Inaugural Exhibition

"Pedestrian Projects Inc. is delighted to present its inaugural exhibition, "Portent, I Said Portent". The show features artists Byron King, James Greene, Brittni Wood, Mark Creegan, and Kurt Polkey, and will include painting, sculpture, drawing, installation, and photography.

The title of the exhibit suggests a positive sign of things to come for the visual arts in Jacksonville. The unique work on display foreshadows a new, contemporary direction for the local cultural scene, indicating we are on the cusp of something exciting and progressive."

The artists extend the metaphor further by creating work that stands as a reaction to and against the ominous "portents" we read everyday in the news. All of the artists are young, many with young families, and their work conceptually and materially reflects their ever-present anxiety about the future.

7pm Thursday, August 30th SEGD Private Designer Reception
7pm Friday, August 31st Opening Reception

Location:
1535 San Marco Blvd., Jacksonville, FL 32207. Click for Map.
Email:
PedestrianProjects@comcast.net

Silverstein: Retrospective

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/082207/ner_192966415.shtml

A retrospective of Brad Silverstein's work opens Thursday night at JU. I met him briefly and was extremely shocked to hear that such a young talented artist has passed away. I was really hoping to work with him on some projects locally. Really sad news. Life is truly too short. My condolences go out to his family.

Here's a link to his web site:
http://www.bradsilverstein.com/

2007 Hipster Olympics

"Hobos are the new Unicorns"..so true!

A protocol must be followed

Juried Art Exhibition protocol

It’s very important that in conducting a juried art competition that a strict protocol is adhered to. With “FLOOD”, Beaver Contemporary Art Center’s first Juried Exhibition, a protocol has been defined and set. This is done to assure that the competition is fair and unbiased. Here are the steps of protocol we are taking for “FLOOD”:

• An out-of-town juror has been selected to jury the exhibition. This insures that the juror is unfamiliar with the artist’s of this region.
• The artists in the Beaver committee have agreed not to enter the competition.
• Names will be omitted from all entries. Each entry will be given a number and transferred to one or more master disks for the juror. This way the artist’s names will not appear on the disks or disk covers. The juror will only receive the numbered digital images with the matching (numbered) sheet that indicates title, medium and size.
• There will be no communication with the juror regarding the entries. If the juror were to jury the exhibition in person, our group (if present) would be trained on being silent during the selection process. No verbal or visual signals will be allowed during the selection process. We will do everything in our power to insure that the juror’s selections will be his own.
• All entries that are submitted within the given timeframe and meet with the requirements on the prospectus are submitted to the juror.
• It has not been determined whether or not the juror will come to Jacksonville to judge the prize winner. If he does, a same strict protocol used in the juryng process will be enforced. If the juror cannot come to Jacksonville to judge the prize winner, he will make his selection from the digital images.
  
  Please feel free to comment on this set of protocols. We are very interested on how they may be improved upon.
  Thank you,
  Sharla T. Valeski
  Beaver Contemporary Art Center

From Jacksonville's greatest (relatively) unknown (relatively) playwright

I forewarn you that I was invited to add to this blog, so if you don't like my writing, don't blame me.

I was invited to write here after I sent a cynical-bordering-on-cancerous E-mail to JaxCAL.org's blogmaster bemoaning the fact that, even though I do not create tangibly "physical" art, I think of myself as just as financially- and PR-deprived as any other artist in Jacksonville.

I have been, in various capacities, a local movie critic and playwright for the past 20 years. My movie reviews, at least, found a home -- at Jacksonville Beach's twice-weekly newspaper, The Beaches Leader, for whom I've critiqued for the past ten years. (Upfront disclosure: My wife is the newspaper's editor.)

By contrast, my long-awaited semi-fame for playwriting did not begin until the summer of 2005. At that time, I happened to watch a DVD of the venerably bad sci-fi cult film Plan 9 from Outer Space. When I found myself shouting corny responses to the TV screen as if I was at a Rocky Horror screening, I figured I'd better make something out of it. So I found a copy of the movie's script on-line, printed it out, and went to town satirizing it.

I hated to keep to myself something into which I'd poured so much effort, so I sent my "revised" version -- titled "Plan Nine from Outer Space: The Rip-Off" -- to every theater in town. The Jacksonville-theater circuit will tell you they are starved for low-budget, high-quality entertainment that they can produce without legal hassles. Don't you believe it. The only theater in town that showed any interest was Boomtown, run by the locally infamous Stephen Dare, who basically handed the theater over to me so that I could write, direct, and co-star in my first-ever stage venture. It was a moderate hit, and I and anyone in the cast could tell you how much fun we had.

Stephen called on me a year later to help resuscitate his Thursday-night program "Pulp Fiction Theatre," an excellent concept that was then being run into the ground by its wet-behind-the-ears cast. Stephen and I assembled a new cast from Plan Nine players and some other actors Stephen had worked with. Again, we had a blast. I wrote, co-acted, and co-directed three one-act playlets every Thursday night from January through April of this year. I quit only because I had a day job that didn't bode well for my Thursday-night late-night venture.

