ArtSake

How many of your new year resolutions have already gone by the wayside? No need to let these artist opportunities melt away.

Call for Artist Proposals – Frame 301 Gallery is currently accepting proposals for their alternative exhibition space. Frame 301 is a storefront window that has been converted into an alternative exhibit space on 301 Cabot Street in Beverly, MA. Each month a regional, national, and/or international artist is selected to install his or her work in the space. Learn more.
Deadline: Ongoing

Poetry Submit book-length collection of poems for the Colorado Prize for Poetry, a $2,000 honorarium, and book publication. Final judge is Elizabeth Willis. $25 entry fee includes subscription to Colorado  Review. Complete guidelines: Colorado Prize for Poetry, Center for Literary Publishing, 9105 Campus Delivery, Colorado State University, Fort Collins CO 80523-9105. Learn more.
Deadline: January 14, 2012

Networking Workshop ArtMorpheus presents a workshop called Networking and the Art of LinkingIn, a hands-on workshop for people in the arts on January 18, 2012 at City Year, 287 Columbus Avenue, Boston, 6:30 PM. Learn more.

Free Panel Discussion Falling Through the Cracks: Funding Integrative Socially-Engaged Practice is a panel discussion featuring Cuong Hoang, Director of Programs at Mott Philanthropic, Andrew Sempere from the Awesome Foundation, and Nerissa Cooney and Alex Hage of FeastMass. The conversation will be moderated by artist Lisa Gross, founder of the Boston Tree Party and Hybrid Vigor Projects. Thursday January 19, 7-9 PM at the Cambridge Public Library – Main Branch, 449 Broadway, Cambridge, MA.

Call to New England Visual Artists The Jamaica Plain Open Studios Juried Exhibition is currently accepting applications for their annual springtime event. The exhibition will occur in the Footlight Club, America’s oldest community theater, in downtown Jamaica Plain. The main gallery is open to the public and on show nights, hundreds of people pass through and spend intermission among the artwork. This year’s theme is Under the Influence. Learn more.
Deadline: January 31, 2011

Visual Art Summer Residency The Kuenstlerhaus Dortmund in Germany, an artist-run, non-profit space for contemporary and experimental arts is now accepting applications for their summer studio residency. Learn more.
Deadline: January 31, 2012

Visual Artists Project Grants The Harpo Foundation is now accepting proposals that directly support the production of new work by visual artists and/or collaborative teams who are under recognized by the field. This production may happen in the context of an installation, public intervention, residency, or exhibition. Learn more. Questions: deamer@harpofoundation.org.
Letters of Inquiry Deadline: February 1, 2012

New Media The Liedts-Meesen Foundation is now accepting entries for their New Technological Art Award 2012, an international art competition. Learn more.
Deadline: March 31, 2011

Jazz Musicians The French-American Jazz Exchange, a partnership of the Cultural Service of the French Embassy and Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, is a program designed to foster the creative and professional development of jazz artists from France and the US through collaborative investigation of artistic practice and exposure to new audiences, music concepts, and professional relationships. Learn more.
Deadline: May 1, 2012

Filmmakers and Screenwriters The Rhode Island International Film Festival is now accepting entries for their annual competition. There are no category restrictions. Each work is juried solely on its own merits. The Festival seeks any combination of inventive, incisive, bold, vital, and otherwise provocative work of any style or genre. Learn more.
Deadline: May 15, 2012

Image credit: Illustration of two women writing in the snow from Puck, v. 66, no. 1713 (1909 December 29).

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So, you’re a New England film, video, and/or media-maker, and you’re scoping out the local terrain for grants funding.

Well, come say howdy to LEF Foundation, MassHumanities, and us (MCC)!

We’re pleased to let you know about a workshop organized for area film, video, and media-makers to learn more about the grants available to them. Program officers from media funders LEF Foundation, MCC, and MassHumanities will talk about what makes a strong grant application and take your questions about their organizations.

