17:38:13 welcome to practice best practices, project planning for creators, workshop.
17:38:27 I'm den Santoro, the project manager for practice, best practice, and among other things, I'll be hosting the workshop tonight, and we want to start off by.
17:38:33 Thanking our principal sponsor, Fall River arts and culture coalition frac, who's running the whole ignition project of artist grants, which tonight is a part of Ashley.
17:38:43 Okay. Now the director of Frank will tell you about that in a minute.
17:38:47 We also want to thank our generous funders Rocklandship Trust, charitable foundation and the Carver Dartmouth and New Bedford local cultural councils, which are local agencies which are supported by the mass Council of State Agency.
17:39:00 We're also supported by generates and kind support from our partners.
17:39:02 The National Park Service, New Goodford Art Museum, Artworks, New Bedroom Co-creative center, new bedroom, creative and Sng.
17:39:11 Project. Calorie aren't brokerage. We also want to thank Kat Newton, Jim Mckee and Mark Parsons were taking the time out of their busy lives to create the workshop content tonight, and for being here to present and answer your questions.
17:39:24 A few notes before we begin. If you have questions during the workshop, please type them into the chat.
17:39:29 Some of our Board members will be working with the chat to keep track of things, and when the presentations are done, and we select your questions, we'll ask you to unmute, so you can ask your question out loud.
17:39:42 This will also give you the ability to do. Follow up questions.
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17:41:14 By Paypal. Now here is Ashley Ocino, the Director of Frac, to tell you about the ignition project
17:41:21 Awesome. Thank you, Dan. So I'm really absolutely thrilled.
17:41:26 And I have to say a big thank you to mass development through their Tdi creative catalyst grant program.
17:41:34 We're able to to do this. So the ignition fund is a multi-tiered program that has 2 components to one being micro grants of $2,500.
17:41:45 We will be handing out 10 awards. There are 2 parts to the application.
17:41:49 The first is eligibility, so if you are a Fall River artist, whether you live or work in the city if you have a deep connection to the city, we would love to have you apply right in the chat, I'm going to drop a link that will take you directly to the page. On here.
17:42:05 You can fill out the eligibility form. It's about 8 questions long.
17:42:09 Just want to know who you are, and then from there you'll have the opportunity to fill out the second part of the application.
17:42:15 If you have questions along the way, I am more than happy to answer them.
17:42:21 Happy to jump on a zoom, call with people as well.
17:42:28 Hmm.
17:42:25 Just a reminder. Part one of this application is due this Friday, January twentieth.
17:42:32 The main application is, due February 28, and so part of the ignition fund, besides handing out wonderful micro grants to 10 people in Fall River also involves 4 workshops, and so the first one takes place this evening den and I will be partnering back up along with co-sponsor
17:42:50 New Bedford creative on February the fifteenth, for the next and then we'll have 2 more that will announce one in spring and one in fall.
17:42:56 But we're looking forward to it and again feel free to to check out our website.
17:43:00 Please follow us on social media. I'll drop in that link to.
17:43:04 We always have good information on there, and, as always, frack is here to be an advocate and asset in a resource for everyone.
17:43:12 And so with that, I think we should jump into it
17:43:16 Alright!
17:43:15 Okay, so now, without further ado, let me tell you about our presenters tonight, and then turn it over the program.
17:43:24 We have with us a cat. Newton, who's a multimedia artist with a focus on community engagement, visual design production and education.
17:43:32 Jim Mckee, who's South Coast cluster, lead strategist for mass developments, transformative development initiative, Tdi and Mark Parsons is an entrepreneur artist, editor, technologist, and he's the founder and executive director of New Bedford.
17:43:47 Research and robotics we suggest you read their full bios on the website for more information on their panels back.
17:43:54 Now let me think. Turn things over to Mark, to begin
17:43:59 Thank you, Dan. Thank you. Ashley. I'm gonna share my slides with you guys.
17:44:07 But I wanna say first den and Ashley, it's such a service that you are bringing to creatives from the South Korea.
17:44:17 I'm assuming your own from the south coast, and I want to thank you for that.
17:44:21 And as an artist who started here in the Bedford.
17:44:25 And you know, went on, and is now back. I wish I had had that kind of support infrastructure community network here.
17:44:33 So think I think it's amazing that you guys are doing that into the to everyone who's here.
17:44:38 It takes courage to show up to these. It's hard we we put ourselves out there we feel vulnerable.
17:44:44 We fail a lot in pursuing the creative. You know, disciplines.
17:44:50 And I just want to acknowledge that. And my the way I constructed my talk today, we're doing this for like 2015, 20 min.
17:44:59 Right then, you know, was not to like pick my best projects.
17:45:03 It was to pick a few projects that were range a range of kind of success and failure in order that, you know, we had some kind of fodder for the conversational canon about what worked. What didn't work.
17:45:15 Why, to do that that stuff? I also want to I'm sharing my screen now.
17:45:21 Say that I don't. I I was unable to figure out how to see my notes.
17:45:27 At the same time, as I was showing you these slides, so I'm doing a little bit of winging it here.
17:45:33 So pardon me for I'll probably skip some things.
17:45:38 So the first thing is, who am I? W. What am I?
17:45:42 I am an artist. I've been an artist I've been living in New York City for the last 24 years, but I've also been a director of an architecture school.
17:45:49 I've also had a design build business. I have, you know, designed international shelters, you know, in Haiti.
17:45:59 And you know I've done a 1 million. I'm a project person, and I am always doing it wrong.
17:46:04 And I want to start with that caveat I'm always doing it first and figuring out how to pay for it afterwards.
17:46:10 I think it's just kind of part of who I am.
17:46:14 But it in the end has worked for me to do things that way, because it feeds my soul to do projects.
17:46:22 So I kind of don't care if I don't get the money that I thought I should get in doing a project like that.
17:46:29 And you know I keep tripping forward. What can I say?
17:46:31 And so, while we could be talking about lots of projects, lots of different project typologies, I'm sticking strictly to art in this, so it stays in the kind of creative thing.
17:46:43 But we could be talking about design. We could be talking about technology. We could be talking about a lot of things.
17:46:47 And I hope that as I become a part of this community again, and some of your faces get more familiar to me, we can continue conversations beyond today.
17:46:56 So I'm going to talk very briefly about big bursts, sundrop, dissonance bridge and red line, especially briefly about Sundrop, as cases in point for creative projects that I've done.
17:47:07 And I put Big Burn in the kind of win sundrop in the loose dissonance bridge in a kind of lost leader.
17:47:14 Win and and red line in the win, and you know I've got a couple slides that actually have some notes on them.
17:47:20 So I won't forget everything. I'm supposed to be saying as we go.
17:47:23 The first project is Big Burr, and I would say this was a marker for me as a modicum of success as a professional artist, in that they reached out to me.
17:47:34 I don't know how they got a hold of me, but I got to say in all the projects I've done, and I've done hundreds of projects, very, very small percentage of them, are not through somebody.
17:47:46 I already know. It's we trust people we like working with people that's kind of one of the main points of my conversation with you today.
17:47:54 It's all about how you work and how you communicate with others.
17:47:58 In this case they reached out to me and said, Do you want to do this?
17:48:00 It's an environmental sculpture. We've got this problem with bamboo on the site.
17:48:06 And you know, with the process, like many other processes, we I put together, you know, a conceptual statement and a concept of what I could do as a sculptor.
17:48:16 Sorry, that's my traditional training is, you know, sculpture from metal and wood, and you know, Stone, and casting bronze.
17:48:24 And you know, traditional materials. And so I did go through that process.
17:48:28 And I figured this is a cool process. I really like the material conceptually, I was comfortable with it, but the stipend, the artist stipend was not great.
17:48:41 It was like 5 grand or something like that. It was not.
17:48:43 It was not a lot of money, but to me it was something that I wanted.
17:48:47 I can't remember 7, 5. I can't remember what it was.
17:48:50 It wasn't in double digits, and I was.
17:48:53 I was excited about the process, and I put together, and even though I do well with technology, I think the balance of the kind of kind of communication by hand, you see, in my drawings is kind of combination of pasteship amalgam of like digital and and drawn I think that's important, I
17:49:12 Think, even in architectural drawings we can convey a lot more with the hand than we can with machines.
17:49:20 Once I was awarded this, it was like, Okay, cool. Oh, my God!
17:49:25 Now, I gotta actually make the thing that we that I prom, you know, said I was gonna do right.
17:49:32 And so I started doing tests and using light materials and much smaller materials, and at the same time what I was doing was I was getting on the phone and I was making trips to site because on on the one hand, what I'm doing is testing out my concept, how can I build it how is
17:49:52 It fraught with challenges? How's gonna work the way I expected to?
17:49:57 So I'm doing that under controlled circumstances.
17:50:00 And then when I get to site, I'm far more prepared and far more efficient in this case, and I know this is this is like not everybody's like, building a sculpture on site, but but you can kind of project these values into whatever it is.
17:50:12 That your medium, you know, whatever it is, that your medium is, and certainly on site, I confronted issues in this case that I didn't expect the scale of things.
17:50:23 Sometimes it rained heavily, and the glue that I was using didn't, and I just switched glues.
17:50:28 And use like expanding. You know, phones and things to hold things together, etcetera.
17:50:33 But in the end it worked out really well and professional.
17:50:39 You know, photos were taken of this, and so, like, you know, okay, fine.
17:50:44 There's the project. So what is it? Was it come down to?
17:50:47 Where were the artists, responsibilities? And wha what was the sponsoring body responsible for the these?
17:50:53 These are these are important. Obviously, the idea is mine, and you know what what came out of my stipend was travel and food costs, and of course I was responsible for the construction.
17:51:05 This is important. The sponsor harvested the bamboo for me.
17:51:09 If if I had to harvest the bamboo for this, there's no way.
17:51:13 It would have been any return on investment for my time.
17:51:17 They gave me housing near the site. I was essential.
17:51:21 I needed to be down there. This is down in Maryland.
17:51:23 I needed to be down there for a few days at a time, for you know several trips, and they paid for the equipment.
17:51:31 Did I that was required. The heavy equipment, and they trusted me, and I think they trusted me because of line number one, because when they got on the phone with me, you know, as a finalist, we established a good working report and I immediately went down for a site visit you can't get it
17:51:52 done on email. And you can't get it down on on the phone.
17:51:56 You have to be face to face, and then once I was awarded this.
17:52:02 It was essential to stay in my strengths and my strengths in New York wars that I had a studio, and I had facilities.
17:52:11 I could do all my testing. I could do all my failure in New York.
17:52:12 I could work, out all the bugs, and I can make all the intelligent componentry.
17:52:16 At at home for me in New York, and that was the machinery that I needed to, you know.
17:52:22 Carve the spheres that are at the center of these hubs.
17:52:25 In the assemblies, and then, when I went to site, it was merely kind of putting the parts together, so that was, you know, as being efficient, as I could on site.
