Wow, we received over 100 ERPA applications! A tremendous THANK YOU to each of the applicants for your entrepreneurial ambitions...and GOOD LUCK to you!!!
Over the past few months, through the course of the Town Hall and all six Invention and Information sessions, over 400 community stakeholders have already joined us at the ERPA table. The dialogue from each event, and all the chats in between, has been personally revitalizing for many. Several of those swooping by The Field today (completed application in hand) mentioned that the process of putting the application together was revitalizing in its own right. That's a real joy to hear. We know it's a lot of work to put yourself out there, and we appreciate your efforts and hope that the process was insightful and energizing for all.
Let's keep the conversation going here on the blog. For those who missed them, the full audio content from all three Invention Sessions is here...
Check out the following posts:
9/16/08 - Galapagos - Starving Artist: Fact or Fiction?
9/30/08 - Joe's Pub - No More Grants & Grandma
10/9/08 - Chez Bushwick - Artist or Cultural Entrepreneur
P.S. ERPA participants will be announced in mid-December. Please stay tuned for updates and add your own two cents in the meantime...yes, let's get bloggy!
PPS. Listen to WNYC's "Weekend Edition" this weekend for an interview with The Field staff about ERPA!!!
3 comments:
The process of writing and rewriting the ERPA grant was deeply inspiring, even cathartic. I was moved when I heard that there was such a grant, after struggling for years to let my uptown colleagues know about all the resources made available to me at The Field and Negro Ensemble Co. The more I speak to actors, whether catering, teaching or at events, the more I realize the need for us to come out of isolation, caused by no time, multiple jobs and the assumption that nobody understands or cares about US. Much of the history and culture of African, Latin and Native Americans is not common knowledge. We need teamwork to fill the gaps for ourselves in knowledge of finance and resources that are available to us and CAN be made available to us. If not individually, then as a team WE CAN. Stand for and with each other we will be able to create from our experiences as powerful creative entrepreneurs and modern day Jalis! (Jali-W. African Artist/Oral Historians who were able to use their art to advise the king and community and are compensated by donations based on their artistic skill)
The process of writing and rewriting the ERPA grant was deeply inspiring, even cathartic. I was moved when I heard that there was such a grant, after struggling for years to let my uptown colleagues know about all the resources made available to me at The Field and Negro Ensemble Co. The more I speak to actors, whether catering, teaching or at events, the more I realize the need for us to come out of isolation, caused by no time, multiple jobs and the assumption that nobody understands or cares about US. Much of the history and culture of African, Latin and Native Americans is not common knowledge. We need teamwork to fill the gaps for ourselves in knowledge of finance and resources that are available to us and CAN be made available to us. If not individually, then as a team WE CAN. Stand for and with each other we will be able to create from our experiences as powerful creative entrepreneurs and modern day Jalis! (Jali-W. African Artist/Oral Historians who were able to use their art to advise the king and community and are compensated by donations based on their artistic skill)
THANK YOU for sharing your thoughts about ERPA and The Field and the field (of arts and the world at large). I am touched that you shared your wisdom with us via this blog and I am sooooo very proud of ERPA and I look forward to all the ways it will have impact in the future. THANK YOU again for being a part of it all.
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