Papergirl goes BIG for our third year in downtown Northampton

There are so many extra awesome reasons to participate in Papergirl Northampton this year.

We've added some cycling experts and community organizing enthusiasts to the team to help us expand the programing for Papergirl 2011, coming this September.

This year, during our closing reception we've got the following awesome events in the works:

Bike Swap Meat: Got parts? Need Parts, bring em and swap em, trade only, no money!

Bike Beauty Pageant: Who's bike is held together with the least conventional items, Who's got the sweetest set up, etc.

Slow Race: How slow can you go?

Paint Bike: Yes, we're gonna use bikes to collaboratively make giant abstract paintings.

Bike Repair Workshops: How to fix some things, taught by wholesome, unpretentious experts who won't judge you for riding a 10 gear instead of a fixie.

Free Raffle: Bring a bike, get a ticket, bring a piece of art to donate to Papergirl, get another ticket, wear a costume, get a ticket, in order to win sweet prizes from our sponsors.

We're also planning a renegade bike parade, come ride with our distributors in costume. Space is limited on the cycling distribution team and we have a dedicated core group who've been with us since the beginning, so don't expect to get to hand out artwork, but you can hand out your own goods, wear a weird costume and have fun taking over downtown with us.

Anyone is welcome to participate, just please be careful if your really intent on wearing a cape. This will be a super fun ride, in the past two years we've taken over the downtown intersection during the "pedestrian walk time" and it's a big spectacle, we get a lot of honks and hoots, in the good sort of way.

We'll also have our full open house for the Papergirl exhibition, complete with DJ, snacks and TONS of art to view.

And MORE to come yet!

-This is going to be insane, it's going to be an insanely fun, family friendly, community building mash up of art and cycling.


We will be putting out a call for folks who want space for the night but we're mostly interested in things that are FREE and accessible, so unfortunately you can't just show up and sell your crappy old Eagles vinyls, you have to be willing to trade!
Unless you are raising money for a local charity or non-profit.
-This is all still sticky, but start getting your ideas together. As soon as our process and policy is refined we will release more official and detailed info.

Individuals or entities looking to SPONSOR Papergirl 2011, via donating raffle items, project consumables, ad space or printed materials are the only folks we will allow to vend objects in exchange exclusively for American dollars, (sorry dude with the Eagles records).

Stay tuned, SO MUCH more info to come and if you've got ideas, or want get involved shoot us an email: Nowforart@gmail.com

Papergirl Returns for Round 3!! Open Call for art on paper!

Papergirl Northampton returns for round 3.

If you don't already know how this amazing internationally recognized project works here is a break down.

Borrowed from Papergirl Berlin (and now spread like wildfire across planet earth), We collect works of art on paper, have a big exhibition of all the collected works, throw a big party and we then distribute bundles of all the art to random people on the street via cyclists in down town Northampton.

Yes, we give the art work away for free to strangers, and that's correct, we have no idea what they will do with it.

Why would we do such a thing you might ask. Well for one giving gifts to strangers is a really nice, romantic thing to do every once in a while, even if only just once a year. Papergirl also opens up the doors of the art world to the greater public and stresses the importance that art can be made by anyone and enjoyed by anyone. Papergirl says, you might not be the person to go into a gallery, so we will bring the art to you. For some extra insight on this see About Papergirl, a blog post from last year with a more thorough exploration of what's behind the concept of Papergirl.

Here are the rules: any artist, of any age, from any where can submit any art they would like to contribute so long as it is on PAPER. Photography, illustration, prints (woodblocks, etchings, screen prints), whatever you can think of.

Our only stipulation is that we strongly prefer ORIGINAL works of art, the reason being is that we want to be able to hand out ART WORK ON PAPER, not photocopies. We want the strangers who receive the work to be impressed and want to take the work home and hang it up. We don't really want photocopies or photographs of other pieces of art. There are no size restrictions and no limit to the number of pieces you can submit. Everyone gets at least one of their pieces represented at the exhibit, or more as space permits. We had over 400 pieces last year!

Please also keep in mind that we make ROLLS of art to hand out (usually 3-4 pieces per roll), illustration board, mats, etc, in our experience don't roll up very well or at all basically. Then our riders end up with a mixed bag of packages and rolls. We like it when our team of cycling art distributors only have to deal with rolls while they are out riding in traffic, weaving through busy streets trying to hand out work, it's easier and safer for them.

