ArtSake

There’s a free, two-day artist professional development event at the Boston Public Library this weekend, called the Second Annual Massachusetts Artists Leadership & Entrepreneurship Conference. It’s open to artists of all disciplines. Here’s a link to this year’s schedule. It’s also a great opportunity to meet fellow artists and explore the art and architecture of the incomparable BPL - the first U.S. public library to lend books!

Speaking of art career development, the fascinating Mission Paradox arts marketing blog offers this intriguing bit of straight talk: when you decide to be an artist making a living wage, you’re no longer just an artist – you might be a fundraiser, marketer, and/or networker, too.

As a follow-up to our Obama and the arts post: Filmmaker Magazine blog shares producer Noah Harlan’s interesting supposition: something called section 181 from the bailout package (Editor’s note: Noah shares some more information about Section 181 in the Comments section) coupled with Obama’s plan to increase the capital gains rate for large investors has the potential to create a much more favorable climate for investing in independent film.

While we’re on tax plans: The Chronicle of Philanthropy posits that Obama’s plan to increase taxes on the wealthy could encourage more charitable donations. And taking that one step further, possibly more charitable donations to the arts…

Have you made a great film and need to get it seen? Perhaps what you need is a big box of film festival secrets. (Or, well, a website of them. And a book. Which you can read via the website.)

Technology in the Arts wants to remind you the wide-ranging potential Creative Commons licenses offer to artists.

A couple of recent interviews with Massachusetts artists in reputable rags: Needham artist Rachel Perry Welty (Drawing/Printmaking/Artist Books Fellow ‘04) is profiled in the Boston Globe; Belmont novelist Leah Hager Cohen answers some stray questions from the New York Times book blog.

Bloomberg covers an ongoing and spirited discussion of whether women playwrights are getting their due portion of major productions. (In case you’re as late to this dialogue as I am, it all started with this provocative editorial by Theresa Rebeck.)

Image: Rachel Perry Welty, Detail of PRODUCT, a site-specific sculptural installation, J & J Global Design Headquarters, Chelsea, NY (2007 - ongoing), Laserprints and adhesive, 108 x 216 x 2 inches. Rachel’s work is on exhibit at the Lehman Art Center in North Andover, November 14-January 24.

An handful of past MCC fellows/finalists recently got some nice (and free) publicity: Globe art critic Cate McQuaid had very good things to say about Sally Moore’s (Sculpture/Installation Finalist ‘07) exhibition Edge and Jane Marsching (Photography Finalist ‘03), Deb Todd Wheeler (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ‘03), and Tanit Sakakini’s exhibition Figment’s Imagination.

Greg Cook pointed out this Chicago Tribune story of a local artist abroad. Boston’s Bren Bataclan spent October in the City of the Big Shoulders to trade paintings for the pledge that the recipient will “smile at strangers more often.” (The Trib, clearly an anti-smile establishment, punished him by calling him “Bret.”)

Speaking of giving away your work for free, literary agent Nathan Bransford asks: does it pay?

And does it pay for a city in revival to offer artist space for free? Fall River is about to test the theory. Artists can apply to take over empty storefronts, rent-free (they do pay utilities), in return for staying open to the public at designated times. The Herald News has the story.

As we approach election day, CultureGrrl makes a heartfelt plea to the next administration: end this long national nightmare and revive of National Endowment for the Arts Artist Fellowships for all disciplines!

Speaking of NEA, it’s rolling out a new program to support new plays, and the first group of selections and finalists have been announced. Congrats to Massachusetts artists Lydia Diamond and Anne Gottlieb - both created works named as finalists.

The literary blog The Millions probes how a settlement between Google, the Authors Guild, and the Association of American Publishers could pave the way for major changes in book publishing. Most notably, out-of-print or impossible-to-find literature could be made available in digital versions or through print-on-demand technology.

Anyone out there know a William Young, formerly (and maybe still?) of Winchester? Authorities are trying to find him: they’ve found the George Benjamin Luks painting somebody pinched from him 37 years ago!

