ArtSake

If you’re an artist who lives or works in Somerville, Massachusetts, you know by experience that it’s an arts-infused place: reverberant with musicians, splattered with painters, and bestrewn with, well, artists who make art that can be strewn - maybe quilters? Anyway, there’s every reason to believe that in the future, the Seven Hills will continue to emanate the atomic glow of art-being-made.

In the near term, Union Square in Somerville is expected to see growth due to a proposed extension of the MBTA’s Green Line, and the Somerville Arts Council has worked with the city to create zoning that complements that growth while encouraging the arts.

The new zoning code provides incentives for arts development, including the designation of a Union Square Arts Overlay District and Transit Oriented Districts to bring about more arts-related use of new and existing spaces.

You can read more about it in an easy-to-read guide to the changes put together by the Somerville Arts Council.

So, that might portend some trends in Somerville’s near future. But what about 2020? 2050? 2099? Tim Devin’s The history of Somerville, 2010-2100 is a community arts project that dares to ask what the future holds for the ‘ville. Tim is gathering predictions from past and current residents, as well as official plans. He plans to use his research to create timelines and assemble a series of talks. He’s posted a few of the predictions he’s already received on his site, including this one:

2080: By now, Somerville is densely populated, as Boston and Cambridge are flooded. Residents farm and tend gardens.
Source: Jennifer Mazer

Until December 31, 2009, you can contribute your own predictions about the future of Somerville.

Images: Bill Ritchotte, FUTUREVILLE, suggesting the future Squares of Somerville; Logo for the HISTORY OF SOMERVILLE, 2010-2100 project organized by Tim Devin.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

This is the second in a series of posts about Art and Philanthropy, looking at those projects that merge artistic with philanthropic vision. Interestingly, they often invent unconventional, innovative work models in the process.

In 2008, novelist, former rocker, and community activist Stona Fitch founded Concord Free Press, an outfit that blends his literary, DIY, and charitable inclinations. The press publishes two books a year using a ground-breaking, generosity-based model: authors (and the publishers, incidentally) donate their work, and the press gives away the books for free through its website and a network of independent bookstores. In lieu of payment, the press asks readers who receive the books to make a donation - in any amount - to a charitable organization. According to Stona, donations from Concord Free Press readers recently surpassed $100,000.

We asked Stona (recently named one of the 2010 Literary Lights by the Boston Public Library) about writers and giving, nontraditional publishing, and his revolutionary charitable model.

ArtSake: Your most recently published author was Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked and other bestsellers. Have you found a strong response among writers to your press’s philanthropic model?

Stona: At the Concord Free Press, we’re writers and artists first, publishers second. So our generosity-based publishing concept is designed for and by writers. They get to be part of an intriguing experiment that connects with readers in new ways, and that inspires incredible generosity. And their books can go on to second lives as commercial editions. We’ve been besieged by bad news about our industry. The Concord Free Press sends a new, positive message - one that definitely resonates with writers. And with readers. In our first year, we’ve been flooded with book requests, encouragement, and overwhelming interest from around the world.

ArtSake: The first book the press published, your novel Give + Take, was orphaned at a previous publisher after its editor departed. One could assume this kind of setback will arise more and more as the economic turmoil continues to affect publishers. Do you think more authors will seek alternate publishing routes?

Stona: It’s simple. Writers want their work to reach readers. For the first time in history, writers can publish their own work, quickly and inexpensively. While traditional publishing remains the best avenue to reach the most readers, alternative channels - small online presses, self-publishing, e-books, Twitter novels, and whatever’s next - serve as a vital complement to the mainstream. As traditional publishing continues to contract, more writers will pursue creative ways to reach readers. The inmates have the keys to the asylum now. Whether they choose to use them is another question.

ArtSake: Give + Take involves a Robin Hood-like figure who gives to the poor. Did your book’s plot inspire the press’s philanthropic model? Or was it more a matter of philanthropy as a core interest of yours to begin with?

