ArtSake

The deadline for Artist Fellowships applications in Choreography, Fiction/Creative Nonfiction, and Poetry is this Monday, January 30, 2012.

If you are a Massachusetts choreographer, writer, and/or poet who meets the eligibility requirements, apply! (Monday is a postmark deadline.)

The fellowships are anonymously-judged competitive grants for Massachusetts artists. Fellowships of $7,500 and finalist awards of $500 are awarded based solely on the artistic excellence of the work submitted. Check out our tips on applying.

Read full program guidelines, eligibility requirements, and application instructions and apply online.

Image and Media: photo of books by past MCC Fellows (l to r) SUCCESS OF THE SEED PLANTS by Leslie Williams, THE FOREIGNER by Francie Lin, CLOISTERS by Kristin Bock, MRS. SOMEBODY SOMEBODY by Tracy Winn, excerpt from DEEP by Ariel Cohen and Kellie Ann Lynch.

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This January-May, a group of artist-entrepreneurs will hold a series of workshops in Jamaica Plain called Focusing Your Art Career. We’re delighted to welcome one of the workshop leaders, Jessica Burko, to share keen insights into optimizing your online presence as an artist.

Getting More Out of Getting Online by Jessica Burko

So, you make stuff.

You are an artist/designer/craftsperson/artisan. You also have a blog/website/online shop and frequently update your Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn/Pinterest feed/page/profile/boards. You stay connected with your fellow creative professionals using your MacBook/iPad/smart phone and you feel like you are doing everything right, but the sales/press/shows aren’t increasing like you thought they would by now.

Huh.

It sounds like you are keeping up with the latest greatest technology, but not really utilizing it to its full potential to maximize your full potential. Don’t get lost in an avalanche of meaningless chatter while you engage, just be sure to update regularly, make targeted connections, and create significant dialogue. Closer attention to what you are doing online, in addition to where and when you are doing it, will help you focus and make the most of your time.

Instead of… spending all day tweeting your every move
Try… tweeting consistently but meaningfully by sharing relevant news and links about your work and the work of others in your field.

Instead of… posting photos of your nephew’s birthday party on Facebook
Try… creating a fan page that you update several times a week with new work.

Instead of… blogging about irrelevant topics
Try… publishing articles related to the type of work that you do, or a how-to article with step-by-step photos.

Instead of… friending every unknown who sends you a request
Try… just friending people you know personally, would like to know, or people who are in your field.

Instead of… following everyone who follows you
Try… to follow only those people who tweet items meaningful to you, and make sure to occasionally retweet what they share.

Having a strong online presence can be extremely beneficial to your art, no matter what type of media you explore. The key is to make the most of your time online, and not get distracted by the everything swirling around you. Falling down a rabbit hole is very easy to do with so many connections leading here, there, and everywhere. If you find that you’re spending too much time friending your pals from kindergarten, and not enough time in your studio making your actual artwork, try setting a timer so that you spend only a specified amount of time online, and the rest of your day using your hands for more tangible endeavors.

Generating opportunities takes effort, and marketing what you do to the right audience is more than half the battle. Online networking is an excellent way to increase your visibility, create buzz, gain sales, and expand your circle to lead to any number of exciting new paths. You may be the master of your virtual domain, but there are lots of other ways to market your work and develop your professional muscles while you flex your texting thumbs. There’s a new series of marketing and business workshops for creative entrepreneurs called The Focusing Series.

Developed by Boston artist Anna Koon, this series includes such pertinent topics as, How to Setup and Sell Online, Time Management for Creative People, The Art of Branding and Photo-Documenting Your Art. For a PDF with full details on this series click here.

Jessica Burko is a professional artist, independent curator, and the Executive Director of Boston Handmade. Beyond exhibiting, selling, and promoting her own artwork she has worked as a professional Arts Marketer since 1997 and since 2002 has operated Burko Design offering marketing and PR services to artists and arts organizations to assist them in achieving their professional goals. Burko is located in Boston, MA, has a BFA in Photography from the Rhode Island School of Design, and an MFA in Imaging Arts & Sciences from the Rochester Institute of Technology.

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The Massachusetts Cultural Council is honored to announce the 2012 MCC Artist Fellowship awards in Drawing, Painting, and Traditional Arts. Fifteen artists will receive fellowships of $7500 and another 16 will receive $500 finalist awards. See a complete list of this year’s fellows and finalists.

The awards are anonymously judged, based solely on the artistic quality and creative ability of the work submitted. Applications were open to all eligible Massachusetts artists. A total number of 866 eligible applications were received; 317 in Drawing, 531 in Painting, and 18 in Traditional Arts.

