ArtSake

This is the second in a series of posts about Art and Philanthropy, looking at those projects that merge artistic with philanthropic vision. Interestingly, they often invent unconventional, innovative work models in the process.

In 2008, novelist, former rocker, and community activist Stona Fitch founded Concord Free Press, an outfit that blends his literary, DIY, and charitable inclinations. The press publishes two books a year using a ground-breaking, generosity-based model: authors (and the publishers, incidentally) donate their work, and the press gives away the books for free through its website and a network of independent bookstores. In lieu of payment, the press asks readers who receive the books to make a donation – in any amount – to a charitable organization. According to Stona, donations from Concord Free Press readers recently surpassed $100,000.

We asked Stona (recently named one of the 2010 Literary Lights by the Boston Public Library) about writers and giving, nontraditional publishing, and his revolutionary charitable model.

ArtSake: Your most recently published author was Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked and other bestsellers. Have you found a strong response among writers to your press’s philanthropic model?

Stona: At the Concord Free Press, we’re writers and artists first, publishers second. So our generosity-based publishing concept is designed for and by writers. They get to be part of an intriguing experiment that connects with readers in new ways, and that inspires incredible generosity. And their books can go on to second lives as commercial editions. We’ve been besieged by bad news about our industry. The Concord Free Press sends a new, positive message – one that definitely resonates with writers. And with readers. In our first year, we’ve been flooded with book requests, encouragement, and overwhelming interest from around the world.

ArtSake: The first book the press published, your novel Give + Take, was orphaned at a previous publisher after its editor departed. One could assume this kind of setback will arise more and more as the economic turmoil continues to affect publishers. Do you think more authors will seek alternate publishing routes?

Stona: It’s simple. Writers want their work to reach readers. For the first time in history, writers can publish their own work, quickly and inexpensively. While traditional publishing remains the best avenue to reach the most readers, alternative channels – small online presses, self-publishing, e-books, Twitter novels, and whatever’s next – serve as a vital complement to the mainstream. As traditional publishing continues to contract, more writers will pursue creative ways to reach readers. The inmates have the keys to the asylum now. Whether they choose to use them is another question.

ArtSake: Give + Take involves a Robin Hood-like figure who gives to the poor. Did your book’s plot inspire the press’s philanthropic model? Or was it more a matter of philanthropy as a core interest of yours to begin with?

Stona: Give + Take definitely inspired the press. My novels tend to wrestle with consumerism, and Give + Take is no exception. I’ve also been part of the leadership of a local farm, Gaining Ground, which grows organic produce and gives it away to people in need. So I’m definitely grounded in non-profit work, social philanthropy, the DIY approach, and rethinking traditional/accepted models. The Concord Free Press has been called a grand experiment in subversive altruism – a mouthful, but accurate.

No matter who published them or how good they are, most books go on a familiar trajectory—new, used, shelved permanently, dusty. Ours keep going from hand to hand, generating donations along the way.

- From the Concord Free Press website

ArtSake: I noticed that Give + Take will be published by Thomas Dunne/St. Martin’s Press in 2010 – congratulations! Do you have any thoughts on the way nontraditional ways of presenting art – self-publishing, giving away selected work for free, Creative Commons licenses, etc. – can benefit an artist’s career?

Stona: Giving something singular and beautiful away has incredible power – particularly when you expect nothing in return. Whether you’re Banksy or a band on MySpace, giving away your art can revalue it and create new energy that comes back to the artist in one form or another, often in unexpected ways. But giving away work with the specific intent of furthering a career seems opportunistic and kind of venal.

With the Concord Free Press, we’ve created a gift economy for publishing. But it definitely connects to (and co-exists with) a more commercial world, as described so presciently in Lewis Hyde’s brilliant book, The Gift. A free work can go on to a second, commercial life. For example, Thomas Dunne/St. Martin’s is publishing Give + Take and Harper Collins is publishing The Next Queen of Heaven – both in spring of 2010, coincidentally. We certainly didn’t go into the project with the intent of attracting commercial publishers, though we certainly appreciate their interest and enthusiasm.