17:52:37 So we we won a national, you know, landscape architecture award. For this.
17:52:43 We got professional documentation for this, and it led to next project.
17:52:53 But it is a commission. It's always good to have a commission, and of course it led to the next.
17:53:00 Oh, get the award! And, by the way, 7 grand disappears quickly.
17:53:04 It's ephemeral, but getting an award is something that stays with you it stays on your resume.
17:53:09 It's meaningful. It's a third party judgment.
17:53:13 It's ostensibly and object an objective judgment from a third party in this case.
17:53:19 So that's huge. So was it worth it? Yes, I love it.
17:53:22 I love doing. The project feeds my soul. I mean, I'm I love making work so for every reason.
17:53:29 This was a success. Do I wish I could have made, you know, 17,000 says 7,000.
17:53:34 Sure, but but it went so well, and I created such great relationships that it leads to the next one, because I got a call a month later.
17:53:45 We're doing a big project. It's a big commission, also in Montgomery County.
17:53:50 But it's in the city outside of DC.
17:53:53 And we want you to be a part of it. So it paid off I'm gonna be very brief on this one cause. This was this was a fail.
17:54:02 So what I did was on this one was put together a great proposal.
17:54:05 I think I only have 3 slides. It it it had the community engagement component that I love going out and working with the community different, you know, groups from the community to do these drawings about how this park could function for them.
17:54:19 And then extracting. You know that data from the drawings that the that the community was doing, then creating 3 dimensional artifacts from it that would compose this sun drop arch in the park over the raised bed gardens, and it satisfied everything it was a great I I became a finalist, on it they were
17:54:43 like, you know, I was basically told you got it. This is great.
17:54:48 And then what ended up happening was that when I made the Walkthrough tour with them, they they had told me that this side of this building was available this senior center was available, and could be utilized.
17:55:05 But it turns out that 2 of the finalists, myself and one other we were utilizing this wall in it.
17:55:14 It was not available to us so long. Story short, they made us re-pitch.
17:55:21 They made the last 3 finalists all re pitch with new ideas and that one didn't work out.
17:55:27 But maybe dodge the bullet right? Because if the project is not managed well enough to to know kind of what parts of the site are available, on what part of the site they're not available.
17:55:37 Who knows? Alright dissonance bridge totally different, completely, completely different.
17:55:42 Profile piece. There's a short video. Oh, you know what I don't know.
17:55:46 If I shared my sound. Hold on 1 s
17:55:56 Okay, this is a 1 min video
17:56:04 Can you hear? Can you hear.
17:56:07 When they arrived. Guests first submitted images emblematic of dissonance in their lives.
17:56:14 Today those images were automatically abstracted and turned into line drawings and then layered onto a canvas 16 feet wide and 8 feet high, and the bridge was created through the act of engaging with that canvas tracing in blue and black in a orange until after 3 h the music
17:56:40 Faded and the lights went on, and we saw Dissonance Bridge for the first time.
17:56:56 Mark Parsons.
17:57:02 For you.
17:57:06 Okay.
17:57:09 So nobody paid me. There was no sponsor
17:57:17 There. It was a total kind of just investment of my time, in this speculative way, right?
17:57:24 So what was I responsible for a lot of things? Concept development, the materials that went into it?
17:57:31 I paid the musicians other, yeah, what is? So that there was live, improvisational, sound, you know.
17:57:40 There we had, you know, beer and wine. It.
17:57:44 It was an event. This was an event right an assistant, that I needed a compensate.
17:57:49 I I I think, the main driver, and being able to do this, was that I had a room available in New York in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
17:57:57 To do this, I had to find the participants, and of course I had to document, and then I did put together the video afterwards. Right?
17:58:03 So that's up. That's a lot of time in.
17:58:06 And you know, maybe a $1,000 with the cost or something like that.
17:58:09 I don't know. I don't remember, but but you know what's the value.
17:58:16 The main thing is the the main. The real value is that I have a 1 min piece, that 50 actually 54.
17:58:24 If you include the musician. Musicians were participating in.
17:58:29 Everybody had a fantastic time. There was an Aha moment to like doing this work in the dark with each other, with the projection behind us, and then the reveal at the end and and it's networking.
17:58:41 And as a you know, as a morsel of community engagement, you know, kind of happening.
17:58:51 Sometimes I'm curious about whether they artwork is in the happening or artifact after the fact, you know, there's something which is emblematic of the way I like to work the way I like to engage people.
17:59:00 And that's gonna help me get the next thing and that's what you're always thinking about.
17:59:03 Your own thinking about what's the next thing? So was it worth it?
17:59:08 Yes, I guess. What could I have done better storing an artwork of that size and moving our work?
17:59:16 That size in New York is a bitch. There's so 8 feet by 16 feet it.
17:59:24 It was a lot to do with afterwards, and I didn't have a plan for that, and if I had had a plan for that, it would be a 100% went okay.
17:59:35 For sculpture. Again starting with workshops where we're bringing in community members.
17:59:43 And they're doing drawings we're exporting those drugs onto three-dimensional surfaces and then building up a kind of framework out of one ton of recycled paper pulp again, it's another kind of environmental piece.
18:00:00 Then it's, you know, kind of move to site.
18:00:03 There's a solo exhibition that goes with it.
18:00:07 While it's moved to site. And you know they come and move all my stuff to.
18:00:13 In this case grounds for sculpture in Princeton, New Jersey, and 2 years later it.
18:00:20 It is evolving the way it's in.
18:00:22 I mean, you know it's there's entropic forces on the way it falls away in a kind of drawing, becomes a sculpture, becomes a drawing in space again, and I'm very very proud of this work.
18:00:33 But you know this talk is not not about the work and the concept it's about the process.
18:00:39 And I consider this one of one of my really good projects, not just because qualitatively I'm proud of the work and the way it's come come through, but because of the way the whole thing was managed.
18:00:53 Right. So there were things like liability and insurance that I was responsible for any specialized tools, transferation and running several workshops which included the drawing workshops and the assembly workshops on site.
18:01:09 Right? So those responsibilities were part of my proposal, but also, you know, kind of part of what made this valuable to grounds for sculpture and what they did.
18:01:18 What you'll see. I can read this list, but what you're seeing that grounds for sculpture did was what was easy for them.
18:01:25 Studio space. They manage the workshop participants.
18:01:31 They provided housing on sites, they move the sculpture, I mean.
18:01:36 That's a huge fee art moving, especially a big stuff.
18:01:40 And that, you know, the sculpture went to a collector upstate afterwards that lived on site for 3 years, and then it went upstate.
18:01:47 You know they moved everything from New York. They did the packing art packing is another super expensive thing.
18:01:53 They produced a 9 min video and they remained me for costs.
18:01:57 Essentially right. So this was a a huge, the paycheck. I can't remember what the paycheck was 22.
18:02:09 Something like that. 25 it's in the low to mid twenties, but all the costs were taken care of right?
18:02:16 So I think that is crucial, you know. You want to rely on your partner and your sponsor to do the things that they do well, so that you can do the things that you do well, and that's all about communication so I mean.
18:02:31 You know what's that that you know? Kind of? What's the takeaway?
18:02:34 The client was happy. They got a ton out of it, and so did I.
18:02:38 They got more engagement from their community, who participated and learned in the creation of an artwork, and we had lots of conversations and presentations throughout.
18:02:49 So that's a win for them, and it's a and it's a win for me. Right?
18:02:54 So it's good, and it helps get the next. So my my final slide.
18:03:01 Sorry for doing this without my notes in front of me. But you're getting most of it, and that I I can't say this enough.
18:03:07 Your ideas as an artist or a creative, or maybe fabulous, but they're only as good as they are in service to your sponsor or your grant or's needs right.
18:03:23 Everyone has an agenda. You have a conceptual agenda as an artist, whoever you're working with has an agenda right?
18:03:29 So if you look at what Ashley is doing right now, Ashley has an agenda, and it's to get artists involved and get artists moving.
18:03:38 And den has an agenda, and that's, you know, something similar, and they can talk about their mission by whatever we are doing is artists.
18:03:46 We're either doing it alone at home in the studio, or we're doing it out in the world.
18:03:49 And if we're doing it out in the world, we are serving others, and it took me a long time to figure that out a long time to figure that out, and as soon as you get clarity on that, you're gonna have much better success in getting grants and working with partners the other thing and
18:04:06 You heard me say this a couple times. You have to ask.
18:04:10 You have to socialize around with your partners. What? Ha!
18:04:14 Look like big bird. They're like, Okay, great. You make $7,000.
18:04:20 I'm like, Okay, I'm gonna end up spending a lot of that $7,000. How can you?
18:04:24 It's gonna take me time to get down there. What can I do?
18:04:27 How can you? How can you help me? And you got to pick and choose your times to have that conversation so they're delicate and not cumbersome or or rude, but inevitably your partner has resources and those resources.
18:04:40 You know, when we are steeped in resources, we can share them easily.
18:04:45 You need to find out what your sponsor can share with you to ease the cost or burden on yourself in order to deliver the best product product, and when I say $10 equals $1 dollars equals $100.
18:04:59 What I mean is the way organizations manage budgets means that if you ask for something, that is within a budget, that they have access to or doesn't cost them anything.
18:05:15 You there that $10 can go a long way, meaning you can get a lot, and it doesn't it's it's not a big ask.
18:05:23 But if you ask the wrong question like, can you just pay my per like?
18:05:28 Can you give me a per DM, so I can have lunch every day while I'm doing that.
18:05:31 That might be way out of left field even though it's only, you know, $35 a day that's completely inappropriate.
18:05:39 Depending on who your sponsor is. So you just need to get clear on on what that is, and go to what is comfortable for them.
18:05:45 Please. Please. Please. Document your work very well. I think that's a lot easier today than it used to be.
18:05:51 And building. Trust, I think, is is is super important. The last thing I want to say is that it's a game of attrition, you know.
18:06:00 I saw so many people come out of graduate school. They were hot shit, and you know, at the big gallery, and 3 years later they're all burned out.
18:06:08 They're they're not making art anymore, or whatever.
18:06:10 3 years whatever 13 years later, if you stay, if you have integrity in the work that you do, and yet professional communication and respect, and you treat it like you're working with human beings, and you want to serve them.
18:06:27 And I really mean that we are in service to others as artists and creatives.
18:06:31 Then number one. You can sustain the effort much longer, because it's feeding your soul. Number 2.
18:06:37 People wanna work with you longer. So and I'll get you the next thing.
18:06:40 So you know there, there you go, that there's my 20 min
18:06:47 Thank you so much, Mark. That was great. We're gonna be having cat present next Kat Newton, who's a an artist, has worked on many projects.
18:06:58 Some of you may know some of her work from around the city, but she's not confined to around the city.
18:07:03 So, Kat, on you go
18:07:04 Alright. Thank you, Dan Mark. I think that was a really great presentation.
