Regina’s artwork will not only be published in paper format, but also in an online digital format on the Marble Collection.org website.

Massachusetts Wildlife

FOUR CHS students received awards in the 2012 Massachusetts Wildlife Junior Duck Stamp Art Contest. About 500 students across the state participated in the program.

The students will recognized at a recent awards ceremony in Worcester.

The top 100 art pieces will tour the commonwealth during the coming year. The schedule of the exhibit locations and dates can be located at www.masswildlife.org.

The following CHS students received awards for their realistic duck sketches.

n Alyssa Genereux, freshman, second place among grades 7-9.

n Tiffany Shu, sophomore, honorable mention among grades 10-12.

n Emma Suleski, sophomore, honorable mention among grades 10-12.

n Sophia Upton, sophomore, honorable mention among grades 10-12.

The students entered their artwork with the guidance of Art Instructor Terry Karangioze.

Westford Floral Arts Gallery

Several CHS students have their works on display at the Westford Floral Arts Gallery for the remainder of May. The gallery is at 129 Littleton Road (Route 110).

Georgia Spanos, an artist and member of the Chelmsford Art Society, collaborated with CHS Art instructors to create the unique opportunity for the high-school students. More than 30 student art pieces are on display.

PHILADELPHIA – The Barnes Foundation is no longer the greatest art collection you’ll never see.

Art aficionados and academics might never stop debating whether Dr. Albert C. Barnes‘ jaw-dropping cache should have been uprooted from its cozy confinement in suburban Merion and transplanted to a modernist box on the museum-studded Benjamin Franklin Parkway. But like it or not, the Barnes’ long, strange trip has reached its final destination.

“We are beginning a chapter of history at the Barnes where the ‘plain people’ that Dr. Barnes so often talked about will at long last feel these masterpieces are as readily available for their enjoyment and study as anyone in this room,” said Judge Jacqueline Allen, the foundation’s secretary, at a preview of the collection Wednesday.

The Barnes expects 250,000 visitors to see the collection during its first year in Philadelphia, roughly four times more than in its hallowed former home that required months-in-advance reservations. Visitors also will see it better, with discreet lighting to reduce the glare that was a perennial problem in Merion.

Along with the improvements in access and esthetics comes added space for a restaurant and cafe, a gift shop, classrooms and an auditorium, and more parking than its predecessor.

Folks’ opinions on the new amenities may correspond with their view on whether the move saved or destroyed the celebrated collection of 800 paintings and 1,700 other objects, which makes its official public debut Saturday in its new home.

“This immense tent behind us is where people will dance on the grave of Albert Barnes,” said Evelyn Yaari of Friends of Barnes Foundation, a citizens group that fought in court for years to prevent the move, as she and a handful of others protested outside the new building. “The very smart people of Philadelphia know a fake when they see one and they know a racket when they see one.”

Opponents said Philadelphia’s political and corporate powerbrokers, hungry to reap the economic spoils and bragging rights to the legendary trove, conspired to orchestrate the undoing of Barnes’ trust, which stated the collection could never be moved. The alleged scenario inspired the scathing 2009 documentary “The Art of the Steal.”

It may look like a museum but officials are quick to point out that the Barnes will remain true to — and expand upon — the educational mission that its creator intended. Opponents say removing the collection from its original context has created a “McBarnes,” despite the efforts to replicate the dizzying floor-to-ceiling arrangements of paintings, furniture and metalwork that underscored Barnes’ eccentric philosophy of art appreciation.

The Barnes Foundation’s saga has been a tumultuous one from the outset thanks to the irascible Barnes himself, a Philadelphia butcher’s son-turned-pharmaceutical baron.

Introduced in the 1910s to then-radical works of Gaugin, Picasso, Matisse and Cezanne by his friend, Ashcan School painter William Glackens, Barnes went on to amass the world’s most comprehensive private collection of French impressionist, postimpressionist and early modern paintings. He also assembled a lesser-known but extraordinary array of African sculpture, Old Master paintings, antique furnishings and Native American pottery and jewelry.

