Acknowledgements for 2010

Dec 302010
 

Starting a nonprofit is not an easy task. Starting an arts nonprofit is an even more difficult feat. We would be remiss if we did not take a moment to thank the dozens of individuals who gave us advice, encouragement and love (thanks, parents of C4 staff!) in 2010.

The C4 Action Team would like to thank our board of directors, donors, family members, friends, and the following community members for their time and talents in 2010 (Please forgive us if we left out your name… We talked to a lot of people!):

Jon Abercrombie, Common Focus
Alex Adan
Chris Appleton, WonderRoot
Ivan Betts, Turner Broadcasting
Jessica Booth, Fulton County Schools
Rabbi Rachael Bregman, The Temple
Joanna Brooks, Brooks and Company Dance
Stephen Brown, MSL Group
Kim Campbell, Hub Atlanta
Dave Charest, Astoria Performing Arts Center
Claire Christie, PushPush Theater
Tripp Cook
Sally Corbett, Arts Professional
Lisa Cremin, Metro Atlanta Arts Fund
Mickey Desai, Non-Profit Snapshot
Amy Ellis, MailChimp
Lazarus Epicurus, Culinary Artist
Ron Evans, Group of Minds
Amir Farokhi, GeorgiaForward
Sally Flocks, PEDS
Liz Frazier, Just Voices
Peggy Freedman, Independent Bookkeeper
Flora Maria Garcia, MAACC
Jill George, Kaiser Permanente
Joe Gfaller, Alliance Theatre
Bill Gignilliat, ArtsGeorgia
Gwyn Grafe, Global Crossing
Virginia Hepner, Young Audiences
Sherry Heyl, Concept Hub
Shelby Hofer, PushPush Theater
Claire Horn, Core Performance Company
Maigh Houlihan, Atlanta Photography Exhibit
Mark Hubbard, Renew Social Ventures
Adam Huttler, Fractured Atlas
Erica Jameson, MINT Gallery
Chris Johnson, ifPeople
Nicole Jones, Public Broadcasting Atlanta
Margaret Kargbo, National Black Arts Festival
Justin Karr, Fractured Atlas
John Kloecker, Raymond James Financial Services
Kathleen Kurre, Techbridge
Matt Lehrman, Alliance for Audience
Will Lester, TRG Arts
Tina Lilly, Georgia Council for the Arts
Clayton Lord, Theatre Bay Area
Stacey Colosa Lucas, Georgia Shakespeare
Chris Mackie, Open Health Tools
Rachel May, Synchronicity Theatre
Dorian McDuffie, Atlanta Office of Cultural Affairs
Terence McFarland, LA Stage Alliance
Jay Morris
Lisa Mount, Artistic Logistics
Adam Natale, Fractured Atlas
Adisa Nickerson, Georgia Boy Choir
Josh Phillipson, Metro Atlanta Arts Fund
Val Porter, The Foundation Center
Barbara Pyle, Captain Planet Foundation
Aileen Reed
Keif Schleifer, K S Arch Design
Douglas Scott, Full Radius Dance
Kamal Sinclair, Strategic Arts
Priscilla Smith, Eyedrum
Lara Smith, Actors Express
Douglas Smith, Theatre Development Fund
Bryan Spinsby, Inworks
Nikki Strickland, North Fulton Drama Club
Daniel Summers, Center for Puppetry Arts
Matt Tanner
Melonie Tharpe, Bolster Consulting
Lance Weatherby, ATDC
Otis White, Civic Strategies
Lisa Wilson
Susan Winter
Dan Wykoff, Veritas Financial Services
Joe Zacherman, Lifeline Center for Child Development

Introducing: Margaret Kargbo

Oct 152010
 

The very first artist I’d like to introduce is Margaret Kargbo! Regarding her interest in participating in the ‘Entrepreneurship in the Arts‘ seminar series, here’s what she had to say:

“For me, it’s an exploratory passion to discover and document the Arts, both traditional and emerging talents. My reality is that, I love the Arts. I always have. Therefore, I would love to attend the workshop so that I may acquire some useful knowledge and tools necessary to making my passion become a reality. Like most starving artists, I have limited funds but unlimited vision, focus and determination. The sky is truly the limit and I hope to see everyone among the stars! This workshop would be a truly wonderful opportunity for me to grow and go confidently in the direction of my dreams.”