Stona: Give + Take definitely inspired the press. My novels tend to wrestle with consumerism, and Give + Take is no exception. I’ve also been part of the leadership of a local farm, Gaining Ground, which grows organic produce and gives it away to people in need. So I’m definitely grounded in non-profit work, social philanthropy, the DIY approach, and rethinking traditional/accepted models. The Concord Free Press has been called a grand experiment in subversive altruism - a mouthful, but accurate.

No matter who published them or how good they are, most books go on a familiar trajectory—new, used, shelved permanently, dusty. Ours keep going from hand to hand, generating donations along the way.

- From the Concord Free Press website

ArtSake: I noticed that Give + Take will be published by Thomas Dunne/St. Martin’s Press in 2010 – congratulations! Do you have any thoughts on the way nontraditional ways of presenting art – self-publishing, giving away selected work for free, Creative Commons licenses, etc. - can benefit an artist’s career?

Stona: Giving something singular and beautiful away has incredible power - particularly when you expect nothing in return. Whether you’re Banksy or a band on MySpace, giving away your art can revalue it and create new energy that comes back to the artist in one form or another, often in unexpected ways. But giving away work with the specific intent of furthering a career seems opportunistic and kind of venal.

With the Concord Free Press, we’ve created a gift economy for publishing. But it definitely connects to (and co-exists with) a more commercial world, as described so presciently in Lewis Hyde’s brilliant book, The Gift. A free work can go on to a second, commercial life. For example, Thomas Dunne/St. Martin’s is publishing Give + Take and Harper Collins is publishing The Next Queen of Heaven - both in spring of 2010, coincidentally. We certainly didn’t go into the project with the intent of attracting commercial publishers, though we certainly appreciate their interest and enthusiasm.

Kevin C. of St. John’s, Nova Scotia gave $240 to United Way
Ying C. of Concord, MA gave $55 to Open Table/Concord
Mike D. of Monroe, GA gave $40 to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering
Robyn F. of San Francisco, CA gave $50 to Choose What You Read NY
Alia W. of North York, ON gave $90 to a friend for bus fare to see his daughter
- Donations inspired by Concord Free Press, from the press’s website

ArtSake: It’s interesting that you chose to include Concord in your press’s name. Does the press being in Concord, Massachusetts, with that town’s legacy of individualism, have a particular significance to you?

Stona: Concord has always nurtured and inspired renegades - from Minutemen to Transcendentalists. I’d like to think that Concord Free Press fits cleanly in that lineage. It’s also important for a project to be grounded in a place. So while we have supporters and readers around the world, Concord is our base - from our office over a local bakery to a great local bookstore and library to the hundreds of committed readers and diverse authors who live here.

ArtSake: What do writers interested in submitting work to Concord Free Press need to know?

Stona: We only publish two books a year, generally solicited directly from established authors. We’re not an ideal option for a first novel, since first novelists deserve the broadest audience possible and tend to require more editing than our all-volunteer staff can offer. And though our books are free, the quality of the work has to be exceptional.

Right now, we’re putting together a new book, IOU: New Writing on Money, a multi-genre collection of essays, short stories, and poems edited by renowned poet (and CFP Poetry Editor) Ron Slate. Writers interested in being part of this inherently more inclusive project can find details on our website, and on Facebook. And anyone with questions, comments, insights - or financial donations, we’re a non-profit foundation, after all - can feel free to email us at hello@concordfreepress.com.

Stona Fitch’s novels, including Senseless, Printer’s Devil, and Give + Take have been widely praised by critics and readers or their originality, intensity, and prescience. Stona lives with his family in Concord, Massachusetts, where he is also a committed community activist. He and his family work with Gaining Ground, a non-profit farm that grows 30,000 pounds of organic produce each growing season and distributes it for free to Boston-area homeless shelters, food pantries, and meal programs. He founded Concord Free Press in 2008 and was recently named one of the 2010 Literary Lights by the Boston Public Library.

Image: Stona Fitch in New Town, Edinburgh, 2008, Photo by Laura Hynd;cover art for THE NEXT QUEEN OF HEAVEN by Gregory Maguire (Concord Free Press 2009).

