The Egyptians Are Here! The Egyptians Are Here!Posted: Fri, April 27, 2012 After much red tape and support from both the local and international community, ArtUp gathered enough letters of support to get approval from Homeland Security to bring the Egyptians to Pittsburgh for the exhibit's closing events. Because of the superfluous paper work for special petition visas and to help finance artist Amado Al Fadni’s ticket, the organization reached out to their audience/supporters. Unlike in the U.S., if you are born in Egypt, that does not mean you are an Egyptian citizen. Al Fadni carries a Sudanese passport and by international law, could not have... |
ART INTO ACTION: Teens perform at the MF museumPosted: Wed, April 11, 2012 Art as Action is part of the ArtUp philosophy. As producers of the Firefly Tunnel Project, it was important for the ArtUp (www.artup.org) organization to see the project reach beyond the walls of the Mattress Factory Museum and flow out into the community. Part of that outreach consisted of working with Hope Academy. Hope Academy operates out of the East Liberty Presbyterian Church and offers low-cost or no-cost after-school and Saturday courses and private lessons in dance, music and theater for 4- to 18-year olds. Founder of Firefly Tunnels, Tavia La... |
Cover Girl CulturePosted: Sat, December 31, 2011 The SITES OF PASSAGE Performance Series moves from the garden to the indoor lobby, which serves as our new performance space. As the cold weather settles on this part of the world, we begin to prepare for major religious holidays and festivities. Performance artist, writer, and director Anya Martin does the same, only she views things from a different lens—a multifaceted one. Anya was brought up Mennonite. When I first met Anya I asked her what one of her earliest memories was. She told me that it was squirrel hunting with her father in the woods of Western Pennsylvania and the sound of the skin as it is being pulled back from... |
Havests & Hallelujahs in Mattress Factory GardenPosted: Sat, November 5, 2011 As fall gently cascaded down upon Pittsburgh, Firefly Performance Artist Mark Staley welcomed the seasonal change with a ritualistic performance of Celebration in the City, a poem by child psychologist Mandy Fessenden Brauer about her city, “old lady” Cairo. Encouraged by Egyptian Firefly Artist Marwa Benhalim (who knows the poet personally), Staley (an... |
"Sites of Passage" Defends Challenging PerspectivesPosted: Sat, September 17, 2011 "Can you believe all of this extra security??" was one of the many initial reactions to the opening of Sites of Passage last Friday, Sept. 9, 2011. What many visitors did not realize (until later), was that the "security" was really made up of American artists posing as officers in collaboration with Sudanese artist Amado al Fadni's installation "Passport Agency". The idea was to subject Americans to the absurdity of bureaucratic processing which is often the norm for citizens in the Middle East when trying to come to America. In the run-around, unknowing... |
"Sites of Passage" to Open September 9th, 2011Posted: Mon, September 5, 2011 This summer, ArtUp Director/Founder Tavia La Follette has been busier than a family of beavers preparing for the annual dam convention. The only difference is that her Project, Firefly Tunnels, is far from backed up. Breathing life into the meaning of coordination, Tavia chewed away tirelessly at the forest of possibility to build a diverse program schedule with the wonderful staff at The Mattress Factory Museum. Early in June, Tavia began presenting her idea to the Hillel Center of Pittsburgh to initiate... |
Pgh Workshop- A Movement Across Rooms, Rivers & SpacePosted: Fri, July 15, 2011 I walk into the dark theater on 937 Liberty Avenue and see nothing but the black outlines of auditorium seats. It smells like wood and the rain from outside with a hint of Indian food, which I believe one of the artists brought in. There is no one around, so I take a seat and relax. Slowly, one by one, artists of all sorts begin to make their way into the theater, each enthusiastically introducing themselves to me. To me, an outsider... |
Success at Cairo's L'AtelierPosted: Tue, March 15, 2011 Firefly Tunnels partook in an eclectic mix of art display at Cairo's L'Atelier this past Sunday, March 13, 2011. The evening kicked off with a two hour opening showcasing a double-room variety of American and Egyptian cartoonists. A separate room held the fruit of Fayoum Art Center's six-week Winter Academy, presenting mostly mono-prints, a few paintings, and one sculpture. A TV screen was also set up to run a 104 picture slideshow of images taken by the different Artists during their time at the first annual Winter Academy. Street performances planned for Saturday, March 12 and Sunday, March 13 were cancelled due to... |
Preparing for "Caricatures of the Revolution"Posted: Fri, March 11, 2011 Today, Firefly Tunnel Artists packed it up and headed back to Cairo in preparation for their show on Sunday, March 13. The last two days have been spent exploring the desert oasis through performance & installation art, while after dinner discussions have revolved around ideas of philosophical identity, theory & nationalism, and the malleable nature of revolution. Wednesday's workshop featured a "street jam" in Fayoum, where Artists began using their new skills to perform inpromtu installations on their way to the town-side oasis lakefront, while Thursday took them a step further into the dramatic desert planes.... |
Firefly Tunnels in Fayoum, EgyptPosted: Tue, March 8, 2011 Firefly Tunnels kicked off its second Egyptian-based workshop for the Project yesterday, March 7, 2011. The workshop is part of Tavia La Follette’s two week teaching residency at Fayoum Art Center’s six week Winter Academy Program. With 14 Egyptian artists missing due to concerns over security during the country’s Revolutionary transition period, 6 American artists (including a few visiting professors) were included to help build the final number of participation to 12. The group was welcomed by Fayoum Art Center’s founder, Mohamed Abla. Abla explained how the Center was merely a dream ten years ago, “And like most... |