Boomtown has now moved to Hendricks Avenue and is in the process of trying to get its theater venue to co-exist with its newly-formed bistro. If the merger works, I will have a new play to launch at Boomtown in October. Stephen asked for an old-style-radio play, so I've written The Fairly Big Broadcast of 1937, a take-off on Orson Welles' famed War of the Worlds broadcast of Halloween 1938.



Why do I mention all of this? Because despite the fact that I am at least a semi-known quantity in Jacksonville theatre now, I can't get backing to save my life. My "advertising" consists of any free notice I can get in local entertainment publications (Folio Weekly, etc.) and any leaflets I make up and distribute and/or post around town.

I will never understand why it has to be like this. I do not beg well, which is why I don't try to obtain local grants or financed ads that they wouldn't let me have anyway. I used to review local theater for Folio, so I know how in-bred the local theater process is anyway. (You'll notice that Folio doesn't even do theater reviews anymore.)

I hope someone out there will notice this and take note of my admitted horn-blowing. I have tons of material that I wrote for "Pulp Fiction Theater" and never got a chance to even try out. I am more than willing to write new stuff, given the right incentive. Or would local theatre rather spend hundreds for the rights to "brand name" writers such as Neil Simon, or spend nothing for the rights to decades-old public-domain stuff that nobody wants to see anyway?

(While I'm at it, how is it that certain business won't even let me post leaflets for my Boomtown plays because I charge admission, while local theaters that also charge admission are allowed to post lavish posters that cost more than I have for even a single play's production budget??)

There, I've gotten all of that off my chest. If you want to check out my past and present work, here are some URLs of my stuff:

http://www.epinions.com/user-skad13
http://www.angelfire.com/scifi2/plannine/index.html
http://www.pulpfictiontheatre.tk

If you want to tell me what a blowhard I am, E-mail me at:

barbaraeberlyfan@excite.com

Thanks for letting me sound off!

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Visit http://experiencejax.com today and add your next event.

I Hear Many Voices--Revised

Art Community stakeholders

Jacksonville’s art community is buzzing. Because of many conversations lately, I am trying to define the term “art community” by categorizing its stakeholders. Who is included in the art community? What is the motivation of each member of the community? Who are the consumers of the art?

Who are the stakeholders in our art community? Please consider producers and consumers. Individuals may often represent multiple viewpoints. Think of a person you would consider to be a member of the art community--is that person represented in the list below? Who is missing?

After school programs

Art commissions

Artists

Art professionals

Art sales

Art teachers

Business owners

Community educators

Consultant

Collectors

College instructors

College students

Cultural Organizations

Curators

Critics

Dealer/Agent

Designers

Donors

Downtown development

Event patrons

Gallery (commercial)

Galleries (display)

Grantors

K-12 students

Libraries

Media

Members of Cultural Organizations

Museums

Parks and recreation

Parents

Patrons

Program participants

Public Art Programs

Social service agencies

Tourism

Universities

Vendors/Suppliers

Volunteers

Writers

IDENTIFYING MOTIVATIONS

Below you will find a list of various categories. Each is composed of multiple stakeholders or consumers. For example, Art Production assumes an artist’s primary motivation/mission is to produce or create. Supplies are also involved in art production by providing those products or services required to materialize a work of art. Once the work is produced, it is displayed or purchased (or stored). An entire web of relationships, stimulated by the production of art, begins to intertwine stakeholders. Each category is motivated by unique needs and will require separate objectives. A stakeholder may have multiple motivations--this list attempts to focus on primary purpose.

Where are you on this list? Let me know your thoughts.

a. artists and ART PRODUCTION

· Display (galleries, museums, business environment)

o Consultants

· Sales (commercial galleries, corporate, collectors)

o Agents/Dealer

· Suppliers (material vendors, equipment, fabrication, installation)

· Art Professionals (specialists to assist with all aspects of production, display, sales, etc.)

· Support Personnel (marketing, non-art jobs)

B. access and Appreciation (enable access to art)

· Cultural Organizations

· Public Art and programming

· Libraries

· Parks and Recreation Programs

· Volunteers

· Critics/Writers

· Media

b. History

· Stewards (museums, archives, conservation, preservation)

· Research

· Writers

c. Education (Formal, informal, higher education, community, after school, professional development)

· Learners (early childhood, K-12, higher education, artists, adult (non-artist), seniors)

· Teachers (classroom, higher education, instructors, mentors)

· Institutions (Early Learning, DCPS, UNF, FCCJ, JU, Edward Waters, Art Institutes)

d. Human Services (Hospitals, at-risk children, crime prevention)

· Art Therapy

· Partnerships

· Social Services

e. Funding

· Public (city, state, federal)

· Private (members, event-based fundraising)

· Donors (grants, solicited)

· Corporations (sponsorship, partnership)

· Foundations

f. Tourism and Development

· Visitors

· Recruitment/Retention

· Economic Impact

· Downtown Development