Digital Commons at Buffalo State

November 14-17

The Nor'easter Conference asserts a clear and determined focus on Aesthetics and Practice in Cast Iron Art. On behalf of Buffalo State College and the iron community at large, we are proud to announce our conference goals and highlights.

In conjunction with the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and the Burchfield Penney Art Center, it gives us great pleasure to announce that renowned international sculptor, Beverly Pepper, will commence our Artist lecture series. Pepper began sculpting in the sixties along with artists David Smith, Alexander Calder and Arnaldo Pomodoro, and has received several prestigious awards through the years. Her works have been exhibited and collected by major museums and galleries throughout the world.

Also included in this lecture series are artists Jay Wholley and Jene Highstein, as well as writer and performer Nor Hall who penned "Irons in the Fire."

There are three exhibition sites: the Burchfield Penney Art Center (interior gallery and exterior grounds), the Big Orbit Gallery, and the Czurles-Nelson Gallery at Buffalo State College.

Check for updates on submission procedures for exhibiting your work.

Sculptor and Professor Coral Lambert, Chair of Sculpture at Alfred University, is hosting a preconference ‘Environmental Foundry Workshop’ covering African Ashanti and Japanese Sogata Clay molding. There will also be a pre-conference mold-making workshop at Buffalo State College (registration information to come), sustainable mold-making demonstrations, and an alternative fuel furnace contest, so get those wheels spinning! We appeal to you for ideas of innovation in this practice. Submit your ideas for panels, demos or talks using the links in the menu bar.

We are a skilled community of artists, and while teaching and exchanging these skills is integral to the development of our shared and individual practices, we cannot miss the opportunity to learn, as well, from each other's ideas, experiences, discoveries, studio practice and inspirations.

Background

Since the first International Conference on Contemporary Cast Iron Art was put together by Wayne Potratz and Tom Gipe in 1988, at Sloss Furnaces in Birmingham, AL., iron art conferences and college foundries have been proliferating across America and have spread over seas to England, Wales, Finland, Latvia and Poland. Regional Cast Iron Art Conferences have also been on the rise in the South, in the North, in the West and now in the East.

The Nor-easter Conference on iron art and foundry practice brings you to a new location, here in Buffalo NY. The history of Buffalo is wrapped up in the history of iron and steel making and has played a significant role in the development of our nation. Though we consider the boom of Industry to be at the turn of the 20th century, the practice of casting iron has been changing the livelihood of people since iron was first cast in the fourth Century B.C. and the practice of casting iron art has never been stronger. Today, we, as artists and creators, bend these traditions of Industry and innovation in ways suitable to our own aesthetic personal practice.

The Nor’easter conference will provide a forum to teach, learn and develop within this practice. It is our goal to provide the opportunity and support for discussions on aesthetics in which every conference goer may attend, participate and find inspiration. It is also our goal to promote a methodology of innovation, creativity and production to align our passion for cast iron art with 21st century concerns of sustainability.

The Location

Buffalo was once home to several of the largest steel manufacturing plants in America: Bethlehem Steel, the 2nd largest steel plant in the country, Republic Steel the third largest and Lackawanna Steel. These big three foundries as well as many smaller iron and steel foundries made Buffalo one of the largest manufacturers of cast iron in the world. The last of the foundries, Pulman foundry, went out of business several years ago leaving the foundry at Buffalo State College, with it's 22 years of iron casting, to be perhaps the only Grey iron foundry left in Western NY. Tonawanda Coke, one of the few remaining Coking plants and Buffalo Sand Products supplying kiln dried lake Michigan foundry sand create a perfect vortex for the first Nor'easter iron art conference.

Call for Proposals

The Organizers for the Nor’easter Conference on Aesthetics and Practice in Cast Iron Art would like to invite individual artists and groups to submit proposals for our inaugural conference. Please see the links on the menu bar.

Submissions are due by the end of the day on Sunday, July 15, 2012

Submitting a Proposal

Please read the Call for Proposals page by clicking on the corresponding link in the menu bar

After reviewing the Call for Proposals, please click on the Submit Proposal link in the menu bar to upload and submit your proposal. You will have to first create an account to use this function. This process is very simple and allows ease in managing proposals with direct communication. Information is not shared with third parties.