18:07:09 Some of the takeaways that I kind of want to jump on are material problem solving, figuring out what materials are right for each project, marketing properly, and then being mindful of the third party and what they need that is absolutely on point it's important as artists to be mindful of
18:07:27 What you want to do with your resources in time, but even, I think, sometimes more important to figure out who you're going to be working with, and how you can find a way to make their vision.
18:07:36 Come to life, and I ended up starting a company it's catkinets and studios and the tagline for that is basically trying to make others.
18:07:44 Visions come to like, because, as artist, as creatives, whether you're working on left or right side of the brain, you're basically helping others.
18:07:52 Ideas come to fruition with your skill set. Okay? So I'll go ahead and start screen, share.
18:07:58 Thank you, Mark. That was an awesome lot of information. Thank you.
18:08:08 Great. Okay, see the screen? Okay? So my background, these are 2 images.
18:08:18 I think they're the 2 biggest projects I'm known for the one on the top is the jazz mural downtown, new Bedford I'll go into some details about that shortly.
18:08:26 And then the bottom one is a full film, loving Vincent and there's like a timer going on there.
18:08:34 Let me! Which is a phone. I was a part of back in between 26 and 27 team, so I wanted to say, I started off.
18:08:45 My my experience as an artist at the community college setting.
18:08:48 I was in nursing. First. I had a really quick pivotal experience that led me to taking a few art classes at this community college in North Carolina.
18:08:59 I had an amazing set of professors who were very inspiring.
18:09:04 They didn't necessarily teach us how to draw our teachers business, but they told us that if you put your mind to something you could learn a new thing.
18:09:11 But it's up to you if you want to learn it, but you gotta put the time in, and I thought that that was absolutely fantastic.
18:09:16 So I decided to give the art world a world, and and I just fell in love with it.
18:09:22 So I studied at a community college, collected, the credits that I had some nursing, took a couple of studio classes and transferred to a university in Asheville, North Carolina.
18:09:35 This school is a really great school. It really helps my experience as a project developer because they pushed interdisciplinary research where you had to cross pollinate ideas between different subjects.
18:09:47 I was in the fine arts, and so I decided to mix that with social psychology.
18:09:52 So I ended up making a series of paintings that were about how the first smartphone was coming out.
18:09:58 This was in 2,011 2,010, so the first smartphones really started to become a thing, and I was witnessing how that was changing the dynamics of communication, you know, the candid conversation dynamics and then went to you mass, Dartmouth I finished my master's
18:10:15 Degree there, and I helped to develop the multimedia curriculum at that school.
18:10:20 I think they're also. They're not too courses with this material.
18:10:23 So is basically a time when I was starting to combine painting and animation together I thought it was fantastic to create a product where you kind of got to chance to have like an ephemeral like hands on field for the brush mark and also the time-based media there's no sound
18:10:40 in this video. By the way, no sound. So I had a world of a time studying this, and I knew that at this point I wanted to combine both video and sound in my work.
18:10:52 And I went to school to become a professor, and I teach now at at Bristol Community College, I teach in the traditional media and digital media departments, and but what's really important to me as a teacher is, I didn't want to show students just how to do things like drawing or design I felt
18:11:10 Like students need to understand how to go out into the world, whether they have a degree or not, understand how to take their creative skills and learn how to make revenue in them.
18:11:20 And so I didn't have that experience exactly as a student learning the the business, you know.
18:11:24 Practice. So I made a point, after graduating, to jump into a lot of projects.
18:11:30 And that's probably one of the first bits of advice I would give young artists or new artists, or continuing artists, no matter what level projects are the best way to learn.
18:11:38 Have an idea of what you want to, either take away from the project what you want to learn or gain from the project.
18:11:45 If it's about revenue, what can you contribute to a party to make their life easier in some way, shape or form?
18:11:52 And so I started doing a lot of these different projects.
18:11:55 I spent a couple of years with running through the Fashion World sculpture, mixing them together with illustration, to create animation projects.
18:12:02 I started a publication from Scratch Cova Siren, where I was trying to take a wide sample of what was going on in our community.
18:12:10 Visually music, scene, and literary scene and kind of create a constant sample, like slide or snapshot of what was going on.
18:12:17 That was at the same time that the Residency was happening, and then I was requested.
18:12:22 Well, there was a commercial that I saw for this project that was happening.
18:12:26 This was the film loving, Vincent was in the process of being completed, and I sent in basically the equivalent of bang on the door.
18:12:36 Application by going to the website clicking on that section where it says, contact us, sending an email plus content from like my portfolio saying, I'd really like to be a part of this project.
18:12:48 Is there any more information? They didn't necessarily have a apply here.
18:12:53 Button, I went straight to the source, and was like I'd love to be a part of this project some time went by.
18:12:57 I was teaching at the time the semester was getting ready to come to a closure, and then serendipitously, as the semester was finishing, I got an email vaccine.
18:13:06 They did want me to be a part of the team, and let's talk about what went into this project a little bit.
18:13:12 So this project? I was kind of like a boots on the ground.
18:13:17 Animator. I did not have any responsibilities outside of like making work that was right in front of me.
18:13:23 I had to paint each scene, or each a cell frame for my senior video.
18:13:31 Each frame was 20 inches by 30, inches. It was done with oil painting.
18:13:34 It was done via a projection. You know they had all of the cells spliced out.
18:13:38 We were animating on what are called twos, where it's on 12 frames times 2, unless we had a very fast team.
18:13:46 Then we were animating on ones, and you had to make sure that your frame that you were painting was approved of.
18:13:50 But the Rd. Director, and then once it was approved, you took a photo with that frame and then went on to the next frame by scraping linear panel.
18:13:58 The mistake. You did not want to make was forgetting to take a photo, and then scraping your panel and then realizing you have to take that frame again.
18:14:07 It took on average between 2 2 and a half hours at least, to paint each frame.
18:14:13 So if you scrape through a frame, you've got a lot of makeup work you have to do.
18:14:18 So what I learned about this was, you know, as an animator, I wasn't in charge of the directing the script, writing the fundraising.
18:14:26 I was just a part of a team that had to assimilate to what was going on, and so there were a lot of artists from all over the world who had different styles, and they put us through a very basic training program where they taught us how to animate the style that they wanted and the ones
18:14:40 that could have do, that. They were sent home, and there was one person on our team who was sent home because she could not make the right paint marks, brush marks, and she had to fly all the way back I want to say it was like Argentina. She came from so she flew there flew back and she
18:14:55 didn't have anything to show for the time and money.
18:14:56 She's spent going to move from the studio. So as an artist, I would say if you're wanting to be a part of projects, and you're coming in as like a studio assistant, if you're coming in as you're wanting like a neural painter look at what style is
18:15:11 Being used, or if it's sculpture, look at what materials are being used, and what's the end goal, and then try to see if you can use your skills to assimilate to what's needed to get that project done as efficiently as possible.
18:15:23 And then, of course, communicating regularly with either your director or team, later to figure out what needs to be done, asking questions of how you can make the project move along more efficiently.
18:15:32 You're going to be remembered for doing that, because they're going to be like, Oh, my gosh!
18:15:36 This person, not only fulfilled that rule, they looked outside of what their rule required, and then ask questions about that, and then extended their skill set to that which then depending on which project you're working on going back to what Mark was talking about you want to make the clients vision council 5 so this client
18:15:53 Sees that you're reaching beyond what was requested.
18:15:55 You might want to communicate with them, and say I can add additional value to the project.
18:15:59 Is there a way to either extend bits of the budget necessary, or take on extra rules?
18:16:06 But that's going to be a conversation to have over contracts.
18:16:09 This is a part of the scene that I animated, for the film.
18:16:12 This is the actual frames that we used. Okay.
18:16:20 While this project was happening I was still continuing my painting practice.
18:16:24 This was a time when I was starting to pay for portraits of friends that I had in the community, that I was seeing regularly here and there, and they were becoming models for me for different ideas a couple of years later.
18:16:41 So we're now pandemic hits. The Covid hits.
18:16:44 It's a 2020. I got a email from the super flat, Jeremiah saying that there was a mural that was going to be coming up where they needed portrait artists.
18:16:52 I immediately jumped at the opportunity to do that. I'd never painted a year old before I was used to working on a 18 by 24 to 20, by 30 I painted like a 5 by 7, painting before, but I never painted a large mirror before so I was gonna have to do a lot of research and
18:17:11 Learning about materials, and what I learned was you know, there's paints that work for interior exterior.
18:17:18 There's different types of surface paints. And then there's different methods to scale up an image.
18:17:22 There's grid methods, there's projected methods.
18:17:24 There's organic grid methods like squiggly grid methods.
18:17:28 So I had to learn a lot of these different processes to figure out how to get the job done efficiently.
18:17:33 And I wasn't paid to learn those things. I either got the job or I didn't get it.
18:17:37 I either like was able to execute the job on budget in time.
18:17:41 Good quality or not, and it makes that reminds me, like every time you engage with either a potential client or an organization, you're both spending time.
18:17:52 That's extremely precious, and operating cost is going out the window while your time is being spent engaging with one another.
18:17:59 So it's always important to try your best to deliver quality in every way that you possibly can.
18:18:04 So figure out what they're looking for. Figure out what's the point of the project's existence?
18:18:09 To begin with, what's the final outcome of the experience they're seeking to provide for others or for themselves, and then figure out if it's within either your immediate skill set, or if it's something you could learn fast enough at a good quality industry, level, to be able to execute on time
18:18:24 Invite, and without getting on people's merits in a way, stuff happens sometimes within projects, like if an email but you wanna try your best to like, get those things done as efficiently as you can.
18:18:37 I was the role of the designer for the project.
18:18:41 This project was about highlighting and zoom a lot of the musical talent in the history of the jazz scene in New Bedford.
18:18:48 This building owner also owns a production company, and he's worked with all these musicians.
18:18:54 The initial project. They wanted to have a grid of portraits laid out.
18:18:58 And I was like, guys, people are going to see the portraits. But they're not going to really understand the context of who they are, so the design was to create, to kind of emphasize that aspect of who these gentlemen are, and what role they played in the history.
18:19:10 Of the music community in Bedford. Again. I haven't here the template boss client.
18:19:16 So the client in this case was the I was working with super flat, the new bed for distort, society, wailing city sound, and the the fiber optics.
18:19:27 I can't remember the name of that company but I had to keep in mind all these different parties, and then also the parties of people who helped install this.
18:19:33 And actually, there's 2 people here who were absolutely fantastic artists.
18:19:37 I want to give a shout out to them. Mandy Fraser and Autumn on. I don't know if you're still here, but y'all autumns here they were absolutely fantastic artists that help install it.
18:19:46 So it actually brings up another point. Find your friends who are also really amazing at doing stuff and bring them on board your projects and then make projects happen together, because every colleague, as Mark was saying, has different strengths, and you want to kind of work in very symbiotic fashion to help make
18:20:02 bigger ideas come to life. And this is a really great example of that.
