Almost Final Notable essay....

My art practice began in the late 1970's, when social and political causes were front and center and in response, art was very dynamic.   It was the beginning of the aids epidemic and the rise of feminism. Under  the leadership of art historian and critic Lucy Lippard, there was an early call to artists to take a stand against mono-culture, as well as non-utility in the arts. My own practice  quickly developed in this spirit of arts activism.

I was fortunate to have apprenticed with Paul Rutkovsky, who was teaching at the Pair School of Art in Hamden, as well as Southern Connecticut State College.  It was in Paul's studio that my artistic voice developed.  The Hamilton Clockworks building in New Haven housed both his studio and his organization, the Papier Mache Video Institute. This became an important arts community gathering space.

Neither as volunteer or employee of the Arts Council of Greater New Haven did I ever think  myself as contributing to the cultural arts. I was actively engaged in the work that seemed relevant to me and others.We were artists living together in a community that was conflicted about our value.

The greater New Haven art community understood itself as having world class art connected to  its' world class Yale Art Gallery and because of its' proximity to New York City and Boston, where world class artists worked.  We local artists, however, had needs and issues which were specific to living and working in the greater New Haven area. Growing up in the shadow of Yale, with a very clear distinction between those affiliated with the University and those not, is the critical lens with which to view my work. The work reflects the experience of being an outsider in ones' own hometown. This experience was not lost on me or my family, who were native to the area.  It left me with many questions and concerns related to the effects of elitism on local communities.

As I matured, my concerns deepened. I was fortunate to be able to develop an artistic voice, which allowed me to explore these issues. As my art and leadership skills evolved (under the guidance of Arts Council Executive Director Bitsie Clark), I was able to expand and better express my concerns related to the well being of an entire community.

I must stress that I am now able to understand and even talk about these issues, but in its' most active stages, I did not intellectualize the work; I simply did it. It was a passionate cause and I was completely engrossed in learning as much as I could about organizations and collaborative art- making. I was sensitive to my own position as both an insider and an outsider and I was excited about what I believed was possible, if these two communities worked together. Given that reality, it was critical that  the local arts community stand on its' own feet and begin to take responsibility for growing its' own art scene and resources.

The specifics of my accomplishments are documented in the various articles written at the time. They include information about my art and community projects, as well as my job position as PR/Communications Director of the Arts Council of Greater New Haven. I was also the first artist to be hired by the Arts Council, after serving on their Board of Directors.

I affectionately recall that decade as a truly amazing time, which included many meaningful experiences. .As I expressed in my last interview, however, it became clear that it was time to move in a new direction. I left the New Haven community an end in 1994. I consciously chose to explore the midwest,  which seemed and has until recently, proved itself to be more openly committed to the concept of public rather than private. I have had the pleasure of living in a very small rural community as well as the capital of Wisconsin, Madison.  I am now settled  in the very urban and diverse city of Milwaukee. I continue to use and explore my art as tools to organize and expose contemporary issues.  This has become particularly important in the last couple of years, as the political climate changes. 

In 2005, I returned to school. Initially, I was planning to enter a fine arts program, but found that my interest in Art History was persistent.  Slowly, I began to merge my art making with study and found this combination to be most satisfying.

During this time, I also developed a very strong volunteer practice and worked with a gallery in New York on more personal productions.  These digital moving media works required a high degree of technical ability and were created as part of collaborative endeavors. 

In the last year, I have contributed to the creation of an arts collective in the small, western Wisconsin town of Gays Mills,  which has been repeatedly uprooted by floods.

BEVERLY M. RICHEY

8675 North Point Drive

Milwaukee, WI

414 247-0741

bevrichey@gmail.com

Shows/Events /Collaborations

“WINTERESTING/HOLIDAY HAPPENING” Arts Collective of Gays Mills, WI 2012

“DADDIST INVASION OF WEST HAVEN REUNION EVENT”  West Haven, CT 2010

“THE SURVEILLANCE SERIES” Group Show August 2007 exploring The PATRIOT

ACT and it’s effect on American’s civil liberties. Jonathan Shorr Gallery, NYC. July

–August ’07. Indoor/outdoor and flat screen viewing.

“COLORFIELD/REDEFINED” The Human Nature Series;Three minute digitally altered

video abstracting moving imagery related to the color field artists. Projected indoors,

outdoors and on a flat screen monitor. July 2007 (on going) The Jonathan Shorr Gallery.

Crosby Street, NYC.

“GREAT/LAKE/APPEAL” The Human Nature Series The on going gallery projection

and monitor viewing

“DETAINEE” collaboration with David Duckworth, a week long performance project at

the Lab gallery on Lexington and 49th Street. An interactive performance featuring digital

projections. Works used and created from that performance. 2007

‘TORTURE/TRIPTYCH”, “TORTURE/ISLAND”, “SENSELESS”,

TOURTURE/TEXT” Jan 29-February 2007

“SEVEN/ELEVEN” a collaborative event hosting an election evening art event including

artists John Landino, David Duckworth and others.

“TORTURE/TRIPTYCH” projection as part of a one time gallery event

“REFLECTION/PROJECTION” July 15, 2007 an indoor and outdoor projection working

in collaboration with John Landino, David Duckworth and others.

“DIGITAL DECORATING” projecting by Jonathan Shorr, through a glass window

creating a double image.

“TWIST AND SHOUT” experimental projecting by Jonathan Shorr; indoor/outdoor

projection focused on creating a sculptural effect projecting onto people inside and

outside the gallery

“Popping Pixels”, national juried show New Haven CT 2005 (still available on line)

“Jew-SEE-Fruit” (commission Beth Israel Center), Madison, WI January, 2001

“The Pink Sea”Pro Choice Rally, (commission Planned Parenthood, private donors)

Hartford CT, State Capital.

“Let them eat GLACIER”, edible work and interactive quiz, commission for Creative

Arts Workshop

“The Amazing Bureaucratic Birthday Cake” New Haven’s 350th Celebration,

(commission City of New Haven). 1989

“The Profedible HART” Women in the Arts Exhibition, (juried by Lucy Lippard) Erector

Square Gallery, New Haven, CT 1989

“The Tri-Edible” cake in three places at once supported by the Arts Council of Greater

New Haven.

