Crosstown Arts

Shoot & Splice: Holiday Cinema Trivia Blowout!
2015-12-01 12:30 - 15:30 (America/Chicago) | TN
Throughout the year, Indie Memphis & Crosstown Arts brings cinematographers, directors, editors, writers and technicians to Shoot & Splice, our monthly film making forum.
Come help us celebrate the end of another year with the Second Annual Cinema Trivia blowout.
Test your filmmaker mettle! Prizes! Holiday cocktails! Peppermint cake!

The Winds that Scatter
2015-12-03 12:30 - 15:30 | story booth, 438 N. Cleveland St., Memphis, TN, 38104, United States
Screening presented by Indie Memphis & Crosstown Arts
6:30 pm Doors ; 7 pm Screening; Skype Q&A with director Christopher Jason Bell to follow screening
Written, directed, produced, and edited by Christopher Jason Bell
Ahmad is a refugee from Syria, holding wishes of starting his own taxi service. When he loses his menial employment at a gas station, he attempts to navigate through the current American economy with optimism. Soon, reality settles in as consistent work is scarce. An impression of hopelessness slowly begins to take a toll on his relationships, faith, and sense of self, with his dream slipping quickly from his grasp.
WINNER: KOREA INDIE AND EXPAT FILM FESTIVAL
BEST INTERNATIONAL NO BUDGET FEATURE FILM
“Baring more in common with the films of the great Abbas Kiarostami than say your average Brooklyn-based filmmaker…” – Filmmaker Magazine
“A skillfully maneuvered, minimalist meditation…” – Hammer To Nail
“Rich and complex” – Screen Slate
“”The cinematic equivalent of walking a mile in another man’s shoes, The Winds That Scatter is, unfortunately in this day and age, a necessity.” – Film Pulse
EDITOR/PRODUCER/WRITER/DIRECTOR: Christopher Jason Bell
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Paul Taylor
CO-PRODUCERS: Mohammad Dagman, Ernie Hiyane
facebook.com/TheWindsThatScatter
facebook.com/FuzzyHeritage
contact: christopherjasonbell@gmail.com

Lance Turner Studio Residency Exhibition
2015-12-04 13:00 - 16:00 | TN
Two-gallery installation by Crosstown Arts’ inaugural resident artist, Lance Turner.

The World in Black & White
2015-12-05 10:00 - 15:00 | TN
“A world without color forces us to see objects in their purest form.”-Keysha Warr
Exhibition of artwork by Keysha Warr, organized by the artist.

Open Crit
2015-12-08 12:00 - 14:00 | TN
430 N. Cleveland
Second Tuesday of Each Month
Artist Setup: 5 – 6 pm / Critique & Discussion: 6 – 8 pm
Crosstown Arts’ Open Crit series, organized in partnership with ArtsMemphis, is a monthly critique event where visual artists are invited to bring new and/or in-progress studio work for critical feedback and group discussion particular to each artist’s practice. The series will take place at Crosstown Arts exhibition space at 430 N. Cleveland.
A dedicated facilitator with experience in a group critique setting will guide discussion for each critique event, which will include up to 4 artists’ work, with 15-25 minutes devoted to the work of each.
All visual artists and anyone interested in joining the discussion are welcome to participate regardless of their level of expertise, prior professional art experience or background/education in fine art. Participation is free and open to the public. Input during the critiques from everyone in attendance is welcomed and encouraged.
No formal preparation is necessary for participating artists, who will have an opportunity to introduce and contextualize their work on view at the beginning of each critique. Participating artists are only asked to be open to (and interested in) considering reactions to their work by the group, which will always be done in a supportive, constructive and casual environment, but could at the same time be challenging.

To participate, artists can send the following info via email to Brittney Bullock (brittney@ crosstownarts.org) with the subject line “Open Crit.” Submissions will be accepted and scheduled based on availability. There is no submission fee.

Name
Phone number
Email address
General description of the work to be discussed (i.e. “abstract paintings” or “video art”) & sizes of works and/or media types

Artists are asked to bring no more than 8 individual pieces (in any medium). Maximum run time for time-based work(s) is 10 minutes.
Participating artists are encouraged to invite friends, peers and colleagues to the open crits, both to see their work in progress and to give constructive feedback.
Organized by Crosstown Arts in partnership with ArtsMemphis ArtsAccelerator.

Extra Celestial
2015-12-11 04:00 - 2016-01-16 12:00 | Crosstown Arts Galleries, 1350 Concourse Ave., Suite 280, Memphis, TN, 38104, United States
Organized in partnership with Creative Growth Art Center (Oakland, CA)
Curated by Tom di Maria, Director of CGAC
Opening Reception: Friday, December 11, 6-9 pm
Curator Talk: Saturday, December 12, 2 pm
Crosstown Arts is pleased to partner with Creative Growth Art Center to present the upcoming exhibition Extra Celestial. Founded in Oakland, California in 1973, Creative Growth serves adult artists with developmental, mental, and physical disabilities, providing a professional studio environment for artistic development, gallery exhibition and representation, and more.
In Extra Celestial, Creative Growth artists Luis Aguilera, David Albertsen, Terri Bowden, Susan Janow, Allan Lofberg, Dan Miller, Donald Mitchell, William Scott, Ruth Stafford, William Tyler, Merritt Wallace and Ed Walter explore concepts of inner and outer space.
This ethereal grouping of works on paper presents an otherworldly and highly personal view of inner explorations and celestial journeys. Often abstract, always visionary, these colorful and dynamic paintings and drawings serve as maps to a galaxy of dreams and to compelling utopian realities.
An important component of Extra Celestial is the gallery premiere of Starquarius, the new space exploration video from the Creative Growth Video Production Workshop that reflects and re-considers the iconic sci-fi films of our lives.