Mail or drop of work to Eben Kling at 1 Linden St, Northampton MA, by August 31st.
Email Questions, volunteer to help install the show, or to ride with Papergirl Northampton to: Papergirlnorthampton@gmail.com

Spaces Still Available for And In One Another

Today was technically the last day to sign up for a sketch book but we still have approximately 25 spaces remaining.

If your interested in participating, please send us an email ASAP to let us know, we'll get back to you and let you know if we can count you in so you can send out your form/money right away.


We will fill up the remaining spaces on a first come first serve basis so if you really want to participate you should shoot us an email right away.

andinoneanother@gmail.com

Don't miss out!

& In One Another: A Massive Collaborative Sketchbook Project RETURNS

We're doing our second round of & In One Another.
A quick run-down: sign up and pay $10 for a hand made book, and receive 30 assignments every other day over the course of 60 days.

At the end all the books are returned for an exhibit of all the collective books, celebrated with a reception and then returned to their darling respective creators.

Check out all the details here: & In One Another and download our PDF to sign up.

Also visit Valley F.E.A.S.T. to check out or updates and read up on how our first F.E.A.S.T. went. We already have our next event scheduled for April 30th so subscribe to our blog to get updates as they come in.

Outside of all our smaller community based projects, Now.For.Art is in the process of space acquisition with some very exciting things in the works. I'm going to keep those details a secret for now, suspense is awesome.

Stay Cool.

Call For Proposals! Valley F.E.A.S.T.

With our budget all set and the wheels in full gear, Valley F.E.A.S.T. is well on it's way. Our first round is scheduled for January 22nd 2011 at the Elevens in Northampton MA.

If you are an artist working in any medium in the Pioneer Valley, it's definitely time for you to check out our Submit A Proposal Page on our Valley F.E.A.S.T. site.

To recap once again, Valley F.E.A.S.T. is a series of recurring events where we have some great exciting eats, some totally rad entertainment and of course artists will present proposals for their projects that need funding. All of our lovely guests will vote on the proposals and the winners take home a sack of cash!

We are encouraging the actual presentations at the F.E.A.S.T. event to be innovative and the only rule is to do your best to convince the audience that your project deserves the dough! The presentation should sit somewhere between 3-7 minutes and we're open to working with you to accommodate how you want to present.

The rules are simple and anything goes so long as it's rooted in creativity and can be accessed by the community. Winning proposals will need to be presented at an upcoming F.E.A.S.T., this way the community gets to see the amazing things that their money went to support. Again check out our Submit A Proposal Page for full details and get those proposals rocking! Also, never hesitate to email us if you have questions or need a few pointers for your proposal, valleyfeast@gmail.com.

To reiterate the beauty of this project, it's locally funded, it's democratically based, it's about community and it's super fun. Our requirements are minimal compared to other cultural funding opportunities and outside of the possibility of winning some cold hard cash it is an extraordinary opportunity to network, get the word out about your work and to engage with your community.

If you are interested in getting involved with F.E.A.S.T. outside of submitting a proposal, check out our How To Get Involved: Artists and How To Get Involved: Non Artists pages and be sure to send us an email at valleyfeast@gmail.com so we can figure out how to get you plugged in. We're open to all ideas and suggestions, so bring em!

We are super psyched to see what you folks come up with, get those proposals in!

Cheers!

Valley F.E.A.S.T.

Valley F.E.A.S.T. (Funding Emerging Artists through Sustainable Tactics) is a project that Now.For.Art is currently working on with Portal Arts Group.

Valley F.E.A.S.T. is a recurring series of events that coalesce local agriculture, culinary talent, and music and art to put funds into the hands of young and emerging artists.

At every F.E.A.S.T., the public is invited to come enjoy a fresh, innovative and locally sourced menu that is prepared by a special guest chef, to experience a unique line up of live entertainment and to also vote on proposals that are presented by artists who need funding. Entry to Valley F.E.A.S.T. is set at a sliding scale with a suggested donation of at least $10.

At the end of the night, the winning artists take home the evenings proceeds with the community supported responsibility to go make their art, which is later presented at the next Valley F.E.A.S.T.



Right now we are scheduled to host our first F.E.A.S.T. here in downtown Northampton on January 22nd 2011!

