Transcript for:
Creative Project Planning Workshop Insights

um so welcome to practice best practices project planning for creatives Workshop I'm Den Santoro the project manager for practice best practice and among other things I'll be hosting the workshop tonight and we want to start off by thanking our principal sponsor Fall River arts and culture Coalition Frack who's running the old ignition project of artist grants which tonight is a part of Ashley Aquino the director of Frack we'll tell you about that in a minute we also want to thank our generous funders Rockland chip trust charitable foundation and the Carver Dartmouth and New Bedford local cultural councils which are local agencies which are supported by the Mass Collision Council estate agency we're also supported by generous and kind support from our partners the National Park Service New Bedford Art Museum artworks new co-creative Center New Bedford creative and sng project calorie art brokerage we also want to thank Kat Newton Jim McKee and Mark Parsons for taking the time out of their busy lives to create the workshop content tonight and for being here to present and answer your questions a few notes before we begin if you have questions during the workshop please type them into the chat some of our board members will be working with the chat to keep track of things and when the presentations are done and we select your questions we'll ask you to unmute so you can ask your question out loud this will also give you the ability to do follow-up questions if you prefer for us to read your question please type that in with the question please keep yourself on mute during the presentations because unmuted people can be disruptive in a zoom you can unmute when asking questions we suggest you put your zoom in speaker mode rather than Gallery mode during the presentation you'll be able to see much more information you can put it in gallery mode when we get into the Q a if you prefer closed captioning is available you can turn closed captioning on with a little CC icon at the bottom of your screen should you need or want it we'll also have a short survey online which you can take right here in the meeting which we'll put up near the end of the session feedback is really important to us so please fill it out also you can add comments about the workshop in the chat as we're wrapping up or you can email them to contact at practicebest practice we'll also put the recording of This workshop online at practicebestpractice.com with uh in a few days for those who missed it or wish to review if you're on our email list or social media you'll see the notices when that happens all past workshops are always available on our website for viewing so we hope you've liked us on Facebook and Instagram and sign up for our email list also Although our workshops are always free they do cost to produce them and if you would like to make a tax deductible contribution to practice best practice you can find the Donate button at the top of every page on our website we get a hundred percent of that money none of it's taken by PayPal um now here is Ashley Aquino the director of Frac to tell you about the ignition project awesome thank you Dan so I'm really absolutely thrilled and I have to say a big thank you to uh Mass development uh through their TDI creative Catalyst grant program we're able to to do this uh so the ignition fund is a multi-tiered program that has two components to it uh one being microgrants of twenty five hundred dollars we will be handing out 10 Awards uh there are two parts to the application the first is eligibility so if you are a Fall River Artist whether you live or work in the city if you have a deep connection to the city we would love to have you apply uh right in the chat I'm going to drop a link that will take you directly to the page on here you can fill out the eligibility form it's about eight questions long just want to know who you are and then from there you'll have the opportunity to fill out the second part of the application if you have questions along the way I am more than happy to answer them I'm happy to jump on a zoom call with people as well uh just a reminder part one of this application is due on this Friday January 20th the main application is due February 28th and so part of the ignition fund besides handing out uh wonderful micro grants to 10 people in uh Fall River also involves four workshops and so the first one takes place this evening uh den and I will be partnering back up along with co-sponsor New Bedford creative on February 15th for the next and then we'll have two more that will announce one in Spring and one in fall but we're looking forward to it and again feel free to check out our website please follow us on social media I'll drop in that link too we always have good information on there um and as always Frac is here to be an advocate and asset and a resource for everyone and so with that I think we should jump into it okay all right so now without further Ado let me tell you about our presenters tonight and then turning over the program we have with us uh Kat Newton who's a multimedia artist with a focus on community engagement visual design production and education Jim McKee who's um South Coast cluster lead strategist for Mass developments transformative development initiative TDI and Mark Parsons is an entrepreneur artist educator technologist and he's the founder and executive director of New Bedford research and Robotics we suggest you read their full bios on the website for more information on their panel's background now let me think turn things over to Mark to begin thank you Dan thank you Ashley I'm going to share um my slides with you guys um but I want to say first uh Dan and Ashley it's such a service that you are bringing to creatives from the south coast I'm assuming everyone's from the south coast um and I want to thank you for that and as an artist who started here in New Bedford and you know went on and is now back um I wish I had had that kind of support infrastructure Community Network here so I think I think it's amazing that you guys are doing that into the to everyone who's here it takes courage to show up to these it's hard we we put ourselves out there we feel vulnerable we fail a lot in pursuing that creative you know disciplines and I just want to acknowledge that and my the way I constructed my talk today we're doing this for like 20 15 20 minutes right then um you know was not to like pick my best projects it was to pick a few projects that were arranged um a range of kind of success and failure in order that you know we had some kind of fodder for the conversational Canon about what worked what didn't work why'd you do that that stuff um I also want to um I'm sharing my screen now say that I don't I was unable to figure out how to see my notes at the same time as I was showing you these slides so I'm doing a little bit of winging it here so um pardon me for uh I'll probably skip some things so the first thing is um who am I what am I I'm an artist I've been an artist I've been living in New York City for the last 24 years but I've also been a director of an architecture school I've also had a design build business I have um you know designed International shelters you know in Haiti and you know I've done a million I'm a project person and I am always doing it wrong and I want to start with that caveat I'm always doing it first and figuring out how to pay for it afterwards I think it's just kind of part of who I am um but it in the end has worked for me to do things that way because it feeds my soul to do projects so I kind of don't care if I don't get the money that I thought I should get in doing a project like that and you know I keep tripping forward what can I say um and so while we could be talking about lots of projects lots of different project typologies I'm sticking strictly to Art in this so that stays in the kind of creative thing but we could be talking about design we could be talking about technology we could be talking about a lot of things and I hope that as I become a part of this community again and some of your faces get more familiar to me we can continue conversations Beyond today so I'm going to talk very briefly about big burst Sun Drop dissonance bridge and red line especially briefly about Sundrop as cases in point for Creative projects that I've done and I put big Burr in the kind of win Sun Drop in the lose dissonance bridge in a kind of lost leader win and and red line in the win and you know I've got a couple slides that actually have some notes on them so I won't forget everything I'm supposed to be saying as we go the first project is Big Burr and I would say this was a marker for me as a modicum of success as a professional artist in that they reached out to me I don't know how they got a hold of me but I gotta say in all the projects I've done and I've done hundreds of projects very very small percentage of them are not through somebody I already know it's we trust people we like working with people that's kind of one of the main points of my conversation with you today it's all about how you work and how you communicate with others in this case they reached out to me and said do you want to do this it's an environmental mental sculpture we've got this problem with bamboo on the site and you know with the process like many other processes we I put together you know a conceptual statement and a concept of what I could do as a sculptor sorry that's my traditional training is you know sculpture from metal and wood and you know Stone and casting bronze you know traditional materials and um so I did go through that process and I figured this was a cool Prospect I really like the material conceptually I was comfortable with it but the stipend the artist stipend was not great it was like five grand or something like that it was not it was not a lot of money but to me it was something that I wanted to I can't remember seven five I can't remember what it was it wasn't in double digits and um I was I was excited about the process and I put together and even though I do well with technology I think the balance of the kind of kind of communication by hand you see in my drawings this kind of combination of past issue uh amalgam of like digital and and drawn I think that's important I think even uh in architectural drawings we can convey a lot more with the hand than we can with machines um once I was awarded this um it was like okay cool oh my God now I gotta actually make the thing that we that I prom you know said I was gonna do right and so um I started doing tests and using light materials and much smaller materials and um at the same time what I was doing was I was getting on the phone and I was making trips to site because on on the one hand what I'm doing is testing out my concept how can I build it uh how is it fraught with challenges how's it going to work the way I expected to um so I'm doing that under controlled circumstances and then when I get to site I'm far more prepared and far more efficient in this case and I know this is this is like not everybody's like building a sculpture on site but but you can kind of project these values into whatever it is that your medium you know whatever it is that your medium is and certainly on site I confronted issues in this case that I didn't expect the scale of things sometimes it rained heavily and the glue that I was using didn't I just switched glues and use like expanding you know Foams and things to hold things together Etc but um in the end it worked out really well and uh professional you know photos were taken of this and so like you know okay fine there's the project so what is it what does it come down to where were the artist's responsibilities and what was the sponsoring body responsible for the these These are these are important obviously the idea is mine and you know what what came out of my stipend was travel and food costs and of course I was responsible for the construction this is important the sponsor harvested the bamboo for me if if I had to harvest the bamboo for this there's no way it would have been any return on investment for my time they gave me housing near the site I was a cent control I needed to be down there this is down in Maryland I needed to be down there for a few days at a time for you know several trips and they paid for the equipment uh that I that was required the heavy equipment and they trusted me and I think they trusted me because of line number one because when