Starquarius (poster)

David Albertsen

Still from Starquarius

Curator Talk: Saturday, December 12, 2 pm
In conjunction with the exhibition, please join Creative Growth Director Tom di Maria for his gallery talk, From the Margins to the Mainstream: Artists with Disabilities Today. The talk will review the history and leadership of Creative Growth Art Center’s work as the world’s oldest and largest art center for people with disabilities. He will review the Center’s studio art practice, the evolution of several key artists, and its relationship to so-called Outsider Art and to the contemporary art world.

About Creative Growth
Creative Growth Art Center is the nation’s oldest and largest artist-run space for artists with disabilities, offering a professional art studio, exhibition opportunities, and a supportive artistic community for 154 adult artists with developmental, physical, emotional, and mental disabilities. Founded in 1974 on the idea that all people can gain strength, enjoyment and fulfillment from experiences in the arts and are capable of producing works of high artistic merit, CGAC’s studio program offers, at no cost, 74 ongoing workshops led by artists in a range of media. Our year-round Saturday Youth Art program provides 16 young adults with access to our award-winning studio. As a role model organization, CGAC has fostered the development of over 20 similar centers worldwide.
Critical to CGAC’s success is its landmark/adjoining gallery. Started in 1978 with a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts as the world’s first gallery for artists with disabilities, this museum-quality space, with its six extraordinary annual exhibitions, serves as a portal to the larger community of viewers and collectors. Over 12,000 people visit our gallery each year.
CGAC’s artists are thriving in the mainstream art world, making significant contributions to the field of contemporary art, and becoming recognized among the outstanding contemporary artists of our era. Recent accomplishments include:
– CGAC artist Judith Scott became our third artist (Dan Miller and William Scott are the others) to have work acquired by the Museum of Modern Art, New York. These are the only three artists with developmental disabilities with work in the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection.
– Participation in over 20 outside exhibitions and art fairs, including our artists’ first presence at: Art Fair Tokyo, Japan; D’Dessin Paris Contemporary Drawing Fair, France; and the Codex Book Fair, Richmond, CA.
– CGAC artists Kerry Damianakes and William Scott received 2015 Wynn Newhouse Awards, given to artists of excellence who also happen to have disabilities.
– “Bound and Unbound,” a major 5-month retrospective exhibition of CGAC artist Judith Scott’s eighteen years of sculpture making, was presented at the Brooklyn Museum.

Nick Canterucci: Bellatrix Redux
2015-12-11 12:00 - 15:00 | TN
“The road to redemption is full of potholes.” – Nick Canterucci
A re-release of Memphis artist Nick Canterucci’s legendary exhibition at Odessa in 2010. Limited run of Bellatrix exhibition catalogues available, compliments of the artist.

Terry Gower Exhibition
2015-12-12 06:00 - 2015-12-13 12:00 | TN
Exhibition of artwork by Memphis artist Terry Gower.

From the Margins to the Mainstream: Artists with Disabilities Today
2015-12-12 08:00 - 09:00 | Crosstown Arts Galleries, 1350 Concourse Ave., Suite 280, Memphis, TN, 38104, United States
Curator Talk in conjunction with Extra Celestial
In conjunction with the exhibition, please join Creative Growth Director Tom di Maria for his gallery talk, From the Margins to the Mainstream: Artists with Disabilities Today. The talk will review the history and leadership of Creative Growth Art Center’s work as the world’s oldest and largest art center for people with disabilities. He will review the Center’s studio art practice, the evolution of several key artists, and its relationship to so-called Outsider Art and to the contemporary art world.
________________________________
About Creative Growth
Creative Growth Art Center is the nation’s oldest and largest artist-run space for artists with disabilities, offering a professional art studio, exhibition opportunities, and a supportive artistic community for 154 adult artists with developmental, physical, emotional, and mental disabilities. Founded in 1974 on the idea that all people can gain strength, enjoyment and fulfillment from experiences in the arts and are capable of producing works of high artistic merit, CGAC’s studio program offers, at no cost, 74 ongoing workshops led by artists in a range of media. Our year-round Saturday Youth Art program provides 16 young adults with access to our award-winning studio. As a role model organization, CGAC has fostered the development of over 20 similar centers worldwide.
Critical to CGAC’s success is its landmark/adjoining gallery. Started in 1978 with a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts as the world’s first gallery for artists with disabilities, this museum-quality space, with its six extraordinary annual exhibitions, serves as a portal to the larger community of viewers and collectors. Over 12,000 people visit our gallery each year.
CGAC’s artists are thriving in the mainstream art world, making significant contributions to the field of contemporary art, and becoming recognized among the outstanding contemporary artists of our era. Recent accomplishments include:
– CGAC artist Judith Scott became our third artist (Dan Miller and William Scott are the others) to have work acquired by the Museum of Modern Art, New York. These are the only three artists with developmental disabilities with work in the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection.
– Participation in over 20 outside exhibitions and art fairs, including our artists’ first presence at: Art Fair Tokyo, Japan; D’Dessin Paris Contemporary Drawing Fair, France; and the Codex Book Fair, Richmond, CA.
– CGAC artists Kerry Damianakes and William Scott received 2015 Wynn Newhouse Awards, given to artists of excellence who also happen to have disabilities.
– “Bound and Unbound,” a major 5-month retrospective exhibition of CGAC artist Judith Scott’s eighteen years of sculpture making, was presented at the Brooklyn Museum.

