Archive for the ‘residencies’ Category

Artist Opportunities Pu-Pu Platter

Tuesday, July 27th, 2010

Call for Videos: The Americans for the Arts have a video contest called Why Arts Matter. They are looking for people to submit videos of two minutes or less on the subject of why the arts matter. Before entering, be sure to read the official rules and regulations.
Deadline: August 13, 2010

Western Mass. Performing Artists: find out about New England Foundation for the Arts‘ presenting and touring programs at their info session in North Adams on July 30, 10am-12pm.

Painting Grant: The Provincetown Art Association and Museum announces the Lillian Orlowsky and William Freed Foundation Grant. Grants will be given to painters aged 45 or older in support of the highest merit by lesser known and artists with financial need. Applications are available online. Contact Grace Ryder-O’Malley at 508-487-1750.
Deadline: August 16, 2010

Call to Boston-Based Poets & Artists: To celebrate the City of Boston’s rich literary tradition and varied visual art history, The Mayor’s Office of Arts, Tourism & Special Events is seeking artwork and poetry from Boston-based artists and poets. Their goal is to create a dialogue between the literary and visual arts. The theme for the exhibition is Impressions of Boston. Each poem chosen will be paired up with a chosen painting or photograph. Participants must either live or work in Boston. Individuals may apply for the visual arts category, the poetry category or both. Specific entry guidelines are available. Contact  John.crowley@cityofboston.gov at 617-635-2368.
Deadline: August 20, 2010

Double your Pleasure: Mobius is looking for 4×6 photographic prints (or image files in JPG format) for either their online show Signs of Our Times, or their bricks and morter exhibition of the same name.
Online Exhibition Deadline: Ongoing
Bricks and Morter Exhibition Deadline: September 5, 2010

Triple Play from apexart
1. Franchise Program 2011: An opportunity for apexart to finance your exhibition anywhere in the world. For the past two years, apexart has presented Franchise exhibitions in Los Angeles (2009) and Thailand (2010). apexart will present two Franchise exhibitions in 2011.
Deadline: October 1, 2010

2. ‘Commercial’ Art Video Call: Open call for video submissions with an opportunity to win $2,000.
Take any broadcast commercial, cut it, dub it, repeat it, or flip it and make it art for an upcoming apexart exhibition that will be on view November 10 - December 22, 2010.
Deadline: October 31, 2010

3. Unsolicited Proposal Program UP 2011: For the 14th year running, apexart accepts 600-word, idea-based proposals for exhibitions in New York City. Reviewed independently, anonymously and without support materials, submissions are evaluated solely on the strength of the idea.
Deadline: Accepting submissions January 14 - February 14, 2011.
For more on any of these apexart opportunities, contact info@apexart.org or call 212-431-5270.

Artist-In-Residency Program: This residency provides artists the opportunity to be in residence at Brandeis University while working on an artistic project in the field of Jewish women’s and gender studies, and to produce an exhibit for the Kniznick Gallery at the Women’s Studies Research Center at Brandeis University. Application guidelines can be found on the HBI Web site. Contact Debby Olins.
Deadline: October 1, 2010

Image Credit: Video above from Youtube of entries to the Why Arts Matter Contest from the Americans for the Arts.

Straight-Laced Artist Opportunities

Tuesday, July 20th, 2010


The image above depicts a past Governor of Massachusetts. Do clothes make the man or does the man make the clothes? You decide. ArtSake just adores this painting and the artist’s delicate handling of the lace collar. Now onto the opportunities…

For Performing Artists/Presenters: The Maine Arts Commission, NEFA, and the Atlantic Presenters Association are hosting Over The Edge, a free conference to improve opportunities for touring artists and presenting organizations at the the Collins Center for the Arts in Orono, Maine. August 4-6, 2010.

The Lynn and Jules Kroll Fund for Jewish Documentary Film: Supports the completion of original documentaries that explore the Jewish experience in all its complexity. The online application for 2010 is now live.
Deadline: July 27, 2010

A Trifecta of Web Art Opportunities: transmediale in collaboration with Mozilla have recently announced the creation of the Open Web Award 2011 a special third platform for creative excellence alongside the transmediale Award 2011 and the Vilém Flusser Theory Award 2011.