The workshop is happening from 5-7:30 PM on Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at Aloft @ NEFA, 145 Tremont Street, 7th Floor, Boston MA (map). Please RSVP to LEF Foundation.

Also: apply for LEF Foundation’s Moving Image Fund Letter of Inquiry deadline for Production and Post-production funding. Deadline: Friday, January 27, 2012 at 5 PM. How to apply.

Images: still from SWEETGRASS by Ilisa Barbash and Lucien Castaing-Taylor, artists funded by both LEF Foundation and MCC; still from LEFT ON PEARL by Susan Rivo, an artist funded by both MassHumanities and MCC.

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New year, new notes from past Artist Fellows/Finalists. (Speaking of, apply now in Choreography, Fiction/Creative Nonfiction, or Poetry.)

Go see the 2012 deCordova Biennial ASAP (1/23-4/22). Why? Work by Matthew Gamber (Photography Finalist ’11), Eric Gottesman (Photography Fellow ’09), and 21 other terrific New England artists/collectives, is why.

The work and life of Karen Aqua (Film & Video Fellow ’11) will be honored at a special event and exhibition at the Roswell Museum in New Mexico (1/13).

Michael Hoerman (Poetry Fellow ’04) shares never-before-read-for-an-audience poetry at Literary Firsts, Middlesex Lounge in Cambridge (1/23, 7 PM).

Scott Listfield (Painting Finalist ’10) has work in Adult Swim (1/13-2/4) at Gallery 1988 in L.A. – and they used one of his iconic astronaut paintings for the show flyer!

If you’re within high fiving distance of Suzanne Matson (Fiction Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’98), do so; she received a NEA Creative Writing Fellowship!

Great interview with Christian McEwen (Playwriting Fellow ’11) on the radio show “Writer’s Voice.”

Monica Raymond (Playwriting Finalist ’07, Poetry Finalist ’08) collaborated via Skype with an actress in Finland to create a piece for the Internationalists’ Around the World. Also, hear her poem The Sacred on qarrtsiluni.

Superb, excellent, and just plain neato mosquito: Allan Reeder (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’10 and ’06) won a Sustainable Arts Foundation Promise Grant.

Daily swims during at a Blue Mountain Center residency inspired Naoe Suzuki‘s (Drawing Fellow ’06) Blue, showing at Brandeis University Women’s Studies Research Center Gallery (1/13-3/2).

He’s getting into Dodge: Michael Zelehoski (Painting Fellow ’10) has a solo show at NYC’s DODGE Gallery (1/12-2/19).

Read past Fellows Notes. If you’re a past fellow/finalist with news, let us know.

Image: Michael Zelehoski, CRATE (2011), found crate, painted plywood, 63×96 in.

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Part of the thrill of making art is discovering how your audience interacts with your work. In our conversations with artists in numerous disciplines, we’ve asked: What’s the most surprising response to your work you’ve ever received?

Kathleen Volp, visual artist
I have been under the impression that the subject of many of my pieces was a deeply textured cantaloupe. I was surprised to find many viewers didn’t even remotely see a cantaloupe! Not even a kumquat. People saw protoplasm or coral or some kind of micro-organism or a CAT scan of the brain. It’s all good, even exciting, but really, really shocking to me. How could I not have seen this in my own work?

Mary Kocol, photographer
When I first started exhibiting at Gallery NAGA in 1993, some people thought the photographs were paintings – perhaps because I presented the work without mats or glazing, the traditional way to exhibit photos back then.

Ilie Ruby, writer
I once had a short story ravaged by wolves in a writing workshop. A friend suggested that the best revenge was revision. I looked over the story, dotted some i’s, crossed some t’s, and decided I was happy with it as it was. Then I haphazardly tossed the story into a box marked “contest,” (not knowing what contest it actually was). A few weeks later I received a phone call: “Congratulations, your story has just won the Edwin L. Moses Award for Fiction chosen by T.C. Boyle!” I received a huge prize, a small amount of satisfaction, and learned never again to listen to wolves.