18:20:07 The dance mirror that happened almost simultaneously.
18:20:10 Shortly thereafter. This was a mural where it was gonna be installed along.
18:20:16 I forget the name of the season. It was a capital theater in the north end of New Bedroom.
18:20:19 This was a smaller scale theater I had to buy basically pieces of plywood, prime them and make a design that was going to fit in that setting I came up with a concept of dance because it think dancing is something that's extremely celebratory.
18:20:32 I don't know who does not have fun dancing, and celebrating anything about history, and that's popular is something that brings a lot of like good feelings.
18:20:42 Goodbye to a setting. This was a this was a much smaller budget that I was working with, and this became about quickly putting some design ideas together and executing them.
18:20:51 But the deadline was extended because the budget was smaller, so different projects are going to have different variables that are more flexible than others.
18:21:00 Sometimes the variable is a deadline situation. Sometimes it's a budget situation.
18:21:06 Like Mark was talking about. You want to figure out how far you can get your dollar to stretch, and also how far you can get your hour to stretch, and when I say hour, I mean, like, if you're working with a hiring an assistant, if you're going to subcommittee out make
18:21:19 sure that you pay them well, make sure that, like I I could go on forever on the whole minimum wage bull crap stuff like at least 25 h to an hour.
18:21:30 Start start there like, if you're bringing on people to help, make sure you take care of them.
18:21:33 All right, but the hour can be stretched if you have others helping you get the project done.
18:21:40 Other other things like access to technology, things like the adobe.
18:21:44 I would heavily recommend learning the adobe software programs like Photoshop illustrator in design.
18:21:50 If you're doing animation media or new after effects.
18:21:53 Premier. There's also other animation software that are out there.
18:21:57 But in this case, for this project it was Plywood.
18:22:01 It was 3 panels, and I had to get them installed before the end of I think it was between like December and January 2,02020 21, the Hash Street neural.
18:22:12 That happened last this past summer. This was the first year old where my company was able to get the sale, and then also hired on students that had recently had the privilege to work with at Bristol Community College, who graduated and did an extremely amazing job in class so I started treating my teaching practice in a way.
18:22:32 As okay. I'd like to present these ideas to the class of who was interested in drawing, who is interested in working with murals?
18:22:41 Who's interested in animation, and then I deliver the concepts in my assignments in a way that teaches them directly what it would be like to bring some of these different projects to life, and then the ones that do extremely well and show a lot of interest in this I consider actually hiring them for
18:22:56 a project, because one of the things that I feel like when I was a student.
18:23:00 There wasn't a proper integration system between academic setting and professional setting.
18:23:04 So this project was the first time I was able to take students outside of a classroom and then hire them directly onto a project.
18:23:12 The Hat Street mirror was designed as basically a billboard to help bring more attention and basic information to where the Hash Street studios are located in the north end of new effort.
18:23:23 I had to manage the, of course, the materials the design.
18:23:26 Looking at the service, that the paint was going to be going on, making sure that had a decent longevity so it code it with a decent coding that helps by the the Newb Lights and everything, and then managing the team, making sure they're safe making sure like everything around that
18:23:42 Area was safe. I know that there was a lot of broken glass we had to deal with.
18:23:45 There was some windows above the seed that had broken glass in them, and I was like that doesn't look very safe.
18:23:53 And so I contacted the building owner, and they said, We'll take care of that.
18:23:57 That was dealt with, but I had to make sure everyone part of the project was in a safe setting, and nothing was gonna happen to them.
18:24:04 I had to make sure I had like liability insurance.
18:24:06 I also had workmen's Comp. In this case, and then I had to deal with Taes as far as sending out 1099 for this project as well.
18:24:12 So what I love about this practice is like, if you, as an artist, if you're wanting to go business owner, there's a lot of left brain.
18:24:21 Things that you're gonna have to start doing more of accounting contracts talk like talk with a lawyer like help like for like they're worth their time like that.
18:24:32 You spend asking them, Hey, this kind of transaction is getting ready to happen just this makes sense.
18:24:39 And then there's that I remember some a once told me like Bever.
18:24:41 It's kind of written down on a map in, and he was asked to play a certain number of games, and so like the contract can be like whatever is clearly articulated of what one party expects from the other party.
18:24:52 It can be small it could be at length. There could be all sorts of details involved, but it's very important that both parties understand what's expected from each other in that process.
18:25:02 How, how am I doing on time? Am I running out? Am I going over
18:25:09 Yeah. You still have a little time
18:25:09 They still have some time. So that's gonna be a bit of closure for the mural part.
18:25:16 I'll show this really quickly. This is a animation example.
18:25:20 The animation, pipeline development that I'm working on with another group of recently graduated students.
18:25:26 So this is our one of the directions. My studio is going in.
18:25:30 Where.
18:25:34 I'm working with
18:25:43 Oh, this was a really quick example piece that was design and developed.
18:25:51 Yes.
18:25:50 Kat, the music on that is drowning out your voice
18:25:55 Alright, so let me let me mute this. Okay, so this was a project I built with a couple of folks at Christie a couple of years ago, and what I was doing was kind of creating a pipeline for animation and figuring out all the different roles that would go into that and what
18:26:12 I'm excited about doing, moving forward in this aspect of the company is actually designing animations for different either musicians, organizations, and whoever is interested in that.
18:26:25 But what I love is the process of building a pipeline to help provide that service, and also bring on artists even for that.
18:26:34 This was a festival that today animation for last year, not turn function.
18:26:39 It's an Edm Music Festival that's based out in Western Nas the main roles that had to be filled were concept artists, illustrator and animator.
18:26:48 I had the the budget for this one wasn't the best.
18:26:50 It was like a $1,000 budget, and I had to create like a twenty-six-long video for it.
18:26:55 But what I really gained from that was learning about what's going to make the pipeline a lot more efficient.
18:27:01 And so as you're starting off, either as an independent contractor, if you're starting off, if you're wanting to work with another organization, if you have a lot of things to learn that could be an exchange for what the budget is if it's lower so rather than thinking of it as I'm
18:27:15 not getting paid enough. You can think about it. I'm gonna get paid to learn this thing.
18:27:20 So I had a chance in this transaction. You could say, to learn Okay, in order to make this product execute on time.
18:27:27 Didn't budget, you know, into the quality that they want.
18:27:30 What are the exact steps that are gonna have to go into making that happen?
18:27:35 So this one was a big research project, as far as that goes.
18:27:38 And then there's projects that go into community engagement.
18:27:42 I love community engagement. I cannot go on enough about how much I love it.
18:27:47 I think it's amazing, because whenever artists, creatives are engaging with the business owners, municipalities, nonprofits, schools, churches, all of it.
18:27:56 There's a sense of I just feel like if there's a there's a it just helps. It makes things better.
18:28:00 It kind of keep. Not not to a weird, cultish degree, not like to an obsessive degree, but just like it.
18:28:07 It helps greatly like, I went to dsups today.
18:28:10 Got this delicious like meal, and then I had a chance to run into 2 musicians.
18:28:14 One of them, Dr. Drell. I can't think this last name that he's an amazing musician.
18:28:18 He just released an Ep, I got a chance to talk with another community engager.
18:28:23 Of course, and then another musician. I went over to Green Bean and Saul like a friend who's doing some really cool stuff.
18:28:30 So I feel like there's a type of like support and networking, and something magical that happens when community stuff occurs.
18:28:38 Now, you can. I think it's a good idea to work with what you're familiar with.
18:28:41 So if you're passionate about the photography, you know.
18:28:44 Look at what kind of events you could put together. That brings more conversation out around photography.
18:28:49 If you're excited about building projects, make events like this like dense in terms of like these types of events like the phone over, it's council, like cool and make these types of events kind of like.
18:29:00 But I I love communic because it it's one of those like high tide raises all ships, type thing.
18:29:07 So this is an example of an event that I ran at the Cook creative Center last year. I believe no.
18:29:11 2 years ago, and it was just like taking 2 artists who were going to do a one day workshop, and I was talking about drawing, and then met Melanie.
18:29:21 She was talking about. She was doing a collage workshop, and it was talking about healing and everything.
18:29:26 So this was an event designed, and the boss was the the community center.
18:29:30 I had to figure out what would the client need to execute this type of community engagement event that they were looking to sponsor and then I think this is the last one.
18:29:41 The this is an event series that I run. It's figure drawing.
18:29:45 It's I'm the independent contractor who is actually promoting the event independently.
18:29:51 I work with another organization to co-create center.
18:29:54 And I take a plan which is to, you know, give the community access to the opportunity to practice drawing from the live figure, and then I set up a schedule and make sure there's a budget in place to pay the model and then I make sure that there's plenty of marketing, that goes
18:30:10 Out to reach anyone who's interested in this particular type of activity.
18:30:13 And so the role that I have in this is a little bit different, because it's rather than being the artist I kind of step away from the studio, and I step more in front of the the computers, like I was talking with Ashley earlier at the beginning of the meeting like how much time is spent in
18:30:28 Front of a computer. So there's like event planning that emailing, marketing, looking at, releasing content on the social media charts and then also managing the event itself.
18:30:39 And so, yeah, and I think I think that that's it.
18:30:44 So like for me, like it's like, figure out who the client is, what the what the goal is, what you're why, you're doing, what you're doing.
18:30:53 If you love doing it, and then what does it take to make it viable, and to new viable is, it can continue to happen.
18:31:01 It can continue to occur, because, like inspiration is great that you can't pay those you can't pay overhead with that, and I know this isn't a workshop specifically on cost.
18:31:11 But a really big thing that I take into consideration is what I call hashtag.
18:31:16 True cost, like what would it cause to make an event come to light?
18:31:19 Who's giving? What time, what skills, and how can that be compensated either in an exchange of some sort?
18:31:25 If it's direct money, if it's time or whatever, so that all parties are able to continue operating viably.
18:31:31 And that's that's the that's my little session of center that I kind of constantly try to focus on every time I try to bring a project like.
18:31:41 Thank you so much for letting me share. Share that experience with everyone.
18:31:44 I'll go ahead and pass it off to Jim.
18:31:49 Hey? Thank you. Kat, ensure your screen, great. And next up as a cat just mentioned is Jim Mckee, who, many of you may know from around the area, and Jim was Gonna launch into his work
18:32:13 Jim, unmute.
18:32:24 Sorry about that. Thank you. Those were amazing presentations.
18:32:31 I am absolutely just astounded with the with, with the art and the talent that that I just saw there.
18:32:43 I'm going to. See. Get this into presentation mode.
18:32:48 Can everybody see that
18:32:49 Yep. Sounds good.
18:32:51 So I am the boring one. Here I am going to be talking more about projects that are bigger than one cell in a way, and and and kind of I'll start by talking a little bit about how I I sort of fell into this work.
