ArtSake

For writers who long to be heard: A new literary magazine, The Drum, has been launched by Henriette Lazaridis Power (a 2006 Artist Fellow in Fiction/Creative Nonfiction). The Drum publishes, in audio form, short fiction, essays, and the occasional author interview. The inaugural issue comes out in May. Says Henriette, “We’re looking for work that pays close attention to language while never losing sight of the narrative drive. We want stories that really do tell a story. And essays that engage in the complexity of an idea. The Drum is a home for emerging and established writers who value the power of writing out loud.”

For filmmakers seeking composers (& vice versa): the Learning Center and the Film Scoring Department at Berklee College of Music will host the 5th Annual Music for Film networking event on Saturday, April 10, 2010 from 1:30–7 p.m. The event, free and open to the public, includes a speakers’ panel about the filmmaker/composer relationship, a presentation by film composer Mason Daring (Lone Star), a film scoring contest, and an exposition where students and professionals will have booths, exchange demos and business cards, and talk about their work. Register and find more info.

For emerging playwrights: The Princess Grace Awards Playwright Fellowship is given annually to a young American playwright, consists of a $7,500 grant and a ten-week residence, including paid travel, at New Dramatists, a playwright service organization, in New York City. The award is based primarily on the artistic quality of a submitted play and the potential of the fellowship to assist in the writer’s growth. Read the guidelines at www.pgfusa.org and apply by March 31, 2010.

For artists with disabilities: VSA, the International Organization on Arts and Disability, has announced the VSA Teaching Artist Fellowship Program, seeking to identify, engage, and support artists with disabilities through teaching artist fellowships in the visual and performing arts. This competitive fellowship offers a professional development retreat in Washington D.C., subscriptions/memberships within VSA’s teaching artist network, networking and teaching opportunities, enrollment in VSA Community of Practice, and the opportunity to serve as facilitators for VSA’s education programs. Fellows will also be profiled in VSA publications. Submission deadline: April 23, 2010. Find guidelines, application forms, and more information.

AND you can continue your opportunities search at these great sites for finding artist grants, residencies, calls-to-artists, etc:

• Mira’s List (a labor-of-love blog just teeming with artist opportunities listings)
• ArtSource (an online resource of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts)
• NYFA Source (a search engine for artist opportunities, hosted by the New York Foundation for the Arts but with a national scope)

Image: TOWNSEND’S PATENT FOLDING GLOBE, created by Dennis Townsend (1869). From the Boston Public Library Norman B. Leventhal Map Center.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/boston_public_library/ / CC BY 2.0

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There are a handful of upcoming opportunities for artists’ professional development - so on your marks, get set, etc!

March 15 – deadline for New England filmmakers to apply for LEF New England Fellowships to support attendance to the Flaherty Seminar in NYC. The Flaherty Seminar, June 19-25, 2010 at Colgate University in Hamilton, NY, is a great opportunity for film artists to connect with programmers, scholars, and other filmmakers from around the globe. The LEF Fellowships can help New England filmmakers attend.

March 19 – ARTmorpheus partners with Fractured Atlas to present Raising Money to Support Your Creative Endeavors, a fundraising workshop for emerging artist of all disciplines and start-up arts non-profits. To RSVP, contact Liora Beer.

March 24 - Free Trailers Workshop for filmmakers at the Center for Independent Documentary in Newton. Register here.

Artist Business Training – one-and-a-half day workshops led by the UMass Arts Extension Service to address business basics and key issues that artists confront in the current economy

• April 21-22 Petersham, Petersham Town Hall (contact Sarah McMaster at North Quabbin Woods for more info or to sign up)
• April 28-29 Springfield, Schibelli Hall, Springfield Technical Community College (contact Tracy Woods at Art for the Soul Gallery)
• May 5-6 Northampton, Dynamite Space (contact Julia Handschuh)

Ongoing - PRIME Program from the International Institute of Boston – offering free guidance and resources for small businesses (including artist-entrepreneurs). Visit the Program’s website for more info.

Ongoing - Assets for Artists teams with City of Pittsfield to help artists buy homes or start-up/expand arts businesses in Pittsfield. Visit Berkshire Creative for more details.

If you know of any other upcoming professional development opportunities we’ve missed, let us know!