Memphis Ephemera
2015-12-17 12:30 - 15:00 | story booth, 438 N. Cleveland St., Memphis, TN, 38104, United States
Doors Open 6:30 pm, Films Start 7:00 pm
A short film showcase featuring unusual, rarely seen, strange and undiscovered film & video made in and about Memphis, Tennessee.
Programmed by Edward Valibus, Ben Rednour and Crosstown Arts

Shoot & Splice: Video Journalism
2016-01-05 12:30 | TN
VIDEO JOURNALISM: HOW DOCUMENTARIES RAISE AWARENESS AND CREATE CHANGE
For the first Shoot & Splice of 2016, join our panelists Noah Glenn, Mark Hackett and Andrea Morales to discuss, debate and analyze the use of documentary film to convey organizational messages, video journalism, the difference between the two and how to effectively and ethically craft both.
Noah Glenn is the Creative Director and Video Artist for City Leadership. In his role at City Leadership, Noah is responsible for producing, shooting & editing the very popular Choose901 videos. The Choose901 documentaries highlight interesting people, organizations and events and are used to further City Leadership’s larger goal of attracting and retaining talent in Memphis. Mark Hackett is the Executive Director of Operation Broken Silence, a non-profit that focuses on the human rights catastrophe in Sudan. As part of its mission, Operation Broken Silence uses short documentaries and videos to highlight the serious issues that people in Sudan are facing. Andrea Morales is a Memphis based documentary and editorial photojournalist. Andrea’s work has been seen in The New York Times, Time Magazine and The Guardian.
Shoot & Splice is a monthly filmmaking forum presented by Crosstown Arts & IndieMemphis

Hereabouts
2016-01-07 04:00 - 2016-01-10 12:00 | TN
A selection of self-taught Memphis artists
Opening Reception: Friday, January 8, 6-9 pm
Performance & Panel Discussion: Saturday, January 9, 2 pm
On view January 7-10, noon-6 pm
Organized by Mary Jo Karimnia & Linda Pelts in partnership with Crosstown Arts & the Church Health Center
Self-taught artists are a hot commodity in today’s art world. In a 2013 article in the Atlantic, Sarah Boxer writes,”[Artwork by self-taught artists] is being enthusiastically embraced—one might say swallowed whole—by the contemporary-art world.”
This fresh and provocative work comes from everywhere: from small towns in Italy to pulpits in Georgia, and our our own Memphis backyard. Hereabouts showcases four artists–Franco Camarillo, Winnie Shields AKA Miisreal, Theolia, and Michael Watson–who make artwork that is genuine to their experiences but without the (sometimes) burden of an arts education. Their work is raw, passionate, and insightful, and brings together experiences near and far. These local visionaries see things and re-present them to us through their own unique lenses.
Ted Norwood aka Theolia was born in Benton County, Mississippi and raised in Memphis. He left for the bright lights of Chicago as a young, 17 year old, high school drop-out and made a name for himself in the world of high-end menswear. He spent 60 fulfilling years working his way up the ladder at Saks Fifth Ave and Bloomingdale’s on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile. After returning to Memphis in the early 1990’s, Theolia was the unfortunate victim of a house fire in 2005 which left him scared and stiff. Through his many adventures Theolia managed to make artwork. He uses mostly oil or soft pastels and his own fingers to create landscapes and scenes from his life, from photos and from his imagination. He works mostly on cardboard pizza boxes and other scrap boards in vivid, life-affirming colors. Currently, Theolia works mostly out of the art room at the local Lewis Senior Center.
Winnie Shields aka Miisreal began creating collages in 2011 from materials that fall across her path including scrap fabrics, tissue boxes and ribbons. She looks for patterns and symbols to inform her work making figures and interior scenes. A common theme is a female or bride image that comes from a spiritual insight and represents her experience as a bride of God. The figures often float in a celestial way and often contain light and heart shapes. She sometimes makes figures of a little girl to represent innocence and her feeling of still being a small child in many ways although she is in her sixties. Shields was born in Senetobia, MS and moved to Memphis as a ten year old. She also writes poetry and books and keeps a close relationship with her family.
Michael Watson has been making artwork for over 20 years out of whatever he can find. He sculpts heads from junk mail, uses old chop sticks for paint brushes and loves to layer collage bits and images under and between layers of acrylic medium. Michael was born in England when his father was in the service, was raised in Jackson, MS and now makes Memphis his home. He is influenced by Italian Zombie movies and his favorite B-movie actresses often appear in his work. He is an expert in hallucinogenic mushrooms and works sporadically doing odd jobs to buy beer and sometimes groceries. His friend Chris Garner from Garner Picture Framing helps Michael store and sell his work.
Franco Camarillo (Franco Florencio Camarillo Villavicencio) was born in 1933 in Oaxaca, Mexico. He grew up on a farm and worked hard from a very early age. He studied Civil Engineering in Mexico City, married and had three children. The family moved to the United States for the children to continue their education. Franco began drawing while earning his bachelors degree and it has been an integral part of his life since. The first drawings he made were “Mascaras” (masks) for the the dancers who make parties very cheerful in his hometown. This early influence can be seen in the faces he continues to draw today. Franco draws on whatever materials he can find including panels cut from cereal boxes. He draws every day with the hope of continual growth.
Image: Michael Watson

