The Back Track to Art

Artist grant information sessionsIndividual artists who would like to learn about grant opportunities offered by the Minnesota State Arts Board and their regional arts councils, are invited to attend a free grant information session. Twelve sessions will be held throughout the state; artists may attend any session. The schedule of sessions is available on the Arts Board’s Web site.

Note: This session is intended to serve our region.

But, in case you can’t make this meeting, there are plenty of other meetings scheduled around the region and around the state.

Artists can also schedule a one-on-one appointment with an Arts Board program officer, on the morning after each session. During the appointment the program officer can answer questions about Arts Board grant opportunities, and offer specific advice on how to apply for a grant.

To register for an information session, and/or to schedule a one-on-one appointment with a program officer, call the Arts Board at (651) 215-1600 or (800) 866-2787.

According to the online magazine Science Now, the secret to happiness is…

<drum roll>

… giving.

More specifically, happiness means not spending all your money on yourself, but giving some of it to help others (like the small and (financially) struggling arts organization in your home town).

Or as the story says:

Think you’d be happier if you won the lottery or just had a few extra bucks in your pocket? Think again. Overturning classic economic wisdom, new research shows that it’s not how much you have that matters, it’s how you spend it. People who donate their dollars to charities or splurge on gifts for others are more content than those who squander all the dough on themselves…

I know it sounds strange, but this notion was supported by three separate scientific studies. And having just lived through the Guild’s stunningly fun Annual Auction for the Arts, and having seen the happy looks on the faces of those who have spent their money for a good cause (i.e., keeping afloat their very own hometown art center), I know this notion to be true.

The tiny little mini-Blockbuster exhibition of artwork for the Arts Guild’s Auction for the Arts is up NOW–so, don’t waste any time in getting down to the Center for Arts (on 304 Division Street) to see this stellar collection of art. The work will be up now through about 1 pm on Friday afternoon (March 14), whence it moves over to the Theater for the Auction later on that night (at 7:30)(social hour starts at 6:30).

For those of you who will miss the opportunity to come down to the Guild’s gallery, not to worry, never fear. For your viewing pleasure we have mounted an exhibition of (the vast bulk of) the work on our website. I’m sure you’ll agree, after checking this stuff out, that the work is on a par with the best art in the state (I’m endlessly impressed with this year’s generosity and talent!).

And, should you agree with me, don’t forget too that all of this art is for sale! All you have to do is come down to the Auction on March 14.  We promise it’ll be a buon tempo!

Don’t miss this year’s NEW take on a favorite event, the Annual Auction for the Arts. To be held on March 14 at the Northfield Arts Guild Theater, “The Eds of March” auction (named in honor of our esteemed auctioneer Ed Kuhlman) will feature all things “la vita dolce”—Italian wines, Mediterranean and Italian foods, entertainment interludes and cameo appearances of song, dance, and so on, and much more. It’ll be a veritable Roman feast! And let us not forget the auction of fantastic art by your favorite local artists, as well as wonderful prizes — singing telegrams, sailing trips, cocktail parties, intimate dinners, and much more — provided by your Northfield friends and neighbors.

And the best part? It’s all for a good cause, as proceeds go to supporting your favorite community arts organization!

At the Northfield Guild, we struggle with modern economic realities, just like most modern families do. This past month, for instance, while we finally received a generous donation of desperately needed new(ish) computers, of course the cost to have the hardware put in place and the software installed still came to over $1000–a bill we can scarcely afford, especially considering how tight has been charitable giving this past year…

But this is not to complain. Instead, it’s to indicate we Guilders fully understand how hard it can be to make ends meet these days. And this, of course, can be especially true of hard-working artists, struggling to sell their work to a stressed out public and to find resources to keep their practices alive.