Kevin C. of St. John’s, Nova Scotia gave $240 to United Way
Ying C. of Concord, MA gave $55 to Open Table/Concord
Mike D. of Monroe, GA gave $40 to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering
Robyn F. of San Francisco, CA gave $50 to Choose What You Read NY
Alia W. of North York, ON gave $90 to a friend for bus fare to see his daughter
- Donations inspired by Concord Free Press, from the press’s website

ArtSake: It’s interesting that you chose to include Concord in your press’s name. Does the press being in Concord, Massachusetts, with that town’s legacy of individualism, have a particular significance to you?

Stona: Concord has always nurtured and inspired renegades – from Minutemen to Transcendentalists. I’d like to think that Concord Free Press fits cleanly in that lineage. It’s also important for a project to be grounded in a place. So while we have supporters and readers around the world, Concord is our base – from our office over a local bakery to a great local bookstore and library to the hundreds of committed readers and diverse authors who live here.

ArtSake: What do writers interested in submitting work to Concord Free Press need to know?

Stona: We only publish two books a year, generally solicited directly from established authors. We’re not an ideal option for a first novel, since first novelists deserve the broadest audience possible and tend to require more editing than our all-volunteer staff can offer. And though our books are free, the quality of the work has to be exceptional.

Right now, we’re putting together a new book, IOU: New Writing on Money, a multi-genre collection of essays, short stories, and poems edited by renowned poet (and CFP Poetry Editor) Ron Slate. Writers interested in being part of this inherently more inclusive project can find details on our website, and on Facebook. And anyone with questions, comments, insights – or financial donations, we’re a non-profit foundation, after all – can feel free to email us at hello@concordfreepress.com.

Stona Fitch‘s novels, including Senseless, Printer’s Devil, and Give + Take have been widely praised by critics and readers or their originality, intensity, and prescience. Stona lives with his family in Concord, Massachusetts, where he is also a committed community activist. He and his family work with Gaining Ground, a non-profit farm that grows 30,000 pounds of organic produce each growing season and distributes it for free to Boston-area homeless shelters, food pantries, and meal programs. He founded Concord Free Press in 2008 and was recently named one of the 2010 Literary Lights by the Boston Public Library.

Image: Stona Fitch in New Town, Edinburgh, 2008, Photo by Laura Hynd;cover art for THE NEXT QUEEN OF HEAVEN by Gregory Maguire (Concord Free Press 2009).

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We’re interested in Massachusetts arts organizations that identify a specific need for artists, then shape their organization to directly meet that need – in essence, match the right horse with the right course.

We contacted Jeff Stern about the monthly screening series he runs with collaborator Zak Lee, giving local filmmakers an open, democratic forum for their film & video creations.

The course: because of the time and resources it takes to make and screen new film/video, it’s hard to find that immediacy and vitality of responsive community of peers; plus, sometimes showing your work is about who you know… and what if you don’t know anybody?

The horse: Open Screen, a monthly open mike for film & video artists, now at Somerville Theatre

What we do: Open Screen is Boston’s only “open mike night” for short films. Open Screen is hosted by filmmakers Zak Lee and Jeff Stern. We offer a venue for local filmmakers to exhibit their work to an audience of their peers. Open Screen happens every 2nd Tuesday of the month at the Somerville Theatre. Each Open Screen is different, but it’s always a strange and wonderful evening. We do not pre-screen and we do not censor. As long as your movie is under 10 minutes, we’ll screen it. We do reserve the right to stop a movie if its is in very bad taste or is very offensive, but, amazingly, in our 5 years of doing this, that has never happened. Because we show everything, there is an element of chance that often results in serendipitous programming. Over the years, we have developed a dedicated core following and an expanding community. Open Screen has “regulars” who come every month and there is always a bit of anticipation about new work by Mike Szegedi, Dave Baeumler, Peggy Nelson, and James Dingle (Film & Video Fellow ’07). Peggy and James both debuted films at Open Screen that went on to play at South By Southwest. There is an Open Screen blog on our website. We are also on Facebook and Twitter.

What’s up next: The next Open Screen is December 8. In January, we will hold our annual Best of Open Screen at the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge (date to be announced). This is our chance to pick our favorite films from the past year and to celebrate Open Screen. We have a formal Q&A afterwards and give trophies and a Lifetime Achievement Award. We usually draw big crowds. This is a great point of entry for Open Screen newcomers.