18:33:13 I I am a wayward, creative. I I I did do a lot of art in my youth and in college, spent a lot more time in the sculpture studio than than the the laboratory, but what I do professionally is I when I when I return back to my hometown of
18:33:33 Of of Worcester. I started really trying to figure out sort of my place in the in the community.
18:33:40 I felt like I didn't really have a strong footing.
18:33:43 My parents were not from the the the community. I grew up in, and so so I started working with with with folks in Worcester to do a lot of what would be probably term place making projects today.
18:33:59 And then, and then I was. I've I've always been in the trade.
18:34:03 So we started be having apartments. And I started a company of my own, eventually doing historical re rehabs of of homes across New England and and doing some some woodworking architectural reproductions that that could kind of thing.
18:34:23 But what I I really enjoy doing was was the community work was the, you know, working building community gardens, or or or you know, other other projects that involved a lot of different a lot of different folks that were saying, they wanted to see, something that that that wasn't there and how do you make
18:34:45 That happen. So you know these ideas were not necessarily my own.
18:34:51 They were, you know, working with the community to say, Okay, well, you know what are, what are your needs?
18:34:56 What do your wants, and and and how do you make them make them happen?
18:35:02 Eventually I I I went back to school to get a planning degree after you know, doing a lot of work in Coalition building and in Worcester as a property manager downtown and and really found that I I enjoyed that work and and that has led to to my
18:35:20 Present job, where I work almost exclusively in the world of of partnerships, on, on.
18:35:28 How do you bring a diverse group of people together to to drive the revitalization?
18:35:35 Or you know of, of of commercial districts primarily, but you know places that have seen significant disinvestment.
18:35:43 And how do you get people coalesced around things they want to see happen.
18:35:48 So, you know. So I'm gonna go through. And well, one of the things I should mention is that you know these are it.
18:35:55 It's it's it's listening, you know.
18:35:58 So my job is as in in my, in my experience here has been less of of the creative.
18:36:04 You know, folks that that we just heard from so I haven't approached it so much as an artist or a creative.
18:36:10 But how do you creatively, you know, look to solutions and and collaborate and bring people together effectively in projects that are bigger than you know than you.
18:36:23 And and and some people have called me a professional instigator.
18:36:25 I don't know if that's good or bad.
18:36:29 But the one of the one of the things I've been really just honored is to work with the people who actually make this stuff happen.
18:36:37 The real people who have the collaborative bones in their body, and the creative force to come together and to make this stuff a reality.
18:36:47 And I'm always astounded and amazed, and I just have to say that you know we live in a community where we have a number of just remarkable people, and and and Ashley, who who has helped put this event together.
18:37:02 I I consider one of them, but others like, you know, Banjos, Oliveira, and and Dina Hayden and Patty Rigo, and and and so many more, and in in the community, and I'm I'm I'm just enormously grateful.
18:37:13 That I've had an opportunity to to work with them, and and continue to work with them.
18:37:19 So I'm gonna go through some examples really quickly, of some of these kinds of events that you know that I'm talking about here.
18:37:28 These are some that I've been involved with, or some I haven't, but they're all collaborative events in some way that we're we're, you know, creating a making, you know, making a vision for.
18:37:43 You know, these these massive collaborative projects, a reality.
18:37:47 So they brought many, many different. You know people together, different organizations together, and and you know they could be these kind of events, or they could also be, you know, public art.
18:38:00 And in murals, that that we've heard so much about as well.
18:38:03 And here's some examples of of of that locally and and some organizations who do it.
18:38:09 E. Extremely well. So I'm gonna kind of move through this fairly quickly.
18:38:14 I'm as I said, more on the analytical side here, and I just wanted to to talk about 3 main takeaways from this conversation is, you know, collaboration doesn't always make sense.
18:38:24 And I think you wanna collaborate when it does right and when you are, you know, trying to figure that out I think we've heard a lot from the, you know, Mark and and Cat already about you know what what motivates you to do the to do the work.
18:38:39 And you know, in these big, you know, multi-party projects, you know.
18:38:44 Give yourself some some lead time. In a little bit of slack, and you think through the details thoroughly, and and you know as much as as we plan.
18:38:53 Nothing happens as plan. So you know, to to Mark's point, you know the the sort of jumping into projects and getting stuff done is a great way to learn, you know.
18:39:04 But I think you have to be realistic about, you know, when you when you get into it, and when you start thinking through some of these details, you know how much time is it going to take?
18:39:14 And what is it really going to cost, and and how complex, you know, are these projects?
18:39:20 So, you know. So you know, when you when you think through some of these, there's I I just want to go through.
18:39:26 You know some of the the the you know, the the w's in the in the ages, and general considerations, and and you know partnerships and participants.
18:39:35 The project details. Where are they happening? The timelines? And I'm not going to spend a lot of time on all of them.
18:39:42 But I just wanted to kind of talk through some of the moving pieces with with, you know, thinking through these multi party projects, the person, why are you doing it for fame, you know, in fortune are you doing it for the good of the community?
18:39:55 Are you doing it? For? You know, economic development? And you know, is there is there a financial motivation and community motivation that there?
18:40:07 Are you doing it just for the love of it? Kind of just because of joy?
18:40:10 I think all of those things are are really important, and they open up sort of the world of of possibilities in terms of you know which direction you want to take as you're as you're planning it.
18:40:21 If it's your idea, I think you're gonna approach it a lot different now, if it's somebody else's idea, or if you're or if you're trying to bring, you know a number of people together around something that you know came out of a a bigger planning process or you know that
18:40:39 The community for a long time has been saying, Boy, we want to, you know, we want to see this happen.
18:40:44 We want to see, you know, a mural organization, or we want to see, you know, the transformation of this space, or you know the the the transformation of of this, this building or the street, you know.
18:40:59 So this opens up, you know, a lot of a lot of different possibilities in terms of the kinds of you know events and and and in projects you're going to be doing.
18:41:10 Are you going to be doing it for free? And you know participants will be able to to take part in it, for for no charge?
18:41:18 Or is it more like a more like a business? Right? Are you?
18:41:21 Are you gonna be charging a fee and and you know all of the things that that that could entail?
18:41:27 One of the things that I think is really important is to think about, who has already done projects like it, or who has tried to do it in your own community, and either did it successful or you know, successfully or or not, and and you know one of the big things that I've learned is just to ask
18:41:43 People a lot of questions. When when I was involved with 2, the Outdoor Film festival in West.
18:41:50 Which I was on one of the previous slides. There was a, you know, film festival that preceded it.
18:41:57 That was done with a health care company of all folks, and and you know we we approach them early on, and and they what they were incredibly supportive about, you know, giving us tons and tons of information about what they did what didn't work what they would have changed.
18:42:16 But it also opened up another conversation in terms of you know, potential funding.
18:42:20 So they gave us money to do it, to do it better, and and and they were at the table to kind of guide us along the way and and tell us, you know, hey? You might not want to do it that way, so you know ask about people's experiences and you know talk to a lot of
18:42:36 People to find out what didn't work, you know.
18:42:42 If if if you're the right person to do a particular job or a particular task, I think you know one of the things that's been very clear to me, as someone was probably leans to more of the analytics side.
18:42:55 And and and the planning side is that there's a lot of things that I'm not good at.
18:43:01 In fact, most things I'm I'm I'm probably not good at, so I need to, you know, if if I'm involved in a project, I'm curious to find out.
18:43:08 Well, you know who is good at these things, who who can do them better than than I can, and and oftentimes, you know, you'll find that that those are the basis of something good win win situations.
18:43:23 I think it also might uncover. You know some some folks that you might not want to work with, and you have to go with your guy about, you know.
18:43:30 Maybe this isn't the best, you know collaboration.
18:43:33 And I want to scale things, scale things back. But in another thing that that can can lead to is, you know, if there's another organization, who's, you know, specializes in something or has a lot of experience, you know, doing a particular event.
18:43:48 Or you know, planning certain types of projects is that you can collaboratively seek funding or collaboratively seek support, and you might very well be more successful if you go into them collaboratively than if not a lot of grant-making you know agencies and
18:44:07 Funders really like to see collaborative proposals.
18:44:11 They like to build capacity. They like to rely on existing capacity in order to to build more.
18:44:19 So when you are going into these relationships, and they feel right, and they feel good and they're clearly going to make the project better.
18:44:29 And and you know, maybe more efficient than you know, that I highly recommend.
18:44:34 You know, exploring some of those opportunities together, and then, you know, think about the ease of execution.
18:44:42 You know versus that building capacity. Right? The the more complex a project you know, the more the more folks that you'll probably have to, you know, bring in to the fray, the more you know professionals you might have to to hire from the outside the more logistics, that are going to
18:44:58 Be involved. So if you you know, thinking about these big, complex projects again, like we've heard some, you know, from from from marking cat is maybe it's best to start small and and think about you know, making it more complex in the next project.
18:45:16 And and you know, building building the capacity incrementally.
18:45:20 The other thing, too, is, is hiring locally can be, could be a really important piece of of your projects.
18:45:27 You know, I think it's extraordinarily important to pay the artists and the creatives that are part of your projects and and pay them a a fair, you know, wage to, you know.
18:45:40 I think you know it's it's it's safe to say that a lot of people, and certainly, you know, Mark is a good example of this with some of his projects engaged with work that you know.
18:45:51 Feeds them that is joyful, that, you know creates value, perhaps in other ways, but but don't don't expect that if you're if you're planning these big complex projects, I think you want to treat, you know your artists and your performers.
18:46:08 And the people that are involved in your projects fairly, and if you don't have the funding to do that, then then, you know, I would look at scaling back and and finding out other ways to to kind of fill that account, and then I I just wanted to mention you that you know public goods, can allow for public concession.
18:46:24 So, if you are doing a project, for the good of the community, if you are doing a project to generate, you know economic development, to get people, you know, into a particular region and visiting local businesses, you know that's opens up the door for in kind help, that opens up the door
18:46:45 for a lot of other kinds of support, and sponsorships.
18:46:50 There's a lot of a lot of fees that are involved in permitting these big, complex things.
18:46:55 A lot of permits that you know that take some time to work through.
18:47:02 And and when you're doing something for the good of the community, is the good of the city, and it's and it's in line with what you know.
18:47:08 The city administration wants to see, and others want to see.
18:47:12 It's a lot easier to, you know, to get help from from those groups into you know, to to get into situations where you know some of those fees get waved and and and you know other departments step up to do some of that work so so what are you doing you know, I think
18:47:29 It's really important. This is something I do, even though it, you know again.
18:47:34 Never nothing ever happens according to plan. But I write everything out.
18:47:38 I write every little detail you know. You know who do you?
18:47:43 Who do you need to pay and and you know who needs to manage the project with you?
18:47:47 You know, are you including vendors? Are there? Are there people going to be, you know, selling stuff?
18:47:53 Are our artists and performers going to be hired?
18:47:55 You know what are the what are the materials and equipment you need?
18:47:58 Where is it going to happen? The scheduling the approvals in permitting is a big one.