they got on the phone with me you know as a finalist um we established a good working report and I immediately went down for a site visit you can't get it done on email and you can't get it down on on the phone you have to be face to face um and then once I was awarded this um it was essential to stay in my strengths and my strengths in New York was that I had a studio and I had facilities I could do all my testing I could do all my failure in New York I could work out all the bugs and I could make all the intelligent componentry at at home for me in New York and that was the Machinery that I needed to you know carve the Spheres that are at the center of these hubs in the assemblies and then when I went to site it was merely kind of putting the parts together so um that was you know as being efficient as I could on site so um we we won uh National you know landscape architecture award for this we got professional documentation for this and it led to the next project so net net Seven Grand in the pocket big deal uh but it is a commission it's always good to have a commission and of course um it led to the next oh get the award and by the way Seven Grand disappears quickly it's ephemeral but getting an award is something that stays with you it stays on your resume it's meaningful it's a third party judgment it's ostensibly an object an objective judgment from a third party in this case so that's huge so was it worth it yes I love it I love doing the project it feeds my soul I mean I'm I'm I love making work so for every reason this was a success do I wish I could have made you know seventeen thousand instead of seven thousand sure but but it went so well and I created such great relationships that it leads to the next one because I got a call a month later we're doing a big project it's a big commission um also in Montgomery County uh but it's in the city uh outside of DC and we want you to be a part of it so it paid off [Music] um I'm going to be very brief on this one because this was this was a fail so what I did was on this one was put together a great proposal I think I only have three slides it it had the community engagement component that I love going out and working with the community different you know groups from the community to do these drawings about how this park could function for them and then extracting um you know that data from the drawings that the that the community was doing then creating three-dimensional artifacts from it that would compose this Sun Drop um arch in the park over the raised bed gardens and it satisfied everything it was a great I became a finalist on it they were like you know I was basically told you got it this is great and then um what ended up happening was um that when I made the walk through tour with them they s they had told me that the side of this building was available as this Senior Center was available and could be utilized but it turns out that two of the finalists myself and one other um were utilizing this wall and it was not available to us so long story short they made us re-pitch they made the last three finalists all repitch with new ideas and that one didn't work out but maybe dodge the bullet right because if the project does not manage well enough to to know kind of what parts of the site are available and what parts of the site are not available who knows all right dissonance Bridge totally different completely completely different profile piece there's a short video oh you know what I don't know if I shared my sound hold on one second foreign [Music] when they arrived guests first submitted images emblematic of dissonance in their lives today those images were automatically abstracted and turned into line drawings and then layered onto a canvas 16 feet wide and eight feet high and the bridge was created through the act of engaging with that canvas tracing in blue and black and orange until after three hours the music faded and the lights went on and we saw dissonance bridge for the first time [Music] [Applause] Mark Parsons foreign [Applause] okay so nobody paid me there was no sponsor um there it was a total kind of just investment of my time in a speculative way right so what was I responsible for a lot of things concept development the materials that went into it I paid the musicians of yeah what is so that there was live improvisational sound um you know there we had you know beer and wine um it it was an event this was an event right an assistant that I needed to compensate I I think the main driver and being able to do this was that I had a room available in New York in the Brooklyn Navy yard to do this um I had to find the participants and of course I had to document and then I had to put together the video afterwards right so that's a that's a lot of time in and you know maybe a thousand dollars worth of cost or something like that I don't I don't know I don't remember but um but you know what's the value um yeah the main thing is the main the real value is that I have a one minute piece that 50 actually 54 if you include the musician musicians were participating in um everybody had a fantastic time there was an aha moment to like doing this work in the dark with each other with the projection behind us and then the the reveal at the end um and and it's networking and as a you know as a morsel of community engagement you know kind of a happening some sometimes I'm curious about whether the artwork is in the happening or in the artifact after the fact um you know there's something which is emblematic of the way I like to work the way I like to engage people and that's going to help me get the next thing and that's what you're always thinking about you're always thinking about what's the next thing so was it worth it yes um uh I guess what could I have done better storing an artwork of that size and moving artwork that size in New York is a there's no other way to say it you know so eight feet by 16 feet it it was a lot to do with afterwards and I didn't have a plan for that and if I had a plan for that it would be a hundred percent win okay and then red line so this is Redline it's 2012 commission at grounds for sculpture again starting with workshops where we're bringing in community members and they're doing drawings we're exporting those drawings onto three-dimensional surfaces and then building up a kind of framework out of uh one ton of recycled paper pulp again it's another kind of environmental piece um uh then it's you know kind of moved to site there's a solo exhibition that goes with it while it's moved to site and you know they come and move all my stuff to uh in this case grounds for sculpture in Princeton New Jersey um and two years later it um it is evolving the way it's in I mean you know it's there's entropic forces on the way it falls away in a drawing becomes a sculpture becomes a drawing in space again and I'm very very proud of this work but you know this talk is not it's not about the work and the concept it's about the process um and I consider this um one of one of my really good projects not just because qualitatively I'm proud of the work and the way it's come come through but because of the way the whole thing was managed right so there were things like liability and insurance that I was responsible for any specialized tools transportation and running several workshops which included the drawing workshops and the assembly workshops um on site right so those responsibilities were part of my proposal but also you know kind of part of what made this valuable to grounds for sculpture and what they did what you'll see I can read this list but what you're seeing that um grounds for sculpture did was what was easy for them Studio space they manage the workshop participants they provided housing on site they moved the sculpture I mean that's a huge fee art moving especially Big Stuff um and that you know the sculpture went to a collector Upstate afterwards so lived on site for three years then it went upstate um you know they moved everything from New York they did the packing art packing is another super expensive thing they produced a nine minute video and they reimbursed me for costs essentially right so um this was a a huge again the paycheck I can't remember what the paycheck was 22 something like that 25 it was in the low to mid 20s but all the costs were taken care of right so um I think that is crucial you know you want to rely on your partner and your sponsor to do the things that they do well so that you can do the things that you do well and that's all about communication so I mean you know what's the the you know kind of what's the takeaway the client was happy they got a ton out of it and so did I they got more engagement from their Community who participated and learned in the creation of an artwork and we had lots of conversations and presentations um throughout so that's a win for them um and it's a and it's a win for me right so it's good and it helps get the next one so my my final slide sorry for doing this without my notes in front of me um but you're getting most of it um I can't say this enough your ideas as an artist or a creative are maybe fabulous but they're only as good um as they are in service to your sponsor or your grantor's needs right everyone has an agenda you have a conceptual agenda as an artist whoever you're working with has an agenda right so if you look at what Ashley is doing right now Ashley has an agenda and it's to get artists involved and get artists moving and den has an agenda and that's you know something similar and they can talk about their mission but whatever we are doing as artists we're either doing it alone at home in the studio or we're doing it out in the world and if we're doing it out in the world we are serving others and you know it took me a long time to figure that out a long time to figure that out and as soon as you get clarity on that you're going to have much better success in getting grants and working with Partners um the other thing and you heard me say this a couple times you have to ask you have to socialize uh around with your partners what how look um like big bird they're like okay great you make seven thousand dollars I'm like okay I'm gonna end up spending a lot of that seven thousand dollars how can you it's gonna take me time to get down there what can I do how can you how can you help me and you got to pick and choose your times to have that conversation so they're delicate and not cumbersome or or rude but inevitably your partner has resources and those resources you know when we are steeped in resources we can share them easily you need to find out what your sponsor can share with you to ease the cost or burden on yourself in order to deliver the best product possible um and when I say ten dollars equals one dollar ten dollars equals one hundred dollars what I mean is the way organizations manage budgets means that if you ask for something that is within a budget that um they have access to or doesn't cost them anything you they're that ten dollars can go a long way meaning you can get a lot and it doesn't it's it's not a big ask um but if you ask the wrong question like can you just pay my per like can you give me a per diem so I can have lunch every day while I'm doing that that might be way out of left field even though it's only you know 35 dollars a day that's completely inappropriate um depending on who your sponsor is so you just need to get clear on on what that is and go to what is comfortable for them please please please document your work very well I think that's a lot easier today than it used to be um and building trust I think is is is super important the last thing I want to say is that it's a game of attrition you know I saw so many people come out of graduate school they were hot and you know at the big gallery and three years later they're all burned out they're they're not making art anymore whatever three years whatever 13 years later um if you stay um if you have integrity in the work that you do and you have professional communication and respect and you treat it like you're working with human beings and you want to serve them and I really mean that we are in service to others as artists and creatives then number one you can sustain the effort much longer because it's feeding your soul number two people want to work with you longer so um and it'll get you the next thing so you know there you go there's my 20 minutes thank you so much Mark that was great um we're going to be having cat percent next cat