JOY AND MERRIMENT TO YOU FOR THE HOLIDAY SEASON FROM ALL OF US AT BALLROOM MARFA



As another wonderful year in Marfa draws to a close, each of us here at Ballroom Marfa send our heartfelt thanks to those who have kept the creative spirit alive in West Texas – from our visiting artists, curators, musicians and performers through to each of our members who have given so generously in support of Ballroom Marfa’s programs. We are also lucky to have an extended network of talented Marfans who are integral to the production of our exhibitions, concerts and events – we extend our sincerest gratitude for all of your amazing efforts and goodwill throughout the year.

In 2008 Ballroom Marfa presented two highly original exhibitions that expanded the ways art can be experienced: Hello Meth Lab In The Sun, by Jonah Freeman, Justin Lowe & Alexandre Singh opened in the spring, radically transforming the galleries into a labyrinth of rooms, hallways, closets and observation platforms that revealed possible sites of modern day alchemical transformation. The theatrical depictions of the utopian hippie commune, the clandestine meth lab and exemplary sites of capitalist exchange suggested the complex relationships between 1960s counterculture and present day dystopias. Earlier this month a concentrated version of the exhibition, Hello Meth Lab With A View, was recreated at The Station in Miami, giving further exposure to the project that originated here at Ballroom.

Our current exhibition, The Marfa Sessions, Curated by Regine Basha, Rebecca Gates and Lucy Raven, counters Hello Meth Lab’s intense focus within the gallery confines via a series of sound projects created and adapted for sites across the town. Responding to Marfa and its surroundings, several works are located in publicly accessible spaces while Ballroom Marfa’s main gallery is designed as a Visitor’s Center and sound hub. The exhibitionincludes fifteen works in total, with six new site-specific pieces specially commissioned by Ballroom Marfa and created by Nina Katchadourian, Christina Kubisch, Kaffe Matthews, Steve Roden & Stephen Vitiello, Steve Rowell & Simparch and Deborah Stratman & Steven Badgett. Other already extant works have be en adapted for installation within Marfa’s geographical, historical and conceptual contexts by the artists Emily Jacir, Louise Lawler, Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, Angel Nevarez and Valerie Tevere, Dario Robleto, and Julianne Swartz. Opening weekend festivities included Nina Katchadourian and friends playing The Marfa Jingles live at the Thunderbird Lounge, a new work by Steve Roden & Stephen Vitiello  created for and performed within the Chinati Foundation's artillery sheds, and a public conversation between authors Josh Kun and David Toop. The Marfa Sessions continues to be well attended, and we are delighted to announce that the exhibition will be extended until 4 April 2009. Stay tuned for information about The Marfa Sessions’s accompanying Public Programs and the release of the exhibition catalogue early in the New Year.

Ballroom Marfa kept a steady slew of talented musicians rolling through town in 2008, beginning in January with Robert Earl Keen who performed to a full house two nights in a row at the Goode Crowley Theater in January, supported by Marfa-based singer-songwriter, Ross Cashiola. Worldy chanteuse, Keren Ann mesmerized audiences with her intimate, ethereal songs – occasionally rocking out – on a February evening shared with the sleepy-and-sweet psych-pop duo Dean & Britta, (formerly of Luna). San Francisco indie sensation The Dodos added their Marfa performance to a growing list of fabled shows after a night of infectious energy at Liberty Hall, set in motion by the gauzy tones of Norwegian singer-songwriter Silje Nes. Then, in keeping with the themes of Hello Meth Lab in The Sun, Brooklyn-based psychedelic-rock band, Psychic Ills performed for the opening of Ballroom Marfa’s spring exhibition, against a backdrop of psychedelic visuals by VJ MOTIF. Ballroom Marfa was honored to partner with Jeff Fort & Marion Barthelme, the Chinati Foundation and the Goode Crowley Theater to present renowned classical pianist, Sarah Rothenberg, performing Beethoven: The Last Piano Sonatas, and for our May show with The Havels, the Czech duo Irena Havlová and Vojtch Havel seduced audiences with the spare and exquisite avant-garde improvisations for which they are internationally acclaimed. Our genre-defying music program continued with homegrown Texas up-and-comers, Bexar Bexar and Balmorhea, who charmed all with their idyllic acoustics that paired well with a warm midsummer evening in West Texas. Then, to inaugurate the The Marfa Sessions, Ballroom hosted a concert at the Capri with the sardonic humorist front-man of Tennessee’s Lambchop, Kurt Wagner, followed by Chicago’s DJ Damon Locks. We marked Halloween by a show with a Marfa favorite - Japanther - and their San Pedro zombie-punk touring partners, Killer Dreamer. Our 2008 music season came to a close on 23 November with a very special concert with Conor Oberst from Bright Eyes, whose world tour went out with a bang in Marfa by way of a climactic on-stage swansong with RIG 1, The Felice Brothers and The Mystic Valley Band and Oberst at the helm.

Ballroom Marfa hosted six of this country’s innovative filmmakers in 2008, beginning with Houston-based artist Mel Chin who gave a lecture on his practice prior to the screening of his animated film 9-11/9-11, CHILE/U.S.A. 2008 also brought the second and final installment of film.text.performance.film, a series of works that explored the visual dimensions of text, organized by Ralph McKay. The weekend-long event included a screening of Michael Tracy and Christopher Rincon’s then work-in-progress, a feature-length film ULTRAMARINE; two of Julia Meltzer and David Thorne’s films, It’s Not My Memory Of It (2003) and We Will Live To See These Things, or, Five Pictures Of What May Come To Pass (2007); and David Gatten’s The Secret History of the Dividing Line < /em>(2002) and The Great Art Of Knowing (2004). The program culminated in a discussion between the filmmakers, moderated by Christian Gerstheimer of El Paso Museum of Art.

