ArtSake

On the Keepers of Tradition blog, Massachusetts state folklorist Maggie Holtzberg has distilled some of the techniques she learned at a recent meeting of folklorists on how best to preserve digital multimedia. Archiving work (as well as preserving and providing access to those archives) is the bread and butter of folklorists, but since so many artists are now either working in digital media or documenting their work that way, any artist might be interested to hear some of the best practices Maggie took away from the meeting. Here are a few tips on preserving your digital media:

Multiple copies of files in varying formats keeps material safe. For example, store a recent field recording or photo shoot in several places: on a server, on two external hard drives, and on a CD.

Don’t write on a CD! The top surface of the CD is susceptible to damage, not just the bottom. If you must, write with a water-based, permanent pen on the inner plastic circle of the CD. Avoid “sharpies” as they might interfere with the top (lacquer) layer of the CD.

Store CDs in regular sized jewel cases, not fiberglass or paper sleeves. Store them vertically, not horizontally. Buy CDs in jewel cases, not in spindles.

Migrate, migrate, migrate. Dale Hecker of Harvard University Libraries reminds us that “Digital materials are surprisingly fragile. They depend for their continued viability upon technologies that undergo rapid and continual change.” This is true for analog as well as digital materials. Afterall, who can use a floppy disc anymore, let alone play a wax cylinder or a 78 recording? If your archive is full of DAT (digital audio tape) recordings, as ours is, make sure you copy them onto the latest technology and back them up on a server. Scan slides and create TIF files as your preservation master files. Then create “use” files for editing, printing, and emailing.

Metadata matters. It is important to include information about the information that has been collected. Describe the context, content, format, and authorship of the material. Who conducted the interview, where, and when? Is this interview part of a project or collection? What kind of camera, microphone, or sound recorder was used? What software? Is the material restricted in any way?

Read the full post.

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If the Red Sox can begin to stretch those underutilized muscles in spring training down in Florida, we here in the throes of a frosty winter can too. There’s some interesting dance performances coming down the pike from past MCC fellows and finalists that we thought you might be interested in knowing about.

First stop, for school vacation week, is Opposites, an interactive performance designed for ages K-4 to teach kids about modern dance using the concepts of opposites, presented by Prometheus Dance. It’s this coming Thursday at 2:00 at the Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center. There will be live percussion by Francisco Molina, as well as six members of Prometheus Dance and narration by Tommy Neblett (choreography fellow ’08).

In March, get ready for the world of Sultans. With more than 15 dancers, Mavi Dance (Hale Pinar Zengingonul & Giorgi Shandize, choreography finalists ’08) along with the flamenco dancer Clara Ramona, aerial dancer Gina DeFreitas, and the Brookline Academy of Dance, will perform works from Turkey, Georgia, Caucasia, India, Spain and Middle East. Mavi Dance will present the new folk ballet piece Harem set to original music by Dr. Mehmet Ali Sanlikol. Be sure to check it out at the Boston University Dance Theater on March 14-15. Here’s a link to a past Mavi Dance performance.

And in April, Neena Gulati (choreography finalist ’08) and the Triveni Ensemble will present A Garland of Rhythms blending the complexity of ancient Indian classical dance rhythms with modern choreography and African drums. It’ going to be on April 5th at 3:00 pm at Hellenic College, Maliotis Cultural Center. Here’s a clip from a past performance by Neena.

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Sitting in our dark rooms, snowed in.

As you may know, this blog is hand-cranked by the folks at the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency. On Friday, the day of the first snow storm (and the day I meant to write this post), Governor Patrick instructed non-emergency state workers not to come in. So I was home Friday, and the post got a snow day.

Anyway, we’re back in the office, so… to the art! There’s a fascinating interview with 2008 ICA Foster Finalist Rania Matar (Photography Fellow ’07) in the most recent Big RED and Shiny, where she discusses her photographs in war-torn Lebanon and why she was drawn to go back.

Via Practicing Writing: good news, web writers – you can now be the Best Americans. (In that writers who’ve been published in web-based literary journals are eligible for inclusion in the Best American Short Stories anthology. I’m not saying you can necessarily be better than the best Americans overall, such as the American Ninja or National Arts Council member Lee Greenwood. But you know, of writers.)

Check out Lloyd Schwartz’s NPR review of the CD of Scott Wheeler’s (Music Composition Fellow ’05) opera The Construction of Boston. Schwartz calls the recording of Boston Cecilia’s 2002 performance “close to an ideal realization.” The work uses the text of Kenneth Koch’s poem of the same name, an ode to the building of Boston. “I think anyone who loves cities will be charmed by this inventive and moving work,” says Schwartz.

