Spring Open House at Kugel/Gips

photo by Joshua McHugh

Many thanks to those of you who tried to attend the December Open House which got snowed out.

And thank you to those who inquired about when it would be rescheduled. It has been rescheduled.

The Cape Cod Modern House Trust invites you to an Open House celebrating the completed renovation (well....very close) of the Kugel/Gips House.

Sunday, April 25, 2010 from 10am - 4pm at the Kugel/Gips House in Wellfleet.

Directions:

From Orleans -

Take a right on Lecount Hollow Road just past the South Wellfleet General Store and South Wellfleet Post Office. Bear left onto Ocean View Drive. Go about a mile and take a left on Long Pond Road. Take the first dirt road on the left. Look for a sign that says K/G.

From Provincetown -

Take a right at the light onto Main Street in Wellfleet (just before PJ's). Take a right on Long Pond Road. Go past the public beach for the pond. Take the first dirt road after Wiles Lane on the right. Look for a sign that says K/G.

Parking -

There is limited parking at the K/G House. If the lot is full, you can drop off passengers, then take Long Pond Road to Ocean View Drive. Make a right on Ocean View, then a left into the Cahoon Hollow/Beachcomber parking lot. A shuttle will run from there to the house every 15 minutes.

Town Meeting Vote on Hatch House, April 26

Wellfleet's Community Preservation Committee has approved $100,000 for the restoration of the Hatch House (Jack Hall, 1960-61) one of the endangered modern homes owned by the Park Service. Approval in Wellfleet's Town Meeting on April 26th is also required. Since CCMHT has successfully restored the Kugel/Gips house in collaboration with the town and Park we should have significant support for the project. CCMHT's efforts to document and restore the resource represented by the Outer Cape's modern architecture have promoted off- season tourism, put money back into local trades and businesses, and shed light on an under recognized aspect of our cultural history. If you are a registered voter in Wellfleet please come and show your support.

Upcoming Lectures by Peter McMahon

Peter McMahon, CCMHT's Executive Director, will be lecturing this month in Boston and New York.

Harvard's Graduate School of Design

Monday, April 19 at 4:00 pm,

Modernist Summer-cottage prototypes on Outer Cape Cod, 1945-1965

Harvard GSD Room 109

Admission is free and open to the public.

For info: http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/calendar/weekly.cgi

Museum of the City of New York

Wednesday, April 21 6-8:30 pm

This lecture is a fundraiser for Manitoga/ The Russell Wright Design Center

For info and tickets: http://www.russelwrightcenter.org/NYCDESIGNrsvp/

In Memoriam - Marianne Simmel

We are sad to report that Marianne Simmel passed away recently after a long illness. Marianne survived the Holocaust in Europe, grew up on Manhattan's Lower East Side, went to Smith Collage, got a PhD at Harvard and taught psychology for many years at Brandies University. As she said in an interview, she started doodling in faculty meetings with graph paper around the same time she was getting fed up with the academic life. She subsequently had a successful decade long career in textile design. She settled in Eastham in her later years and produced a large body of designs, in some cases informed by her previous work in human perception and the brain.

After searching unsuccessfully for an institution interested in preserving her work CCMHT has arranged to archive her art work and textile designs which will be stored at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum (PAAM) in their secure art storage facility. We hope to exhibit her work in the future and preserve if for scholars and admirers.

Report on Spring 2010 Artist Residencies at Kugel/Gips House

The Cape Cod Modern House Trust hosted two week-long artist residencies in March.

Film maker Ericka Beckman and Tara Merenda Nelson, one of her graduate students at Mass Collage of Art, made a film using the house and its environment and natural and projected light. When we first discussed Ericka being a resident the house was a vacant hulk. She adapted her concept to the new reality of the house being restored and furnished.

Ericka and Tara will be coming back to show the entire film on August 23rd for our Modern House Tour Week 2010 - Film Night. Ericka has a very long and illustrious CV which includes the show the Pictures Generation at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2009.

For more information about Ericka visit:http://www.erickabeckman.com/

Smudge Studio, consisting of Elizabeth Ellsworth and Jamie Kruse, envisioned the house as an observation platform for viewing the ice-age formed landscape. The piece they created during their stay in the house (which is posted on their blog) is educational and beautiful. They will be giving a presentation at the Wellfleet library this June about their experience in the house and their work.

Check out the blog post at: http://fopnews.wordpress.com/2010/03/19/pleistocene-modern-where-architecture-meets-the-ice-age/

Check out Smudge at: http://www.smudgestudio.org/