18:48:03 Fees and licenses. You know one of the things that we ran into, for instance, with the film Festival is that even though we were offering it for free, you know, for some of these big name movies you know, we had to pay a lot of money to to license those right so
18:48:17 there's a lot of costs involved when you start involving you know, a lot of different pieces.
18:48:24 So do your research you know. Figure out, you know, where all these hidden costs are, and and inevitably you'll you'll find new ones as you as you kind of go.
18:48:32 You know, into into it security and safety, just making sure participants are safe and making provisions for for that managing waste and, you know, getting Porta bodies to events and making sure that that all that stuff happens and parking and transportation can be big as well, especially
18:48:51 If you're, you know, closing down streets, or you know, you need to get people around a bigger area.
18:48:58 So all of these things cost money, and our logistical challenges, as well.
18:49:05 Where are you doing it? Locations and venues matter a lot, you know.
18:49:10 Private venues. Obviously, you know, they they have certain requirements in terms of getting permission from, you know, the owners of the spaces, or, you know, specific, you know, rental agreements, or, you know, use of these spaces.
18:49:27 They might just be, you know, venues for for lease, but a lot of times he's projects require some significant negotiation in time, you know, especially mural projects where you know you have to talk about the creative content oftentimes and and and come up with you know, pretty complex
18:49:46 Contracts in in order to, you know, in agreements that that that you know, protects you, protects the artist, but also protects the the owner of of the property if you're doing events outside in parks, they usually require you know specific approval from some kind of governing
18:50:04 Body, parks and Re, you know, recreation commissions.
18:50:08 Alcohol is usually not allowed again in that that movie situation.
18:50:12 You know, alcohol was strictly prohibited out in that main park, but it turned out that City Hall had a big plaza, and and we had, you know we had live music, and and you know, and all kinds of vendors before the the movie but it turns out city hall
18:50:31 Didn't have the same provision. So the city manager simply said, Well, why don't you set up your your alcohol on the you know your beer and wine on the on the plaza, and we were able to to have our own little kind of beer garden up there but
18:50:45 streets and sidewalks or another. One businesses, you know.
18:50:49 These are important considerations in terms of the the businesses, that you know that that depend on.
18:50:55 You know, people being able to to get there and to buy stuff.
18:50:59 So a lot of businesses typically don't like street closures unless they are invited to participate.
18:51:05 Or you know, is directly for their benefit, and they are part of the you know, the planning, and their businesses are specifically highlighted, you know.
18:51:15 Sometimes parades, for instance, can be really hard on businesses, because you're shutting down the street, and people are, are, you know, facing the street and they don't, you know, really pay much attention to to the businesses, or they are so be aware of you know, who's being impacted.
18:51:31 By, you know by by some of these events, or some of these big projects, and then, of course, street closures also require special permits and police details.
18:51:40 It can get expensive and and and complicated. When again, give yourself lead time, approvals and permits.
18:51:49 Take time permits happen according to set schedules.
18:51:55 Commissions have submission deadlines. You have to get materials to them before you know.
18:52:00 The next scheduled meeting, which might be a month, sometimes 2 months away.
18:52:04 You know, for some boards and commissions. So just be really aware of that.
18:52:09 Go on to, you know city websites. Look at all of the you know everything that you can in order to get a get a sense of how much time some of these, you know, things are going to take seasonality and weather.
18:52:19 Obviously, you know, plays a big part in in planning and thinking about participant, you know, comfort and and all the other provisions that sometimes need to be, you know, provided in order to keep you know the the people who are participating, you know, comfortable, and and and safe and then
18:52:39 calendars, check the calendar, make sure that you know there's there's not, you know, potential conflicts with other organizations that's oftentimes a big beef.
18:52:49 In some communities, when you know, a lot of people plan events on the same same days.
18:52:56 Sometimes it can work wonderfully, sometimes, you know, people.
18:52:59 People resent it, and it can build up, you know, conflict between different.
18:53:03 You know, different organizations. So you know, making sure that your ch're checking the calendar that you're coordinating with with folks that you know you you may wanna collaborate with in the future.
18:53:15 Or keep in their good graces, and then then get your event on the calendar.
18:53:21 Soon, you know as it as soon as you can as well logistics, I'm I'm I'm not gonna spend a lot of time here, but you know again, each each each one of these, you know, requires some some thinking.
18:53:33 I'm I was gonna spend most of the time just sort of talking about.
18:53:36 Okay. Approvals. And permitting, you know, these things exist for a reason there to protect the health and safety of the participants.
18:53:45 They allow for you know the efficient coordination of of resources from from the city side.
18:53:53 Many, if not most, require some kind of fee. Again, cities and administrations are oftentimes willing to wave fees if it's in the benefit of you know of the city every municipality does things a little differently I wish we could say that you know this is the
18:54:10 way. It's it's always done. If you're here and you're here, and you're there, it turns out that's not the case.
18:54:16 Every city has zoom has a different, you know, way of doing things, you know.
18:54:23 Their boards and commissions are set up slightly differently, and you know, oftentimes finding that that 1 point person who kinda knows how the all the machinery works can save just a lot of time and aggravation the licensing office, if they if the if the
18:54:40 municipality has, one is typically a great place to start licensing committees typically are involved in in in alcohol, permitting, you know, one day permits things of that nature, but they usually know you know who to contact in in terms of you know all the
18:54:58 Different. You know all the different, you know kinds of approvals.
18:55:03 You'll need checking ordinances. Municipal websites asking questions again.
18:55:08 Different, you know different regulatory bodies are in charge of different different things, so you know, use of parks and public slant.
18:55:18 Public land is usually parks, commission food, vendors, and waste management, health department, street closures and special events can be the department of Volunteer Works could be the mayor's office could be the police department as I said, licensing board usually takes care of the temporary
18:55:35 Sale one day permits of alcohol temporary structures.
18:55:39 If you're doing a big stage, if you're you know, if you're building something over over, you know, in in a particular public space, you usually need to contact the building department or inspectional services.
18:55:55 City councils oftentimes have to approve structures over a right away.
18:56:00 When we build parklets, for instance, we need specific approval.
18:56:03 Typically from from city, councils, unless it's by right projects and historic districts.
18:56:09 So you know cats project there in the in the in the historic district.
18:56:15 The jazz mural required special permission from the Historic Commission.
18:56:20 So you know projects that are in historic districts are going to require the the, you know, the the permission of of those bodies, noise, nuisance, ordinance.
18:56:30 If you're gonna have live music, if there's you know other, you know, types of activities happening.
18:56:37 Some, municipalities require you to get a permit, for you know, for sound and music.
18:56:45 The parking. If you're going to be using parking spaces, loading, unloading, meter, bagging, you oftentimes need someone to come ahead of time and bag those meters so no one's gonna park there, especially if you have people you know, loading on loading for
18:56:59 You know. You know vendors in particular events, and then things like tents and heaters, and and those things that that might pose a particular threat usually require the sign off from from the fire department.
18:57:13 So I just wanted to give you a sense of all the different you know.
18:57:16 Things that can go into, you know, permitting some of these, some of these events.
18:57:21 So how much you know. I I I I you know, when you're going for funding in your you know you're you're starting to create a a budget and thinking through it at i find it's usually a pretty iterative process, and sometimes you know when you're looking at a particular
18:57:37 grant they might have a budget template and it's a formatted in a way that you've never thought about before, and you have to kind of go back and kind of reconfigure.
18:57:45 You know some of the some of your details, you know, but the more that you can, you know, start thinking through this process early.
18:57:53 The easier it is going to be when you start engaging the the Grant writing process.
18:57:59 I'm not going to go into really any detail in terms of of of of the budget, but I did want to point out that there's a lot of great arts organizations that have a ton of resources, you know, for for creating budgets for projects of all different sizes and
18:58:18 categories I'm just listing some of them here.
18:58:20 A simple Google search will, you know, bring up a ton of them fractured Atlas is a is a wonderful organization that oftentimes serves as a fiscal agent for for artists and arts.
18:58:31 Organizations that are doing a lot of these great creative projects.
18:58:34 Americans for the arts. Again, very, very, there's there's a ton of information on on their website in terms of support for for artists, arts, organizations, and some of these big creative projects.
18:58:48 And they have a lot of resources there but some of these other ones, as well, like creative capital in in in the field, and then you know, finally, there's there's a ton of funding sources out there for a lot of different kinds of of of projects.
18:59:04 These are just a you know, a few, you know, of of, you know the product of the funding sources that are available to do these big collaborative projects.
18:59:15 You know we have a commonwealth, places. We have our creative cities program as well, that can fund.
18:59:23 You know, some, some, you know, really interesting public facing collaborative projects new, you know, New Bedford, creative as wicked, cool places.
18:59:34 It has. The art is everywhere. Grant, you know. So there's there's some wonderful things locally, you're you know, the the state and local Creator cultural councils they've the festival and artist credit mask dot.
18:59:48 Has this wonderful program, that we rolled out during the the pandemic called shared streets and spaces, and you can use it, for you know, transportation related projects, parklets, you know, all kinds of of of really interesting projects that you know that that that happened on city
19:00:09 Streets and in public rights of ways, patronicity is a is a crowdfunding platform that oftentimes supports a lot of these other programs.
19:00:17 Bloomberg, flanthropies. They have all of Bloomberg's programs run through a mayor's office.
19:00:25 Typically so they they have to go through, you know, be submitted through the Executive.
19:00:31 You know the the you know, whoever that is, you know whether it's the the city manager of air, but they have some really terrific programs.
19:00:43 And and and they don't oftentimes, you know, they're not offered.
19:00:47 They're not offered all the time, but when they are they could be really interesting ways to get some some funding into these projects.
19:00:55 And then the national endowment for the arts has just a just an enormous amount of programs as well.
19:00:59 Our town grants, artworks, grants, and a number of other ones that can support some of these.
19:01:04 So these are just sort of a taste of of of some of the of the funding sources that you can.
19:01:10 You can go after. So that's really it for me.
19:01:13 I I wanted to kind of focus more on the nuts and bolts in in retrospect, I think going into some of the specific projects might have been a little more interesting, but but I hope I hope there was some positive takeaway. Here
19:01:32 Hey!
19:01:34 Oh, I just went over to
19:01:38 Okay, no. We could UN share your screen. And if you have, people have questions, please add them into the chat, or raise your hand.
19:01:47 If you know how to raise your hand, because we certainly, with the the amount of information that was just presented by our speakers I can't imagine.
19:01:57 There are no questions.
19:02:00 I think it. They all covered a wide range of stuff, and I'm very, very pleased with the the scope of what they came up with.
19:02:11 Autumn has a question
19:02:15 Okay bottom. You can unmute you, unmute yourself and ask
19:02:16 Sorry I, yeah. It took me a second. But yeah, so while I'm thinking of Jim's presentation, cause, it was in the forefront of my mind.
