ArtSake

In a post for the Vox Mom blog, Massachusetts poet Jennifer Jean writes engagingly about her belief in Literary Citizenship. In her case, that means contributing her time and energy to the poetry community despite the already robust demands of being a poet and working mother. As a Literary Citizen, she makes sure to impart a love of poetry in those around her. She also takes an active role in organizing poetry community-building events like the upcoming Massachusetts Poetry Festival (May 12-14 in Salem) – even if that means meeting with fellow literary citizens/moms, kids in tow, at a local bounce house emporium.

Now, here’s your chance to be a poetic citizen. Take part in the Massachusetts Poetry Festival, a three-day schedule of events, workshops, performances, and readings. Celebrate the literary heritage of this state, experience captivating poetry, and write with (and draw inspiration from) some of the most trailblazing poetic citizens at work today. One festival button ($10 donation, $5 for seniors/students) will grant you admission to all events (though the workshops will require pre-registration).

Some ArtSake picks from the amply excellent line-up:

• The Poetry Dress, a collaborative art project showcasing the layers of female voices in contemporary poetry, on display at The Roost
• Salamander Reading, (The Gathering, 5:30-6:30 PM, 5/13), a reading from editors and contributors to Salamander Literary Journal, including Simeon Berry (Poetry Fellow ’06)
• A performance of Charles Olson’s dance play Apollonius of Tyana (Main Stage, 11 AM, 5/14), with performers including Sarah Slifer (Choreography Fellow ’10)
• Grub Street Poem Generator (Green Land Cafe, 12-1:30 PM, 5/14) Grub Street instructor and past MCC Poetry Fellow Ben Berman (’08) will lead poets through innovative, verse-stimulating exercises
• What We Want (Old Town Hall, 12-1:30 PM, 5/14), a panel of independent publishers advises emerging poets on how best to get their attention
• The Headword Poetry Presentation (Main Stage, 1:30-2:45 PM, 5/14), Regie Gibson (Poetry Fellow ’10) hosts performances by area spoken word poets
• Steve Almond (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’08) will read his own (good) poetry (Main Stage, 2-2:20 PM, 5/14), before exploring bad poetry (The Gathering, 3-4 PM, 5/14) as judge of the Mass Poetry Festival’s Bad Poem Contest
• Patrick Donnelly (Poetry Fellow ’08) offers a workshop on How to Be a Good Public Reader of Your Own Poetry (House of Seven Gables Hooper House #1, 2- 3:30 PM, 5/14)
• BEG, BORROW, AND STEAL (House of Seven Gables #1, 3:30-4:45 PM, 5/14), featuring Perugia Press poets including Frannie Lindsay (Poetry Fellow ’06) and Nancy K. Pearson (Poetry Finalist ’10)
• AND DON’T MISS: Follow the Fellows (Phillips Library, Peabody Essex Museum, 4:30-5:45 PM, 5/14), with readings by MCC Poetry Fellows, including Ben Berman, John Canaday, Patrick Donnelly, Regie Gibson, Sharon Howell, Rosann Kozlowski, and Leslie Williams

The headline events will feature Brian Turner, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, and Jericho Brown and Mark Doty, Kim Richey, and Patricia Smith.

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In our modern world, mysteries abound! On the other hand, so do plastic water bottles. And twist ties (see above). In fact, lots of things abound. Information. Celebrities. Blog posts and websites. Haters and their hatin’. Makers and their makin’. All abound.

It’s been suggested that curation will be increasingly key to our navigation, as a culture, of the overly abundant information-scape in our lives. In that spirit, we thought we’d round up some of the abundantly intriguing, or mysterious, or just plain keen stuff going on.

On The Public Humanist, blog of Mass Humanities, Natasha Haverty and Adam Bright share the backstory of their radio documentary-in-progress about a debate society formed in the 1930s by inmates in a Norfolk, MA prison – and how the team defeated debate squads from more hallowed MA institutions like MIT and Harvard.

Why should James Franco work at Grub Street, the Boston-based writers service organization? Answer this question by 5 PM today (Friday, April 15), and you may win a pair of tickets to Cocktail Hour with the Francos, an unscripted conversation with writer/actor/conceptual artist James Franco and his mother, writer Betsy Franco, at Grub Street’s great Muse and the Marketplace Conference. Just tweet “James Franco should work at Grub Street because…” and your answer, and include @GrubWriters and #musefranco in your tweet.