What artists interested in working with us need to know: If you want to screen at Open Screen, just show up between 7 and 7:30 pm on event night with a DVD of your (under 10 minute) film. We screen in the order of submission. That’s pretty much it. Feel free to bring your friends. Feel free to just come and watch. If you are scared about showing your work, you might try leaving your name out of the credits and submitting anonymously. It’s great to test out new stuff on a random audience. There’s nothing like the feeling of sitting in the crowd as your movie plays on the big screen. It’s the best way to know what’s working and what’s not.

The next Open Screen will take place at Somerville Theatre on Tuesday, December 8. Signups start at 7 PM, screenings start at 7:30 PM. This month’s theme is “You Aught to be in Pictures.” From an Open Screen announcement:

To celebrate the end of the first decade of the 21st century, we’re asking filmmakers to make movies that reflect the spirit of the last ten years. Hence our theme: You “Aught” to be in Pictures. Get it? “Aught?” Of course you do.

One of the films screened will receive the Audience Award – see last month’s award-winning video.

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On December 5, at 5 PM, a tobacco shed in Amherst will transform with light.

Shedding Light is a public art project conceived and created by artist/architect Erika Zekos and supported by, among others, the Town of Amherst, the Amherst Cultural Council, and the Swartz Family Farm, where the project will be on display December 5-31. Erika’s past projects include Greetings from MY City, which plays off the familiar concept of the tourist site postcard to allow young artists to engage and depict their own communities. Similarly, Shedding Light starts with a familiar sight of the Pioneer Valley – an aging tobacco shed – and illuminates it with a new vision.

We asked Erika about the origins of the project, her background as an artist and architect, and the makings of a truly public work of art.

ArtSake: How did the concept behind Shedding Light, lighting up a tobacco barn from the interior “like an architectural lantern,” first occur to you?

Erika: When my family moved to Amherst five years ago we would drive around to explore back roads and hidden places. The very first thought I had when I saw the tobacco sheds for the first time was, “We grow tobacco here?!” and the second was, “Wow, these buildings are so beautiful!” Seeing the sunlight streaming into a shed through the long, vertical panels I knew immediately that I wanted to switch it up and let the light stream out and into the landscape at night.

As with much of my work, the idea is to call attention to the environment (both built and unbuilt) and create a forum for the questions that arise as a result of the work. The more I’ve learned about the uniqueness, simplicity, and single-use design of the tobacco sheds the more intrigued I’ve become. It’s not my intention to celebrate smoking, but it’s certainly an interesting history. Believe it or not, Connecticut Valley shade-grown tobacco is among the best in the world and is used as the wrapper layer of fine cigars. In the peak growing years of the 1920′s to 50′s 30,000 acres were planted… now it’s more like 3,000 acres. It’s no surprise then that the sheds built to dry the crop are quickly vanishing as they fall down or the land is developed into shopping malls and housing. I wanted to do something that would highlight the distinctiveness of this architectural vernacular and the vision of the shed filled with light in a winter landscape was a clear idea from the very beginning.

ArtSake: How does your use of a tobacco shed on the hydroponic Swartz Family Farm relate to the core premises of the project?

Erika: Shedding Light is about appreciating the ingenuity and sustainability of our farming history while simultaneously looking ahead to the future. These sheds are 150 year-old examples of the kind of simple, sustainable design that everyone is talking about today; they harnessed the wind to naturally ventilate and dry the tobacco.

Collaborating with the Swartzes is perfect really because it conveys both sides of the coin. Joe and Sarah Swartz are third generation farmers dealing with the realities of bringing their product to market and working 24/7 to make a living. This doesn’t leave much for preserving aging tobacco sheds (and the shed that I’m using for Shedding Light is in pretty rough shape at the moment). But at the same time the Swartzes are very forward-thinking farmers themselves: leasing much of their land to neighboring farms and growing lettuces and herbs year round in their greenhouses, using only 1/10th the water that conventional farming requires for the same product. They also operate a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) that invites the community to participate in the success of the farm and share in the harvest.

While the physical aspects of illuminating the shed (light and shadows) will be the easiest to understand, it’s the underlying connection to the community (farming, local history, etc.) that I hope keeps this project in the memories of those who experience it.