“Waste ‘M Brace”, Solo Show, John Slade Ely House, New Haven, CT 1987

“Underground Breaking” Audubon Arts Center, New Haven, CT 1986

“Buy and Sell” PMVI three person show with Paul Rutkovsky and Jack Harriett. The

John Slade Ely House, New Haven, CT, 1984

Performances/Installations/Public Actions

“FACETIME imake icontact” A two month long performance work committed to taking time to provide conversation and eye contact with visitors @ Gays Mills Arts Collective 2012

“RECALLISM” A virtual local/regional/national and international social intervention addressing the political uprising in Wisconsin 2011-2012

“Howard Aiken/A Tribute”, EAGLE School, Madison, WI 2003

“Telling the Truth/Tribute to Bitsie Clark” Audubon Arts Center, New Haven. 2002

“The Pink Sea”Pro Choice Rally, (commission Planned Parenthood, private donors)

Hartford CT, State Capital.

“Phassion Show” a collaborative project commissioned by WTNH, New Haven, CT

“Packaged Plastic”Building Building Wrap on State Street. A John Landino production;

New Haven, CT 1986

“Transformer” Connecticut Lawyers for the Arts Conference, New Haven, CT 1986

“Locate Local” Edible installation, developing a relation a relationship between the

University and the New Haven Community. Yale University, New Haven, CT 1986

“Art and Technology Symposium” an edible work exploring photo copy technology.

Connecticut College, New London, CT 1986

“The Changing Face of Liberty”, edible work exploring women’s relationship to money.

Women’s Caucus for Art, City College, NYC 1986

“The Profedible Hart” an interactive work involving individual partiscipants to make a

choice between love and money and be seen eating it. A theatre production or Amy

Seham’s; Edible Performance/Installation, Black Box, Educational Center for The Arts,

1986

“PAID CAKE” The Building-Wrap, A John Landino production; Gateway Center, New

Haven CT 1985

“Eat Mummy” The Dead Show, Director Jeff Burnett, Educational Center For the Arts,

New Haven, CT 1985

“Tri-Edible” City Wide Studio Tour, Sponsored by the Arts Council of Greater New

Haven CT 1985

“Find Sold Out”, A “streetwork” addressing consumerism in conjuction with Artist’s

Working in New Haven. New Haven, CT 1984

“Touch The Blue” A “street work” addressing the relationship between Yale University

and the city of New Haven. CT. 1984

“Eat Audubon Street” Arts Council Awards Ceremony, Long Wharf 1984

“Famous Cookie” A work addressing National verses Local Artists. Park of the Arts,

Sponsored by Arts Council of Greater New Haven, CT,(public performance) 1983

“TRIDENT” Let them Eat Cake Series serving free cake to passers by. streetwork, New

Haven, CT 1983

Group Shows

“Holiday Happening” Gays Mills Arts Collective, Gays Mills , WI 2012

University of Wisconsin Milwaukee juried exhibition, Milwaukee, WI 2010

“Women’s Caucus For Art Show” UConn at Waterbury, CT 1983

“Spring Cleaning Women’s Caucus for Art Show” New Haven, CT 1983

“Graphite Works on Paper” PMVI Exhibition, New Haven, CT 1981

Experimental Digital Projects:

“The Vulnerability Project” a two year long daily commitment to send online, words, images and short videos. with artists John Landino and Tim Feresten.

“Mundanity and Chaos”, an awareness and irregular communication project. 2003-2004

“TypingMyTruth”, An unedited text project, typing three thousand words a day.

“AvirtualNonproductiveCollaboration” 2003-2006

“A HUNDRED HOURS” of volunteer time, community service (EAGLE SCHOOL/Madison, Wi. 2003-2004

“S.A.R.A.H” sending digital photos through email on a regular schedule. 2001-2002

Personal Projects:

“The Aging Project”, examing the aging process through caring for and preparing my

mother for her death 1996-1999.

“Mother-Wife-DaughterHood” paying attention, Gays Mills, WI 1996-1999

“Daily Trash” observing trash output, Gays Mills, WI 1993-1996

“Big Time” Exploring time through inactivity and silence in an isolated rural

environment. Gays Mills, WI1993-1996

“Not All Time is Equal” Exploring time in small increments with the use of an

electronic timer. 1992-1997

“Becoming Nobody” Exploring not being in the public eye, entering the mundanity and

isolation of domestic life. 1993-1995

“Heats and Souls” observing the development of my young children through still images

and video and witnessing their individual differences in a uninterrupted and isolated

natural environment. 1993-1995

“Dis-membered Family” cutting up family photos and reassembling them. 1990-1994

New Haven Ct,-Highland WI.

Education/Enrichment

University of Wisconsin/Milwaukee Art History Department graduate studies 2008-2010

Miad Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, a week long intensive program, in digital

and sculptural integration, graduate credit Marquette University 2007

University of Connecticut Bachlor’s degree in Psycholoy 2007

Conference on “Contemporary Issues in Jewish Art” University of Wisconsin Madison

Art History 101, and 102 college credit University of Wisconsin, Madison 2005-6

Dark Room Photography, college credit class Madison 2007

Painting, Drawing and Digital Video, 3 non credited classes Madison Wis 2000-1

Drawing college level drawing class Southern Connecticut State University 1978

Color and Design college level design Intro, class Broward Community College 1977

Leadership Greater New Haven 1986-1987

Art Apprenticeship at Papier Mache Video Institute with Paul Rutkovsky1977-1982

Leadership in the Arts

Founding member of Gays Mills Arts Collective 2012

Co Founder and Co Director of Women in the Arts. 1984-1990

Communications Director for the Arts Council of Greater New Haven 1984-1989

Board Member of the Arts Council of Greater New Haven.

Founder of the “Small Space Gallery” a non juried gallery available to artist members

funded by the Arts Council of Greater New Haven 1986

Artist’s Apprentice for Paul Rutkovsky (Professor of Art FSU) 1978-1983

Co-Director with Paul Rutkovsky , founder of Papier Mache Video Institute (P.M.V.I.)

