The Secret Lives of Artists Part II — An Allen & Helen Hermes Art Series Panel Discussion (Virtual)

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Get to know some of the celebrated artists who live in our community!

The Allen & Helen Hermes Art Series presents this second panel discussion in its four-part series: The Secret Lives of Artists, where we’ll hear from professionals who are renowned in their creative fields as they talk about their work, process and inspiration.

This month’s panel will include Sculptor & Writer Mary Bailey, Opera Singer Sarah Hawkey, Symphonic Composer Fred Newman and Novelist Carolyn Prusa.

Artist and Georgetown Arts & Cultural Center Co-Founder Bob Marty will moderate the discussion.

The series is organized by Redding’s Tom Casey and Carolyn Prusa, who are both published fiction authors. Prusa said she and Casey realized that many artists live and work in Redding, and the series is a way to both introduce them to the community and get inspired by these talented neighbors.

This presentation will take place both in-person, at the Library, and virtually, over Zoom. For the optimal experience, we recommend attending programs in-person. Register for the virtual event by scrolling to the registration form below and a Zoom link will be emailed the day of the program. Include a cell for a text reminder. Click here to register for the in-person program. 

Dates for upcoming sessions in The Secret Lives of Artists panel series will be announced soon.

The Allen and Helen Hermes Arts Series was founded in 2003, and is funded by a generous gift the couple donated to the Mark Twain Library. The mission of the series is to enrich the quality of life in the community of Redding by producing and supporting events in the visual, literary, theater and musical arts.

 

THE ARTISTS

MARY BAILEYis a sculptor and writer whose work explores the intersection of humor, narrative and social commentary. A Redding resident who grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, she studied at Brown University, where her interests led her to the sculpture studio. After graduating, Bailey worked as a product designer while experimenting with a variety of materials before ultimately choosing wood as her primary sculptural medium. She gained recognition in the late 1980s with her painted wood series Wild Life and later her Totem series. Bailey has shown her work widely in NYC and throughout New England including at the United Nations, Governors Island, the Hammond Museum, the Housatonic Museum of Art and the Flinn Gallery. She was also commissioned by Parisol Press in NYC to make a series of limited edition lighted works. Bailey expanded her practice to include film and fiction, and her short dramatic film The Surgery won the 1995 Connecticut Film and Video Competition and screened at festivals nationwide. Bailey earned an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts, and in 2024, her short story Lost was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.  Bailey’s most recent work includes a series of constructed wall-reliefs that combine word and image.

SARAH HAWKEY is a soprano known for her ability to make early music feel intimate, vivid and alive for today’s audiences. She has performed with the New York Philharmonic and LA Opera, with appearances at the Salzburg Festival, the Verbier Festival, Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, the Boston Early Music Festival, Bard Summerscape, and has appeared in numerous performances at Carnegie Hall. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, on NPR and WNYC and on PBS Great Performances. A specialist in 17th and 18th century repertoire, Sarah is particularly recognized for her interpretations of the music of Barbara Strozzi, and she is currently preparing her debut solo album devoted entirely to Strozzi’s works. Sarah has also appeared in contemporary operas, including the original cast of p r i s m, which received the Pulitzer Prize for Music. She is active in new music and education, leading educational programs and workshops at Juilliard School, Princeton University and William Paterson University. Hawkey lives in Redding and is the founder of Blossom Voice Studio in Weston.

FRED NEWMAN is an award-winning sound artist, actor, author and comedian best known for creating imaginative live sound effects featured on A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor. Over the course of his career, Newman has performed voices and sound design for film, television and radio, including work on Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Gremlins and Practical Magic. He has also hosted television programs including The All-New Mickey Mouse Club and Nickelodeon’s Livewire, and created music, voices and sound effects for the animated series Doug. He also won three Emmy awards for his wordplay segments on Between the Lions on PBS. Newman, a resident of Redding, has been fascinated with storytelling and sound since childhood, developing a distinctive ability to create characters using only his voice. He is the author of Mouthsounds: How to Whistle, Pop, Click and Honk Your Way to Social Success.

CAROLYN PRUSA is a writer whose debut novel, None of This Would Have Happened if Prince Were Alive received many starred reviews and has been called a “laugh-out loud gem”.  The novel, a story of modern motherhood, centers around Ramona, whose life has been upended by the discovery of her husband’s affair and an approaching hurricane. The narrative follows Ramona’s tumultuous and humorous attempt to evacuate town with her two kids, while avoiding apology texts and calls from her husband and worrying about her mother. Ramona remembers the days when her life was like a Prince song, and longs for a time before he died, when none of this would’ve happened. Carolyn studied literature and creative writing at Stanford University and Boston University. She has written for Savannah Magazine, the Charlotte Observer, and other publications. She recently moved to Redding from Savannah, Georgia.

OUR MODERATOR

BOB MARTY decided to be an artist after falling in love with Willem De Kooning’s paintings at age 14. He graduated from Pratt Institute with a BFA in painting and took a job designing and building puppet characters for Sesame Street, including six Big Birds. As part of the same job, he also designed costumes, props, and sets for two George Balanchine ballets —Persephone and Symphony Pathetique — for the New York City Ballet. In 1985, he moved into television production and founded MPI Media Productions International. In the last 40 years, Marty has produced and directed programs for PBS, NBC, CBS, A&E, Discovery Health Network, BBC, the Hallmark Channel, and many others. His programs for PBS have helped raise an estimated $750 million dollars and include some of the biggest hits in the network’s history including 22 Downton Abbey specials, 10 Ken Burns specials, 8 Victor Borge specials and 50th anniversary specials celebrating Sesame Street, PBS NewsHour, and Masterpiece Theater.