A side exhibit at the new Barnes Foundation — explaining his art philosophy and presenting newspaper clippings and letters — lets visitors get inside Barnes’ head, in a way the former location could not, to understand the rhyme and reason of his collection.

Barnes created his eponymous foundation as a free art school largely for the underprivileged. “I am trying to do the biggest thing for Philadelphia than any one man has ever attempted,” he told an interviewer in 1923.

Shortly afterward, he pulled up the metaphorical drawbridge when the cognoscenti ridiculed an exhibit of his daring collection. He required would-be visitors to make their appeals in writing, and often responded to the high-society types he despised with darkly comical rejection letters he sometimes signed as his dog.

Barnes, who died in a 1951 car crash, left behind a trust that stipulated his collection could never be moved. It took a court fight for Barnes officials to embark on a world tour of the collection in the 1990s. The tour was a success in raising desperately needed funds but the fiscal picture remained grim.

After years of financial struggles, infighting and mismanagement allegations, Barnes Foundation officials in 2002 asked a judge’s permission to move a few miles south to downtown Philadelphia. They said staying in Merion, where hours and visitor numbers were strictly limited by the township, would lead to bankruptcy and the dismantling of the multibillion-dollar collection

Three charitable foundations promised to help the Barnes raise $150 million upon the relocation’s approval, which happened in 2004.

“It was a long and arduous road but the (end) product is so wonderful,” Allen said.

The legal squabbling continues in Montgomery County Court, largely related to legal fees in the epic case, even as champions of the move attend a week of galas welcoming the Barnes to the neighbourhood it shares with the Rodin Museum and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The Barnes Foundation is no longer the greatest art collection you’ll never see.

Art aficionados and academics might never stop debating whether Dr. Albert C. Barnes’ jaw-dropping cache should have been uprooted from its cozy confinement in suburban Merion and transplanted to a modernist box on the museum-studded Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

But like it or not, the Barnes’ long, strange trip has reached its final destination. It officially opens to the public Saturday.

“We are beginning a chapter of history at the Barnes where the ‘plain people’ that Dr. Barnes so often talked about will at long last feel these masterpieces are as readily available for their enjoyment and study as anyone in this room,” said Judge Jacqueline Allen, the foundation’s secretary, at a preview of the collection this week.

The Barnes expects 250,000 visitors to see the collection during its first year in Philadelphia, roughly four times more than in its hallowed former home that required months-in-advance reservations. Visitors also will see it better, with discreet lighting to reduce the glare that was a perennial problem in Merion.

Along with the improvements in access and aesthetics comes added space for a restaurant and cafe, a gift shop, classrooms and an auditorium, and more parking than its predecessor.

Folks’ opinions on the new amenities may correspond with their view on whether the move saved or destroyed the celebrated collection of 800 paintings and 1,700 other objects.

“This immense tent behind us is where people will dance on the grave of Albert Barnes,” said Evelyn Yaari of Friends of Barnes Foundation, a citizens group that fought in court for years to prevent the move, as she and a handful of others protested outside the new building. “The very smart people of Philadelphia know a fake when they see one and they know a racket when they see one.”

Opponents said Philadelphia’s political and corporate powerbrokers, hungry to reap the economic spoils and bragging rights to the legendary trove, conspired to orchestrate the undoing of Barnes’ trust, which stated the collection could never be moved. That scenario inspired the scathing 2009 documentary “The Art of the Steal.”

It may look like a museum but officials are quick to point out that the Barnes will remain true to — and expand upon — the educational mission that its creator intended. Opponents say removing the collection from its original context has created a “McBarnes,” despite the efforts to replicate the dizzying floor-to-ceiling arrangements of paintings, furniture and metalwork that underscored Barnes’ eccentric philosophy of art appreciation.

