Apply Now - HOLIDAY HEAP 09!

Did you apply to the Heap yet?
What are you waiting for!!!?????!!!!!!!!

GO HERE.

Curator's Incubator 2009 at MAP

DON'T MISS THIS!

Each year, MAP’s Curators’ Incubator Program renews the opportunity for Maryland Art
Place to become a working laboratory for aesthetic experiments. Curators’ Incubator
provides a creative space for the region’s aspiring curators to develop and present their
concepts. MAP guides the curatorial process, beginning with an open call that
encourages proposals and ending in the presentation of selected projects. MAP’s
Program Advisory Committee took on the review and selection of our 2009 curators and
MAP staff facilitated the production of the exhibition and companion catalogue.

Featured Curators:
Shelly Blake‐Plock: Art of the Set‐Up: Sound Objects as Artifacts
Artists: Peter Blasser. Alessandro Bosetti. Andy Hayleck. Bonnie Jones. Melissa Moore.
Mike Muniak.

Rachel Sitkin: In Our Nature: Artists Reflect on the Manmade Landscape
Artists: Kim Beck. Laura Cooperman. Michelle Hagewood. Alex Lukas. Igor Pasternak.

Margaret Winslow: Soft Space: Architecture in Contemporary Art
Artists: Ronald Longsdorf. Janell Olah. Stephen Ruszkowki.

Featured Events:
Thurs Sept 24: Opening Event
- 5pm Rush Hour: Art Beats Traffic
-6pm Gallery Talk and Sound Art Performance: Shelly Blake‐Plock, John Berndt & Art
of the Set‐Up artists
Thurs Oct 8
-5pm Rush Hour: Art Beats Traffic
-6pm Gallery Talk: Margaret Winslow, Soft Space artists, and George Holback of Cho,
Benn, Holback + Associates
Thurs Oct 22
- 5pm Rush Hour: Art Beats Traffic
-6pm Gallery Talk: Rachel Sitkin and In Our Nature artists
Sat October 24
-2pm to 5pm: Curating 101 presented by Cathy Byrd, MAP Executive Director

Pratt Library Altered Book Competition

image by bella
Feeling creative? So get in the act! The Enoch Pratt Free Library is proud to announce it's Altered Books Competition.

An altered book is any book that has been recycled by creative means into a work of art. They can be rebound, painted, cut, burned, folded, added to, collaged in, rubber stamped, drilled or otherwise adorned. Altered books may be as simple as adding a drawing or text to a page, or as complex as creating an intricate book sculpture.

All entries to the competition should be received no later than 1 p.m. on Saturday, September 26. Prizes will be awarded to the top three altered books. The top 15 altered books will be on display at the Central Library in October.
You can also join the Pratt Library at the Baltimore Book Festival on Friday, September 25, 6 to 8 pm, and make your own altered book. The library will provide old books and supplies for free.

For more information visit http://www.prattlibrary.org/alteredbooks.

Consumerism and Craft

Image from The Small Object

I might be alone here, but I suspect I am not. Sometimes I lay awake at night thinking about the problems facing our environment, and how our pervasive consumerism contributes to them. It's so difficult for me to balance the corporate nature of running a business (even a tiny indie craft business) with the strong desire to fix what is broken in our money-driven system.

One thing I love more that anything is when I visit one of my favorite blogs, and the writer has expressed my exact thoughts much better than I could have done. That's what's happened with this post, on the Small Object Steno Pad blog. I'm sure many of you have read this, but I wanted to share it and add my voice to the many who are commiserating with Sarah's feelings about homemade, handmade, vs. giant faceless corporation made.

Thanks, Sarah, for making amazing things, and for getting into my sinus-headache-plagued head and articulating so well how I feel about these things... big high five to you.

How to keep your job in the arts...

BALTIMORE OFFICE OF PROMOTION & THE ARTS OFFERS GRANTS FOR
JOB RETENTION IN THE CULTURAL COMMUNITY

Applications are available now. Deadline is September 25.

Mayor Sheila Dixon and the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts (BOPA) are proud to announce the new National Endowment for the Arts/Baltimore City Job Retention Grant. Made possible by a $250,000 award from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and matched by Mayor Sheila Dixon and the Baltimore City Council, the grant program has been created for the cultural community to assist in job retention efforts. Managed by BOPA, the program offers grants ranging from $5,000 to $25,000 to be used to support full-time, part-time or contractual positions in the arts. The application deadline is Friday, September 25, 2009.

Non-profit, 501(c)3 cultural organizations serving Baltimore City that have not received economic stimulus awards through the Maryland State Arts Council, the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation or directly through the National Endowment for the Arts are eligible to apply.

To download the application for the National Endowment for the Arts/ Baltimore City Job Retention Grant, visit promotionandarts.com.
For more information, call 410-752-8632.

CCCM's Shawna Pincus - Then & Now - on Indie Fixx

Go check out the great interview about then & now with our very own Shawna Pincus, of Pinkkiss Pottery over at Indie Fixx this week!
Then, when you adore her as much as we do, you can visit her Etsy Shop, on her Website and her blog.

Pssst! Wanna Help the Mafia?

The Charm City Craft Mafia is looking for an intern to help out with all things crafty! Learn all about community craft, event planning, group organization and marketing this season with some of the hardest working folks this side of crafty town and make friends to boot! Email us at charmcitycraftmafia@gmail.com to find out more.

*Please note that we're looking for a student intern interested in earning college credit. Thank you so much! And keep those e-mails coming!