DubuqueFest Fine Arts Festival awarded $1000 in cash prizes to three exhibiting artists as part of the 2011 art fair held May 21 and 22 in downtown Dubuque. At a reception held at the Dubuque Museum of Art on Saturday, May 21, Artist Awards were granted in three categories; Third Place, Second Place, and Best in Show. The Third Place prize of $200 was awarded to Val Neumann, a potter from Williamsburg, Iowa. Neumann creates functional stoneware pieces in rich glazed colors. Second Place prize of $300 was awarded to long-time art fair veteran Fred Frommelt of Janesville, Wisconsin. Frommelt's wood-turned bowls and hand-turned pepper mills are fine craft at it's very best. Best in Show and a cash award of $500 was awarded to Alice McMahon White for her ink and charcoal drawings. McMahon White is a Chicago artist who has recently relocated to Galena, Illinois to pursue studio art.

The Dubuque County Fine Arts Society awards cash prizes to artists to reward the work of art fair vendors and provide economic reward to cultural workers across the region. To view the winning artist's work visit www.dubuquefest.org

DubuqueFest Fine Arts Festival is an affiliate of Dubuque County Fine Arts Society, a non-profit arts organization whose mission is to offer free arts programming to the masses, founded 1976.

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[MAQUOKETA, IA] Maquoketa Art Experience has created a Study in Portraits month scheduled for June 6-19 that offers something for everyone. June programming includes a mezzo-relief sculpture workshop with renowned wood sculptor Fred Cogelow, a public painting demonstration by internationally acclaimed painter Rose Frantzen, and a portrait writing workshop by Free River Press Executive Director, Robert Wolf.

Fred Cogelow: Mezzo Relief Sculpture Workshop

In conjunction with the International Woodcarvers Congress in Maquoketa, Iowa, award-winning wood sculptor Fred Cogelow will teach a five-day workshop at Maquoketa Art Experience, June 6-10, exploring the creation of ¾ Profile Portraiture in Mezzo-Relief. Fred Cogelow is considered by many to be the greatest wood sculptor working in the United States. A self-taught reductive carver, Cogelow has been winning awards and honors throughout the Midwest and across the country since 1983. His work is included in private collections in Norway, Sweden, South Africa, and across the United States. This workshop is designed for an advanced carver/sculptor. Students interested in this workshop should possess a skill level of moderate to advanced, or at least an appreciation of anatomy, detail, and engineering. As a part of Cogelow's visit to Iowa, a 6-foot sculpture of Zona, a life-sized woman sculpture piece will be on display at the Dubuque Museum of Art, June 6-11. Cogelow will enter Zona into the sculpture competition at 2011 International Woodcarvers Congress June 13-19 in Maquoketa. The June workshop is the last one that Fred Cogleow will be teaching until 2014. Registration information is available at www.maquoketa-art.org or call 563.652.9925.

Rose Frantzen: Portrait Painting Demonstration

Internationally acclaimed Iowa artist Rose Frantzen will offer a portrait painting demonstration on Saturday, June 11 at Maquoketa Art Experience. All ticket holders will enter into a drawing to serve as the model for the portrait and will take the finished portrait home with them at the end of the day. Doors will open at 10 a.m. with the drawing for the model at 11 a.m. You must be present to win. No one under 16 years old is eligible to participate in the drawing, but those under 16 are invited to purchase a ticket to observe the demonstration at a separate ticket price.

Frantzen is the creator of the Portrait of Maquoketa collection, a 180 piece community portrait series painted using volunteer models from her home town. Portrait of Maquoketa was on exhibit at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in 2009-2010.

The painting demonstration will consist of painting a live model while Frantzen discusses her painting process, and her experience judging demonstrations at national events. The proceeds from this event serve as a fundraiser for Maquoketa Art Experience, a non profit arts organization whose mission is to build community through arts outreach. For ticket information visit www.maquoketa-art.org or call 563.652.9925.

Robert Wolf: Portrait Writing Workshop

Free River Press executive director Robert Wolf has designed a three-day portrait writing workshop, scheduled for June 17-19 at Maquoketa Art Experience. This workshop is created for people of all ages, and while the practiced writer will find it useful, the workshop was designed with the amateur in mind.

Wolf is the author of Heartland Portrait, a collection of stories created from portrait writing that explores sense of place and captures the voice of America's heartland through storytelling.
The aim of this portrait writing workshop is for each participant to complete at least one portrait of a person or place at the end of three days. The basis for the work is in storytelling, with the storyteller's emphasis on imagery (visualization) and dialogue. For those participants who want to expand beyond their comfort zone, Wolf encourages experimentation. This may include the use of fragments or employing techniques used by contemporary poets. Registration information is available at www.maquoketa-art.org or call 563.652.9925.

For further information about Maquoketa Art Experience's Study in Portraits month or to participate in the workshops or purchase tickets for the portrait demonstration, contact Paula Neuhaus at maquoketaartexperience@hotmail.com or call 563.652.9925.

Maquoketa Art Experience programming is made possible in part by a grant from the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs.

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Davenport, IA (May 2011) ? On Thursday, May 19, the Figge says 'bon voyage' to two works from the collection that will soon go on loans to other institutions for upcoming exhibitions. Bruce Carter, host of WVIK's Art Talks, will lead an Art Talk at 7pm about Mrs. Chase in Pink by William Merritt Chase and Liz Taylor by Andy Warhol before they go on their summer vacations.

The Art Talk will explore the differences in the two featured paintings.  Figge staff will also talk briefly on how loans increase national and international visibility for the Figge and its collection.  Guests will be invited to take part in a special Thursdays at the Figge free art activity; inspired by Andy Warhol's vibrantly colored lithographic print of Elizabeth Taylor, guests can design their own portrait using a simple printing process.

Mrs. Chase in Pink will be loaned to The Paine Art Center and Gardens in Oshkosh, Wisconsin for their summer exhibition, William Merritt Chase: Family Portraits (June 18 to October 9, 2011).  The exhibition focuses on his portraits of his wife and children and will feature two dozen of his works, loaned from both public and private institutions.

Andy Warhol's Liz Taylor will be included in Warhol and the Diva (June 25 - September 25, 2011), an exhibition at The Lowery in Manchester, UK, coordinated in part by the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  The exhibition focuses on Warhol's depictions of some of the most iconic performance figures of the 20th century, including Marilyn Monroe, Liza Minnelli and Mick Jagger. It also explores' Warhol's identity as a diva, focusing on his transformation within his Self Portrait in Drag series.

This is not the first time that works from the Figge collection have been loaned to other institutions for major exhibitions.  This past October, one of the Figge's most treasured Mexican Colonial paintings, Baltasar de Echave Rioja's La Adoración de los Magos (The Adoration of the Maji), traveled to the Prado and the Royal Palace in Madrid, Spain to be part of the exhibition Painting of the Kingdoms-Shared Identities and is now on view in Mexico City as part of an exhibition of the same name at the Museo Palacio Cultural Banamex (Antiguo Palacio de Iturbide).

To learn more about the La Adoración de los Magos's trip to Spain and to see an image of the Queen Sofia of Spain at the Palacio Real de Madrid with the Curator, Jonathan Brown, NYU, with the Figge's La Adoracioìn de los Magos in the background visit:  http://figgeart.org/Figge-Art-Museum-(1)/February-2011/A-Trip-to-Spain.aspx

To learn more about the Figge's Thursdays at the Figge program, visit: http://figgeart.org/Education/Adult-Programs.aspx#Thursdays.

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Quilts of the Civil War Becky Wright, Presenter

Sunday, June 12, 2:00 p.m.