East Coast debut arrives with its own soundtrack. Funeral pros will hear it first.
GRATON, Calif., September 25—One of the grandest new venues for the arts —the 5,000 sq. ft. ICE BOX at Crane Arts, 1400 No. American Street in Philadelphia’s re-energized Kensington South neighborhood—is hosting the East Coast debut of an international exhibition that raises an appropriately imposing question: What memorial object will stand in for you when you’re no longer here to speak for yourself?
The 3rd international juried Ashes to Art® exhibition and sale of original contemporary artist-made funerary urns, vessels and personal memorial objects promises to offer a range of answers in all media, and in prices from $150 to $8,000. The exhibition opens with an artists and awards reception on Saturday, October 21 from 5-8pm. It closes with a People’s Choice award reception November 3, 5-8pm. Exhibition hours are 11am-6pm, Wednesday-Sunday, October 22-November 2. Admission is $10 for the opening. Other days are free. A color catalog will be available.
The majority of 120 artworks selected by a panel of jurors led by distinguished curator, crafts advocate, and museum executive Michael W. Monroe, are intended to contain some portion of cremated remains temporarily or throughout time. Notable exceptions are memento mori by ceramists Jeffrey Mongrain and Nick Kripal from their group installations in Rome, Edinburgh, Cologne and New York City. Mongrain and Kripal were specifically invited to show their work.
This is the 3rd international Ashes to Art® juried exhibition organized by FUNERIA®, a uniquely specialized Northern California-based arts agency. The first two were presented in 2001 and 2003 at San Francisco’s Fort Mason Center.
A soundtrack for an urn show without a single dirge in the mix
To mark its first East Coast presentation, Ashes to Art® arrives in Philadelphia with its own soundtrack, mixed by former Rolling Stone writer, author and broadcast journalist Ben Fong-Torres. Fong-Torres is no stranger to memorializing key figures of an era. One of his first tasks at the seminal publication was writing the obituary for Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones in 1969. He’s an authoritative resource for the task and has written numerous others on rock and music legends since. Due this November is a splashy volume, The Doors on The Doors, featuring interviews Fong-Torres conducted with Jim Morrison in 1971 shortly before Morrison died in Paris, and with his bandmates and family members more recently.
The special three-hour Ashes to Art® soundtrack, being played during the receptions, spans a range that recognizes life’s “ebbs and flows” as Fong-Torres notes, from Al Green’s Take Me to the River and Los Lonely Boys |
Heaven, to Benny Goodman’s Memories of You. The soundtrack will be played during the exhibition under licensing agreements with the appropriate agencies. The playlist is published in the exhibition catalog.
Funeral trade professionals and the press are invited to preview
During the week prior to the official opening, October 15–19, attendees of the nearby 125th convention of the National Funeral Directors Association will be invited to preview the exhibition. As an industry that has been shrouded in mystery and endured scandal among its members since cabinetmakers first added the task of undertaker to their trade, its most forward-thinking members are looking for new opportunities to serve families by becoming event planners of life celebrations as often as providing traditional funeral services.
Shifting demographics and cremation rates have forced much of the change. Cremation now represents more than 30% of all deaths in the US from less than 8% in 1976. In some states cremation is chosen for more than 60% of all deaths, and in some counties by more than 80% of its residents. Pennsylvania’s own history includes having been the site of the first documented “modern and scientific” cremation in North America when Baron De Palm was cremated at a private crematory on the estate of Dr. Francis Julius LeMoyne in Washington, PA. 1876 (from Purified by Fire, A History of Cremation in America by Stephen Prothero, 2001).
For further information, visit www.funeria.com, email arthonorslife@funeria.com, call 888.829.1966 (Toll free in the US) or 707.829.1966 (outside the US).
About FUNERIA®
FUNERIA® is the leading resource of original contemporary and superbly crafted artist-made urns, vessels and personal memorial artworks through retail and wholesale channels worldwide.
Contact:
Linda Shelp
E linda@funeria.com T 707.829.1966
http://www.funeria.com
FUNERIA and Ashes to Art are registered servicemarks and Art Honors Life is a servicemark of FUNERIA LLC, Graton, CA USA
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