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NYFA–It’s Ain’t Just for NY

June 30, 2005

by:

Joe Patti

“NYFA’s online database, NYFA Source, is the largest searchable resource of grants, services, and publications for artists in all disciplines nationwide. If you’re seeking funding, residencies, or specialized information, it’s the definitive place to search – and it’s free. Yet many artists don’t utilize the breadth of information it offers, or are unaware of it altogether.”

Since many artists don’t know about it, I figured I would help NYFA out and let people know. NYFA, by the way, is the NY Foundation for the Arts. While many of their activities are understandably focussed on NY, their grant database is rather extensive and instructions for its use are good.

For those that are interested, there is a page where a NYFA staff member responds to comments about NYFA Source.

This month’s issue of NYFA Current also discusses health care for artists. This article is New York City specific, but does discuss what one city hospital is doing to make care affordable for artists. A similar program might be worth advocating for in other cities.

Arts in an Age of Technology

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Now That’s The Way!

June 29, 2005

by:

Joe Patti

I am approaching the end of the process of writing text for my next season brochure and I am trying to keep my descriptions interesting as per my earlier entries (here and here) in response to Greg Sandow’s post back in March 04 about keeping press releases interesting. He has actually since posted some examples of how to write interesting releases and I bookmarked that entry for further reference. (He is really passionate about the subject and he really expounds on the theme in his entries ranging from May 25 to June 15)

I found a place that does an excellent job of bringing a sense of joy and fun to Shakespeare, Moliere and Shaw. I have to admit to being jealous of their writing skills. About 3-4 months ago, someone handed me a brochure for American Players Theatre in Spring Green, WI. I really only had a little time to read it then. But I took a look at it today for layout ideas and I was really impressed by the writing.

You can get a sense of what they infuse into their work from the play descriptions on the website, but ironically they have much more in this brochure where the space is more expensive.

For example, the website and brochure more or less have this to say about Moliere’s Tartuffe:

Here’s classic comedy with a French twist. Welcome to the drawing rooms of Gay Paree. To the household of Orgon, a rich bourgeois who’s become a bigot and prude in middle age. One ridiculously laughable dude.

His family’s up in arms over Tartuffe, a flimflam man of criminal bent whose current facade of religious fervor has Orgon totally bamboozled. All in the family, including the maid, get in on the act, trying to warn their master. He’s being taken for all he’s worth by this shifty devil. What an hilarious disaster.

Wait’ll you catch the scene where Orgon’s own wife is used as bait to entrap this lascivious rat, who’s blinded by his own irrepressible lust for her. Delight in the bite of the spoken word. Ogle at the sight of breathtaking costumes. Your kids will definitely dig it. The villainy at play.

But the brochure includes irreverent notes on Moliere like “The church was so POed at Moliere’s lampooning of social and religious hypocrisy that for years his bones were denied sanctified ground.” There are about 250 words writing in this way about the play and the director’s approach to it. It is notes like this that help audiences understand the background of the show and what they are going to see.

But what I really loved about the brochure was the way they presented their ticket policies, subscription plans and just plain invited people to attend.

Keep in mind this brochure was sent out in the cold of winter.

“Pop thy sunroof mama. and take golden rays along for the ride.
You are hereby invited to utilize this brochure as ice scraper, snow shovel, defrost and deluxe heater combined. Clear the windshield of your wintry mind, Feel fiery breath upon shivering bones. Leave behind the frigid Hiber Nation zone. Uncoil. Unwind. Time to don less clothes. The looser, lighter, softly silken supple kind. Pack the car with family, friends and food….Stroll up the hill to your comfu cushioned seat. The stars emblazoned overhead and afire with intensity on the stage at your very feet. You laugh. You cry. You embrace the joys of being alive. Into the arms of summer you’ve definitely arrived.”

Man, if I got a brochure like that evoking dreams of the summer ahead, I would be on the mailing list and looking forward to its arrival in the winter.

