Calling All Emerging Writers, Painters Over 45, Musicians, Dancers and Other Creative Creatures in Need of Sustenance!

Hey everyone, Mirabee is still alive and kicking! Sorry about not seeing some of you in Chicago. That was pretty disappointing BUT my reading at Book Cellar has been rescheduled for September 22nd, 2011 and there will be another reading in the Chicago area that week as well, probably in Winnetka. Stay tuned....

For now, I'm trying not to sit long at the computer so I'll be brief (still very much on the mend....not great but not bad)....just want to remind you all that this coming week I will be reading at Raab Auditorium at the Boston Public Library at a free event sponsored by TransculturalExchange. My reading will be on Thursday, April 7th at 6:30 but please come to the other readings as well: Reif Larsen (reading at 5:30 pm) the amazing author of The Collected Works of T. S. Spivet, a genre-breaking illustrated novel and Jayne Anne Phillips (reading at 7:30) wonderful author of several books, most recently Lark and Termite. For more info about this event and the rest of the conference (YOU CAN STILL REGISTER FOR THE ENTIRE CONFERENCE, believe it or not!), please go here: http://transculturalexchange.org/conference_2011/schedule.htm

Also, for those of you in the Boston area who are interested in learning more about publishing your first book, from finding an agent, working with editors to promoting your book, you are more than welcome to come to on yet another TCE sponsored free public eventFriday afternoon, April 8th from 1:30 to 3:30 pm in the Boston Room at the Boston Public Library. I'll be moderating a panel with novelist and editor Jedediah Berry (The Manual of Detection) and poet Marissa Crawford (The Haunted House). For more info, go here: http://transculturalexchange.org/conference_2011/schedule.htm

I'll also be reading at Fairfield Library in Fairfield, CT on April 14th AND in New York Friggin' City on April 19th and 20th. I'll be at the Strand on the 19th and The Cake Shop on the 20th. Please check my calendar for details: www.thememorypalace.com.

Enough of THAT stuff, on to YOU:

(MUSICIANS/COMPOSERS) Exploring the Metropolis administers the Con Edison Musicians’ Residency: Composition Program. Heading into its third year, this expanding program serves three constituencies: (1) composers get consistent, long-term, private creative space; (2) host cultural facilities fill underused space and also present the composer in a public program; (3) the community is invited to at least one free program – a master class, an opera-in-progress, etc. This year, we will be expanding the program to accommodate 8 NYC-based composers in 4 sites (Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens). Online applications will be available early April 2011. If you’d like to be notified of the next call for applications in spring 2011, sign up for their e-newsletter. http://exploringthemetropolis.org/musicians-residency

(DANCERS/ PERFORMING ARTS/FILM) Dance MOViES Commission Program—The Experimental Media & Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY is now accepting proposals for the DANCE MOViES Commission program. Selected artists receive awards ranging up to $40,000, and can also apply to create their works in conjunction with the Artist-in-Residence program at EMPAC. Works commissioned may take advantage of EMPAC’s infrastructure and technology, such as computer-controlled rigging, flexible black-box studios, and post-production engineering for audio and video. Previously commissioned works range from a punk marching band creating mayhem in the streets of Chicago to a poetic film based on the autobiographical account of a US-based African choreographer returning to dance in Zimbabwe. Read more about EMPAC and the DANCE MOViES Commission. Questions: 518-276-3918 or lesteh@rpi.edu. Deadline: April 18, 2011

(ARTISTS) Lillian Orlowsky and William Freed Foundation Grant is offered to American painters aged 45 or older who demonstrate financial need. The primary emphasis is to promote public awareness and a commitment to American art, as well as encouraging interest in artists who lack adequate recognition. Questions: Call 508-487-1750 or visit www.paam.org Deadline: August 15, 2011.

(ARTISTS) Galeria Bielska BWA is happy to announce the first edition of Artist In Residence programme. Artists from around the world working in the field of visual arts, are kindly invited to send a proposal for a site-specific work, an intervention in the public space of the Bielsko-Biała city.