The Barnes Foundation’s saga has been a tumultuous one from the outset thanks to the irascible Barnes himself, a Philadelphia butcher’s son-turned-pharmaceutical baron.

Introduced in the 1910s to then-radical works of Gaugin, Picasso, Matisse and Cezanne by his friend, Ashcan School painter William Glackens, Barnes went on to amass the world’s most comprehensive private collection of French impressionist, post-impressionist and early modern paintings. He also assembled a lesser-known but extraordinary array of African sculpture, Old Master paintings, antique furnishings and Native American pottery and jewelry.

A side exhibit at the new Barnes Foundation — explaining his art philosophy and presenting newspaper clippings and letters — lets visitors get inside Barnes’ head, in a way the former location could not, to understand the rhyme and reason of his collection.

Barnes created his eponymous foundation as a free art school largely for the underprivileged. “I am trying to do the biggest thing for Philadelphia than any one man has ever attempted,” he told an interviewer in 1923.

Shortly afterward, he pulled up the metaphorical drawbridge when the cognoscenti ridiculed an exhibit of his daring collection. He required would-be visitors to make their appeals in writing, and often responded to the high-society types he despised with darkly comical rejection letters he sometimes signed as his dog.

Barnes, who died in a 1951 car crash, left behind a trust that stipulated his collection could never be moved. It took a court fight for Barnes officials to embark on a world tour of the collection in the 1990s. The tour was a success in raising desperately needed funds but the fiscal picture remained grim.

After years of financial struggles, infighting and mismanagement allegations, Barnes Foundation officials in 2002 asked a judge’s permission to move a few miles south to downtown Philadelphia. They said staying in Merion, where hours and visitor numbers were strictly limited by the township, would lead to bankruptcy and the dismantling of the multibillion-dollar collection.

Three charitable foundations promised to help the Barnes raise $150 million upon the relocation’s approval, which happened in 2004.

“It was a long and arduous road but the (end) product is so wonderful,” Allen said.

The legal squabbling continues in Montgomery County Court, largely related to legal fees in the epic case, even as champions of the move attend a week of galas welcoming the Barnes to the neighborhood it shares with the Rodin Museum and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

___

Online:

http://www.barnesfoundation.org

NEW YORK (AP) — The city’s spring art auction season was red hot.

The frenzy began with Edvard Munch‘s “The Scream” on May 2, when a phone bidder at Sotheby‘s plunked down nearly $120 million for the iconic image, earning it the title of most expensive artwork ever sold at auction.

Then, Mark Rothko‘s “Orange, Red, Yellow” stole the record for any contemporary artwork at auction when it sold for nearly $87 million at Christie’s on Tuesday.

But it didn’t stop there. Artist records also were shattered at the two auction houses for works by Yves Klein, Jackson Pollock, Gerhard Richter, Alexander Calder, Roy Lichtenstein, Cy Twombly, Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei and others.

The art market remains one of the few flourishing during a difficult economic period. Among the reasons: an expanding global market that includes buyers from Asia, the Middle East and South America, a strong desire by the most knowledgeable collectors to own a top piece by the most recognized artists in the world and the view that art is a sound investment.

“People feel very safe about buying art,” said Nicolai Frahm, a partner with the London-based Frahm Ltd. “You have a huge amount of new buyers coming to the market. If you have money, you want to be a part of buying art. People almost are considered imbeciles if they have money and they’re not buying.”

Christie’s took in a record $616 million during the two-week-long auctions of impressionist, modern and contemporary art. Its evening contemporary art sale alone totaled $388.5 million, a record for any auction in that category. Sotheby’s sales total was nearly $704 million. Its Wednesday sale of the Bacon, Lichtenstein, Warhol and other seminal works brought in $330.6 million.

All the prices include buyer’s premiums.

None of the buyers has been publicly identified, but bidders included collectors from China, Russia, South America, the Middle East, Europe and Australia.

