willie’s dream
NEWBURGH COMMUNITY LAND BANK
ARTIST IN VACANCY
chihiro shibayama & KATE BAE
The Fullerton Mansion 297 Grand Street
Opening May 20, 2021
Performances 4:30p, 5:00p, 5:30p
WILLIE’S DREAM
Fullerton mansion
NEWBURGH NY
Willie’s Dream
2021, Wood Slat Instrument
2021, Performance with original percussive score
2021, 2:18min, collage film with the original percussive score
Newburgh Community Land Bank Artist-in-Vacancy is pleased to present Willie’s Dream, a collaborative installation and performance celebrating Newburgh composer William Fullerton Jr. at the Fullerton Mansion, 297 Grand St. Newburgh NY by the percussionist Chihiro Shibayama and artist Kate Bae. Please join us in the Carriage House for live performances on opening day, May 20th, 2021 at 4:30p, 5:00p, and 5:30p. This event is free and open to the public.
Tracing and honoring the largely forgotten Newburgh born composer William Fullerton Jr. a.k.a Willie Fullerton Jr. (1854-1888), New York based artist Kate Bae and musician Chihiro Shibayama will be engaging in a cross dialogue between audio and visual installation consisting of paintings, prints of printed materials and music inspired by his life. With Newburgh’s rich history and Fullerton Jr.’s personal relationship with his lover Percy Anderson, Bae will employ paintings and printed flowers made of peeled acrylics inspired by Anderson’s costume design. The flowers are a representation of nature but also form systems of communication and ritual, a way to make sense of the disconnect between the home and the distant memory of the past. Shibayama will present original compositions inspired by Fullerton Jr.’s songs including The Locket Song from his last opera, Lady of the Locket (1885), exploring historical narratives and sentiments. The local residents of Newburgh will be able to access the music by Shibayama physically and digitally. Bae and Shibayama reflect their own lives as immigrant minority women navigating in the United State to Fullerton Jr. fleeing to live abroad in pursuit of a better life as a musician and a safer place as a member of the LGBTQ community. This project symbolizes Willie’s safe return home to Newburgh 132 years after his death in 1888.
KATE BAE
Born and raised in Busan, Korea, Kate Bae is an immigrant artist and independent curator based in New York City. She holds an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, both in painting. Bae is a founder of Women’s Cactus for the Arts, a collective of women artists working in decorative manner that debuted in the SPRING/BREAK Art show 2020, and a member of Fictional Arts Collective (FAC). She has exhibited nationally and internationally including solo shows at the Sunroom Project Space in Wave Hill, Bronx, NY and the Deiglan Gallery in Akureyri, Iceland. Bae is a recipient of Ora Lerman Trust Grant, 2018 Creative Capital Professional Development Program and the 2017 NYFA Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program. She has been an artist in residence at the Golden Foundation, SÍM Seljavegur, the Studios at Mass MoCA, Trestle Gallery, the Wassaic Project, Chashama and the Serlachius-museot, among others. She is a current fellow at the 2020/2021 Lower East Side Printshop Keyholder Residency.
CHIHIRO SHIBAYAMA
Chihiro Shibayama is a New York-based percussionist and composer born in Yokohama City, Japan. After graduating from Interlochen Arts Academy with a performance award, Shibayama earned both a Bachelor and Master of Music from the Juilliard School. She played percussion on Miss Saigon the musical and her Broadway debut was as one of three on-stage musicians for a new adaptation of The Cherry Orchard starring Diane Lane. She has also performed for the renowned Radio City Christmas Spectacular, ABC's Good Morning America with John Legend and Common, the Metropolitan Opera, among others. As a chamber musician, she regularly performs with American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME), Alarm Will Sound, and A Far Cry. She is also a co-founder/ program coordinator of Multicultural Sonic Evolution (MuSE), a non-profit organization that creates a multicultural environment through sound and collaborations with other artistic disciplines such as dance, theater, and film. A Pearl/ Adams concert artist, she is a faculty member of the Diller-Quaile School of Music and Third Street Music Settlement.