At HubArts, Joel Brown explores how an abandoned state mental hospital in Danvers has inspired hyperbolically creepy pastels by a Massachusetts artist.

Artists in the Berkshires can pick up marketing and business strategies in small business seminar for artists in Pittsfield.

Image: Jane Marsching, MCCALL GLACIER (2006), large-scale lightjet print. Jane’s digital prints are exhibited in Figment’s Imagination at Miller Block Gallery, through December 12.

“The best things in life are free
But you can keep ‘em for the birds and bees
Now give me money (that’s what I want)
That’s what I want (that’s what I want)
That’s what I want (that’s what I want), yeah
That’s what I want”

from the song Money (That’s What I Want), writtten by Berry Gordy Jr./Janie Bradford, originally performed by Barrett Strong.

Are you a visual artist interested in improving your business skills (translation: how do I make money selling my work)?  If yes, the Arts & Business Council of Greater Boston and the Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts of Massachusetts might have just what you are looking for. They have developed an 8 month long business course designed to address areas involving negotiation, marketing strategies, legal issues, and financial planning.

If 8 months seems like too long of a comittment, there’s a two-day event at the Boston Public Library called the Second Annual Massachusetts Artists Leadership & Entrepreneurship Conference. It’s free and open to artists of all disciplines. Here’s a link to this year’s schedule.  It’s also a great opportunity to meet fellow artists and explore the art and architecture of this magnificent public building established in 1848. And by the way, it was the first U.S. public library to lend books!

Sick of opinion polls and market research questionnaires? Well so were the artists Komar and Melamid, and a few years back they turned their annoyance into a humorous art project. They queried hundreds of people in different countries to discover what the best painting would look like, compiled the data, and then created paintings based on the information they collected. Conversely, they also polled people to discover what the worst painting would look like. Sometimes democracy is ug-a-lee.

In this poll-free, no spin blog, we want to remind you that it’s a good thing to exercise your universally recognized freedoms and liberties on November 4th and vote for the presidential candidate of your choice.  If you are not registered to vote, go here to learn how. If you think you’ll need an absentee ballot or need to get one for someone you know, go here. Presidential elections can be won or lost by a few hundred votes (for instance, Florida in 2000 was won by a margin of 537) so remember fellow citizens, every vote does count no matter whose candidacy you endorse.

A quick trip into the wayback machine reminds us that it wasn’t until the 15th amendment was ratified in 1870 that the right of citizens (meaning men) of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. It took The 19th Amendment in 1920 to give women the right to vote. 

Go here for more general voting information in Massachusetts.

Down on the Cape you’ll find the Cotuit Center for the Arts has a call to artists to participate in an exhibition called The Art Vote 2008.

And if you’re interested in public policy (as it relates specifically to being an artist), you should check out the second annual Artists Under the Dome event takes place this coming November 13th at the state house in Boston.

Image of United States by Komar & Melamid

Some potentially good news for playwrights: Huntington Theatre Co’s new Artistic Director Peter DuBois said in a recent Boston Globe article that he’s interested in upping their commitment to new play development and possibly collaborating with smaller theater companies. DuBois cited as an example of the Boston scene’s inter-connectedness Company One’s upcoming production of Voyeurs de Venus by Huntington Playwriting Fellow Lydia Diamond - who, in another bit of interconnectedness, was one of our playwriting panelists for the 2007 Artist Fellowship. (Thanks to Boston-area theatre blog Mirror up to Nature for calling attention to this article first.)

Speaking of the Huntington and new plays, the company’s outgoing Literary Manager and Dramaturg Ilana Brownstein was recently recognized with an Elliot Hayes Award.

At New England Film, filmmaker Marc Maurino offers tips on shooting a film in the Berkshires.

At the contemporary music blog Sequenza21, a composer muses about how notation software might affect the process of composing music.