ArtSake: Nora Maroulis of wunderarts called your project “public art at its best/most impactful.” Both Shedding Light and your Greetings from MY City project use artistic creation to enhance and build awareness of one’s community. Is it this interaction between art and community that appeals to you, as a public artist? And is it the same appeal that drew you to architecture?

Erika: Absolutely! The interaction between the cultural and physical landscapes is such ripe territory for exploration in both architecture and art. Architecture is about designing a better built environment, but ultimately, it’s about the experiences of the people who live in it… my public art projects deal with the architectural too, but tend to be more hands-on with regards to the interaction. They invite you in and ask you to think. Greetings from MY City (a collaboration with my great friend Gretchen Schneider) is a perfect example of that. We invited kids from neighborhoods in inner city Boston and Holyoke to create photo essays of the places and spaces that are important to them. Ultimately we create postcards with a selection of those photos, creating a document of their stories for the wider community.

ArtSake: The Shedding Light project has become a community event, in every sense. The December 5 shed lighting includes a book event, a panel exploring sustainable living and green architecture, and a concurrent art exhibit including your photos of the shed and drawings by Scott Tulay. Can you describe how the project built to this exciting level of public involvement?

Erika: Well, every project that I’ve ever done as an architectural designer, teacher, or public artist has invited collaboration and the sharing of ideas.

In the case of Shedding Light, the conception of the piece was the easy part; actually seeing it to fruition has been an incredible journey. As soon as I talked with Terry Rooney, the chair of the Amherst Public Art Commission, it was clear that this would blossom into something bigger than the original idea. Terry suggested the idea of offsetting the energy used by the lights with a solar array, which was a perfect fit with the original concept. I then began the work of finding a shed to work with, talking with a professor at UMass Amherst about involving his students in the photovoltaic design, to a lighting designer, electrician, historians, etc. I’m also working with the Amherst Young Artists Coalition to have students document the installation in photos and film.

We were just about to go ahead with the photovoltaic panels when the state ended its rebate program (two years earlier than anticipated due to high demand) so at this point we won’t be installing solar array, but we’re optimistic about bringing this to the farm in the spring.

All that said, a public education and exhibit component has been a part of the project from the beginning. Scott’s drawings are gorgeous and compliment the installation perfectly.

This is Amherst’s 250th birthday year and it’s a great opportunity to bring a celebration of agriculture and architecture and art to the public in this way.

Shedding Light will be on display at the Swartz Family Farm, evenings from December 5 through December 31, 2009. There will be numerous events on Saturday, December 5, at the Nacul Center in Amherst. At 2 PM will be a lecture by Dary Purinton and Dale Cahill, co-authors of Tobacco Sheds of the Connecticut River Valley; at 2:45 PM is the panel discussion “Living Green from the Past to the Future;” 3:30 is the opening reception of a concurrent exhibition of new drawings by Scott Tulay and Erika’s photos of Shedding Light. At 5 PM at the Swartz Family Farm, the shed will be lit up for the first time.

Erika H. Zekos is an architectural designer, teacher and artist committed to projects in public art, education and architecture. She has completed numerous public art installations in Boston and western MA, as well as practiced residential, institutional and educational design. She is currently the western MA Program Coordinator and master teacher with Learning By Design in Massachusetts, a non-profit design education program. Erika has also taught architecture at Roger Williams University, Rhode Island School of Design and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is also a dedicated community member, serving on the boards of the western MA chapter of the American Institute of Architects, the Amherst Education Foundation and the parent organization of her children’s school.

Images: photo from a test lighting of SHEDDING LIGHT by Erika Zekos; Scott Tulay, BARN INTERIOR (2009), ink, pastel, charcoal, 22X30 in; Scott Tulay, SHED AT NIGHT (2009), ink, pastel, charcoal, 30×40 in.

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It’s December in New England. So put on your hat and gloves and get ready to shovel through some winter artist opportunites.