Newton who's a an artist who's worked on many projects some of you may know some of her work from around the city but she's not confined to around the city so cat on you go all right thank you Jen um Mark I think that was a really great presentation um some of the takeaways that I kind of want to jump on are material problem solving figuring out what materials are right for each project marketing properly um and then being mindful of the third party and what they need that is absolutely on point it's important as artists to be mindful of what you want to do with your resources in time but even I think sometimes more important to figure out who you're going to be working with and how you can find a way to make their Vision come to life and I ended up starting a company it's Kat Canadian Studios And the tagline for that is basically trying to make others Visions come to life because this artist is creatives um whether you're working on left or right side of the brain you're basically helping others ideas come to fruition with your skill set okay so I'll go ahead and start screen share that thank you Mark that was an awesome a lot of information thank you y'all can see the screen Okay so my background these are two images I think they're the two biggest projects I'm known for um the one on the top is the Jazz mural downtown New Bedford I'll go into some details about that shortly and then the bottom one is a full film loving Vincent oops I think there's like a timer going on there uh loving Vincent which is a film I was a part of back in uh between 2016 and 2017. so I wanted to say I started off um my my experience as an artist um at the community college setting I was in nursing first um I had a really quick pivotal experience that led me to taking a few art classes at this community college in North Carolina I had an amazing set of professors who were very inspiring they didn't necessarily teach us how to draw or teach us business but they told us that if you put your mind to something you could learn a new thing but it's up to you if you want to learn it but you got to put the time in and I thought that that was absolutely fantastic so I decided to give the art world a world and and I just fell in love with it so um I studied at a community college collected the credits that I had some nursing took a couple of Studio classes and transferred to a university in Asheville North Carolina this school was at a really great school it really helped my experience as a project developer because they pushed interdisciplinary research where you had to cross-pollinate ideas between different and subjects I was in the Fine Arts and so I decided to mix that with social psychology so I ended up making a series of paintings that were about how the first smartphone was coming out this was in 2011 2010 so the first smartphones really started to become a thing and I was witnessing how that was changing the Dynamics of communication um you know the candid conversation Dynamics I then went um to UMass Dartmouth I finished my Master's Degree there and I helped to develop the multimedia curriculum at that school I think they're all they're now teaching courses with this material so it was basically a time when I was starting to combine painting and animation together I thought it was fantastic to create a product where you kind of got a chance to have like an ephemeral like Hands-On feel for the freshmark and also the time-based media there's no sound in this video by the way no sound so I had a world of a Time studying this and I knew that um at this point I wanted to combine both video and sound in my work and I went to school to become a professor and I teach now at Bristol Community College I teach in the traditional media and digital media departments and but what's really important to me as a teacher is I didn't want to show students just how to do things like drawing or design I felt like students need to understand how to go out into the world whether they have a degree or not understand how to take their creative skills and learn how to make Revenue with them and so I didn't have that experience exactly as a student learning the business you know practice so I made it a point after graduating to jump into a lot of projects and that's probably one of the first bits of advice I would give Young Artists or new artists or continuing artists no matter what level projects are the best way to learn have an idea of what you want to either take away from the project um what you want to learn or gain from the project if it's about Revenue what can you contribute to a party to make their life easier in some way shape or form um and so I started doing a lot of these different projects I spent a couple of years running through the Fashion World sculpture mixing them together with illustration to create animation projects I started a publication from scratch called the siren where I was trying to take a wide sample of what was going on in our community visually music scene and literary scene and kind of create a constant sample like wider snapshot of what was going on that was at the same time that the residency was happening and then I was requested well there was a commercial that I saw for this project that was happening this was the film loving Vincent was in the process of being uh completed and I sent in basically the equivalent of uh bang on the door application by going to the website clicking on that section where it says contact us sending an email Plus content from like my portfolio saying I'd really love to be a part of this project is there any more information um they didn't necessarily have a apply here button I went straight to the source and was like I'd love to be a part of this project some time went by I was teaching at the time the semester was getting ready to come to a closure and then serendipitously as the semester was finishing I got an email back saying they did want me to be a part of the team um and let's talk about what went into this project a little bit so this project I was kind of like a boots on the ground um animator I did not have any responsibilities outside of like making work that was right in front of me I had to paint each scene or each cell frame for my scene of the video each frame was 20 inches by 30 inches it was done with oil painting it was done via a projection you know they had all of the cells spliced out we were animating on what are called twos where it's on 12 frames times two unless we had a very I've seen which then we were animating on ones and you had to make sure that your frame that you were painting was approved of by the art director and then once it was approved you took a photo of that frame and then went on to the next frame by scraping away your panel the mistake you did not want to make was forgetting to take a photo and then scraping your panel and then realizing you have to pick that frame again it took on average between two two and a half hours at least to paint each frame so if you scrape through a frame um you've got a lot of makeup work you have to do so what I learned about this was um you know as an animator I wasn't in charge of the directing the script writing the fundraising I was just a part of a team that had to assimilate to what was going on and so there were a lot of artists from all over the world who had different styles and they put us through a very basic training program where they taught us how to animate in the style that they wanted and the ones that couldn't do that they were sent home and there was one person on our team who was sent home because she could not make the right paint marks brush marks and she had to fly all the way back I want to say it was like aren't Tina she came from so she flew there flew back and she didn't have anything to show for the time and money she had spent going to and from the studio so as an artist I would say if you're wanting to be a part of projects and you're coming in as like a studio assistant if you're coming in as you're wanting like a mural painter look at what style is being used or if it's sculpture look at what materials are being used and what's the end goal and then try to see if you can use your skills to assimilate to what's needed to get that project done as efficiently as possible and then of course communicating regularly with either your director or team leader to figure out what needs to be done asking questions of how you can make the project Move Along more efficiently you're going to be remembered for doing that because they're going to be like oh my gosh this person not only fulfilled that role they looked outside of what their role required and then asked questions about that and then extended their skill set to that which then depending on which project you're working on going back to what Mark was talking about you want to make the clients you come to life so if this client sees that you're reaching beyond what was requested you might want to communicate with them and say I can add additional value to the project is there a way to either extend bits of the budget if necessary or take on extra rules but that's going to be a conversation to have over contracts this is a part of the scene that I animated for the film this is the actual frames that we used um thank you while this project was happening I was still continuing my painting practice this was a time when I was starting to paint portraits of friends that I had in the community that I was seeing regularly here and there and they were becoming models for me for different ideas um a couple of years uh later so we're now the pandemic hits the covet hits it's uh 2020. um I got a email from the super flat uh Jeremiah saying that there was a mural that was going to be coming up where they needed portrait artists I immediately jumped at the opportunity to do that I've never painted a mural before I was used to working on an 18 by 24 uh to 20 by 30. I painted like a five foot by seven foot painting before but I'd never painted a large mirror before so I was going to have to do a lot of research and learning about materials and what I learned was you know there's paints that work for interior exterior there's different types of surface paints and then there's different methods to scale up an image there's grid methods there's projected methods there's organic grid methods like squiggly grid methods so I had to learn a lot of these different processes to figure out how to get the job done efficiently and I wasn't paid to learn those things I either got the job or I didn't get it I either like was able to execute the job on budget in time good quality or not and it makes it reminds me like every time you engage with either a potential client or an organization you're both spending time that's extremely precious and opportunity cost is going out the window while your time is being spent engaging with one another so it's always important to try your best to deliver quality in every way that you possibly can so figure out what they're looking for figure out what's the point of the Project's existence to begin with what's the final outcome of the experience they're seeking to provide for others or for themselves and then figure out if it's within either your immediate skill set or if it's something you could learn fast enough at a good quality industry level to be able to execute on time in budget and without getting on people's nerves in a way stuff happens sometimes within projects like at the emails wasn't read but you want to try a best to like get those things done as efficiently as you can I was the role of the designer for the project this project was about highlighting and celebrating a lot of the musical talent in the history of the Jazz scene in New Bedford this building owner also owns a production company and he's worked with all these musicians the initial project they wanted to have a grid of portraits laid out and I was like guys people are going to see the portraits but they're not going to really understand the context of who they are so the design was to create to kind of emphasize that aspect of who these gentlemen are and what role they played in the history of the music community in Bedford again I haven't hear the template boss client so the client in this case was the I was working with super flat the New Bedford Historic Society Whaling City sound and the the fiber optics I can't remember the name of that company but I had to keep in mind all these different parties and then also the parties of people who helped