Press for "Love/Loss" at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art
https://www.pressdemocrat.com/specialsections/rebuildnorthbay/9366634-181/rebuilding-sonoma-county-museums-chronicle?sba=AAS&artslide=0
Museums chronicle pain, hope after 2017 wildfires
Tanya Gayer, left, exhibitions manager, and Margie Maynard, deputy director of engagement and exhibitions, co-curated the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art's exhibit devoted to the 2017 wildfires. (Christopher Chung/ The Press Democrat)
As ideas began to take shape at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, curators knew what they didn’t want.
“We knew from the beginning, we didn’t want it to be about what we were calling ‘fire porn’ — images of fire and destruction without any redeeming message,” said Margie Maynard, who together with Tanya Gayer co-curated “From Fire, Love Rises: Stories Shared from the Artist Community.”
Peter Hassen was the first artist to approach SVMA. He had gone out a few days after the fires started, taking photos of houses destroyed on Napa Road. After tracking down the owners of one house, he asked if he could create a mixed-media work incorporating one of the few remnants that survived: fence railings.
Maynard at SVMA was asking herself, “Are people ready for this?”
On opening night, the owners of the house who agreed to let Hassen create art from their ruins were sitting in the second row during the introductory discussion at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art. As tears welled in their eyes, Maynard watched the wife to see how she might react.
“She was kind of like my canary in the coal mine,” she remembered. “And I realized she felt good, and she felt like people cared about what had happened to them. That’s what this was all about.”
“Art is responsive to society and to history,” he said. “There is always a backstory.”
Press for the Sonoma Values Project; "Values Beyond Borders"
Press for the discovery of one of the Sacred Sculpture installations
These two articles describe the confusion surrounding the "discovery" of one of the sculptures.
The Sacramento Values Project Public Radio Interview
The Sacramento Values Project Disney Radio Interview
Sonoma News: Jurors for new show
NBC Feature on the Sacramento Values Project
NBC News Feature on the Sacramento Values Project
FOX News 2/14 on the Sacramento Values Project
Huffington Post 8/13 Feature on the Sacramento Values Project
TedX Napa, 2/13
You can see the talk HERE
Tricycle Magazine; 8/12
Story on Peter Hassen and the Sacred Sculpture Project
Story on Peter Hassen and the Sacred Sculpture Project
| tricycle_article.pdf |
Sonoma Sun; 1/12
Story on "Undiscovered" at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art
Story on "Undiscovered" at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art
| sonoma_news__discovering_artists_at_undiscovered.pdf |
Napa Valley News: 5/11
Story on The Values Project: Napa
Story on The Values Project: Napa
| napas_parking_lots_sprout_values.pdf |