1984-1989

PMVI Productions

“Phassion” Arts of March, W.T. Grants Building New Haven, Ct 03/85 1985

“First Show of 1984” Hamilton Clockworks Building, New Haven, CT 1983

“Group Show of Things that Don’t Go Together” Hamilton Clockworks Building, New

Haven, CT 1982

Articles

“The National Let Them Eat Cake Sale” New Haven Advocate, 1983

“Art Exhibit Studies Roots of Feminism” New Haven Journal Courier, May 12, 1983

“Artists Ban Together for Survival” Art New England, 1983

“Artists Interpret 1984” New Haven Journal Courier, Nov 4, 1983

“1984” New Haven Advocate, Nov 23, 1983

“Buy and Sell” New York Times, CT Section Jan. 8, 1983

“Shoppers War is focus of City Art Exhibit” New Haven Journal Courier Jan, 20, 1984

“At the Ely: Three Architects and a Caustic Commentary” Record Journal, Meriden CT

Jan 14, 1984

“Buy and Sell”Art New England, 1984

“Creative PR” New Haven Advocate, 1984

“Artist turns stored ideas into Parcel of Paintings” New Haven Register, Jan 22, 1985

“Spring Cleaning” Women’s Caucus for Art Show, New Haven, CT May 1983

“Artist’s Waste Worth the Haste” New Haven Independent, February 19, 1987

“Pick through Ely House Trash” New Haven Register, February 17, 1987

“Artist Uses Waste In a Creative Way” UConn Daily Campus, Storrs, CT 1987

“Local Artist Shows Junk in Gallery” Yale Daily News, New Haven, Feb 17, 1987

“Through a Women’s Eyes” The Hartford Courant, March 4 1988

“No ‘Just’ Desserts on this Birthday Cake” New Haven Register, June 6, 1988

“Cake By Committee”, New Haven Register, June 1998

“The Amazing Birthday Cake” New Haven Arts, Arts Council, June 1998

“Amazing Bureaucratic Cake Served in New Haven” The State of the Arts, Connecticut

Commission for the Arts, June 1988.

Other Media Coverage

USA today, listing for “Amazing Bureaucratic Birthday Cake”

NBC coverage/ Forrest Sawyer “The Pink Sea”

CT Public Radio/ Faith Middleton “Amazing Bureaucratic Birthday Cake”

BEVERLY M. RICHEY

8531 N Regent Rd

Milwaukee, WI

414 247-0741

beverlyrichey@earthlink.net

Shows/Events /Collaborations

ÒTHE SURVEILLANCE SERIESÓ Group Show August 2007 exploring The PATRIOT

ACT and itÕs effect on AmericanÕs civil liberties. Jonathan Shorr Gallery, NYC. July

ÐAugust Õ07. Indoor/outdoor and flat screen viewing.

ÒCOLORFIELD/REDEFINEDÓ The Human Nature Series;Three minute digitally altered

video abstracting moving imagery related to the color field artists. Projected indoors,

outdoors and on a flat screen monitor. July 2007 (on going) The Jonathan Shorr Gallery.

Crosby Street, NYC.

ÒGREAT/LAKE/APPEALÓ The Human Nature Series The on going gallery projection

and monitor viewing

ÒDETAINEEÓ collaboration with David Duckworth, a week long performance project at

the Lab gallery on Lexington and 49th Street. An interactive performance featuring digital

projections. Works used and created fro that performance include

ÔTORTURE/TRIPTYCHÓ, ÒTORTURE/ISLANDÓ, ÒSENSELESSÓ,

TOURTURE/TEXTÓ Jan 29-February 2007

ÒSEVEN/ELEVENÓ a collaborative event hosting an election evening art event including

artists John Landino, David Duckworth and others.

ÒTORTURE/TRIPTYCHÓ projection as part of a one time gallery event

ÒREFLECTION/PROJECTIONÓ July 15, 2007 an indoor and outdoor projection working

in collaboration with John Landino, David Duckworth and others.

ÒDIGITAL DECORATINGÓ projecting by Jonathan Shorr, through a glass window

creating a double image.

ÒTWIST AND SHOUTÓ experimental projecting by Jonathan Shorr; indoor/outdoor

projection focused on creating a sculptural effect projecting onto people inside and

outside the gallery

ÒPixel PopsÓ, national juried show New Haven CT 2005 (still available on line)

ÒJew-SEE-FruitÓ (commission Beth Israel Center), Madison, WI January, 2001

ÒThe Pink SeaÓPro Choice Rally, (commission Planned Parenthood, private donors)

Hartford CT, State Capital.

ÒLet them eat GLACIERÓ, edible work and interactive quiz, commission for Creative

Arts Workshop

ÒThe Amazing Bureaucratic Birthday CakeÓ New HavenÕs 350th Celebration,

(commission City of New Haven). 1998

ÒThe Profedible HARTÓ Women in the Arts Exhibition, (juried by Lucy Lippard) Erector

Square Gallery, New Haven, CT 1988

ÒThe Tri-EdibleÓ cake in three places at once supported by the Arts Council of Greater

New Haven.

ÒUnderground BreakingÓ Audubon Arts Center, New Haven, CT 1986

ÒBuy and SellÓ PMVI three person show with Paul Rutkovsky and Jack Harriett. The

John Slade Ely House, New Haven, CT, 1984

ÒWaste ÔM BraceÓ, Solo Show, John Slade Ely House, New Haven, CT 1987

Performances/Installations/Public Actions

ÒHoward Aiken/A TributeÓ, EAGLE School, Madison, WI 2003

ÒTelling the Truth/Tribute to Bitsie ClarkÓ Audubon Arts Center, New Haven. 2002

ÒPink SeaÓ

ÒPackaged PlasticÓBuilding Building Wrap on State Street. A John Landino production;

New Haven, CT 1986

ÒTransformerÓ Connecticut Lawyers for the Arts Conference, New Haven, CT 1986

ÒLocate LocaleÓ Edible installation, developing a relation a relationship between the

University and the New Haven Community. Yale University, New Haven, CT 1986

ÒArt and Technology SymposiumÓ an edible work exploring photo copy technology.