This awareness of modern economic realities is why we are proud to announce the launch, at long last, of the Artists Resource Center at the Guild. This is thanks to several recent donations of materials, as well as the hard organizational work of our able intern, Caleb Hendrickson. The Center includes resources, information, and other services that are intended to help artists help themselves. In a week or 10 days, I will post a full list of the current resources available (or soon to be available) at the Guild’s Resource Center, and I will issue a challenge to artists to continue to pool their resources for the good of each other. If you would like to know in advance of that posting, feel free to come by or email me at michael(at)northfieldartsguild(dot)org.

Be well, and don’t be distant.

… since I last posted on “Back Track to Art.” Why so long? Well, there are lots of reasons, but mostly it’s because things have been crazy-busy here. There’s simply lots going on in Northfield in the Arts–and in the dead of winter, too.

Just to list a few things upcoming:

The play “The Lady’s Not for Burning“  by Christopher Fry runs February 15, 16, 17, and 22, 23 and 24. To buy tix, you can go here.

The Northfield All Schools art exhibition has been launched, and it runs now through March 8, culminating in the raucous, daylong Imagination Celebration on February 23.

And the Guild’s Annual Auction for the Arts is looming, on March 14, with multiple new features, a new venue, and lots of prizes and surprizes. Stay tuned to learn more!

…who help themselves.

This idea, which I believe strongly, was posited in a recent article in the Mankato Free Press, called “A career in art means marketing yourself.” This article describes the typically gloomy-doomy atmosphere that most artists inhabit.

The [recently published] ‘Economic Impact of Minnesota’s Individual Artists’ showed artists in southwest Minnesota have difficulty finding a market to sell their work.

While 26 percent of the artists in the Twin Cities work full time on their craft, only 6 percent do so in south-central Minnesota.

When the study was released, Kevin Kroeber of Mankato said he’s one of those struggling artists. He said he worked four part-time jobs to help support his family and had little time to paint. Even if he did have more time to paint and show his work more often, he doubts it would make much of a difference in this market.

“There’s not a big enough clientele in Mankato,” he said. “I just think it’s the rural mentality. Most of the artists that can support themselves off their art live in the metropolitan area.”

Brenda Flintrop, executive director for Prairie Lakes Regional Arts Council, said Kroeber is not alone. Many artists in southern Minnesota struggle not only to sell their work, but also to find places to show it.

Still, despite the difficult local art market a number of Mankato artists have found ways to make a niche for themselves. The key? According to the story, artists simply have to be willing to get out there and do the work themselves to establish a market and an audience.

I’ve written here on this blog a number of times about the Northfield Arts Guild’s commitment to helping artists help themselves. The main initiative that I have started here at the Guild to address artists’ needs is the Artists Resource Center. In coming days, I’ll be writing about some of the recent developments with the A.R.C. and about some recent donations that will be of help to artists.

I’ll also be soliciting artists–yet again–to do something to contribute to their own welfare by contributing to the A.R.C. Stay tuned!

The question Tracy Davis posed in the midst of a local controversy over the Northfield Arts Guild’s decision to produce “Sex with Seven Women” —”What’s art for?”—has caused me much reflection over the past few days.

And since I’m closing in these days on the one-year anniversary of my start as director of this organization, I’ve also been pondering this question: What is the Northfield Arts Guild for?

How I’ve come to an initial answer to this question has been colored by comments offered by the originator of this controversy, Beth Benson, first in her original letter to the Northfield News:

We have turned into a society that seeks to be enticed rather than inspired. The things we watch on T.V., the books we read, even the plays we attend have been debased appealing to the lowest common denominator rather than our sense of decency. We seek entertainment that appeals to the lowest common denominator rather than learn to appreciate the finer things… You have an opportunity as a Guild to bring out the noble and beautiful in society. Why waste your time on highlighting the perversions of society? Use your organization to inspire greatness and not sink to a level that only intends to shock with debauchery… Help people to love beauty. Fulfill the calling of your guild to create and support the creation of beauty.

