Closing Ceremonies

Posted on February 19, 2010 by Don

Just a quick note that March 5th will be the closing of the Distillery Programs Unstill’d show at the Schmutz Lodge. It’s been a fun ride. We’ll miss the activity and buzz of 9 artists and their helpers running around and creating.

We’ve had a great time with the artists and their work is amazing, I’ve heard different parts of the collection described as contemplative, revealing, engaging, and have witnessed the harmony and synergy they’ve created within the environments they are installed in. The Schmutz Lodge has clearly benefited by and is better because of our involvement with the show and the associated artists.

So once again, March 5th from 6pm to 10pm will be the closing event. Stop by and check out the stuff that these folks have done – we expect a HUGE crowd so we encourage everyone to come, check the show out, and then be sure to go see some of the other great stuff that is happening on Penn Ave that night. For more info on that check out the Penn Ave. Arts Initiative’s unBlurred website here.

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Unstill’d photos

Posted on February 6, 2010 by Don

Don almost never works this fast but with the snowpocalypse he had the time to finish the photos so here are some choice shots as well as a link to the gallery of them all.

- Enjoy!

Here are the rest of the photos: http://wdophoto.zenfolio.com/p211802708

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Unstill’d Live Blog

Posted on February 5, 2010 by Don

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Filling Up

Posted on January 24, 2010 by Don

Just a quick note and a few thank yous.

The Schmutz Lodge is so excited to house the Distillery 4 residents for this month and we really just have to take a moment to thank them (the artists), Rose Clancy (their curator for this show and a Distillery alum), and the people who have pledge to come out and support them!

We’ve never seen so many people anxious to come to the Lodge for an event before. It just goes to show what happens when you get so many quality folks together – you can really generate a huge draw. It’s really inspired us to think of future events through the lens of this show.

To see so many artists in this space working together, sharing ideas, collaborating, and learning from each other is something that I will never forget. I’ve never seen anything like this. The camaraderie and kinship that these artists are building is powerful and inspirational.

Who would have though that after they lost the studio space they were awarded that these amazing artists that they’d be able to pull off a show of this magnitude? I just looked at Facebook to see what we are up to as far as attendance and the attendance level is twice as high as anything we’ve done before. Add to that the fact that these artists have been reaching out to their friends and families that are not on Facebook along with handing out flyers at the Cultural District gallery crawl this past Friday and posting them around the city and we’re expecting to be inundated with people. That doesn’t happen just because they got the word out though. That happens because people are excited to see what these 8 artists and their curator have created. I’m just glad that I have been able to witness what they’re doing and feel thankful to have been allowed to be an observer and minor participant.

Who knows – maybe after all this is over we’ll start a residency program at the Lodge. What do you folks think?

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Euthermic Arousals

Posted on January 21, 2010 by Don

Things are heating up and there ain’t nobody hibernating this winter at the Schmutz Lodge. As the Distillery 4 artists wrap up their installations things are starting to look really cool and a bit messy. Messy is alright though because the show is going to be amazing. Over the next two weeks the mess will give way to a collection of amazing art from some truly talented folks.

Feb 5th – the lodge will be transformed by these 8 amazing artists. You’d never know that at one time their residency was nearly taken from them when the Brew House closed.

They managed to pull together a body of work that should not be missed and with the help of the absolutely amazing Rose Clancy who is curating this show they’ll be exhibiting their work for the entire month with a closing on March 5th.

We are seeing a great deal of excitement build for the show too. As I write this the Facebook event listing says there are nearly 100 “maybe attending” and 55 confirmed as attending. All of that just from Facebook invites – they’ve not even started to pass out flyers yet! There are also a number of blogs that have started to write about the show and more write ups are expected to come soon.

Members of the media and the general public are encouraged to get in touch with the Schmutz Company or Rose Clancy to discuss a private viewing if you are unable to attend the opening.

The Distillery artists have been a dream to work with plus they gifted us some freshly painted walls that have helped to add unique character to the Lodge. They’ve given us some great ideas as well for some different ways to treat some of the spaces that we have at our disposal here at the Lodge.

Once again if you can’t make the show on Feb. 5th be sure to contact us or one of the members of the Distillery program to set up a time to come see the exhibit.

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Ridd Up the Lodge

Posted on January 6, 2010 by Don

DSC_0418 The Schmutz Lodge is buzzing tonight with the Distillery 4 artists having there first meeting of the new year and discussing their plans for the show they are putting on here for unBlurred in Feb.

It’s going to be a lively January with all the artists here. The show will be unlike anything else that we have done before or will probably do in the future because we’re typically more motivated by low-brow art where as much of what will happen here on Feb. 5th will be much more high-brow and adventurous and will focus less on dick-humor.

To prepare for the show we’ll be ridding up around the Lodge. Walls will be painted, floors will be cleaned, and dust-bunnies will be systematically rounded up and slaughtered.