Connecticut College, New London, CT 1986

ÒThe Changing Face of LibertyÓ, edible work exploring womenÕs relationship to money.

WomenÕs Caucus for Art, City College, NYC 1986

ÒThe Profedible HartÓ an interactive work involving individual partiscipants to make a

choice between love and money and be seen eating it. A theatre production or Amy

SehamÕs; Edible Performance/Installation, Black Box, Educational Center for The Arts,

1986

ÒPAID CAKEÓ The Building-Wrap, A John Landino production; Gateway Center, New

Haven CT 1985

ÒEat MummyÓ The Dead Show, Director Jeff Burnett, Educational Center For the Arts,

New Haven, CT 1985

ÒTri-EdibleÓ City Wide Studio Tour, Sponsored by the Arts Council of Greater New

Haven CT 1985

ÒFind Sold OutÓ, A ÒstreetworkÓ addressing consumerism in conjuction with ArtistÕs

Working in New Haven. New Haven, CT 1984

ÒTouch The BlueÓ A Òstreet workÓ addressing the relationship between Yale University

and the city of New Haven. CT. 1984

ÒEat Audubon StreetÓ Arts Council Awards Ceremony, Long Wharf 1984

ÒFamous CookieÓ A work addressing National verses Local Artists. Park of the Arts,

Sponsored by Arts Council of Greater New Haven, CT,(public performance) 1983

ÒTRIDENTÓ Let them Eat Cake Series serving free cake to passers by. streetwork, New

Haven, CT 1983

Group Shows

ÒWomenÕs Caucus For Art ShowÓ UConn at Waterbury, CT 1983

ÒSpring Cleaning WomenÕs Caucus for Art ShowÓ New Haven, CT 1983

ÒGraphite Works on PaperÓ PMVI Exhibition, New Haven, CT 1981

Bodies of DigitalWork:

ÒDeveloping Intimacy and Support through HonestyÓ a daily commitment to send on

line, words, images and short videos. with John Landino and Tim Feresten.

ÒMundanity and ChaosÓ, an awareness and irregular communication project. 2003-2004

ÒTypingMyTruthÓ, An unedited text project, typing three thousand words a day.

ÒAvirtualNonproductiveCollaborationÓ 2003-2006

ÒA HUNDRED HOURSÓ of volunteer time, community service. 2003-2004

ÒS.A.R.A.HÓ sending digital photos through email on a regular schedule. 2001-2002

Private Projects:

ÒThe Aging ProjectÓ, examing the aging process through caring for and preparing my

mother for her death 1996-1999.

ÒMother-Wife-DaughterHoodÓ paying attention, Gays Mills, WI 1996-1999

ÒDaily TrashÓ observing trash output, Gays Mills, WI 1993-1996

ÒBig TimeÓ Exploring time through inactivity and silence in an isolated rural

environment. Gays Mills, WI1993-1996

ÒNot All Time is EqualÓ Exploring time in small increments with the use of an

electronic timer. 1992-1997

ÒBecoming NobodyÓ Exploring not being in the public eye, entering the mundanity and

isolation of domestic life. 1993-1995

ÒHeats and SoulsÓ observing the development of my young children through still images

and video and witnessing their individual differences in a uninterrupted and isolated

natural environment. 1993-1995

ÒDis-membered FamilyÓ cutting up family photos and reassembling them. 1990-1994

New Haven Ct,-Highland WI.

Education/Enrichment

Miad Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, a week long intensive program, in digital

and sculptural integration, graduate credit Marquette University 2007

University of Connecticut BachlorÕs degree in Psycholoy 2007

Conference on ÒContemporary Issues in Jewish ArtÓ University of Wisconsin Madison

Art History 101, and 102 college credit University of Wisconsin, Madison 2005-6

Dark Room Photography, college credit class Madison 2007

Painting, Drawing and Digital Video, 3 non credited classes Madison Wis 2000-1

Drawing college level drawing class Southern Connecticut State University 1978

Color and Design college level design Intro, class Broward Community College 1977

Leadership Greater New Haven 1986-1987

Art Apprenticeship at Papier Mache Video Institute with Paul Rutkovsky1977-1982

Leadership in the Arts

Co Founder and Co Director of Women in the Arts. 1984-1990

Communications Director for the Arts Council of Greater New Haven 1984-1989

Board Member of the Arts Council of Greater New Haven.

Founder of the ÒSmall Space GalleryÓ a non juried gallery available to artist members

funded by the Arts Council of Greater New Haven 1986

ArtistÕs Apprentice for Paul Rutkovsky (Professor of Art FSU) 1978-1983

Co-Director with Paul Rutkovsky , founder of Papier Mache Video Institute (P.M.V.I.)

1984-1989

PMVI Productions

ÒPhassionÓ Arts of March, W.T. Grants Building New Haven, Ct 03/85 1985

ÒFirst Show of 1984Ó Hamilton Clockworks Building, New Haven, CT 1983

ÒGroup Show of Things that DonÕt Go TogetherÓ Hamilton Clockworks Building, New

Haven, CT 1982

Articles

ÒThe National Let Them Eat Cake SaleÓ New Haven Advocate, 1983

ÒArt Exhibit Studies Roots of FeminismÓ New Haven Journal Courier, May 12, 1983

ÒArtists Ban Together for SurvivalÓ Art New England, 1983

ÒArtists Interpret 1984Ó New Haven Journal Courier, Nov 4, 1983

Ò1984Ó New Haven Advocate, Nov 23, 1983

ÒBuy and SellÓ New York Times, CT Section Jan. 8, 1983

ÒShoppers War is focus of City Art ExhibitÓ New Haven Journal Courier Jan, 20, 1984

ÒAt the Ely: Three Architects and a Caustic CommentaryÓ Record Journal, Meriden CT

Jan 14, 1984

ÒBuy and SellÓArt New England, 1984

ÒCreative PRÓ New Haven Advocate, 1984

ÒArtist turns stored ideas into Parcel of PaintingsÓ New Haven Register, Jan 22, 1985