In the ’60s, David Wheeler’s Theatre Company of Boston included Robert DeNiro, Dustin Hoffman, and Al Pacino in its acting troupe. But the standout was Paul Benedict, who recently passed away in Martha’s Vineyard. The Globe has an excellent obituary (and check out the tributes in the comments section, too). And the Playgoer, the eponymous blogger shares his personal memories of Mr. Benedict.

In The Public Humanist, filmmaker Larry Hott argues that, along with visual skills, film & video artists ought to be able to string a few words together, to get ahead in their field.

Via the NY Times: according to an NEA report, supply of non-musical plays is outstripping demand. But is this on an aggregate demand curve or a marginal utility curve? And have all exogenous variables been considered? Or could it be, as the UK’s Guardian Theatre Blog suggests, that “demand” for art can be helped along, as with the NEA’s Big Read program for literature. A Big See, anyone?

Via Publishers Weekly, Dennis Lehane, scribe of such iconic Boston tales as Mystic River and Gone Baby Gone, will edit Akashic’s forthcoming Boston Noir anthology of mystery stories.

The roster of artists for President-elect Obama’s inauguration is shaping up. Elizabeth Alexander will be inaugural poet (Mass. connection: she studied with Derek Walcott at BU), and Cambridge master cellist Yo-Yo Ma is among the musical performers. (Based on the musicians and the instruments they play, Alex Ross takes a stab at guessing the musical selection.)

A handful of calls to artists…
Wellfleet Harbor Actor’s Theatre is accepting submissions of features, shorts, documentaries and student films that have some connection to Cape Cod for a juried festival called the 2009 Cape Cod Filmmaker Takeover. Chosen films are screened at WHAT’s Julie Harris Stage, the audience votes, and the grand prize winner participates in the Provincetown International Film Festival. Submission must be postmarked by January 23, 2009; guidelines and submission criteria here.

Central Productions has an open call for submissions for the 8th Annual Boston Cinema Census, showcasing innovative works by emerging New England filmmakers. The BCC is hosted by the Brattle Theatre. Deadline Feb. 10, 2009. Check here for details.

Visionary drawings conveying a dwelling/structure/architectural concept can be submitted to Kidspace @ MASS MoCA’s March 2009 Exhibition Cribs to Cribbage and the publication Visionary Architecture. Interested artists should procure a submission form (find out how here), then use the form to create your drawing and submit by January 15, 2009. Selected drawings will be compiled in Visionary Architecture.

And finally…
In case you missed the excellent traditional arts performances in conjunction with the Keepers of Tradition exhibition at the National Heritage Museum, you can check some of them out at the MCC YouTube Channel. (Perhaps during the next snow storm?)

Image: Timothy Horn (Sculpture/Installation Fellow ’05), WATERSPORTS (Installation, 2002), mixed media, variable dimensions. Timothy’s works are currently on exhibit in In Pursuit of Beauty at the Montserrat Gallery at the Montserrat College of Art in Beverly, through January 24. Read the Boston Globe’s review.

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Fiber artist Adrienne Sloane sent us the above image of jewelry depicted (in an unfinished form) in her recent Studio Views. It’s called the Inaugural Necklace and Bracelet (and if anyone can get them into the First Lady-elect’s hands, let us know!).

Speaking of -elects… via Modern Art Notes is the news that former Whitney and SFMOMA director David Ross has posted on Twitter ten arts policy recommendations for the new administration. Included are “1. Support and sign bill giving artists tax incentives for donating their work to museums… 2. Create a new public work program for artists and writers… 8. Consider the creation of a cabinet-level post for culture.”

Now I know it’s not a race. But the Commonwealth’s very own Ploughshares is totally number one yeah wooo hooo! when it comes to Pushcart nominations for literary journals.

At the Boston Handmade blog is an update on their storefront at Downtown Crossing. Anyone surprised to hear that the gallery of lovingly and inventively created handmade goods by local artists and artisans is, in short, hopping?

In the Mass Humanities Public Humanist blog, art historian Jack Cheng explores how “I could do that” isn’t necessarily a slam against a piece of art.

In the unlikely event that whoever stole Ariel Kotker’s hand-sculpted nail from her Northampton Center for the Arts show is also an ArtSake reader: return it, Mr/Ms. Naughty. Seriously, that was not cool. To say nothing of the time it took to create, this piece of art – any work of art – deserves more respect than that.