Visiting Writer Stewart O'Nan
2016-01-12 12:00 - 14:00 | story booth, 438 N. Cleveland St., Memphis, TN, 38104, United States
Crosstown Arts and the Booksellers at Laurelwood present visiting writer Stewart O’Nan, reading and signing from “West of Sunset.”
Amazon’s Best Books of the Month for January 2015
An Indie Next Pick for January 2015
A “rich, sometimes heartbreaking” (Dennis Lehane) novel of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s last years in Hollywood
In 1937, F. Scott Fitzgerald was a troubled, uncertain man whose literary success was long over. In poor health, with his wife consigned to a mental asylum and his finances in ruins, he struggled to make a new start as a screenwriter in Hollywood. By December 1940, he would be dead of a heart attack.
Those last three years of Fitzgerald’s life, often obscured by the legend of his earlier Jazz Age glamour, are the focus of Stewart O’Nan’s gorgeously and gracefully written novel. With flashbacks to key moments from Fitzgerald’s past, the story follows him as he arrives on the MGM lot, falls in love with brassy gossip columnist Sheilah Graham, begins work on The Last Tycoon, and tries to maintain a semblance of family life with the absent Zelda and daughter, Scottie.
Fitzgerald’s orbit of literary fame and the Golden Age of Hollywood is brought vividly to life through the novel’s romantic cast of characters, from Dorothy Parker and Ernest Hemingway to Humphrey Bogart. A sympathetic and deeply personal portrait of a flawed man who never gave up in the end, even as his every wish and hope seemed thwarted, West of Sunset confirms O’Nan as “possibly our best working novelist” (Salon).
Praise for West of Sunset
“The Fitzgerald O’Nan gives us feels like the Fitzgerald of my dreams; in this way the book rises up to enfold the reader, it enfolded this reader naturally and exquisitely.”
—Elizabeth Strout
“West of Sunset is a rich, sometimes heartbreaking journey through the disintegration of an American legend. O’Nan captures the fire and frailty of F. Scott Fitzgerald with an understated grace that would have made Fitzgerald himself stand up and applaud.”
—Dennis Lehane
“An achingly nuanced love story and one of the best biographical novels to come along in years. O’Nan’s great achievement here is in so convincingly inhabiting the character of Scott Fitzgerald and of the people surrounding him during his descent into the clarifying depths of 1930s Hollywood.”
—T.C. Boyle
“O’Nan is an incredibly versatile and charming writer. This novel, which imagines F. Scott Fitzgerald’s troubled time in Hollywood (with cameos by Dorothy Parker, Bogie, and Hemingway), takes up (like much of O’Nan’s work) that essential conundrum of grace struggling with paucity. One brilliant American writer meditating on another–what’s not to love?”
—George Saunders
“I’ll direct my enthusiasm for West of Sunset to writers who revere Fitzgerald’s short story ‘Babylon Revisited.’ Stewart O’Nan captures Fitzgerald’s mood of spiritual reflection, without trying to imitate Fitzgerald’s voice. This book is an inoculation against self-pity. It’s not a mock Fitzgerald novel, but an original portrait of a writer struggling to keep his dignity while trying to make a living. It’s one of the best books I’ve read in years and it deserves a cheering crowd.”
—Michael Tolkin
Reviews
Paste Magazine
The Buffalo News
Entertainment Weekly
Amazon.com
Newsday
The Washington Post
Tweed’s
HuffPo Books
Chicago Tribune
The Boston Globe
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
USA Today
LA Weekly
The Seattle Times
The Stranger
Washington Times
OregonLive
Cincinnati CityBeat
Tuscaloosa News
The Christian Science Monitor
The New Yorker

Pin-Up
2016-01-15 00:00 - 15:00 | TN
A retrospective of pin-up art from the 1890’s through the 1980’s.
Reception: Friday, January 15, 6 – 9pm
Gallery Hours: Saturday, January 16, 10 am – 5 pm
Exhibition and sale organized by Chuck Parr

Peace
2016-01-20 14:00 - 17:00 | TN
Art exhibition

Snowden Middle & Humes Prep Book Release Party
2016-01-28 09:45 - 11:30 | story booth, 438 N. Cleveland St., Memphis, TN, 38104, United States
From story booth‘s fall in-school writing workshops, we have published anthologies featuring original work of 62 young writers at Snowden and 18 young writers from Humes Prep. This will be the first time the writers have the books revealed to them, and they’ll be able to participate in binding their own copies of the book to take home. Food and drinks available; free and open to the public.

Film Fatales
2016-02-01 12:30 - 15:30 | TN
Join Film Fatales and Indie Memphis at Crosstown Arts Monday, February 1st for the inaugural FF Speaker Series featuring Deputy Film Commissioner Sharon Fox O’Guin. Learn about the resources the commission makes available to indie filmmakers. Still trying to make sense of the film incentives? Sharon can help!
Networking, eating, and drinking start at 6:30pm and the workshop begins at 7:00 pm.
This is a FREE community event thanks to support by Crosstown Arts and Indie Memphis.