  1. The Open Web Award is a new platform for radical, creative and innovative art works and projects that: are on the web and about the web, use open and free technology, and incite participation and/or collaboration. Proposals may be critical, celebratory or both. Projects should have the potential to demonstrate and/or objectively critique the potential of open web issues, and those employing the creative use of HTML5 and other developing ‘open’ technologies will be given specific consideration. The point is to play with both the idea and materiality of the (open) web in ways that spark new thinking and practice.
    Deadline: July 31, 2010 
  2. The transmediale Award 2011 seeks original, innovative and visionary art works across a wide scope of form, process and practice. Works that embrace, question and enrich our understanding of and relationship to our globally complex, media immersed and technologically diverse society, and are exemplary of a high standard of critical digital practice are encouraged.
    Deadline: July 31, 2010 
  3. The Vilém Flusser Theory Award 2011 seeks innovative media theory and exemplary research into digital culture exploring current and pending positions in digital art, media culture and networked society. Echoing media philosopher and cultural nomad Vilém Flusser’s unique investigative, cross-disciplinary and analytic approach, the Award is also open to outstanding and significant work which may be produced outside the bounds of traditional academia. Entries may include publications, positions, and projects from a broad range of theoretical, artistic, critical or design-based research that seek to establish and define new forms of exchange, vocabularies and cultural dialogue.
    Deadline: July 31, 2010

Grants for Visual Artists: The Artist’s Resource Trust Fund provides grants for professional New England visual artists in painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography or mixed media who have a financial need. Awards range from $1,500 to $10,000 and may be applied toward any expense that may enhance the artist’s ability to create his/her work.
Deadline: August 1, 2010

Residency for Poets/Literary Scholars: The Amy Clampitt Residency Program award consists of the use of the Amy Clampitt House free and clear for a six-month or twelve-month period beginning February 1, 2011 and ending January 27, 2012.
Deadline: August 1, 2010

Non-Fiction TV Show: ITVS Open Call provides completion funds for single nonfiction public television programs on any subject, and from any viewpoint. Projects must have begun production as evidenced by a work-in-progress video.
Deadline: August 8, 2010

Call for Short Plays: Culture*Park announces a call for entries for the 9th Annual Short Plays Marathon, scheduled for Saturday, November 20, 2010, in downtown New Bedford, MA. Plays should be 15 pages/minutes or fewer in length. One play submission per playwright is accepted. Contact culturepark@earthlink.net, or call 774-202-0588.
Deadline: October 1, 2010

Image credit: Photograph by ArtSake. The painting above is one of many former governors on display at the Massachusetts State House.

A Rush of Artist Opportunities

Tuesday, May 25th, 2010

Call to artists and writers: Vermont Studio Center awards a number of fellowships to artists and writers for 4-week residencies throughout the year. In addition to VSC Fellowships, a variety of special fellowships are also available for full or partial funding. You can find more online. Upcoming Fellowship Deadline: June 15, 2010.

Call to artists and artisans: Two upcoming community fairs are encouraging artists, artisans, and craftspeople to vend their wares. The Noche de San Juan Party, at Heritage Park in Holyoke on June 27 from 3-7pm, is a festival of traditional live music and arts. Artists/craftspeople with roots in the community can display and sell their work ($20 fee, vendor brings own tent or table). Contact Nancy Howard for more information. And, the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole is seeking vendors for summer craft fairs at Waterfront Park on July 16 and August 13 (8:30 AM to 4 PM, both days). There is a $35 space donation for each date, payable in full with registration. Past fairs have included photography, jewelry, pottery, and sculpture. Information and vendor applications available by contacting Ann Woolford, MBL Human Resources Office.

Call to would-be Washington Post cartoonists: Sketch, write, and humor your way to the top for a chance to win a one-month stint in the Washington Post Style section. The paper is looking for six original, unpublished single- or multi-panel cartoons. A panel of judges will narrow the field to 10 and the voting audience will choose who moves on to become America’s Next Great Cartoonist. Send your funniest funnies by June 4, 2010. More details.

Call for 2D art: Concrete and Steel, an exhibition sponsored by Alternate Currents and WorkBar Boston Gallery, is calling for 2D art by Boston-area artists, under 4′x4′, influenced by the urban landscape, street art, inner-city subjects and conspicuous construction. There’s an entry fee of $10 for up to 3 works. All works on paper should be properly prepared for hanging. Deadline: May 30, 2010. The show runs June 9-August 30, 2010. Heidi Kayser, Founding Director of Axiom Center for New and Experimental Media Show, will curate. More info at Alternate Currents.