Image: Daniel Ranalli (Drawing Fellow ‘10), SNAIL DRAWING/DOUBLE LINE START (2007), Snail drawing in sand, 20×28 in.

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On Friday, March 19, 2010, ARTmorpheus will host Fractured Atlas, a national arts service organization, for a workshop for emerging individual artists and arts organizations entitled Fundraising and Fiscal Sponsorship: Raising Money to Support Your Creative Endeavors.

The event will take place in the Arts Resource Room of the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, 5:30-7:30 PM.

Diane Debicella, Program Director from Fractured Atlas, will provide an overview of the fundraising process that will address such issues as:

• How do arts organizations in the US fund their operations?
• Who gives money to the arts, why do they give it, who gets the money and how do you find it?
• What are the differences between individual and institutional giving?
• What is fiscal sponsorship and how can it help you?
• What do you need to submit a grant proposal?

There is a suggested donation: $10. Maximum Capacity is 25. To RSVP, contact Liora Beer from ARTmorpheus.

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Way to go Team MA! (Which is our way of saying, “Congratulations to the Massachusetts arts writers who received awards from the Arts Writers Grants Program from Creative Capital/Warhol Foundation.”)

Grants totaling $710,000 to 26 individual writers, including three from Massachusetts, were actually announced last month. We KNOW that’s like eons ago in blog time, but we figured, better late than never.

Malden arts writer (and writing artist) Greg Cook, creator of the The New England Journal of Aesthetic Research blog and the New England Art Awards (formerly the Boston Art Awards), received a grant to continue his blog, an independent and always engaging voice on New England art. Greg, incidentally, was the only arts blogger to make the list, so good on ya, Mr. Cook!

Also receiving support was Amherst writer and curator Christoph Cox, who will write an article about sound installation as artistic practice, and Boston writer Geeta Dayal, who will chart the progress of the use of GPS, mapping, and mobile technologies in art.

In addition to the Arts Writers Grantees, ten applicants to the program were selected to participate in the Art Writing Workshop. This workshop pairs working arts writers with leading art critics, for one-on-one consultations. Among those selected was Kurt Cole Eidsvig (Poetry Fellow ‘04), a multi-talented artist who works in literature and painting, as well as arts writing.

On a related note, Kurt’s poetry will appear in an ongoing feature on the online art journal Big RED and Shiny. Check it out.

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Attention artists of all disciplines who are either in the Boston-area or can be with a little effort: ARTmorpheus is hosting a two-session workshop on Basic Finance for Artists, this coming Monday, January 11 and continuing on Monday, February 8, 2010. The workshops run 6-8 PM at the Boston Center for the Arts‘ Cyclorama in Boston.

The workshop is pay-what-you-can (suggested donation, $40), and topics will include:

• Budgeting, Cash Flow, and Net Worth
• Debt and Credit
• Savings, Investing, and Retirement
• Goal-setting and Long-term Planning

Enrollment is limited; find out more about the workshops and how to enroll here.

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The Studio Museum in Harlem is now accepting applications for their artist in residence program. They are offering a 12 month studio residency for three emerging artists. Each artist is granted a free non-living studio space, a $20,000 fellowship, and a $1,000 material stipend. The program is designed to serve emerging artists of African descent locally, nationally and internationally.

Call to artists: ALCHEMY: Art and Science Call to Artists at the Schiltkamp Gallery, Traina Center for the Arts, Clark University. This show will explore the intersections of art and science; art that is inspired by science or scientific images/models that are transcendent. The concept of “science” is open and may include new technology as well as the traditional sciences. Application Instructions: 10-20 images in slides or as jpegs on a CD (no power point or slide shows). List of art work or other materials submitted, including titles, date, media, dimensions. C.V. or bio and a brief (one or two paragraphs) statement about the work submitted. For more information contact Eli Crocker at 508-793-8818 or ecrocker@clarku.edu
Deadline: Submissions due January 18, 2010

Nave Gallery Call to artists: The Beast In Me—Johnny Cash: Art Influenced by the Struggle of a Man. The Nave Gallery is seeking artwork, literal or interpretive, which speaks to the spirit of Johnny Cash. All media are welcome, including video and installation. For more information email info@navegallery.org
Deadline: February 1, 2010

Image credit: Photograph of Royal Rooter beating a drum, 1903 World Series. Photographer unidentified. Fan on the the visitors dugout provides percussion for the Boston American fans in game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Boston Public Library McGreevey Collection. Accession No.: 06_06_000012

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Among the recent grants awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts were Literature Fellowships for five Massachusetts writers! Not that we’re counting, but that’s upwards of 11.9%, or a tad under 1/8 of the total number of awardees (5 of 42, if anybody wants to check my math).

