Many, many moons ago I was fortunate to work for a small company that coordinates language and culture programs for folks who want to learn more about other folks who populate our tiny blue planet. My employment there lasted six and a half years--an unprecedented length up to that point in my life, so you know it was worth it. This company was and still is called the National Registration Center for Study Abroad (NRCSA), located right here in our fair Miltown.
At the time of my congenial departure, NRCSA had a limited number of programs combining language with serious art study, which were available only in a few countries. Now, though, they've got a sizable number of these programs located in eight different countries, including Brazil, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Mexico, Italy, and Spain. Wouldn't ya know it, I turn my back for just a second--well, eight years really--and they decide to build-up a ginormous array of awesome language + artsy programs. Good for them!In celebration of this, the super intelligent people of NRCSA will be hosting their very first art exhibit tonight--a.k.a. Gallery Night--at their digs in the Marshall Building, 207 East Buffalo Street, Suite 610, in the Third Ward. Hooray!
On view will be the work of Dr. Lucy Yu--a painter originally from Shanghai, China--Nick Bowers--who studied glassblowing in Canada--ten Milwaukee area students--veterans of a lithography study trip across Mexico this past August--and a variety of Peruvian art, including textiles, wood, ceramics and instruments.
As Program Coordinator and my old comrade Sarah Damonte Vegas informed me in a recent email,
"When we first discussed hosting an event one thing was clear--it had to be 'international'. Now, defining that took a while! In the end we decided that it meant inviting artists currently living in the Milwaukee area who:
1) are from another country and whose art is highly influenced by their birth country
2) specialize in an international art form (typical art from a certain country, region or culture, not common in US)
or
3) studied/lived abroad and now create/focus on art form learned abroad.
We cast the net far and wide and selected the above four because they represented foreign born artists, local folk influenced by travel and art and artists that studied their art form abroad."
Now that's what we call internationally local!
NRCSA plans on hosting many more of these exhibitions in the future, but I know you're the type who wants to be in on the action right from the get-go. How do I know that? You read this here blog, that's how! So stop on by Suite 610 at 207 East Buffalo Street tonight from 5-9PM and enjoy your in-the-exclusive-loop status.
(Thanks, Sarah!)
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