Powered by Bookmarkify™

Remember when we told you about Harvard Bookstore in Cambridge and its new book machine, which prints paperback books while you wait, including books by self-publishing authors?

Steve Almond (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ‘08) is about to give a working demonstration.

On Wednesday, December 2, 7 PM at Harvard Square Bookstore in Cambridge, he’s going to do something he’s pretty sure has never been done before (and we’re pretty sure he’s right). He’ll read from a book you can then have published before your very eyes (via the bookstore’s book machine). You can even have editorial control over the cover (he says there will be several designs to choose from), and possibly even the size of the trim.

The book is called This Won’t Take But a Minute, Honey. Read one way, it includes 30 short short stories. Flipped over and read the opposite way, you can read Steve’s brief essays on writing.

Also, Steve (along with Harvard’s print-on-demand manager Bronwen Blaney) will discuss the changing landscape of publishing and why Steve chose to make a book this way.

In other words, the event should be interesting in about a dozen ways (if you’ve ever experienced a Steve Almond reading, you know his singular humor accounts for at least 11).

To see what other past MCC Fellows and Finalists are up to, check out our Fellows Notes.

Images: cover art (front and back) for Steve Almond’s THIS WON’T TAKE BUT A MINUTE, HONEY. Illustrations by artist Brian Stauffer.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

This just in from the National Endowment for the Arts:

NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS PRESENTS LIVE WEBCAST OF ITS CULTURAL WORKFORCE FORUM ON FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2009

The public is invited to watch a discussion of how art works as part of the real economy.

On Friday, November 20, 2009, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) will present a live webcast on www.arts.gov of a forum about America’s artists and other cultural workers who are part of this country’s real economy. Academics, foundation professionals, and service organization representatives will come together to discuss improving the collection and reporting of statistics about arts and cultural workers, and to develop future research agendas and approaches.

9:00 a.m Opening Remarks and introductions
Joan Shigekawa, NEA Senior Deputy Chairman and Sunil Iyengar, NEA Director of Research & Analysis

9:30 Panel One: What We Know About Artists and How We Know It
NEA Research on Artists in the Workforce
Tom Bradshaw, NEA Research Officer
Artist Labor Markets
Greg Wassall, associate professor, Department of Economics, Northeastern University
Artist Careers
Joan Jeffri, director, Research Center for Arts and Culture, Teachers College, Columbia University
Artist Research: Union Perspectives
David Cohen, executive director, Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO

11:00 Panel Two: Putting the Research to Work
Cultural Vitality: Investing in Creativity
Maria Rosario Jackson, senior research associate, The Urban Institute
Artists and the Economic Recession
Judilee Reed, executive director, Leveraging Investments in Creativity (LINC)
Teaching Artists Research Project
Nick Rabkin, Teaching Artists Research Project, National Opinion Research Center, University of Chicago
Strategic National Arts Alumni Project
Steven Tepper, associate director, the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy, Vanderbilt University

1:20 Panel Three: Widening the Lens to Capture Other Cultural Workers
Artists in the Greater Cultural Economy
Ann Markusen, Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota
Creative Class: Who’s in, Who’s out?
Tom Bradshaw, NEA Research Officer
American Community Survey: An Emerging Data Set
Jennifer Day, assistant division chief, Employment Characteristics of the Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division, United States Census Bureau

2:20 Comments and questions from panel participants

3:00 Discussion: Summary and Recommendations for Future Research
Moderated by Sunil Iyengar and Tom Bradshaw
Lead discussants: Holly Sidford, president, Helicon Collaborative and Paul DiMaggio, professor, Department of Sociology, Princeton University

4:30 Adjournment
N.B. There will be 15-minute breaks at 10:45 a.m. and 2:50 p.m.; and an hour break for lunch at 12:15 p.m.