We’re a little behind the times on this one, but in August, Peter Jay Shippy (Poetry Fellow ‘02, Playwriting/New Theater Works Fellow ‘07) guest-blogged at Open Letters Monthly about what’s on his nightstand.

HubArts points out that the ICA Foster Prize Finalists exhibition, which features Rania Matar (Photography Fellow ‘07), has been set to open in November.

Are you a comics artist looking to self-publish your work? Xeric Foundation out of Northampton offers grants to comics artists for that very purpose. Next deadline is Sept. 30.

A literary agent eager for new writers offers tips for the unpublished (thanks to writer Tayari Jones, who pointed this one out on her blog).

Is your precious art-making time being WASTED spelling out the excessive letters of English words? You may be, like George Bernard Shaw, an advocate of spelling reform. And take heart: there are others.

Image: Nina Wishnok, STILL POINTS IN THE CHAOS OF TIME I (2005),
mixed media monoprint, 7 in. x 19 1/4 in. Nina’s work is currently showing in Field Report, a members’ exhibition of the Boston Printmakers at Brickbottom Gallery in Somerville, through October 18.

When Massachusetts artists contact us (MCC) to ask about grant support for individual artists, our first response is, of course, to strongly encourage they investigate our Artist Fellowship Program (note: online application and guidelines for the 2009 cycle, which accepts applications in Crafts, Film & Video, Music Composition, Playwriting, and Sculpture/Installation, will be available on our website October 2008).

However, we thought it might be useful to list some of the other grant opportunities we share with artists looking for funding for their ongoing work.

First, a caveat: not every grant opportunity listed here will be right for every artist. Before applying, you need to ask yourself whether that particular grant is a good fit and thus worth taking time and energy away from your work. Also, this is by no means a comprehensive list, so feel free to let us know about other funding opportunities for individual artists.

Local Cultural Council Grants
We already mentioned our Artist Fellowships Program, which offers unrestricted grants for individual artists, based on an anonymous review of recent artistic work. Another MCC program that includes support for individual artists is the Local Cultural Council Program. Whereas Artist Fellowships provide direct support to the artists themselves, Local Cultural Councils award smaller grants (typically averaging $200-$500) for projects that benefit a specific Massachusetts community. There are 351 cities and towns that support community cultural activity. You must explain in your application how your project will benefit that particular community and engage its residents. Funding criteria and priorities vary from town to town, so the best way to see if your project is right for a particular community is to contact that LCC (here are a list of LCC contacts and tips for applying). If you have questions about the program in general, feel free to contact the MCC’s Communities Department. The next postmark deadline is October 15, 2008.

Beyond the MCC’s programs are a number of other opportunities for local artists.

LEF Foundation
For the past 15 years, LEF Foundation has played a key role part in fostering and promoting contemporary art in New England. If you follow our ArtSake blog, you may have read this post about changes in LEF Foundation’s funding support to artists and their projects. The Contemporary Work Fund, which has supported artists in different media including performing arts, visual arts, and music, is in its final year. The next cycle (2009), its last, will accept applications for project support in visual arts and new media. After that, LEF will focus on supporting independent documentary film through its Moving Image Fund.

Individual artists applying for LEF grants will need to find a nonprofit organization to act as fiscal sponsor. More information, including how to apply, here. Letters of inquiry for applying to the final Contemporary Work Fund cycle are due (in-office) on September 26, 2008. Guidelines for the Spring 2009 cycle for the Moving Image Fund will be posted on LEF’s website November 2008.

Mass Humanities
Mass Humanities offers pre- and post-production and distribution grants to film projects that support humanities themes (check out Executive Director David Tebaldi’s post on The Public Humanist blog about what makes a good humanities film). Similar to the LEF application process, individuals will need a fiscal sponsor to apply. For example, At Home in Utopia, a film by Michal Goldman (Film & Video Fellow ’07), received Mass Humanities funding by applying through the Filmmakers Collaborative. As with other programs, the best way to see whether this funding is right for your project and to learn more specifics is to contact the organization.

