Two new Percent for Art Competitions Offer $77,000

There are two new Percent for Art Competitions now open to artists in Maine. These two competitions, at Aubert Hall, University of Maine, Orono, and Brewer Elementary/Middle School, share a December 18 deadline.

Artists who are interested in applying should review the competition details on MaineArts.com. You can download the entire Brewer prospectus with floor plans and images from the Maine Arts Commission’s Box.net account.

Those with questions about these, or any of the Maine Arts Commission's Percent for Arts competitions, should contact Alison Ferris at alison.ferris@maine.gov, or 207/287-2710.

NEA Offers Live Webcast Friday

On Friday, November 20, the National Endowment for the Arts is hosting a forum about America’s artists and other cultural workers and the way that art works as 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.

The NEA is inviting everyone to view this forum through a live webcast that will be available from 9 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. at www.arts.gov. In addition, an archive of the event will be available on www.arts.gov the week following the forum.

Online Marketing Workshop PowerPoint

If you are attending the marketing workshop this evening in Damariscotta then you can access the PowerPoint below.

RiverArts11-19-09

Internet Marketing Workshop – Nov. 19 at River Arts

As more and more artists develop websites to introduce their work to a world-wide online community the question often turns to, what is the best way to make this online community more aware of my website’s existence, and what other online methods should I employ to make my work more visible?

As part of an ongoing effort to assist artists and communities with answering these questions, Darrell Bulmer and Kerstin Gilg of the Maine Arts Commission will present a two hour workshop that demonstrates and simplifies online marketing for artists. The workshop will take place at 6:30pm on Thursday, November 19 at River Arts, 170 Main Street, Damariscotta.

In our present economic climate it is nice to know that there are so many free online marketing tools that can be used for promotion and information sharing; it is even nicer to know how to use them, and why.

The workshop leaders will use clear and concise examples to demonstrate and simplify online marketing methods and show attendees how they can employ similar methods. Beginning with some basics of conventional web 1.0 usage, such as emails, website development, electronic newsletters, Meta tags and search engine optimization, the workshop will progress on to social networking and how various online networking tools can help artists and organizations with their varied needs.

Darrell and Kerstin will concentrate on social networking as it relates to communications, information sharing and applications. They will define these categories and, in plain language, introduce various online tools to attendees. They will then show attendees how to bring the tools of their choice together to reach their personal goals, and then how to continually track their efforts to make simple adaptations on an ongoing basis.

Some of the tools to be covered will be websites, Wikis, blogs, electronic newsletters, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, MySpace, flickr, Sitemeter, online surveys, online video creation, many Google tools, such as Analytics and website optimization, eBay, Photobucket, Box.net and many many more.

This two hour workshop affords the audience the opportunity to ask questions throughout, making the conversation richer and more relevant to the needs of attendees. There is no fee to attend this workshop, but space is limited, so those interested should register as soon as possible by contacting River Arts at info@riverartsme.org, or by calling 207/563-1507.

Creative Economy Featured on MaineBiz Sunday

Maine Arts Commission Chair John Rohman talks with Skip Bates and Amber Heffner about the Creative Economy on MaineBiz Sunday.

The Arts Lead the way at Juice 2009

Artists in Maine will have a golden opportunity to connect and communicate with their colleagues, and colleagues in other sectors, at the 2009 Juice Conference. With 400 participants already signed up, this promises to be an exciting opportunity to learn, network and share ideas.

The Juice conference will take place this weekend, November 13 and 14 in Camden, and there is still time to register. There are still a limited number of scholarships available for artist at a rate less than half price; this is at $85 for the two days. For details and the code to enter for this reduced admission, email Darrell Bulmer at darrell.bulmer@maine.gov.

The arts figure prominently at the Juice Conference, as the Maine Arts Commission has collaborated with conference organizers to develop arts-related sessions that include:

• Funders and the Funded—A Symbiotic Relationship. This panel will operate in a “carousel” style. It will focus on communication between funders and grantseekers, and strategies for each to meet the others’ needs.

• Building the Local Creative Economy: Achieving Quality of Place Through Community Action. This session will assist participants in understanding the economic impact of art and culture on the community, and provide an update on the Mobilize Maine effort

• Boomers and Beyond: Creating a Multigenerational Audience. This session will focus on strategies for creating audiences across generations.

• Dude! You’re on You Tube! Arts Programs for Teens. The first half of this session will include a discussion of four success stories involving arts programs for teens. The second half will include demonstrations.

• From Away: The Richness of Multicultural Programming. This session will encourage participants to formulate action plans using progressive notions about multi-culturalism for their organizations.

The conference also highlights nationally and internationally known speakers and performers. Among the headliners will be Liz Lerman, of the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange. Lerman is renown for creating dance pieces in innovative settings, including the Portsmouth Bridge; and groundbreaking dance works performed by a cross-generational company. “Artistic practices,” says Lerman “are essential not just to innovation, but to the way communities live and thrive.” Lerman plans to perform excerpts from dances “Ferocious Beauty,” about the human genome, and “Drift,” about the evolution of a plot of land from farmland to strip mall to supermarket, and finally to a house of worship; and a brand new work about physics and the origin of matter. Lerman will address the conference in addition to performing.

Participants will also be treated to a dance performance by East Indian dancer Anirhudda Knight. The conference will be emceed by NPR’s Nick Spitzer.

Jane Morrison Film Fund Scholarship

• Deadline = January 14, 2010
• Grant amount = Up to $2,000

In partnership with the Maine Community Foundation and the Jane Morrison Film Fund, The Maine Arts Commission is proud to offer the Jane Morrison Memorial Film Fund Scholarship. The grant supports educational opportunities for filmmakers in the early stages of their career development. The Fund is designed to help filmmakers attain instructional guidance and skills. Applicants should identify specific opportunities for educational benefit and be prepared to explain why the experience would help them.

Jane Morrison was an Augusta-area native who died suddenly while on location shooting a film in Africa. Jane's career in filmmaking began when she was an English teacher at Cony High School in Augusta and participated in that school's first Maine Arts Commission-supported Artist-In-Residence Film Program. She received special training in filmmaking, continued to develop the film program at Cony, and then went on to a full-time career in filmmaking. Among her titles are Sarah Orne Jewett's The White Heron, Master Smart Woman, and The Two Worlds of Angelita.

In the past funds have been used to support attendance at the Summer Film Institute in New York and the Sundance Institute in Utah. The funds can also be applied to film classes at educational institutions, film workshops, seminars and apprenticeships. The committee prefers applications that cover tuition costs rather than living expenses. Preference is given (but not restricted) to those residing in Maine. Click here to download application guidelines. For the application narrative questions click here to download.

To apply for this grant, you will need the documents that can be downloaded individually by clicking their names on the list below. Please note that this is a temporary solution until the launch of the new Maine Arts Commission website. You will be required to create a free account with Scribd to download these documents.

Guidelines
Narrative Form
Apply using eGrant

For more information, or if you have questions, please contact Kathy Ann Shaw, Senior Development Associate and Accessibility Coordinator, 207/287-2750 or kathy.shaw@maine.gov. NexTalk user ID: kathy.shaw.