In addition to the above presenters, the following respondents will participate in the NEA Cultural Workforce Forum: Randy Cohen, vice president of local arts advancement, Americans for the Arts; Deirdre Gaquin, consultant; Angela Han, director of research, National Assembly of State Arts Agencies; Ruby Lerner, president, Creative Capital Foundation; Judilee Reed, executive director, Leveraging Investments in Creativity (LINC); Carrie Sandahl, associate professor, Department of Disability and Human Development, University of Illinois at Chicago; Mary Jo Waits, director, Social, Economic & Workforce Programs Division, National Governors Association

The National Endowment for the Arts is a public agency dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts, both new and established; bringing the arts to all Americans; and providing leadership in arts education. Established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government, the Arts Endowment is the largest annual national funder of the arts, bringing great art to all 50 states, including rural areas, inner cities, and military bases.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

There are interesting unities between philanthropy and art-making, particularly when art is produced and presented in non-traditional ways. Both require out-of-the-box approach to commerce, an eschewing of financial norms. In Art and Philanthropy, we’ll look at those projects that merge artistic with philanthropic vision - creative, innovative, altruistic.

Sumanth Prabhaker, publisher of the Brookline-based Madras Press, has a demonstrated affection for novellas and long short stories (being himself a writer, and now a publisher, of them). Noting most such fiction is too long for most magazines and journals yet too short for trade publishers, he decided to celebrate and accentuate the form, publishing stories and novellas as stand-alone volumes.

They’re lovely books - slender paperbacks about the width of an open hand, with cover art, such as the above painting by Jenny Downing, selected by the writers. The first series of authors - lauded short story writer and novelist Aimee Bender, Trinie Dalton, Rebecca Lee, and Sumanth himself - comprise a range of sensibilities whose primary link is an elusiveness to quick categorization. How is it Madras can afford to publish such singular, idiosyncratic books?

The key is that Madras focuses on social, rather than financial, profit. All artists - including the published writers and the visual artists providing cover art - donate their work. All net proceeds generated by the sale of the books will go to a charitable nonprofit of the author’s choosing. To keep costs low, Sumanth is distributing books directly to independent bookstores, including Harvard Bookstore and Brookline Booksmith in the Boston area, and RiverRun Bookstore in Portsmouth, NH, and selling them from the press’s website.

Madras is about to publish its first series of books (December 1), but you can get a sneak peak at a reading by Aimee Bender at Brookline Booksmith this Saturday, November 14, 7 PM. We asked Sumanth about his altruistic approach to publishing, and how interested writers can get involved.

ArtSake: In an interview for The Bostonist, you mentioned that the “not very marketable” length of your own novellas (too long for literary magazines, too short for trade publishers) got you thinking about a different model for publishing long stories. Have you found a strong response to your model in the writing community?

Sumanth: A lot of people have said some very nice things about us. At the same time, I’ve been interested to learn how many people see this as an obscure project - certainly not meant in a negative way, I don’t think, but it’s interesting to see how surprised people are at the abundance of these in-between stories. Agents discourage writers from pitching short stories, because they say that editors don’t buy them; editors don’t buy short stories because marketing people tell them they don’t sell; and all the market research shows that less-than-novel-length stories actually don’t sell very well. There are a number of different reasons why these stories don’t sell, but I don’t think any of them have to do with the actual stories. It’s equally frustrating to see writers who look at this trend as reason to avoid certain genres or forms, as it is exciting to see writers who don’t care about any of this stuff.

ArtSake: How did you decide to explore philanthropy as a central aspect to your publishing?

Sumanth: It makes sense to me, concerning my own stories; I didn’t write any of them with financial profit in mind, and I don’t like to think of them as commercial products. So we had to think of other ways to measure our success, outside of the marketplace. And without that burden of having to depend so much on sales for our survival, we were able to entertain some options that may not have otherwise been available to us, like giving the proceeds to charities. It seemed like a nice way to do things. Our authors get to choose the organizations to which the proceeds for each book are distributed, which I hope is a fun decision for them to make.