Shoot & Splice: Corey Parker - Acting on Camera & Working with Actors
2016-02-02 12:30 - 15:30 | TN
COREY PARKER: ACTING ON CAMERA & WORKING WITH ACTORS
Presented by Crosstown Arts & Indie Memphis
Crosstown Arts and Indie Memphis are pleased to welcome actor and acting coach Corey Parker to February’s Shoot & Splice. Corey will discuss acting for the camera along with a panel of local actors who have worked with him and have appeared in local indie film productions.
Corey Parker’s actors have appeared in The Bourne Supremacy, Chavez, Don’t Come Knockin’, The Final Cut, Masters of Sex, Chicago Med, Quantico, House M.D., Mad Men, Revenge, The Closer, as well as on Broadway: Raisin in the Sun, You Can’t Take it With You, Sylvia, Catch Me if You Can, Lysistrata Jones. He has starred or costarred as an actor in films at Universal, 20th Century Fox, Lorimar, Vestron, as well starring or costarring on Showtime, BBC, PBS, ABC, NBC, and CBS and FOX. He has coached writers on tour and at TEDglobal. Locally, he has worked with Brian Pera, Mike McCarthy, Ryan Parker, Willy Bearden, Bryan Artiles. He was a guest artist at Rhodes College from 2008-2014, and has taught acting at many studios in New York and L.A. He is a member of the Actors Studio and the Ensemble Studio Theater in New York. Corey interviews actors. directors, producers, teachers and casting directors on his blog: memphisactor.blogspot.com
Connect, converse, listen and learn at Shoot & Splice, our monthly filmmaking forum. Arrive early to hang out with fellow attendees, then grab a drink and kick back for the evening’s presentation. A wide variety of technical, educational, and fun topics of interest to the Memphis filmmaking community will be featured. Don’t miss this monthly opportunity to be a part of the Memphis filmmaking community and learn things you probably didn’t know you wanted to know. Have an idea for a topic you’d like to see covered? Email justin@crosstownarts.org.

Aesthetics
2016-02-03 13:30 - 16:00 | TN
Screening of Aesthetics, documenting the skateboarding community of Memphis, featuring Adrian Akin, Matt Maddox, Glenn Fiscus, Mitch Loughridge, Zac Roberts, Josh Stewart, Kirkwood Vangeli, and many more. Plus live music. Organized by Fluxus Skateboards.

Blind Navigator
2016-02-05 04:00 - 2016-02-27 12:00 | Crosstown Arts Galleries, 1350 Concourse Ave., Suite 280, Memphis, TN, 38104, United States
Crosstown Arts is pleased to present “Blind Navigator,” an exhibition of new individual and collaborative works by New York-based artist Clare Torina and Memphis-based artist Alex Paulus.
Clare Torina’s recent paintings and objects refer to one another in sequence, symbolism, and mimicry. She pulls from a personal set of fascinations – her dog (Lolita), the Illuminati, basketball, patriarchal painting history, ancient art – and subjugates their representations to a multitude of transitions using color models and plays on style.
Alex Paulus’s pieces address broken things that must be repeatedly fixed or altered to allow them to continue to function. The subject matter ranges from common objects to human emotions to animals nearing extinction. He presents these damaged subjects, which can be overlooked and ignored, that ultimately need to be recognized and reconciled.
At the heart of this exhibition is an acknowledgement of the bewilderment and reformation during creative process. Together, the artists volley to find a metaphor for the act of seeing and being seen while in the throes of malfunction. The blind navigator is the artist, the viewer, and the work itself feeling its way through shadows.
Clare Torina is an interdisciplinary artist living and working in New York. After undergraduate study at the University of Memphis, she received an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and was a resident at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Her work has been exhibited in New York, Chicago, Memphis, and abroad. Additional information and images of her work can be found at claretorina.com.
Alex Paulus is originally from southeast Missouri, but has been a resident of Memphis, TN since 2007. He received his MFA in 2009 from the Memphis College of Art and has been teaching ever since. Paulus’s work has been shown in numerous galleries in Memphis, Nashville, Dallas, St. Louis, and many others. His work has also been published in Studio Visit magazine and Beautiful/Decay. Additional information and images of his work can be seen at alexanderpaulus.blogspot.com.
Exhibition Press: Memphis Flyer | Commercial Appeal

A Valentine Extravaganza
2016-02-05 10:00 - 2016-02-06 17:00 | TN
The Memphis Arts Collective presents A Valentine Extravaganza
Work by:

Ava & Wayne Ginn
Jan Shively
Sarah Terry
Erica Bodine
Lizi Beard Ward
Sherry Robinson
Nicola Tupis
Cindy Uphoff
Fee Fi Fibby
Chuck Parr
Paulette Regan
Brian Maness
Mary Adcox
Shannon Maltby
Don Blalock
Angi Cooper
Tatia Johnson
Jennifer Hyatt

Group exhibition organized by The Memphis Arts Collective

Open Crit
2016-02-09 12:00 - 14:00 | TN
Crosstown Arts’ Open Crit series, organized in partnership with ArtsMemphis, is a monthly critique event where visual artists are invited to bring new and/or in-progress studio work for critical feedback and group discussion particular to each artist’s practice.
A dedicated facilitator with experience in a group critique setting will guide discussion for each critique event, which will include up to 4 artists’ work, with 15-25 minutes devoted to the work of each.
All visual artists and anyone interested in joining the discussion are welcome to participate regardless of their level of expertise, prior professional art experience or background/education in fine art. Participation is free and open to the public. Input during the critiques from everyone in attendance is welcomed and encouraged.
No formal preparation is necessary for participating artists, who will have an opportunity to introduce and contextualize their work on view at the beginning of each critique. Participating artists are only asked to be open to (and interested in) considering reactions to their work by the group, which will always be done in a supportive, constructive and casual environment, but could at the same time be challenging.