Call for Artists: Downtown Crossing Holiday Market through December 30. The Holiday Market at Downtown Crossing 2009 is a fully tented, bazaar-style, seasonal market for the public to enjoy access to artists, artisans and specialty food retailers during the busy holiday shopping season. Applications will be juried on a rolling basis as they are received. The number of artists in each media category will be limited. 28 spaces in total will be available for each week.
Deadline: December 11, 2009

Call to Photographers: The New Orleans Photo Alliance is seeking contemporary photographs that explore questions about the American Dream. The juror is Dr. Deborah Willis, chair of the Department of Photography and Imaging at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and one of the nation’s leading historians of African American photography.
Deadline: December 14, 2009

The Writers’ Room of Boston, Inc., a nonprofit organization that provides affordable, quiet, and secure workspace in downtown Boston for area writers, is now accepting applications for four fellowships for 2010. The fellowships award use of the Writers’ Room to Boston Area residents at no cost for one year. Residencies will begin in February 2010.
Deadline: Submissions due December 31, 2009.

LA GALERÍA at Villa Victoria Center for the Arts in Boston’s South End and Essex Art Center in Lawrence, MA have a call to artists for their collaborative juried exhibition project Exchange, to be mounted simultaneously in each art center in the Fall of 2010. Designed to unite diverse communities of artists and audiences, Exchange encourages visual artists working in innumerable mediums to approach the concept of Exchange in just as many ways. The Call to Artists is open to artists at any stage of their career. Go here for detailed application instructions.
Deadline: March 15, 2010

Image Credit: Photograph of Stone stairs at Ward’s Pond in Jamaica Plain, MA by Leon H. Abdalian, Feb. 21, 1931. 6.5×8.5 glass negative. From the collection of the Boston Public Library.

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ArtSake wants to share with you the thoughts of Alisia L. L. Waller (MCC 2008 Choreography Fellow) about the development of her creative process as a choreographer with physical disabilities.

Choreography As Benediction or: Creating Dances When You Cannot Dance

When I was a child, staring out of the car window on one of our long family trips, I amused myself by watching an imaginary dancer leap and roll and duck, dodge and fly past, over and around the landscape. This was the first of my dancers. The first member of my troupe. Now, as a choreographer with twelve years and over fifty performance pieces under my belt, that same dancer and her friends still show me the way to fly past, over, around and through the landscape of a story.

As a young choreographer in the late ’90′s I had a very clear vision of how a dance was made and it had nothing to do with imaginary dancers. Improvisation, movement, dancing in the studio, trying things out, flow. Dances are made, I thought, on the body. Dances are made by dancing. This did not correspond, unfortunately, with the reality of myself and my abilities. I choreographed everything in my mind, usually without moving, transcribing the movements of my imaginary dancers to paper and then onto a performer. I felt that this was clearly not the way a real choreographer worked: sitting still and writing!

I had been diagnosed with arthritis throughout my body at age 15 and had broken a tooth learning that my body had ceased to be reliable on the dance floor. I was and am lucky enough to still be able to dance, but the level of pain & variability of capability is entirely unpredictable. This was a hard lesson for a young dancer so (taking the elderly Martha Graham as my inspiration) I began to choreograph seriously as a response to this illness. I thought that if I could not be a dancer I could still choreograph from a chair, shaking my cane at my company to a ripe old age. Part of the lesson of this illness was the necessity of reimagining what a choreographer does and how a dance is made.

So I went forward as a choreographer, creating dances instinctively, the way that felt right, but embarassed to be caught making my art “the wrong way.” Then, several years ago, after having begun a rather spotty meditation practice, I found myself kneeling, alone in the middle of the dance studio, face resting on my legs, eyes shut, waiting for the dancers in my mind to begin. And I recognized the open, calm awareness of meditation. Communion. Prostration. Benediction. My spiritual beliefs are very basic and animistic but I still carry some of the language and theatrical ritual of my Christian upbringing within me. I understand the world to be filled with endless benediction from all things and linking that feeling with my creation and my “dancers” — that they were dancing a benediction– was revelatory.

Now, with some care and thought, I view my way of dance-making as a helpful, practical tool and as a gift. I can make dances other ways but the alchemy of calming my mind, turning my vision in and simply watching is an experience like no other. Transcribing my imagination so directly is a joy that does not require much of my often painful body. I have inside myself this endless benediction: to the world, to the dancers, the space, and, importantly, from myself to myself.

