by Jenna Crowder
The Royal Open — “a contemporary mash-up of salons, drifts, and Sunday promenades” — took place in Royal River Park in Yarmouth, Maine, on August 9, 2015. Curated by Genevieve Johnson and Douglas W. Milliken, I took part in sharing new work along with eight other participants, chosen through a “rigorous, undisclosable, and completely biased” selection process.
What follows is documentation of the day, not an analysis. Johnson and Milliken paired four artists with four courses, creating a walk along the river “punctuated periodically to break bread and share new work.” In a release, they describe it as a “gathering of artists exploring simultaneously the open expanse of the Royal River Park in Yarmouth, Maine, as well as the multiplicity of work within the Maine arts community.” The two plan to experiment more with the format — they have a history of combining food with art and writing — and create future opportunities for the making and sharing of practice.
The Royal Open
August 9, 2015
Curated by Genevieve Johnson and Douglas W. Milliken
Artists (visual and food) included Richard Iammarino, Genevieve Johnson, Scott Sell, Nicholas Downing, Douglas W. Milliken, Derek Kimball, Erin Sprinkle, and Jenna Crowder.
Jenna Crowder, Co-Founding Editor at The Chart, is an artist, writer, and editor. Her writing has been published in The Brooklyn Rail, Art Papers, BURNAWAY, Temporary Art Review, The Rib, Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies, and VICE Creators Project, among other places.