Joshua Meyer, painter
I once stood in front of my paintings with the poet Robert Hass as he described my art to me. I felt like I was in the midst of one of his poems, a participant.

Scott Tulay, visual artist
My daughters, who are eight and five, consistently complain that my drawings are “too scary.” They will ask me, “Why can’t you draw something nice, with color, like with a rainbow?” Once in a while, however, I’ll do a drawing, and they’ll tilt their heads to the side and say, “Not bad, Dad.” This scares me.

Christopher Faust, painter
I had someone point out to me that there was something wrong with my composition – that the figures were too in the middle. When I told him I knew that and I did it on purpose, he kind of got angry and confused, then he stopped talking to me. I also had a piece stolen recently from a show.

Tara Masih, writer
“I love that story about your father.” When I told the woman it was fiction, that the character was not my father, she burst out, “Don’t tell me that! It was better when I thought it was real.” People seem to have a pathological need to have writing be autobiographical.

Rick Berry, painter
Tears.

Paul Goodnight, painter
Silence.

Jeff and Jane Hudson, musicians
YouTube and iTunes.

Shelly Reed, visual artist
Well, the most common response is that people very carefully and diplomatically suggest that I add at least a bit of color. The most surprising response was when someone contacted me from my Web site and asked me to design their tattoo.

Merrill Comeau, mixed media collage artist
I was working at the National Park of the Old North Bridge, on the edge of the Concord River. As I walked down, I fell into a sink hole of mud up to my knee. When I got to a good spot to work, I removed my boots and socks, washed them out in the river and hung them on branches to dry. I set out my tarp, stacks of fabric, lunch, etc. and worked all day. When I climbed back up to the bridge, the Park Ranger told me a group of women, seeing me on the edge of the river, asked where to leave money for the homeless person (me).

Salvatore Scibona, writer
My local Provincetown bookseller tells me that on the day my book (The End) came out, he sold a copy to a woman from New Hampshire, a tourist, the wife of a retired minister. It sounded interesting, she said; she liked the cover. What could be more commonplace than a person on a walk in a small town stopping to buy a book and taking it home? But also, what could be more unlikely, more uncanny from a writer’s point of view, than that a stranger he will never know should walk down a street with years of the writer’s thoughts in her bag?

Image: Kathleen Volp, BOUND MELON #2 (2011), photographic transfer, oil, metal and graphite on fabric and wood panel, 12x12x1 in.

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Playwrights  LGBTQ theatre company seeks full-length scripts at any stage of development that have not had a full production for their XYZ Festival of New Works at About Face Theatre (2012-2013 Season, Chicago, IL). Scripts that break traditional ideas about dramatic form, structure, and presentation are encouraged. Selected plays will receive seated or staged readings with the support of professional directors and actors. Learn more. Questions: literary@aboutfacetheatre.com.
Deadline: January 8, 2012

Visual Artists Caladan Gallery is now accepting entries for their online exhibition CREATURES: Swim, Fly, Crawl. Learn more. Questions: director@caladangallery.com.
Deadline: January 15, 2011

Visual Artists UFORGE Gallery is now accepting entries for their February 2012 exhibition called Elements. Work must focus on the four elements found in nature; Earth, Water, Air, and Fire. Learn more.
Deadline: January 15, 2012

Camera Phone Photography Submissions are now being accepted for the iSpy exhibition at The Kiernan Gallery in Lexington, VA. The Kiernan Gallery seeks images taken with cell phones that span all genres of photography. Only images taken with a cellular phone will be accepted for this exhibition. Use of apps (e.g. Hipstamatic, Instagram, Darkroom, Tiltshift, Pano, etc.) is acceptable and encouraged. Learn more.
Deadline: January 26, 2012

