New Date for Nemo’s Steampunk Art & Invention Gallery

The previously announced Nemo’s Steampunk Art & Invention Gallery opening night party for the 20,000 Leagues attraction at Patriot Place has been moved to a new date, November 6. See the latest description at http://www.steampuffin.com/Home/Nemos-Steampunk-Gallery.aspx.

Nemo’s Steampunk Art & Invention Gallery — Opening Night

UPDATE: The date has moved to November 6.

5-W!TS is a company that specializes in creating interactive puzzle adventures that you really walk through, such as the TOMB attraction near Fenway in Boston, MA. The company is opening two new interactive attraction at Patriot Place in Foxboro, MA, called “Espionage” (a spy game, of course) and “20,000 Leagues,” based on the writings of Jules Verne. All steampunks are invited to the opening night party for “20,000 Leagues”:

Nemo’s Steampunk Art & Invention Gallery OPENING NIGHT
WHERE: 20,000 LEAGUES presented by 5 Wits-Patriot Place
(located in Patriot Place’s North Plaza, Foxboro MA, adjacent to Gillette Stadium)
WHEN: September 18 November 6, 2010, from 5:00PM to 12:00 Midnight
COST: FREE if you are wearing any Steampunk costume
(Prize for best ‘Nautilus or Nemo themed’ costume)

Steampuffin (www.steampuffin.com) and 5 Wits-Patriot Place (www.5-wits.com) have come to together to show you what kind of technology and art could have been on the Nautilus if Nemo was piloting his famous submarine today. Think of Steampunk as an alternate reality where the Victorian period happened at the same time as the computer or information age – what would have been produced in modern innovations, inventions and gadgetry. In fact, many believe that Jules Verne was really one of first Steampunk thinkers and writers to popularize the genre.

The 1000-square-foot Nemo’s Steampunk Art & Invention Gallery will feature primarily museum quality 3D artwork and inventions from Steampunk artists across the country. The artwork will be for sale and can also be customized for client’s homes and businesses.

As a part of the exhibit and OPENING NIGHT Gala – attendees will also be able to participate FREE in 20,000 LEAGUES, a fully immersive interactive walk-through adventure that combines elements of video games, museum exhibits and theme park rides. In 20,000 LEAGUES guests become undersea explorers as they discover and then ultimately race to escape the Nautilus!

There will also be FREE live entertainment and light refreshments.

The major informational links are in the announcement above; if you need information about Patriot Place visit http://www.patriot-place.com/.

[Tip from Bruce of ModVic and Steampuffin]

New Date for Steampunk Festival

The Steampunk Festival in Waltham, MA has had to change dates again. The new (and hopefully final) date is Saturday May 1st.

Steampunk Bizarre

“Steampunk Bizarre” is an exhibition of artwork by a variety of steampunk artists that will take place at Hartford ArtSpace in Hartford, CT. According to the organizer, Dr. Grymm Laboratories:

Curated by Joey Marsocci and hosted by Dr. Grymm Laboratories, this second annual exhibit will harness just a tiny cog in the great machine that is Steampunk. The Exhibit will be alive with sights and sounds of ingenious and strange contraptions set in a themed atmosphere. The mission of this show is to give both a history and a premonition of this art form by bringing together 23 local and international artists to share their vision of what Steampunk is and will be.

The exhibit opens Friday July 9th and closes Friday July 16th; during that time there will be receptions, meetups for steampunks, and other events. For all the details visit http://www.drgrymmlaboratories.net/Steampunk-Bizarre.html and http://steampunkbizarre2010.blogspot.com/

Date Change for Steampunk Festival

[Update: The date has changed again to May 1st]

The Steampunk Festival in Waltham, MA that was previously announced for April 10th has had to be moved to Saturday May 1st to allow the Charles River Museum of Industry time to clean up after the recent floods.

Steampunk Festival

[UPDATE: Due to water damage at the museum that needs to be cleaned up, the festival has moved to May 1st.]

The Charles River Museum of Industry in Waltham, MA is hosting a Steampunk Festival on Saturday, May 1st from 10:00am-4:00pm. There will be artists, dancers, authors, costume and prop makers, and lessons and displays on all things steampunk, hosted in a museum that focuses on the area’s early industrial history. To learn more visit http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=325287772915 (you do not need a Facebook account in order to see this page) and http://www.crmi.org/.

