Arts Wire CURRENT is a project of Arts Wire, a national computer-based network serving the arts community. Arts Wire CURRENT features news updates on social, economic, philosophical, and political issues affecting the arts and culture. Your contributions are invited. Contact Judy Malloy, editor, at jmalloy@artswire.org
To encourage the exchange of arts information and perspectives, Arts Wire CURRENT contents are not copyrighted unless specifically stated. Arts Wire is, however, very interested in documenting the use of material from Arts Wire CURRENT in other newsletters, publications and on online networks. Please send a copy to: Tommer Peterson, Arts Wire Publications Coordinator, Email: tommer@artswire.org
This week's Current is sponsored by OPERA America
PW reports that in a letter to Jane Alexander, Hoekstra states that the FC2 books, which credit NEA support, are "an offense to the senses of this Subcommittee, and I would presume to the taxpayers that have been unwittingly forced to pay." The books he singles out are S&M by Jeffrey DeShell, BLOOD OF MUGWUMP: A TIRESIAN TALE OF INCEST by Doug Rice; MEXICO TRILOGY by D.N. Stuefloten and CHICK-LIT 2: CHICK VICS, edited by Cris Mazza, Elizabeth Sheffield and DeShell.
Formerly called Fiction Collective, FC2 (http://users.quake.net/~jacq/) was founded in 1974 in order to publish formal literary experimentation. The small press publishes about 10 books a year by minority, women and gay and lesbian writers. Print runs average 2000 copies.
Gigi Bradford, director of the NEA literature program, has praised FC2, for giving "voice to those Americans who are not well connected to the dwindling number of for-profit presses," according to PW. PW quotes her as saying "FC2 has carved out a reputation as an experimental hyperliterate publisher whose texts are used in many college courses."
PW reports that FC2 Co-Director Curt White says that the books are meant to "make people think about sexuality in our culture."
On the grounds that the site could include material from FC2 books, Rep. Hoekstra also questioned a $45,000 grant to support a web site for the Unit for Contemporary Literature at Illinois State in Normal, ILL. But, the web site was never intended for publishing sexually explicit material, FC2 Co-Director White stated, according to PW.
Charles Harris, Director of the Unit for Contemporary Literature, explained to PW that it is an umbrella group for a group of literary publishers that are housed at but not connected with the University. The publishers include FC2, Dalkey Archive Press, the Exquisite Corpse and the AMERICAN BOOK REVIEW. Hoekstra's review will affect these programs as well as the campus Gallery.
Source:
Bridget Kinsella
"Congress Challenges NEA Lit Grants to Illinois Press"
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
March 17, 1997
The $2.5 million cut is approximately one quarter of the $11 million budget of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Arts & Science Council, a nonprofit agency that raises public and private money and redistributes it to area arts groups.
Arts education programs will take the biggest hit, according to the Observer. $1.2 million of the money cut was slated for Spirit Square, a city-owned theater that is being converted to an arts education center. Spirit Square gets more than half its annual operating budget from the county. Without it, the center could close. Also at risk is an elementary school literacy program partnered by the arts council and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools.
"I'm stunned," said arts council board director Cyndee Patterson, according to the Observer. "Arts to me are part of the basic infrastructure of a community. This is a tremendous step backwards."
The arts debate began last Spring, the Observer reports, when the Charlotte Repertory Theatre staged the Pulitzer Prize-winning ANGELS IN AMERICA -- a play about homosexuality by Tony Kushner.
About half of the money cut supports a general operating grant fund for 19 arts organizations. The vote means that groups like the Charlotte Rep now have to petition commissioners for funding. "As far as I'm concerned, those guys [the Charlotte Rep] are dead on arrival," said Republican commissioner Bill James, according to the Observer. "If they don't know they're the walking dead now, I suggest they get a clue pretty quick."
Some council members would prefer to completely eliminate arts funding rather than to judge arts groups on a case by case basis. "It very well may be the result of all this will be to remove funding altogether," the Observer quotes commissioners' Chairman Parks Helms, a Democrat, as saying. "I am unwilling to be a party to passing judgment on arts groups. ... Before I would spend time doing that, I would simply not give them any money."