How big a wave could one week’s worth of plastic bottles create? The good folks of Citizens for Salem/Beverly Water Resources suspect it will yield A Mighty Wave. They’re encouraging artists to converge at Salem Common in Salem on the morning of May 7 to create a one-day public art display, creating a wave of plastic from bottles collected in just one week in Salem. All will be broken down in time for a recycling truck to break (and recycle) the wave by afternoon. Find out more.

Not since the Mayors’ Arts Challenge have two MA cities had so vigorous a rivalry! Responding to a remark by a Cambridge city councilor that Somerville doesn’t have many interesting places, Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone has challenged Cambridge to an “Interesting City Challenge.” He even invokes the arts:

It’s called authenticity, and we’ve got it in the arts too. The City and local businesses weave art into everything we do. Public art absolutely needs to be part of this Challenge, though it’s not fair because most of the artists Cambridge had long ago moved to Somerville. And we’re talking everything from painters to sculptors to comic book artists. Oh, if you happen to catch a band in Cambridge anytime soon, make sure to ask them where in Somerville they live.

(As a state agency, we are not taking sides.)

Speaking of rivalries: watch Governor Deval Patrick go head to head with The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart! Actually, it’s a really friendly conversation. They talk about Gov. Patrick’s new book, former MA governor Mitt Romney, and why The Daily Show should move production to Massachusetts.

New England Film has a terrific article on five films from New England talent screening this month at the International Film Festival of Boston (April 27-May 4, 2011).

GO SEE ART. Where? Find out at GO SEE ART. It’s a compendium of New England art exhibitions. So go there. And then go. You know. To see art.

Will it surprise you that the Boston chapter of the Awesome Foundation, which funds projects it considers awesome (that’s really the only criteria), funded a group that describes itself as “Boston’s mysterious playmate?” Banditos Misteriosos won a $1000 “Awesome” grant for its plan to create a giant puzzle to be put together by the Boston community sometime this summer. Past efforts by the Misteriosos, who aim to answer the questions “Who are these people we pass in the street?” and “How could we use those big open public spaces?” by staging whimsical public events, include massive pillow and water gun fights and a live, “Choose Your Own Adventure” game.

At the recent TransCultural Exchange Conference, attendee Ilana Manolson (Painting Fellow ’08) shared her experiences exhibiting her paintings through the ART in Embassies Program, which places American art in U.S. diplomatic residencies worldwide. Through that program, Ilana’s paintings have been on exhibit at American embassies in The Hague and Sarajevo.

I really like this post by the Our Stories literary journal that lists short stories that employ a very specific device, then carry it off with skill. Massachusetts literary rawk star Steve Almond (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’08) is on the list twice!

Finally: arts funding is one thing mentioned in this post that’s not nearly abundant enough. On a federal level, the NEA’s budget is under threat, and here in MA, we have our own issues. Read this testimony by Tim Robbins about how a small investment in the arts can yield a bounty – not just in terms of the tax revenues, but culturally and personally.

Image: Rachel Perry Welty, LOST IN MY LIFE (TWIST TIES) (2009), Pigmented ink print, edition of 3, 90×60 in, Courtesy of the Artist, Barbara Krakow Gallery (Boston), Gallery Joe (Philadelphia), and Yancey Richardson Gallery (New York). Rachel’s solo show RACHEL PERRY WELTY 24/7 is on exhibit at the deCordova Sculpture Park + Museum in Lincoln through April 24, 2011. Currently, Rachel’s video work KARAOKE WRONG NUMBER 2004-2009 is featured in Videonale 13 at Kunstmuseum Bonn, through May 29, 2011.

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It’s a busy time here at the state arts agency – but interesting arts links wait for no one. So we thought it might be a good opportunity to round up some links of interest to Massachusetts artists and art-fans.

The Emerging Filmmakers Series at the Boston Center for the Arts launches tomorrow (Thursday, April 7), with two film screenings, including the premiere of Sospia by Lana Z. Caplan (featured here on ArtSake). Sospira (watch the trailer) is a 50-minute experimental documentary about nine international women and their travels along the Amalfi Coast of Italy. The Emerging Filmmaker Series is curated by Jeff Daniel Silva (Film & Video Finalist ’09).

Need some talking points as you advocate for support of the arts? You could do worse than to borrow from Kevin Spacey (or Abe Lincoln). In this clip from “Hardball” on MSNBC, Kevin Spacey speaks eloquently about why arts funding is important, citing how Lincoln continued attending theatre and reading voraciously during the Civil War: “Lincoln understood that he needed the arts to replenish his soul.”