We still haven’t figured out the right model by which to assess our performance, however; there isn’t really a bottom line yet. Our authors contribute their stories at no profit, but our paper is heavy and costs a little more than average. Our production and editorial work is done on a volunteer basis, but our sticker prices are low. We’re saving money by distributing the books ourselves, but we’re spending more than most publishers on manufacturing by printing in smaller batches. It’s kind of confusing, at least to me, but I’m happy with the books, which is good enough for now.

ArtSake: I was impressed to see your initial list of authors, including Aimee Bender. Can you talk a little bit about how THE THIRD ELEVATOR and the other titles fit with your press?

Sumanth: For all three of the other titles in our first series (besides my own), we’ve just asked politely and hoped something would work out. There are so many reasons why Aimee Bender and Trinie Dalton and Rebecca Lee should have ignored us - we’re tiny, we don’t pay our authors, our books aren’t going to be in very many bookstores or on Amazon.com - but in each case I think they saw our project as an opportunity to publish these stories in a more appropriate format than they may have otherwise been given.

ArtSake: Do you see Massachusetts as a good place to be a writer? What about a publisher?

Sumanth: Probably yes to both, but I’m still new here, so I haven’t got any huge insights into the local culture. Most of the book production stuff could probably happen anywhere, as long as you have a computer and some free time. But what we’re working on now - publicity, reading events, etc. - is much easier here than I’d expected, having grown up in a suburb in the Midwest where Borders was our only bookstore. I remember planning a reading at that Borders when I was in college. They couldn’t figure out how to turn the volume on the overhead speakers down, because there was some kind of password protection, so we all had to yell our stories into the microphone or wait for the quiet parts of the songs.

ArtSake: What do writers interested in submitting work to Madras Press need to know?

Sumanth: We’re looking for singular stories, ones that function better when read on their own than as a part of something bigger. Our first series of titles is very representative of our taste, in terms of content, so that’s always a good place to start. We like images and textures and colors and interesting prose and lots of food. We like murder mysteries, too. 10,000 words is our minimum, just to fill out the paperback spine, and for now 25,000 words is our maximum, to keep manufacturing costs at a manageable level. Previously published stories could work, depending on the status of the previous publication - query before sending anything (sumanth@madraspress.com). And we prefer printed submissions; they can be mailed to:

P.O. Box 307
Brookline, MA 02446

Aimee Bender reads from The Third Elevator at Brookline Booksmith on Saturday, November 14, 7 PM. All net proceeds from sales of The Third Elevator will benefit InsideOUT Writers, an organization that teaches creative writing in juvenile detention centers.

Images: Cover art from Madras Press Series One titles (2009): BOBCAT by Rebecca Lee, from PRONGS courtesy of Jenny Downing; SWEET TOMB by Trinie Dalton, image courtesy of Matt Greene; A MERE PITTANCE by Sumanth Prabhaker, from SUN/SQUASH by Joan Snyder (2002), oil, acrylic, and herbs on wood panel, diptych, 18×36in; THE THIRD ELEVATOR by Aimee Bender, image courtesy of Aimee Bender.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

When writers decide to self-publish, a number of issues just come with the territory. Like, say, cost. The creative control of self-publishing may be liberating, but absorbing the costs of book production… less so.

Except that it affords the opportunity to be creative about it. Some artists finance self-publishing projects before the books are published - artist/entrepreneur and opera singer Ja-Nae Duane raised funds to publish her book How to Start Your Business with $100 (due out next month) on a site called Fundable.com. Another crowd-funding site, Kickstarter.com, in which creative types seek pledges to fund their potential projects, lists about 30 literary projects currently seeking support.

Print-on-demand technology has the potential to simplify some of the complexities and costs of self-publishing for writers. So the news that Harvard Bookstore in Cambridge, MA now operates a books-on-demand machine might have some interesting ramifications for Massachusetts writers.

The machine, dubbed Paige M. Gutenborg (and pictured, left), was featured in Wired.com and other national media due to its affiliation with Google Books, who have digitized and made available books from Harvard University’s libraries (sweet, The Sagacity and Morality of Plants is FINALLY available to non-Harvard students!!! High fives nearest plant.)

