South End Visual Artist Marianne A. Kinzer

Marianne A. Kinzer is a German-born visual artist who works from her South End studio at 46 Waltham Street. She studied art at the College of Fine Arts in Berlin and the School of the Art Institute in Chicago, where she lived from 2000 to 2010. She spent many summers in Truro, MA, where she participated in workshops at the Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown and the Provincetown Art Association and Museum. She has taught art at the Oak Park Art League (near Chicago) and at the Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill in Truro, MA.

Her work has been shown in community centers and galleries abroad (Germany and Turkey), and in the U.S., including a solo show at the Snow Library in Orleans, MA. She had various other exhibits at the J jake Art Gallery, in the South End; the Truro Center for the Arts, in Truro, MA; the Watercolor Art Gallery in Pawtucket, RI; and at the Watson Institute in Providence, RI. Kinzer regularly participates in South End Open Studios.

While living in the Midwest, Kinzer painted prairie landscapes and wetlands and learned about their vital importance to our ecology. This shifted her focus to water itself, its pattern of flow, and its meaning for mankind. Even though she has painted the figure and landscapes throughout her career, the major focus of her work now is an investigation of humankind’s relationship to nature. “Humanity needs to remember its origin and place,” she says. “All of life is connected through the water cycle.”

The artist has specialized in watercolor as her medium. Kinzer says she creates her work to look open, abstract and pleasing, thereby inviting the viewer to reflect on the central importance of water for all of life. For additional information, please visit www.marianneakinzer.com.

Erik Grau - Visual Artist

Erik Grau, whose artwork is on exhibit inside the South End Library during November, moved to Boston a decade ago from Wisconsin to pursue a MFA in sculpture. In addition to his career as a visual artist, he works full time as a board-certified Behavior Analyst and Kindergarten Inclusion teacher at the Henry L. Higginson Inclusion School in Roxbury.

As a teacher, he found that the home environment became increasingly more important in his life. “The need for quiet stillness has motivated me to curate a home filled with objects of importance that, when viewed together, address repetition and order,” he says. His paintings focus on the positive energy associated with the crystals and minerals he collects. “They incorporate my specific interest in cats in the forms of accumulated knick-knacks and the depictions of my two companion animals,” the artist explains. 

Grau holds an MFA from Boston University and a Master’s of Education from UMass, Lowell.  His work is in the permanent collection of the Wisconsin Artists Collection in Waukesha, WI. His paintings and sculptures have been featured in a number of exhibits in the Midwest, as well as in art spaces on the East and West coasts. 

He is a member of Boston’s Musa Collective, a gallery space on Braintree Street in Allston, owned and operated by artists. Most recently, Grau was the artist-in-residence at Room83Spring in Watertown, MA. He is the President of the Board of the Piano Craft Gallery, the Tremont Street artists community located in the former Chickering Piano Factory.

Elizabeth Taylor - South End Observations

SOUTH END OBSERVATIONS

Elizabeth Taylor is a visual artist who has been living and working in the South End for the past 20 years. She received a BFA from Mass College of Art and Design and later studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA) where she focused on painting and photography. She has exhibited at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum (PAAM), SMFA and SOWA’s Open Studios, among other locations, and worked as a visual arts educator at MFA, ICA, the Blackstone School, and at the Brookline and Susan Bailis Senior Centers.

Taylor’s work in photography and these gouache paintings (opaque watercolor) touch on themes of natural preservation in the urban landscape and beyond. The Fens, Back Bay and South End are her favorite places to draw, inspired by the diversity of its people and the beauty of its environment. She often participated as an artist-at-work during the South End Garden Tours, after which the art work was auctioned off to benefit the organization.

The spark that ignited Taylor’s passion for portraiture and art began when she was a teenager and discovered Vogue Magazine, which had big glossy photographs by artists like Irving Penn and others. They would shape her interest in portraiture, photography and still life for years to come. The photographs were taken at the 2010 Gay Pride Parade in Boston.

