Arts

MATV to host Arts and Culture Summit March 9th

Story by Diti Kohli “Our goal is to bring people together,” said D’Urso-Rose. “So that there’s more communication among groups, organizations, and artistic individuals, to envision new possibilities, and to take advantage of opportunities that are available or that may arise.” In the near future, MATV plans to sell its building on Pleasant Street and upgrade to a newer space that can more readily serve the needs of its members and the public. With the support of organizations from the summit, the center aims to open a space that might include a black box theater, gallery space, meeting space, a retail shop, and more. “I think we can learn a lot from The Gallery experience,” said D’Urso-Rose, referring to the space on 480 Main Street which morphed from a pop-up shop to a year-long experiment as a gallery, performance center, workshop space, retail shop, and cultural gathering environment.  Watertown City Councilor Vincent Piccirilli, who has served the city for 11 years, will deliver a featured presentation about the creation of The Dorothy and Charles Mosesian […]

Arts

Cameroonian artist presents “Celebration”

By Anne D’Urso-Rose Cameroon-born artist Efon Elad knows adversity. But, like the manner of folks in his native country, he chooses to approach life as a celebration. Not only life passages, but daily rituals, ordinary moments, scenes of beauty and terror, songs and stories inspire in him a sense of gratitude and jubilation. Many of the paintings in an exhibit now on view at the MATV Gallery, located at Malden’s Media Center, depict moments of life in Cameroon and West Africa where the artist has lived and travelled as a youth. Other paintings are inspired by songs or Biblical stories, which have captivated his imagination. Still others depict places in his adopted homeland in the Boston area, where he has lived for over 30 years, as well as other places that exist only in his mind or memory. Well-educated in his native Cameroon, Elad is fluent in English, French and five African languages and is a lover of literature. His career began in telecommunications at a time when telegrams and Morse code were his specialty. A lost […]