Artadia
Founded in response to the decline of NEA funding for individual artists, Artadia offers unrestricted grants to visual artists in specific communities. In 2007, Boston was added as one of those communities, and a group of 10 visual artists/collaborations received awards ranging from $1500 to $15,000. Another grant application cycle is planned for winter/spring 2009.

Grant databases
Another way to find grant opportunities is through searchable grant databases, which allow you to set your own search criteria so you can find opportunities that truly fit your needs.

artSource
The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston offers a “comprehensive index of arts-related employment opportunities, internships, civic engagement partnerships, grants, residencies, exhibitions, competitions, public art commissions, artist workspaces, and related community resources,” called artSource.

NYFA Source
NYFA Source is a searchable database of national grant opportunities, sponsored by the New York Foundation for the Arts. Don’t be alarmed that the site is hosted by a New York organization; the database includes opportunities from throughout the country. You can set your own search criteria, which is useful for filtering out those that don’t apply.

So, that’s a start.

I think we probably all have the same wish: that there was simply more, more funding sources, more funds from those sources. Expect to see this post reappear in new drafts as the arts funding landscape changes - hopefully with more opportunities.

At the blog of the venerable literary journal Ploughshares, 2006 Poetry Fellow Simeon Berry calls our attention to, in his own droll and idiosyncratic way, a spirited discussion within the online poetry community about one poet’s disastrous experience with a poetry contest.

So you want to build yourself a super-duper artist’s website, and you want to do it free, gratis, and for nothin’? Over at the Technology in the Arts blog, Brad Stephenson wants to help you. Because as he puts it, “You’re cheap, and I love you.”

Art critic Sebastian Smee, recent emigre from The Australian to the Boston Globe, shares his first impressions on first impressions (oh, and on Massachusetts art museums).

Perhaps instead of Artist Fellowships, we should award Olympic medals in the arts.

MacDowell Colony doesn’t oppose Divine Mercy. But the isolated artists retreat (which has welcomed many Massachusetts artists over the years) would prefer the new church not be built quite so close to MacDowell’s, you know, isolation.

Where do the presidential candidates stand on the arts? Here, a couple of bloggers offer opinions on the arts policies of Obama and McCain. You can also investigate on your own at ArtsVote, a program of Americans for the Arts Action Fund. The site links to current and former presidential candidates’ arts policies, including Clinton, Richardson, and Huckabee (Did you know Mike Huckabee is a big supporter of arts and music in education, calling them “Weapons of Mass Instruction?”).

Disclaimer (spoken in robot voice): No candidate or opinion of same candidate being advocated for by ArtSake blog. Just sharing Internet data. Affirmative. End transmission.

Image: Sarah Slavick, TRANSMIT (2005), oil on wood, 36 in. X 36 in.

Good stuff for artists in Berkshire County: Berkshire Creative (a partnership between MASS MoCA, MCLA’s Berkshire Cultural Resource Center, and Pittsfield’s Office of Cultural Development) is launching a pilot initiative called “Assets for Artists.” The program is aimed at helping artists in Berkshire County who wish to become home owners and/or receive small business training and assistance. Interested artists should check out one of the upcoming information sessions: Monday, April 14, at 5:30pm at the Lichtenstein Center for the Arts in Pittsfield, and on Thursday, April 17, at 5:30pm at Gallery 51 in North Adams.

Image: Timothy Horn, “Hexen House” (2004), gingerbread, bread, 54″ x 54″ x 70″

Have you ever wondered what to do with an old television set or computer? Leave it in the closet and forget about it is the wrong answer. Well here’s a list of donation and reuse sites in Massachusetts and a freesharing site to stimulate your good nature and practice environmental stewardship. And while we’re at it, my dear painters, if you throw out your turps down the drain, you will be punished please consider that there is a better way. (Image: Rob Dobson (Crafts Fellow ‘07) Basket #143 (2004), Salvaged Materials, 13’ x 15 3/4’ x 15’)