Cool: the Boston Playwrights’ Theatre is doing yeoman’s work exploring the world of new plays on the Playwrights Perspective blog. I love this post by BPT alum Anne Pattison about good omens she found during her world travels that gave her hope for the plight of the modern playwright.

Are you a writer? Do you like awesome, really super useful things? Okay, then you’ll like this. The Beyond the Margins blog checks in with a bunch of great writers to see what advice they might have for their earlier, not-yet-published selves. The advice ranges from the pragmatic (Ericka Robuck: “Keep it simple.”) to the gallows-ly humorous (Amy MacKinnon: “Become an accountant instead.”) to the poetic (Jackie Mitchard: “This rollercoaster ride will take you higher than swallows fly and lower than worms burrow…”).

Speaking of poetic: you’re planning on attending, taking part in, and/or heartily singing the praises of this May’s Massachusetts Poetry Festival – right? Prime the pump this month by taking part in (or organizing your own) Common Threads’ event to celebrate seven poems by poets with strong ties to Massachusetts.

And finally: the TransCultural Exchange Conference of international opportunities for artists of all disciplines starts tomorrow, April 7 and runs through April 10. Some of the terrific events are free, such as several at the Boston Public Library, including a panel on “First Books” by ArtSake faves Mira Bartok and Jedediah Berry, 1:30-3:30 PM, in the Boston Room, and a Grant Writing Workshop with David Adams of the Council for International Exchange of Scholars and Deb Todd Wheeler, 1:30-3:30 PM in Room C05/C06.

Image: still from SOSPIRA by Lana Z. Caplan.

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We’re excited to tell you about Assets for Artists, a program that offers a range of services to advance artists entrepreneurially and financially, including home ownership assistance.

The program is partially funded through MCC’s Adams Arts Program, led by MASS MoCA and supported by local partners in Boston, Lowell, New Bedford, and Pittsfield. Previously, the program had been offered to Berkshires artists – now it’s open to artists statewide!

So, what does the program do? Assets for Artists can explain it best:

Since 2008, Assets for Artists has piloted an innovative matched savings grant program and financial and business training opportunities for low- to moderate-income artists in Berkshire County, and starting in 2011 those opportunities are now being offered state-wide.

By meeting savings goals and by completing the required training, participating artists can receive grant funds as a savings match for “working capital” to invest in their work as an artistic microenterprise, or receive down payment assistance for the purchase of a home.

Who can apply? Funny you should ask – the Assets for Artists blog was just talking about this…

To be eligible, your adjusted gross income can be no more than $45,000 for a household of 1, $52,000 for 2, $58,000 for 3, and $65,000 for a household of 4. The maximum eligible household income increases $5,000 for each additional person in the household above 4.

Artists will be selected based on a combination of need and artistic accomplishment. They need to make savings deposits monthly (for at least 6 months) to meet a savings goal, during which the program contributes to a “matched savings account” in that artist’s name. Artists are required to do some business and professional development training, after which they can use the accrued “working capital” to invest in an artistic microenterprise, or as part of a down payment for the purchase of a home or live-work space.

Assets for Artists has no application fee or tuition. Go here to download the application.

Applications should be received by 5:00 pm on April 21, 2011. Questions? Email Assets for Artists.

Image: Angela Zammarelli (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’11), COME OVER, COME OVER (detail) (2010), cardboard, textiles, light fixture, extension cord, glue, 5.5 ft

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In the introduction to her recent book, Gigi Rosenberg shares an anecdote about her first grant proposal: an application to the Boston Film/Video Foundation (now, sadly, defunct) for a documentary project. She says that instead of clearly and confidently expressing her goals and intent, she was really hoping that a grant would confirm something more personal: that she really was an artist.

The foundation didn’t fund her project. But the experience set her on the path to discovering how best to approach the grant writing process, which she did with the systematic rigor of a scientific researcher. The result, years later, is The Artist’s Guide to Grant Writing, which she calls “the book that I wish I’d had when I didn’t know whether I was an artist, or even when I did know and I wanted both the money and the validation that winning a grant provides.”

We asked her about the book, about her journey from grants novice to expert speaker and grants writing workshop leader, and about some common struggles artists face in searching for funding for their work.