Artist reaction has been wide spread. Paul Sires, co-owner of the Center of the Earth gallery on North Davidson Street is shutting down for a week. Sires hopes all the art institutes and associations in Charlotte will respond to the cuts, the Observer reports.
"I'm going to urge as many gay arts groups and arts groups in general to apply for county commission grants and see who the commission funds and doesn't fund," the Observer quotes Gay activist David Ferebee as saying. "And, if they are discriminatory in their funding, we will sue."
The Observer reports that in addition to arts groups, hundreds of non-arts groups such as Planned Parenthood, Mecklenburg Council on Adolescent Pregnancy and the Metrolina AIDS Project may be affected because the resolution that cut the arts council's funding also prevents any private or nonprofit agency from getting county money unless commissioners approve a separate allocation for each one.
Although City Council members say that they don't have the votes to succeed, the Observer also reports that arts funding opponents are now challenging the Charlotte City Council's $2.1 million annual contribution to the arts.
Perry Mixer, Director of the Office of Cultural Affairs at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC, writes on Arts Wire News that "It is a dark day here in North Carolina."
Sources:
Taylor Batten
"One option: Zero public money for arts"
CHARLOTTE OBSERVER (http://www.charlotte.com/observer/arts/)
April 3, 1997
Tony Brown and Mary Elizabeth Deangelis
"Will city cut arts funds, too? Support firm, but agencies' fear persists"
CHARLOTTE OBSERVER (http://www.charlotte.com/observer/arts/)
April 4, 1997
Details available on Arts Wire (AWNEWS Item 160)
The four-year BFA program will prepare students to reach their artistic and academic potential while studying as full-time members of the Ailey school and Fordham University, both neighbors to Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Student will complete a diverse curriculum of 142 credits that includes a carefully sequence of dance and liberal arts courses.
At AAADC, students will be immersed in a broad curriculum of dance techniques and will have many opportunities to learn and perform varied repertory from renowned AAADC faculty and guest artists in courses including kinesiology and dance history. Senior year students in the program will perform at various sites in the New York area as members of the AAADC Dancers. At the completion of the BFA program, students will be presented in a fully performance at a New York CIty theater.
Founded in 1841, Fordham is New York City's Jesuit University. Liberal arts course work at Fordham includes offerings in the fine arts and liberal arts, including music history, theater design, the social sciences, art history, philosophy, religious studies, history and foreign languages.
The AAADC, founded by Alvin Ailey in 1969, has a distinguished faculty of over 35 dance professionals. Currently, over 75 percent of AAADT members studied at the Ailey school. Other graduates have gone on to work with such companies as Frankfurt Ballet, The Martha Graham Dance Company, American Ballet Theatre, Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane & Company, the White Oak Dance Project on Broadway.
"This unique program fulfills a vision of Alvin Ailey's and mine that not only addresses the community but does so at an extraordinary level," says Judith Jamison, Artists Director, Alvin Ailey Dance Theater Foundation. "What a great opportunity to merge AAADC's artistic excellence with Fordham's fine academic tradition."
Recruitment will begin immediately. Auditions in New York City and other select cities will be held January through March 1998 for the initial BFA class entering in Fall 1998. Contact: Dance Theater Foundation, Inc. 212-767-0590
The twenty-first presentation of the Governor's Awards for the Arts took place at a Governor's House reception attended by members of the Governor's cabinet, legislators, the Alaska State Council on the Arts, donors, arts advocates, and artists. Recipients received small works of art by fiber artist Fran Reed of Anchorage.
The Alaska State Council on the Arts' ASCA COMMUNIQUE reports that these awards recognize individuals or organizations whose contributions to the cultural development of Alaska make a truly significant impact on the lives of citizens -- honoring a body of work, a history of excellence, or a total contribution to the arts.
Contact The Alaska State Council on the Arts at asca@alaska.net
Source:
ASCA COMMUNIQUE Volume 4, No. 3
March 1997
Arts Wire's website at http://www.artswire.org is a central place to visit the cyberhomes of the diverse artists and art organizations who are Arts Wire members. Each week, Current will be inviting readers to visit an Arts Wire member web site.