Knit and Crochet Artists  No basketball court should be without a net. With that said, the Knit & Crochet artists have a call for submissions to cure what they have dubbed as the empty net syndrome. A little back court info: over a year ago NCAA (New Craft Artists in Action) team captain launched MOLTENi Net Works in Boston. Bringing together makers and players in collaborative exchange, the project aims to create functional, hand-crafted basketball nets for neglected public hoops. Inspired by DIY slow production, this process fosters creative problem solving, urban upkeep, and re-purposing of abandoned space to build a pro-active network between artists, athletes, and neighbors. Learn more. Expression of interest requested by January 31, 2012 to molteninetworks@gmail.com.

Temporary Public Art The Boston Center for the Arts (BCA) is currently accepting applications for Occupy 539, a unique platform for artists to engage with audience through public art projects that explore ways in which people congregate, occupy, and linger in public spaces. Artists are invited to submit proposals for a temporary public art project that will be exhibited on the Plaza of the BCA campus for July – September, 2012. Learn more. Questions: bfriedberg@bcaonline.org.
Deadline: February 6, 2012

Image credit: Images courtesy of MOLTENi Net Works.

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Emerging Fields, Literature and Performing Arts On February 1, 2012, Creative Capital will begin accepting online Letters of Inquiry for grants in Emerging Fields, Literature and Performing Arts. To be eligible to apply, an artist must be A U.S. citizen or permanent legal resident, at least 25 years old, a working artist with at least five years of professional experience, and not a full-time student. Selected grantees receive up to $50,000 in direct support and a suite of services valued at more than $40,000. The Inquiry Form will be open until March 1, 2011. Learn more.

Wanted: Technology-based Art COLLISIONcollective has a call for proposals for experimental, technology-based artwork for its 17th COLLISION exhibition. Submissions will be judged according to the following criteria (in decreasing order of importance) – work should be: technological in production or product; safe to patrons; completed and available (including artist); size-appropriate for AXIOM Gallery space; exciting/novel; thought provoking; high quality in its craft. See samples of past successful work. The show will open March 2, 2012 and run for four weeks. Learn more.
Deadline: January 14, 2012

Artists in Residence Program I-Park announces its 12th season hosting its multi-disciplinary residency program in a 450-acre natural woodland retreat in East Haddam, CT. Self-directed artists’ residencies will be offered May-November 2012. Most sessions are four weeks in duration and are offered to those working in the Visual Arts, Music Composition, Creative Writing, Moving Image, and Landscape/Garden Design. Except for the $30 application fee, the residency is offered at no cost to accepted artists and includes comfortable private living quarters, a private studio, and meal program. Learn more.  Questions: applications@i-park.org or 860-873-2468.
Deadline: January 30, 2012

Cambridge Artists The Cambridge Arts Council invites visual & performing artists working in all media, who either live or work in Cambridge, to participate in the fourth annual citywide Cambridge Open Studios. Show your work in your own studio or in one of the common venues along with other artists. Register and learn more.
Deadline: Tuesday, January 31, 2011

Artist Toolbox Program for Musicians A partnership between the Arts & Business Council and the Berklee College of Music Rethink Music Initiative, this series of topic-specific workshops and webinars begins in February and culminates in the Rethink Music Conference in April. Topics range from marketing and business strategy to copyright issues in the digital age, artist management, and fundraising. The Toolbox is designed to meet the needs of jazz, classical, rock, and folk musicians. The cost of the program is $495. Fee includes admission to the Rethink Music Conference. Learn more.
Deadline: February 1, 2012

Photographers Photo Nights Boston is seeking submissions. As part of Photo Nights Boston’s October 2012 public art event, an artist will be selected to design and produce a photography-based work of public art as a focal point for the program. Open to artists 18 years of age or older with no geographic restriction. Finalists will receive a $1,000 proposal development fee. The project budget is $10,000. Learn more. Questions: photonightsboston@gmail.com.
Deadline: Friday, February 3, 2012

Time-Based Work ASPECT: The Chronicle of New Media Art, a biannual DVD publication, is currently accepting submissions of time-based work for V20: THE CINEMATIC. They seek works that explore the complex relationship between cinema and new media. They will review installation, video, performance, sound, and any other work best documented in time-based format. Learn more. Questions: esmith@aspectart.org.
Deadline: April 1, 2012

Image credit: From the Town Art Collection of Provincetown, MA. Josephine T. Arico’s “Untitled”, Oil on canvas, 26 x 18.25.