During three months artists will have the time and chance to research, develop and make an art project in the public space which will relate to the subject of Beyond the time and to the history of the city. Besides the opportunity of showing your work in a public space Galeria Bielska BWA will include the digital presentation of the works made during the residency in the exhibition 1^st of September. The Gallery provides two apartments, living room, fully furnished with kitchen and bathroom. Artist pays own travel expenses, materials and personal needs.

How to apply: Please send the project proposal, CV/Statement (maximum 3 A4 pages) and portfolio (preferred format: Pdf )- in Polish or English via e-mail to the project coordinator Izabela Ołdak, e-mail: izabela.oldak@gmail.com before 30^th of April. For more information please contact the project coordinator. Deadline April 30, 2011.

(ALL) Vermont Creation Grants—Applicants to this category must be able to demonstrate that the primary component of the proposal is to fund the time, supplies, facilities (rehearsal or studio), etc. for the creation of new work. Work may be at various stages of completion. Grant amount $3,000. The council typically
awards 10-12 grants. Deadline May 2, 2011.For more info, go to: http://vermontartscouncil.org/Grants/ForArtists/CreationGrants/tabid/80/Default.aspx

ARTIST CALL FOR TIMES SQUARE PUBLIC ART PROJECT!

Hi everyone....things are still crazy around here...trying to get all my art finished for my book by June 23rd. This just came in my box today so I thought I'd pass it on to all your public art peeps:

(ARTISTS) The Times Square Alliance is Seeking Public Art Proposals for Time Square: The Times Square Alliance seeks letters of interest from arts organizations and artists across disciplines to present contemporary art projects and art events in the public spaces in and around Times Square. In a one-page letter, applicants can propose a single project or series for anytime between September 2010 and December 2012. Artists and arts organizations are encouraged to propose projects that address the unique nature and rich history of Times Square.

Projects should be able to have an impact in a space defined by dynamic activity and continuous, competing visual stimuli. Organizations, curators and artists are encouraged to consider how their projects will change or effect the space during the presentation and how the 350,000 people here every day (as well millions of virtual viewers) will interact with the presentation.

Letters of Interest are due on July 15, 2010 to artsubmit@timessquarenyc.org and should not exceed 500 words. Organization history or artist resume plus five images of relevant past work should be attached, along with an image list of titles and descriptions. Applicants with accepted proposals will be invited to enter a dialogue with the Times Square Alliance. For more info, go to: http://timessquarenyc.org/arts/opencall
Deadline: July 15, 2010.

CALLING ALL ARTISTS! URGENT MAY DEADLINES!

(BOOK ARTISTS) Multiples/Limited Edition Proposals: The Present Group, a quarterly art subscription service, seeks artist proposals for projects that result in a limited edition, artist multiple, or multiple parts of a larger work. A $500 honorarium is awarded to each season’s artist and TPG covers production costs. We do not accept proposals for reproductions of paintings. Work must be reproducible in intent. Artists submit proposals to submit@thepresentgroup.com or via USPS: The Present Group Attn: Submission 593 8th St. #3 Oakland, CA 94607. For more information please visit: www.thepresentgroup.com, to download full submission guidelines: http://www.thepresentgroup.com/TPG-submissions.pdf May 3rd deadline!

(ARTISTS) Bumpkin Island Art Encampment: Request for Proposals: The Boston Harbor Island Alliance, the Berwick Research Institute, Mobius, and Studio Soto invite proposals for the Bumpkin Island Art Encampment, a five-day, public art experience in the Boston Harbor Islands national park area. Starting Thursday, July 29, 2010 and continuing through Monday, August 2, 2010, eight artist groups (one to five people per group) will take temporary ownership of eight plots of land on Bumpkin Island. As “homesteaders”, they will build some kind of home on the land, live on the land for five days, and “improve” the land via a site-specific, temporary performance or installation.

