{"id":11429,"date":"2019-04-24T18:40:47","date_gmt":"2019-04-24T22:40:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=11429"},"modified":"2019-04-24T18:40:47","modified_gmt":"2019-04-24T22:40:47","slug":"arts-trading-cards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2019\/04\/24\/arts-trading-cards\/","title":{"rendered":"Honoring Women Arts Leaders In Boston With A Set Of Trading Cards"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe Elma Lewis 2018 Women in Community Arts Collectors Edition Trading Cards<\/a>\u201d set was created by Boston artist Neil Horsky to honor \u201cthe essential and inspirational leadership role of women\u201d in Boston arts.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re a set of cards (like baseball cards) that he\u2019s printed in collaboration with Boston Hassle, the online arts publication from Brain Arts, to celebrate Boston artists L\u2019Merchie Frazier, Dell M. Hamilton, Dey Hernandez, Emma Leavitt, Shaw Pong Liu, Hilken Mancini, Marsha Parrilla, Veronica Robles, Femke Rosenbaum and Paloma Valenzuela. There\u2019s a bonus card for Elma Lewis, the late founder of the Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts in Roxbury, which grew into the National Center for Afro-American Artists and its affiliated museum.<\/p>\n

\"\u201cThe<\/a>
\u201cThe Elma Lewis 2018 Women in Community Arts Collectors Edition Trading Cards\u201d set created by Neil Horsky. (Courtesy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There will be release party<\/a> with some of the artists at 40 South, Mancini\u2019s vintage store in Jamaica Plain, on Saturday, April 27, from 1:30 to 6 p.m. \u201cThey can autograph your card for you,\u201d Horsky notes. Also there will be free cocktails and a sale on the store\u2019s selection of vintage clothing. Admission to the party is free. Each 11-card set sells for $5.<\/p>\n

\"\u201cThe<\/a>
\u201cThe Elma Lewis 2018 Women in Community Arts Collectors Edition Trading Cards\u201d set created by Neil Horsky. (Courtesy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Jamaica Plain artist says, \u201cArtists have a great power to make a difference in their communities, in all the ways it can unite people, it can inspire people, it can give people an outlet. There\u2019s an endless benefit. You notice these women are also administrators. It\u2019s not just about their creative craft. It\u2019s their organizational skills.\u201d<\/p>\n

Horsky continues, \u201cIt\u2019s a serious job. It takes a lot of work. You start with your creative passion, but to really apply it in the world in a way that can have a concrete benefit to the community takes a lot of work. That\u2019s why these women need to be respected, need to be heralded. The city does not function without these women.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\u201cThe<\/a>
\u201cThe Elma Lewis 2018 Women in Community Arts Collectors Edition Trading Cards\u201d set created by Neil Horsky. (Courtesy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The idea for the cards came when Dan Shea of Boston Hassle asked Horsky to write a year-end top 10 list last year. Horsky isn\u2019t one to compile the usual list. Instead, he saw it as an opportunity for an art project.<\/p>\n

Horsky also happens to be the author of the \u201cThis Month in Boston Counter-Cultural History\u201d column in the monthly arts newspaper Boston Compass, a cousin publication of the Hassle. Horsky describes the aim of his column as \u201ctrying to radicalize the youth\u201d by showing \u201chere\u2019s how artists in the past have contributed to social changes in your neighborhood.\u201d<\/p>\n

Horsky thought about Shea\u2019s request and the column and came up with the question: \u201cWho\u2019s doing that now?\u201d His idea was to assemble a list of people whom he would feature on printed trading cards. \u201cI started trying to pick 10, which is really hard. Because you could pick 50. You\u2019re always going to be leaving somebody out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just sort of came to me that I wanted to focus on women,\u201d Horsky says. \u201cFirst of all, it was an easy way to knock off a lot of people right away, get it closer to 10. And women are leaders in the community arts field. It\u2019s an unheralded field. Or there could be more attention or respect. And maybe just maybe there\u2019s a relationship between these two things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Horsky says, \u201cIn every card there\u2019s a ton to be learned by the reader. The main thing being no matter what your artistic discipline is, your way of working, there are applications that have been a concrete social benefit. It\u2019s okay to do something that goes on a rich person\u2019s wall. Good for you. But there\u2019s more to it than that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\u201cThe<\/a>
\u201cThe Elma Lewis 2018 Women in Community Arts Collectors Edition Trading Cards\u201d set created by Neil Horsky. (Courtesy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From the cards, he says, \u201cYou might learn about the problems these projects are trying to address.\u201d He points to Paloma Valenzuela\u2019s \u201cPineapple Diaries\u201d web sitcom, which he praises for showing the true minority-majority face of Boston. He points to Shaw Pong Liu\u2019s project \u201cpairing Boston police officers with teens to write and perform songs about gun violence, racism and community-police relations.\u201d He says, \u201cIt speaks to the power of music and the power of an artist with a vision and a commitment to affecting people and changing the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n

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\u201cThe Elma Lewis 2018 Women in Community Arts Collectors Edition Trading Cards\u201d set was created by Boston artist Neil Horsky to honor \u201cthe essential and inspirational leadership role of women\u201d in Boston arts. They\u2019re a set of cards (like baseball cards) that he\u2019s printed in collaboration with Boston Hassle, the online arts publication from Brain […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11432,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[37,201],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11429"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11429"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11449,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11429\/revisions\/11449"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}