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Griffin State of Mind | Frank Tadley

Posted on September 11, 2020

We wouldn’t be who we are without an amazing support system. Our Griffin State of Mind series features the community of the Griffin Museum. Today’s focus is on Frank Tadley, a beloved museum volunteer and supporter of our exhibitions and programs. Having been with the museum for almost twenty years, he has had a hand in helping visualize the success of the museum, and is one of our pillars of support.

Frank has been there for the Griffin through thick and thin. He’s filled in for almost every job and effort. He’s greeted miles of  guests as the monitor manager for our rentals. Every exhibition has his mark on it as he’s hung every installation in all of the galleries over the years. His affable manner has come in handy as he’s greeted museum visitors when staff members vacationed. His technical skills saved us on many occasion when software needed install or the network went down or the fire alarm went off. Frank always knew what to do. He’s researched energy costs and repaired equipment. He’s even spent hours on the telephone on behalf of the museum searching out answers from vendors when none of us had time. Frank Tadley is “a Jack of all trades” and master of every one. He is also the truest of friends and his heart is made of gold.

Describe how you first found the Griffin. How long have you been part of the Griffin community?

ft headshot

Frank Tadley at the Griffin Gala

I have been active at the Griffin Museum since 2001. My first connection was a show juried by Arthur himself. What a flamboyant character he was. I got second place in architecture and still life. Arthur was real old school. I still have my award placard which he presented to me at the opening. After that show I began to visit and see the different exhibitions. I would see Arthur at places like the CCA where we were both in a show. In June of 2003 there was a call to help install the Babbette Hines show, Photobooth. This was a tricky show to install as the size of the images were small and there were hundreds to install by hand. I was hooked. I volunteered for just about every show thereafter, at all the galleries, until I injured my neck in a gym incident around 2015.

How do you involve photography in your everyday? Can you describe one photograph that recently caught your eye?

I was a student at NESOP in the mid ‘90s in the workshop program so I have been active in photography for a long time. I actually got my start while serving in Vietnam as a medic with a Pentax camera so I was always active with photography. Since I injured my knee in February (reckless I am) I have not been out and about at all. Just before that I saw the Graciela Iturbide exhibition at the MFA and Mujer Ángel, Desierto de Sonora (Angel Woman, Sonoran Desert), 1979 was most moving. Her show is currently at the Women in the Arts National Museum in DC.

What is one of your favorite exhibitions shown by the Griffin?

ft susan may tell

Susan May Tell installation at the Griffin

Since I was involved in so many of the installations it would be difficult to pick just one. Some shows that come to mind were the Civil War, which was an intense show to hang due to the content and we were under a lot of pressure to get it up. Guests were coming up the walkway when we finishing the last details. Museum life is not boring! Another show that was also intense was Susan May Tell’s A Requiem: Tribute to the Spiritual Space at Auschwitz. I created a different way of hanging the large images from the movable walls mimicking the structures in the images.

ft - tree install

Frank and Frances Jakubek installing a Christmas Tree at the Griffin.

The immense archive of artists and show that the Griffin has shown is so great for the size of the museum. From many of the famous to new and emerging artists. Being the main installer I was at the intersection of art and the organizational end of museum life. An example was Charles “Teenie” Harris who was a black photographer and staff photographer for the Pittsburgh Courier. His nick name was “One Shot.” He was a quite the entrepreneur with a portrait business on the side. But the intersection was the quality of his work and the way it was archived at the Carnegie Museum of Art and delivered to the Griffin. They had custom made metal crates with precise sturdy foam inserts to keep each framed photo well protected and yet easy to remove and lay out. And meeting with many of the photographers was a special part of the experience. Some would insist on being present and help with the installation. Two such were Vincent Cianni (WE SKATE HARDCORE) and Stephen Wilkes (Ellis Island) both wonderful photographers and shows. Other shows that stuck with me were Sebastiăo Saligado (Polio) and Lynn Goldsmith (The Looking Glass.) But they all had something to say and it is impossible to pick just one, or two, or three…

What has been the most eye opening part of our time of physical distancing?

The isolation and not knowing the outcome is the most difficult. The economic devastations is crushing for so many and particularly artists.

What is your favorite place to escape to in nature…mountains? beach? woods? and why?

Well I am both a climber/hiker and a sailor so I am drawn to both the lake/sea and the mountains. For the past several years I have been part of a sailing/boating organization on Spot Pond in Stoneham which sounds so local but once you are out on the water, surrounded by the trees and little islands I could be anywhere. I did two series of images, one from Yosemite and the other on Monhegan Island which follow both these places I love.

What is one book, song, or other visual obsession you have at the moment?

I am obsessed with the Takács Quartet’s record of Amy Beach’s Piano Quintet in F sharp minor Op67. An American composer who has not gotten much recognition but very worth a listen.

If you could be in a room with anyone to have a one on one conversation about anything, who would that person be and what would you talk about?

Today that would be John Lewis but that moment is now gone. But it teaches not to put off reaching out and finding our heroes and acting on your instincts.

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Floor Plan

Amy Rindskopf's Terra Novus

At the market, I pick each one up, pulled in by the shapes as they sit together, waiting. I feel its heft in my hand, enjoy the textures of the skin or peel, and begin to look closer and closer. The patterns on each individual surface marks them as distinct. I push further still, discovering territory unseen by the casual observer, a new land. I am like a satellite orbiting a distant planet, taking the first-ever images of this newly envisioned place.

This project started as an homage to Edward Weston’s Pepper No. 30 (I am, ironically, allergic to peppers). As I looked for my subject matter at the market, I found that I wasn’t drawn to just one single fruit or vegetable. There were so many choices, appealing to both hand and eye. I decided to print in black and white to help make the images visually more about the shapes, and not about guessing which fruit is smoothest, which vegetable is greenest.

Artistic Purpose/Intent

Artistic Purpose/Intent

Tricia Gahagan

 

Photography has been paramount in my personal path of healing from disease and

connecting with consciousness. The intention of my work is to overcome the limits of the

mind and engage the spirit. Like a Zen koan, my images are paradoxes hidden in plain

sight. They are intended to be sat with meditatively, eventually revealing greater truths

about the world and about one’s self.

 

John Chervinsky’s photography is a testament to pensive work without simple answers;

it connects by encouraging discovery and altering perspectives. I see this scholarship

as a potential to continue his legacy and evolve the boundaries of how photography can

explore the human condition.

 

Growing my artistic skill and voice as an emerging photographer is critical, I see this as

a rare opportunity to strengthen my foundation and transition towards an established

and influential future. I am thirsty to engage viewers and provide a transformative

experience through my work. I have been honing my current project and building a plan

for its complete execution. The incredible Griffin community of mentors and the

generous funds would be instrumental for its development. I deeply recognize the

hallmark moment this could be for the introduction of the work. Thank you for providing

this incredible opportunity for budding visions and artists that know they have something

greater to share with the world.

Fran Forman RSVP