If you can make the show in Feb. you’ll see a very different Schmutz Lodge. Check back regularly for updates on what is happening during the show and profiles of the artists involved.

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Meet and Potatos

Posted on December 30, 2009 by Don

The Schmutz Lodge was busy tonight as we had our annual “What the hell is we gonna do bout next year” meeting. It went really well. We accomplished a good bit. If we were a corporation we’d be using tired phrases like – righted the ship and planned an aggressive growth year.

Really what we did was discuss content for 2010 and come up with a stronger structure that will help us spend our time more wisely.

In the future Don is going to work on the not-so-fun businessy stuff like putting together budgets and managing our finances. He’ll be using databases and spreadsheets, and online banking, and might start to wear glasses and listen to classical music. Dave will still serve as executive in charge of funkiness and great ideas. We’ve decided that we need to add another person into the mix and that person is Aaron Crothers. We’re pretty happy to have him and can’t wait to tell him that we expect a lot out of him.

He spent some time in LA (that’s Los Angeles) with his wife Suzanne working on theatrical stuff out there. They’re both really talented and seem like they want to be involved which is awesome.

We’re also talking about the need for someone else who is more electronically inclined since we need someone that knows wiring and such things. A number of projects that we want to work on would be better served if we had someone like that. They’d need to fit with our crazy sense of humor which may be difficult.

I’m not going to give away too much info – like the shows we are planning because honestly we’ve got some more planning to do before we nail down what we are doing when. I will say that the plan right now is to do a few major shows and a bunch of minor shows. We also are thinking of recording all the shows as part of a video-podcast.

The only other major announcement about the new year that I can blurt out right now is that we are planning to actually form our own secret society and figuring out a way to make some money by doing so. We want to provide a value for our secret members so that they want to join so if you have any ideas please let us know.

Don’t forget to come out to First Night on the 31st – we’ll see you next year!

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This one isn’t our fault

Posted on December 12, 2009 by Don

Sorry for dumping more stuff into inboxes and on RSS feed but we’ve just got word that there is NOT going to be an event tonight – contrary to the last post. We were asked to host an event that was to be a surprise party to celebrate some great stuff that is happening to some great people but the folks that asked if they could have it here decided late yesterday that they were not going to have the party here after all – SURPRISE!

Sorry for the mix-up and sorry to create confusion! If you happen to not get this and DO stop by we’ll probably be there building stuff for the show on the 26th and listening to the Pens game.

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Schmutz News

Posted on December 10, 2009 by Don

First off we’ve got to give another big thank you to everyone who came out for Burned! on the 4th. It’s taken us some time and there have been mornings when we still don’t feel like getting out of bed but then we realize that life must go on and that we really really need to pee.

We’ve got to send out a huge thanks to the 4 Roses for playing such a great show and allowing us to cry in our pretzels. We’d be awful sorry if we left out mentioning the great puppet show that Flora and Missy presented or the poetry of Sandra that finally got Dave out of the bathroom.

Enough of that looking back stuff – we’re future focused here at the Schmutz Lodge! Here is a list of things that are happening:

  • Sat Dec 12th – Secret meeting of the Sacred Order of the Schmutz (open to the public) BYOB get together that will celebrate and induct new members into our most secret society and may hold some surprises for some of our special friends but you really need to be an insider to get the whole story (wink.wink)
  • Fri Dec 25th – That’s Baby Jesus Day, we don’t mess around with that and the Lodge will be closed
  • Sat Dec 26th – Sinferno at Remedy Lounge XXX-Mas Puppet show + belly dancers + DJ Zombo!
  • Thur Dec 31st – The Schmutz Company Drops The Ball – no big plans, no performers, just music, BYOB drinking, and recuperating after the First Night Parade which you should all be attending!
  • Fri – Feb 5th – unStilled The Distillery Program was displaced when the Brew House was shut down and Dave was gracious enough to offer the Lodge to his fellow Distillers. Come support these emerging artists! More details will follow during the cold, grey, lifeless month of January.

At this time we have nothing planned for January and will be using that time to get the Lodge ready for the unStilled show. The 9 artists involved in that show will be working in the Lodge during that month creating the all new works that they will be showing on the 5th.

If you’ve gotten this post in your email – thank you for signing up for our mailing list. In order to not disturb you too often we’re only going to be sending emails out on certain posts – mostly those related to events. If you’d like to get an email every time we update the blog please email me back and let me know. You can also add our RSS feed to your favorite reader.

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Burned! Hangover

Posted on December 5, 2009 by Don

Just a quick thank you to everyone who came out, crafted, drank, crafted some more or just stopped by for the amazing entertainment (which was … well … amazing)! We’ll have a full review of the evening once we sober up enough to remember it.

Posted in cafts, Event, Party, Performances, Puppets, Schmutz, SchmutzLodge, unBlurred | 1 Comment