This week, the virtual doors are open to STEVE DURLAND'S PERSONAL HOME PAGE at http://www.artswire.org/Community/highperf/SDhome.html "Nothing fancy," Durland writes on the opening page. "... Just the facts And here they are: I'm an artist, writer, editor and arts administrator. I live in North Carolina. I'm married to Linda Frye Burnham with whom I share three cats and two dogs."
In addition to cat, dog and farm documentation and a gateway to Linda's page, the site features information about Durland's assemblage sculptures.
"They usually start with photographs I've taken," he writes, "which are then placed in oversized frames. The frames become the support vehicle for texts, inlays, shelves, and attachments. It is my desire that all these various elements share equally the 'burden' of representing the work."
According to a report in the MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL, the project was developed by artists in cooperation with property owners and grew out of an informal meeting between artists and a team of public-art coordinators who are currently developing a public-art policy for the City of Milwaukee.
The Art-Street-Windows are located in empty late 19th- and early 20th-century commercial buildings on N. Water St. "These are some of the highest-profile windows in Milwaukee," Artist Paul Druecke told the Journal Sentinal. "St. Louis and New York City already have windows projects. We're getting a different viewership with this project."
The Journal Sentinal reports that the project aims for both quality and diversity, and that the shows will remain in place for three months -- turning art into a permanent part of life.
James Auer
"Urban ingenuity: Empty buildings feature public art shows"
On Wisconsin Main Page, MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL ONLINE
(http://www.onwis.com/)
January 1, 1997
SAN FRANCISCO, CA
April 11,12; October
Intersection, 446 Valencia, between 15th and 16th Streets.
Intersection for the Arts presents:
THE FIFTH ANNUAL HIGH TIDES NEW MUSIC FESTIVAL.
>From the experimental rhythm machine of Henry Cowell in the thirties, through the instrument-building work of Harry Patch, to the electronic and mechanical constructions of contemporary Bay Area artists and composers, the tinkerer/instrument building tradition has played a prominent role in the experimental music tradition. This year's High Tides festivities - two evening concerts in April and two in October - explore some of the Bay Area's composer/performers whose work involves the construction of special assemblages and modified instruments for the purpose of making music.
The April Concerts are:
Friday, April 11, 8:00 PM: Crawling with Tarts
GRAND SURFACE NOISE OPERA NR. 4 and OCHRE LAND, BLUE BLUE SKY
GRAND SURFACE NOISE OPERA NR. 4 is performed on turntables playing mostly old and scratched institutional/functional recordings, a 3-meter ham can cordophone, chalices, and percussion. OCHRE LAND, BLUE BLUE SKY is a new composition based on unusual meteorological conditions. This will employ a floating house, turntables, radio sources, small electric motors, foil, amplified floorboards, and many other elements.
Saturday, April 12, 8:00 PM : K. Atchley
FLOWERS&GHOSTS
FLOWERS&GHOSTS is a concert-length set of work for solo guitar and electronics. Atchley, who studied with Robert Ashley, David Behrman, and Gordon Mumma, approaches the guitar as an element within an electro-acoustic environment. While he incorporates melodic and harmonic elements in his compositions, his music is firmly rooted in 20th century electronic sound/noise experimentalism.
The concert will also feature a duet performance with Artifact Recording artist and HUB co-founder, John Bischoff.
Intersection's HIGH TIDES NEW MUSIC FESTIVAL is sponsored in part from grants by the Bernard Osher Foundation, the Zellerbach Family Fund, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Grants for the Arts, and Meet the Composer/California. For further information, please call Intersection's box office number: 415-626-3311.
Details available on Arts Wire (NEWMUSNET Item 153)
NEW YORK CITY, NY
April 23
92nd Street Y Unterberg Poetry Center, Lexington Avenue at 92nd St.