The sketches of flowers in the current Local/Focus exhibit date from last summer when Taylor would seek out a shady spot to paint and sketch, often on a scorching hot day with the sun beating down on the concrete of Tremont Street, and find a beautiful flower in its natural setting. “I found it intriguing to study how the flower sits on the stem, or how the stems angle to create amazing compositions,” she says.

The Ayer Mansion by Louis Comfort Tiffany

The September Local/Focus installation in the Tremont Street window of the South End library

Since 1998, Jeanne Pelletier, Esq. a longtime South End resident active in numerous local community projects, has been the Preservation Advisor to the Campaign for the Ayer Mansion, the only surviving mansion designed entirely by Louis Comfort Tiffany.  Known mostly as the creator of magnificent stained-glass windows and luminous stained-glass lamp shades, Louis Comfort Tiffany was also an amateur architect and a talented decorator who pioneered interior design as a profession. He designed five houses in New York City, none of which survive today. The Ayer Mansion, located at 395 Commonwealth Avenue on the outbound side, is the only Tiffany-designed building that remains.

The Ayer Mansion at 395 Commonwealth Avenue, the last surviving mansion designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany

 With architect A.J. Manning, Tiffany created the mansion for Frederick Ayer and his second wife, Ellen Banning Ayer. Born poor, Ayer founded a patent medicine company with his brother James, and became fantastically rich from marketing such products as Ayer’s Cherry Pectoral and Ayer’s Hair Vigor. Ellen Banning Ayer was a trained actress and socialite who likely pushed Frederick to create a home in Boston where she could be closer to the theater and social events. Built between 1899 and 1902, the Ayer Mansion was unlike the conventional brick-and-brownstone Boston townhouse or the European revival styles prevalent at that time. Tiffany created a striking white granite and limestone façade punctuated with Moorish stone mosaic panels, elaborate, stained-glass screens, massive bright copper-clad doors, and grand stone columns embedded with glass and gold foil.  The interior of the mansion builds on this palette, with lavish glass and gold mosaics and grand architectural flourishes. 

One of the Tiffany-designed windows at the Ayer mansion

Tiffany’s approach aimed to ensure that the Ayer Mansion and its nouveau-riche owners would not be overlooked. It might also have been a snub to the old Boston society the Ayer couple couldn’t join. After the Ayers’ death in 1918, the house was sold to a succession of businesses, and the Ayer Mansion’s lavish stained glass and magnificent Tiffany interior and exterior artwork began to quietly decay. In 1998, new owners, Bayridge Residence and Cultural Center, together with the Campaign for the Ayer Mansion, began to restore this hidden gem.  In 2005, the house was named a National Historic Landmark, the nation’s highest ranking for historic properties.

 The house is open for public tours and events. For more information, click here.

 Local/Focus is a program sponsored by the Friends of the South End Library to connect the South End branch of the BPL with local artists, non-profit institutions and creative entrepreneurs through informative and interesting installations in the library’s Tremont Street window(s).

DO YOU HAVE 15 MINUTES ONCE A WEEK? South End Wire Sculptor, Will Corcoran Has Installed a New Local/Focus Display in the Library's Window

Recent studies have shown that the power of being read to at any age changes the brain’s chemistry in such a way that the power of recall is greatly enhanced. Will Corcoran can still vividly remember the books read to him by his mother for fifteen minutes, once a week, fifty years ago. Corcoran is a South End artist whose wire sculptures have been on display for years in front of his home, at the corner of Pembroke Street and Warren Avenue. All outside pieces are made of hex wire. Some art works are ‘spinners’ which literally (spin) in the breeze. Most Installs happen at noon when the collective buzz of people, nature, trucks and taxis create a breeze that bring them to life. The collective movement of the city becomes an integral part of the piece.

Sculptures are changed twice a month year-round. “Kids wait and wonder about the next install,” he says. For most interior pieces aluminum screening is used. This affords a transparent   effect by day and solid sculptures at night, “with amazing shadows,” he says.