Both auction houses offered works from famous collections — Philadelphia philanthropist and art patron David Pincus at Christie’s and New York financier Theodore Forstmann at Sotheby’s — and pieces that had been absent from the marketplace for decades.

“The reason for these record-breaking sales is, quite simply, the quality of the material,” said Michael Frahm, a contemporary art adviser and Nicolai Frahm’s brother and partner. “The auction houses have managed to find rare pieces by the most renowned artists.”

The sales “demonstrated the tremendous growth in demand for high-quality works and how the top end of the market is moving away from the rest to reach new levels, higher than we have ever witnessed before,” he said.

They included a silver silkscreen image of Elvis Presley by Warhol that fetched $37 million, Lichtenstein’s comic book-inspired “Sleeping Girl” for $44.8 million and 1 ton of handmade porcelain “Sunflower Seeds” by Weiwei, which brought $782,500.

The annual spring auction season was the strongest since the recession hit in 2008.

Experts said that mid-range works of art also performed well but that it was artworks at the top end that accounted for the robust market.

Tobias Meyer, Sotheby’s worldwide head of contemporary art, said the top of the market performed well because of the global demand for masterpieces.

Patricia Berman, chair of the art department at Wellesley College and a director of the Edvard Munch Research Institute in Oslo, Norway, said, “This narrow sector of the art market is robust because of the record number of millionaires and billionaires worldwide, because of the uncertainty of other investment pathways and because of the increasing glamour and cachet of the ownership of contemporary art among newer investors.”

Nicolai Frahm called the sale of the Rothko painting for nearly $87 million “amazing” because “that’s not so far away from the most iconic image (‘The Scream’) ever created in art.”

Even the most whimsical pieces at the sales couldn’t quell buyers’ enthusiasm.

Christie’s catalog entry for a life-size wax likeness of magazine publisher Peter Brant by the artist Urs Fischer said the artwork had 14 wicks that “when lit, turn ‘Untitled (Standing)’ into a giant candle that slowly melts to the floor.”

It was a move that hopefully was not contemplated by the buyer, who paid a record $1.3 million for it.

___

Online: http://www.sothebys.com , http://www.christies.com

HAVANA (AP) — Foreign art lovers are breaking bread with Cuban waiters, drivers and parking lot attendants this week in a unique experience that forces diners and chefs alike to overcome barriers of culture, language and five-plus decades of animosity between Washington and Havana.

Ten prominent New York City chefs are teaming up this week with 10 culinary entrepreneurs from Havana’s budding private restaurant scene, cooking up savory and sweet multi-course meals from an improvised kitchen built in a shipping container. The diners are mostly foreigners in town for a major art exhibition and Cubans who are being invited to participate in the free meals by the visiting chefs who meet them during the course of their stay.

Blending contemporary American, Italian, Japanese, even Burmese cuisines with Caribbean Creole classics, it’s a rare culinary treat in a country where many state-run and independent restaurants serve up dull, unimaginative fare. It’s also a performance art spectacle that’s about bridging the gap between estranged neighbors and socioeconomic classes.

“The easiest and most interesting way into understanding another culture is food,” said Sara Jenkins, the project’s chef director and proprietor of East Village eateries Porchetta and Porsena. “And the easiest, most uncomplicated way to make friends is to break bread at the same table.”

“Project Paladar,” named after Cuba‘s popular independent restaurants, is part of Havana’s 11th Biennial, an irreverent bash attracting 180 artists from 43 countries as well as thousands of art aficionados and collectors. The dining project is being funded by the donations of American individuals.

For 10 days the chefs will take turns pairing off and serving up gourmet meals in the back patio of a cultural center in colonial Old Havana. Guests are greeted with a mojito and escorted to a table for 12 in homage to the maximum number of seats that the government allowed paladars to have when they first opened in the 1990s.

With two tables of 12 seats, the organizers plan to feed up to five groups, or as many as 60 people, every evening.

