NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Gallery North will host a talk by artist and developer Eric Rudd on Wednesday, Nov. 12. 

 

"The North Adams Artist Community: How we got here and where is it going?" will be held at the gallery, 9 Eagle St., at 6 p.m. The public is invited

 

Rudd is a well-known sculptor/mixed media artist. He works with new technological processes and materials including robotics, theme park rides, industrial spray polyurethanes and blow-molded polycarbonates.

 

Born in Washington, D.C., Rudd majored in art at American University and studied in Italy and Austria. He was invited to join the Jefferson Place Gallery in Washington, where his work was shown from 1966 until the gallery's closing in 1974. Moving to North Adams in 1990, his 60,000 square-foot studio in the historic Beaver Mill is one of the largest individual artist studios in the country.

 

Along with his art, Rudd has focused on creating studio spaces for people in the arts and has been involved with numerous artist-space projects. He converted a large warehouse into the first artist-studio space in Washington for himself and 20 other artists and galleries in 1978 and repurposed the Beaver Mill in 1989 into 40 condominium live/work artist lofts. Rescuing a historic former church in 1999 and another in 2012, Rudd founded the Barbara and Eric Rudd Art Foundation, doing business as Berkshire Art Museum.

 

He is the author of numerous articles, illustrated children's books, plays, novels, as well as books geared for artists including "The Art World Dream — Alternative Strategies for Working Artists" and "The Art Studio/Loft Manual — For Ambitious Artists and Creators."

 

For more information: www.EricRudd.com, Beavermill.com, BAMuseum.org.