OAS: #TITMOTA e-flyer

CO-OP/Occufest, OCCUPY: "Corporations Can't Cry at CAC"

Crowd on hand for the screening of Liza Bear's "Corporations Can't Cry" at Cinema Arts Centre in Huntington, LI

It was a special evening, thanks to the contributions of many people, and the hospitality of Cinema Arts Centre staff and admin. Chris Moylan, Occupy with Art co-organizer, did much of the heavy lifting in coordinating the events, which included the screening of "Corporations Can't Cry" in the big theater (which was nearly packed), a brief Q&A with filmmaker and longtime artist-activist-filmmaker-writer Liza Bear, followed by a mixer with food, free art, music and poetry, and a roster of activist organizers presenting information on their activities. Special thanks to Dylan, Charlotte, Brian, the Occupy Screenprinters, and all the other good people who made our first CO-OP/Occuburbs festival a memorable one. 

Occufest at the CAC Skyroom, post-screening.Another view of the Occufest audience, as the band plays on at CAC.

WS2MS: MAY 12 Weekend Happenings

WS2MS: Week 4

Chronogram Covers WS2MS!

Hudson Valley's arts and culture magazine featured two great articles on OwA's "Wall Street to Main Street:

• "Wall Street to Main Street" in Catskill: Zuccotti-on-Hudson by Sparrow
• On the Cover: Joel Richardson's Grassroots Financial Revolutionary by Molly Lindsay

Here's an excerpt from OWS poet Sparrow's piece:

“Wall Street to Main Street” is an art show in a dozen storefronts, plus a 10-week festival of performance and workshops, ending May 31. This is the first legal collaboration between the Occupy movement and a town. Catskill was chosen for numerous reasons: its proximity to New York City, its economic troubles, the presence of an arts community, and it’s the home of Thomas Cole (founder of the Hudson River School of painters).

“There are ‘Main Street’ issues that play out on our Main Street,” observes Fawn Potash, director of Masters on Main Street. “It makes sense to talk about those things here.” Potash was on the curatorial committee organizing the festival.

Since the police raid on Zuccotti Park, art has played a larger role in the movement. One cliché about Occupy is that it is “a protest without demands”—which is attractive to artists. For what is art if not a protest without demands? The community at Zuccotti Park struck many artists and critics—myself included—as a giant artwork, a “living sculpture” or “temporal work of performance politics.” One such artist, Jessica Eis, documented the encampment, the police raid, and its aftermath, with video and still photography in “Sights and Sounds of Zuccotti Park.” Emily Bruenig makes books from ephemera found at Occupy Wall Street: yellow police tape, stickers, flyers, etc.

WS2MS: Update!

Updated on Monday, March 26, 2012 at 06:46PM by admin

In the wake of Occupy Wall Street’s six month anniversary, small town America’s continuing struggle provides the backdrop for a unique art activist project, Wall Street to Main Street.  At the March 17^th premier, curious locals and out-of-towners enjoyed a perfect spring day visiting the 20 pop-up exhibit sites along the Main Street in Catskill, NY.  Walking along four compact blocks, visitors had time to talk and digest ideas in between installations.  This ten week expo features over 50 exhibitors, performances, workshops and seminars with a newspaper that serves as the project’s guide, The Wall Street to Main Street Message.   The day culminated in a party with poetry, prose and protest songs at BRIK Gallery where a comprehensive exhibition introduces the movement’s historical and global context. Artists and organizers celebrated at the local Thai restaurant with laptops open to a live webcast as Michael Moore held a press conference announcing a fresh wave of protesters flooding into Zuccotti and Union Square Parks. 

Click to read more ...

Wall Street to Main Street Launches March 17, Saturday!

Come join us, for the opening day tour and evening reception for the 10-week art festival "Wall Street to Main Street," Saturday, March 17 in Catskill, NY, featuring over fifty exhibitors, performances, workshops and seminars exploring solutions to social injustice, real-world economic problems, fundamental democratic processes, environmental challenges and the urgent need for systemic reform!

• MARCH 17-MAY 31, 2012
• Opening Saturday, March 17 from 2-5 PM
• Main Street, Catskill, NY
• Party 5-8PM at Brik Gallery (473 Main St.)

Wall Street to Main Street (WS2MS) is a collaboration of artists, writers and curators from the Hudson Valley, and Occupy with Art (www.occupywithart.com), an affinity group of the NYC General Assembly for Occupy Wall Street, and the Arts & Culture Working Group. 