But it’s the self-publishing possibilities that may prove most interesting to authors. According to the store’s self-publishing guidelines, authors pay a set-up fee and submit the book as PDFs, which you can develop using the extensive do-it-yourself instructions. When books are printed, there’s a cost-per-page for authors.

How do writers get paid? Bronwen Blaney, print-on-demand manager at Harvard Bookstore, says there are two primary methods. The most common would involve an interested reader requesting the book, which has already been scanned for the machine. “So even if we don’t have a copy on the shelf,” she says, “if a customer calls, comes in, or orders through Harvard.com, then we would print and sell the book.” The writer then receives the difference between their selected retail price and the cost-per-page to print.

Alternately, an author could print and pay for a number of books, and sell or distribute them on his/her own. An author could also choose to have a copy kept on the store’s “Printed on Paige” shelf.

Though the machine has been operational for just a few weeks, Bronwen says that she’s already working with a number of authors interested in printing their own books. The first author to use the machine? Steve Almond (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ‘08), who printed a short run of chapbooks.

That detail drives home one of the technology’s most intriguing facets: flexibility. On-demand machines make it relatively easy for authors to print a book of trade paperback-quality (or close to it), be it a chapbook, tome, novella, or eclectic mixture only your mind can conceive. Assuming you don’t have an exclusive contract with a publisher, you could continue to publish traditionally but opt to self-publish for works that don’t quite fit with a traditional press.

Of course, other questions about self-publishing still loom, such as: what do you lose by way of marketing, distributing, editing, publicizing, and/or presentation resources when you’re doing it all yourself? I can think of at least two self-publishing success stories - Massachusetts authors Lisa Genova (Still Alice) and Brunonia Barry (The Lace Reader) - in which eventual deals with a mainstream publishers were a big part of that success.

Have any intrepid ArtSake readers experimented with self-publishing? We would love to hear about how you made it - or are making it - work.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

Free to Be You and Me
Do you compose songs using a pentatonic scale, paint autumnal landscapes with cadmiums, or write poems that purposely don’t rhyme? Perhaps you shoot photographs using film or make illustrations using an app on your cell phone. No matter what your discipline, you are welcome to attend the free professional development program taking place Sat., November 7 & Sun., November 8, 2009 at the Boston Public Library (Boston, MA) courtesy of the Massachusetts Artists Leaders Coalition (MALC).

Creative Massachusetts: The Artists Congress 2009 is jam packed with free information and welcomes artists to a discussion about their creative future. Take a look at the line up to see for yourself:

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7
MORNING 9:3010:00am Registration

10:00am Laura Pattison of the BPL: Welcome!
Kathleen Bitetti: State of the Artists Address

10:1511:20am Our Creative Future a conversation
Moderator: Kathleen Bitetti
Panelists:
Paul Horn, performer and President of the New England Chapter of AFTRA
John Grimes, Boston Musicians Association
Liora Beer
Dan Hunter, playwright, songwriter and Executive Director of MAASH
Special Guest Bethany Ewald Bultman, President/Director, New Orleans Musicians Assistance Foundation (www.nomaf.org), New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic (www.neworleansmusiciansclinic.org)

11:30am 12:20pm How to Create Community, Network and Networking Tools
Moderator: Ja-nae Duane
Panelists:
Jessica Burko
Brian Handspicker, western MA
Bea Modisett, artist and founder of This Collective Pull events
Imani McFarlane, owner and fashion designer of Boston’s House of Tafari
Chloe Gracia-Roberts, Masspoetry.org
Norah Dooley, MassMouth

12:301:30pm Lunch, Networking and Art: TBA

AFTERNOON
1:453:00pm
Workshop 1: Free and Low Cost Technology Tools For Artists and Artist Run Businesses/Projects (big room)
Panelists:
Ja-nae Duane, Opera Singer & Co-Founder of Massachusetts Artists Leaders Coalition (MALC)
Don Schaefer
Ean White
Todd van Hoosear, Social Media Club

Workshop 2: Teaching Artists (small room)
Panelists:
Jim Dalton
David Marshall, Director of The Creative Minds Project
Maggi Smith-Dalton

