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
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Monday, November 15, 2010
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.
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.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Information Nation
So here are the specs on the Papergirl exhibit...
The show will be up from September 25th through October 1st
Daily open hours will be from 3-6 pm.
Closing reception on October 1st from 6-9 pm
With a live dj set from BOBBY MOUTHCHEW
Located at the old dynamite space in Thornes Basement at
150 Main St Northampton MA
We will also have a table set up with supplies for folks dropping in so they can make art work to add to the collection!
There is a massive array of art work from all different kinds of folks from all over the world, we hope to see you there!
Monday, September 6, 2010
Updates on Papergirl!
We've decided to expand our deadline to September 20th so we can hopefully get some submissions from all the recently returned college and high school students in the area.
Last year our deadline was well before most students returned and we wanted to make sure that this huge and important population would have an opportunity to participate this year. After all, this is about community and students are a big part of this community!
This year our exhibit will be from September 26th through October 1st with a closing reception from 6-9 pm on the 1st, all taking place in the dynamite space of Thornes at 124 Main st in Downtown Northampton.
Again submissions can be dropped off or mailed to:
103 State St Apt. 4
Northampton MA, 01060
Last year our deadline was well before most students returned and we wanted to make sure that this huge and important population would have an opportunity to participate this year. After all, this is about community and students are a big part of this community!
This year our exhibit will be from September 26th through October 1st with a closing reception from 6-9 pm on the 1st, all taking place in the dynamite space of Thornes at 124 Main st in Downtown Northampton.
Again submissions can be dropped off or mailed to:
103 State St Apt. 4
Northampton MA, 01060
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
About Papergirl
As promised I wanted to take a little time to expand on some of the motive and function behind Papergirl. The majority of this text is copied from a listing I posted on Valley Art Share, which if you are an artist working in Western Mass, or interested in Western Mass art happenings, you should join.
I feel like this sort of explanation is some what warranted, and I actually wouldn't even really call it an explanation except we are asking artists to give us their art work so we can in turn give it away for free. I can understand that from the perspective of most artists, they may feel their work is too precious to throw into the wind, and I can't argue the validity of any sentiment resembling that notion.
Papergirl began in 2005 in Berlin Germany, it was conceived by Aisha Ronniger and her pals and was developed as a means to combat tightening laws and penalties for graffiti. For them, Papergirl was about developing a means in which everything important about street art could be retained, but under a circumstance where no one could get arrested or fined.
For us, Papergirl is a way to bring our community together, to promote artists in an area where opportunities are bleak despite the reputation of being an artists community, to extend ourselves to the rest of the community that may or may not be active in the arts community or even interested, and to inspire selflessly via creative productivity.
The premise of the project is to collect works of art on paper which are then displayed for public viewing, after which all the art work is rolled into bundles and distributed via cyclists. The project has a number of objectives, the initial being that art is for everyone, much in the same way that graffiti, although illegal and sometimes not always tasteful, possesses a really progressive idea about art in that sometimes art can be free, and it's really great when people don't expect it. Yes, we give the rolls of artwork away for FREE, once your artwork becomes a part of Papergirl there is absolutely no monetary value attached to it anymore, obviously we will take good care of it, but it can not be bought.
Papergirl is such a beautiful concept because it breaks down all the pre-conceived notions that most people hold about the art world when they have never had any direct experience with it. Papergirl breaks down the barriers of who and what consists of an art audience. Much like graffiti, Papergirl makes no assumptions about its audience. Papergirl is for everyone and can be experienced and enjoyed by anyone. Papergirl says you don't have to have an art degree to understand this or to appreciate it, you don't have to be a connoisseur art collector, you could have not a penny to your name and become an art owner. It's really important that the art world makes a move to extend itself beyond the walls of its glass house to prove to the world at large that the contributions of artists are extremely important. The "art world" has a bad rap for being snobby, self righteous and reserved for those with complicated and inaccessible conceptual applications of so called beauty, people who love wine and cheese and people with fat wallets. Especially at a time when here in the States, funding for the arts is cut year after year and if once a year we do Papergirl and other types of highly accessible art based open community projects, year after year we extend ourselves to a new and random public, that might for the first time realize how important art is and might start to advocate for the arts and maybe, just maybe, we can start to change how funding for the arts is determined from the ground up.
Another important element is about community and Papergirl is designed in such a way that it defies the typical perceptions of community. Papergirl manages to remove the commonality of geography from the idea of community, which is brilliant and necessary in the art world and especially at this time. Last year we had art work come in from all over the U.S. and even the UK.
Papergirl has been around now for a few years and it has sprung up in communities all over the world. Last year when we had Papergirl in Northampton for the first year, the turn out was amazing, we had artists from 8 years old and up, we had artists from all over the map, all different races, different levels of skill, we had photographs, drawings, paintings, screen prints, wood cut prints and it was exciting and inspiring to stand in the basement of Thornes in the Dynamite space to see all this represented. It was exciting to walk around town after the distribution to see people carrying their rolls of art work, and to see how surprised and grateful the lucky random recipients of a free bundle of art work were.
It seems a fair percentage of our local population has caught wind of Papergirl but this year we want to make it even bigger and better, we want everyone to know what papergirl is and what it stands for and why it is so important.
So make some doodles and send them our way, and spread the word.
I feel like this sort of explanation is some what warranted, and I actually wouldn't even really call it an explanation except we are asking artists to give us their art work so we can in turn give it away for free. I can understand that from the perspective of most artists, they may feel their work is too precious to throw into the wind, and I can't argue the validity of any sentiment resembling that notion.