When I first spoke with Margaret earlier this week, she went into vast passionate detail about her dream of producing a traveling film documentary project to tell the stories of individuals and communities influenced by African traditions, Black culture, lifestyle and politics. As the conversation progressed, we came to realize just how perfect an opportunity this seminar series is for her!

And so, Margaret has begun working towards her creating her dream film project by interviewing her fellow entrepreneurial artists and helping us share their stories over the next few weeks!

Incidentally, Margaret took part in a short film project two years ago in which she was profiled as an entrepreneur. It’s the perfect introduction to the bubbly Margaret Kargbo, so check it out!

You can help support the efforts of Margaret and her fellow Artists in raising funds for the cost of tuition by donating via their respective profiles in our Artist Gallery.

A Call to Action for Sustainable Artistry

Oct 102010
 

We have all heard it. Some of us even believe it. And even if you don’t, you have to admit that the ‘myth of the starving artist’ is damaging.

During what we call our ‘ecological scan’ of Arts and Culture in Atlanta, we heard time and time again of the cultural sense of low self-esteem intrinsic to being an Atlantan artist. It is a silent assumption that seems to permeate our community. Many of our artists aspire to leave for ‘real’ arts cities such as Boston, Los Angeles or New York City. Some succeed. Brain drain ensues, and the ‘myth of the starving artist’ continues to perpetuate itself throughout our city.

Last month we announced that Kamal Sinclair’s “Entrepreneurship in the Arts”  seminar will be our inaugural professional development offering and earlier this week we invited Tori Tinsley to tell the story about the powerful impact her past participation in this seminar has had in her life.

Since then, the we havn’t been able to stop talking about how stories like this chip away at the ‘myth of the starving artist.’ And since October is ‘Arts Month,’ we’ve decided it’s time for us to do something about this dangerous myth! So here goes:

This is a public call to action!

The C4 Atlanta Action Team wants to start a public dialogue about the lenses through which we Atlantan artists view ourselves in relationship to our city’s cultural identity.

In fact, we would like to see the ‘myth of the starving artist’ done away with entirely! And the best way to start chipping away at myths as domineering and destructive as this one,  is through the telling of new stories that defy rather than give credence to them.

So let’s talk! And let’s tell new stories that will bring the mythos of sustainable artistry to the forefront of our cultural awareness!

Tori’s ‘Entrepreneurship in the Arts’ story has made us realize that right in front of us lies the perfect opportunity to tell these kinds of stories about the artists participating in the ‘Entrepreneurship in the Arts’ seminar.

We need your help in order to make this happen!

Here’s how:

  • We are looking for approximately 10 more artists to join us in this experience. You can help by nominating professional artists and arts managers you think would benefit from participation.
  • Because this is our very first professional development program, there are a number of potentially show stopping startup costs that could keep this seminar from happening. And so we are launching C4 Atlanta’s first major fundraising effort: Help us raise $5000 by October 20th! These funds will help us pay for things like liability insurance as well as invest in infrastructure that will continue to help us in our future professional development offerings.
  • Eleven days is not alot of time to raise $5000. If you are interested in contributing time to help us, shoot me a message! Also consider joining our volunteer mailing list.
  • We’ve met with a number of people interested in multimedia storytelling about the aspirations, successes, and lessons learned of arts entrepreneurs and we think there may be an opportunity for us to bridge some community collaborations. Contact me if you are interested in blogging, filming, and publishing stories about arts entrepreneurship in Atlanta.

