THEIR BIG BREAK?
11 Local Artist Entrepreneurs Descend on Big Apple for Weekend of
Networking & Public Talks
May 14, 2008 (ITHACA, NY)—Eleven Ithaca area artists will be among sixty-six visual artists visiting New York City for a weekend retreat of networking, public presentations, and gallery going. This talented group from around the state just completed the New York Foundation for the Arts’ MARK program, which teaches entrepreneurial skills to working artists. Hosted locally by the Community Arts Partnership of Tompkins County, the program brought together an Ithaca contingent made up of painters, photographers, sculptors, and mixed media artists for regular workshops over the past six months. Brett Bossard, Executive Director of CAP, was thrilled to partner with NYFA for this professional development series. “Too often, artists are just expected to know how to talk about and sell their work,” says Bossard. “Unfortunately, that kind of training isn’t included in many fine art programs. MARK has dove-tailed perfectly with CAP’s goals to make it easier for Tompkins County’s artists to make a living.”
NYFA’s Director of Programs, Penny Dannenberg and Christa Blatchford of NYFA’s Information and Research Department have been travelling across New York State since January, giving MARK participants guidance in such areas as fine tuning portfolios, goal setting, public presentation, and the art of finding elusive grants, residencies and opportunities for public exposure, as well as writing artist statements, project descriptions, and winning letters to galleries and curators. Erica Pollock, a member of the Greater Ithaca Art Trail, found the workshops rewarding. “The MARK sessions emphasized the business skills I need to promote myself as an artist, through marketing, presentation and writing,” says Pollock. “These are realities I’m constantly forced to deal with, but they were widely understated in art school.”
Held from June 6th through the 8th, the New York City retreat marks the first time that all sixty six artists will meet. The Ithaca group includes Sarah Ahearn, Marna Bell, Karen Brummund, Charity Rae Burger, Jane Dennis, Andrew Gillis, Ed Marion, Barbara Page, Daniel McPheeters, Pollock, and Allen Smith. They’ll be joined by similar groups from five other New York regions: Buffalo, Rochester, Troy, Hudson and Huntington. Each group will have the opportunity to speak publicly about their work and their region before critics, gallery owners, and members of the New York art community. The Ithaca artists will give their presentation on Friday, June 6, from 6 to 9 pm at Smack Mellon in Brooklyn.
The MARK program is made possible with funding from the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, the Empire State Development Corporation, and the New York State Council on the Arts. The program will be offered to visual artists throughout the state again in 2009.
New York Foundation for the Arts provides more support and services to artists and arts organizations in all disciplines than any other private organization in the country: nearly $6 million annually. NYFA is New York’s leading provider of unrestricted grants to individual artists. For more information on NYFA, visit www.nyfa.org. The Community Arts Partnership serves as the arts council of Tompkins County, providing advocacy, support services, and resources for the county’s artists, arts organizations, and their audiences. For more information on CAP, visit www.artspartner.org or contact Program Director, Robin Schwartz at (607) 273-5072 or programs@arts.partner.org.
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