19:02:27 Where would you say? The best place to start planning for an event would be
19:02:34 I mean, if you're planning for an event, I suppose the best place to start is, you know.
19:02:40 Who? Who are you doing the event for, like you know what?
19:02:44 What, what's your audience, you know? Who's who you're trying to get there?
19:02:48 You know you don't. Wanna you don't wanna do an event that's you know.
19:02:51 If you're if you're trying to make it really accessible to do it in some far away place, right?
19:02:56 So you want to be. You want to be thinking about, you know who who it's for, and then and then you know what's what's the purpose of the event, you know.
19:03:06 So I think again going back to those those why questions are really, really important.
19:03:12 Why are you doing it? Are you doing it just because you want to do this cool thing?
19:03:15 And as an event, you you really want to put on. And you want a bunch of people to come in and have fun with you, and or or, you know, engage with a a really interesting idea that that you haven't explored before, like you know, Mark's wonderful project there, in the dark you know, you know, so
19:03:33 I think I think you you you start with the why questions, and that opens up a number of different avenues for you to to kind of take in terms of. Okay?
19:03:42 Well, we're am I? Gonna do this? So you know, you know, what?
19:03:45 What are the places that would accommodate? You know this idea, if and you know, where, where would people, you know the kind of venues where people would feel comfortable if if you're you know, or maybe you're trying to make something really creepy, and and you know you want to you want a creepy
19:03:59 venue, you know. So so I think those those why questions are where you are or where you want to start, and you know, to start pinpointing the you know the the the house and the wise and the wares
19:04:11 Hey? Thank you so much
19:04:14 Yeah, I, wanna I wanna add to that. I think Jim's exactly right on that.
19:04:17 I would say that for a, for a visual artist like myself, the place to start and meander, and organically develop is in the studio, right?
19:04:29 I'm gonna start a project and see what I I'm gonna attach something to a car.
19:04:34 But I'm gonna cast some and you can do it.
19:04:38 That that's fine in the studio, and that's a great way to work in the studio.
19:04:40 But when you're in the public sphere, and I mean spending money, or in like literally in in public, or working with others, it's absolutely working backwards.
19:04:51 It's a 100%. So just I'm gonna say the same thing, Jim said in a different way, which is no what you what your limitations are, and know what you want to get out of it.
19:05:01 And then you can kind of match up venues and people in numbers, and all all those things to ensure that you're doing it right.
19:05:07 And I have to say one other note relative to working the public sphere.
19:05:12 And I've worked with bid directors and the Department of Transportation on Art works on on actually design works, you know, creating pavilions and things like that in the public sphere in New York City.
19:05:23 You do not want to be the responsible body working in the public sphere.
19:05:29 You just don't I'm just gonna say, don't be that body.
19:05:32 It's way too frustrating. There's way too much, you know, pureocratic tape.
19:05:39 I I've been in that world, and I still would call up Jim and say, What should I or somebody like Jem, and say, like, What am I gonna miss here?
19:05:48 What you know like, and I've done a lot of that.
19:05:50 You do not want to be on the hook for publicly, for working in public space always, always.
19:05:57 W. You know, work with the sponsor who can handle the city and can handle the you know, any approvals and certificates.
19:06:04 If you're doing something in private, you know, in a museum or in a backyard, or is it?
19:06:11 You know that's a totally different thing. Do not be an artist working in public, and be the responsible body.
19:06:17 I'm just. I really mean that that's gonna get you in trouble.
19:06:20 You're gonna screw something up. It's incredibly complex and very expensive, and just the time it takes to pulse permits when your Mark Parsons is totally different than when you're data, or you know the the call of visual and performing arts.
19:06:36 Don't you don't take it on as a personal thing.
19:06:42 And I'll add that there are lots of organizations around them out of the New Bedford Fall River areas that are capable and would be happy to to come up with an idea that they think is worth doing would be happy to part
19:06:56 I agree.
19:06:56 Cool, I'll also add that this is a great opportunity to one to start small, so that you can see all the bases that need to be covered.
19:07:07 2 like network, with others who have been around those bases and see where you overlap with each other.
19:07:16 You know, as far as like let's bring right brain stuff to the checklist.
19:07:21 You have new contacts now, like Jim and Mark, we, you and I talk regularly about these kinds of things, but, like always, it's the doors always open, but like learning more about what those checklists are.
19:07:33 And then like kind of trying your hands out of project and communications is so important, like in intent is important.
19:07:40 What do you want and identifying that? And then keeping those communications as clear as possible, and then a really big thing that helps Neil on projects is thinking about reciprocity.
19:07:49 If I pull this part of the project forward. Other members of part of the project, what are they contributing?
19:07:57 And who's holding onto what weight of what responsibility?
19:08:00 And honoring each end. That does that, no matter how big or small, that contribution is.
19:08:05 That's especially important when working in the public sphere.
19:08:10 You don't want to be in a situation where you work on a project, and you ignore the ones that made that project come to life because they may not be as part of a as grandiose of a role that was played so being super mindful of looking at all the parties that are involved and being
19:08:27 like showing gratitude for the efforts being put forth there.
19:08:31 So when you're sending emails, when someone's behind the desk looking at emails and managing a lot of videos right like that needs to be like honored in and like mentioned like, I have your plate is full. I understand?
19:08:43 You have this going on. I have this one question be direct, very to the point.
19:08:49 Do all the homework you can to have all the information every time you communicate with a partner, and then another thing that helps is deadlines set deadlines like Jim was saying.
19:08:59 Like, if there's a a meeting that's about permits that happens only every day.
19:09:04 Months like do the work to figure out what questions need to be asked?
19:09:08 What forms need to be turned in? Who need to be in contact with?
19:09:12 How can you make their life easier, you know, and that that kind of speeds speeds a lot of things up.
19:09:18 It's more laborious thinking that way, but I find it helps significantly as far as making a project run more efficiently as opposed to just focusing on the scope of what you you want to do or what what role you have to play in
19:09:33 That's great. Nicole has a question, Nicole, you want to do that on screen. Just unmute yourself
19:09:43 Sure, yeah, this question is for any of the speakers.
19:09:48 Each of them, if they want to answer it. But what kinds of organizational tools do you use?
19:09:54 Have used in the past. And what do you use now? And how has that changed over time?
19:10:01 When you say tools, do you mean software? Do you mean pattern like what?
19:10:07 Like any anything in specific
19:10:08 It could be anything from digital tools to sort of techniques that you use any.
19:10:15 It's a pretty pretty broad organizational tools. Yeah.
19:10:20 I love dropbox, and I love folders, management and dropbox, and I'm still very like old school, as far as like organization, with all my post-it notes ready.
19:10:32 Okay, yeah, good. We'll post to notes.
19:10:34 I have different to do lists that I'm manage on my like phone.
19:10:42 And then my account I've got phone calls, social media.
19:10:48 I'm I organize and manage a lot of stuff.
19:10:51 You know social media things like I'll reach out to different groups, doing different things.
19:10:54 Inquire what they're looking for, how things are going, share that information with another group and it's kind of like playing volleyball with different organizations trying to get different agendas or goals accomplished and figuring out if there's any cracks that need to be
19:11:08 Filled and can I help with any of that and then let them know what I'm doing?
19:11:12 And then that that helps a lot. But that's more like in the community engagement sense.
19:11:18 So, but like making things available visually. And then in an email so like, if I'm sending an email to Jim, and I'm like, Jim, there's this thing coming up.
19:11:27 I have a question I might also attach, like an image of what I'm talking about, because then that helps the information come across more thoroughly.
19:11:34 Okay.
19:11:35 Yeah, I, I mean, I I also love and those are.
19:11:40 Those are great suggestions, and and I I I mean I I rely on spreadsheets a lot, and you know, I I think they're just such a clear, easy way to organize that you know things.
19:11:52 And they're so simple that they become incredibly dynamic in a way, because you can, you can really you know, think through projects and in complex ways with them, but also, you know, I like easily accessible and intuitive design programs like sketchup, I find that's a
19:12:12 Good, one for project concepts. Because you can. You can lay out public spaces.
19:12:16 You can, you know you can, you can think about interior spaces.
19:12:20 You can, you know. Pull pre-made designs from the warehouse and plug them in.
19:12:27 You know, to to make concepts go easier. So I I find that to be to be really really helpful is is as well
19:12:36 Okay.
19:12:38 And and mark.
19:12:38 How would I would? Yeah.
19:12:40 I'll let me add a couple of things to.
19:12:43 But just let me also mention that the poll is now running.
19:12:46 So before any of you leave, please take the poll. I think they're lots of really good tools, and they start with Pencil and paper, but they run right up to very complex design programs.
19:13:01 I think the most important thing is to find something that works the way you think. You know.
19:13:08 So great.
19:13:08 If you find something that works the way you think it will help you organize.
19:13:13 If you find something that that somebody tells you is great, and you don't find it works along the lines of how you organize yourself and your thoughts.
19:13:23 It's gonna be competing with your ability to get anything done.
19:13:27 So if something seems just like this is not helping, then advance in it and find something that is
19:13:34 That's great advice.
19:13:36 Agree, though I would like to add, on the communication side, that this tool right here with texting is good for meet me at 30'clock.
19:13:45 But I never do content with. So meet me at 30'clock is about is good as deep as I get on texting, because I want a written, archived, written kind of history, of anything.
19:14:04 Not it's not so much to catch other people it's to make sure that I know what I committed to or what's that thing I need to look up, or whatever.
19:14:12 So I try and keep all content in a place where I can easily go back and search it on communication side, and then, you know, if if I came across my presentation as spastic or whatever, and and you know I love to draw I'm a major like hand, drawing person.
19:14:31 But everything happens through, excel like I don't get into any like I can be all spasy on a piece of paper, but no project happens without a spreadsheet.
19:14:42 It is absolutely essential to do it that way. And you got to work on it, you know, several days in a row, and you go back and you find more detail, and you fill it out, and you've got your version of the spreadsheet and and where you've got all this detail telephone numbers and how much it
19:15:01 Costs all that stuff, and then you've open the next tab.
19:15:03 You drop it all in there, you cut out all the extraneous, and you have a budget now you have a budget for your grant, and you know it's 10 lines long instead of a 100 lines long.
19:15:14 The excel spreadsheet, or or Google sheets is that's where it's admin.
19:15:18 That's you got to think like superstructure
19:15:21 Hmm. I mean, is, is anyone using anything as fancy?
19:15:25 As like Microsoft Project, or like project management, level tools.
19:15:31 You know, it's interesting at at work. We've got. We?
19:15:35 We got the Microsoft system. And I've actually fallen in love with it.
19:15:40 I I did. I I'm it has so much functionality like every time I I, you know, fall into it, you know in in an unexpected way I find another.
19:15:51 You know, tool that we can use. So you know, we we've been as an agency.
19:15:56 We've been always like, Oh, well, we need to get this thing from this vendor and this thing from that vendor and try to cobble them together.