Of course, this is just the beginning of a much larger dialogue. From now until the end of October (because it’s Arts Month), we want to invite Atlanta’s artists and arts organizations to join us in exploring, exposing and understanding how the type of thinking ingrained in us by the ’myth of the starving artist’ impacts our lives:

  • Start publicly talking about ‘myth of the starving artist’ with your friends, fellow artists, family, coworkers, counselors, elected officials, etc.
  • Write blog posts, articles and letters to the editor about Atlanta’s cultural identity as relates to the topics of  ’the myth of the starving artist’ and arts entrepreneurship. Share them across the web via Facebook, Twitter, email, and all that jazz.
  • Arts organizations: How does ‘the myth of the starving artist’ impact your work and your missions?
  • Fellow Twitterers, let’s use the following hash tags: #atlarts #starvingartistmyth (example)
  • Send us relevant links to articles written and discussions happening locally and across the web so we can share them on Facebook and Twitter! We may even feature and respond to our favorites via this blog!

As we begin engage in this community dialogue, here’s what the next few weeks looks like for C4 Atlanta:

This week we will begin introducing you to Artists who aspire to support themselves through their artistry. We will find out how the ‘myth of the starving artist’ has impacted their lives, and what they hope to gain from participating in ‘Entrepreneurship in the Arts.’ We aim to raise $5000 by October 20th (donate now) so these artists can begin the next phase of their artistic careers on October 23rd.

And again, this is just the beginning. Come November 1st, who knows where all this will have lead us?

I personally hope having this community dialogue leads us to some Action!

In Her Own Words. In Her Own Art.

Oct 062010
 

I met Tori Tinsley through Kamal Sinclair. Tori is a former participant of Kamal’s Entrepreneurship in the Arts seminar. When Kamal told me Tori’s story, I was so touched that I had to reach out to her. I asked her if she would write a little about her experience in the course. More importantly, I wanted her story to demonstrate that art is communication. It is how we have captured moments in this life. Brief. Beautiful. Moments.

This is Tori’s story…

Last year in March, my mother was diagnosed with fronto-temporal dementia (FTD), a progressive disease that shrinks the frontal temporal lobes of the brain and causes changes in personality, loss of memory, and eventually death. As my family and I struggled with this prognosis and looked ahead to what the future might bring, I continued to work in a highly stressful job as an art teacher at a residential treatment facility for youth with behavioral and emotional challenges. As my summer break approached, I spent hours online looking at summer programs, continuing education courses, and any other outlet I could find that would allow me to escape the anxiety, anger and fear that followed me day to day. While looking at Savannah College of Art’s continuing education courses, I saw a class for Arts and Entrepreneurship and signed up immediately. I had always been mad at myself for not taking a business course as an undergraduate painting major or as an art therapy graduate student. This class appeared to have enough sustenance to keep me busy over the break and might lead to the creation of a successful art business.

After the first class, I realized how little I knew about the importance of focusing my intention and market research. I knew it was going to be a lot of work over the next 8 weeks, but I was excited to learn more and the class fed my need for a creative outlet. Kamal Sinclair, our gifted and inspiring instructor, led us step-by-step through each phase of business planning. Because she’s done it herself, Kamal understands how an arts-based business is created and run.

During the second or third class, Kamal introduced us to the concept of a Blue Ocean, or a business idea that is not being developed by many others in the same market. During a discussion about Blue Oceans, our class watched a video about the artist and theoretical biologist Sala and his project One Thousand Paintings. Sala’s series takes a look at the value of art by providing a finite amount of paintings, each having a painted number from 1 to 1000 on canvas. As the number of sold paintings in the series increases, the price of the existing artworks also increases, thus following the laws of supply and demand (you can learn more about the process at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIbyLlnKk9s). I was so amazed that this biologist had cracked into theories behind the value of art without having an art background, that I was inspired that I might be able to investigate an important theory of my own through art as well.

As the pressures from my mother’s progressive illness   increased, I began to be consumed by it and looked for answers online. After having difficulty finding information about the disease and not having any FTD local support groups to turn to, my sister and I started talking about creating a website about FTD to help others find information and support. We wanted to call it Mom’s Laugh in order to pay homage to my mother, whose laugh was always the hallmark of her personality, and to highlight the effect FTD has on personality. One day around the same, the idea of the Mom’s Laugh Project surfaced. The bare bones of the project came first; basically, what if I created paintings and donated money from the proceeds to FTD research, but destroyed ones that were not sold in order to raise awareness of the disease. The more I thought about it, the more details developed and a stronger sense of purpose grew within me.

