Tempe Conventions & Visitors Bureau

This weekend will be a big one at the ASU Art Museum, starting with the fall season reception this Friday, 7:00-9:00 p.m., which will give everyone an opportunity to see all five of the exhibitions currently on display.

It’s also the opening of Open for Business, an exhibit that calls attention to the importance of local artists, businesses and organizations. The exhibit is a departure from the traditional art exhibit because it takes place simultaneously inside downtown Tempe businesses and at the ASU Art Museum.  You can pick up a map showing the participating businesses at the ASU Art Museum or at each of the businesses.  I plan on starting at the ASU Art Museum to see the exhibit first and then stroll down Mill Avenue, map in hand, to see the artists’ work in each of the businesses. In all, sixteen artists and thirteen Mill Avenue businesses are participating. The Open for Business artists will be at the opening. Artists Brent Green and Karen Karnes whose exhibits, Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then and A Chosen Path: the Ceramic Art of Karen Karnes respectively, are also on display, will be there too.  This will be an incredible art-packed evening with plenty to see and ponder.  I would love to hear your thoughts on the opening and any or all of the exhibits.

Anyone who has seen Brent Green’s fantastic and moving installation Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then won’t want to miss the free screening and live soundtrack performance of the artist’s feature film of the same name this Saturday, 7:00p.m.  at Neeb Hall on the Tempe Campus.

If you haven’t seen the exhibition, you won’t want to miss it. In a nut shell, it was inspired by the true story of a Leonard Wood of Louisville, whose wife was diagnosed with cancer. Leonard started building the house room by room, hoping that his effort would somehow save his wife.  She died, but Leonard continued to work on the house for twenty years.  Brent Green recreated the house and all the sculptural elements in his Pennsylvania studio.  Luckily for us, he shipped it here and reconstructed it in the ASU Art Museum. Brent Green will perform with guests Brendan Canty from Fugazi, John Swartz from Guy Maddin’s orchestra and Donna K, who plays Leonard’s wife Mary in the film. It will be another fantastic evening of art thanks to the ASU Art Museum. The exhibition will run through December 31.

Tempe Town Lake has been lacking in the water department lately, but not anymore. After diligent work by the City of Tempe and partners, the lake is ready to be refilled. Water, flowing at 100 cubic feet per second, will begin flowing into Tempe Town Lake on Friday, October 8 at 7 am. The lake is expected to be full by October 25. If you’d like to see the first drops of water, please visit http://www.tempe.gov/newsroom/Archive/201010/6A0376ED-8742-497E-9C73-ADE38761AF43 for details about the public event. And, through October 25, feel free to visit the lake, watch it being filled and cheer for its triumphant return!