ÒSpring CleaningÓ WomenÕs Caucus for Art Show, New Haven, CT May 1983

ÒArtistÕs Waste Worth the HasteÓ New Haven Independent, February 19, 1987

ÒPick through Ely House TrashÓ New Haven Register, February 17, 1987

ÒArtist Uses Waste In a Creative WayÓ UConn Daily Campus, Storrs, CT 1987

ÒLocal Artist Shows Junk in GalleryÓ Yale Daily News, New Haven, Feb 17, 1987

ÒThrough a WomenÕs EyesÓ The Hartford Courant, March 4 1988

ÒNo ÔJustÕ Desserts on this Birthday CakeÓ New Haven Register, June 6, 1988

ÒCake By CommitteeÓ, New Haven Register, June 1998

ÒThe Amazing Birthday CakeÓ New Haven Arts, Arts Council, June 1998

ÒAmazing Bureaucratic Cake Served in New HavenÓ The State of the Arts, Connecticut

Commission for the Arts, June 1988.

Other Media Coverage

USA today, listing for ÒAmazing Bureaucratic Birthday CakeÓ

NBC coverage/ Forrest Sawyer ÒThe Pink SeaÓ

CT Public Radio/ Faith Middleton ÒAmazing Bureaucratic Birthday CakeÓ

ARTISTS BIO/ BEVERLY M. RICHEY

BEVERLY M. RICHEY

2801 Coventry Trail #16

Madison, Wisconsin, USA

608 278-0221

beverlyrichey@earthlink.net

Education/Enrichment

Leadership Greater New Haven 1986-1987 

Art Apprenticeship at Papier Mache Video Institute with Paul Rutkovsky1977-1982 

 

Leadership in the Arts

Co Founder and Co Director of Women in the Arts. 1977-1982

Communications Director for the Arts Council of Greater New Haven 1984-1989 

Co-Director of Papier Mache Video Institute (P.M.V.I.) 1984-1989 

PMVI Productions

“Phassion” Arts of March, W.T. Grants Building New Haven, Ct 03/85 1985

“First Show of 1984” Hamilton Clockworks Building, New Haven, CT 1983

 “Group Show of Things that Don’t Go Together” Hamilton Clockworks Building, New Haven, CT 1982

Shows/Events/Commissions

“Jew-SEE-Fruit” (commission Beth Israel Center), Madison, WI  January, 2001

“The Pink Sea”Pro Choice Rally, (commission Planned Parenthood) Hartford CT, State Capital.

 “The Amazing Bureaucratic Birthday Cake” New Haven’s 350^th Celebration, (commission City of New Haven). 1998

“The Profedible HART” Women in the Arts Exhibition, (juried by Lucy Lippard) Erector Square Gallery, New Haven, CT 1988

“Underground Breaking” Audubon Arts Center, New Haven, CT 1986

“Buy and Sell” PMVI three person show with Paul Rutkovsky and Jack Harriett. The John Slade Ely House, New Haven, CT, 1984

“Waste ‘M Brace”, John Slade Ely House, New Haven, CT 1987

 

Performances/Installations/Public Actions

“Howard Aiken/A Tribute”, EAGLE School, Madison, WI 2003

“Telling the Truth/Tribute to Bitsie Clark” Audubon Arts Center, New Haven. 2002

“Packaged Plastic”Building Building Wrap on State Street. New Haven, CT 1986

“Transformer” Connecticut Lawyers for the Arts Conference, New Haven, CT 1986

“Locate Locale” Edible installation, Yale University, New Haven, CT 1986

“Art and Technology Symposium” Connecticut College, New London, CT 1986

“The Changing Face of Liberty”, Women’s Caucus for Art, City College, NYC 1986

“The Profedible Hart” Edible Performance/Installation, Black Box, Educational Center for The Arts, 1986

“PAID CAKE” The Building-Wrap, Gateway Center, New Haven CT 1985

“Eat Mummy” The Dead Show, Educational Center For the Arts, New Haven, CT 1985

 “Tri-Edible” City Wide Studio Tour, New Haven CT 1985

“Find Sold Out”, Street work, New Haven, CT 1984

“Touch The Blue” Public Work  New Haven, CT. 1984

“Eat Audubon Street” Arts Council Awards Ceremony, Long Wharf 1984

“Famous Cookie” Park of the Arts, New Haven, CT,(public performance) 1983

 “Let them Eat Cake”Streetwork, New Haven, CT 1983

Group Shows

“Women’s Caucus For Art Show” UConn at Waterbury, CT 1983

“Spring Cleaning Women’s Caucus for Art Show” New Haven, CT 1983

“Graphite Works on Paper” PMVI Exhibition, New Haven, CT 1981

Recent Bodies of Digital Work:

“Mundanity and Chaos”, an awareness and irregular communication project. 2003-2004

“TypingMyTruth”, An unedited text project, typing three thousand words a day.

“AvirtualNonproductiveCollaboration” 2003-2006

“A HUNDRED HOURS” of volunteer time, community service. 2003-2004

“S.A.R.A.H” sending digital photos through email on a regular schedule. 2001-2002 

Conceptual Projects:

“MotherWifeDaughterHood” paying attention, Gays Mills, WI 1996-1999

 “Daily Trash” observing trash output, Gays Mills, WI 1993-1996

 “Big Time” Exploring time through inactivity and silence. Gays Mills, WI1993-1996

 “Not All Time is Equal” Exploring time in small increments. 1992-1997 

 “Becoming Nobody” 1993-1995

 “Dis-membered Family” cutting up family photos. 1990-1994

 

Articles

“The National Let Them Eat Cake Sale” New Haven Advocate, 1983

“Art Exhibit Studies Roots of Feminism” New Haven Journal Courier, May 12, 1983

“Artists Ban Together for Survival” Art New England, 1983

“Artists Interpret 1984” New Haven Journal Courier, Nov 4, 1983

“1984” New Haven Advocate, Nov 23, 1983

“Buy and Sell” New York Times, CT Section Jan. 8, 1983

“Shoppers War is focus of City Art Exhibit” New Haven Journal Courier Jan, 20, 1984