I remember running the idea by my husband and him saying, “Did you think of that by yourself?” I knew at that point that I had something and took it back to my class to get feedback and see how it could be developed further.

In class, Kamal and my classmates agreed that there was something special about the idea. In each subsequent lesson, they gave me feedback on how I could market my idea, who I should contact, and what directions I could take my business. By the end of the class, the Mom’s Laugh Project had a website, a board of advisors, and a small series of paintings started.

A few months after the class was over and I was back in my 9 to 5 job, I continued thinking about the Mom’s Laugh Project and working on it little by little. In March of 2010, one year after my mom’s diagnosis, I collaborated with my friend Jenny Henley to show the work in her gallery space. I had also contacted The Association of Fronto-temporal Dementias (AFTD) and they were delighted to assist in spreading the word about the project and exhibit. To date, 19 paintings have been sold and we have helped raise close to $1500 for the AFTD.

This past spring, I left a full-time job to focus on the Mom’s Laugh Project, spend time with my mother, and work as a contract art therapist with two organizations. In addition to the Association of Fronto-temporal Dementias, the project has also led to collaborations with the Alzheimer’s Association, Emory University’s Neurology Department, where my mother receives treatment, and Atria Buckhead, where my mother now lives. I do not believe I would have been able to channel my grief in such a positive and constructive way had I not taken the business class with Kamal last year. I highly recommend this class and ones similar to it to anyone looking to start an arts-based business, or any business for that matter.  

I want to wrap up with a favorite quote from Archbishop Desmond Tutu that I often say to myself when overwhelmed with challenges stemming from taking care of my mother and her affairs: “Nothing is too much trouble for love.” It gets me through the most difficult of situations and always leaves me with a smile on my face. I encourage you to also state this affirmation when thinking about the kind of life you want to lead. If you want to love what you do and channel your creative spirit, then I say take the plunge and invest in yourself by allowing yourself to follow your dreams. It is one of the surest ways of leading a contented life that will benefit both you and the community in which you live.

To learn more about Tori Tinsley and her artwork, visit her website http://www.toritinsley.com

Interview with Susan Weiner

Sep 302010
 

October is National Arts and Humanities Month, and the Foundation Center is organizing a series of activities throughout the month around the theme of Funding for the Arts. C4 Atlanta is co-sponsoring the activities taking place in October.

On that note, I recently interviewed Susan Weiner, executive director of Georgia Council for the Arts. Susan will discuss GCA’s advocacy initiative just prior to the Resource Market for the Arts on October 4.

Take a moment to check out the interview, and you’ll find more information about the Resource Market and other events happening throughout October.

Resource Market for the Arts – Save the Date

Aug 302010
 

Save the Date!
Resource Market for the Arts
October 4, 2010

October is Funding for Arts Month at the Foundation Center!

You’re invited to come to the Resource Market for the Arts to network
with peers and learn about available funding, resources, and services.
There’s information for everyone!

Preceding the market, Susan Weiner, executive director of the Georgia
Council for the Arts, will speak on “Arts Advocacy Now!” Come for the
program and stay for the market.

When:
Monday, October 4, 2010
1:00-1:45pm Arts Advocacy Now!

Where: Rialto Center for the Arts

Register now

Watch our calendar for information about other programs and events in October.

Presented by:

Foundation Center-Atlanta, Fulton County Arts Council,
City of Atlanta Office of Cultural Affairs,
Georgia Council for the Arts, C4 Atlanta,

Metropolitan Atlanta Arts Fund, and South Arts

The Culture of Arts: Or Just Another Story About Monkeys

Aug 102010
 

Okay. You may be familiar with the story below. But stay with me. There is a point…

Five Monkeys

There was an interesting experiment that started with five monkeys in a cage. A banana hung inside the cage with a set of steps placed underneath it. After a while, a monkey went to the steps and started to climb towards the banana, but when he touched the steps, he set off a spray that soaked all the other monkeys with cold water. Another monkey tried to reach the banana with the same result. It didn’t take long for the monkeys to learn that the best way to stay dry was to prevent any monkey from attempting to reach the banana.