Alisia’s work Dancing the Beast: A Gathering of Dancers, Heroes & Other Beautiful Monsters will be performed on December 4th & 5th at 8pm, 5pm matinee December 6th at Mobius. The And So No Sin Performance Troupe, featuring the choreography Alisia L. L. Waller, includes Cat Murcek, Alma Baumwoll & Sunny Hitt, as well as original sound created & performed by Jon Francis Glancy with additional accompaniment created by Bennett Kuhn.

Mobius is located at 725 Harrison Avenue in Boston’s South End (SOWA). Seating is limited, reservations strongly recommended. Call (617) 571-3066 or email dancingthebeast@gmail.com for reservations. Sliding scale may be available, please contact dancingthebeast@gmail.com for further information.

Image Credits: All images taken by Alisia L. L. Waller. Picture 1 = Cat Murcek jumping over Sunny Hitt Picture 2 = L-R Cat Murcek & Alma Baumwoll Picture 3 = L-R Alma Baumwoll & Cat Murcek

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It’s the Friday after Thanksgiving. Shopping malls are abuzz. And so are the arts! (In a much different way but, still.) Here are some interesting links from around the art-o-webs.

For artists of all disciplines
Last week, the National Endowment for the Arts held the Cultural Workforce Forum, a daylong discussion of how art works as part of the real economy. An archive version of the event, with video and slideshows, is now online.

At North Shore Art Throb (which, by the way, you should read if you make, enjoy, or are in any way curious about the art scene in the North Shore region), Dinah Cardin has a thoughtful post on online arts writing and where it’s headed.

Film
The documentary film The Way We Get By, featured on our blog here, received an IFP and Fledgling Fund Grant for Outreach and Community Engagement. Up top, TWWGB!

At the Bunker Hill Community College Art Gallery in Charlestown, a group of Massachusetts filmmakers will screen film & video works as part of Art Gone Green, an arts program exploring environmental issues. On Tuesday, December 1, 2009, at 6:30 PM in the A300 Lounge, there will be a screening of short films by eight filmmakers, including Kristin Alexander, Tim Geers, and Michael Sheridan. On Friday, December 4, 6:00 PM, is a screening of Talking to the Wall: The Story of an American Bargain. The film, by Western Mass. filmmaker Steve Alves, takes a critical look at the effects of chain stores on communities. Both events are free.

Writing
In the Porter Square Books blog, Cambridge author Matthew Pearl discusses why his book reading events include surprisingly little reading from his books. (And he shares details, some historical, some imagined, of Charles Dickens’s reading at the Tremont Temple in Boston).

Sadly, bidding is closed, but check out the original postcards from Grub Street’s Postcard Auction. The Boston-based writers’ service organization sent 29 blank postcards to writers and auctioned off the resulting creations. I especially like the slogan on Pagan Kennedy‘s card: “Drink the Kool-Aid of your own invention. Write.”

On the Valley Poetry blog, Allegra Mira looks at seven female poets who light her way as she considers her future on poetry (one is recent MCC Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow D.M. Gordon!).

In the WomenArts blog, Northampton novelist Susan Stinson writes movingly about the ways the arts have sustained her in hard times.

Twenty-five years ago, when I was in college, my father warned me that a livelihood as an artist would be hard to come by, especially for a woman. I spent the next couple of decades throwing everything I had into making the strongest art I could, working around practical constraints – like jobs—as necessary. Now, four published books and one wandering manuscript later, during a year in which individual, national and global economies are all shaky, I’m facing the unpleasantly specific realities of being close to fifty and far from financial stability. My father was right.

He was right, but so was I.

Read the full post.

Performing arts
The Explore Boston Theatre blog features a host of voices from the theater community with its lively Proust Questionnaire. Example question/answer… Q: “Which historical figure do you most identify with?”
A: “Scheherazade and Bugs Bunny.” (from writer/performer John Kuntz).

Berkshire Creative notes that the American Airlines in-flight magazine profiles playwright Julianne Hiam as a way to highlight the creative heritage of her region: the bucolic (and artistically prolific) Berkshire Hills.