Steampunk World’s Fair

The Steampunk World’s Fair is an all-steampunk convention taking place May 14th-16th, 2010 in Piscataway, NJ. Here’s what they have planned:

Welcome to a three-day expedition into yesterday’s future! (And no, that doesn’t mean the present!) SPWF is the first East Coast event to welcome Steampunks, Neo-Victorians, Retro-futurists, Gas Lamp Fantasists, and any and all others who consider themselves part of steampunk into a weekend long festival celebrating all things steamy!

An interactive and social event for people of all levels of steampunk know-how (yes, even you sitting in the corner of the internet, not sure you know what steampunk is or if you even like it) to communicate, dance, exchange, and explore. Here, you will find representation of the art, culture, fashion, technology, history, gaming, and music of this fascinating and scintillating subculture and genre.

Visit http://steampunkworldsfair.com/ for more information.

TempleCon 2010

TempleCon is a steampunk-themed gaming convention being held in Warwick, RI the weekend of February 5th-7th, 2010. Here’s how they describe themselves:

TempleCon 2010 is gearing up for a weekend that embodies just this spirit of temporal creation, featuring a plethora of games, stories, and diversions that explore Retro-Futurist genres such as Steampunk, Neo-Victorianism, Weird West, Dieselpunk, Decopunk, Raygun Gothic, and Cyberpunk – all past visions of the future that are being re-examined in modern times and re-envisioned in modern terms. These are anachronisms with attitude, independence and idealism versus monolithic conformity and control, girded with the true grit and superior fashion sense required to go adventuring in the wasteland of civilization’s decay. Mix in a healthy helping of elder gods, piracy, and revolutionary mayhem (this is Rhode Island, after all!), and you have a time-bending Retro-Futurist experience the likes of which no other convention dares to offer.

Concocted by two eccentric Retro-Futurist gamers and passed on for an army of amazingly talented people to run with, TempleCon is about what we want to experience at a Retro-Futurist gaming festival, tempered by what you have told us you want to experience: an immersive but flexible environment, spacious and well-appointed, exploring all the wonders of the past and future and the spaces where the two intersect.

For more information visit http://www.templecon.org/10/.

Steampunk Tea Party

The following was posted to the LiveJournal community for Davis Square, Somerville, MA (though note the event will actually be in Harvard Square, Cambridge):

Always wanted to know how to make a pair of steampunk goggles? How about a Victorian ball gown?

Please join us for an afternoon of tea and costuming at Cafe Pamplona (Harvard Square) from 1pm-3pm, this Saturday (7/18)! During the tea steampunk accessories and vintage reproduction clothing pieces will be shown and discussed. Come listen and learn about how historical clothing and steampunk garments, respectively, are created and can be worn fashionably on the street!

Guests are encouraged to bring any current costume or historical projects they are working on or have completed. If you’ve sewed it, built it or glued it together, we want to see it!

Feel free to wear a costume or modern clothes. We’ll be thrilled to see you either way.

Hope to see everyone there!

Reposted from http://community.livejournal.com/davis_square/1860102.html.

Beyond Belief: The Curious Collection of Professor Rufus Excalibur Bell

The Higgins Armory Museum in Worcester, MA is opening a new exhibit called Beyond Belief: The Curious Collection of Professor Rufus Excalibur Bell, and it is oh so very “steampunk”:

Enter the Higgins’ Department of Curiosites headed by Professor Rufus Excalibur Bell – a professor who has been studying the creatures of mythology for decades, but has been missing for almost as long. Look through the artifacts, specimens, and equipment that the professor sends back in mysteriously marked crates and cases. Discover where the professor must have traveled in order to unearth such items as a Yeti, a Gargoyle skeleton, and the Argonaut probe. Examine the equipment he has sent back, like a Miniscule Winged Specimen Influxator (a fairy vacuum), to see what an explorer needs to use to examine, capture, and preserve these strange objects of study.

The exhibit opens on Saturday, June 20th, and will be around until the summer of 2011; a “preview reception” featuring tours, snacks, and a silent auction will be held on Thursday, June 18th from 5:30-8:00pm. Tickets ($15) must be ordered by June 12th. For more information visit http://www.higgins.org/Calendar/; you can see a few photos of the exhibit at http://www.higgins.org/Research/TempExhibits/beyondbelief/.

[Tip thanks to the Massachusetts Steampunk Society]