Hear Irish-American button accordion-playing by Traditional Arts Fellow Joe Derrane.

The Drawing panelists were Dina Deitsch, Jan Howard, Kate McNamara, and Evelyn Rydz. The Painting panelists were Margaret Burgess, Masako Kamiya, Al Miner, and Susan Stoops. The Traditional Arts panelists were Winnie Lambrecht, Rebecca Miller, and Lynne Williamson.

Learn more about the fellows/finalists at Gallery@MCC.

Later this year, we will award artists in Choreography, Fiction/Creative Nonfiction, and Poetry. The deadline to apply in these categories is Monday, January 30, 2012.

Images: August Ventimiglia, UNTITLED (YELLOW RADIAL) (2010), yellow snap-line chalk on paper, 22 1/4×22 in; Joo Lee Kang, BOUQUET OF NATURE #1 (2010), Ballpoint pen on paper, 55×43 in; Daniela Rivera, GROWTH (2011), oil on canvas on board, 8x30x30 ft; Elaine Spatz-Rabinowitz, UNTITLED WAR RELIEF (2011), oil and cast pigmented Hydrocal, 20x9x2 in; Yari Livan, ELEPHANT POT (2006), White stoneware clay, glaze, 9x10x10 1/4 in, photo by Jason Dowdle.

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Choreography, Fiction/Creative Non-fiction, and Poetry Fellowships  The MCC is accepting applications for artist fellowships in choreography, fiction/creative non-fiction, and poetry. Fellowship awards are $7,500 and finalist awards are $500. Learn more.
Deadline: January 30, 2012

Call to Artists The  2012 Monson Arts Council’s Spring Art Exhibition & Sale called Imagine That! is now accepting entries. Learn more.
Deadline: February 10, 2012

Artists and Writers The Vermont Studio Center is now accepting applications for their annual fellowship deadlines. Learn more.
Deadline February 15, 2012

Choreographers Applications for performing companies (student, amateur, and professional) and workshop teachers will be on the Massachusetts Dance Festival web site soon for their annual Massachusetts Dance Festival. Learn more.
Deadline: March 1, 2012

Studio Fellowship The Women’s Studio Workshop in Rosendale, NY is now accepting applications for their studio fellowship. The WSW opportunity is designed to provide concentrated work time for artists to explore new ideas in a dynamic and supportive community of women artists. The cost to fellowship recipients is $200 per week plus materials. The award includes on-site housing and all-hour access to their studios for intaglio, silkscreen, hand papermaking, photography, letterpress, and ceramics. Learn more. Questions: sandra@wsworkshop.org.
Deadline: March 15, 2012

Call to Artists spaces Gallery, the Cultural Center at Eagle Hill is now accepting proposals for their exhibition Fundamental Composition. spaces Gallery seeks proposals from artists who can’t escape the right-brain, left-brain metaphysical lure of geometry. “Mighty is geometry; joined with art, resistless.” – Euripides. Exhibits are being arranged for the 2012–2013 school year. Works in all media and sizes will be considered. Learn more. Questions: pbock@ehs1.org or 413-477-6000.
Deadline: April 2, 2012

Image credit: Der Maler in seiner Werkstatt, oil on oak panel, by Adriaen van Ostade, 1663

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Recently, the multi-disciplinary performing arts troupe Sleeping Weazel marked its dramatic arrival to the New England theatre scene. We checked in with the group’s leader, playwright Charlotte Meehan, about the company, its past/future, and its fascinating Artistic Director.

Why Sleeping Weazel, the org.? Why Sleeping Weazel, the name?
Sleeping Weazel was originally founded in 1998 by my late husband David G. Hopkins to produce independent films, live and audio theatre, and a multi-genre experimental web magazine based in Bristol, UK. After David moved to New York to live with me, we continued our collaborations until his untimely death in 2004. This iteration of Sleeping Weazel, which we just launched with a festive party/performance night at The Factory Theatre in Boston, is a brand new endeavor I have taken on with three of my former Wheaton College students, Adara Meyers, Amanda Weir, and Jess Foster. We are producing live performance and music in Boston and presenting art works online for viewing across the globe on our Vimeo channel.

The name Sleeping Weazel alludes to the idea of “dreaming awake,” or being in a productive state of unconsciousness wherein the artist works to imagine and manifest what was previously outside the realm of possibility. In extending the invitation to join a work of art finding its way to new dimensions, the imaginary becomes a place of enchantment, growth, and abundant potential for all participants. In today’s economy, this is not an idea to “sell” and so the weazel himself is our wily little mascot slipping his way into the leaky system that is the American arts establishment.