Visual arts
In the Boston Globe, there’s a great description of photographer Cary Wolinsky’s solo show Fiber of Life, at the South Shore Art Center in Cohasset. MCC connections: Cary is a member of the artists collective TRIIIBE along with Alicia, Kelly, and Sara Casilio; TRIIIBE received an Artist Fellowship in Sculpture/Installation in 2009. Also, the article is written by Robert Knox, a past finalist in Fiction/Creative Nonfiction. (For other fellows/finalists news, read our monthly Fellows Notes).

Finally, Boston Handmade opens its Downtown Gallery in Boston’s Downtown Crossing today. The gallery features handmade work of artists and artisans – a great way to de-Black Friday your artistic consciousness.

Image: Matthew Rich, WALL (2006), mdf, latex paint 25x34x1.5 in.

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Remember when we told you about Harvard Bookstore in Cambridge and its new book machine, which prints paperback books while you wait, including books by self-publishing authors?

Steve Almond (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’08) is about to give a working demonstration.

On Wednesday, December 2, 7 PM at Harvard Square Bookstore in Cambridge, he’s going to do something he’s pretty sure has never been done before (and we’re pretty sure he’s right). He’ll read from a book you can then have published before your very eyes (via the bookstore’s book machine). You can even have editorial control over the cover (he says there will be several designs to choose from), and possibly even the size of the trim.

The book is called This Won’t Take But a Minute, Honey. Read one way, it includes 30 short short stories. Flipped over and read the opposite way, you can read Steve’s brief essays on writing.

Also, Steve (along with Harvard’s print-on-demand manager Bronwen Blaney) will discuss the changing landscape of publishing and why Steve chose to make a book this way.

In other words, the event should be interesting in about a dozen ways (if you’ve ever experienced a Steve Almond reading, you know his singular humor accounts for at least 11).

To see what other past MCC Fellows and Finalists are up to, check out our Fellows Notes.

Images: cover art (front and back) for Steve Almond’s THIS WON’T TAKE BUT A MINUTE, HONEY. Illustrations by artist Brian Stauffer.

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SHIFTboston is launching a competition, seeking to collect visions that aim to enhance and electrify the urban experience in Boston. They’re looking for innovative, radical ideas for new city elements such as public art, landscape, architecture, urban intervention, and transportation. Competitors could explore topics such as the future city, energy efficiency, and ecological urbanism. The winning entry will receive a cash prize and will present at the SHIFTboston Forum at The Institute of Contemporary Art on January 14, 2010, and will be displayed on billboards, bus shelters, subway cars, and postcards throughout the Metro Boston area. For information visit www.shiftboston.org or their blog.
Deadline: Submissions due Friday, December 11.

Letters of inquiry are currently being accepted for Cinereach Grants, ranging from $5000 to $50,000 for film projects in any stage. Deadline for letters of inquiry: December 1, 2009. Past recipients of Cinereach grants include Marlo Poras (Film & Video Fellow ’05), director of Run Granny Run, for her current project The Mosuo Sisters. Cinereach is a nonprofit that “facilitates the creation of films that challenge, excite, innovate, offer new perspectives, and inspire action.”

Public Artists: A commission opportunity from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts for an artist to design, fabricate, and install a bronze statue of a state trooper in full uniform for the exterior entrance at the front and center of the new State Police Headquarters in Scituate, Rhode Island. For questions regarding the submission of materials, or the scope of the project, please contact Elizabeth Keithline, elizabeth@arts.ri.gov.
Deadline: Request for Proposals must be received by December 1, 2009

Filmmakers: Central Productions has announced their annual call for submissions to the 9th Annual Boston Cinema Census hosted by the Brattle Theatre.
Deadline: February 10, 2010

Photo Credit: Beacon Hill from the present site of the reservoir between Hancock & Temple Streets, Accession No.: 07_10_000109, Cab. No.: Cab 23.58.1, Lithographer: J.H. Bufford & Co., Date: 1898 (approximate), Genre: Photographs; Lithographs, Description: Copy photograph of color lithograph by J.H. Bufford’s Lithography, from original watercolor drawing done on the spot in 1811-1812 by John Ruebens Smith. The lithograph was published in 1858 by Smith, Knight & Tappan, 186 Washington Street. Boston Public Library Print Department.

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Artists interested in expanding business skills can attend an upcoming info session in Boston.

The International Institute of Boston has announced the PRIME program, offering a limited number of openings for free assistance to small businesses (including artists).