ArtSake: You bring up that artists sometimes seek “permission” for their projects rather than confidently present them as worthy of support. Not to stoke the whole art vs. science notion, but why might an artist be more tentative about proposing a project than, say a scientific researcher?

Rosenberg: I have made this mistake and I know other artists who have too – we apply to the funding organization for money but we’re really asking them for so much more than money – we’re asking them to love our work, to support us in non-monetary ways and to cheer us on. This kind of support really isn’t the job of the funders! I encourage artists to find artist groups, colleagues and friends to support their creative endeavors. Scientific researchers have all kinds of support – their collaborators, research partners, laboratory workers, and so on. They also have a society that has a high regard for scientific research – a higher regard (in some circles) than for artistic endeavors. But don’t let that dampen your spirits – artists need to foster networks, communities, friendships, colleagues, and groups that support them to do their best work.

ArtSake: I really like that you acknowledge the emotional and psychological aspects of looking for artist funding. What’s the first thing you’d say to a disappointed applicant who didn’t receive funding?

Rosenberg: The first thing I’d say to a disappointed applicant is don’t take the rejection personally. This isn’t about you as a person. The second thing I’d say is: Can you use this rejection to learn anything about your proposed project? If you can, find out why the funder rejected your application. Ask them: What could I have done to make this a stronger proposal? You may discover that they only had money to fund 5 projects and you were number 6! Or you may find out that they aren’t interested in a particular aspect of your project or that you made a big goof on the budget. Any information you receive in this follow-up can be a gold mine of information for your next proposal.

To be an artist you have to have the skin of a rhino and the heart of a poet – this is one of the hardest aspects of being an artist – but you could say the same thing about being a human being! Rejection is a huge part of the business of being an artist. People are going to say “No” a lot. Sales people don’t take it personally when a potential customer says no – and if there’s any way you can, in the best way, adopt that attitude it will help you continue to make work and get it out there, any way you can.

Lastly, don’t isolate yourself. All of us need cheerleaders – just don’t rely on arts organizations to be your cheerleaders – find friends and colleagues who can do it.

ArtSake: What are some of the common missteps you see in artist statements that prevent them from effectively representing the artist’s voice?

Rosenberg: It’s very challenging to write about your work in an artist statement because you have to write about your work as if you didn’t make it. Few of us think about our themes when we’re making something – we’re just making it. I think it helps to interview other people to ask them what they see in the work – that can help an artist find the language. Or have someone interview you and get you talking about your big idea.

Artists tend to write clichés in artist statements or use lingo and jargon when they get scared and just want to sound smart. Write past the clichés, talk through your ideas, until you’re expressing them with fresh language that really means something.

ArtSake: In the book, you describe a demo from your workshops, where you have the artists pretend to be funders being asked for grants. Can you talk about your first experience on the “other side?”

Rosenberg: My experience sitting on a panel judging artist applications blew my mind. I realized how many artists have great ideas but don’t know how to write about the idea in a way that engages others or even to follow directions. Also, many applicants don’t understand how daunting it is to be staring at a mile-high pile of applications. As a panelist you want to find any way to make the pile smaller. And if an applicant didn’t follow directions, that’s a great reason to toss them from the pile. Competition for grants is stiff and the margin for error is narrow. I learned how important it is not to give the panel an easy reason to disqualify your application. I also learned how to see the process from the other side of the table. So, now when I apply for a grant, I ask myself: How can I make this project irresistible to this funder? This helps me prepare an application that has a much better chance of succeeding. Don’t forget, however, that you don’t want to tweak your project so much that it doesn’t feel like your project anymore.

ArtSake: Along those same lines: your book has smart, practical tips for grant applicants. Do you have any advice for grants panelists and arts funders? Or just a message they could benefit from hearing?

Rosenberg: Being a panelist and an arts funder is a hard job – they are underpaid and overworked – but they already know that! I’d want to tell them how much I appreciate what they’re doing – trying to find the right artists for the funding they have. They are so underappreciated – so I’d want to say thanks – it’s a hard job you have and you do it with so much integrity!

ArtSake: Your book’s epilogue has the title “Make Art,” a reminder never to let that part of the process drift out of sight. How does your thinking about, writing about, an artist’s career affect your creative work?