install this and actually there's two people here who were absolutely fantastic artists I want to give a shout out to them Mandy Erasure and Autumn's Autumn I don't know if you're still here but y'all Autumn Sierra they were absolutely fantastic artists that helped install this so that actually brings up another Point um find your friends who are also really amazing at doing stuff and bring them on board your projects and then make projects happen together because every um colleague as Mark was saying has different strengths and you want to kind of work in a very symbiotic fashion to help make bigger ideas come to life and this is a really great example of that um the dance mural that happened almost simultaneously shortly thereafter this was a mural where it was going to be installed along I forget the name of the theater it was the Capitol Theater in the North End of New Bedford this was a smaller scale theater I had to um buy basically pieces of plywood Prime them and make a design that was going to fit in that setting I came up with the concept of dance because I think dancing is something that's extremely celebratory I don't know who does not have fun dancing and celebrating anything about history anything that's popular something that brings a lot of like good feelings good vibes to a setting um this was a this was a much smaller budget that I was working with and this became about quickly putting some design ideas together and executing them but the deadline was extended because the budget was smaller so um different projects are going to have different variables that are more flexible than others sometimes the variable is a deadline situation sometimes it's a budget situation like Mark was talking about you want to figure out how far you can get your dollar to stretch and also how far you can get your hour to stretch and when I say hour I mean like if you're working with hiring an assistant if you're going to subcontract out make sure that you pay them well make sure that like I could go on forever on the whole minimum wage bull crap stuff like at least 20 25 hours to an hour start start there like if you're bringing on people to help make sure you take care of them all right um but the hour can be stretched if you have others helping you get the project done um other other things like access to um technology things like the Adobe I would heavily recommend learning the Adobe software programs like Photoshop illustrator InDesign if you're doing animation Media or New Media After Effects Premiere there's also other animation softwares that are out there but in this case for this project it was um plywood it was three panels and I had to get them installed before the end of I think it was between like December and January 2020 2021 the half Street mural that happened last this past summer this was the first mural where my company was able to get the sale and then also hired on students that I had recently had the privilege to work with at Bristol Community College who graduated and did an extremely amazing job in class so I started treating my teaching practice in a way is okay I'd like to present these ideas to the class of who is interested in drawing who's interested in working with murals who's interested in animation and then I deliver the concepts in my assignments in a way that teaches them directly what it would be like to bring some of these different projects to life and then the ones that do extremely well and show a lot of interest in this I consider actually hiring them for a project because one of the things that I feel like as when I was a student there wasn't a proper integration system between academic setting and professional setting so this project was the first time I was able to take students outside of a classroom and then hire them directly onto a project the hatch Street mural was designed as basically a billboard to help bring more attention and basic information to where the hatch Street Studios are located in the North End of New Bedford I had to manage the of course the materials the design looking at the surface that the paint was going to be going on making sure that it had a decent longevity so like coat it with a decent um coding that helps fight the UV lights and everything and then managing the team making sure they're safe making sure like everything around that area was safe I know that there was a lot of broken glass we had to deal with there was some windows above the scene that had broken glass in them and I was like that doesn't look very safe and so I contacted the building owner and they said we'll take care of that that was dealt with but I had to make sure that everyone part of the project was in a safe setting that nothing was going to happen to them I had to make sure it had like liability insurance I also had workman's comp in this case and then I had to deal with taxes as far as sending out 1099s for this project as well so what I love about um this practice is like if you as an artist if you're wanting to go business owner um there's a lot of um left brain things that you're going to have to start doing more of accounting contracts talk like talk with a lawyer like um help like like they're worth their time like that you spend asking them hey this kind of transaction is getting ready to happen does this make sense and then there's that I remember someone once told me like Babe Ruth's contract was written down in a napkin and he was asked to play a certain number of games and so like a contract can be like whatever is clearly articulated of what one party expects from the other party it can be small it could be at length um there could be all sorts of details involved but it's very important that both parties understand what's expected from each other in that process how am I doing on time am I running out am I going over do they still have some time yeah you still have a little time all right so that's going to be a bit of closure for the mural part um I'll show this really quickly this is an animation example of an animation pipeline development that I'm working on with another group of recently graduate students so this is uh one of the directions my studio is going in where I'm going to be working foreign [Music] the music on that is grounding out your voice so let me let me mute this okay so this was a project I built with a couple of folks at RISD a couple of years ago and what I was doing was kind of creating a pipeline for animation and figuring out all the different roles that would go into that and what I'm excited about doing moving forward in this aspect of the company is actually designing animations for different either musicians organizations and whoever is interested in that but what I love is the process of building a pipeline to help provide that service and also bringing on artists you know for that um this was a festival that I did at animation for um last year Nocturne function it's an EDM music festival that's based out in western Mass the main roles that had to be filled were concept artists illustrator and animator um I had the budget for this one wasn't the best it was like a thousand dollar budget and I had to create like a 20 second long video for it but what I really gained from that was learning about what's going to make the pipeline a lot more efficient and so as you're starting off either as an independent contractor if you're starting off if you're wanting to work with another organization if you have a lot of things to learn that could be an exchange for what the budget is if it's lower so rather than thinking of it as I'm not getting paid enough you can think about as I'm going to get paid to learn this thing so I had a chance in this transaction you can say to learn okay okay in order to make this product execute on time hidden budget you know into the quality that they want what are the exact steps that are going to have to go into making that happen so this one was a big research project as far as that goes and then there's um projects that go into Community engagement I love Community engagement I cannot go on enough about how much I love it I think it's amazing because whenever artists creatives are engaging with the business owners municipalities non-profits schools churches all of it there's a sense of I just feel like if there's a there's a it just helps it makes things better it kind of keep not to a weird cultish degree not like to an obsessive degree but just like it helps greatly like I went to dsubs today got this delicious like meal and then I had a chance to run into two musicians one of them Darrell um I can't think of his uh last name but he's an amazing musician he just released an EP I got a chance to talk with another community engager of course um and then another musician I went over to green bean and saw like a friend who's doing some really cool stuff so I feel like there's a type of like support and networking and um something magical that happens when Community stuff occurs now you can I think it's a good idea to work with what you're familiar with so if you're passionate about photography you know look at what kind of events you could put together that brings more conversation out around photography if you're excited about building projects make events like this like dense and turn like these types of events like the Fall River Arts Council like Coalition make these types of events come to life but I I love Community um because it it's one of those like high tide raises old ships type things so this is an example of an event that I ran at the co-creative center last year I believe two years ago um and it was just like taking two artists who were going to do a one-day workshop and I was talking about drawing and then Melanie she was talking about um she was doing a collage workshop and it was talking about healing and everything so this was an event designed and the boss was the the community center I had to figure out what what the client need to um execute this type of community engagement event that they were looking to sponsor um and then I think this is the last one um the this is an event series that I run um it's figure drawing um it's I'm the independent contractor who's actually promoting the event independently I work with another organization the co-creative center and I take a plan which is to you know give the community access to the opportunity to practice drawing from the live figure and then I set up a schedule and make sure there's a budget in place to pay the model and then I make sure that there's plenty of marketing that goes out to reach anyone who's interested in this particular type of activity and so the role that I have in this is a little bit different because it's rather than being the artist I kind of step away from the the studio and I step more in front of the um the computers like I was talking with Ashley earlier at the beginning of the meeting like how much time is spent in front of the computer so there's like event planning the emailing marketing looking at um releasing content on the social media channels and then also managing the event itself and so um yeah and I think I think that that's it so like for me like it's um like figure out who the client is what what the goal is um what you're why you're doing what you're doing if you love doing it um and then what does it take to make it viable and to be viable is it can continue to happen it can continue to occur because like inspiration is great but you can't pay bills you can't pay overhead with that and I know this isn't a workshop specifically on cost but a really big thing that I take into consideration is what I would call hashtag true cost like what would it cost to make an event come to life who's giving what time what skills and how can that be compensated either in an exchange of some sort if it's direct money if it's time or whatever so that all parties are able to continue operating viably and that's that's uh that's my little Obsession of Center that I kind of uh constantly try to focus on every time I try to bring a project like thank you so much for letting me share share that experience with everyone I'll go ahead and pass it off to Jim thank you Kat unsure your screen um great and next up as Kat just mentioned is um Jim McKee who many of you may know from around the area and Jim is going to launch into his work Jim unmute foreign thank you those were amazing uh presentations I am uh absolutely um uh just uh astounded with the with with the art and the talent um uh that that um I just saw