JUNE 2021:
"Celebrating the Men in Our Lives"

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FEATURED ARTISTS:

Sanctuary is featuring the following
​male artists for this annual, special issue:
​
Ben James
Bob Morgan
Ransome

See links to their pages
and statements below.

FEATURED INTERVIEW:

David Friedman, M.D., FACS
(Photo Courtesy:  Cleveland Clinic Florida)
Director of the Arts & Medicine Center
at Cleveland Clinic Florida

​What has been your most memorable moment as Director of the Arts & Medicine Center?

"During the holidays, about two or three years ago, the clinic was very busy. This is a peak time of year for Florida. We like to bring in local schools to perform for the patients and visitors. This particular year, an elementary school chorus was performing. There were about 30 to 40 kids in the chorus. They started to sing, and the singing was resonating throughout the clinic. A crowd was gathering, and patients in wheelchairs started to wheel in. This section of the clinic has an open atrium design. I thought that it was just the lobby that had filled to listen to these kids. But, when I looked up, I saw that every single balcony was filled with spectators. It was such an incredible feeling."

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We asked each artist to respond to the following question: Up to this point in your career, what was your most memorable moment?

Ben James
Photographer

"My most memorable moment was filming with Sally Williams for ITV London News. Sally is a journalist and weather presenter in the UK, and she reached out to me after I started submitting my photos for the weather broadcasts. We had a fantastic telephone conversation about doing a piece for TV together, where I could talk about my photography and how it helps me with my mental health. It really was a defining moment that filled me with self-belief, which I still carry with me to this day. A small act of kindness goes a very long way…well, it does in my book anyway!"

Bob Morgan
Watercolor Painter

​"I would be remiss if I did not highlight a memorable moment in the late 1990s when I met my future wife, talented artist Pennie Brantley, at the Bromfield Gallery in Boston. We were both members of the gallery and admired each other’s work before we met personally. Pennie has been featured in Sanctuary magazine numerous times during this past year. As far as my own art career, the most memorable moment was being asked to do a large retrospective at the prestigious Borges Center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where Pennie and I lived for three years. The huge gallery (4000 square feet) allowed me to display the largest of my work with plenty of space for maximum viewer interaction. I was featured on two Argentine television shows (subtitled in Spanish), and it was the first time a catalog was produced for one of my exhibitions." 

Ransome
Mixed Media Artist

"My memorable moment came during my last semester of studying for my MFA at Lesley University. Part of the Low-Res program requires that you have a mentor each semester. As I entered my last semester, I knew I wanted someone special. Coming into the program, I had dreamed of working with blue chip artists like Kerry James Marshall or Theaster Gates. But you quickly learn that artists at certain levels are not available. Ben Sloat, the director of the Low-res Studio Art’s program, suggested curator and art writer Helen Molesworth. The idea of working with a curator had never crossed my mind. She lived in California, but this was happening during the pandemic and virtual meetings were standard. During a presentation Ms. Molesworth gave the prior semester, I realized she was the curator who had worked so very closely with Kerry James Marshall and others. It did not take long before she agreed to work with me. I was a nervous wreck the first time we met via Zoom, but perhaps I played it cool because we managed to build a good relationship over the semester and have stayed in contact. Recently, she invited me to an opening in my area, and I’m looking forward to finally meeting her as a friend and getting the opportunity to say thank you face-to-face."  

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