And also in comments she wrote afterward in the midst of discussion on Locally Grown:

…the reason I published [my letter] in the public is because it’s easy to dismiss one person’s opinion. It’s harder to dismiss a community’s opinion. You have a community arts guild. When you put the name Northfield in the front of your organization, you are representing a community. If you want to produce works that need warnings on content, the community has a right to respond. I also wanted to motivate the community to inspire you to do better which you will find in my original letter.

Why did I right [sic] this letter?… I am watching a community I love go down a slope into moral relativism where there is no foundation with right and wrong. It honestly grieves me. But this time it was different. I believe that the Northfield Arts Guild has a calling to be great… I wanted my very public letters to try to get community pressure to expect greatness from our Northfield Arts Guild.

If Beth Benson’s sentiments were our guide, the purpose of the Northfield Arts Guild would be to “inspire”, “to bring out the noble and the beautiful in society,” to be “great,” to “represent a community,” and to provide “moral instruction.”

While I think that these are great purposes for the arts in general, and arts presenters like the Arts Guild more specifically, to aspire to—and I also think the arts often do achieve these things—the reality of how an arts organization like the Arts Guild operates is much different from how Beth seems to perceive.

At the risk of getting too technical about this, the Northfield Arts Guild is a private, mission-driven, nonprofit arts organization that is supported by membership and charitable donations. This means a few important things. Foremost, the Guild is not a public institution in the way that, say, the Northfield Library or Northfield Public School District are. We receive no local public funds whatsoever—none from the city, none from the county—to do our business or to pay our bills. (*We do receive a bit of money from the state, and I’ll talk about that in a moment.)

In practical terms, therefore, the Northfield Arts Guild does not “represent” the community. (Having “Northfield” in our name is likely a condition of location, more than anything else.) While we strive to take into account community feedback about what we do, since the community does not pay for what we do its actual impact on our operations is negligible. Instead, we are much more accountable to the systems and structures that support us and help us pay our bills.

About half of our support comes from charitable sources—either foundations or individuals. These foundations or individuals generally determine their giving based on their affinity for our organization’s mission. As I wrote in my last post, the crux of our organization’s mission is to “stimulate artistic activity in the greater Northfield area” and to “organize, support, and promote the efforts of the community in expressing, developing and appreciating art.” You’ll notice this says nothing about “representing” the entire community. It says nothing about “inspiring” anyone, about providing “moral instruction,” about bringing out the “noble and the beautiful in society,” or about being “great.” It does speak toward supporting and developing arts in the community, which is partially why we’re producing “Sex with Seven Women,” a local production by local artists. (Another reason we’re producing it? To raise money to support our operations; we have to make up for that gap in public funding somehow!)

(*Note: The Minnesota State Arts Board gives the Arts Guild its only source of modest public money based not on how well the organization represents the community, morally instructs, etc, but instead based on criteria similar to our mission. By the way, you might like to know that the Minnesota State Arts Board’s mission reads: “The Minnesota State Arts Board is a state agency that stimulates and encourages the creation, performance, and appreciation of the arts in the state.” Sound familiar?)

If I were suddenly to suggest, as an administrator, that the Northfield Arts Guild should turn its attention to the moral instruction of our wayward society by jettisoning its longstanding commitment to art made by local, living, working artists and instead producing nothing but medieval morality plays, illuminated manuscripts, and madrigals, I’d likely—and rightfully—be run out on a rail by the members and supporters who pay the NAG’s bills (and my salary).

It’s actually quite encouraging and uplifting that members of the community should feel such a sense of ownership of the Northfield Arts Guild that they are compelled to issue challenges and directives about what the Guild produces and presents. It’s great that people like Beth Benson still care enough about art and the role it plays in Northfield to issue challenges and make protestations about productions and programs they personally are not inclined to appreciate.

However, the sense of ownership that a community has for its arts organization is worthless without its providing, in turn, practical support for that ownership. If you really want to have an influence on what the Art Guild does, how it operates, what it produces, then being a community member and making comments from the wings is not enough. Because our programs are produced by a dedicated (volunteer) membership who believe in and support our mission (through membership, donation, and volunteer hours), the Northfield Arts Guild listens to them carefully and actively seeks to produce what they want in art. Indeed, we have been growing increasingly committed in recent months to doing just that.