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Son of a Bug Trailer from Nicky Tavares on Vimeo.

Raising money for a creative project can be a daunting proposition. Crowdfunding sites, if matched with the right project campaigns, can provide a useful template for attracting funds.

If you’re curious about starting a crowdfunding campaign of your own, check out how some Massachusetts artists are using the site Kickstarter:

Nicky Tavares (Film & Video Fellow ’11) has a campaign to fund her next documentary film, Son of a Bug. The project has already surpassed its $6000 funding goal before its Jan. 2 deadline (on Kickstarter, projects must reach their fundraising goal or no money changes hands). The trailer (see above) might reveal why the campaign has found success; its offbeat humor is as appealing as the film’s subject, the first Pakistani rock band, The Bugs.

The Balagan Film Series, founded by Alla Kovgan (Film & Video Fellow ’09) and Jeff Daniel Silva (Film & Video Finalist ’09), showcases unexpected, experimental works of film and video. The video for the campaign (which ends Jan. 12), does a nice job laying out the background of the series, the part it plays in the local community, and the reasons to support its 2012 season.

In Fall 2011, Steven Bogart (Playwriting Finalist ’09) worked with writer Neil Gaiman, songwriter Stephin Merritt, and actors from the American Repertory Theater to develop an original play about the Grand Guignol Theatre of Victorian Paris. A documentary film project about the process is seeking to raise funds (by Jan. 21), and I like how the campaign borrows its over-the-top tone from the subject of the play.

For further research, check out other local projects:

• Thomas Oboe Lee is a prominent local composer seeking to produce a double CD of his concertos, released under the Boston Modern Orchestra Project label (by Jan. 15).
• Non-Event is a presenter of new, experimental music, seeking support (by Jan. 18) for its 2012 concert season for artists fees, venue rental, and all the other aspects of putting together a fully-realized, like-no-other performance series.
• The Charles River Swimming and Diving Team (a Cantabridgian movie-making troupe) are trying to raise funds to rent the Brattle Theatre to screen the first three episodes of The Central Square Detective Agency (by Jan. 18).
• Documentary filmmaker Alice Stone is seeking funds (by Jan. 26) to complete her documentary Angelo Unwritten, about a boy who escaped the foster care system to a loving family – but not the struggles that continue to mire him.

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Hold onto your bootstraps kiddies. Celebrating the re-release of their album Flesh, the 80′s synth band extraordinare duo Jeff and Jane are returning to the stage at Mass MoCA. Before they unleash their sonic excellence to a live audience in Western MA, ArtSake caught up with one half of the duo, Jane Hudson. Here’s our 160 beats per minute nano interview:

First concert ever attended? For me it had to be my father, Leonard Shure’s concert at Carnegie Hall late ’50′s, for Jeff, Rolling Stones, Boston Garden, 1965-66. I saw that one, too.

What musicians/artists work do you most admire but work nothing like? Pat Metheny, Missy Elliot.

How would you describe Jeff and Jane’s sound? Kraftwerk meets punk rock.

What’s the most surprising response to your music you’ve ever received? All the reissues of our music over 30 years, Daft Records, Belgium; TigerSushi, France; Dark Entries, San Francisco; Electric Voice Records, Canada, and YouTube and iTunes.