19:16:04 But I gotta say Microsoft got a lot of functionality.
19:16:09 It can pretty much do everything, so I've been pretty happy with it.
19:16:12 We haven't, I mean, I I feel like we've we've only scratched the surface in terms of its capability as a team tool, you know, and and as a as a collaborative tool, there's there's a there's a lot of a lot of you know, functionality.
19:16:27 There as well. So yeah.
19:16:32 Okay. Thanks.
19:16:33 Moreau is another one that I've liked a lot, too, because you can.
19:16:36 Oh, okay.
19:16:39 You can put a lot of ideas on there. You're in in in, you know.
19:16:43 I'm surprised to hear you say that June
19:16:44 Fool around with with them, but then but then you can collaborate with it.
19:16:48 You can bring other people into the same document
19:16:50 Murau is good for teaching remotely and and stuff, but I would that would be too spastic for me, and I've tried project management software's Nicole, and I think they're great.
19:17:03 But they require an investment of time before you get the return back, and and, Nicole, you're starting to know me.
19:17:13 I get to know me a little bit more. I am moving too fast, in the things that I'm doing to want to invest the time in the management software.
19:17:23 Yeah.
19:17:23 It's probably a smart thing for me to do, so I'm not.
19:17:26 That's not advice. That's not advice. I just haven't really fully adopted it yet.
19:17:34 Hmm.
19:17:31 Yeah, I mean, I've used like things like Asana before, you know, with previous employers and those kinds of things are great.
19:17:37 They they can scare a lot, and they're all web based.
19:17:39 And so, okay, yeah, thanks. These are great answers. Everyone. Thank you.
19:17:46 I would love to know Kareem, Matthew Rachel Vanya Brooke.
19:17:52 What do you all autumn? I I think I got a sense, but from you autumn.
19:17:57 But what what are you all? Why are you here? What's what is your Meta?
19:18:02 What's your discipline? What are you interested in?
19:18:04 I would love to hear.
19:18:07 Or type it into the chat. If you don't feel like talking, or if you're eating dinner
19:18:12 Sorry. Sorry. It's dark in my house. I'm musician.
19:18:17 Graphic design. I I do photography. I'm a writer so kind of multi disciplinary.
19:18:26 Are you in Fall River, New Bedford, or
19:18:23 I guess. So. Yeah, I mean, I I'm from New Bedford.
19:18:30 I live in follower, for now, though
19:18:31 Right on. Cool
19:18:35 And my name is Vanier. I'm an artist.
19:18:39 I have a studio at the narrow center for the arts.
19:18:41 I try to do a lot of community involved in events right now.
19:18:46 I'm working on a Stars Residency with the Saint Michael School.
19:18:52 Where I was actually previously a an arts teacher.
19:18:55 Hmm.
19:18:55 For for about 10 years, and then quick, right after Covid, when when my art lessons went to zoom lessons, and I just didn't feel accomplished.
19:19:08 But yeah, my focus, yeah, my focus has always been china.
19:19:16 Awesome.
19:19:12 Trying to bring arts to the community, and you know there is.
19:19:18 There's always there's always a gap sometimes in that bridge, and and that's why I'm here, you know.
19:19:26 I mean it. Sometimes you learn through other people's experiences, and that's what I'm hoping to gain.
19:19:30 Oh!
19:19:33 Thank you.
19:19:33 Thank you.
19:19:36 I guess I'll go next. I can really, with Matthew.
19:19:40 I have various passions and multiple disciplines.
19:19:47 I am assigned model and actor, I've been working heavily with the youth and with people dealing with mounted illness, so I'm very much, you know, involved in the community.
19:20:00 Also do a lot of outreaches with the homeless.
19:20:03 I'm also a dance artist. So I'm frequently performing at various events and shows.
19:20:09 So I just wanted to, you know. Come here and just listen, and you know, gain some new perspective, getting some knowledge.
19:20:18 I would love to in the future, you know, put on events for the youth, incorporate, you know.
19:20:25 Creativity dance as well. I'll dance in the youth I studied at 9, at college.
19:20:31 I study music education, so I have my degree in that as well.
19:20:33 So yeah, that's pretty much it. And I'm also building.
19:20:36 I just started my own business called positive pathways, and I'm launching my own podcast.
19:20:42 So I've also had a radio show in the past.
19:20:45 So I just want to spread positivity through my art to my work.
19:20:50 And yes.
19:20:51 Thanks.
19:20:50 Yeah, that's great.
19:20:51 Great Rachel typed a question in Rachel.
19:20:55 Do you want to come on screen and
19:21:01 Oh!
19:20:58 It wasn't a question I was just letting folks.
19:21:02 Why I'm here. What I'm interested in working on.
19:21:06 I'm recovering from surgery, so I'm reclining.
19:21:11 Okay.
19:21:14 Good.
19:21:11 Not one camera. But, thanks. This has been really helpful
19:21:16 I'm Brooke Doherty. I I may be I I do, drawing, painting, printmaking, photography.
19:21:22 I do a lot of different stuff, and, unlike most people here, I think I have tended to focus more on the what I can do by myself in my studio.
19:21:31 I've happened into a couple of public projects over the years that were exciting, but after, like several years now, of just focusing on work by myself, and also trying to work with 3 children, I I realize that I I haven't a new interest in my work, be more relevant.
19:21:48 Like. I have a whole studio full of hundreds of things.
19:21:50 I've made that I've never shown or shared with people, and perhaps thinking about it from the other end.
19:21:57 Not just what do I feel like doing today? But like, actually, what might there be?
19:21:59 A need for how might I make something that connects with others?
19:22:03 More is something I'm trying to focus on more as I like.
19:22:07 Sort of reenter focusing on my career after time spent with 3 children who are being super loud outside.
19:22:14 Lots of this this evening. So, so.
19:22:17 That's great!
19:22:17 Totally totally appreciate that, I can. I can I do a quick anecdote in response to that brook, so as in New York after grad school, and as my studio I was making making making make and and showing blob up on a little bit, a little, bit, but not didn't really break out or
19:22:31 Anything like that. And I I'm I'm a disabled person.
19:22:36 I have Ms. And it has affected me in a whole bunch of different ways, and my partner at the time was like, you know, why don't you do this?
19:22:43 Apply for this grant that has to do with disability. I applied for it. I was like, no, I don't want to be known as disabled.
19:22:50 Nobody can tell I'm disabled. Nobody knows. I'm blind in my right eye, you know.
19:22:54 Nobody, you know, like I don't want to do that because I don't want to get I don't wanna do that.
19:22:58 But it was the best thing that ever happened to me to go and work with kids, I designed a project, anyway, it doesn't matter.
19:23:09 It got me out of studio, and I worked with people in public.
19:23:11 I was working with kids that were in hospitals at the time.
19:23:13 And it set the rest of it. It was the motivational thing for the rest of my life.
19:23:20 That was so. I totally relate to what you're doing.
19:23:23 I I, where what you just represented, and you know right there, like Go, you know, I'm I'm really glad to hear you're ready to to do something to get out of studio.
19:23:33 I think that's really powerful
19:23:35 You're here. That's great!
19:23:36 I wanted to add just a little bit to that brook.
19:23:41 So I, after finishing grad school, I was always asking the question, will like I knew I wanted to teach, and so I started teaching, but I always felt like, What can I give the students that beyond the studio practice because they're gonna have bills that are gonna come we all have bills that need to be
19:23:56 Paid so with me. I was like, really like I I needed to figure out how could I find a way to get this information to them?
19:24:04 Well, I'd have to get out of my studio.
19:24:06 Go figure out like the basics business, and then I went down this big rabbit hole and like started a business.
19:24:13 Bill, learn. I'm like going not learning about taxes right now.
19:24:16 Learning about all. But it's what I what matter to me, cause I want to bring that information back into the classroom because I love teaching the students like drawing and animation, and painting.
19:24:27 But I also want to give them a sense of hope of like you could make some revenue with this, and not just be like like, I have an amazing faculty that I, you know, in my education.
19:24:36 But none of the ever had that talk of. Here's how you're gonna pay bills with this stuff outside of go to a gallery so like whatever it matters to you like just grabs it.
19:24:46 You like that's going to be the thing that'll Hi!
19:24:48 There, that's like whatever like, grab your heart. That's gonna be the thing that that I would follow, that in that that pulls you out of that studio space. If that's what you want
19:24:58 Yeah, I love, I love these comments. I I like person.
19:25:04 When I was in in high school I I hated public school, and and I almost dropped out, and I was, you know, on kind of the wrong path.
19:25:14 Let's say, and and then and then I found a school that that you know completely broke open my social network.
19:25:24 And you know I'll I'll all of a sudden I was hanging out with, you know, people from all over the State, and it completely changed my life.
19:25:31 I mean my life completely changed, and it was funny because my my wife had a similar experience.
19:25:36 She grew up in a small town in central mass, and and then she she always loved being in, you know, being an artist, she wanted to be an artist.
19:25:44 Then she took part in art, all state. And you know this big, collaborative thing where people come together from all of the State, and they do these great, you know, projects, you know, over over the course of of several days.
19:25:56 It changed her life, it completely changed her life. It it it opened up, you know.
19:26:02 All kinds of relationships and networks and everything else, and it set her on an entirely different bath.
19:26:09 Then than where she was going. So yeah, I love. I love that that getting out and and experiencing and and and mixing it up so I'd love to see some of your work that's scrolled away in your studio
19:26:24 Yeah, I wanna add to that a whole part of the mission and the conception of product plan practice.
19:26:32 Best, practice is to combat the whole concept of the starving artists and help people understand that as an artist you're also a business, and you need to consider that and if you don't know about our other workshops, please check out our other workshops.
19:26:48 So they were all available online, and they will be more. We have 3 more scheduled for sure.
19:26:54 This season, and we have our hoping to add more to that package, and we will keep going as long as the funding keeps coming back at us.
19:27:02 So we're getting down to the end of many final questions.
19:27:11 Alright. Well, I'm gonna wrap it up then, cause we've got 3 min left on the clock, and I wanna thank our panelists for doing a wonderful job covering so much.
19:27:26 And in such a a set of bite-sized waves, I think it's important that all of that was very digestible, and I think that this is gonna be viewed a lot on our website.
19:27:41 And I think I'd like to thank Ashley and and the frack for funding this one and all of you for attending, and please spread the word.
19:27:52 We're trying to. We're trying to make an impact for creatives.
19:27:55 And by creatives we don't mean just visual artists.
19:27:58 We mean musicians. We mean anybody who does anything creative and wants to try and do something that is out there for the world, and also to make some money at it.
19:28:08 So I really wanna thank all of you for for joining us and save see you on that next one, which is February fifteenth.
19:28:20 Thank you.
19:28:20 Thank you so much
19:28:23 Thank you.
19:28:23 Thank you so much
19:28:25 Alright, cool, welcome.
19:28:26 Yeah, this is great. Thank you.
19:28:28 Hey!