Papergirl began in 2005 in Berlin Germany, it was conceived by Aisha Ronniger and her pals and was developed as a means to combat tightening laws and penalties for graffiti. For them, Papergirl was about developing a means in which everything important about street art could be retained, but under a circumstance where no one could get arrested or fined.
For us, Papergirl is a way to bring our community together, to promote artists in an area where opportunities are bleak despite the reputation of being an artists community, to extend ourselves to the rest of the community that may or may not be active in the arts community or even interested, and to inspire selflessly via creative productivity.
The premise of the project is to collect works of art on paper which are then displayed for public viewing, after which all the art work is rolled into bundles and distributed via cyclists. The project has a number of objectives, the initial being that art is for everyone, much in the same way that graffiti, although illegal and sometimes not always tasteful, possesses a really progressive idea about art in that sometimes art can be free, and it's really great when people don't expect it. Yes, we give the rolls of artwork away for FREE, once your artwork becomes a part of Papergirl there is absolutely no monetary value attached to it anymore, obviously we will take good care of it, but it can not be bought.
Papergirl is such a beautiful concept because it breaks down all the pre-conceived notions that most people hold about the art world when they have never had any direct experience with it. Papergirl breaks down the barriers of who and what consists of an art audience. Much like graffiti, Papergirl makes no assumptions about its audience. Papergirl is for everyone and can be experienced and enjoyed by anyone. Papergirl says you don't have to have an art degree to understand this or to appreciate it, you don't have to be a connoisseur art collector, you could have not a penny to your name and become an art owner. It's really important that the art world makes a move to extend itself beyond the walls of its glass house to prove to the world at large that the contributions of artists are extremely important. The "art world" has a bad rap for being snobby, self righteous and reserved for those with complicated and inaccessible conceptual applications of so called beauty, people who love wine and cheese and people with fat wallets. Especially at a time when here in the States, funding for the arts is cut year after year and if once a year we do Papergirl and other types of highly accessible art based open community projects, year after year we extend ourselves to a new and random public, that might for the first time realize how important art is and might start to advocate for the arts and maybe, just maybe, we can start to change how funding for the arts is determined from the ground up.
Another important element is about community and Papergirl is designed in such a way that it defies the typical perceptions of community. Papergirl manages to remove the commonality of geography from the idea of community, which is brilliant and necessary in the art world and especially at this time. Last year we had art work come in from all over the U.S. and even the UK.
Papergirl has been around now for a few years and it has sprung up in communities all over the world. Last year when we had Papergirl in Northampton for the first year, the turn out was amazing, we had artists from 8 years old and up, we had artists from all over the map, all different races, different levels of skill, we had photographs, drawings, paintings, screen prints, wood cut prints and it was exciting and inspiring to stand in the basement of Thornes in the Dynamite space to see all this represented. It was exciting to walk around town after the distribution to see people carrying their rolls of art work, and to see how surprised and grateful the lucky random recipients of a free bundle of art work were.
It seems a fair percentage of our local population has caught wind of Papergirl but this year we want to make it even bigger and better, we want everyone to know what papergirl is and what it stands for and why it is so important.
So make some doodles and send them our way, and spread the word.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Big Wheels Keep On Turnin. . .
Last weekend Art In The Park yielded one sale of a Now.For.Art shirt, we have 8 dollars as an organization. At least that will be one round of flyers that doesn't come from my or anyone else's pocket. Thank you to our number one fan, who ever you are.
More importantly a lot of really excellent dialog about art, specifically in Northampton, took place at least in the one day + hour and a half I was able to be present. I feel like a lot of exciting things are going to start popping up in Northampton, perhaps finally living up to its (currently unwarranted) tag as being an art hub.
In other news, Now.For.Art will be picking up a couple extra hands this fall, and we will also be implementing a monthly artist's t-shirt series. Featuring a new artist every month, we will show case and sell 3 original shirts, hand printed on organic U.S. made shirts.
Im keeping this vague so I can keep your interest, shit is going to get exciting.
Oh, and pass the word on Papergirl 2010, again mail or drop off submissions to
103 State St Ap. 4
Northampton Ma
01060
See this post, for a few more details.
I will write more indepth about Papergirl in the next few days for those who aren't totally keen on what the deal is.
Email Now.For.Art@gmail.com for questions/comments
More importantly a lot of really excellent dialog about art, specifically in Northampton, took place at least in the one day + hour and a half I was able to be present. I feel like a lot of exciting things are going to start popping up in Northampton, perhaps finally living up to its (currently unwarranted) tag as being an art hub.
In other news, Now.For.Art will be picking up a couple extra hands this fall, and we will also be implementing a monthly artist's t-shirt series. Featuring a new artist every month, we will show case and sell 3 original shirts, hand printed on organic U.S. made shirts.
Im keeping this vague so I can keep your interest, shit is going to get exciting.
Oh, and pass the word on Papergirl 2010, again mail or drop off submissions to
103 State St Ap. 4
Northampton Ma
01060
See this post, for a few more details.
I will write more indepth about Papergirl in the next few days for those who aren't totally keen on what the deal is.
Email Now.For.Art@gmail.com for questions/comments
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Art In The Park, Follow Up
So the itinerary for Art in The Park, as compiled by the great organizer Andrew Huckins is quite lengthy to the extent that I don't have the time to re-post it here at this moment.
Im a busy person.
I highly recommend heading over to Facebook and Joining their group, so you can be better informed about what is happening when and where and which artists will be pitching tents in Pulaski park over the 4 day event.
Im a busy person.
I highly recommend heading over to Facebook and Joining their group, so you can be better informed about what is happening when and where and which artists will be pitching tents in Pulaski park over the 4 day event.
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