Thursday, March 12, 2009

ECA Call for Producers


Easthampton City Arts
Call for Producers: Bear Fest 2009
Deadline for proposals: May 1, 2009

Ever wish to produce your own cultural event? Here’s your chance!

About the Call to Producers
Easthampton City Arts is looking for creative individuals to create, produce and manage cultural events that will take place from mid-June to mid-October. We seek producers who will develop cultural events/performances or public art initiatives around the Bear Fest theme (which can be broadly interpreted). Working with Easthampton City Arts and the Easthampton Cultural Council, producers will be responsible for selecting an event, lining up talent, creating a budget, planning and managing the event, and helping to promote the event. Themes can be broad or specific, ranging from dance and performance art to film and multimedia work. Events that reflect and include the downtown and mill areas are particularly encouraged. Easthampton City Arts has a total of $5,000 available and we are hoping to produce from four to eight events. ECA will assist in marketing your event. Deadline to receive proposals: May 1, 2009.

For those events/productions which generate a profit (after expenses paid), 20% of those profits are to be paid to Easthampton City Arts. ECA will then use these funds to produce additional cultural events.

About Bear Fest
Starting in June 2009, Easthampton City Arts will host a major public art event. The Easthampton Bear Fest will revolve around an exhibit of life sized adult & baby bears, which will be decorated and painted by local and regional artists and will be on exhibit from June through October 2009. In Mid-October, a City-wide, week-long (October 10 –17) celebration of the arts and auction of the Bears will take place.Events are planned to occur throughout the four months of the Easthampton Bear Fest. However, we are particularly interested in events before and after each of the five Art Walks (5:00-8:00 PM) occurring during the festival (June 13, July 11, August 8, Sept. 12, Oct. 10) and during the week-long celebration. Events which attract out-of-town tourists as well as those geared to Easthampton residents (such as a community-wide dance) are desired.There have been dozens of these displays throughout the United States and Europe, beginning in 1998 in Switzerland and followed by the Cow Parade in Chicago in 1999. Always wildly popular, ECA is expecting the Easthampton Bear Fest to draw crowds throughout the Summer and into the Fall.

When the Bear Fest opens in June of 2009, the bears will be displayed throughout the downtown area, within a walking tour. A “Bear Track” map will be available for visitors to track each bear location. We can only imagine where the bears will hide. Some on street corners, up on a rooftop, on the pond or hanging in the air. Imaginations will soar!

How to Apply:
Please provide the following information on no more than two pages:

1. Contact info: e-mail and snail mail addresses, phone, fax and Web site (if applicable)
2. Describe your theme and event.
3. List some or all of acts/talent you would like to include; describe talent and how it supports your theme.
4. Tell us what day and time frame would be ideal for your event.
5. Outline schedule for your event (which act goes on first, second, etc.).
6. List technical requirements (stage, sound, lighting, etc.).
7. Give budget: Break down how you would spend the grant monies; this may include a producer stipend, talent fees and other fees you foresee.
8. Easthampton affiliation (if any)
9. Please describe your experience in producing previous cultural events. Also, include support materials; i.e., photos, CDs, press clippings, resume(s), etc. Include a self-addressed stamped envelope if you would like your support materials returned to you.

About Easthampton City Arts
Easthampton City Arts is an initiative designed to support and enhance arts and culture in Easthampton in order to improve economic opportunities for artists and cultural establishments, while increasing the role that cultural activity plays in the vitality of the community. Easthampton artists and the City Planning and Community Development department created Easthampton City Arts in collaboration with numerous partners. Through funding from the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s John and Abigail Adams Program, the City of Easthampton, and business and institutional support, Easthampton City Arts cultivates and promotes the city’s diverse artist and business community. During 2009 Easthampton City Arts will continue outreach, marketing, and highlighting of Easthampton artists through its website, directory, and gallery AND will guide Easthampton’s largest public art display ever: the Easthampton Bear Fest. We hope that you will want to participate.

Mail or drop off proposals by May 1, 2009 to:
Easthampton City Arts
43 Main Street, Suite 4
Easthampton, MA 01027

Questions:Call 413-527-8278

info@easthamptoncityarts.com

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Get Active, Get Involved! Join the ECA Coordinating Committee and Make Art Happen in Eastampton


Easthampton City Arts needs you!
We Are Making Art Happen!

2009 is the year, the year of the Easthampton Bear Fest-help make it fabulous! ECA is VERY active and we need the participation of the community at large; not just artists, but concerned citizens from every area of our community!

It’s a new year, get involved!

Coordinating Committee meetings are every two weeks on Thursdays, at 43 Main St (Old Town Hall), 3 p.m. We are considering a 5 p.m. meeting time instead. Please let us know if you’d like to join, but a 5 p.m. meeting time is better for you.


Our next meeting is January 22 at 3 p.m., so please come and join us.

Easthampton City Arts
 strives to bring a spotlight to the Art and Artists living and working in Easthampton

 maintains a website that has over 150 artists & arts related businesses registered, each having their own page about them and their work, for free!

 participates in and supports the monthly Art Walk,
coordinate with Easthampton Cultural Council to make Old Town Hall a great stop on the Art Walk

 curates exhibits at both the ECA/ECC Gallery and the Greater Easthampton Chamber of Commerce.

 is developing an Artists’ Resource & Reference Library at Old Town Hall including the popular Portfolio Project

 The mission of ECA is to support and enhance the role of arts and culture in the life of the community in order to increase economic opportunities for artists and cultural establishments, while increasing the role that cultural activities play in the economic revitalization of Easthampton.
Making Art Happen!

