The Field provides strategic and creative services to thousands of performing and media artists and companies in New York City and beyond. Founded by artists for artists, we also respond proactively to sector-wide challenges through special programs such as Field Leadership Fund: a fellowship that offers real opportunities, remuneration and access to ambitious artists, arts organizations and arts managers.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
ERPA Resource Guide
The Field encounters provocative information about the arts economy every day. The ERPA Resource Guide has evolved organically as a means for us to serve the performing arts community a menu of hot topic information across artistic disciplines; from The Field (us) to the field (you)!
Check out the wiki for a multitude of innovative resources and services we know will stoke your personal process of economic revitalization.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Conni's Avant Garde Restaruant: Searching for Usually
The way I answer the usually questions is to say what we have done already: The first year we did three stand-alone events at a rehearsal studio with a kitchen, with the idea that we would be a once a month, low key, underground supperclub serving at most 50 people. We forged our characters and our ideas in front of the audience and the evenings we bizarre and chaotic and beautiful. I did the shopping and cooking like I “usually” do, by carting it around by hand. We charged $30. The next year, we moved into the Bushwick Starr and developed the current format for the show very much in collaboration with the physical space. We developed an internal logic and invested in the stories of the characters and the the audience’s experience over the evening. We did five productions, each with a 2-night run spaced about six weeks apart, serving 120 people over each weekend. By then we had assimilated two more characters to prepare the food and we had discovered Fresh Direct. We charged $35. We increased the run to 3-nights, serving 180 people over the weekend. We became real foodies and started sourcing locally. We charged $40. We lifted that show up and plunked it in the Ohio Theatre this summer and fall, had a design duo replicate the format with bling and style, and served 320 people over a 4-night run. We found Farm to Chef. We charged $50.
We have nicknamed this full show our “Mothership” production in order to distinguish it from the “Ah La Carte” site-specific events that we write for the location and the occasion. We say yes to everyone and everything: pass-the-dessert performances for benefits, conferences, and festivals, a bridal shower at a private home with champagne cocktails and party games, full cabaret evenings at Joe’s Pub with and without food, a full holiday dinner in the lobby and conference room of a Manhattan office, and a commissioned work for a museum cafe.
I like to think that we are developing our company by trial and trial. We try something and then we try it again with a bigger audience, or seasonal food, or refined writing, or in a different setting, or more nights in a row, or spaced farther apart, or with higher price points. In other words, we don’t know what we are until after we have tried it. The one thing we do have is an army of characters whose fiction is aligned with function (cooks, general manager, bartender, diva performers, bouncer, etc.) and we can own most new set-ups by just letting the characters do what they would do. The characters might have fictional histories, but they are always in the same time and place and situation with the audience. We don’t have to be flawless or fully prepared for everything, we just have to be able to meet the unknown with grace and keep taking care of the audience.
Still, some ‘usually’ might be good for my health. We are good at trying new things and the next new thing might be taking care of ourselves. This is the part where ERPA and the larger conversation surrounding it comes in. Usually is the way you build word of mouth. Usually is the projected budget. It’s the only way to plan your calendar. Or to live a balanced life. Or to ask for funding. Our show is something new for most of our guests. They want to say things like “they usually perform in this really cool space in Bushwick.”
With the ERPA implementation grant, we are looking for “usually” this summer: Where? A great new club space. When? Once a week throughout the season. How much? Hopefully enough. The Food? Locally grown and prepared in a viable kitchen space. I don’t want to jinx it, so check back for the next blog post and I’ll tell you where we’ll be! In the meantime, we will be serving lunch at 2pm at the NoPassport Conference on February 26, Nuyorican Poets CafĂ©, $10 at the door for conference attendees. Please come and feed us back.
Monday, January 25, 2010
OurGoods is running a storefront!
OurGoods.org is really picking up speed! I'm writing from the storefront we opened last night: Trade School at 139 Norfolk in the Lower East Side. For the next 30 days, we'll have nightly classes, daily co-working for Trade School teachers, and barter agents available to the public from 3-6pm. Sign up for a class here by meeting one of the teacher's barter needs.