Artists will receive: A five-day “land grant” with full campsite access, ranger support and ferry transportation, a $100 stipend for basic expenses, and a supply of drinking water, production support and critical feedback from project curators. Email proposals on or before May 4, 2010, 12 midnight EST, to: bumpkinlandoffice@gmail.com

(ARTISTS) Visual Arts Research AND Study Grants: The Fundación Marcelino Botín awards for Visual Arts Grants for study, research and the undertaking of individual projects in the sphere of (non-theoretical) artistic work. Artists may be any nationality. The exhibition agenda of the Fundación Marcelino Botín will include an exhibition which premieres the works realized by the artists during the period covered by the grant. This is a huge grant for artists wanting to live abroad for nine months. http://www.contestwatchers.com/fundacion-marcelino-botin-grants-2010-2011/ May 7 deadline!

• Applicants for study grants must be between 23 and 40 years old.
• There is no age limit for the research grants.
• Artists may be any nationality.
• The grants are individual, indivisible and non-transferable. They do not cover family provisions.
• The grants are incompatible with any other institutional funding.
• After being awarded, the grants shall be effective for the stipulated period and without interruption. Grants must be initiated before the end of 2010.

***By the way...these are really large grants. I'm sorry I didn't get this to you earlier. I know the deadline is coming up soon so you might want to file this away for next year (it's offered every year). The real website for this award is a bit confusing and is in Spanish, however, there is an English translation option. I have linked the award to another site that announced it but you can access the real site via that one. Good luck!

(ARTISTS) Public Art Commissions: Southern Exposure proudly announces a new opportunity for local, national and international artists to develop and present a new public art project in 2011 and 2012. With the support of The Graue Family Foundation, SoEx is offering an annual $15,000 award to commission a public art project in the San Francisco Bay Area. Through an open call for entries SoEx will select one project to commission and present to the public the following year. For more info go to: http://soex.org/soexgraueaward.html Deadline is May 26, 2010.

PUBLIC ART PROJECT IN BERLIN

Hello dear Readers! I hope you are all well, making art and applying for things out there. I just wanted you to know that there are only a couple days left for you to fill out the two second poll on the right hand side bar of my site AND also to tell you that it looks like my radio show will probably be on Wednesday, June 10th. I'll let you know for sure in the next few days. If all goes well, you should be able to upload the interview sometime soon after the show is aired from my website and the radio station's site as well. By the way, my book is really going out to publishers later this month, which means that I will have more time to write a couple new articles for you, as well as my regular postings. In the meantime, check out this really cool public art project (FOR ALL DISCIPLINES) in Berlin I just heard about. The deadline is SOON—June 12th—so get going!

PUBLIC ART PROJECT IN BERLIN
Neue Gesellschaft fuer Bildende Kunst/New Society for Visual Arts. The new art project on the Berlin Underground, U10 –"From Here to the Imaginary and Back Again," sets a focus on the social and collaborative dimension of public art. Artists or collaborative groups of artists and non-artists are invited to take part in this call for submissions. Preference will be given to artists who see their work as a means of exchange and shared dialogue and who are interested in reaching new audiences. This may include a readiness to collaborate with, for example, groups of BVG staff or passengers who have little experience of contemporary art. The organizers cannot take part in the call themselves. The U10 project will run for a maximum of three years. The organizers are looking for situation specific and/or participatory projects which focus on the Berlin Underground and its staff and/or users. They can range from being short, interventionistic artistic reactions to specific occurrences on the Underground to being long term collaborations. The competition sees members of staff, passengers, kiosk and snack bar owners, buskers and ticket traders not only as a potential audience but also as potential collaborators on a joint research of the Berlin Underground.

This project will be run by Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst (NBGK) Berlin, in collaboration with the Berlin Underground Train Network (BVG), and financed by Berlin Council's Department of Culture and supported by Wall AG. I'm not sure how much the funding is for this project or whether it includes travel expenses, but you can write them and find out. For more information and to download the application form, go to: www.ngbk.de and click on 'competition.' If you don't speak German, go in the upper right hand corner of the website and click on the tiny "en" for English. Address: NGBK / U10 Competition Oranienstrasse 25, D - 10999 Berlin, Germany E-mail: untergrund@ngbk.de Website: www.ngbk.de. Deadline: June 12, 2009.