The next stage of the experiment was to remove the spray from the cage and to replace one of the monkeys with a new one. Of course, the new monkey saw the banana and went over to climb the steps. To his horror, the other monkeys attacked him. After another attempt, he learned that if he touched the steps, he would be assaulted.

Next, another of the original five was replaced with a new monkey. The newcomer went to the steps and was attacked. The previous newcomer joined in the attack with enthusiasm!

Then, a third monkey was replaced with a new one and then a fourth. Every time a newcomer approached the steps, he was attacked. Most of the monkeys beating him had no idea why they were not allowed to climb the steps or why they were joining in the beating of the newest monkey.

After replacing the fifth monkey, none of the monkeys had ever been sprayed with water. Still, no monkey ever approached the steps. Why not? Because as far as they knew it was the way it had always been done around here…

Two things we accept because of our current culture as an art community:

Artists starve – The assumption is that if you choose the life of  the cloister…uh, I mean arts, then you have chosen poverty. Your art sustains you more than food, clothing, or shelter. But lets take a lesson from our friend Maslow: you cannot achieve self actualization without meeting basic needs. So much of art creation is in self actualization.

The arts community is fragmented – I can only speak to what I observe now but I see a community that is coming together. I see young leaders emerging with amazing talent and intellect.  There is a time to lean on colleagues within a particular affinity group; yet, there times when all of the disciplines, in one accord, strive for toward policy change, community outreach and public awareness. Collaboration should be organic and further the mission of all parties involved.  A varied arts community is to our advantage…as long as we can come together at the right moment–and I think we will.

Culture – As in biology, grow in a special preparation. Atlanta is our petri dish. We can grow our own culture.

Special note: I ripped this lesson off from my husband. He used this framework for a morning office meeting. When I told him “thank you” for letting me use this idea, he replied: “sure, baby. we share the same brain anyway.” That is the culture of us.

General Update

Jul 182010
 

The C4 Action team spent the past week getting back into action after two weeks of downtime. Jessyca had a much needed vacation with her family, I had minor outpatient on my vocal chords (have to keep the voice sexy), and Joe… well, I’m not actually sure what Joe was up to. (Joe? Care to comment?)

Even though we’re calling it downtime, none of us really could help but work on C4 Atlanta stuff on our own which means we’ve spent much of the past week getting back into sync.

And as we’ve now gotten back in sync, we want to update everyone on were we are at in getting this organization off the ground!

Legalese

As of July 6, C4 Atlanta has been registered as a Domestic Nonprofit Corporation operating in the State of Georgia. Hooray!

Joe has point on drafting up our bylaws document which we will need in order to take the next step of working with a lawyer from GLA to get our 501(c)3 status set up.

Financial Planning

Following the business model exercises we did last month, we’ve really pared down our programatic focus to a handful of initial services and initiatives. This also means that we’re finally beginning to get a strong picture of what our financial needs will be as we begin to put them into motion.

Jessyca is currently working on a fundraising plan which we’ll be putting into action in August and September.

Organization

As we’ve been conducting our ‘ecological scan,’ we’ve been having constant discussions regarding our vision for building an action-oriented network around C4 Atlanta. This includes defining the roles for everything from our Board of Directors and advisors, to volunteers within our Task Force structure and our ecosystem of partners. This coming week we will be putting the finishing touches on our plans for Board and Task Force development, and start growing our team beyond the core Action Team of Jessyca, Joe and I!

Our vision is not only to create a networked nonprofit, but to cultivate a network of networked nonprofits!  (If you’re curious as to what a ‘networked nonprofit’ is, check out this post on Beth Kanter’s blog. She literally co-wrote the book!) We’ll be talking more about networked nonprofits in the future.

Community

In June we had a number of ‘Happy Hours’ at Mary Mac’s Cafe so that anyone who wanted to join us and find out what we’re working on could get in on the action. And while we organized them via Facebook, it hadn’t occurred to us to blog about them.. Whoops! We promise to get better at that in the future.