That all said, we are not an exclusive club. Any one can join. Indeed, community members can best affect the Northfield Arts Guild when they are active participants and supporters (members) of the Guild. And rest assured, we do need all the participation and support we can get! We welcome any and all participants and supporters from every segment of the community.

To go back to the original question, I guess in a real way that’s what the Northfield Arts Guild is for. It’s for everyone—every person in the community—who wants to participate in and support the arts. If you really want to have a practical hand in the Arts Guild’s programming into the future, perhaps you should consider becoming a member today.

I read with interest the comments of Beth Benson regarding the upcoming production of “Sex with Seven Women” at the NAG theater. Allow me to respond wearing my NAG director’s hat:

The mission of the Northfield Arts Guild is to “stimulate artistic activity in the greater Northfield area.” The Northfield Arts Guild strives to “organize, support, and promote the efforts of the community in expressing, developing and appreciating art.”

Part of the reason we decided to produce “Sex with Seven Women” was because it fit in well with our mission. It was written by a talented local writer, whose growing skill has been increasingly lauded by the community (Brendon Etter is the writer, among other things, of the popular Jesse Jane Jamboree productions). It is also being acted by local actors, developed by local theater talent, performed in a local venue, and, above all else, its subject is relevant to a large portion of the community, many of whom are men and women who are familiar with sex and sexual issues.

That said, the Guild recognizes the right of adults to avoid attending productions that make them uncomfortable or that they find objectionable. That is why we included strong disclaimers–that this show was for mature audiences only–in all of our advertising for the show, a likely reason the newspaper was asking that question of Brendon in the first place. It’s a delicate line. There is so much in the play that isn’t objectionable, yet we still have to make the disclaimer for the small bits that might make small portions of the audience uncomfortable–and of course it all gets blown out of proportion.

The Guild recognizes the right of any individual to voice objections to material that may make them uncomfortable or that they may deem objectionable–even when they haven’t seen the materials. Still, owing to our mission, the Guild is of the opinion that all art–whether it be uplifting, depressing, shocking, soothing, challenging, enlivening, or objectionable–will always find the audience it was meant to find.

The Northfield Arts Guild hopes that while you may not want to attend, for your own personal reasons, a performance of “SWSW,” you may still consider attending future NAG productions that are geared toward other audiences. In coming months, we will be producing the musical “The Pajama Game,” the post-war comedy “The Lady’s Not for Burning,” the children’s tale “Holes,” and Shakespeare’s “Merry Wives of Windsor.” And I’m not even mentioning the 10 art exhibitions we put on every year, the wonderful art by local artists that we sell in our shop, the dance classes for kids and adults, the CVRO concerts, etc etc.

As per our mission, there’s truly something for everyone at the Northfield Arts Guild!

Now, if I may, for just a moment, remove my director’s hat and comment as a citizen commenter:

I read a chunk of “Sex with Seven Women” when it came through the office (though I was careful not to read all of it–because I didn’t want to spoil my seeing it), and I have to say, it’s funny. And really good. While the situations are mature, Brendon’s writing is, as always, spot on–clever, witty, and full of sharp, unexpected observations about a subject that we all (may think we) know something about.

In the end, “Sex with Seven Women” has something for every mature adult to think about, chuckle over, and ponder–even as they might be grasping their armchairs to keep from falling out of their seat from laughter!

The arts need support in this country, on that we can all agree. But the tough question is how can a community ensure a stable source of support for the arts through the varied and ever-changing winds of politics, the economy, and simple social trends?

One community’s solution? Use a sin tax to support the arts! Apparently Cuyahoga County in Ohio (read: Cleveland an environs) has put in place a 1.5 cent per cigarette tax to fund the arts. Thus far, the tax has generated $500,000 that will be doled out in grants to individual artists by late 2008.

Pass me the smokes, wouldya? It’s for a good cause!