In November, Ballroom Marfa collaborated with eight other international art institutions for Art in the Auditorium, a program organized by Whitechapel Gallery, London, showcasing the works of emerging film and video artists (and more established artists working with the medium for the first time). Included in the program were Cornelia Parker, Leandro Erlich, Ali Kazma, Shahryar Nashat, Lene Berg, Ryan Trecartin, Wang Jianwei, Diego Perrone and Nathalie Djurberg, who were selected by a network of organizations from UK, Latin America, Europe, the United Kingdom and China in addition to Ballroom Marfa.

2008 has seen the continued development of the Ballroom Marfa Drive-In. Fundraising continues along with accolades and momentum for this landmark project.  Designed by acclaimed architect and Harvard Associate Professor, Michael Meredith of MOS, the Drive-In will be a sculptural reconfiguration of classic outdoor drive-in theater architecture. The design, a steel sculpture thoughtful and reflective of the alandscape, has received critical attention, most recently at the prestigious Venice Biennale for Architecture in September 2008.

Prada Marfa, Elmgreen & Dragset’s ongoing sculptural intervention, co-produced by Ballroom Marfa and Art Production Fund, continues to inspire and stimulate both local and visiting audiences. Ballroom Marfa wishes to thank Suzanne Tick, Terry Mowers and Boyd Elder for their patronage and stewardship of Prada Marfa in 2008.





UPCOMING

Looking ahead to 2009, we are excited to announce the dates for some of our upcoming art and music events, which we hope you will join us for. We look forward to sharing another spectacular season of Art, Music, Film and Performance with you in Marfa, TX.

The Marfa Sessions
Continues through to 4 April 2009

YACHT with White Rainbow
Saturday 31 January 2009

Billy Joe Shaver
Sunday 15 February 2009



HOLIDAY HOURS
Ballroom Marfa will be open on the weekends only, between 20 December 2008 and 3 Januray 2009, 12-5pm.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
Stop by Ballroom Marfa to purchase Ballroom apparel, limited edition music posters, catalogues or a membership for a special holiday gift!
Or shop ONLINE.




STAFF OF BALLROOM MARFA
Fairfax Dorn, Executive Director + Vance Knowles, Music and Film Director + Alicia Ritson, Associate Curator + Jonathan Mergele, Gallery Manager + JD DiFabbio, Director of Development + Vicente Celis, Director of Operations. Special thanks to Rob Crowley, Marfa Recording Company, Diane Lujan, Ralph McKay, Alexander Mills, Caitlin Murray and Ballroom Marfa interns Sally Coleman and Park Myers.

BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Virginia Lebermann, President & Co-Founder, Marfa, TX + Fairfax Dorn, Executive Director & Co-Founder, Marfa, TX + Charles Attal, Austin, TX + Sabrina Franzheim, Houston, TX +  Sue Hostetler, New York, NY + Molly Kemp, Marfa, TX/Austin, TX + Mary Robbins, Marfa, TX/New York, NY + Charles Ruger, New York, NY + Allison Sarofim, Houston, TX/New York, NY + Philip Solms, Schloss Assenheim, Germany + Leo Villareal, New York, NY + John Wotowicz, Marfa, TX

FOUNDATION & GOVERNMENT SUPPORT
The Alicia M. & William A. Miller Foundation, Santa Fe, NM + The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, New York, NY + The Anschutz Foundation, Denver, CO + The Brown Foundation, Inc., Houston, TX + The Cowles Charitable Trust, Rumson, NJ + Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation, Albuquerque, NM + Foundation for Contemporary Arts, New York, NY + Jewel B. Crosswell Trust, San Antonio, TX + Karen & Eric Pulaski Philanthropic Fund, Houston, TX + Marfa Chamber of Commerce, Marfa, TX + The Meyer Levy Charitable Foundation, Austin, TX + The National Endowment for the Arts, Washington, DC + Oshman Foundation, Houston, TX + Peter Norton Family Foundation, Santa Monica, CA + Robbins Foundation, Inc., New York, NY + Texas Commission on the Arts, Austin, TX.

CORPORATE PARTNERS & SUPPORTERS
Art Lies, Houston, TX + Fluent~Collaborative, Austin, TX + Hotel Paisano, Marfa, TX + Jacobs Group,Portland, OR + King Land & Water, Fort Davis, TX + L&F Distributing, Alpine, TX + Marfa Public Radio, Marfa, TX + NADA, New York, NY + Permian Distributing, Midland, TX + Select Equity Group, Inc. New York, NY + Texas Gallery, Houston, TX + Thunderbird Hotel, Marfa, TX

Ballroom Marfa is proud to announce its partnership with Green Mountain Energy Company through its Big Texas Sun Club® in 2009.   In the coming Spring, Ballroom Marfa's gallery and office will go solar thanks to a donation from Green Mountain and join a growing group of individuals and institutions that support the installation and education of solar energy in Texas.





Ballroom Marfa is a dynamic, contemporary cultural arts space that provides a lively intellectual environment where varied perspectives and issues are explored through visual arts, film, music and performance. As an advocate for the freedom of artistic expression, Ballroom Marfa's mission is to serve international, national, regional and local communities and support the work of both emerging and recognized artists working in all media.

Ballroom Marfa is particularly interested in helping artists and curators achieve projects that have significant cultural impact but would be impossible to realize in a traditional gallery or museum setting.Ballroom Marfa is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization.

Visit www.ballroommarfa.org