[Calendar: Click image to download at the Greene Arts website]

Pick up a map and calendar of events at Catskill Gallery (398 Main Street, Catskill, NY 12414)

CONTACT: (518) 943-3400

LINKS:

• www.greenearts.org
• www.occupywithart.com [see WS2MS sections in "Active Projects & Proposals" in our site's right sidebar for an introduction to the production, press releases, supporting texts, project narratives, meeting minutes, and much more]
• Calendar of Events
• Facebook Event Page
• Facebook Photo Album at OwA
• WLHV interview with Fawn Potash

This project would not be possible without the support of the Catskill Arts Initiative.  Thank you to Catskill's generous building owners, merchants, the Village of Catskill, artists and neighbors.  Immense thanks to The Hudson Valley's best digital printers, Frank Cuthbert, BRIK Gallery, Richard Edelman for Woodstock Graphics Studio, Chad Kleitsch Rhinecliff Printing Studio, Danette Koke Fine Art, Gilbert Plantinga Photo Graphics.  Thanks to the hardworking Jane Toby, Jenjoy Roybal, Ruth Leonard, Taha Adawallah and Paul Smart. Endless gratitude to interns, Chris Lannes, Sarah Brady and Kathleen Menzer. The "It Takes a Village" prize goes to Pat Ruck, Laura Morgan, Nina Skylansky and David Chmura.  We are grateful for a grant from the Art Is My Occupation fund to support artists and curators’ travel. 

Jim Krewson Timeline

Extra special thanks to the Wall Street to Main Street curators Geno Rodriguez, Paul McLean, Fawn Potash, Kate Menconeri, Jacqueline Weaver, Imani Brown, Boo Lynn Walsh, Sam Truitt and Arthur Polendo.



Update on Saturday, March 17, 2012 at 10:55AM by admin

Thanks to all the artists & co-ordinators for making this great Occupy art event possible!

Fawn Potash, WS2MS co-organizer, talks about the program, which launches March 17 in Catskill!

Wall Street to Main Street: Call for Proposals/Entries

WALL STREET TO MAIN STREET

Call for Proposals/Entries

Wall Street to Main Street is a collaborative art project linking Occupy Wall Street and the rest of America, via the small town of Catskill, NY.  The Occupy Wall Street Movement (OWS)  has focused its energy on the need for justice for the 99%. This project, Wall Street to Main Street, offers a platform for creative expression and dialogue focusing attention on an economically depressed community through inventive art exhibitions and cultural events.

Invitation to submit Proposals/Entries: Open to all artists nationally and internationally, including Hudson Valley artists.

The project goals of Wall Street to Main Street are:

1. To explore art as a way to understand the issues of the Occupy Movement with opportunities for education, communication, and a showcase of wildly creative artistic expressions;
2. To highlight the vanguard role of artists in this and past movements, as well as the role communities play in nurturing their vision;
3. To model a peaceful partnership between the cultural organizations, educational institutions, protesters, artists and the citizens who make up our communities;
4. To explore ideas in art works that call attention to real-world economic problems, fundamental democratic processes, and an urgent need for systemic reform.

People/Contacts- Presented by the Greene County Council on the Arts, this project is co-organized by Occupy With Art, an affinity group of the OWS Arts and Culture Committee, Fawn Potash (Project Director, Masters on Main Street) and Geno Rodriquez (co-founder/former Director of The Alternative Museum). Submit proposals to fawn@greenearts.org.  518-943-3400.

Exhibitions may include art work by/for/about the Occupy Movement in any media, utilizing interior space and/or windows.  A dozen vacant storefronts are anticipated with additional display area in active shop windows.  There  is no fee/rent, but interior exhibits require staffing and utility payments.  A signed agreement is required promising to return the space to its original condition.  Grant funding is pending to cover utility expenses, and a network is in process offering  local hosts with overnight accomodations and gallery sitters.   Events may include workshops, hands-on activities, forums, panel discussions, tours, performance, radio broadcasts, story telling, projections and readings, cross-pollinated subjects/genres combining political science/economics/art taking place in exhibition spaces or surrounding venues.