Among the PRIME services: business classes and coaching, and assistance such as legal help and website design.

Artists interested in learning more should attend an upcoming info session:

Dec. 1 (Tues) 2:30 p.m. OR 6:30 p.m.
Dec. 7 (Mon) 2:30 OR 6:30 p.m.
(Choose one date/time only!)
All sessions held at One Milk Street, 4th Floor.
(2 mins from Downtown Crossing and State Street T stops.)

Massachusetts residents only. Income & other eligibility criteria apply.

To sign up for an info session, or for more information, email the PRIME program.

Massachusetts residency is a must for the PRIME program, and there is an income qualification. Also, applicants must demonstrate seriousness about business success and completing the training. Note that all info sessions, as well as all PRIME business assistance classes/meetings, will be in Boston.

The PRIME program is funded in part by the US Small Business Administration. Contact the PRIME program for more information.

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This just in from the National Endowment for the Arts:

NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS PRESENTS LIVE WEBCAST OF ITS CULTURAL WORKFORCE FORUM ON FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2009

The public is invited to watch a discussion of how art works as part of the real economy.

On Friday, November 20, 2009, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) will present a live webcast on www.arts.gov of a forum about America’s artists and other cultural workers who are part of this country’s real economy. Academics, foundation professionals, and service organization representatives will come together to discuss improving the collection and reporting of statistics about arts and cultural workers, and to develop future research agendas and approaches.

9:00 a.m Opening Remarks and introductions
Joan Shigekawa, NEA Senior Deputy Chairman and Sunil Iyengar, NEA Director of Research & Analysis

9:30 Panel One: What We Know About Artists and How We Know It
NEA Research on Artists in the Workforce
Tom Bradshaw, NEA Research Officer
Artist Labor Markets
Greg Wassall, associate professor, Department of Economics, Northeastern University
Artist Careers
Joan Jeffri, director, Research Center for Arts and Culture, Teachers College, Columbia University
Artist Research: Union Perspectives
David Cohen, executive director, Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO

11:00 Panel Two: Putting the Research to Work
Cultural Vitality: Investing in Creativity
Maria Rosario Jackson, senior research associate, The Urban Institute
Artists and the Economic Recession
Judilee Reed, executive director, Leveraging Investments in Creativity (LINC)
Teaching Artists Research Project
Nick Rabkin, Teaching Artists Research Project, National Opinion Research Center, University of Chicago
Strategic National Arts Alumni Project
Steven Tepper, associate director, the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy, Vanderbilt University

1:20 Panel Three: Widening the Lens to Capture Other Cultural Workers
Artists in the Greater Cultural Economy
Ann Markusen, Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota
Creative Class: Who’s in, Who’s out?
Tom Bradshaw, NEA Research Officer
American Community Survey: An Emerging Data Set
Jennifer Day, assistant division chief, Employment Characteristics of the Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division, United States Census Bureau

2:20 Comments and questions from panel participants

3:00 Discussion: Summary and Recommendations for Future Research
Moderated by Sunil Iyengar and Tom Bradshaw
Lead discussants: Holly Sidford, president, Helicon Collaborative and Paul DiMaggio, professor, Department of Sociology, Princeton University

4:30 Adjournment
N.B. There will be 15-minute breaks at 10:45 a.m. and 2:50 p.m.; and an hour break for lunch at 12:15 p.m.

In addition to the above presenters, the following respondents will participate in the NEA Cultural Workforce Forum: Randy Cohen, vice president of local arts advancement, Americans for the Arts; Deirdre Gaquin, consultant; Angela Han, director of research, National Assembly of State Arts Agencies; Ruby Lerner, president, Creative Capital Foundation; Judilee Reed, executive director, Leveraging Investments in Creativity (LINC); Carrie Sandahl, associate professor, Department of Disability and Human Development, University of Illinois at Chicago; Mary Jo Waits, director, Social, Economic & Workforce Programs Division, National Governors Association

The National Endowment for the Arts is a public agency dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts, both new and established; bringing the arts to all Americans; and providing leadership in arts education. Established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government, the Arts Endowment is the largest annual national funder of the arts, bringing great art to all 50 states, including rural areas, inner cities, and military bases.

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