Liberty Plaza Spring Market hosted by Culture, in Winston-Salem

Sunday April 21, 2-6pm
Taking part in an art & craft Spring Market at Liberty Plaza in downtown Winston-Salem.
Culture has gathered over 20 artists to bring the best of local crafts, art and more!
This is a FREE to attend Market and will happen at 102 W. 3rd St. in Winston-Salem NC

Sleepy Fest at Down Yonder Farm on October 28

We are excited to have an area at Sleepy Fest this year, happening on October 28 at Down Yonder Farm in Hillsborough, NC. This is the 2nd Annual festival put on by Sleepy Cat Records! Get your tickets today! The Concern will be stationed in the Neptune Room along with an installation by Kathryn Desplanque and poetry readings curated by The Octopod (Dan Ruccia and Aimee Harrison) throughout the afternoon and evening. Come chill out inside between music acts outside.

DuWell Zine Series Zine-Making Workshop at Duke University

Orvokki of the Concern will be teaching a zine making workshop at the Rubenstein Library at Duke on Friday, September 15 at 3pm. Duke students and staff can register on the DukeArts page.

A zine is a self-published, non-commercial magazine, typically devoted to unconventional subject matter. In this two-hour workshop, students will learn zines by making one. Using collage and drawing materials, participants will create pages for a zine on the topic of preserving one’s spirit. Participants will want to think about what keeps up their spirits when times are hard. Students will leave their creation to be printed and can pick their zine up at a later date. The spirit zine could inspire others to find ways to feel better.

As a special treat, a selection of wellness-themed zines will be pulled from the Sallie Bingham Center library collection for viewing during the class to give context and inspiration.

THE COLORS ARE LIKE WORDS THAT ARE NOT WORDS BUT COLORS / Book Curation

Coming up: The Concern’s Orvokki Crosby curated a selection of books for perusal, linked thematically to Abby Donovan’s solo show THE COLORS ARE LIKE WORDS THAT ARE NOT WORDS BUT COLORS. Opening June 7, going through August 5 at the North Gallery of the Shirley Fiterman Art Center at BMCC (Borough of Manhattan Community College). Come hang out in the reading nook and take a look. The South Gallery will have a solo show by artist Midori Harima.

Celebrating 5 years in business!

I am celebrating this fall, 5 years of a sole proprietorship that is called The Concern ! Please use discount code FIVEYEARSOLD at checkout on the web store for 15 % off all orders, valid through October 31. What started as a postpartum web store project has taken me through quite a turbulent 5 years in the world, the latter few feeling pretty alienating somehow, but it's been interesting to say the least. It's been a way to connect with people in the local community & internationally in terms of buying, selling & the sharing of mutual interests. I really appreciate those of you who appreciate what I do & have taken notice. And here's to continuing on!

Larissa Lynn Wood charcoal drawings at Attic 506

Opening Friday, April 8, 6-9pm at The Concern’s Attic 506 location: Larissa Lynn Wood’s original charcoal drawings from the self-published zine, ‘The Abscission Zone’, an A to Z of tree terminology. We also sell Wood’s self-published children’s book ‘There’s Wondrous Fungus Among Us’. Larissa Lynn Wood is an artist and teacher in science & art, based in Chapel Hill, originally from Asheville.

Voyage Raleigh Feature: Life & Work with Orvokki Crosby

Voyage Raleigh interviewed me about my background, life and business recently for their ‘Local Stories’ feature. Read the interview here.

Open Call for Submissions: The Concern. a magazine issue 3, 2020/2021

Now accepting submissions for The Concern. a magazine issue 3. Email hi res jpegs or pdfs of image based work, word docs (preferred) of text based work to: theconcernnewsstand (@) gmail by October 1, 2020. The magazine will be 8.5” x 11” in size.

This year has proven our concerns are through the roof, there are too many to count. What are you concerned about, it can be a societal issue, a personal issue, small, big, general, detailed? It is open ended.

Submissions will be curated into the magazine; unfortunately not all will be able to make it. Those who have a piece in the final issue, will receive a free copy mailed to them, plus a generous discount on multiple copies.

See Issue 2 for more details.

Space Case: Making a Case for Artist-Run Spaces at LABspace

Space Case: Making a case for artist-run spaces
Opening Reception: Sunday February 16th, 3-5
On view February 16 - March 29, 2020
Saturdays and Sundays 1-5pm & by appt
LABspace
2642 NY Route 23, Hillsdale NY

Please join us for this journey through artist-run spaces of Chapel Hill and Raleigh NC, Chattanooga and Nashville TN... with a detour through Charlottesville VA!

We’ve (Curators: Julie Torres & Ellen Letcher) culled this show from our visits with artists who have founded and/or run uniquely situated and inventively programmed labors of love, exhibiting the work of fellow artists in attics, basements, sheds, faculty offices, former meat packing plants... and traditional white boxes, too.