THE GAZER'S SPIRIT: POETRY AND THE VISUAL ARTS, with Debora Greger, Donald Hall, Vicki Hearne, John Hollander, W.D. Snodgrass, and Rosanna Warren, takes its title from Hollander's recent anthology of poems about works of art. Participants will read from their own and others' contributions to the book and show slides of the works of art which inspired the poems.
The Gazer's Spirit is one event in a series of events celebrating April -- National Poetry Month. Contact Y-Charge at 212-996-1100 for more information about the series.
For more information about National Poetry events visit The Academy of American Poets web site at http://www.poets.org/npm/npmfrmst.htm and the Poets & Writers web site at http://www.pw.org/
SPECTACLE is calling for submissions on MADNESS AND THE CREATIVE IMPERATIVE "What is the connection between mental illness and artistic expression?" they ask. Send essays up to 5,000 words by June 30, 1997, or requests for editorial guidelines (include sase) to Richard Aguilar, editor, Spectacle, 101 Middlesex Turnpike, Suite 6, Box 155, Burlington, MA 01803 or e-mail your request to raguilar@sencomcorp.com.
ASIAN AMERICAN FEATURE WORKSHOP ANNOUNCES CALL FOR ENTRANTS
The UCLA Asian American Studies Center and Visual Communications, the nation's oldest Asian Pacific American media arts center, are organizing the first Los Angeles Asian American Independent Feature Workshop and are currently soliciting feature proposals from Asian American filmmakers and producers.
The Workshop, set for Saturday, May 17, 1997 at the UCLA James West Alumni Center, will be presented in conjunction with the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film & Video Festival, which present its twelfth edition May 15 through 22.
Eligible participants are Asian Pacific American producers of filmmakers who have a current project in development or post-production for which s/he is seeking financing and/or acquisition. Projects must by or about Asian Pacific Americans. Only one representative from a project may attend. Producers of filmmakers with extensive experience who do not have a current project may also be eligible.
Entry materials are due April 15; notifications will be made April 21. E-mail requests for guidelines can be sent to: viscom@vc.apnet.org or call 213-680-4462 ; fax: 213-687-4848.
(Details available on Arts Wire (AWNEWS Item 87)
Following is a small sample from the searchable database of current funding opportunities for artists and arts groups available in Arts Wire's MONEY conference to Arts Wire subscribers. To add your listings to MONEY send email to fyi@artswire.org. Please mention Arts Wire when you apply. MONEY is compiled by Joseph Hannan and Shu-Mei Chan.
May 2: NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS FICTION AND POETRY PRIZES - offers two awards of $1,000 each in fiction and poetry. Submit a typewritten book-length manuscript; a one-page letter of recommendation on letterhead from a qualified reader (i.e. teacher, agent or editor); and a cover sheet with the entrant's name, address and phone number. For information, contact: fiction & Poetry Editor, New York University Press, Fiction and Poetry Prizes, 70 Washington Square So., New York, NY 10012-1091. (212) 998-2575.
May 30: HENRY ST. SETTLEMENT ABRONS ARTS CENTER - awards artist-in-residence shared workspaces to six visual artists, including one clay sculptor. Two receive $5,000 Van Lier fellowships, for Latino, African American, Asian or Native American artists under 35 who demonstrate financial need. Printmakers are ineligible. For information and application, contact: Visual Arts Program, Henry St. Settlement, 466 Grand St., New York, NY 10002. (212) 598-0400.
June 15: IMAGE OUT: ROCHESTER LESBIAN & GAY FILM & VIDEO FESTIVAL - seeks films and videos for screening from Oct. 17-24. 35mm, 16mm, 3/4" and 1/2" works ranging from experimental video to feature length film are eligible. Also, a special entry category is open to media artists living within a 200-mile radius of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway. Submit a 1/2" VHS preview copy, entry form and $5 processing fee to: Image Out: Rochester Lesbian & Gay Film & Video Festival, Call for Work, 713 Monroe Ave., Rochester, NY 14607. (716) 271-2640. E-mail: dool@uhura.cc.rochester.edu
Portland Arts and Cultural Alliance (PACA), a newly designated local arts agency, is seeking its first executive director, pending city funding. The individual should have a background in local arts agency/and or arts administration, with business start-up experience.