Photo-Documentary Exhibit Call for Entries: Curated by Geno Rodriguez, this exhibit serves as a descriptive introduction of the events of the global Occupy Movement as seen through the kaleidoscopic  lens of contemporary photographers, as well as the portal leading to the dynamic array of exhibits and events taking place down Main Street. 

Area resources: Catskill's Main Street is nestled between the Hudson River and the Catskill Creek with clear views of the Catskill Mountains at sunset.  It offers several architecturally intact 19th century facades, a vaudeville-era movie theater, two small pocket parks and a Community Center.  There is a Carnegie Library nearby, the Thomas Cole National Historic Site and a bridge leading to Hudson, NY.  Catskill is at the center of a circle of educational institutions- Columbia-Greene Community College (Hudson, NY), Vassar College (Poughkeepsie, NY), Bard College (Annandale-on-Hudson, NY), and the State Universities of New York at Albany and New Paltz .  Local radio station, WGXC 90.7-FM (WGXC.org) broadcasts from Catskill's Main Street on Wednesday afternoons and 24/7 from their Hudson and Acra studios.

Deadline for Proposals             February 1

Notification to Artists               February 7

Installations                            February 7-March 15

Opening Reception                   March 17

Project dates                           March 17 - May 31

Audiences for this project range from sophisticated, intentional viewers to curious pedestrians. In the last year, Masters on Main Street exhibitors have discovered that scale, night lighting and a descriptive statement in the window are very important features to engage this diverse crowd.

For Exhibit/Space/Event Proposals submit 1 page (max) project description and up to 10 low res jpegs with image list.  For Photo Documentary Exhibit entries, submit up to 10 low res jpegs with image list to:

Fawn Potash, Masters on Main Street, Project Director

Attn: WS2MS Space Proposal and/or WS2MS Photo-Doc Entries

Greene County Council on the Arts

398 Main Street, PO Box 463

Catskill, NY 12414

fawn@greenearts.org

 

Questions?  Call Fawn Potash, Greene County Council on the Arts 518-943-3400. 

Other Calls for Entries for OWS Artists

[NOTE: These two exhibit opportunities are available for Occupy artists, although neither project is OWS-specific.]

From Katherine Gressel:

Brooklyn Utopias: Park Space, Play Space

(Click the image to learn more)

& from Chanel:

Hi All,

I'm not an artist, but I LOVE Art and support whenever I can.  I'm sure some of you are or have been involved with Figment since you are all so incredibly active. But just in case you are not and might want to be... Here's the info. Also I personally would love to see OWS be a huge part of Figment this year so I thought I'd throw the idea out there and see what comes out. OWS would not be as strong a force with all of you, your hard heartfelt work and creativity... So thank u!  =-)

Wishing us all an Amazingly Successful New Year!

In Solidarity,
Chanel


FIGMENT
NYC - Kickoff and Meet and Greet!
 
We're in the final stages of confirming our dates and plans for FIGMENT NYC 2012, so we have yet to make an announcement. We'll give you all the details, as well as release our calls for art for FIGMENT and calls for proposals for our summer-long projects in the next few weeks. But we do want to invite you to two special upcoming events...
 
First, our FIGMENT NYC 2012 Kickoff Meeting will take place on Tuesday, January 17, at 6:30p. If you've ever thought about getting more involved in FIGMENT as a team member, to help make FIGMENT happen, this is the meeting to come to. We'll introduce key FIGMENT NYC leaders and discuss all of the different roles on our volunteer team that we're looking to fill this year. Key roles include important spots on our curatorial team, our communications team, and helping with production.
 
When: 
Tuesday, January 17, 6:30pmWhere: 
HERE, 145 Sixth Ave., NYC (enter on Dominick Street one block south of Spring)

RSVP: Email 
NYCkickoff@figmentproject.org 

Many thanks to our friends at HERE for hosting us!
 
Then, all are welcome to join us for our first FIGMENT NYC Meet and Greet of 2012! This is a very loose, informal social gathering, where you can meet FIGMENT Team Members and Artists, get to know more about FIGMENT, and see how you fit in to what's happening with FIGMENT in NYC! FIGMENT is all about people, and we have to get to know each other better if we're going to make amazing things happen this summer! So please join us!
 
When: 
Tuesday, January 31, 7-10pmWhere: 
Central Bar, 109 East 9th Street (between 3rd and 4th Aves.), NYC - in the upstairs room

RSVP: Email 
NYCMeetandGreet@figmentproject.org