What’s the most surprising response to your art you’ve ever received?
Someone once said to me after seeing four of my short plays in an evening that I had to decide whether my plays are funny, or sad. I politely responded that I’d decided to leave that up to each audience member.

Share a surprise twist in the Charlotte Meehan story.
I’m a 9/11 refugee. If the tragedy of that day had not occurred, I might still be living in my fifth floor walk-up on Grand and Mulberry in Little Italy. Shocks me to say this as a die-hard New Yorker, but I’m very glad to be here in New England where the sky is endless and there’s time to dream. I’m also very excited by the explosion of new theatre companies in Boston right now, and recently joined the Small Theatre Alliance through getting to know Meg Taintor and seeing the wonderful work of her company, Whistler in the Dark. It’s taken seven years to circle back to Sleeping Weazel after losing David, but I’m very proud to have reclaimed our company and look forward to sharing exciting new cross-disciplinary performance with the greater Boston community.

Like, what does your work MEAN?
Though perfectly capable of being charming and entertaining, my plays are stubbornly idiosyncratic in form and philosophical in nature. Others have described them as surreal fables, multimedia dance theatre, operas, performance plays, and choreopoems. Whatever form each play takes, the full array of circumstances that “ruin” people – childhood trauma, unexamined privilege, mental illness, frailty of character, war, poverty, etc. – make up a significant part of my theatrical landscape. I’m also very interested in how American culture in this late stage of Capitalism encourages all forms of predation upon the neurotic masses for profit and in the impossibility of communication that ensues. Fortunately, this can all be quite hilarious.

What do you listen to while you create?
Sometimes nothing, but I was greatly influenced by Erik Satie’s Les Inspiration Insolites and Nick Drake’s Pink Moon while writing Ceci n’est pas une Pièce (this is not a play), a sound performance version of which can be heard on my website.

What’s next?
Next up is an evening of performance and song by our affiliated artists on March 13 at The Factory Theatre. Erik Ehn, Head of Playwriting at Brown University, will present one of his puppet plays from Soulographie, a commemorative performance cycle, that will premiere at La Mama in New York in November. Also performing will be the incomparable Magdalena Gomez and a few other surprise guests. You must come and see…

Images: all photos by David Marshall. Pictured, from top: Amanda Weir, Charlotte Meehan, Adara Meyers, Jess Foster (Charlotte is Artistic Director and the others are Associate Artists of Sleeping Weazel); Loretta Pope and Jacob Richman perform RATS! (LYDIA SHERMAN, ARCHMURDEROUS OF CONNECTICUT) composed by Kirsten Volness (Kirsten and Jacob are Affiliated Artists of the company); Stephanie Burlington Daniels performs Ken Prestininzi’s BIRTH BREATH BRIDE ELIZABETH, a pseudo-lecture to young brides by Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein; Adara Meyers chats with Provost Linda Eisenmann and Dean of Students Lee Williams of Wheaton College.

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The DocYard is a film and discussion series running at the Brattle Theatre every other Monday January 23-April 16. The series is an integral part of the LEF Foundation‘s mission to highlight and foster New England as a center for documentary film. The series screens diverse, pivotal documentary films and hosts the filmmakers to discuss the work with the local community.

It also hosts some of the most fascinating filmmakers at work today – some of them past awardees from our Artist Fellowships Program. This Monday, January 23, 8 PM, Ross McElwee (Film & Video Fellow ’05), will be on hand for the screening of his 1979 film Space Coast, along with his collaborator on that film, Michael Negroponte. (The two were fellow students at MIT.)

The film explores the community of Cape Canaveral, Florida, after the phasing out of the Apollo moon missions. It’s an early film for McElwee, done cinema verite style, before his work turned toward the more personal, autobiographical style of films like Bright Leaves (for which he won the MCC grant).

By the way, you can get a season pass for the DocYard, plus support its ongoing work, by pledging a donation through its Kickstarter campaign.

Image and media: Still from SPACE COAST (1979) by Ross McElwee and Michael Negroponte; excerpt from Ross McElwee’s BRIGHT LEAVES.