Strategic goals, cultural plans, board of directors, committees and collaborative projects are all in place. Director will carry out short-term strategic goals, raise funds, establish an office, implement marketing programs and develop a long-term strategic plan.
Applicant should have excellent public relations, community leadership, development and financial management skills. Competitive salary. Send resume by 4/30 to: Search Committee, PACA, Box 4532, Portland, ME 04112.
DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT
National Black Arts Festival
(Atlanta, GA)
DESCRIPTION: Design strategic plan and oversee the implementation of the annual development goals for $3 million non-profit corporation -- to include, but not limited to: corporate sponsorships, individual giving, private and public grants and special events.
MINIMUM SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE: Bachelor's degree in related field; four years demonstrated success; three years supervisory experience.
DEADLINE: May 1. Send resume, plus writing sample of no more than two pages to: Managing Director, National Black Arts Festival, 236 Forsyth Street, Ste 400 Atlanta, GA 30303 No telephone calls or faxes.
Details available on Arts Wire (AWNEWS Item 4)
Attorneys for Guess Inc. have dropped a libel suit brought against UNITE (Union of Needletrade, Industrial and Textile Employees) and against Common Threads for a literary reading. The clothing manufacturer's decision to abandon its lawsuit against company critics constitutes a victory for the first amendment rights of workers, community organizations and artists, according to an email alert from Common Threads
Common Threads reports that on March 24, a press conference/event was held at the Midnight Special Bookstore, the site of a September poetry reading which was targeted in the Guess lawsuit against Common Threads and UNITE! The March 24 event included poetry inspired by the lawsuit (by Common Threads' lawyer!) and a symbolic "ungagging" that examined Guess' labor practices. Contact Judy Branfman at jbranfman@loop.com
FROM THE CANADIAN CULTURAL HUMAN RESOURCES COUNCIL
By email, Jean-Philippe Tabet, Programs Director, Conseil des ressources humaines du secteur culturel, writes that "The Cultural Human Resources Council of Canada (CHRC) is a very special new creature for self-employed artists."
The CHRC was formed several years ago to identify and respond to the professional development and training needs of the Canadian Cultural workforce. Over the past 5 years CHRC and The National Sectoral Council for Culture have administered over 300 Training and Transitions Initiatives Program (TIP) projects. These projects contributed to the professional development and employability of over 5,000 artists and cultural workers.
For instance, the CHRC's CULTURAL JOBMATCH is an electronic employment database expressly designed to match those seeking work in the cultural sector with those who want to hire. Virtually every cultural sub-sector and much of the country is represented in this national, bilingual resource.
Employers include The Archives Of Ontario; Beaverbrook Art Gallery in New Brunswick; Videography in Alberta; Electronic Arts Canada in B.C.; The Toronto Symphony Orchestra; and the Indian Trade Exhibition Centre. Positions being advertised include script writers, dance teachers, graphic artists, archivists, librarians, educational assistants, producers, administrators, designers and other sales marketing and support staff.
"It is very exciting to see that the USA is supporting so many arts endeavors," CHRC Program Director Tabet states after visiting Arts Wire's public web site. "Please come and visit our site http://magi.com/~chrc to see what kind of interests we share."
Email from ONE DAY IN PEACE, JANUARY 1, 2000 explains that this is "a 24-hour concept where no guns are fired anywhere on earth...including on television." The originators ask: "What if, for 24 hours, whosoever happens to be at war on December 31st, 1999, agrees that for one whole day no guns would be fired? The silence would be golden."
The concept includes television programmers of the world agreeing to not air any programming with a violent content, although One Day in Peace notes that "It would probably be easier to get warring nations to stop firing than it would be to get the world's television programmers to not air violent programming."
"On April 6, 1997, it will be 1000 days until January 1, 2000," they write. "This is a thought-wave campaign. Which is to say, the more people who grasp this thought, the more it comes into reality.. One Day In Peace, January 1, 2000...pass it on...expect a miracle."
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