there um I'm going to um so you get this into presentation mode can everybody see that yep so good um so I am the boring one here um I am going to uh be talking more about um projects that are bigger than oneself in a way um and uh and and kind of I'll start by talking a little bit about how I I sort of fell into this work um I I am a wayward creative I I did uh do a lot of Art in my youth and uh in college spent a lot more time in the sculpture Studio than um than the the laboratory um but what I do professionally is I when I when I return back to my hometown of of Worcester um I started um really trying to figure out sort of my place in the in the community I felt like I didn't really have a strong footing um my parents uh were not from the the community I grew up in and so um so I started working with uh with with folks in Worcester to um do a lot of what would be probably term Place making projects today um and then uh and then I was I've always been in the trade so um we started to be having apartments and I started um a company of my own eventually doing historic uh re rehabs of uh of homes across New England and um and doing some uh some woodworking architectural reproductions that that kind of thing um but what I I really enjoyed doing was was the community work was the uh you know working building Community Gardens or um uh or or you know other other projects that uh involved a lot of different a lot of different folks that were saying they wanted to see uh something that that that wasn't there and how do you make that thing happen um so you know these ideas were not necessarily my own um they were you know working with the community to say okay well you know what are what are your needs uh what are your wants and and and how do you make them make them happen um eventually I uh I I went back to school to get a planning degree after um you know doing a lot of work in Coalition building in in Worcester as a as a property manager downtown um and uh and really found that I I enjoyed that work and and that has led to um to my present job where um I work almost exclusively uh in the world of of Partnerships on on how do you um bring a diverse group of people together to to drive the Revival realization or you know of of um of commercial districts primarily um but you know places that have seen significant disinvestment and how do you get people coalesced around um things they want to see happen so um you know so I'm going to go through uh well one of the things I should mention is that you know these are it's it's it's listening you know so my job is has in in my in my experience here has been less of of the creative you know uh folks that that we just heard from so I haven't approached it so much as an artist or a creative but how do you creatively um you know look to Solutions and and collaborate and bring people together effectively uh in projects that are bigger than you know than you and and and some people have called me a professional instigator I don't know if that's good or bad but the um um one of the one of the things I've been really um just honored is to work with the people who actually make this stuff happen the real people who have the collaborative bones in their body and the creative Force to come together and to make this stuff a reality and I'm always astounded in a maze and I just have to say that you know we live in a community where um we have a number of just remarkable people and and and Ashley uh who who has helped put this event together I consider one of them but others like you know Beatrice Oliveira and and Dina Hayden and Patty Rigo uh and uh and and so many more and in the community and I'm I'm I'm uh just enormously grateful that I've had an opportunity to to work with them and continue to work with them so I'm going to go through some examples really quickly of some of these kinds of events um that uh um uh you know that I'm talking about here um these are some that I've been involved with or some I haven't um but they're all collaborative um events in some way that um were were you know creating a um making you know making a vision uh for you know these these massive collaborative uh projects a reality so they brought many many different you know people together different organizations uh together and uh and you know they could be um these kind of events or they could also be um you know public art in in murals um that we've heard so much about uh as well and here's some examples of of that locally and and some organizations who do it um extremely well um so I'm gonna kind of move through this uh fairly quickly I'm as I said more on the analytical side here and I just wanted to to talk about three main takeaways from this conversation is you know collaboration doesn't always make sense um and I think think you want to collaborate when it does right and when you are you know trying to figure that out I think we've heard a lot from the you know Mark and and Cat already about you know what what motivates you to do the to do the work um and you know in these big you know multi-party projects um you know give yourself some some lead time and a little bit of slack and and think through the details uh thoroughly and um and you know as much as as we plan nothing happens as planned so um you know to to Mark's Point um you know the the sort of jumping into projects and getting stuff done is a great way to learn um you know but I think you have to be realistic about uh you know when you when you get into it and when you start thinking through some of these details um you know how much time is it going to take and what is it really going to cost and and how complex uh you know are these projects so um you know so you know when you when you think through some of these there's I just want to go through uh you know some of the the the the you know the the W's and the and the H's um and general considerations and and you know Partnerships and participants the project details um where are they happening uh the timelines and I'm not going to spend a lot of time on all of them but I just wanted to kind of talk through some of the moving pieces uh with with um you know thinking through these multi-party projects uh the first is why are you doing it for fame you know and Fortune are you doing it for uh the good of the community um are you doing it for um you know Economic Development and uh you know is there is there a a financial motivation and Community motivation uh there are you doing it just for the love of It kind of just just because of of Joy I think all of those things are are really important and they open up sort of the world of of possibilities in terms of um you know which direction you want to take as you're as you're planning it if it's your idea I think you're going to approach it a lot different than if it's somebody else's idea or if you're um or if you're trying to bring you know a number of people together around something that um you know came out of a a bigger planning process or you know that the community for a long time has been saying boy we want to you know we want to see this happen we want to see you know a mural organization or we want to see you know the transformation of this space or you know the the the transformation of of of this this building or this street um you know so this opens up um you know a lot of uh a lot of different uh possibilities in terms of the kinds of um you know events and and and uh in projects you're going to be doing are you going to be doing it for free um and you know participants will be able to to take part in it for for no charge or is it more like a more like a business right are you are you going to be charging a fee and um and you know all of the things that that could entail um one of the things that I think is really important is to think about who has already done projects like it or who has tried to do it in your own community and either did it successful or you know successfully or not um and uh and you know one of the big things that I've learned is just to ask people a lot of questions um when um when I was involved with doing the the outdoor film festival in Worcester which I uh was on one of the previous slides uh there was a you know Film Festival that preceded it that was done with a Healthcare company of all folks um and uh and you know we we approached them uh early on and and they but they were incredibly supportive about um uh you know giving us uh tons and tons of information about what they did what didn't work uh what they would have changed um but it also opened up another conversation in terms of uh you know potential funding so they gave us money to do it to do it better and and and they were at the table um to kind of guide us along the way uh and and tell us uh you know hey you might not want to do it that way um so you know ask about people's experiences and you know talk to a lot of people uh to find out what didn't didn't work um you know ask yourself uh if if if you're the right person to do a particular job or a particular task I think um you know one of the things that's been very clear to me as someone who's probably leans to more of the analytic side and uh and and the planning side is that there's a lot of things that I'm not good at um in fact most things I'm I'm I'm probably not good at so um I need to you know if if I'm involved in a project I'm curious to find out well you know who is good at these things who uh who can do them better than than I can uh and uh and oftentimes uh you know you'll find that that those um are the basis of some good win-win situations I think um it also might uncover you know some some folks that you might not want to work with and you have to go with your gut uh about you know maybe this isn't the best uh you know collaboration and I want to scale things uh scale things back um but another thing that that can can lead to is uh you know if there's another organization who's you know specializes in something or has a lot of experience um you know doing a particular event or uh you know planning certain types of projects is that you can collaboratively seek funding or collaboratively seek support um and you might very well be more successful if you go into them uh collaboratively than if not a lot of uh Grant making um you know agencies and funders uh really like to see collaborative proposals they like to build capacity they like to um rely on existing capacity in order to to build more um so when you are going into these relationships and they feel right and they feel good and they're clearly going to make the project better and and you know maybe more efficient than um you know then I highly recommend you know exploring some of those opportunities uh together and then um you know think about the ease of execution you know versus that building capacity right the the more complex the project um you know the more the more folks that you'll probably have to you know bring into The Fray the more um you know professionals you might have to to hire from the outside the more Logistics that are going to be involved so um if you you know thinking about these big complex projects um again like we've heard some you know from from from Mark and cat is maybe it's best to start small and and think about uh you know making it more complex in the next project and and you know building uh building the capacity incrementally um the other thing too is is hiring locally can be um can be a really important piece of of your projects um you know I think it's extraordinarily important to pay uh the artists and the creatives that are part of your projects and uh and pay them a a fair you know uh wage too um you know I think um you know it's it's it's safe to say that a lot of people uh and certainly you know Mark is a good example of this with some of his projects engage with uh work that you know feeds them that is joyful that um you know creates value uh perhaps in other ways but um but don't don't expect that if you're if you're planning these big complex uh projects I think you want to treat um you know your artists and your performers and the people that are involved in your projects fairly and if you don't have the funding to do that then then you know I would look at scaling back and and finding out other ways to to kind of fill that Gap um and then I just wanted to mention too that you know public goods can allow for public concessions so if you are doing a project for the good of the community if you are doing a project to generate uh you know uh Economic Development