We also have a Kickstarter Campaign up in order to raise money to make this project possible. We have less than two days left to go! You can visit our Kickstarter Campaign HERE.

We’d like to extend a MASSIVE thank you to everyone who helped us reach our goal!

We’d also like to ask one last time that if you have not already pledged to our Kickstarter campaign to please consider doing so in the final hours we have left to raise greatly needed funds for Valley F.E.A.S.T.

If you are wondering why you should contribute even after we’ve reached our goal, please consider these following things.

We purposely low balled our goal since Kickstarter is an all or nothing fundraiser, we had to set a goal we could reach in 20 days in order to get any money at all.

With that, the money we raise from this Kickstarter campaign is our total budget to get this project off the ground, this is start up money that we need to generate multiple events over the course of a year and it is an EXTREMELY tight budget.

As our budget grows we will be better able to invest in green & re-usable supplies and stronger marketing.

Lastly, neither Now.For.Art or Portal Arts Group who are working to bring this project to Northampton are receiving ANY type of compensation, this is all being organized completely voluntarily. Now.For.Art has never received any compensation for any projects we've ever organized.

Also, please consider re-posting this to your Facebook, blog, or Twitter since obviously we don’t know everyone in the area that may either be interested in contributing to our Kickstarter campaign or in participating in any other aspect of this project!

Additionally, if your an artist working in any medium in the Pioneer Valley area, it is definitely time to check out our guidelines for submitting proposals at the Valley F.E.A.S.T. Blog and to begin preparing your proposal. Also never hesitate to contact us with any questions, email us at valleyfeast@gmail.com

Papergirl Northampton, happened like, over a month ago...

Today we bring you a long over due peak at how Papergirl Northampton 2010 went over. Sadly this year we were very strapped with time and resources and unfortunately our documentation suffered a great deal. Non the less these not so great photo's will illustrate a basic idea of what things looked like.

I will attempt to offer more in the way of words to describe Papergirl 2010. This year we tapped in at just under 400 pieces of art work from about 70 participating artists.

We had two different packages come from Germany, one of which was part of the Papergirl Post Office being established by the crew in Berlin, responsible for the concept and origination of Papergirl. The "Post Office" is being set up as a way to keep the original crew involved and also to draw stronger connections to the many, MANY Papergirl camps around the world. In the near future we will be starting up collections to send over to the Berlin Post-Office to be re-distributed all over creation.

We also had submissions from as far as California, Florida and also the UK! It's wonderful to see folks taking initiative to get their work into other states and countries just so it can be given out for free.

This year we also had a table with art supplies set up at our reception so that folks who'd missed our deadlines or just straight up didn't know, could whip up something to throw into the pile. The results were great, seeing strangers sitting at a table together making art to give away! Supper rad and big thanks to Brendan McCauley for the idea and making it happen!

Over all I think this years distribution was a bit more romantic than last years, we only had 5 cyclists to hand out over 100 pieces of art work. All of them being close friends, collaborators and huge supporters it was absolutely terrific to get to send fewer cyclists out with more work so they could really take time and enjoy handing out the work. I don't doubt that last years group had fun but I think they all wanted more time on the street!





And here is just a moment to thank all the super people who make Papergirl possible:
C3 for setting us up in the Dynamite space yet again!
Karen and Tim Romansky for their fantastic catering services and help with installation!
Brendan McCauley for all your flyer design and distribution as well as adding a new, awesome component to PG Noho!
Eben, he did some stuff. j/k, he screen printed all our art-roll covers, distributed flyers and installed, not to mention came up with the idea of bringing Papergirl to NOHO!
Taryn, Jeff, Andrew, Hayley and Chris for being champions and showing up on a Saturday morning to make all our rolls and cycle around town handing them out.

And last but not least, all of the amazing artists who selflessly contribute art work, not just to Papergirl Northampton, but to all Papergirl chapters everywhere, with out your generosity and willingness to share your creativity in a leap of faith, Papergirl wouldn't be possible at all and the fact that there are so many of you willing to participate makes us all love the world a lot more!

If you've missed Papergirl this year in Northampton check out the Papergirl World blog to see where other chapters of Papergirl are coming up that you can mail contributions to.

We will run our third round next year but we've got A LOT of big changes coming up with Now.For.Art so we will see what kind of adaptations might happen to Papergirl Noho next year.

Keep it on lock down.