Recently, ARTISIN sat down for a wide-ranging conversation with Ted Berger, former Executive Director of New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) and currently Treasurer of the Joan Mitchell Foundation. After four decades at the forefront of arts advocacy and administration, Ted divides his time and energies among a myriad of new endeavors including: Executive Director at New York Creates; Project Director at the Urban Artist Initiative/NYC; and board member on foundations and organizations too numerous to mention. A former Assistant Dean for the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and the School of International Affairs at Columbia University, Ted writes and speaks extensively on the arts and artists and cultural policy for numerous national and international publications, conferences, academic institutions, and organizations.

Ted’s vast reservoir of experiences and knowledge constitute a tutorial for anyone with an interest in the arts. Our conversation covered topics from arts and aging, to the sometimes contentious relationship between arts organizations and individual artists, to how to recruit and support the next generation of arts advocates. One theme that emerged over the 90 or so minutes is that the stewardship of our arts and our arts community is a work in progress, with many tough questions still to be answered and many battles still to be fought.

Inspired by this, we are kicking off a series of forum discussions. Periodically, we will address a different topic and open the floor for discussion on our forum page. We invite you all to participate. In order to make and keep our community strong and vibrant, everyone’s voice needs to be heard.

Here are a couple of examples of conversation-starters:

Artistic Legacy

Artists, as they age, generally don’t stop creating; they keep going. But what happens to their work? An issue of increasing importance for older artists is how to preserve their creative legacy. We need to develop systems to document their work. If you could create such a project, what would it look like? How would you undertake the task? What do you see the challenges and rewards to be?

Artists vs. Organizations

Friction and disagreement are perennial irritants in the relationships between individual artists and the organizations who present their work. Both have valid complaints. Artistic directors and curators often prefer to work with dead artists, who won’t behave like divas or complain that their work is being trampled. The artists bemoan the impersonal, revenue-driven organizations who disregard their creative intent and often treat them as nuisances. Have you ever had an experience like this? Which side were you on? Was it resolved, and if so, how? Do you have any advice for others dealing with the same situation?

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It looks like the cleanup, repair and recovery from Sandy’s devastating damage is going to take weeks, or even longer. We hope that everyone came the storm safe and unscathed. If this unprecedented event has left any lesson behind, it’s that our lives and livelihoods can be very easily upended if we are not prepared.

If you are on the ARTISIN mailing list, you received our special September newsletter, devoted to Disaster Preparedness Month, which outlined important steps to take to safeguard your studio, your work and your vital records from events like storm, flood or fire. Unfortunately, as we can attest, these are not just hypothetical situations, and taking preventive steps is not just something to do “when we get around to it.”

If you haven’t done any disaster planning, now’s a great time to start. Not sure what to do first? Two good places to start are the Craft Emergency Relief Fund (http://craftemergency.org/) and ArtsReady (https://www.artsready.org/). Both of these organizations can provide a wealth of information and advice on how to prevent, minimize and recover from damage caused by disasters, natural or man-made. Or feel free to call or e-mail us here at ARTISIN — we’ll be happy to point you towards the information you need.

You might also like to have a look at ARTISIN’s Resources page where we’ve collected timely and useful information on post-Sandy resources and services.
 

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Have a question for the ARTISIN staff or for your fellow creators? Ask it here. Got a show or a performance coming up? Let us know. Any work you feel especially proud of? Brag about it here!

We hope this blog forum will grow into a true online artistic and cultural community.

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Start here: it’s a good idea to develop clear, useful-friendly navigation from the outset.

Artists’ websites make up a special category in the World Wide Web’s taxonomy, with their emphasis on presenting visual material in a wide range of media. The challenges — and the choices — are manifold. Here’s a useful list of ‘dos-and-don’ts’ to use when developing artists’ websites (the page name, ‘weberrors’ does little justice to the content…). Please feel free to contact ARTISIN if you would like to discuss a current or upcoming website project.

artbusiness.com/weberrors

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Attention Upper Manhattan artists, artisans and craftspeople!

Sign up now to participate in the 2nd annual Upper Manhattan Arts Festival, October 6th in Roger Morris Park, on Jumel Terrace and W. 162nd St.

Organized by historic Morris-Jumel Mansion (which sits in the park), the festival is a day-long celebration of arts and culture. Area artists of all disciplines are invited to show their work (and possibly make a few sales!). This free event runs from 10AM to 6PM. There will be live music and other performances throughout the day, and various food vendors will also participate.

Last year’s inaugural festival was a resounding success, attracting more than 700 visitors, and this year promises to be bigger and better. So don’t miss out! Call Carol Ward  at 212-923-8008 for details and signup information, or e-mail education@morrisjumel.org.

See you there!

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ARTISIN President Susan Schear is on the board of Craft in America, and is delighted to bring your attention to this recent news item (text from the Craft in America press release):

National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Chairman Rocco Landesman announced that Craft in America is one of 78 not-for-profit national, regional, state, and local organizations nationwide to receive an NEA Arts in Media grant. Craft in America is recommended for a $75,000 grant to support a two-year campaign of weekly video releases on the Craft in America Channel on YouTube. The 78 Arts in Media grant awards total $3.55 million, and support the development, production, and national distribution of innovative media projects about the arts and media projects that can be considered works of art.

The Craft in America Channel will be launched on Craft in America’s YouTube Channel, Facebook page and website. These videos, dedicated to the exploration, preservation and celebration of craft and its impact on our nation’s cultural heritage, will be available to the public, as well as to schools, museums, galleries and arts organizations as teaching tools, and can be accessed additionally thru PBS’s website and mobile apps.

Craft in America on PBS

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Greetings

Researching images for the site, I happened upon this blog by Laurent Anzai Momy, a freelance art director in new media based in Paris. Mr. Momy says, “I like to find potent things in the common and common things in the formidable … they all have some kind of a meaning to me – I hope it resonates to you too.” Cool. Have a look.

agitprod

With resonance, CR

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Paintings, photoshop, film by Charles Ryder
Orchetronics by Paul Reeves.

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