to get people you know into a particular region and visiting um local businesses uh you know that opens up the door for in-kind help uh that opens up the door for a lot of other kinds of support and sponsorships um uh there's a lot of a lot of fees that are involved in permitting these big complex things a lot of um permits uh that uh you know that um take some time to work through and and when you're doing something for the good of the community or to go to the city and it's and it's uh in line with what you know the city uh Administration wants to see and others want to see um it's a lot easier to uh you know to get help uh from from those groups into um you know to to get into situations where you know some of those fees get waived and uh and and you know other departments step up to do some of that work so um so what are you doing you know I think it's really important um this is something I do even though it you know again never nothing ever happens according to plan um but I write everything out I write every little detail you know um you know who do you who do you need to pay and and you know who needs to manage the project with you um you know are are you including vendors are there other people going to be you know Selling Stuff our artists and performers going to be hired you know what are the what are the materials and equipment you need where is it going to happen the scheduling um the approvals and permitting is a big one um fees and licenses you know one of the things that we ran into for instance with the film festival is that even though we were offering it for free um you know for some of these big name movies you know we had to pay a lot of money to to license those right so there's a lot of costs involved when you start involving um you know a lot of different pieces so do your research you know figure out you know where all these hidden costs are um uh and and inevitably you'll you'll find new ones as you as you kind of go uh you know into into it um security and safety just making sure participants are are safe and making Provisions for uh for that managing waste and you know getting Porta bodies to events and uh making sure that that all that stuff happens and parking and transportation can be big as well especially if you're you know closing down streets or you know you need to get people around a bigger area so all of these things cost money and are logistical uh challenges as well um where are you doing it locations and venues matter a lot um you know private venues obviously um you know they they have certain requirements in terms of getting permission from you know the owners of the spaces or um you know specific uh you know rental agreements or you know use of these spaces they might just be uh you know venues for for lease but a lot of times these projects require some significant negotiation and time um you know especially mural projects um where you know you have to talk about the creative content oftentimes and and and come up with um you know pretty um complex contracts uh in in order to uh you know in agreements uh that that that you know protects you protects the artist but also protects the uh the owner of of the property um if you're doing events uh outside in Parks they usually require um you know specific approval from some kind of governing body uh parks and reaction you know Recreation commissions um alcohol is usually not allowed um again in that that movie situation you know alcohol was strictly prohibited out in that main Park uh but um it turned out that City Hall had a big Plaza and uh and we had you know we had live music and and uh and you know and all kinds of uh vendors before the the movie uh but it turns out City Hall didn't have the same provision so uh the city manager simply said well why don't you set up your your alcohol on the uh you know you're beer and wine on the on the Plaza and we were able to to have our own little uh kind of beer garden uh up there but um uh streets and sidewalks are another one businesses uh you know these are important considerations in terms of the the businesses that um you know that that depend on uh you know people being able to to get there uh and to buy stuff um so a lot of businesses typically don't like street closures unless they are invited to participate or you know is directly for their benefit and they are part of the um you know the planning and and their businesses are specifically highlighted um you know sometimes parades for instance can be really hard on businesses because you're shutting down the street and people are are you know facing the street and they don't you know really pay much attention to uh to the businesses are there so be aware of of you know who's being impacted uh By You Know by by some of these events or some of these big projects um and then of course street closures also require um special permits and police details uh it can get expensive and um and uh and complicated um when again give yourself lead time um approvals and permits uh take time um permits happen according to set schedules commissions have submission deadlines you have to get materials to them before you know the next scheduled meeting which might be a month sometimes two months away um you know for some boards and commissions uh so just be really aware of that go on to you know City websites look at all of the you know everything that you can in order to get a get a sense of of how much time some of these you know things are going to take uh seasonality and weather obviously um you know plays a big part in in planning uh and thinking about participant you know Comfort uh and and all the other Provisions that sometimes need to be um you know provided in order to keep you know the the people who are participating uh you know comfortable and uh and and safe um and then calendars check the calendar make sure that um you know there's there's not um you know potential conflicts with other organs that's oftentimes a big beef in some communities when uh you know a lot of people plan events on the same same days sometimes it can work wonderfully sometimes uh you know people people resent it and it can build up uh you know conflict between different um you know different uh organizations uh so uh you know making sure that you're checking the calendar that you're coordinating with with folks that um you know you you may want to collaborate with in the future uh or or keep uh in their good graces and then and then get your event on the calendar um soon uh you know as as soon as you can as well um Logistics I'm I'm not going to spend a lot of time here but you know again each each one of these um you know requires um some thinking um I'm I was going to spend most of the time just sort of talking about approvals and permitting um you know these things exist for a reason um they're to protect the health and safety of the participants um they allow for uh you know the efficient coordination of of resources uh from from the city Side um many if not most require some kind of fee um again cities and administrations are oftentimes willing to waive fees if it's in the benefit of uh you know of of the city um every municipality does things a little differently I wish we could say that you know this is the way it's it's always done if you're here and you're here and you're there um it turns out that's not the case every city has has uh has a different uh you know way of doing things um you know their boards and commissions are set up slightly differently um and you know oftentimes finding that that one uh Point person who kind of knows how the all the Machinery Works can save just a lot of time and aggravation um the licensing office if they if the if the municip simpleity has one is typically a great place to start licensing committees typically are involved in in alcohol permitting uh you know one day permits things of that nature but they usually know um you know who to contact in in terms of um you know all the different um you know all the different uh you know kinds of approvals you'll need uh checking ordinances Municipal websites asking questions um again different uh you know different uh regulatory bodies um are in charge of different different things so you know use of parks and Publix land public land is usually Parks Commission uh food vendors and waste management Health Department street closures and special events um can be the Department of Public Works uh could be the mayor's office could be the police department um as I said licensing board usually takes care of the temporary sale one day permits of alcohol temporary structures if you're doing a big stage if you're um you know if you're building something over over um you know in a particular public space you usually need to contact the building department uh or inspectional Services um City councils oftentimes have to approve structures over right-of-way when we build parklets for instance we need specific approval uh typically from uh from City councils uh unless it's by right uh projects in historic districts so uh you know cats project there in the in the um in the historic district uh the Jazz mural required special permission from the historic commission um so you know projects that are in historic districts are going to require uh the the you know the the permission of of those bodies um noise nuisance ordinance if you're going to have live music um if there's uh you know other uh you know types of of activities happening some municipalities require you to get a permit for um you know for sound in music um the parking if you're going to be using parking spaces loading unloading meter bagging you oftentimes need someone to come uh ahead of time and bag those meters so no one's going to park there especially if you have people you know loading unloading uh for you know uh you know vendors in particular events and then things like tents and heaters uh and those things that that might pose a particular threat um usually require the sign off from from the fire department so I just wanted to give you a sense of all the different uh you know uh things that can go into you know permitting uh some of these some of these events um so how much you know I I I you know when you're going for funding uh and you're you know you're you're starting to create a budget and thinking through it I find it's usually a pretty iterative process and sometimes um you know when you're looking at a particular Grant they might have a budget template uh and it's a formatted in a way that you've never thought about before and you have to kind of go back and kind of reconfigure uh you know some of the some of your details um you know but the more that you can um you know start thinking through this process early the easier it is uh going to be when you start engaging the the grant writing process um I'm not going to go into uh really any detail in terms of of of the budget but I did want to point out that there's a lot of great Arts organizations that have a ton of resources um you know for uh for creating budgets for projects of all different sizes and categories um I'm just listing some of them here a simple Google search will you know bring up a ton of them fractured Atlas is a is a is a wonderful organization that oftentimes serves as a Fiscal Agent for for artists and arts organizations that are doing a lot of these creative projects um Americans for the Arts again very very um uh there's there's a ton of information on on their website in terms of support for for artists Arts organizations and some of these big creative projects and and they have a lot of resources there um but some of these other ones as well like um creative capital in in the field and then you know finally there's there's a ton of uh funding sources out there for a lot of different kinds of uh of of projects um uh these are just uh uh you know a few um you know of of you know the pro of the funding sources that are available to do these big collaborative projects um you know we have uh Commonwealth places we have our creative cities program um as well uh that can fund uh you know some some um you know really interesting uh public facing collaborative projects um new you know New Bedford creative as uh wicked cool places it has um the art is everywhere Grant um you know so there's there's some wonderful things locally uh your you know the the state and local creative cultural councils um they have the festival at Argus Grant mascot has this wonderful program that went uh rolled out during the um the pandemic called