To participate, artists can sign up here:
Open Crit Request form

Artists are asked to bring no more than 8 individual pieces (in any medium). Maximum run time for time-based work(s) is 10 minutes.
Participating artists are encouraged to invite friends, peers and colleagues to the open crits, both to see their work in progress and to give constructive feedback.
Organized by Crosstown Arts in partnership with ArtsMemphis ArtsAccelerator.

The Art of Love
2016-02-10 12:30 - 16:00 | TN
L3 Television is producing 3 new shows during the spring of 2016. This event is a special live taping called “L3 Television Presents: The Art of Love,” with a spoken word performance, fashion show, and cooking demo.

First, the TV show Lights in the City will interview local spoken word artist Timothy “UrbanThoughts” Moore and he will recite some original spoken word love sonnets.

Then the TV show The Style Center will interview local stylist Jennifer Graham of Jenuinely Chic Fashions. She will be sponsoring a fashion show with a focus on sexy, Valentine’s Day attire.

Finally Tanocha Thedford of From our Table, To your Kitchen will display some creative, love-inspired dishes and do a live cooking demonstration.

Organized by L3 Television and LeMarcus Jones.
Free community event; limited capacity. Light refreshments will be served.

Visiting Writer Ed Tarkington
2016-02-11 12:00 - 14:00 | story booth, 438 N. Cleveland St., Memphis, TN, 38104, United States
Crosstown Arts and the Booksellers at Laurelwood present Visiting Writer Ed Tarkington
“Love can make people do terrible things.”
Welcome to Spencerville, Virginia, 1977. Eight-year-old Rocky worships his older brother, Paul. Sixteen and full of rebel cool, Paul spends his days cruising in his Chevy Nova blasting Neil Young, cigarette dangling from his lips, arm slung around his beautiful, troubled girlfriend. Paul is happy to have his younger brother as his sidekick. Then one day, in an act of vengeance against their father, Paul picks up Rocky from school and nearly abandons him in the woods. Afterward, Paul disappears.
Seven years later, Rocky is a teenager himself. He hasn’t forgotten being abandoned by his boyhood hero, but he’s getting over it, with the help of the wealthy neighbors’ daughter, ten years his senior, who has taken him as her lover. Unbeknownst to both of them, their affair will set in motion a course of events that rains catastrophe on both their families. After a mysterious double murder brings terror and suspicion to their small town, Rocky and his family must reckon with the past and find out how much forgiveness their hearts can hold.