Call to filmmakers: Cinereach Grants Program supports feature-length nonfiction and fiction films that possess an independent spirit, depict underrepresented perspectives, and resonate across international boundaries. Grants range from $5,000 – $50,000 and are awarded to films at any stage, including development, production and post-production. Next letter of inquiry deadline is June 1, 2010. Past recipients include Liza Johnson (Film & Video Finalist ‘03, ‘07) and Marlo Poras (Film & Video Fellow ‘05).

Call to poets: The Frost Place Resident Poet Award is a prize of $1,000 and a six to eight week residency at Robert Frost’s former home in Franconia, New Hampshire. The prize is given each year to a poet who has published at least one poetry collection. Email the organization or visit Frost Place online for more. Deadline: July 2, 2010.

Image: Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, VT.

Artist Opportunities Near and Far

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010

Jane Gillooly’s (Film & Video Fellow ‘07) film Today the Hawk Takes One Chick was a 2008 pick for the Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival, a documentary film festival hosted by the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Now it’s your turn: the 2010 festival is currently accepting submissions. The Mead Fest considers a range of documentary films and videos, including: experimental films, essay films, animation, and new media. Productions must have been completed within the last three years. Early Deadline: March 31, 2010, Final Deadline: May 3, 2010.

If you’re a chamber music ensemble looking to commission new chamber works: First, thank you - you are awesome. Second, Chamber Music America, a national service organization for the chamber music profession, is accepting applications for its Classical Commissioning Program. The program provides support to U.S.-based classical/contemporary ensembles, presenters, and festivals that commission American composers to create new chamber works. Applicants must be organization-level members of CMA. Funding is available for the composer’s fee, the ensemble’s rehearsal honorarium, and copying costs. Deadline is April 9, 2010.

For Berkshire artists: don’t miss the upcoming Tricks of the Trade events sponsored by Berkshire Creative. April’s topic: how to secure an artist residency so you have time and a space to create new work. Artist and Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts professor Melanie Mowinski will host three different events to discuss residencies: Tuesday, April 13th, 6:30 PM, MCLA Gallery 51 (Guest: Heather Phillips, Director, Contemporary Artist Center at Woodside); Wednesday, April 14, 6:30 PM, Lichtenstein Center for the Arts (Guest: C. Ryder Cooley, Artist); and Thursday, April 15, 6:30 PM, IS183 Art School (Guest: Calliope Nicholas, Residency Director, Millay Colony for the Arts). Events are free but require registration; contact Jessica Conzo at the Berkshire Cultural Resource Center to register.

For Asian American short story writers: Hyphen Magazine and The Asian American Writers’ Workshop present the 2010 Asian American Short Story Contest. The national, pan-Asian American competition will name 10 finalists and one grand prize-winner who will win a cash prize of $1000 and have the winning story published in an upcoming issue of Hyphen. There is a $20 entry fee. Deadline is March 31, 2010.

Video: an excerpt from TODAY THE HAWK TAKES ONE CHICK by Jane Gillooly. The film has upcoming screenings at the Addis International Film Festival (March 31) and Festival International de Films de Femmes (April 2-11).

Pondering Artist Opportunities

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010

One If By Land: Vermont Studio Center has received funding for 10 new Joan Mitchell Foundation Fellowship awards for visual artists based on quality of work and demonstrated financial need. The Vermont Studio Center is an international residency program open to all artists and writers. Year-round, VSC hosts 50 artists and writers per month, each of whom receives an individual studio, private room, and all meals. Residencies last from 2-12 weeks and provide uninterrupted time to work, a community of creative peers, and a beautiful village setting in northern Vermont. In addition, VSC’s program includes a roster of Visiting Artists and Writers (2 painters, 2 sculptors and 2 writers per month) who offer slide talks/readings and individual studio visits/conferences. Applications and information available here. Deadline: February 16, 2010

Two If By Sea: Dune Shack Residencies: Applications for residencies in the historic Fowler and C-Scape Dune Shacks in Provincetown for artists, writers, and the general public are available at The Provincetown Community Compact. One residency includes a $500 fellowship for a visual artist, and there are two funded weeks for writers. The general public is encouraged to apply for this unique, primitive experience in the Cape Cod National Seashore. Deadline: February 15, 2010

Three If By Virtual: National Arts Marketing Partnership Webinar: Marketing for the Independent Artist. How to Advance Your Career and Build Your Business. Discover the basics of marketing strategy based on those objectives and how to make it real. Presenter Deborah Obalil will address the difficult balance of making art while running a thriving small business. This webinar is free to professional members of Americans for the Arts. Americans for the Arts members should register here. Non members can learn more here. The webinar takes place on Thursday, February 18, 2010 at 2 p.m. EST

Image credit: John Singleton Copley, Paul Revere, 1768, Oil on canvas, 35″ x 28 1/2″, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The Paul Revere House Web site details his midnight ride and Longfellow’s poem.