shared streets and spaces um and you can use it for um you know Transportation related uh projects uh parklets uh you know all kinds of of of really interesting projects that um you know that that happened on city streets and in public rights of ways um patronicity is a as a crowdfunding platform that oftentimes supports a lot of these other programs um Bloomberg philanthropies um they have all of Bloomberg's programs run through a mayor's office typically so they have to go through um you know be submitted through the executive uh you know the the you know whoever that is um you know whether it's the the the city manager or mayor but they have some really terrific programs uh and and uh and they don't oftentimes uh you know they're not offered they're not offered all the time but when they are um they can be um really interesting ways to get some some funding into these projects and then the National Endowment for the Arts has just uh just an enormous amount of programs as well our town grants artworks grants uh and a number of other ones that can support some of these so these are just sort of a taste of of some of the of of the funding sources that you can you can go after so that's really it for me um I uh I wanted to kind of focus more on the nuts and bolts um in in retrospect I think going into some of the specific projects might have been a little more interesting but um uh but I hope I hope there was with some positive takeaway here okay um I just went over too okay no we're good um unshare your screen and if you people have questions please um add them into the chat or raise your hand if you know how to raise your hand um because we certainly with the the amount of information that was just presented by our speakers I can't imagine there are no questions I think it they all covered a wide range of stuff and I'm very very pleased with the the scope of what they came up with Autumn has a question unmute yourself and ask it took me a second but um yeah so while I'm thinking of Jim's presentation because it was in the Forefront of my mind where would you say the best place to start um planning for an event would be hmm um I mean if you're planning for an event I suppose the best place to start is you know who who are you doing the event for like you know what what what's your audience you know who's who are you trying to get there um you know you don't want to you don't want to do an event that's uh you know if you're if you're trying to make it really accessible to do it in some Far Away place right um so you want to be you want to be thinking about um uh you know who who who it's for and then um and then you know what what's what's the purpose of the event you know so um I think again going back to those those why questions are are really really important why are you doing it are you doing it just because you want to do this cool thing and it's an event you you really want to put on and you want a bunch of people to come and and have fun with you and or or or you know engage with a a really interesting idea that that you haven't explored before like you know Mark's wonderful uh project there in the dark um you know you know so I think I think you you you start with the why questions and that opens up a number of different um avenues for you to to kind of take in terms of okay well where am I going to do this so you know you know what what are the places that would accommodate uh you know this idea and and you know where where would people you know the kind of venues where people would feel comfortable if if you're uh you know or maybe you're trying to make something really creepy and and you know you wanna you wanna creepy venue you know um so um so I think those those why questions are where you are where you want to start and you know to start pinpointing the you know the the the house and the whys and the Wares really thank you so much yeah I want to I want to add to that I think Jim's exactly right on that I would say that for a for a visual artist like myself um the place to start and Meander and organically develop is in the studio right I'm gonna start a project I'm going to see what I'm going to attach something I'm going to carve it I'm going to cast something to do that and you can do it that that's fine in the studio and that's a great way to work in the studio but when you're in the public sphere and I mean spending money or in like literally in in public or working with others it's absolutely working backwards yeah it's a hundred percent so just I'm going to say the same thing Jim said in a different way which is know what you what your limitations are and know what you want to get out of it and then you can kind of match up then using people and numbers and all all those things to ensure that you're doing it right and I have to say one other note relative to working the public sphere and I've worked with bid directors and the Department of Transportation on artworks on on actually design works you know creating Pavilions and things like that in the public sphere in New York City you do not want to be the responsible body working in the public sphere you just don't I'm just going to say don't be that body it's way too frustrating there's way too much you know bureaucratic tape I've been in that world and I still would call up Jim and say what should I or somebody like Jim and say like what am I going to miss here you know like and I've done a lot of that you do not want to be on the hook for publicly for working in public space always always you know work with a sponsor who can handle the city and can handle the you know any approvals and certificates if you're doing something in private you know in a museum or or in a backyard or is it you know that's a totally different thing do not be an artist working in public and be the responsible body I'm just I really mean that that's going to get you in trouble you're going to screw something up it's incredibly complex and very expensive and just the time it takes to pull permits when you're Mark Parsons is totally different than when you're datma or you know the the College of Visual and Performing Arts don't you don't take it on as a personal thing and I'll add that there are lots of organizations around um the New Bedford Fall River areas that are capable and um would be happy to um if you come up with an idea that they think is worth doing would be happy to partner with you I agree I'll also add that um this is a great opportunity to one to start small so that you can see all the bases that need to be covered two like network with others who have been around those bases and see where you overlap with each other you know as far as like left brain right brain stuff do the checklist um you have new context now like Jim and Mark we you and I talk regularly about these kinds of things but like always it's the door's always open but like learning more about what those checklists are and then like kind of trying your hands at a project and Communications is so important like intent is important what do you want and identifying that and then keeping those Communications as clear as possible and then a really big thing that helps me a lot in projects is thinking about reciprocity if I pull this part of the project forward other members are part of the project what are they contributing and who's holding on to what weight of what responsibility and honoring each entity that does that no matter how big or small that contribution is that's especially important when working in the public sphere um you don't want to be in a situation where you work on a project and you ignore the ones that made that project come to life because they may not be as part of a as grandiose of a role that was played so being super mindful of looking at all the parties that are involved and being like showing gratitude for the efforts being put forth there so when you're sending emails when someone's behind the desk looking at emails and managing a lot of videos right like that needs to be like honored in in like mentions like I understand your plate is full I understand you have this going on I have this one question be direct very to the point do all the homework you can to have all the information every time you communicate with a party and then another thing that helps is deadlines set deadlines like Jim was saying like if there's a meeting that's about permits that happens only every two months like do the work to figure out what questions need to be asked what forms need to be turned in who would need to be in contact with how can you make their life easier you know um and that that kind of speeds speeds a lot of things up it's more laborious thinking that way but I find it helps significantly as far as making a project run more efficiently as opposed to just focusing on the scope of what you you want to do or what what role you have to play in that's great Nicole has a question Nicole you want to do that on screen just unmute yourself sure um yeah this question is for any of the speakers um each of them if they want to answer it but what kinds of organizational tools do you use have used in the past and what do you use now and how has that changed over time when you say tools do you mean software do you mean how do like what like anything it could be anything from digital tools to sort of techniques that you use any it's a pretty pretty broad organizational tools um yeah I love Dropbox and I love folders management and Dropbox and I'm still very like old school as far as like organization with all my Post-It notes right I have um different to-do lists that I manage on my like phone and then my email um I've got geesh phone calls social media I'm I organize and manage a lot of stuff via social media things like I'll reach out to different groups doing different things in choir what they're looking for how things are going share that information with another group and it's kind of like playing volleyball with different organizations trying to get different agendas or goals accomplished in figuring out if there's any cracks that need to be filled and can I help with any of that and then let them know what I'm doing and then that that helps a lot but that's more like in the community engagement sense um social but like making things available visually and then in an email so like if I'm sending an email to Jim and I'm like Jim there's this thing coming up I have a question I might also attach like an image of what I'm talking about because then that helps the information come across more thoroughly okay yeah I I mean I I also love um those are those are great suggestions and and I I mean I I rely on spreadsheets a lot um and uh you know I think they're just such a clear easy way to organize the you know things and they're so simple that they become incredibly um dynamic in a way uh because you can you can really um you know think through projects and and in complex ways with them but also um you know I like easily accessible and intuitive design programs like SketchUp um I find that's a good one for project Concepts because you can you can lay out public spaces you can um you know you can you can think about interior spaces you can uh you know pull pre-made uh designs from the 3D warehouse and plug them in uh you know to make Concepts go easier so um I find that to be uh to be really really helpful uh is is well okay and Mark um I'll let me add a couple of things too but um just let me also mention that the poll is now running so before any of you leave please take the poll um I think there are lots of um really good um tools um and they start with pencil and paper but they run right up to very complex design programs um I think the most important thing is to find something that works the way you think um you know if you find something that works the way you think it will help you organize if you find something that um that somebody tells you is great and you don't find it um Works along the lines of how you organize yourself and your thoughts it's going to be competing with your ability to get anything done so if something seems just like this is not helping then abandon it and find something that is helping that's great advice I agree though I would like to add on the communication side that this tool right here with texting is good for meet me at three o'clock but um I never do content with texts so meet me at three o'clock is about as good as deep as I get on texting because I want a written archived written um uh kind of history of of anything not it's not so