Same with community events! There’s so much grassroots stuff going on around arts and culture in Atlanta that we’re beginning to see a larger narrative forming. We are excited to have been invited to participate in Gather Atlanta at the end of the month which we’re really anticipating will further this narrative through connections that are made. We’ll also be blogging more about Gather Atlanta leading up to and after the event.

Communications

We’ve been receiving some feedback that our website is rather vague with regard to our mission, plans and services we aim to provide. Frankly it’s been bugging us too, and we’ve been eagerly waiting for a viable time to work on updating our web content for the first time since we put the site up nearly two months ago.

Our understanding of what C4 Atlanta needs to be have evolved quite a bit since then and we’re ready to begin communicating that understanding. So in addition to populating our website with all new content, we are finally going to get a mailing list up and running!

Stay tuned for that in the coming week.

Audience 2.0: How Technology Influences Arts Participation

Jul 022010
 

The National Endowment for the Arts just published this report. We haven’t had a chance to read through all of it yet, but so far it seems to indicate that many of our hunches about the relationship between social media and participation in the arts are spot on!

From the SocialTimes Blog:

“The report has an abundance of statistics that indicate that technology improves the chances that users will engage with the arts. 59 percent of technology users are likely to attend live arts events such as musicals, art galleries, ballet and opera compared to 21 percent of non-technology users. On average, technology users attend six live events per year, while their non-technology counterparts only attend an average of three. The NEA believes that these findings indicate that arts engagement is enhanced, rather than decreased, as people use modern technology.”

I’ve embedded a copy below. Definitely give it a read! This document is likely to guide the national discussion about arts marketing, audience development, community participation, and patronage for years to come.

Audience 2.0: How Technology Influences Arts Participation

For a more interactive version, check out the multi-media version here: http://www.arts.gov/research/new-media-report/index.html#

Captain Lyre Calliope: An Introduction

Jul 022010
 

I sat down to write this blog post and decided to first see what had been written so far… and would you believe it, I haven’t written a single post on this blog yet! I’m sure you all have questions regarding who this mysterious third person behind C4 Atlanta is, and so I believe introductions are in order!

My background is a bit of a mixed bag. I’ve dabbled in professional futurism, explored the game industry, and done some social media consulting here and there for both non-profit and for-profit organizations. I’ve explored the worlds of politics and academia, and to top it off I’m a huge technology, business, cognitive science, design, economics, cell biology, social sciences, marketing, network theory, and social change geek. Among other things.

Most of all, I’m always looking for common narrative strands tthat connect the awesome things I’m continually finding in my explorations with people who want to create even more awesomeness!

This is how I ended up working with Jessyca and Joe. At first my plan was to do some pro-bono consulting to help them figure out their next steps in getting a business off the ground.. but when I started to see potential for a high ROA (Return on Awesome), I knew that I had to join them!

Amongst my numerous passions, I see the arts as one of the most important ingredients in making the world a better place (and even more awesome!) In my opinion, it is through the process of artistry that we best express our humanity and perpetually create and recreate ourselves. It is through the act of personal creation that things like personal empowerment, community empowerment, deliberative process, better paths through the present into the future, and happiness become possible.

I define artistry is the process of continually creating both the environment and the self. Without it, stagnation is experienced both individually and societally.

And so I’ve embarked on this journey with Joe and Jessyca to see what we can contribute to the zeitgeist in the great work of uplifting society.

Unlike my new partners however, I’m brand new to Atlanta’s arts community so I’m still learning my way around. Moving forwards, I will be blogging about my experiences and impressions as we continue to meet people, develop our services, and establish C4 Atlanta’s role within the community. I’ll also likely blog about some of the more philosophical ideas regarding the role of artistry in the 21st century that inspire our efforts.

One of my favorite things in the world is talking to people, so don’t hesitate to comment on my posts, tweets, or even contact me via email asking me to tea! I try and make myself as available as possible. (No, seriously. My private number is 573-427-7463. Call me if you’d like to make a bold introduction!)

And if you’re wondering what this whole ‘Captain’ thing is about, check out this explanation on my personal blog.

Cheers,

Captain Lyre Calliope

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