A filmmaker who took part in the The Content + Intent Documentary Institute at MASS MoCA shares how the residency shaped her efforts to build a grassroots audience for her film. (Incidentally, the residency is a five-day workshop to help documentary filmmakers enhance the community engagement and impact of their films-in-process.The next one is in March ’09.)

The publishers of Play: A Journal of Plays have created an online magazine to accompany it, called Device. Notably, playwright/MacArthur Genius Sarah Ruhl has contributed a series of short essays on topics like “On the Loss of Sword Fights” & “And what of gut-roiling aesthetic hatred?”

From our sibling blog, Keepers of Tradition, comes the fantastic news that the Keepers of Tradition exhibition of Massachusetts art and folk heritage at the National Heritage Museum in Lexington has been extended through June ’09!

Via Our Daily RED: a panel has recommended Harvard University expand it’s commitment to the arts. Was Marjorie Garber’s op-ed about universities becoming society’s great patrons of the arts prophetic?

And finally, in St. Paul, MN, they’re doing a version of A Christmas Carol in Klingon (with English subtitles). “Scrooge has no honor, nor any courage. Can three ghosts help him to become the true warrior he ought to be in time to save Tiny Tim from a horrible fate?” goes the plug. I found it via playwright Adam Szymkowicz’s blog in a post titled “what we have in MN.” And I’m saying: why don’t we have this in MA? Get on it, local Klingon Assault Groups!

Image: Adrienne Sloane, INAUGURAL NECKLACE AND BRACELET (2008)

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At ecoTheater, a fascinating blog about environmentally sustainable approaches to theater, Mike Lawler worries about the carbon footprint of traveling throughout the country to work with different theater companies. He introduces the quagmire in a discussion with an often-traveling sound designer and continues the conversation here and here.

At the Public Humanist, blog of the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities, filmmaker Larry Hott discusses how the goals of funders can affect what documentaries get made.

Our sibling blog Keepers of Tradition calls our attention to Club Passim’s Iguana Fund, a professional and artistic development opportunity for musicians.

Want to tick off writer Erika Dreifus in a writing workshop? Do this.

At Soho the Dog, Boston composer, pianist, and conductor Matthew Guerrieri points out that the craters of the planet Mercury share names with great artists in history, including composers.

As a post-post-script to our Alternative Deliveries ramble and its post-ramble, here a couple of the discussions about presenting your own work that are flaring up around the web-o-sphere.

• Playwright Gary Garrison encourages playwrights to produce their own work
• Reb Livingston hilariously, irreverently writes about adventures in DIY poetry, such as publishing your own poetry book for $500 and how she made all her publishing dreams came true with her first collaborative chapbook and anthology
• Scott Kirsner argues that creative forms of distribution including making the film available on your own website should go hand in hand with its participation in film festivals

Image: Rob Dobson, BASKET #143 (2004), Salvaged materials, 13 in. x 15 3/4 in. x 15 in.

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Art critic Sebastian Smee had a warm review of Keepers of Tradition: Art and Folk Heritage in Massachusetts, in Friday’s Boston Globe. The show is curated by state folklorist Maggie Holtzberg and runs at the National Heritage Museum through February 8, 2009.

From the review:

The show begins… with a dazzling costume from Boston’s Caribbean Carnival made by Tamara Shillingford. The festival, held at the end of August, is rooted in Mardi Gras and, according to band leader Errol A. Phillip, the kind of celebrations that took place “when slavery was abolished. You’re giving praise for freedom.”
…
In a similar vein – but emerging from a completely different tradition – the show includes three tin men made by retired sheet-metal workers William Walsh, Glenn Walker, Daniel Hardy, and Richard Clarke. Tin men appear in another local festival with deep roots, the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, and they are traditionally a way for metal workers to advertise the products of their trade, recruit apprentices, and display union pride. The three here were made especially for this show. “We are the only trade that takes a flat metal stock from the mill and rolls it, forms it and fabricates it,” says Walsh.
…
(The exhibit is) one part of a much bigger project, which includes Holtzberg’s great catalog essay (it explains the stories behind the various objects in some depth) and, beyond both the show and the catalog, a great deal of valuable documentation, which can only help in the attempt to keep these traditions alive and the effects of too much TV at bay.

Read the full review.

Image: Tin Men, Metalwork, occupational tradition (2007), Sheet Metal Workers International Assn., Boston, Massachusetts, Copper, galvanized iron, stainless steel, 63 3/4 x 28 3/4 x 17 in. each. Courtesy of Sheet Metal Workers Local 17. Photography by Jason Dowdle.