“At the Ely: Three Architects and a Caustic Commentary” Record Journal, Meriden CT Jan 14, 1984

“Buy and Sell”Art New England, 1984

“Creative PR” New Haven Advocate, 1984

“Artist turns stored ideas into Parcel of Paintings” New Haven Register, Jan 22, 1985

“Spring Cleaning” Women’s Caucus for Art Show, New Haven, CT May 1983

“Artist’s Waste Worth the Haste” New Haven Independent, February 19, 1987

“Pick through Ely House Trash” New Haven Register, February 17, 1987

“Artist Uses Waste In a Creative Way” UConn Daily Campus, Storrs, CT 1987

“Local Artist Shows Junk in Gallery” Yale Daily News, New Haven, Feb 17, 1987

“Through a Women’s Eyes” The Hartford Courant, March 4 1988

“No ‘Just’ Desserts on this Birthday Cake” New Haven Register, June 6^, 1988

“Cake By Committee”, New Haven Register, June 1998

“The Amazing Birthday” New Haven Arts,  Arts Council, June 1998

“Amazing Burecratic Cake Served in New Haven” The State of the Arts, Connecticut Commission for the Arts, June 1988. 

Questionnaire: From Hamden Arts Commission....

Questionnaire: From Hamden Arts Commission.....

Questionnaire:

Address:

Occupation:

Role in or related contribution to the cultural arts in general:

Specific contribution(s) or support of the cultural arts in Hamden:

What do you regard as your most significant contribution to the arts?

Is there someone else you would like to nominate who has contributed to the cultural arts in Hamden or who is from Hamden and has done so elsewhere? Please provide contact information if possible.

Address:
Beverly Richey
8675 North Point Drive
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
53217

Occupation:

Independent Artist/Organizer

The only question I have for you is what do you consider your greatest accomplishment/contribution to the cultural arts?

Role in or related contribution to the cultural arts in general:

My art practice began in the late 1970's and quickly developed in the direction of art activism. It was a very dynamic time in the arts when causes were front and center in this country. It was the beginning of the aids epidemic, the rise of feminism and in general a time when under the leadership of art historian and critic Lucy Lippard, there was a call to artists to take a stand against mono culture as well as non-utility in the arts.

I was fortunate to apprentice in the studio of Paul Rutkovsky who was teaching art at Pair School of Art in Hamden and Southern Connecticut College at the time.  It was there my true sense of myself as an artist began developing. His studio and organization were in the Hamilton Clockworks building in New Haven and it became an important  gathering spot for art events organized by Papier Mache Video Institute.

I never thought of myself as contributing to the cultural arts during any of my time as either a volunteer or as an employee of the Arts Council of Greater New Haven. I was actively engaged in the work that seemed relevant to me and others I was interacting with at the time. We were artists living in a community that was conflicted about our value. 

The greater New Haven Art community understood itself as having world class art connected to it's world class Yale Art Gallery and it's location to New York City (it saw it's art center as NYC). It was also a community that was very close to New York City and Boston and felt that that was where the quality artists were. We (local artists some affiliated (graduates or spouses) with Yale University and others who were not) were here and we had needs and issues which were specific to living and working as artists in the greater New Haven area.  

Growing up in the shadow of Yale University with a very clear distinction between those affilated and those not otherwise known as the town/gown us and them distiction is the critical lens to view my work. The work reflects the experience of being an outsider in one's own hometown (Hamden). This experience was not lost on me or my family who were native to the area left me with many questions and concerns related to the effects of elitism on local communities. 

I experienced it growing up and as I matured my concerns deepened. I was fortunate to be able to develop an artistic voice which allowed me to explore these issues in a wide variety of ways. As my art and leadership skills evolved (under the guidance of Arts Council Executive Director Bitsie Clark) I was able to expand and better express my concerns about the well being of the general community. 

I must stress that I am now able to understand and even talk about these issues but in the most active stages of this work I did not intellectualize the work. I simply did it. It was a passionate cause and I was completely engrossed in learning as much as I could about organizations and collaborative art making processes. I was sensitive to my own position as both an insider and an outsider and I was excited about what I believed was possible if the two communities worked together. 

Given that reality I understood that it was critical that the LOCAL ARTS COMMUNITY stand on its own feet and start to take responsibility for growing its own local community scene and resources. 

The specifics of my accomplishments are mostly documented in the various articles written at that time about my art projects, community projects and my job as PR/Communications director at the Arts Council of Greater New Haven. I was also the first artist to be hired by the Arts Council of Greater New Haven after serving on their Board of Directors. 

I recall that decade with enormous affection. It was a truly amazing time with some of the most meaningful experiences of my life. My successes were tremendous and satisfactions great. It was necessary as I express in my last interview to move in a new direction. 

My time in the New Haven community came to an end in 1994. In the last 19 years I have been a resident of the state of Wisconsin. I chose the midwest as a way to explore another region of this country. I became interested in a region that was more openly committed to the concept of public rather than private. I have had the pleasure of living in a very small rural community, Madison, Wi and now I reside in the very Urban and diverse city of Milwaukee. I have maintained my connections to each of these communities and have enjoyed my life as a midwesterner. 

I have continued to use and explore my art as tools to organize and inform others about issues that seemed relevant. This has been of particular importance in the last couple of years when the entire political situation became quite serious. 

In the interim I developed a very strong volunteer practice as well as working in more personal art productions with a gallery in NYC. These digital moving media works were created as part of collaborative endeavors and required a high degree of technical ability. 

In 2005 I had the opportunity to return to school. Initially I was planning to enter a fine arts program... I found that my interest in the study of Art History was persistant. I slowly began to merge my art making with studying and found that it was this combination to be of maximum satisfaction. 

In the last year I have added my effort to help build an arts collective gallery in a small town in the western part of the state which has repeatedly been uprooted by flooding. 

 I was responsible for changing my job title once I was hired at the Arts Council. I was the first artist that the arts council every hired. I served as a board member for over a year before being hired on staff. 