Corcoran creates his works standing at a table in the bay window of his home overlooking Harriet Tubman Park. “The screening material is delicate to work with,” he says. “It is unforgiving and evanescent, much like the energy of the street scene below. There are patterns of light and dark that come and go and are never repeated the same way. Loud music floats up from moving cars. Motorcycles hum at the red light. There’s a dry cleaner’s, a liquor store, an ATM, a convenience store, a restaurant, a park: The buzz!”

The artist "tumbled into" wire sculpture a few years ago, and has participated in shows in Provincetown, Truro, and in various locations in Boston, including SoWa. He previously displayed his work in the Tremont Street window of the South End library in April 2016, in an exhibit inspired by the tales of Edgar Allen Poe and the Brothers Grimm. You can follow his spinners, yard mobiles, and more on Twitter (PembrokeYeah!), Instagram (will02118), or his website  www.willcorcoran.com

 “ So pick up a classic and read to someone you Love”

 Local/Focus is a program sponsored by the Friends of the South End Library to connect the South End branch of the BPL with local artists, non-profit institutions and creative entrepreneurs through informative and interesting installations in the library’s Tremont Street window(s).

South End Technology Center and the Fab/Lab

THE SOUTH END TECHNOLOGY CENTER/FAB LAB is the brainchild of longtime South End community activist, Mel King. The former state legislator and mayoral candidate founded SETC in the late 1990s together with the Tent City Corporation and MIT, where King was an adjunct professor. SETC’s mission is to enable all young Bostonians to become “producers of knowledge and sharers of ideas and information.” SETC provides free or low-cost access and training in most aspects of computer-related technology with volunteer staff highly skilled in computer technology and its applications. 

Located at 395 Columbus Avenue at the corner of Yarmouth Street, SETC serves 900 children and adults each year. It offers numerous opportunities to people of all ages, including Open Access to computers and internet; Technology education; Free wireless internet service to residents; an Audio Recording studio; Information on how to use a flatbed scanner, a digital camera, and how to burn CDs and DVDs; a Youth Media Producers program; a Fab Lab Inventer Lounge stocked with laser & vinyl cutters, a milling machine, a 3D printer, a CAD embroidery machine; and free tutoring by appointment, among other services. The Center is supported by foundation grants and individual contributions. It is open to the public Monday thru Thursday, 5 PM to 8 PM; Friday 4 PM to 6 PM; and Saturday 1 PM to 4 PM.  For more information, please contact Susan Klimczak at klimczaksusan@gmail.com or by phone at  SETC at 617.578.0597 or cell 617.817.2877.

Local/Focus is a program sponsored by the Friends of the South End Library to connect the South End branch of the BPL with local artists, non-profit institutions and creative entrepreneurs through informative and interesting installations in the library’s Tremont Street window(s).

The South End Historical Society

The South End Historical Society (SEHS) has called Chester Square home since the mid-1970s. SEHS was founded in 1966 by a group of residents concerned with preserving the unique architectural integrity of the neighborhood. As a result, SEHS filed an application to have the South End listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. As part of the application, SEHS took photographs of every existing building in the South End during that time, and these photos are now part of SEHS’s largest collection.

The City of Boston created Chester Street and Chester Square in 1850 as a grand boulevard and residential square for the South End’s fashionable upper middle-class residents. It was the widest and grandest of the neighborhood’s famed garden squares, with several walking paths and a three-tiered cast iron fountain situated in the center of the park. A 987-foot cast iron fence identical to the lotus style fence that still surrounds Beacon Hill’s Louisburg Square enclosed the park. 

In the 1950s, Boston divided Chester Park with a six-lane continuation of Massachusetts Avenue to accommodate traffic from the newly constructed Southeast Expressway. It destroyed the square, which became run down. A recent redesign of the divided park by Halverson Design Partnership encourages pedestrian traffic and created small gathering spaces. The twin fountains recall the original fountain and help buffer the sounds of traffic from Mass Ave. The park is maintained by the City of Boston and the Chester Square Area Neighborhood Association.

Local/Focus is a program sponsored by the Friends of the South End Library to connect the South End branch of the BPL with local artists, non-profit institutions and creative entrepreneurs through informative and interesting installations in the library’s Tremont Street window(s).

