options available for professionals than the standard 9-5 job; she’s excited to help makers and fabricators of all kinds find ways of supporting themselves through their creative work. Molly is a graduate of Yale University with a degree in Linguistics that she likes to find creative uses for in her day-to-day life.

 

 

 

Martha Mahard has more than three decades of professional experience with the Harvard University Libraries, including work in photography and visual collections at the Fine Arts Library, visual resources at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and the Harvard Theatre Collection of The Houghton Library. She has written numerous publications and presentations in the field of photographic archives and visual information. Mahard received her D.A. and M.S. from Simmons GSLIS. She is currently Professor of Practice at the Simmons Graduate School of Library and Information Science.


John Petrovato
has been a bookseller for over 20 years in Massachusetts.  Co-owner of the Montague Book Mill in the 1990 to 2000 and currently owner of Raven Used Books located in Harvard Square in Cambridge (2004) and on Newbury Street in Boston (2009). Also, co-owner of the newly opened Portsmouth Book and Bar in Portsmouth, NH.   The Raven specializes in used scholarly, literary, and art books in excellent condition. Winner of the “Best of Boston” by Boston Magazine (2012) and “Best Used Bookstore” by Boston Phoenix in 2011, each store sells over 5000 books monthly and 2012 was the best year thus far.   The Portsmouth Book and Bar combines used books along with a full restaurant and Bar and books well known regional and national musical acts.