Once I was in the office... I changed my job title and description from PR Director to communications director. I understood the value of the calendar that the Arts Council was producing and sending out by mail to its members (at that time a little over a thousand). We developed a communications department and worked to move the publication from a one sided calendar (which members hung on their refrigerator) to what you all recognize now as the New Haven Arts paper. 

These changes took place in steps and the first ones were the adding of photos of arts events on the calendar to make it more interesting to look at and to better promote the activities that artists and organizations were creating. This was the first big step. We then started to create a monthly newsletter which was separate but it demonstrated the need to have a way to include more information about the variety of people and events taking place in the community. 

It was shortly after that I was sent to Apple headquaters in Cupertino Valley for several days of training on their new technology. Each participant was sent back to their non profit organization with a free Apple Computer System and it's revolutionary desktop publishing software.

The Arts Council of Greater New Haven as far as I know what one of the first if not the first office in the city to be doing it's own in house type setting. With the money we saved on typesetting costs we moved forward to increase the number of  calendars produced monthly and started to distribute them freely to the public. 

In time were were able to develop the advertising revenue to expand the actual publication to include articles and to get more and more of them out to the community. This all began while I was director of communications, however I could never have done it without some of the amazing people who worked in the department during that time. I would be extremely remiss if I did not mention the heroic efforts of Lydia Bornick, Rebecca Stevens, Mimsie Coleman, and Tom Augst. The communications department also had an outstandingly supportive committee consisting of Photographer Tim Feresten and Rick ?. It was an exciting time and we were a bustling little office in the basement of the foundry building on Whitney Avenue. We were part of a time and place with a new executive director about to launch her second life as a leader in the arts. For those of us who were there at that time... we all learned a tremendous amount from Bitise Clark.

There are many things which I did alone and with others that created a strong sense that OUR little local community could. We were living in the shadows of a major world class university and we needed to step more fully up and not just serve but help elevate and create a more sustainable sense of local culture and community. In retrospect we worked together organically and collaboratively to support one another and to find ways to expose and express ourselves and our concerns.

It is only retrospectively do I see how I contributed to my community. It came naturally to me.

Specific contribution(s) or support of the cultural arts in Hamden:

As co-founder and codirector of women in the Arts I was part of the initial team of individuals to bring attention to the Hamden Architect Alice Washburn. Our organization featured her work in one of our annual month long celebrations.

As an arts administrator I served all Hamden arts organizations that were members of the Arts Council of Greater New Haven.

During all my active years working both as an artist and as an arts administrator I was living in Hamden. I lived for between 1982-88 at 93 James Street, Mt Carmel and then between 1989-1993 at 207 Armory Street. During that period my mother remained a Hamden resident. During my childhood years I lived on the border between Hamden and New Haven and my parents had one of first businesses in the Sherman Ave Industrial park in the northern part of the town. 

I understood the differences early on between northern and southern Hamden and enjoyed the contrasts they offered. 

What do you regard as your most significant contribution to the arts?

There were many wonderful things that happened during those years and I have been careful to document them as much as possible. I am satisfied by some of the projects I started which are still vital to the community. I am especially pleased to see the Arts Paper continuing to be a major asset to the arts community and the McNight Gallery in the Arts Council offices. That was an early effort of mine which some will remember as the SMALL SPACE. I was particularly concerned that the Small Space be an non jurried space and that it be open to any Arts Council member who was willing to put the effort into organizing a show. This proved to be an important step for artists and administrators to stop judging art and start appreciating it. This was an important step to make in a community that was surrounded by value judgements. 

I helped to launch the coordinated gallery openings in the Audubon Arts Center. The first time we coordinated, we called it "UNITE-US-TONIGHT" and the creative Arts Workshop, The Munson Gallery and The Arts Council's Small Space Gallery all had opening receptions at the same time. This expanded in time but it took a lot of convincing people to share their audience. 

I also had the pleasure of sharing information and skills out of our office and department. As part of the Arts Council we helped new arts organizations and emerging artists with press releases and media contacts and attended as many of the events as we could. 

As an artist my art itself also emphasized working together and keeping things open and public. It would be hard for me to overlook the great privilege to create the city's 350th birthday cake. This was done in collaboration with a Hamden based Bakery. This was a bakery I had worked in during my high school years. Leon's Bakery provides all the cake to serve 3500 pieces of cake free to the people of New Haven for my public work The Amazing Bureaucratic Birthday Cake.... serving the people. 

This work was commissioned by Robert Gregson who was working for the city at that time. We had over a hundred volunteers involved with this project. 

Last but not least co-founding Women in the Arts was another highlight of my time working in greater New Haven Arts community. This was another model of community involvement where inclusivity was the model. 

Is there someone else you would like to nominate who has contributed to the cultural arts in Hamden or who is from Hamden and has done so elsewhere? Please provide contact information if possible.

BEVERLY RICHEY: A PRIME MOVER MOVES ON BY MIMSIE COLEMAN

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19, 2013

BEVERLY RICHEY RELAXING IN HER
OFFICE AT HOME.
(Photo: TIM FERESTEN)

STESS IMAGE: One of the many office-generated
art pieces Richey designed: stationary with a clear
stress message. 

BEVERLY RICHEY: A PRIME MOVER MOVES ON BY MIMSIE COLEMAN

New Haven ARTS
Publication of the Arts Council of Greater New Haven
New Haven, Connecticut
USA
February 1989

BEVERLY RICHEY: A PRIME MOVER MOVES ON

BY MIMSIE COLEMAN

Intense, outspoken and sometimes outrageous, Beverly Richey is a local artist committed to experimental art and to caustic criticism of contemporary values. With her short, black self cropped hair, and expressive eyes that crease into smiling eyelashes when she is amused, Beverly Richey is an easily recognizable figure in the local art scene, she is also generally recognized as a one-woman dynamo.

For over ten years Richy has been a creative generator within the New Haven art community - and originator of concepts, an organizer of happenings and a basic prime mover. She has also served, for the past four and-a-half years , as resident artist and general communications director for the Arts Council. Richey is now leaving her Arts Council post; she is shifting gears and moving to other challenges. "It's clearly time to go," she explains. "I feel I've completed my job, and that there isn't anything left for me to do. It's time for other issues and other questions."