much to catch other people it's to make sure that I know what I committed to or what's that thing I need to look up or whatever so I try and keep all content in a place where I can easily go back and search it on communication side um and then you know if if I came across my presentation as or whatever and you know um I love to draw I'm a major like hand drawing person but everything happens through Excel all like I don't get into any like I can be all Spazzy on a piece of paper but no project happens without a spreadsheet it is absolutely essential to do it that way and you got to work on it you know several days in a row and you go back and you find more detail and you fill it out and you've got your version of the spreadsheet and where you've got all this detailed telephone numbers and how much it costs all that stuff and then you open the next tab you drop it all in there you cut out all the extraneous and you have a budget now you have a budget for your Grant and you know it's 10 lines long instead of 100 lives long the Excel spreadsheet or Google Sheets is That's Where It's At man that's you got to think like super structure I mean is is anyone using anything as fancy as like Microsoft Project or like project management level tools you know it's interesting um at at work we we've got we we got the Microsoft 365 system and I've actually fallen in love with it I I did I I'm it has so much functionality like every time I I you know fall into it uh you know in an unexpected way I find another you know tool that we can use so um you know we we've been as an agency we've been always like oh well we need to get this thing from this vendor and this thing from that vendor and try to Cobble them together um but I gotta say Microsoft 365 got a lot of functionality it can pretty much do everything um so I've been pretty happy with it um we haven't I mean I feel like we've only scratched the surface in terms of its capability um as a team tool you know and and as a as a collaborative Tool uh there's there's a there's a lot of a lot of you know functionality there uh as well so um yeah I I like it okay thanks Moreau is another one that I've liked a lot too okay because you can you can put a lot of ideas on there you're in in you know fool around with surprised to hear you say that Jim with them but then uh but then you can collaborate with it you can bring other people into the same document neuro is good for teaching remotely and and stuff but I would that would be too for me and I've tried project management softwares Nicole and um I think they're great but they require an investment of time before you get the return um back um and um and Nicole you're starting to know me uh get to know me a little bit more I am moving too fast in the things that I'm doing to want to invest the time in the management software it's probably a smart thing for me to do so I'm not that's not advice that's not advice I just haven't really fully adopted it yet yeah I mean I've used like things like Asana before you know with previous employers and those kinds of things are great because they can scale a lot and they're all web-based and so okay yeah I think these are uh great answers everyone thank you I would love to know uh Kareem Matthew Rachel Vania Brooke what do you all Autumn I I think I got a sense but from you Autumn but what what are you all why are you here what's what is your Metea what's your discipline what are you interested in I would love to hear or type it into the chat if you don't feel like talking or if you're eating dinner sorry it's dark in my house um I'm a musician um graphic design I do photography I'm a writer so kind of multi-disciplinary I guess um so yeah are you in Fall River New Bedford or um I I'm from New Bedford I live in Fall River now though right on cool and my name is Vanya I'm an artist I have a studio at the narrow Center for the Arts um I try to do a lot of community involved events um right now I'm working on a Stars residency with the St Michael's School um where I was actually previously a an arts teacher for about 10 years um and and quit right after covid when when my art lessons went to zoom lessons and I just didn't feel accomplished um but yeah my focus you know my focus has always been China China you know bring Arts to the community um and you know there is there's always uh there's always a gap sometimes in that bridge and and that's why I'm here you know I mean sometimes you learn throughout the people's experiences and that's what I'm hoping to gain so thank you thank you I guess I'll go next um I can relate with Matthew if I have um various passions and um multiple disciplines I am a signed model and actor um I've been working heavily with the youth and with um people dealing with mental illness um so I'm very much you know involved in the community also do a lot of outreaches with the homeless I'm also a Dance artist um so I'm frequently performing at various events and shows so I just wanted to you know um come here and just listen and you know gain some New Perspective gain some knowledge I would love to in the future you know put on events for the Youth um incorporate you know creativity dance as well or dance in the youth I studied at Nyack College I study music education so I have my degree in that as well um so yeah that's pretty much it and I'm also building I just started my own business called positive Pathways and I'm launching my own podcast show I've also had a radio show in the past so I just want to support positivity through my art through my work and uh yes yeah nice that's great Rachel typed a question and Rachel do you want to come on screen and it wasn't a question I was just letting folks um why I'm here what I'm interested in working on I'm recovering from surgery so I'm reclining not on camera um but thanks this has been really helpful good um I'm Brooke Doherty I I may be I do drawing painting printmaking photography I do a lot of different stuff and unlike most people here I I think I have tended to focus more on though what I can do by myself in my studio um I've happened into a couple of public projects over the years that were exciting but after like several years now of just focusing on work by myself and also trying to work with three children I I realize that I I haven't um a new interest in my work be more relevant like I have a whole studio full of hundreds of things I've made that I've never shown or shared with people and perhaps thinking about it from the other end not just what do I feel like doing today but like actually what might there be a need for how might I make something that connects with others more is something I'm trying to focus on more um as I like sort of re-enter focusing on my career after um time spent with three children who are being super loud outside this evening so totally totally appreciate that I cannot can I do a quick anecdote in response to that Brook so I was in New York after grad school and I was in my studio and I was making making making and showing blah blah blah and a little bit a little bit but not didn't really break out or anything like that and I I'm I'm a disabled person I have MS and it has affected me in a whole bunch of different ways and my partner at the time was like you know why don't you do this apply for this grant that has to do with disability I applied for that I was like no I don't want to be known as disabled nobody can tell I'm disabled nobody knows I'm blind in my right eye you know nobody you know like I don't want to do that because I don't want to get I don't want to do that but it was the best thing that ever happened to me to go and work with um kids and I designed a project anyway it doesn't matter it got me out of studio and I worked with people in public I was working with kids that were in hospitals at the time and it set the rest of it it was the motivational thing for the rest of my life that was so I totally relate to what you're doing I I where what you just represented and uh you know right there like go you know I'm really glad to hear you're ready to to do something to get out of Studio I think that's really powerful you're here I wanted to add just a little bit to that Brooke so um I after finishing uh grad school I was always asking the question well like I knew I wanted to teach and so I started teaching but I always felt like what can I give the students that beyond the studio practice because they're going to have bills that are going to come we all have bills that need to be paid so with me I was like really like I needed to figure out how could I find a way to get this information to them well I'd have to get out of my studio go figure out like the basics business and then I went down this big rabbit hole and like started a business built learned I'm like going nuts learning about taxes right now learning about all but it's what What mattered to me because I want to bring that information back into the classroom because I love teaching the students like drawing and um animation and painting but I also want to give them a sense of hope of like you could make some Revenue with this and not just be like like I had amazing faculty that I you know in my education but none of them ever had that talk of here's how you're going to pay bills with this stuff outside of go to a gallery so like whatever it matters to you like just grabs at you like that's going to be the thing that'll hi there that's like whatever that grabs your heart that's gonna be the thing that that I would follow that and that that pulls you out of that studio space if that's what you want yeah I love I love these comments I I um like pers when I was in in high school I I hated I hated public school and uh then I almost dropped out and I was you know on kind of the wrong path let's say um and then um and then I found a school that uh that um you know completely broke open my social network uh and you know all of a sudden I was hanging out with you know people from all over the state and it completely changed my life I mean my life completely changed and it was funny because my my wife had a similar experience she grew up in a small town in Central Mass and uh and then she she always loved being in you know being an artist she wanted to be an artist then she took part in art Allstate um and uh you know this big collaborative thing where people come together from all over the state and they do these great you know projects uh you know over over the course of of several days it changed her life it completely changed her life it it it opened up uh you know all kinds of relationships and networks and everything else and uh and set her on an entirely different path than than where she was going so um yeah I love I love that that getting out and and experiencing and and uh and mixing it up um so I'd love to see some of your work that's squirreled away in your studio yeah I want to add to that um a whole part of the mission and the conception of Pride practice best practice is to combat the whole concept of The Starving Artists um and help people understand that as an artist you are also a business um and you need to consider that and if you don't know about our other workshops please check out our other workshops they were all available online and they will be more we have three more scheduled for sure this season um and we have um are hoping to add more to that package and we will keep going as long as the funding keeps coming back at us so um we're getting down to the end don't have any final questions all right well I'm going to wrap it up then because we've got three minutes left on the clock um and um I want to thank our panelists for doing a wonderful job um covering so much um and in such a set of bite-sized ways um I think it's important that all of that was very digestible and I think that um this is going to be viewed a lot on our website and I think I'd like to thank Ashley and and the Frack for funding this one and all of you for attending and please spread the word um we're trying to we're trying to make an impact for creatives and by creatives we don't mean just visual artists we mean musicians we mean anybody who does anything creative and wants to try and do something that is out there for the world and also to make some money at it so I really want to thank all of you for um for joining us and um say see you on the next one which is February 15th thank you thank you so much thank you thank you so much all right quite welcome yes this was great thank you okay thank you have a good evening