Praise For Only Love Can Break Your Heart:
“A lush mystery-within-a-coming-of-age-tale-within-a-Southern-Gothic. If a book could have an Instagram filter, Tarkington’s would be set on something called ‘Nostalgic’ . . . interesting, readable and beautifully written.”—NPR Books
“A clear winner—a taut, engrossing, crisply written tale of loss and abiding love.”—Charlotte Observer
“Tarkington’s writing is talky, devoid of flash, and calls to mind a young Pat Conroy . . . propulsion is its primary attribute. Not mere plot propulsion—though there’s plenty of that, especially after the corpses turn up—but emotional propulsion: Tarkington’s fidelity to period and place is matched by his fidelity to human contradictions, to the gray area between heroism and villainy in which most of us reside. The gothic elements add spice, but the protein in this assured debut—the part that sticks to your ribs—is the beautiful but ever-threatened connection between Rocky and Paul. Only Love Can Break Your Heart is a novel about brotherhood, most of all, about the delicate fortress of that bond.” —Garden & Gun
“This heartbreakingly effective coming-of-age story about the importance of love in one’s life is replete with moments of harsh cruelty and tender love. Beautifully written….Readers will stop and reread paragraphs, not because of confusion but for the pure joy of the language . . . Fans of Kathryn Stockett’s The Help will embrace debut author Tarkington’s depiction of Southern life at a time of changing social mores. Most of all, readers who can’t get enough of Wiley Cash, Ron Rash, and Brian Panowich will delight in discovering this fine new writer.” —Library Journal, starred review
“A coming-of-age story that evolves into a whodunit with tangled roots in three families whose lives collide in 1977… [a] well-plotted, generous inquiry into the intricacies of the human heart — especially the broken variety … Secrets abound, imaginations run wild …”—Atlanta Journal Constitution
“This is a wonderful novel about a small Southern town and love within, and outside of, families. It is not a typical coming-of-age story.”—Daily American (Somerset, PA)
“A rich, moody, moving novel about growing up and growing old before your time. Tarkington’s people are rakes, rascals, irascible losers, femme fatales, rich buffoons, dunderheads, beautiful loons, and one very cool dude, all balanced by the voice of a narrator you come to love as much as he loves his doomed older brother. On top of all that, it’s a very fun, deeply satisfying, page-turner of a book.” —Brad Watson, author of The Heaven of Mercury and Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives
“Well-written and observed . . . Tarkington carefully lays out his elaborate storyline and sensitively depicts his troubled characters.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Welcome to small town, late 1970s, old money Virginia where teenagers can still roam wild and free. Ed Tarkington’s Only Love Can Break Your Heart brilliantly explores the winding roads and cul-de-sacs of love, especially the troubled and troubling bond between two step-brothers, Paul and Rocky Askew. Narrated by Rocky, the younger of the two, in a voice that is beguiling and wise, this addictive tale of abandonment and forgiveness will haunt you long after you’ve turned the last page.”—Elizabeth Stuckey-French, author of The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady
“A wonderful, beauty-haunted piece of work. Tarkington’s voice in his hard-to-put-down debut novel has a timeless feel to its cadences, the same bittersweet music we hear in the storytelling of the best of our Southern writers who remind us how hard the world can be for dreamers.”—Bob Shacochis, author of The Woman Who Lost Her Soul
“A reader need not be a disciple of rock legend Neil Young to find that Only Love Can Break Your Heart strikes a nostalgic chord. But for those of us who appreciate Young’s immense musical gifts, Ed Tarkington’s debut novel will likely prove twice as harmonious. In many ways a classic coming-of-age story, the novel also digs deep into the loamy depths of the modern Southern Gothic genre, circa 1970s . . . Tarkington’s impressive first novel achieves every author’s goal: Once you start reading, you can’t stop. And as an added bonus for Neil Young fans, Tarkington’s riveting tale provides plenty of classic rock riffs, too.”—BookPage
“Ed Tarkington kicks off his first novel, Only Love Can Break Your Heart, with a ghost, a gun and an abandoned, white-pillared Southern mansion called Twin Oaks. He wraps it up with a grisly double murder in the same place. In between, his story touches on nearly every benchmark of good Southern Gothic literature: violence, sex, money, sibling rivalry, antipsychotic drugs, incest, abortion, religious fanaticism and plenty of alcohol . . . he tells his story with the confident ease of Dickens in Great Expectations . . . an accomplished, confident coming-of-age story in the Southern Gothic tradition”—Shelf Awareness for Readers
“Well-written and observed . . . Tarkington carefully lays out his elaborate storyline and sensitively depicts his troubled characters.”—Kirkus Reviews
“A grisly and suspenseful debut novel.”—Nashville Lifestyles
“I’m speechless. I don’t remember the last debut novel that kept me turning pages enthralled. Only Love Can Break Your Heart is part The Graduate, part southern gothic dysfunctional family, part Edisto, part The Moviegoer. It’s all Ed Tarkington, though. Funny, desperate, sad, tender, suspenseful, intelligent, insightful, and full of nothing but heart, heart, heart.” – George Singleton, author of Between Wrecks and The Half-Mammals of Dixie
“Ed Tarkington’s first novel manages an expert narrative feat—it is somehow both ruminative and remarkably suspenseful. A novel of family and love and class, of beautiful youth and terrible consequences. And of heartbreak, of course, as the title makes plain and life makes inescapable. Readers will be born along on the strength and clarity of Tarkington’s prose, the twists and pivots of his plot. Only Love Can Break the Heart is a truly auspicious debut.”—Michael Knight, author ofThe Typist
“Tarkington’s childhood was accompanied by the sounds of classic rock . . . and now it’s at the heart of his debut novel, Only Love Can Break Your Heart, a story of love, loyalty, murder and vinyl.”—The Tennessean (Nashville)
“Ed Tarkington’s Only Love Can Break Your Heart harkens back to predecessors such as Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird and Carson McCullers’s The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Dorothy Allison’s Bastard Out of Carolina, and Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees . . . At the core of this small-town Southern story there are universal truths that transcend regionalism. If not for the crackling emotion powering this traditional bildungsroman—the loss of love to death and time, the struggle to find and keep a home, the confusion and despair of growing up—its straightforward prose might fall flat. From the opening page of Only Love Can Break Your Heart to the wrenching last, human relationships remain the narrative’s most compelling force . . .Yes, this is a novel about love, but not just the romantic kind. It’s an ode to love in all of its complicated forms: between estranged brothers, between fathers and prodigal sons, between a boy and his hometown.” Amy Greene, New York Times bestselling author ofBloodroot , for Chapter16.org (Nashville)
“Tarkington’s debut novel is an elegant bildungsroman that lays open the strange and dangerous world of old-money and new-money Virginians, and those who exist between these worlds and who are often trapped between them. The depiction of these people, places, and culture is spot-on and Tarkington’s love for the greatest state in the union warms this tale. Humming in the background is a soundtrack for the glory days of rock and roll, as young Rocky drops the needle on another Neil Young album, creating a tender paean for the romantic and doomed nostalgics from a previous generation who carry this music into the present and future. The plot turns along family strife, naked desire, and sometimes violent treachery, but at its core Only Love Can Break Your Heartis a love story that just might break your heart, too.”—Matt Bondurant, author of The Night Swimmer and The Wettest County in the World
“Tarkington’s prose is effortlessly smooth, almost disappearing into itself, making an engrossing and surprisingly comfortable read. Rocky’s voice becomes our own, his confusion ours, and his yearning to love and be loved an echo of what it means to be young. Tarkington succeeds in a difficult dance, creating a story that is at once bizarre and utterly familiar. He asks us to remember that we are all trying desperately to be loved, often failing, but trying.” – Erika Swyler, Washington Independent Review of Books
“Only Love Can Break Your Heart is the 195th book I’ve read this year. Out of those 195, I’ve only handed out a handful of 5 Star ratings. I don’t know what it was about this novel that sucked me in, but boy did it and I couldn’t put it down … Hot damn but the fella can write!” – 52 Book Minimum Blog
“From beginning to end, the plotline is intense, never flagging. From the bleeding heart Tarkington stitches on Rocky’s sleeve there arises both scandal and rivalry, along with a touch of the paranormal and religious faith.” –Booklist