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It’s true. They have feelings. Often of the colorful and interesting variety. Here are a few that are circulating the computer tubes.

What can I, the individual artist, do to improve my discipline (and world, such as it is)? At Parabasis, Isaac Butler ardently argues that Personal Virtue (a concept usually discussed in reference to global warming) can and should apply to individual artists. Butler talks about theater artists, specifically, but I think his conclusions are universal to all disciplines: be a better artist and an engaged advocate.

At Extra Criticum, a blog of commentary on the performing arts by “those who do” (as they put it), Rolando Teco has some colorful feelings about “bottom-feeders” – groups that trick eager artists into dropping cash for supposed career advancements.

In the San Francisco Chronicle, Kenneth Baker writes about fears that the boom in art fairs could threaten the future of art galleries as we know them.

Writer, professor, and arts enthusiast Jill Dolan passionately implores that university programs stoke, rather than dissipate, the excitement of being a “theater geek.”

Keepers of Tradition (blog of the state folklorist Maggie Holtzberg), shares one man’s heartfelt devotion to the traditional art of letterpress printing. Don’t miss the terrific video clip by builder, designer, and all-around maker-of-things Chuck Kraemer.

Feel like selling some art but don’t feel like making any? You could just stick some price tags to some things.

Image: Cynthia Consentino, SELF-PORTRAIT WITH GUN (2005), earthenware clay, oils, wax, 37 in. x 15 1/2 in. x 22 in.

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Here’s a new blog to add to your feed: Keepers of Tradition.

It’s a blog about traditional arts in Massachusetts by state folklorist Maggie Holtzberg, and I vigorously and with lots of enthusiastic verbal flourishes recommend you make a habit of reading it. (And not only because Maggie sits catty-corner from me at the Massachusetts Cultural Council offices.)

It’s part celebration of traditional arts in Massachusetts and part web journal of Maggie’s truly fascinating work as state folklorist. Maggie travels throughout the state chronicling and archiving folk art traditions passed on and sustained by our individual artists and communities. (Some of you may already know about the current exhibition that work produced: Keepers of Tradition: Art and Folk Heritage in Massachusetts, at the National Heritage Museum in Lexington through February 8, 2009.) The blog shares more of that fieldwork, such as the post below, an exploration of Boston’s Caribbean Carnival which starts today!

Caribbean Kings and Queens in Dorchester

This Thursday, August 21, marks the opening of Boston’s Caribbean Carnival – a Trinidadian style extravaganza now in its 35th year. I attended this annual festival for the first time in 2003. Four years later I was offered a prime seat in the judges’ viewing station, where I shot this photo of Shirley Shillingford. She is a member of the Trinidad and Tobago Social Club, which is one of 9 area mas (masquerading) bands that compete each year.

A succession of bands march their way down a 21-block parade route, ending up at Franklin Park. The King and Queen costumes are spectacular and they are followed by sections of exuberant dancing masqueraders. Be prepared for loud calypso music, the smell of jerk chicken, and vendors selling trinkets from Trinidad, Tobago, Jamaica, Barbados, and a number of other West Indies islands. Many in the Caribbean cultural community live for carnival. More than 600,00 people attend carnival, though most Bostonians have no idea this event takes place each year. Art critic Greg Cook previewed the event in the Boston Phoenix last week. It would be nice to have additional press coverage for a change.

Images: Shirley Shillingford wearing Fruit Cocktail, 2007, photo by Maggie Holtzberg; Soca and Associates band members, 2007, photo by Maggie Holtzberg.

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At 88, Jeanne Fallier’s nimble fingers and talented eyes have produced hundreds of magnificent hooked rugs and soft sculptures.

See what The Lowell Sun has to say about her work.

Photo of Jeanne Fallier and beaver rug by Maggie Holtzberg.
Photo of hooked turkey by Jason Dowdle

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The 2008 Artist Fellowships in Choreography, Drawing, Fiction/Creative Nonfiction, Painting, Poetry, and Traditional Arts have been announced.

MCC’s Artist Fellowships are anonymously judged and provide unrestricted grants (currently $7,500) to individual artists in recognition of artistic excellece. The program, which has existed in this state, in one form or another, since 1974, had more applications this cycle than in any other year this decade.

Here’s a full list of this year’s fellows/finalists and panelists. You can see examples of their work at the Gallery at MCC.

Image: Sandra Cohen’s “Kathleen Told Everyone How She Was Saved” (detail), acrylic on canvas, 48″ x 24,” 2007

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