Also on view are works from Drawing and Painting majors at the University of TN, Chattanooga who we met through Christina Renfer Vogel’s curatorial project Office Space, in which Vogel installs exhibitions in her faculty office and hallways. This initiative has inspired her students to devise their own artist-run projects and plans, so we’ve jumped at the chance to fan those flames.

LABspace was founded by artist Susan Jennings in 2014, and we took the reins in 2018. We met SJ in 2015 at DIY anti-fair ARTIST-RUN at Satellite Art Show in Miami (curated by Tiger Strikes Asteroid). Without TSA’s ARTIST-RUN project, we would not have met SJ or her wonderful space, which is now our curatorial home. We are so indebted to our own local community of artists who show, promote, and support fellow artists. Please come celebrate this necessary and enduring tradition!

Space Case at LABspace

UNIVERSITY OF TN, CHATTANOOGA:
Christina Renfer Vogel
Amanda Nolan Booker
Larkin Cook
Claudia Hoffer
Caitlin Kelley
Shannon McAllister
Hilary McWilliams
Dionna Moore
Victoria Sauer
Olivia Tawzer
Summer Tomes

VERSA, CHATTANOOGA:
Mirel Crumb
Dana Ortega
Chloë Shupe
Stephanie Loggans
Dylan Pew
Kirby Miles

STOVE WORKS, CHATTANOOGA:
Mike Calway-Fagen

LOG, CHAPEL HILL:
Maria Britton
April Childers

MY ROOM, CHAPEL HILL//LUMP, RALEIGH:
Amanda Barr
John Bowman

DRAWING ROOM/LUMP, RALEIGH:
Bill Thelen

ACID RAIN, CHAPEL HILL:
Jerstin Crosby

THE CONCERN NEWSSTAND, RALEIGH & CHAPEL HILL:
Orvokki Crosby

BASEMENT, CHAPEL HILL:
Laura Little
Mike Keaveney
Sarah Elizabeth Cornejo
Chieko Murasugi
John DeKemper II

ONEONEONE, CHAPEL HILL/GUTTER BOX, RALEIGH:
Louis Watts

LUMP/THE CONCERN NEWSSTAND VOLUNTEER:
Critter

UNREQUITED LEISURE, NASHVILLE:
Chalet Comellas-Baker
Clinton Sleeper

ELECTRIC SHED, NASHVILLE:
David Onri Anderson

DADU, NASHVILLE:
Jodi Hays

DAVID LUSK GALLERY, NASHVILLE:
Ameila Briggs

MITTEN, HARRISONBURG VA/FORMER TEAM LUMP, RALEIGH/CURRENTLY CHARLOTTESVILLE VA:
Allyson Mellberg Taylor
Jeremy Taylor

Open call- The Concern. A Magazine Issue 2, 2019

We are now taking submissions for The Concern. A Magazine, issue 2, which will be published this fall. Unlike issue 1, which was entirely black and white, xerox printed, this 2nd issue will allow for color pages, but still printed with a DIY touch. We are looking for submissions that relate to being concerned about something, it could be anything. It could take the form of writing (poetry, articles, short stories) or artwork (drawing, collage, video stills, photography, etc). Though we can’t say we will accept all submissions, as a curated bookstore, this magazine will also be a curated collection. Please submit something to theconcernnewsstand (a) gmail, by September 15. Thank you!

Precious Moment & more at Attic 506 Friday, March 8, 6-9pm

Attic 506 (new name for the Art Studios at 506A W. Franklin Street, 2nd floor)

open for 2nd Friday Art Walk in Chapel Hill:

March 8, 6-9pm

Featuring:

A hallway show by Brenda Goldstein (Durham) showing a series that explores her relation to space, color and light rendered in architectonic lines and curves in acrylic pencil & crayon.

Sourcing imagery from production sets, kitsch crafts, and prop designs, April Childers will present new paintings and sculptures in a show titled ‘Precious Moment’ at ‘My Room,’ Amanda Barr’s rotating exhibition space. Combining the principle of the carrot and the stick with gentle notions of instructional painting, mouse excrement and chintzy object references, the exhibition will be displayed as a ‘looping still’, taken from a narrative cycle involving authority and the rumination of it.

The Concern Newsstand run by Orvokki Crosby (Chapel Hill) open with new artist publications in store, plus video with original music by Clark Blomquist (Carrboro) of Tegucigalpan on display and a new publication by him called ‘Instant Ham’.

The debut of Jerstin Crosby (Chapel Hill) sharing a studio with Vanessa Murray (Carrboro). Jerstin will be showing his current work with sculpture, as well as video art by David Colagiovanni (Athen, OH) from Jerstin’s long running cable access video art show, Acid Rain. Vanessa will be showing painting & mixed media work from the past & present.

Lindsay Metivier (Carrboro) will have her photo studio open. In her space will also be a table ocomix collective The Weakly Group founders Max Huffman (Carrboro) & Andrew Alexander (NY). They will be selling comics, zines, prints & stickers.

Precious Moment- April Childers

Brenda Goldstein