Trade School classes are taught by members of the OurGoods alpha network. Sharing skills and hanging out at the storefront will foster better working relationships. I want to know what you do! Let's get to know each other as rigorous artists with a wide range of talents. Come visit in the afternoon or evening and meet other people who want to share skills, spaces, and objects.
We have a month long storefront space because OurGoods co-founder Rich Watts bartered a lot of design work with Grand Opening. From there, we made a chalkboard and built 16 tables and 16 chairs with salvaged materials- we only paid for 1 sheet of plywood and finish paint! Co-founder Louise Ma made an incredibly beautiful flag that we will fly every day. The space will be reconfigured each day. Last night at the opening, Athena Kokoronis brought her mobile kitchen and exchanged gestures for cake. Martyna Szczesna set up a portrait studio and took 100+ photos. This week, we have classes about foraging for mushrooms, business and art, running an LLC, organizing an arts festival, and making kimchee. Classes start today!
Online, OurGoods is being tested by around 100 people! We are still fine-tuning the site, and expect to launch in the Spring. Stop in the storefront and talk to me (Caroline) if you'd like to join this early group of testers online.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
The Field's Economic Revitalization for Performing Artists (ERPA) program awards $55,000 to entrepreneurial artists working to catalyze and sustain their creative economies! ERPA Implementation Awards provide grants of $10,000 to $20,000 to continue developing and implementing projects under the auspices of The Field. Watch ERPA Artists work their magic at WNYC, featuring coverage from September 2009's Public Display of Invention at The Greene Space...
Thanks for watching, let us know what you think!
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Stolen Chair: Going back to college
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Kahlil Almustafa: The People's Inauguration: Poetry & Dialogue on the one-year anniversary of Obama's Inauguration
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER.
Panelists include:
- Rosa Clemente - 2008 Green Party Vice-Presidential Candidate
- Cindy Sheehan - author of "Not One More Mother's Child"
- Michael Skolnik - Political Director to Russell Simmons & Editor for GlobalGrind.com
"kahlil almustafa’s poems are extraordinary in their political complexity and aesthetic sensibility. His language in From Auction Block to Oval Office is crystal-clear and the ideas are continually provocative."
- Howard Zinn, author, A People’s History of the United States
This event will be interactive. The panel will respond to the critical questions raised by the poems. Audience members will have the opportunity to create their own poems. Panelists to be announced.
Some of the questions to be addressed:
- How do we create a space for people to express the ways Barack Obama has inspired them and create a space for principled criticism?
- Is this the closing of a chapter in the American narrative beginning with the auction block and concluding with the Obamas in the White House? Or is the narrative of African enslavement being used to promote the idea of America perfecting its democracy?
- It has been said that the Hip-Hop generation greatly impacted the election in 2008. How has the Hip Hop generation been impacted by the campaign, Obama’s presidency, and how will the Hip-Hop generation continue to be engaged?
The event is powered by the Mighty Mighty
Kahlil Almustafa: Thank You to The Field
Let me quickly list the way three Field Workshops have helped build this project:
- The "Strategies for Internet Outreach" workshop with Jaki Levy in May 2009, helped me gain the confidence to work on WordPress and transformed my relationship to publishing content as an act of creating value.
- The "Public Relations Principles" workshop, also in May and the one-on-one session with Fran Kirmser, helped my wife, Julia, and I conceive of the "100 Donors 100 Dollars" campaign to raise money for my project. It was Fran's excitement about the possibilities of my book which led me to publish and her insistence that I set a date which would make sense for my project which led me to choose the one-year anniversary of Obama's inauguration. She also provided some simple strategies for creating a personalized mailing for my donors.
- The "Special Events Planning" workshop with Andrew Frank, who stepped in for Fran helped immensely with the final stages of the project's launch. Andrew's workshop focused on building community as the way to create successful events. He helped us map out our communities and strategize specific and personalized ways to engage with each of them.
kahlil almustafa