Richeys's role at the Arts Council has been a unique one. She has helped design and implement community arts programs; helped to facilitate the growth of the Arts Council itself, and also has served as a meaningful liaison with the art world.

As photographer, Arts Council board member and friend, Tim Feresten, points out, "Her major contibution to the Arts Council has been her creative ability to involve the Council with the arts community. A lot of the things the Arts Council started doing were her ideas. ... She's an artist on the cutting edge of contemporary art, and having an artist of her quality involved with us put us in touch with the community of artists and art organizations in New Haven."

Richey, New Haven born and bred, began her career in the traditional genres of drawing and painting. Always attracted to the unusual, however, and equally interested in stretching herself beyond her current limits, she joined the city's former Papier Mache Video Institute in 1978. There, first under the tutelage of artist Paul Rutkovsky and later as the Institue co-director, she gave full rein to experimentation. The Institute, then on Hamilton Street, was a loft-space where a loose collaboration of artists explored experimental, non traditional forms of art. They were committee to the belief that art need not be hung on walls, that it is far more a creative process than a product to be bought and sold in the art market. They sponsored group exhibitions, performances, and happenings; they explored public art, conceptual art, transient art - interests which Richey helped them cultivate, and which have remained with her.

During her years of affiliation with the Institute, 1978-1984. Richey also began her investigations of edible art. She was making art at home at the time; kitchen products were easily accessible. In addition, with edible art she could combine an avant-garde interest in the transient and non-traditional with one of her many domestic interests. Richey's domestic talents are richly diversified: besides having a degree in nutrition, she has worked as a seamstress, can iron with precision (she is especially skillful with tablecloths) and of course has turned cake-baking into a fine art.

More important, Richey's interest in cake art stemmed from a desire "to elevate traditional woman's work." "I had realized that I got that same flush you feel when you're working in a studio, when I was baking in the kitchen, that I was doing the same thing, only manipulating different materials. It's been that way with women all along, only their product is transient and it has become under-appreciated. With cake, I became committed to the belief that manipulating frosting and cake has just as much value as working in steel and wood."

Once cake became her major medium, Richey began giving it a variety of satirical forms. For a 1983 exhibit, The Spring cleaning Show, which was sponsored by the Women's Caucus for Art she designed a Comet scouring-powder can which stood 20 inches high. As with all her cakes, it was intended for viewing and eating pleasure.

For a 1984 exhibition which she helped conceptualize and organize, entitled The First Show of 1984 (a la George Orwell), she submitted a chocolate frosted military cake, topped with plastic soldiers and American flags. Later that year she continued the them in an exhibit,Buy and Sell, which was a sometimes humorous indictment of our commodity -oriented society and our war-dependent economy. She hand-made flyers, coupons and discount notices, utilizing all the tools of marketing to complete the satire. In these pieces, transient, conceptual and public art merged.

Last summer these same elements converged when Richey and Company served 3,500 slices of her art at New Haven's official 350th birthday party on the Green. Her piece, called the A-Mazing Bureaucratic Birthday Cake, was multi faceted. In tribute to a city and its institutions, she decided to pay homage to its bureaucracy. The piece itself involved not only continuous sheets of cake (donated Leon's Bakery), but also an elaborately decorated booth, from which the cake was served; and also a bureaucratic maze to facilitate an orderly approach to the cake, and to allow bureaucratic-inspired activities to befall cake-eaters.

Due to its size and complexity, the Bureaucratic Birthday Cake also necessitated the creation of an actual bureaucracy - a bureau of people, including designers, bakers, and decision-making commissioners to plan and carry out the plans. Richey's involvement was mostly conceptual. She gave the project shape and direction; others gave it form. Her public art reached a new height.

It is with kind of undertaking, where she merges avant-garde art with public events, where Richey probably has her greatest impact. Fellow artist Robert(a) Chambers observes: "By doing public events she's gotten a lot of people exposed to her kind of thinking who wouldn't otherwise be .... It's one thing to do things in an art gallery and another to do them at open air festivals where the general public wanders. ... Beverly has brought a lot of original ideas to New Haven... she's influenced a lot of people in her brand and her presentation of art."


Richey's art is never separate from her life. Her creations often directly reflect her present situation.  Once within the offices of the Arts Council, amazed by the accumulation of paper that ended up being trashed, she explored the concept of "waste". She also developed sticker art in response to experimentation with the office copy machine. And she has helped organize and coordinated events around those moral/political issues which are close to her heart. The Women in the Arts celebration, which was an original conception of Erector Square Director Ann Langdon, was thrust into being thanks to the joint efforts of the two.

Where Richey's inspiration lies right now is unclear.

"I feel I'm in the same place in my work as in my art - nowhere right now," "I've finished my work at the Arts Council. And I also feel I reached a crescendo with the Bureaucratic Birthday Cake. All the elements of the work came together for the piece: serving a huge amount of cake, working with large numbers of people, exploring organization.

The public side of me has become accomplished, she says. "The stuff now at issue is inside stuff. Where do I go from here? I don't know. I don't think it can be in the same direction. At this point I need to recharge this whole organism.

"Not having anything ahead is scary. But facing that emptiness is what it's all about."

From Margaret Mudge

MARGARET MUDGE	Jun 17 (1 day ago)
to me

I called but think you still don't get phone messages so opted for email. I was going to call today to see about this date info - so great you got it. If you still wanted "help" - happy to do it (if not that is o.k. too) and while it seems  a week isn't a lot - it is surely quite doable. I will be back from Chicago tomorrow late afternoon - if there is anything you want me to look at and/or    whatever else ... send it off as soon as you can - I would suggest that rather than getting bogged down - send what you do have and then add to that - meaning have something ready to go and then if that gets done - can always add more. I'm not bringing my computer to Chicago -will check back in asap tomorrow. xox me --- On Mon, 6/17/13, Bev Richey <bevrichey@gmail.com> wrote:fr