3:10-4:15pm Workshop 1: Grants and Resources (big room)
Panelists:
Kelly Bennett, artist and Massachusetts Cultural Council/Artists Programs Department
Liora Beer
Larson Gunness, Financial Advisor, writer, musician & storyteller

Workshop 2: Copyright and IP Protection (small room)
Panelists:
Sheri Mason, Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts
Jonathan Yasuda, musician/law student (currently involved with local and federal Copyright infringement cases)
Don Schaefer
Ken Dubrowski, Illustrator and Director of Operations for the Illustrators Partnership of America

4:254:50pm TBA

EVENING
Activities and performances to be announced

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 8
1:001:20pm Registration

1:302:20pm Panel: Meet the Press and Create your own Press
Moderator: Maggi Smith Dalton
Panelists:
Pat Williams, founder and publisher of The Word
Christian Holland, executive editor, BigRedandShiny
Mary Bucci McCoy, artist and longtime contributor to Art New England
Greg Cook, artist and art critic for The Boston Phoenix & founder New England Journal of Aesthetic Research and the Boston Art Awards
Noah Joffe-Halpern, musician and PlaygroundBoston.com
Charles Coe, Co-President of the Boston Chapter of the National Writer’s Union

2:303:30pm Workshop 1: How to Market, Price, Network and Negotiate (big room)
Panelists:
Ken Dubrowski, Illustrator and Director of Operations for the Illustrators Partnership of America
Liora Beer

Workshop 2: Artist Residencies (small room)
Mary Sherman, artist and founder of TransCultural Exchange
Jim Dalton
Maggi Smith-Dalton
Kathleen Bitetti, artist, activist, co-founder of MALC, co-founder of ArtistsAlliance.us

3:454:30pm Mass Mouth (http://massmouth.blogspot.com/, http://massmouth.ning.com/)

For more information on this free event go here.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

In the CinemaTech blog, Scott Kirsner asks just how much of their work artists should give away for free:

The question I’ve been hearing at the last few conferences and film festivals I’ve been to is this: “Yes, free is important. But how much should I give away for free?” What people would like to know is, at what point do all those freebies help someone decide that, no, they’re actually not all that interested in your film… or, are you giving away too few free samples, thereby under-marketing your project? If you gave away less for free, would you make more money? If you gave away more for free, would you reach more people?

The post focuses on filmmakers, but these days artists in almost all disciplines face some variation on the question. As a singer-songwriter, how many of your songs should you post on your website? And do you stream or offer a download? As a literary artist (prose, poetry, dramatic writing), do you post excerpts or even short works free, gratis, and for nothin’? What about your whole body of work, a la Charles Mee?

The above image depicts a happy discoverer of a painting by Bren Bataclan. Bren (who guest blogged for us here) gives away his paintings to strangers, either with the request of a smile or just as a gesture of goodwill Now, without suggesting that giving away your work outright is the right path for most artists, it is interesting to note that Bren’s benevolent project has led to a published book, a recent show at the Boston Children’s Museum, and a feature on CBS evening news. So, free is not without its rewards.

But where to draw the line?

Image: Ann from the Smile Chicago Project by Bren Bataclan (2008)

Powered by Bookmarkify™

Photo above depicts two artists wondering whatever happened to their luggage.

On a happier note, The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority has issued two Calls to Artists for upcoming projects at Washington Dulles International Airport and they have nothing to do with locating lost luggage.

The first call to artists involves the International Arrivals Building. The Airports Authority is looking for artists to make artwork for three permanent installations intended to welcome arriving international passengers to the United States and the National Capital Region, to enhance their travel experience and to promote the cultural diversity of the National Capital Region.

The second call involves the the Federal Inspection Services Area, Concourse C. One project artist will be selected to work with nine classroom/art teachers at schools in the National Capital Region to create student portraits for a public art project titled, HELLO AND WELCOME.

For more information contact Margaret Bishop, Community Relations Manager, Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, 703-417-8383, or email Margaret.Bishop@MWAA.com

Deadline for both projects: October 15, 2009.