Artist Opportunities as Far as the Eye Can See

Monday, January 11th, 2010

Grand Canyon National Park: Guidelines and applications now available for the North and South Rim artist-in-residence programs. Go here for more information. Questions, contact Rene Westbrook at 928-638-6483 or Rene_Westbrook@nps.gov.
Deadline: Applications for either program, postdated between February 1 and April 1, 2010

The Dance Residency at the Boston Center for the Arts provides choreographers an opportunity to create dance without the financial constraints of rehearsal studio or theater rental. The BCA will serve as the host for the selected company and develop the audience for residency events. Contact Andrea Blesso Albuquerque, Boston Center for the Arts, 539 Tremont Street, Boston MA 02116 or ablesso@bcaonline.org
Deadline: Monday, February 8, 2010 by 5 pm.

Call to artists for juried show Wide Open
Jurors include Anne Strauss, Associate Curator, Metropolitan Museum of Art; Nicholas Baume, Mark Hughes, Bill Murphy.  For more information, contact Jane Gutterman at 718-596-2506 or info@wideopenartshow.org
Deadline: Monday, January 25, 2010

Every summer in the land of Alcott, Emerson, and Thoreau lives a great opportunity for emerging choreographers. Summer Stages Dance at Concord Academy’s Choreographers’ Project Fellowship provides the opportunity to develop new work in a supportive environment. Fellows select a cast of dancers from the Workshop and have access to rehearsal space in the evenings and on weekends. Fellowship awards include: mentorship by workshop faculty and resident artists; access to all Summer Stages Dance classes and select performances; studio space and rehearsal time with dancers drawn from the Workshop; weekly seminar classes that include informal showings of the new work and culminate in a dialogue about the developing work with faculty and guest artists; open rehearsal and a fully produced public performance of work created during the residency; and subsidy for housing and meals. That’s a whole lotta good stuff. For more information, call 978-402-2339.

Image credit:  Photograph of Grand Canyon National Park by Michael Quinn, National Park Service

TransCultural Exchange: making Massachusetts an international center for creativity

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

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 Mary Sherman about her thriving organization and its unique appeal to artists with global aspirations…

The course: artists may not have the time or resources to connect to a greater network of ideas and opportunities from the international community - such as international residencies or cross-cultural collaborations

The horse: TransCultural Exchange, a nonprofit organization that bridges cultural divides through the arts and supports artistic innovation through large-scale, cross-discipline, global art projects and programming

What we do: This year TransCultural Exchange celebrates its 20th Anniversary. Since 1989, TCE has worked directly with hundreds of artists, arts organizations, foundations, museums, and cultural centers in more than 60 countries, producing cultural exchange programs, educational workshops and critically acclaimed public art works and exhibitions, from Sarajevo to Sao Paulo, Berlin to Boston, Tel Aviv to Taipei, Mongolia to Mumbai. In 2002, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization awarded TCE sponsorship - the first US project to receive this honor since the US mission rejoined UNESCO.

Along with its large scale art projects – the most recent of which asked artists to collaborate with someone from another country, resulting in over 200 artists participating in 60 exhibitions and performances worldwide - TCE organizes a biennale Conference on International Opportunities in the Arts. This conference is “the” forum in the world bringing together artists, teachers, musicians, writers, museum and cultural administrators, and residency directors to network, showcase, support, and promote the vast array of programs for cultural administrators and practitioners to interact with their international peers. In the short period since the Conference’s launch in 2007, more than 70 US artists have been invited to attend all-expense-paid  exchange programs, 3 have received teaching positions, and over 75 have received invitations to exhibit. (Read about success stories from 2007 and 2009.)

These are just a few of the activities directly credited to TCE’s conferences. Many of the local schools also began exchange programs with the people they met at the conferences.