Memphis Urban Sketchers
2016-02-13 04:00 - 06:00 | Cleveland Street Flea Market, 438 N. Cleveland, Memphis, 38104, United States
Join the Memphis Urban Sketchers will meet at the Cleveland Street Flea Market for their February sketching session.
Learn more

Illanostalgia presents Born Free
2016-02-16 12:00 - 16:00 | TN
Art by Killion

Microcinema Club
2016-02-17 12:30 - 15:00 | TN
Presented by Crosstown Arts & Indie Memphis
Join us for an encore screening of the Documentary Shorts Block from our 2015 Indie Memphis Film Festival. These films were quite popular but we know a lot of people didn’t have a chance to see them.

83 Min. Total Running Time

The Button King (8:04 min.) – directed by Ava Lowrey
Insomnia leads to an inspired talent in this documentary short about Dalton Stevens, the Button King.
Sandorkraut (12:00 min.) – directed by Ann Husaini and Emily Lobsenz
A portrait of acclaimed author and “fermentation guru” Sandor Katz, whose revival of ancient culinary methods has transformed his relationship with life and death.
American Renaissance (9:21 min.) – directed by Jarred Alterman and Ryan Scafuro
Explore the fantastic world of Elizabethan England… in a small town in upstate New York. “American Renaissance” takes you on a rollicking journey to one of the largest renaissance faires in the US, and a portrait of the characters that return year after year.
Collinsville Trade Day, 1988 (6:47 min.) – directed by Charles Keener & Jason LaRay Keener
A documentary about a small town market, shot on VHS by a curious grandfather in 1988.
Goran (10:38 min.) – directed by Roberto Santaguida
Joy and frustration as constructed by Goran Gostojić of Novi Sad.
The House is Innocent (12:15 min.) – directed by Nicholas Coles
Tom and Barbara’s new home has a notorious past and it’s going to take more than a fresh coat of paint to whitewash its macabre history.
Jake Plays First Base (4:55 min.) – directed by Josh Harrell
Jake just graduated to coach-pitch little league on his baseball team, and he’s set the East Nashville Little League on fire! Needless to say, Jake has big plans for his baseball future.
Seven Ways From Sunday (7:34 min.) – directed by Robert Sickels
Chronicles a series of unexpectedly startling moments of personal revelation, resulting in a powerful meditation on how seemingly fleeting moments of human contact can have profound long-term repercussions.
My Sister Ate the Zoo (10:40 min.) – directed by Maya Zhang
An ordinary phone call between a mother and a daughter, taking the audience on an emotional journey.

Memphis: Art & Place - Art & Community Place-based Session
2016-02-19 04:00 - 06:00 | story booth, 438 N. Cleveland St., Memphis, TN, 38104, United States
Organized by the Memphis Center at Rhodes College
February 18, 19, and 20, 2016
Registration Page
Full conference information
The arts are central to Memphis’ identity—innovations in music, dance, performance, and the visual arts continue to define and shape our sense of this place. Increasingly, the arts are understood as having a key role in social change, community building, and urban development. Mel Chin will be the conference’s keynote speaker as part of the Communities in Conversation series. The Memphis Center at Rhodes College will partner with local leaders, artists, and stakeholders to host conversations about the role of the arts in Memphis, with sessions held at Rhodes College and in three Memphis neighborhoods: Crosstown, the Edge District, and Orange Mound. The conference is free to attend ($5 ballet performance optional) with registration.
Please sign up at our Registration Page and keep updated via our Facebook event page.

Visual Reverberations
2016-02-19 12:00 - 15:00 | TN
Opening Reception: Friday, February 19, 6-9 pm
Gallery Hours: Saturday – Sunday, February 20-21, 11 am – 5 pm
Visual Reverberations is a group show featuring abstract works of art that echo the
intuitive thoughts and experiences of the artist. Just as the duration of sound is
absorbed by space, these works of art visually embody the notion of a continuing
effect translated compositionally. This exhibition explores the relationship between
thinking and feeling as it drives the creative process, revealing to the viewer the
expressive interaction between the artist and the work. Each work carries a rhythm
of its own that resonates through the space inviting the viewer to look and listen.
Curated by Victoria Barrera, and featuring work by Dana Finimore, Mary Michael
Ryan, Amy Hofstetter, Danielle Meseika, and Katherine Dean.

Working Writer's Cocktail Hour
2016-02-22 11:30 - 13:00 | story booth, 438 N. Cleveland St., Memphis, TN, 38104, United States
In the interests of further cultivating and connecting the literary community of Memphis, story booth is hosting the third edition of Crosstown Arts‘ Working Writers’ Cocktail Hour.
College and MFA students to early/mid-career/accomplished (meaning published and not-yet-published) writers who live and work in Memphis are welcome. Whether writers of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, screenwriting, playwriting, journalism, art writing, music writing—all are invited to visit story booth for an hour (or so) to do what it normally takes an expensive retreat to make happen: bring a group of writers together to stand around, have a drink, and make connections with other working writers they may or may not have known before.
Whether the day-job is writing-related or not–if you’re a working writer, this means you.
For more info contact Nat Akin at nat@crosstownarts.org