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Call to African American Artists under 40 The Art Gallery at Bunker Hill Community College is now accepting entries for their exhibition That’s A Fact: Young, Gifted and Black, an invitational group exhibition of Massachusetts and Boston-area African American Artists under 40 years old. Work should address themes of race, injustice, identity, and aspiration. For guidelines and application, contact  lmontgomery@bhcc.mass.edu or 617-228-2093.
Deadline: January 30, 2012

Photographers The Center for Photography at Woodstock is now accepting entries for their annual call to artists. From traditional to digital, all photographic techniques and approaches are welcome. Learn more.
Deadline: January 20, 2012

Call for Artists OKW is now accepting entries for their 3rd Annual Small Works Show. This year’s theme is Endurance. Dates of show: February 17 – April 2, 2012. Delivery of art: February 3 – 10, (10am – 5pm, closed Feb. 5). Artist may bring 1 or 2 pieces of work. Each piece cannot exceed a 64″ perimeter, including outside of frame. All art will be for sale: 75% to artist, 25% to OKW. Label all art on back of work with your name, e-mail, title of work, medium, and price. OKW is located at 631A Tremont Street, Boston, MA. Store hours: 10 – 6:30 M-F, 10 – 5 Sat, closed Sun.
Deadline: e-mail Arlene with your intent to participate by January 20, 2012.

Choreographers The Movement at the Mills at the Boston Center for the Arts is currently accepting applications.  Movement at the Mills is an exhibition of dance by local and national choreographers and companies. The program follows an annual schedule of three sessions per season, hosting a variety of dance artists: national, regional, and local. Performances occur in numerous areas of the space while audience members are invited to walk through the gallery and observe dance as artwork. Questions: ablesso@bcaonline.org. Learn more.
Deadline: January 30, 2012

Call to Artists The Monmouth Museum is now accepting entries for their juried exhibition The Art of Illusion. Illusionist art is represented in a variety of styles including but not limited to trompe l’oeil, photorealism, surrealism, 3D, hidden elements, and optical illusion. Artwork will be considered in all media except film/video. Learn more.
Deadline: February 15, 2012

Call for Artists The Young Masters Art Prize 2012, a not-for-profit initiative presented by the Cynthia Corbett Gallery is now accepting entries. They welcome artists working in a range of practices including painting, sculpture and installation, printmaking, drawing, video, and sound. Their aim is to encourage emerging and newly established artists to apply, as well as those who are perhaps established abroad but less well-known in the UK. Questions: info@young-masters.co.uk. Learn more.
Deadline: April 30, 2012

Free Screenings Wednesday Night Art Flicks at the Concord Art Association. Art of the Steal, 1/18 at 7 PM; What Remains, The Life and Work of Sally Mann, 2/15 at 7 PM; Rembrant’s J’Accuse, 3/14 at 7 PM. Email gallery@concordart.org to reserve your space.

Image credit: The Moneylender and his Wife by Quentin Matsys (1514), Oil on panel, 71 x 68 cm Musée du Louvre, Paris.

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How many of your new year resolutions have already gone by the wayside? No need to let these artist opportunities melt away.

Call for Artist Proposals – Frame 301 Gallery is currently accepting proposals for their alternative exhibition space. Frame 301 is a storefront window that has been converted into an alternative exhibit space on 301 Cabot Street in Beverly, MA. Each month a regional, national, and/or international artist is selected to install his or her work in the space. Learn more.
Deadline: Ongoing

Poetry Submit book-length collection of poems for the Colorado Prize for Poetry, a $2,000 honorarium, and book publication. Final judge is Elizabeth Willis. $25 entry fee includes subscription to Colorado  Review. Complete guidelines: Colorado Prize for Poetry, Center for Literary Publishing, 9105 Campus Delivery, Colorado State University, Fort Collins CO 80523-9105. Learn more.
Deadline: January 14, 2012

Networking Workshop ArtMorpheus presents a workshop called Networking and the Art of LinkingIn, a hands-on workshop for people in the arts on January 18, 2012 at City Year, 287 Columbus Avenue, Boston, 6:30 PM. Learn more.

Free Panel Discussion Falling Through the Cracks: Funding Integrative Socially-Engaged Practice is a panel discussion featuring Cuong Hoang, Director of Programs at Mott Philanthropic, Andrew Sempere from the Awesome Foundation, and Nerissa Cooney and Alex Hage of FeastMass. The conversation will be moderated by artist Lisa Gross, founder of the Boston Tree Party and Hybrid Vigor Projects. Thursday January 19, 7-9 PM at the Cambridge Public Library – Main Branch, 449 Broadway, Cambridge, MA.

