MARGARET ROLEKE
Writing Experience:
2007 to present: Wrote articles for NY Arts Magazine Culture Catch Post Road Magazine
Curatorial Experience:
Groovy exhibit at the First Run Space at the Emergency Arts building in Chelsea, New York, summer 2006.
Current Abstraction exhibit at Black Rock Art Center, Bridgeport,CT, spring 2006.
Director and Cofounder of the Branchville Gallery
March 2004 - October 2005, Ridgefield, CT
- The gallery is a contemporary space dedicated to regional, as well as, international emerging and mid-career artists.
- Responsible for curating all exhibits except two in which we had guest curators (Jessica Hough of the Aldrich Museum and Brian Sullivan, owner of the gallery).
- The gallery specializes in innovative work and has shown installations, videos, light and kinetic sculpture, as well as, paintings, works on paper, and sculpture.
- In addition to curating, responsible for all publicity, mailings, website development, and gallery.management
Exhibits:
- “BLAST!” opened May 21, 2004 and included 10 artists. The exhibit was reviewed in The Stamford Advocate June 6, 2004.
- “Webs: Joseph Fucigna and Laura Watt” opened June 25, 2004 and went thru August 8, 2004. It paired an obsessively detailed painter with a sculptor who uses plastic fencing in a dynamic manner.
- “The 14 Show” opened on August 14, 2004 and included over 40 artists creating work that was 14” x 14”. Our outdoor sculpture garden was inaugurated and titled Outdoor Project Space showing three artists including McKendree Key.
- “Robert Danick and Joan Wheeler” opened in October 2004 featuring two sculptors who showed narrative dioramas, as well as invented instruments.
- “Prints and Paper” and “Outdoor Project Space: Light Additions” opened in November 2004 and featured 12 artists, among them James Grashow, and included prints, drawings, and installations.
- “D. Dominick Lombardi and Kenneth Marchione” opened in January 2005. This exhibit was reviewed in Art New England April/May issue, as well as, The Stamford Advocate on January 9, 2005.
- “Melinda Hackett and Drew Klotz” opened April 8, 2005 and featured a painter and a kinetic sculptor.
- “What is Branchville?” opened May 28, 2005 and featured 12 artists exploring the area of Connecticut known as Branchville. It included webart, as well as, drawings, paintings, and photographs. Additional pieces were also added to the Outdoor Project Space at this time, including work by Chrissy Conant.
- “Outdoor Project Space” opened July 17, 2005 and featured video in the “cave” by Kim Connerton and other video artists, and outdoor sculpture by Adam Brent, Vinita Khanna Hassard and a performance by Michael Tong. This exhibit was reviewed in The Stamford Advocate on July 24,2005.
- Three exhibits opened on August 26, 2005;
- “June Ahrens: The Loudness of Silence”, a site specific installation in which she cut directly into the walls,
- “Chris Joy: Paintings and Sculpture” and;
- “Utility of Obsession: All things Orange” by Philip Mantione and Alysse Stepanian. Mantione and Stepanian used video, water, and kinetic elements in their installation in the “cave”.
Reviewed in The Stamford Advocate on September 18,2005 and a review is coming out in Art New England in a couple of months.
Art Event Planning and Teaching Experience:
Event Planning - Family Art Day
June 2005
Organized Family Art Day at Branchville Gallery which featured an art scavenger hunt , as well as hands on activities and performers. It was a collaborative event with the Ridgefield Guild of Artists.
Event Planning - Redding School Arts Festival
April 2001- 2003
Founded an arts festival at Redding Elementary School, and ran it for 3 years. This was a day-long event throughout the school, in which artists, museum staff, and performers all worked with students to expose them to the arts beyond the school curriculum.
Art Education - Redding Elementary School
1995 – Present
Taught art appreciation to students at Redding Elementary School in Redding, CT.
Art Education - Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art
Summer 2003, Summer 1998
Taught “ Art Daze” a summer camp at the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT.
Art Education - Weir Farm Historic Site
Summer 1997
Taught a sculpture workshop at Weir Farm Historic Site, Wilton, CT.
Download curator_resume.doc