Why now, the re-release of the album Flesh? Because Josh Cheon (Dark Entries) and Mike Sniper (Captured Tracks) called us within a week of each other, and they happened to be friends. So it was the birth of a dual release.

What’s the best/worst day job you’ve ever had? For me selling wallpaper, for Jeff, no comment!

The unauthorized biography of your life is titled: ?

Who wins in a paint ball war (not that ArtSake ever advocates violence), a synth player, a video artist, or a guitarist? The synth player!

Top five records: David Bowie, Rolling Stones, Roxie Music/Brian Ferry, Kraftwerk, the Clash.

How much do you love guitar distortion? A lot!

What do you like about performing live? Adrenaline.

What can we expect from the upcoming show at Mass MoCA? Uncorked synthesizers, technological, modern, sometimes edgy, sometimes beautiful. Machine music.

Jeff and Jane will perform at Mass MoCA in Club B-10
Saturday, January 14, 2012 at 8 PM.

Image credit: Photographs courtesy of Jane Hudson.

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Free Public Art Discussion Series The New England Foundation for the Arts will present a talk about working in the public art realm on January 23, 2012, 6-9 PM at the Roxbury Center for the Arts, Hibernian Hall, 184 Dudley Street, Roxbury, MA.  Learn more.

Photographers Viridian Artists 2nd Annual International Juried Photography Competition is now accepting entries. This year’s juror is Jennifer Blessing, Curator of Photography Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Learn more.
Deadline: January 7, 2012

Poets The Cultural Center of Cape Cod’s 6th Annual Poetry Competition is now accepting entries. A National Prize will be awarded for a single, unpublished poem that has not won 1st prize in any national competition. Open to all U.S. residents 18 years and older. A regional prize will be awarded for a single, unpublished poem (that has not won 1st prize in any national competition) by an adult resident of Cape Cod, Nantucket, or Martha’s Vineyard. For more information and guidelines call Lauren Wolk at 508-394-7100.
Deadline: January 16, 2012

Music Ensembles The American Music Abroad program sends American music ensembles from a wide variety of musical genres on month-long musical exchange tours. Includes Hip Hop, Rock & Roll, Jazz, Country, and other American roots music including but not limited to Native American, Latin, Afro-Caribbean, Blues, Bluegrass, Cajun, Gospel, and Zydeco. The program is the flagship cultural diplomacy program of the U.S. Department of State, and is administered by American Voices. Learn more.
Deadline: January 16, 2012

Sketchbook Project Art House Co-op has announced their new project: The Limited Edition Vol. 1! , a collaborative series of art books created by 5,000 artists from across the globe. Sign up to receive a blank sketchbook in the mail, then fill it up and send it back. Work will be cataloged in the Brooklyn Art Library in NYC and published in the Limited Edition art book series. Learn more.
Deadline: January 30, 2012

Image credit: Photograph 3D Glasses (2010), Digital Silver Gelatin Print, 20″ x 24″, by Matthew Gamber, MCC 2011 Photography Fellowship Finalist.

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The Massachusetts Cultural Council is pleased to announce that we are now accepting 2012 Artist Fellowships applications in the categories of Choreography, Fiction/Creative Nonfiction, and Poetry.

The deadline for Artist Fellowships applications in Choreography, Fiction/Creative Nonfiction, and Poetry is January 30, 2012. Read the program guidelines and apply online.

The Artist Fellowships are competitive, anonymously judged fellowships of $7,500 and finalist awards of $500, direct support to individual artists in recognition of artistic excellence. Read our tips on applying.

As a reminder, the deadline for applications in Drawing, Painting, and Traditional Arts has passed. Award results in these categories will be made at the end of January 2012.

Media and image: excerpt from MY OWN PERSONAL (#2) by Sarah Slifer (Choreography Fellow ’10); Allan Reeder (Fiction/Creative Nonfiction Fellow ’10, ’06) read at Porter Square Books. Allan recently received a Promise Grant from the Sustainable Arts Foundation.

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