fbpx
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Sign up for Free Newsletter
  • Print Edition
    • Get Home Delivery
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
    • Advertise
    • Customer Support
    • Submit A News Tip
    • Where’s My Paper?
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Free HV1 Trial
  • Movie Night Gift Subscription
Hudson Valley One
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Podcast
  • Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Podcast
  • Log In
No Result
View All Result
Hudson Valley One
No Result
View All Result

Mother of invention: WSW’s Barbara Leoff Burge

by Frances Marion Platt
April 1, 2016
in Art & Music, Entertainment
0

[portfolio_slideshow id=8684]

 

The two biggest annual fundraising events for the Women’s Studio Workshop (WSW) are typically the annual Gala Dinner & Auction – coming up this Sunday at Mohonk Mountain House – and the wintertime Chili Bowl Fiesta, when hundreds of fans of the Binnewater-based arts collective eagerly line up to pay anywhere from $5 to $75 for a one-of-a-kind handmade ceramic bowl heaped with zesty chili. At the last such event, back in February, WSW’s acknowledged Founding Mother was holding court in a hallway at the Rosendale Recreation Center, generously doling out hugs and jokes and her trademark grin that somehow mixes sweet innocence and sly humor in equal measure.

To the art world, where she arguably has done more than anyone to put contemporary women artists on the map and establish paper arts and the “artist’s book” as media to be taken seriously, she’s known as Barbara Leoff Burge. But to all those fond friends and admirers from Rosendale, where she still teaches, New Paltz, where she still lives, and many miles around, she’s just Babs. “Can you believe that I’m turning 80 this year?” she asked this correspondent at the Fiesta. I couldn’t. Her hair may be a little grayer, but Babs looks as fit and feisty and luminous now as she did at 70…or 60 or even 50. And maybe it was the chili, but she’s every bit as full of beans as she ever was, appreciatively eyeing any good-looking man who walked by and telling funny anecdotes.

Another bit of exciting news that Babs shared that day was the fact that WSW will be honoring her legacy at the Gala on September 22, along with Stone Ridge entrepreneurs and philanthropists Laurel and Tim Sweeney. A continuous slideshow of artworks from Leoff Burge’s long career will be screened, and “Five or six pieces that Babs has donated will be on auction,” WSW office manager Sandra Brown confirmed this week.

A comprehensive tribute to Leoff Burge’s oeuvre is long overdue, especially considering the barriers to women artists that she has faced since her days at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago back in the 1950s. Frustration with the lack of opportunities to get her innovative works shown was a big part of her motivation in organizing WSW in the first place. It’s an oft-told tale how co-founders Ann Kalmbach and Anita Wetzel met as students of Babs’s then-husband, Ken Burge, as art students at SUNY-New Paltz. They began having informal work sessions with Babs. Fueled by shared indignation about the sexism that then prevailed in their field, Tana Kellner joined the group soon after meeting Kalmbach in graduate school. In 1974, the four talented friends took the plunge and started their own arts collective specifically for women – a place, to fill the void “between academia and amateurism” – in a house that Leoff Burge had rented on the corner of John and James Streets in Rosendale.

And so it was that WSW was born. One is tempted to say, “The rest is history,” but that makes it all sound too easy. The once-maverick organization, soon to enter its fifth decade of operation, has certainly established itself as an iconic fixture of contemporary art training, especially in the paper arts and screenprinting. Its Binnewater Arts Center is the go-to place for anyone, female or male, who wants to learn from the masters how to make an artist’s book. But staying afloat financially from year to year remains a perennial challenge, and WSW depends heavily on good turnout at its fundraising events to keep providing workshops, residencies and internships.

While no longer officially on staff at WSW, Leoff Burge remains on the Board of Directors (as does her ex-husband), and “She’s still very much involved in the operations at Women’s Studio Workshop,” according to Brown. Virtually every poster used by WSW to publicize its events over the decades has been a Babs creation. The classes that she still teaches regularly at WSW’s Summer Arts Institute tend to have provocative titles like “Absurdity by Design,” reflecting the zany sense of humor that informs so much of Leoff Burge’s work, making the political palatable and gently forcing us to apprehend the world in new ways.

For example, one of her most widely collected limited-edition artist’s books – copies have been acquired by the Museum of Modern Art, the National Art Library in London and 20 other museums, libraries and universities – is titled Kunst Comix: A Phoney Art History (1983), and consists of “11 pictures parodying Russian icons, Indian Rajput paintings and Japanese prints, all dedicated to Arshile Gorky and Walt Disney.” Improbable Tangentialities (2004) is about “the juxtaposition of the ‘regular’ with the improbable,” such as “beaks busted with toasters” and “penguins on the streets of suburbs.”

In her book art, the mixtures of such media as drawing, collage and color photocopying reflect Leoff Burge’s playful-yet-pointed attitude and aesthetic, and still feel fresh despite the mainstreaming in recent years of the artform that she pioneered. There is also a long waiting list to obtain one of her ongoing series of hand-painted ceramic tiles.