With bloggery prescience, ArtSake has featured a number of the winning writers in its virtual pages: short story writer Anne Sanow, nonfiction writer and Harvard Review editor Christina Thompson, and 2008 Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow Joan Wickersham. Congratulations, too, to writers Douglas Bauer, of Boston, and Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, of Jamaica Plain, who joined Anne, Christina, and Joan in receiving the prestigious $25,000 awards for literary excellence.

While we’re talking about overlaps in the Venn diagram of the NEA, MCC, and individual artists:

• The NEA granted $10,000 to support Boston Musica Viva for its efforts, including a commission of Richard Cornell (Music Composition Fellow ‘07).
• $20,000 went to the Huntington Theatre for its Huntington Playwriting Fellows program and the Breaking Ground Festival, featured on ArtSake in our interview with playwright Joyce Van Dyke.
• $5,000 went to Rose Metal Press, featured in a Horses for Courses post on ArtSake.

Read the full list of Massachusetts grants from the NEA. Also, read the current news of past fellows/finalists from MCC’s Artist Fellowships Program in our Fellows Notes.

Images: cover art from paperback edition of THE SUICIDE INDEX by Joan Wickersham (Mariner Books 2009); cover art for TRIPLE TIME by Anne Sanow (University of Pittsburgh Press 2009).

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Applications are now available for Artist Fellowships in Choreography, Fiction/Creative Nonfiction, and Poetry from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Deadline: January 25, 2010.

The fellowships are unrestricted, anonymously judged, competitive grants in recognition of artistic excellence, for Massachusetts artists.

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

Images: Cover art from books by recent fellows Tracy Winn (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ‘08), Patrick Donnelly (Poetry Fellow ‘08), and Xujun Eberlein (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ‘08); Alisia Waller (Choreography Fellow ‘08); and Ariel Cohen and Kellie Ann Lynch (Choreography Fellows ‘08).

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Of Interest to Public Artists: NEFA’s next brown-bag lunch topic for artists is called An Insider’s View on Image Submissions. This session will focus on preparing images of your work for public art submissions. Art and architectural photographer Charles Mayer will share tips and suggestions on how to get the best photographs of your work. December 10, 2009 from 11:30 A.M. - 1:00 P.M. at The Cellar, located at 319 A Street (in the Fort Point Channel neighborhood of Boston). Space is limited. RSVP to ljohnston@nefa.org

Photographers: Smithsonian magazine’s seventh annual photo contest. Contestants may enter photographs in five categories: The Natural World, Americana, Altered Images, Travel, and People.
Deadline: December 16, 2009

Hamptons International Film Festival – Screenwriters’ Lab. The Hamptons Writers’ Lab pairs established writers with up-and-coming screenwriters. The mentors advise in a one-on-one laboratory setting while additional daily events bring the participants together with board members, sponsors, the local artistic community, and other friends of the festival. They are seeking a broad selection of screenplays addressing a wide subject matter including works that explore science, technology, mathematics, invention, and engineering. Fore more, contact the Hamptons International Film Festival – Screenwriters’ Lab, 3 Newtown Mews, East Hampton, NY 11937, (631) 324-4600, programming@hamptonsfilmfest.org
Deadlines: December 23, 2009 (regular); January 8, 2010 (late)

Call to Cambridge area artists to exhibit  in the CAC Gallery
Cambridge Open Studios Preview Salon Exhibition. For more information contact Jeremy Gaucher, Public Art Administrator, at jgaucher@cambridgema.gov or 617-349-4388.
Deadline: Registration due December 31, 2009

Image credit: http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/htmls/anta0050.htm
Photograph of An Antarctic fur seal pup and a Gentoo penguin. Image ID: anta0050, NOAA At The Ends of the Earth Collection. Location: Antarctic Peninsula. Photographer: Dr. David Demer, NOAA/NMFS/SWFSC/AMLR. From NOAA Photo Library.

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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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