There are two upcoming free talks to note:
The first is the launch event of Artists In Context on Friday, October 9, 2009, from 1:00 - 4:00 p.m. at the Arthur M. Sackler Museum Lecture Hall, Harvard University, 485 Broadway, Cambridge. Seating is limited so reservation is recommended. Email RSVP@artistsincontext.org to attend.

ARTISTS IN CONTEXT is a flexible organizational framework designed to assemble artists and other creative thinkers across disciplines to conceptualize new ways of representing and acting upon the critical issues. The speakers include: Claudine Brown, Director of the Arts and Culture Program, Nathan Cummings Foundation; Mel Chin, Ann Hamilton, Dava Newman, Director, MIT Technology and Policy Program and Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Engineering Systems; and an additional speaker TBA. The moderator is Carrie Lambert-Beatty, Assistant Professor of History of Art and Architecture and of Visual and Environmental Studies, Harvard University.

The second talk involves Ford Hall Forum at Suffolk University, in collaboration with the Massachusetts Poetry Festival presenting Massachusetts Poetry in Hard Times: What the Best of Bay State Bards Offer Us in Bad Times and Good. Poets include David Ferry, Suji Kwock Kim, Jill McDonough, Gail Mazur & Lloyd Schwartz, with moderator Christopher Lydon. For more information, call the Ford Hall Forum at 617-557-2007. Event takes place on Thursday, October 15 at 6:30-8:00 pm, at the Rabb Auditorium, Boston Public Library, 700 Boylston Street, Boston, MA.

Image credit: NASA Center: Headquarters, Image # wrightflyer-1904.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

This just in from the ArtistsAlliance.us - a new national organization for artists of all disciplines, artist-run organizations, and artist-run businesses.

In 2009, a small core group of artists leaders and artists supporters grew very concerned with the closing of the National Association of Artists Run Organizations (NAAO). This core group decided there was needed to create a new national organization to carry on with needed public policy work and to give a voice and support to artists of all disciplines, artists run organizations, and artists run businesses. Other artists leaders and artists supporters decided to help in this effort and the result is ArtistsAlliance.us

ArtistsAlliance.us is using Massachusetts artists recent success in organizing and their public policy achievements as one of the key models to build on, learn from, and share.

The first stage of the launch of this new organization is to collect email addresses of those artists of all disciplines, artist run organizations, and artists run businesses who want to be involved. And sign up for the ArtistsAlliance.us free listserv!

www.ArtistsAlliance.us

Sincerely,
the Co-Founders of the ArtistsAlliance.us
In alphabetical order:

Kathleen Bitetti- visual artist; and Co-Founder of: the Massachusetts Artists Leaders Coalition, Artistsunderthedome.org, HealthcareforArtists.org, the Massachusetts Artists Healthcare Working Group, and the Massachusetts State House Artists Working Group.

Gail A. Burton- Poet; Dramatist; and Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory (TOPLAB) Collective Member.

Elaine Vanasse DeLuca-Artist Supporter and C.P.A.

Ja-Na Duane- Opera Singer; Actor; Author of “How to Start Your Business with $100″, Co-Founder of the Massachusetts Artists Leaders Coalition; and CEO of Wild Women Entrepreneurs and Ja-Na Duane Ventures.

Bill Fields- Artist Supporter; Small Business Employee Benefits Specialist; Member of the Massachusetts Artists Healthcare Working Group; and President of Health Plan Solutions.

David Galiel-New Media Consultant and Musician.

Kathy Ann Hart- Photographer; Writer; and Lawyer.

Mary Bucci McCoy- Visual Artist; Arts Writer; Co-Founder of the Massachusetts Artists Leaders Coalition; and Principal, Big Picture Communications.

John Weinfurter- Artist Supporter; President of KSCW Inc.; Former President & CEO of the Congressional Economic Leadership Institute; and Former Chief of Staff for Massachusetts Congressman John Joseph Moakley.

Powered by Bookmarkify™