For many reasons, the well-earned celebration of Leoff Burge’s contributions to WSW and the art world in general should be a joyful occasion. The $125 ticket price for this Sunday’s Gala will provide supporters an all-day pass to the Mohonk Mountain House grounds and parking “up top,” as well as a cocktail hour beginning at 6 p.m., an international gourmet buffet dinner at 6:30 and speakers and presentations at 7:30. The auction to follow will include not only artworks by Leoff Burge and many others, but also such self-indulgences as ten days in Tuscany or a week in San Miguel de Allende, a lobster feast for six from Gadaleto’s or a private sail on the 30-foot Hudson River sloop Élan, an international wine-of-the-month subscription or a microdermabrasion treatment.

To purchase tickets to Women’s Studio Workshop’s 2013 annual Gala Dinner and Auction, call (845) 658-9133 or visit https://wsworkshop.org. PayPal is accepted.

Women’s Studio Workshop Gala Dinner & Auction, Sunday, September 22, 6 p.m. (grounds open 7 a.m.), $125, Mohonk Mountain House, 1000 Mountain Rest Road, New Paltz; (845) 658-9133, https://wsworkshop.org.

Join the family! Grab a free month of HV1 from the folks who have brought you substantive local news since 1972. We made it 50 years thanks to support from readers like you. Help us keep real journalism alive.
- Geddy Sveikauskas, Publisher
Previous Post

Red Hook to celebrate Hardscrabble Day

Next Post

Casino prop’s slanted wording angers opponents

Frances Marion Platt

Frances Marion Platt has been a feature writer (and copyeditor) for Ulster Publishing since 1994, under both her own name and the nom de plume Zhemyna Jurate. Her reporting beats include Gardiner and Rosendale, the arts and a bit of local history. In 2011 she took up Syd M’s mantle as film reviewer for Alm@nac Weekly, and she hopes to return to doing more of that as HV1 recovers from the shock of COVID-19. A Queens native, Platt moved to New Paltz in 1971 to earn a BA in English and minor in Linguistics at SUNY. Her first writing/editing gig was with the Ulster County Artist magazine. In the 1980s she was assistant editor of The Independent Film and Video Monthly for five years, attended Heartwood Owner/Builder School, designed and built a timberframe house in Gardiner. Her son Evan Pallor was born in 1995. Alternating with her journalism career, she spent many years doing development work – mainly grantwriting – for a variety of not-for-profit organizations, including six years at Scenic Hudson. She currently lives in Kingston.

Related Posts

Every live music event in Ulster County this week
Art & Music

Every live music event in Ulster County this week

June 6, 2023
Woodstock gallery celebrates the life and art of Carol Zaloom
Art & Music

Woodstock gallery celebrates the life and art of Carol Zaloom

June 1, 2023
Legendary NYC avant-punk polymath performs live in Woodstock this Saturday
Art & Music

Legendary NYC avant-punk polymath performs live in Woodstock this Saturday

June 1, 2023
Dozens of activities for all ages in Ulster County this week
Community

Dozens of activities for all ages in Ulster County this week

May 31, 2023
All the art events in Ulster County this week
Art & Music

All the art events in Ulster County this week

May 31, 2023
Century-old Woodstock music venue hosts open house this Saturday
Art & Music

Century-old Woodstock music venue hosts open house this Saturday

May 31, 2023
Next Post

Casino prop’s slanted wording angers opponents

Trending News

  • In Kingston, an apartment complex gets a long overdue name change 1.4k views
  • Adopt A Pet today at the Ulster County SPCA 1.1k views
  • Thousands take to streets in New Paltz for LGBTQ+ Pride 844 views
  • Vintage baseball game in Hudson Valley will play by 1800s rules 555 views
  • Woodstock gallery celebrates the life and art of Carol Zaloom 517 views
  • Brookside Road overpass bridge in New Paltz is closed indefinitely due to multiple collisions 454 views

Weather

Kingston
◉
48°
Partly Cloudy
5:20 am8:28 pm EDT
Feels like: 48°F
Wind: 2mph N
Humidity: 90%
Pressure: 29.63"Hg
UV index: 0
ThuFriSat
64/48°F
68/50°F
73/50°F
Weather forecast Kingston, New York ▸

Subscribe

Independent. Local. Substantive. Subscribe now.

  • Subscribe & Support
  • Sign up for Free Newsletter
  • Print Edition
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Contact
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Free HV1 Trial
  • Movie Night Gift Subscription

© 2022 Ulster Publishing

No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Schools
    • Business
    • Sports
    • Crime
    • Politics & Government
  • What’s Happening
    • Calendar Of Events
    • Featured Events
      • Art
      • Books
      • Kids
      • Lifestyle & Wellness
      • Food & Drink
      • Music
      • Nature
      • Stage & Screen
  • Opinions
    • Letters
    • Columns
    • Editorials
  • Local
    • Special Sections
    • Local History
  • Marketplace
    • All Classified Ads
    • Help Wanted
    • Post a Classified Ad
  • Obituaries
  • Podcast
  • Subscribe & Support
  • Contact Us
    • Customer Support
    • Advertise
    • Submit A News Tip
  • Print Edition
    • Read ePaper Online
    • Newsstand Locations
    • Where’s My Paper
  • HV1 Magazines
  • Manage HV1 Account
  • Log In
  • Free HV1 Trial

© 2022 Ulster Publishing