Call to New England Visual Artists The Jamaica Plain Open Studios Juried Exhibition is currently accepting applications for their annual springtime event. The exhibition will occur in the Footlight Club, America’s oldest community theater, in downtown Jamaica Plain. The main gallery is open to the public and on show nights, hundreds of people pass through and spend intermission among the artwork. This year’s theme is Under the Influence. Learn more.
Deadline: January 31, 2011

Visual Art Summer Residency The Kuenstlerhaus Dortmund in Germany, an artist-run, non-profit space for contemporary and experimental arts is now accepting applications for their summer studio residency. Learn more.
Deadline: January 31, 2012

Visual Artists Project Grants The Harpo Foundation is now accepting proposals that directly support the production of new work by visual artists and/or collaborative teams who are under recognized by the field. This production may happen in the context of an installation, public intervention, residency, or exhibition. Learn more. Questions: deamer@harpofoundation.org.
Letters of Inquiry Deadline: February 1, 2012

New Media The Liedts-Meesen Foundation is now accepting entries for their New Technological Art Award 2012, an international art competition. Learn more.
Deadline: March 31, 2011

Jazz Musicians The French-American Jazz Exchange, a partnership of the Cultural Service of the French Embassy and Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, is a program designed to foster the creative and professional development of jazz artists from France and the US through collaborative investigation of artistic practice and exposure to new audiences, music concepts, and professional relationships. Learn more.
Deadline: May 1, 2012

Filmmakers and Screenwriters The Rhode Island International Film Festival is now accepting entries for their annual competition. There are no category restrictions. Each work is juried solely on its own merits. The Festival seeks any combination of inventive, incisive, bold, vital, and otherwise provocative work of any style or genre. Learn more.
Deadline: May 15, 2012

Image credit: Illustration of two women writing in the snow from Puck, v. 66, no. 1713 (1909 December 29).

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So, you’re a New England film, video, and/or media-maker, and you’re scoping out the local terrain for grants funding.

Well, come say howdy to LEF Foundation, MassHumanities, and us (MCC)!

We’re pleased to let you know about a workshop organized for area film, video, and media-makers to learn more about the grants available to them. Program officers from media funders LEF Foundation, MCC, and MassHumanities will talk about what makes a strong grant application and take your questions about their organizations.

The workshop is happening from 5-7:30 PM on Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at Aloft @ NEFA, 145 Tremont Street, 7th Floor, Boston MA (map). Please RSVP to LEF Foundation.

Also: apply for LEF Foundation’s Moving Image Fund Letter of Inquiry deadline for Production and Post-production funding. Deadline: Friday, January 27, 2012 at 5 PM. How to apply.

Images: still from SWEETGRASS by Ilisa Barbash and Lucien Castaing-Taylor, artists funded by both LEF Foundation and MCC; still from LEFT ON PEARL by Susan Rivo, an artist funded by both MassHumanities and MCC.

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New year, new notes from past Artist Fellows/Finalists. (Speaking of, apply now in Choreography, Fiction/Creative Nonfiction, or Poetry.)

Go see the 2012 deCordova Biennial ASAP (1/23-4/22). Why? Work by Matthew Gamber (Photography Finalist ’11), Eric Gottesman (Photography Fellow ’09), and 21 other terrific New England artists/collectives, is why.

The work and life of Karen Aqua (Film & Video Fellow ’11) will be honored at a special event and exhibition at the Roswell Museum in New Mexico (1/13).

Michael Hoerman (Poetry Fellow ’04) shares never-before-read-for-an-audience poetry at Literary Firsts, Middlesex Lounge in Cambridge (1/23, 7 PM).

Scott Listfield (Painting Finalist ’10) has work in Adult Swim (1/13-2/4) at Gallery 1988 in L.A. – and they used one of his iconic astronaut paintings for the show flyer!

If you’re within high fiving distance of Suzanne Matson (Fiction Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’98), do so; she received a NEA Creative Writing Fellowship!

Great interview with Christian McEwen (Playwriting Fellow ’11) on the radio show “Writer’s Voice.”

Monica Raymond (Playwriting Finalist ’07, Poetry Finalist ’08) collaborated via Skype with an actress in Finland to create a piece for the Internationalists’ Around the World. Also, hear her poem The Sacred on qarrtsiluni.

Superb, excellent, and just plain neato mosquito: Allan Reeder (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’10 and ’06) won a Sustainable Arts Foundation Promise Grant.

Daily swims during at a Blue Mountain Center residency inspired Naoe Suzuki‘s (Drawing Fellow ’06) Blue, showing at Brandeis University Women’s Studies Research Center Gallery (1/13-3/2).

He’s getting into Dodge: Michael Zelehoski (Painting Fellow ’10) has a solo show at NYC’s DODGE Gallery (1/12-2/19).

Read past Fellows Notes. If you’re a past fellow/finalist with news, let us know.

Image: Michael Zelehoski, CRATE (2011), found crate, painted plywood, 63×96 in.

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