At the project’s Friday night launch, an aproned Jenkins sweated over a pan of Burmese coconut-milk curry sauce, preparing it to poach filets of freshly caught red snapper. Accompanying the main dish were tuna tartar and a green mango salad that one could order takeout in New York but particularly tickled the palates of Cuban food professionals.

Conversation at the tables was lively as diners introduced themselves, hesitantly tried out second languages and turned to bilingual guests to translate reactions to each course: “Is this basil?” ”No, it’s mint!”

“I think this is an experience that has never been done in the Biennial, a very interesting sociocultural project,” said Kenia Echenique, a 25-year-old lawyer and actress who fanned her mouth after consuming the curry but said she enjoyed the flavor before the heat kicked in. “I think this can enrich our culture, our paladars, and contribute to exchange between our nations.”

“In the kitchen everything’s simple. A sauce is a sauce,” said Hector Higuera Martinez, Jenkins’ cooking partner and the man behind the stylish Le Chansonnier in Havana‘s Vedado neighborhood. “These things we have in common, independent of the language barrier. It has been spontaneous.”

“Project Paladar” is the brainchild of Craig Shillitto, a New York architect, artist and restaurant designer who was fascinated to read about the explosion of private restaurants in Cuba after President Raul Castro revived a 1990s policy allowing them to exist, then lifted many restrictions that kept them from flourishing.

Many paladars are still little better than Cuba’s dreary state restaurants and must contend with the daily struggle to find ingredients on an island long accustomed to scarcity. Some are languishing as they struggle to tap the limited number of visiting tourists and other foreigners, and the small number of Cubans with enough disposable income to patronize private restaurants.

But an increasing number of paladar owners are forming a maturing restaurant scene with creative, experimental chefs who are out to change Cuba’s reputation for culinary blandness.

“It’s hard to educate people …. because rice, beans, roast pork are really linked to our history,” Higuera said. “Many (chefs) stick with what’s easy to find. But I think there are many people who want to try different things.”

Part of the inspiration behind “Project Paladar” was to support Cuba’s budding foodie culture.

“The idea that people still cared about food and cuisine and still tried hard despite having no market for it was fascinating,” Shillitto said.

Jenkins brought down her own cooking knives, as well as ingredients that would seem exotic not just in Cuba but in many American kitchens: kaffir lime leaf, Szechuan peppercorns, a quarter-wheel of Grana Padano cheese (it’s like Parmesan, only made in a different part of Italy).

Anita Lo, executive chef and owner of Annisa, a Michelin-starred restaurant in the West Village, stuffed her suitcase with white soy and yuzu juice for her cooking partner, one of the few Cuban chefs making sushi.

“For someone to push ahead and still try to do something that’s almost impossible on this island …” Lo marveled, her voice trailing off. “Fish is hard to come by. Japanese ingredients are very hard to come by.”

For all their sophistication, the New Yorkers, including several of whom have written books and appeared on cooking shows such as Iron Chef America, are also learning from the Cubans.

How to make do with what’s available, for one thing. The Americans also had high praise for urban gardening in Havana, a local agroponic farm they visited where crops are grown without soil and a leafy, nutrient-rich green known as “maringa.” Jenkins described it as “slightly citrusy with a weird spice … and an undercurrent of bitterness.”

“Whether we’ll ever see it again,” she said, “to taste something new and like it and think it’s interesting and how can you use it … it’s fascinating.”

Organizers said they hope the project may create opportunities for future culinary exchanges, perhaps a chef-in-residence program. More such exchanges have occurred since President Barack Obama loosened rules on so-called people-to-people travel to the island by Americans.

Curator Elizabeth Grady said “Project Paladar” is in a long tradition of food-related art projects and tries to invert the elitist dynamic of art festivals by inviting dishwashers and taxi drivers to sup alongside the well-heeled art enthusiasts who typically patronize events like the biennial. It also gets people from two feuding nations talking to each other, even if haltingly or through translators.

“The main point is to use food as a vehicle to create genuine dialogue,” she said.

Call it kitchen diplomacy.