In 2009, Easthampton City Arts will sponsor the Easthampton Bear Fest, a four month long outdoor public art event!! A weeklong Celebration of the Arts follows in October 2009. With your participation, we can ensure not only a week-long celebration of Easthampton, but also year-round cultural opportunities for everyone to enjoy!

Additional information about the Easthampton Bear Fest can be found at http://www.easthamptonbearfest.com/

email us at: info@easthamptoncityarts.com

Call us at: (413)527-8278

visit us at: http://www.easthamptoncityarts.com/

It’s a new year, get active, get involved!

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Call to Artists - Easthampton Bear Fest

Easthampton City Arts releases the Call to Artists for the Easthampton Bear Fest, Tuesday, January 6, 2009!


Easthampton, Massachusetts – Starting next summer and continuing through the fall of 2009, Easthampton will be the setting for a premier art event, Easthampton Bear Fest! From June through mid-October 2009, downtown Easthampton will host an exhibit of life sized, fiberglass bears that are creatively painted, decorated, and festooned by artisans from Easthampton and the region and placed in various public spaces within an easy walking tour. A total of 30 bears, 20 life-size and 10 smaller, will be displayed.

This is a call to you, area Artists, to let your imagination get the better of you and create an amazing work of art that will be seen by thousands of visitors who will come just to see your and your fellow artists’ creations. Imagine what you could do with a life sized sculpture of a bear!

Each bear will be sponsored by businesses and individuals, and will be auctioned off at the end of the Easthampton Bear Fest, to benefit Riverside Industries Art Program, Easthampton Public Schools Art Programs, the Artists who decorate them and Easthampton City Arts. Artists will be paid for their work, supplied with the bear sculpture, and have approximately three months to prepare their bear for display. The artists’ and sponsors’ names will be highly visible with their bear.

We anticipate many visitors interested in seeing and tracking the bears, including art lovers, kids and families, and unsuspecting people just traveling through. We will be publicizing this event far and wide in an effort to get the word out. Be part of this amazing public art event culminating in a Week Long Celebration of the Arts in October 2009 here in Easthampton, Massachusetts!

To receive the
“Artist’s Information & Application Package” visit the EasthamptonBearFest.com website were you may download the package, or write to Easthampton Bear Fest, c/o Easthampton City Arts, 43 Main Street, Suite 4, Easthampton, MA 01027; call Briana Taylor at (413) 527-8278; or email info@easthamptoncityarts.com Businesses or individuals interested in sponsoring a bear may also use the same contact information listed above. The Easthampton Bear Fest is sponsored by Easthampton City Arts. For more information visit our websites at EasthamptonBearFest.com and EasthamptonCityArts.com

The deadline for application is February 18, 2009; participating artists will be selected in a juried competition and notified of the results no later than February 27th, 2009.

If you are submitting a proposal, please email ECA with your intention to do so and contact information so that we may add you to a proposal list; this is not required but will be helpful. Thanks for your interest and we look forward to seeing your ideas!

Friday, January 2, 2009

Exhibit Opportunities at ECA & the Greater Easthampton Chamber of Commerce


Easthampton City Arts is looking to fill some exhibit space for the 2009 schedule at both the ECA/ECC Gallery and the Greater Easthampton Chamber of Commerce Gallery. Please contact us via email at info@easthamptoncityarts.com to apply!

Photo: Claire Metzner's watercolors at the Chamber Gallery

Thursday, November 20, 2008

ECA's Annual Celebration of the Arts & Open House

You are invited
Please click on poster for a larger image. Thank you.





Friday, November 7, 2008

EASTHAMPTON CITY ARTS LAUNCHES ONLINE SURVEYS TO GAUGE THE ECONOMIC BENEFITS OF THE ARTS


Opinions of artists, patrons and business owners sought.

Easthampton City Arts (ECA) is inviting city residents, artists and business owners to take one of three on-line surveys to help assess the economic benefits of local artists and performers on Easthampton’s businesses . The survey deadline is Tuesday, November 25. Each survey takes about three minutes to complete and is completely anonymous.

If you are an Easthampton Artist take the
ARTIST SURVEY

If you are an Easthampton Business take the BUSINESS SURVEY

If you are an Easthampton Resident or Visitor to Easthampton take the PATRON SURVEY

The surveys are part of public outreach efforts that ECA is conducting under a grant from the John and Abigail Adams Arts Program of the Massachusetts Cultural Council. ECA is collaborating with local businesses and artists to host the Easthampton Bear Fest, a major public arts event in 2009, and will host the Annual Celebration of the Arts Party on Thursday, December 4, from 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. at the Old Town Hall, 43 Main Street, Easthampton.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Kathleen Dunn Jacobs Exhibits at the ECA & ECC Gallery

Figures, Landscapes
New Paintings by Kathleen Dunn Jacobs
Opening Reception, Saturday, November 8, 5-8 p.m.
at the Old Town Hall, 43 Main Street, Easthampton
During the monthly Easthampton Art Walk
'My work is simply a visual response to what I observe and to what moves me in nature. When rendering a subject, a figure in a room, a tree in a field, or an orange on a table, my goal is to simplify, distill and keep my work fresh. I hope to acheive spontaneity of expression and capture some necessary minimal essence to which all viewers can relate.'
Kathleen Jacobs received a BFA in painting and art history from the University of Massachusetts. Her work has been exhibited throughout New England, and she is currently represented by the Kendall Gallery in Wellfleet, MA. She lives in Western MA.