Already Massachusetts is seen as the nation’s educational hub, attracting people from every corner of the globe to its institutes of higher learning. TransCultural Exchange’s goals are no less than to 1. reinforce this international asset; 2. promote culture as a vehicle for diplomacy; and 3. complement the state’s already world-renowned cultural attractions to help position Massachusetts as a new, important, and vital international center for creativity and the important diplomatic role the arts – which transcend all political, social, and geographic borders - can play on today’s larger, global stage.

What’s up next: TCE is currently soliciting work for its next global project for which artists are asked to collaborate with people from different cultures and different disciplines - such as science, technology, and business - as a way to showcase the advantages of bringing multi-perspectives to bear on a task.

Any artist (including visual artists, writers, and musicians) looking for the time, space, and money to pursue their work, particularly in the International arts arena, should not miss the next Conference on International Opportunities in the Arts: The Interconnected World, April 8-10, 2011 at Boston’s Omni Parker House Hotel.

Also stay tuned: TransCultural Exchange is pleased to participated in the 2010 London Biennale as a satellite venue…

What artists interesting in working with us need to know: Anyone interested in being on our mailing list should add their name, by entering their email on the form at the bottom of this web page. Also, follow the TransCultural Exchange blog.

Mary Sherman is the founder of TransCultural Exchange. As an artist, she has exhibited widely in the U.S. and abroad, including New York, Seoul, Vienna, Chicago, London, and Venice. Read her guest blog about her Taiwan artist residency, summer 2008.

Image: Dana Prescott, Civitella Ranieri Foundation, from the Transcultural Exchange Conference, photo by Sophia Andrianopoulos

Poised for Artist Opportunities

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

Money Talks
MCLA’s Berkshire Cultural Resource Center, in collaboration
with Berkshire Creative, IS183 Art School, and Pittsfield Office of Cultural Development is offering Tricks of the Trade, a free professional development seminar series for artists. The next session focuses on pricing one’s artwork. Registration is required. Contact Jess Conzo, program coordinator for MCLA’s Berkshire Cultural Resource Center, at 413.663.5253.

Everybody’s rockin’; Everybody’s fruggin’
Opportunity available for choreographers at the Boston Center for the Arts. Movement at the Mills is a program designed for independent dance companies to showcase complete or in-progress work. For more information, contact Andrea Blesso Albuquerque, Boston Center for the Arts, or ablesso@bcaonline.org.
Deadline: Proposals due Friday, November 20

Behind the Curtain
Opportunity available for Playwrights from The Ensemble Studio Theatre.
They are accepting all one act plays which have not been reviewed in New York City. They recommend submissions not exceed 40 minutes in running time. Playwrights are welcome to submit up to two submissions.
Deadline: December 1, 2009

Kraftwerk
The Brookline Arts Center will host its 35th Annual Crafts Showcase December 2 - December 20, 2009 and is currently inviting artists to participate in a sale and exhibition.
Deadline: December 2, 2009

Fame is a bee. Fame is a bee. It has a song –
It has a sting — Ah, too, it has a wing. Emily Dickinson
Poetry Society of America offers annual awards for both emerging and established poets in recognition at all stages of their careers.
Deadline: December 22, 2009

Image Credit: Photo above from Liz Roncka, Real Time Perfomance Project, Boston Center for the Arts, Mills Gallery. For more on Liz, check out her blog (Was) Daily Dances, chronicling the creation of her work from the Movement at the Mills project.

Waking up to Artist Opportunities

Tuesday, August 11th, 2009

Wake up little Susie, wake up…

The Awesome Foundation for Arts and Sciences (isn’t that a great name?) is looking for artists to submit an awesome idea to them. If they pick your proposal, they will give you $1,000 in cash.