Rosenberg: I think what you’re asking is how writing a “how to” book affected my own creative life as a writer – is that right? If so, writing the book turned out to be incredibly creative. It was like editing a documentary film – where you have all these interviews and your own experience and then just plain advice and tips to share and then figuring out how to splice that all together in a way that is coherent – that process was intensively creative. I loved interviewing successful artists and having the right to ask questions about their own creative process and how they are successful with getting their work recognized and funded. I loved having the right to be nosy and the interviews were very inspiring to me. Of course it’s always easier (I think) to cheer somebody else on – but the book gave me lots of practice in being an encouraging presence – on my good days, I follow my own advice – which is to work as deeply as I know how on my own writing and then when it’s good enough to send it out!

Gigi Rosenberg has upcoming events in Seattle (keynote at BizArt Conference, Friday, March 25); New York City (author events at Foundation Center, Monday, March 28, 2 PM and at Barnes & Noble, sponsored by New York Foundation for the Arts, Thursday, March 31, 7 PM); Washington D.C. (Foundation Center, Friday, April 1, 1:30 PM); and Baltimore (keynote at Maryland Writers Conference, Saturday, April 2, 9 AM). See a full events schedule.

Gigi Rosenberg is a writer, speaker, and workshop leader. Her book The Artist’s Guide to Grant Writing (follow on Facebook) grew out of the professional development workshops she launched in Portland, Oregon, and teaches in New York, Chicago, and throughout the Pacific Northwest at colleges, conferences, and arts organizations. Her writing has been published by Seal Press, The Oregonian, Parenting, and Writer’s Digest; performed at Seattle’s On the Boards; and broadcast on Oregon Public Radio.

Images: Gigi Rosenberg (photo by Christian Columbres); cover art for THE ARTIST’S GUIDE TO GRANT WRITING by Gigi Rosenberg (Watson-Guptill, 2010).

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How does our seemingly endless access to information, as a culture, affect contemporary art practice? How does it change the way curators research and advance their work?

These questions and more will be at the heart of the Curatorial Panel on Contemporary Art Research, a discussion organized by the national arts service organization Artadia. The panel discussion, hosted by the Art Libraries Society of New England and the Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science, takes place tomorrow, Tuesday, February 15, 2011, 6:30-8:30 PM at the Simmons Conference Room at Simmons College in Boston. From the announcement:

This panel gathers curators from both coasts to share their perspectives on contemporary art research. They will consider how the global menu of information resources available these days influences their work, how they access (and preserve) what they need and what role libraries play in their research.

Panelists:
Pieranna Cavalchini, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Mary Ellyn Johnson, Walter and McBean Galleries, San Francisco Art Institute
Jen Mergel, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
João Ribas, MIT List Visual Arts Center
Mary Schneider Enriquez, Harvard Art Museum
Lisa Tung, Massachusetts College of Art and Design
Moderator: Amanda Bowen, Harvard Fine Arts Library

Curatorial Panel on Contemporary Art Research
Tuesday, February 15, 2011, 6:30-8:30 PM
Simmons Conference Room, Simmons College
300 The Fenway, Boston, MA 02115
Free and open to the public.

Image: Evelyn Rydz, DRIFTING ISLAND #5 (2009), photo by Clements/ Howcroft. Evelyn was one of the Artist Fellows selected by Curatorial Panel participant João Ribas when he served as an MCC Drawing Artist Fellowships panelist in 2010.

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Don’t forget to do your citizen-artists’ duty and vote today. Polls close at 8 PM. Find your polling place.

When you vote, keep in mind the cultural sectors’ stake in the results of Question 3.

Images: official portraits of past Massachusetts governors: Michael Dukakis by artist Garner Cox; Mitt Romney by artist Richard Whitney.

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The Massachusetts Artists Coalition has organized two free events for artists of all disciplines:
Live-Art-Speak at the Boston Public Library, Saturday, November, 6, 2010 (1-4:30pm) includes a tour of the Kirstein Business Library geared for artists as well as information sessions on Cultural Districts, Fair Trade, Artists Spaces, and networking opportunities. Contact malc@artistsunderthedome.org.

The 4th Annual Artists Under the Dome Event at the Massachusetts State House, Nurses Hall, Thursday, November 18, 2010 (10:00am-3:30pm) is an opportunity for artists to meet with their elected officials and to hear legislators discuss issues around the arts in Massachusetts. There will also be networking opportunities, information sharing for artists in communities and for teaching artists. You are strongly encouraged to RSVP for this event.