Floral Design Studio, Table & Tulip

Table & Tulip, located on a charming cul-de-sac on Shawmut Avenue between Rutland and West Concord Streets, is a full-service floral design studio committed to dreaming up and executing amazing floral environments. The owners founded the studio 10 years ago in the belief that if you love your work, love your community, and pursue excellence, good things will come.

Table & Tulip offers a range of services, from personally delivered hand-held bouquets to big events and even at-home plant maintenance. They were named Best Florist by Boston Magazine's Best of Boston multiple times.

If you would like to join Table & Tulip for a workshop, grab a hand-wrapped bouquet, or simply visit their South End shop and pretend you’re in the English countryside, stop by their studio  located at 461 Shawmut Ave, one block east of the South End library. You can also reach them at 617 262-3100, or shop online at www.tableandtulip.com.

Local/Focus is a program sponsored by the Friends of the South End Library to connect the South End branch of the BPL with local artists, non-profit institutions and creative entrepreneurs through informative and interesting installations in the library’s Tremont Street window(s).

The Community Music Center of Boston

The Community Music Center of Boston has been teaching music in the South End for more than 100 years, beginning in 1910. Through decades of growth and development, the accredited non-profit music school has fullfilled its mission to provide high-quality music education to groups and individuals of all backgrounds, abilities and different age groups,  and to transform their lives by providing equitable access to excellent music education and arts experiences. The student body is exceptionally diverse, with students ranging from five months to 88 years old.

 The  Music Center serves more than 5,500 individuals each week, and collaborates with Boston Public School system, community centers, nursing homes and hospitals. The Music Center is located on Warren Avenue in the heart of the historic South End, where it operates a lively, bustling 8,000 square foot instructional facility within the Boston Center for the Arts. We are proud to be a collaborative programming partner with the Boston Public Library’s South End branch.  It's a great place...and we hope you will get to know it and us! Our website is https://cmcb.org.

Local/Focus is a program sponsored by the Friends of the South End Library to connect the South End branch of the BPL with local artists, non-profit institutions and creative entrepreneurs through informative and interesting installations in the library’s Tremont Street window(s).

Zeitgeist Stage Company

Zeitgeist Stage Company is an award-winning local theatre company whose artistic director, David Miller, has lived around the corner from the South End library for many years. The theatre is in its 17th season and performs at the Boston Center for the Arts on Tremont Street where it is a Resident Theater Company. Zeitgeist’s mission is to present contemporary and relevant historic plays in a mix of provocative and timely theatrical productions that reflect the drama and comedy of our lives today.

Strongly connected and committed to the neighborhood, Zeitgeist Stage is proud to have supported the South End community with free tickets to the Boston Public Schools, the AIDS Action Committee, Hostels International, and the Boston Living Center. And every Wednesday performance, tickets are “pay-what-you-can” with a $10 minimum.

Local/Focus is a program sponsored by the Friends of the South End Library to connect the South End branch of the BPL with local artists, non-profit institutions and creative entrepreneurs through informative and interesting installations in the library’s Tremont Street window(s).

Local Calligrapher Emily Gallardo

Emily Gallardo, a South end calligrapher with a studio on Waltham Street has installed a ten-foot scroll and a smaller sample in the Tremont Street window of the South End library honoring both the art of calligraphy and the social justice. They express the sentiments of two important Massachusetts luminaries, Transcendentalist and abolitionist Theodore Parker (1810-1860) and former Senator Edward Kennedy (1932-2009).  

"I do not pretend to understand the moral universe, the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but a little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight, I can divine it by conscience. And from what I can see I am sure it bends towards justice," says one; "For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dream shall never die," says the other. 

Gallardo learned calligraphy in high school, majored in graphic design in college, and worked in advertising and marketing before she struck out on her own. She has worked with clients like Neiman Marcus, Ralph Lauren, Hermes and Burberry and teaches calligraphy. In addition, she has and affinity for cross-stitch, and developed kits with samples that range from animals to historical figures. Gallardo can be reached at www.emilygallardo.com.