No time for dozing off because The Allied Artists of America has a call out to artists working in oil, watermedia, pastel, graphics, and sculpture for their 96th Annual National Exhibition. $23,000 in awards in cash and medals. Slide or jpeg entries accepted. For prospectus send SASE to Rhoda Yanow, 19 Springtown Road, White House Station , NJ 08889.
Deadline: Monday, September 14, 2009

The Multi-Arts Production (MAP) Fund, a program of Creative Capital supported by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, supports original new work in all disciplines and traditions of the live performing arts. The goal of the MAP Fund is to assist artists who are exploring and challenging the dynamics of live performance within our changing society, thus reflecting our culture’s innovation and growing diversity. Applications for MAP support must come from U.S. nonprofit organizations; nonprofit artist-services organizations may apply as fiscal sponsors on behalf of artists or ensembles.
Deadline: Letter of inquiry due October 19, 2009

Way up north where the air gets cold…
The Denali National Park and Preserve in Alaska is now accepting applications for summer 2010. Open to visual artists except photographers (there is a separate program for photographers). Three or four artists accepted per summer, each for 10-day stays in East Fork Cabin. Ranger Station is 12 miles away; artists must be comfortable with wilderness setting (meaning flora and fauna, not the southeast expressway). Apply at www.callforentry.org. For more information contact Annie Duffy, Arts Coordinator, 907-474-8133, aduffy@alaskageographic.org
Deadline: Saturday, October 31, 2009

Image credit: Photo of sleeping kitten by Magnus Rosendahl.

Acrostic: a roundup

Friday, October 24th, 2008

Andrew Neumann (Sculpture Installation Finalist '03), HAL (VERTICAL CONVERSATION) (2001), wood, motor, micro-processor, camera, LCD screen, 36 in x 12 in x 8 in

At Kino-Eye are nifty photos from the Berwick Research Institute’s recent Artist Encampment on Bumpkin Island. Ten groups of artists embarked to the Boston Harbor island with only the art supplies on their backs to “homestead” and adapt their creative ideas over five days. Berwick’s website called the project “part residency, part survivalist experiment, and fully impressionable, malleable, speculative and reflective.”

Recently, the Mellon Foundation announced it has awarded $10 million in organizational grants to support new plays. I’m amused by Culture Monster’s take on the announcement: “(With) state arts budgets being slashed as though they were screaming victims in a horror movie, every donated dollar helps.” Alas, no Massachusetts institutions were granted, but Massachusetts playwrights have been supported by some of the funded orgs recently, Sundance Institute named Kirsten Greenidge a Time Warner Storytelling Fellow, the Playwrights Center is currently hosting Monica Raymond as one of its Jerome Fellows, and Steppenwolf Theater Company produced Melinda Lopez’s play Sonya Flew in the 2006/07 season.

The theater world being an opinionated sort of place, it shouldn’t surprise you that not everyone was thrilled by Mellon’s move.

It appears that the worlds of Massachusetts photographer Sage Sohier are nearly perfect in the eyes of the We Can’t Paint photography blog.

Sly as ever, Alex Ross riffs on the intersection between contemporary composers and presidential politics, at The Rest Is Noise. (Don’t miss the YouTube clip; strictly on aesthetic, nonpartisan terms, the original jazz score accompanying Sarah Palin’s interview is too brilliant to miss.) Speaking of politics, the Globe’s Off the Shelf book blog shares how three publishers (including two from Massachusetts) are getting directly involved in campaign donations.

Good job, The Healing Arts: New Pathways to Health! The 2006 documentary was honored with a “Best of the Festival” award from the Focus Film Festival. And also, good job to director Benjamin Mayer, and also to Vermont Arts Exchange, who produced. Oh, and good job to us (MCC). Cuz we co-produced. So, an inclusive good job.

Rejoicing in fifth anniversary-hood, Chicks Make Flicks screens The Axe in the Attic, which takes documentary filmmakers Lucia Small and Ed Pincus on a 60-day road trip from New England to New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Thursday, October 30, 7 PM at MIT (77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge Room 6-120).

Exploring the indie film experience a little further… a California cinematographer discusses creative shooting and lighting decisions for an ultra-cheap indie shoot. (Props to the Filmmaker Magazine blog for linking to this first.)

Any arts administrators out there? Andrew Taylor has composed your theme song.

The old writing workshop chestnut “that’s dated” fails to hold up under poet and editor Elisa Gabbert’s scrutiny, at the Ploughshares blog.

(Did you catch the acrostic? Yipeee!!)

Image: Andrew Neumann, HAL (VERTICAL CONVERSATION) (2001), wood, motor, micro-processor, camera, LCD screen, 36 in x 12 in x 8 in. Andrew, a 2003 Sculpture/Installation finalist, exhibits kinetic sculptures in “The Last Picture Show” at AXIOM Center for New and Experimental Media in Boston, October 24-December 13. Opening reception Friday, October 24, 6 PM, artist talk Saturday, December 13, 3:30 PM.