Women Playwrights - Northampton Academy of Music Theatre will present a special evening dedicated to women playwrights on Thursday, October 21, 2010 (7pm). The evening will begin with short presentations by Martha Richards, the Executive Director of WomenArts and one of the “founding mothers” of the Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts; Magdalena Gomez, an award-winning Latina playwright; and Dr. Terry Jenoure, a performer, educator, writer and the director of the Augusta Savage Gallery at University of Massachusetts Amherst. Their presentations will be followed by a staged reading of Mixed Relief, a one-act play especially commissioned by WomenArts to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the Federal Theater Project. This event is supported in part by the Northampton Arts Council and The Women’s Times, Inc. Admission is free with a $5 suggested donation. No reservations are needed.

Media Artists - Making Media Now 2010 Conference on Saturday, November 6, 2010 at Boston University School of Management, 595 Commonwealth Ave, Boston. This all day conference provides information on Social Media, Typography & Film, Managing your Production in a Digital World, and Distribution Models.

Artists – TransCultural Exchange’s Conference on International Opportunities in the Arts: Are you looking to tap into the International Art Market? Would you like to find ways to show overseas? Are you a writer interested in finding out what it takes to publish your first book? Are you a musician or composer who is looking for an amazing residency overseas? Have you always wanted to live overseas for a year and do research for a creative project but just didn’t know how to fund your trip? Meet key international curators, critics, editors, published writers and program directors at this conference. Boston Omni Parker House Hotel, April 7-10, 2011. Scholarships applications are due November 15, 2010.

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We head into an auspicious span of days for word-lovers.

Boston Book Festival
This Saturday, October 16, is the Boston Book Festival. If world-class writers were muscles, this event would be bursting out of its sleeves. Elizabeth Alexander, Bill Bryson, Atul Gawande, Allegra Goodman, Jennifer Haigh, A.M. Homes, Dennis Lehane, and Joyce Carol Oates are joined by dozens of other eminent wordsmiths. Also taking part in diverse and highly entertaining ways are some of the artists who have received Massachusetts artist fellowships over the years: Steve Almond (’08), Gish Jen (’87), Tom Perrotta (’98), Henriette Lazaridis Power (’06), and Kevin Young (’10).

Speaking of Tom Perrotta, his The Smile on Happy Chang’s Face was selected to be the inaugural story in the One City One Story project. The initiative encourages people in and around Boston to read the same short story and create community around the shared reading experience, and a digital version of the story is available for download.

The Boston Book Festival is free, with events, readings, workshops, booksellers, and more at Copley Square in Boston, all day Saturday.

Four Stories
On Monday, October 18, 2010, you can zip over to The Enormous Room in Cambridge for Four Stories: “One evening, four urban narratives.” The ongoing series folds literature and nightlife into one uber-cool origami swan, and Monday’s event looks like a lively one. Its theme is “‘Til Death Do Us Part: Tales of love and expiration,” and it features readings by radio host Alex Bernstein, storyteller Dave Dickerson, journalist Daniel Gewert, and writer Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich (who recently brandished her wit in an ArtSake nano-interview). The event runs 7-9 PM and is free and open to the public.

National Day on Writing
Then, on Wednesday, October 20, 2010, it’s time to throw the act of writing a big party. Preferably by doing some writing. It’s National Day on Writing, established by The National Council of Teachers of English to acknowledge and celebrate the integral nature of writing.

You, as an individual writer and/or interested person of the world, are encouraged to visit Mass Humanities to learn about ways to get involved. At the very least, you can use the occasion as an excuse to ditch other non-essential plans and spend the day writing (does your foyer really need remodeling when there’s a Great American Novel/Poem/Blog Post awaiting your pen?)

Check other ideas about how to get involved, and keep writing.

Images: Kevin Young; cover art for The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief and Healing, edited by Kevin Young (Bloomsbury, 2010); Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich, photo by Caleb Cole.

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IF you believe that:

A. schools matter
B. art matters
and furthermore…
C. that it matters that art is taught, celebrated, supported, and fostered in schools…

… THEN we believe you may want to tell your legislators about it. It is, after all, Arts in Education Week (September 12-18, 2010). Furthermore, it’s election season. Combine the two and you have an ideal opportunity to tell your legislator why arts education – both in school and afterschool – matters to you.

We at the MCC are (you may not be surprised to hear) eager to help. Please click on the Take Action! link below to let your legislator know that you value arts education in Massachusetts.

Take Action!

Also MCC’s 2010 Campaign Toolkit is available to help you let your candidates for state office know about the issues that matter to you.

So get involved, and most importantly, keep creating, teaching, innovating, and celebrating art in all its forms.

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