Now check out these–

Scandalous Savings and How They Relate To Your Inalienable Rights as a Chosen One.

You are a very important person to us. Among only a privileged few chosen for this critical role. With summer in the wings and stakes so great, your purchase of tickets now is intensely catalytic. Propels us forward, quickens the pace. Electrifys the place….(Explaination of discount on tickets)…Seize the moment from time’s incessant march! Ignite the Box Office phones, Crash our website. Burn out the fax. It is your right. Your might. Launch us into glorious summer. Beat the deadline of April 8, 2005.

Really great stuff in my mind. I wanna go to Wisconsin this summer!

My submission deadline is too close right now to change my season brochure but I am going to make it my purpose over the next year to integrate Greg’s tips into my press releases and take a lesson from the American Players and fire the imagination and infuse my writing with a sense of fun.

I know I can do it. I have the sense of humor to write that sorta stuff. I just have to get over the idea that my writing has to be poised and professional–sensually exciting without resorting to sensationalism, ala my Demon Horses Unleashed! entry, to try to catch newspaper editors’attention.

Marketing/PR

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Griping About Applications

June 28, 2005

by:

Joe Patti

Okay a little side trip here that has some small advice for businesses. I am on a search committee representing my division in a search for a International Studies coordinator. There were some applicant whose qualifications were so unrelated to the position the only reason I imagine they applied was seeking a job in Hawaii. Other than that, the process has been pretty good.

However, it did remind me of some pet peeves I have with the job application process from the point of view of someone who has applied for jobs.

My first pet peeve is with objective statements on resumes. I think they have to be a cruel joke played on the public by job search web sites, books and advisors. The only reason I could imagine for using it is if you are applying generally for entry level position in a large company that won’t read cover letters. These places need an easy way to route resumes so the objective statement helps the human resources department out.

Otherwise, I would tell people applying for a specific job or an upper level position to leave it off. This is because it makes you sound like an idiot without any skills. People write such general, all encompassing objectives they sound useless. I am talking about stuff like “Objective: Acquire a rewarding position that will allow me to apply my skills in marketing, management, advertising or public relations.”

I have been on interviewing committees for everything from intern positions to department chairs and I have never voted to hire someone with one of those silly objectives. (Obviously, by the time they get to department chair, they aren’t using them.) I have also never used one on a resume and maybe that is why my last job search took so long, but I can live with that.

It just seems more effective to me that even if you are fishing around companies for unadvertised jobs, it is much better to be very specific about the job you want, preferably in the form of a cover letter where you expound upon your experience in a directed manner, rather than sound anemic with vagueness.

My other pet peeve is the requirement that you send a resume AND fill out an application. Now I understand that some organizations require that the search process be uniform for everyone. My problem is that places use the same forms for everyone no matter what the job is. I honestly feel frustrated and frankly insulted when applying for a desk job requiring a Master’s degree and I have to fill out where I went to high school and if I possess a CDL license.

The forms also only provide a tiny space for talking about your experience. This may be good because it forces you to summate your responsibilities and accomplishments into one sentence and doesn’t leave room for a lot of BS. On the other hand, the committee I was on was looking at the form as a primary source of people’s qualifications. Writing “See Resume” on the application form was strongly scowled upon. I thought people were much more impressive on their resume. I would hate to think that I had been judged for jobs by what I was able to squeeze on that stupid application.

Of course, you can show initiative and recreate the application on your word processor. This is fraught with peril too. Some folks on my committee didn’t like the way an applicant had formated the form he/she laboriously duplicated.

Yeah, it is probably arrogant of me to think I am too good to be filling out application forms. On the other hand, if an organization expects that people will draft original letters specific to the position and perhaps take the time to find out the proper name of the managing director to whom they were instructed to send their resume, they should put the energy into customizing the application process as well.

In an age where technology allows people to customize their lives-when and how they experience the world and entertainment, the fact that companies are using outdated application procedures doesn’t speak well for them. The same technology also makes it easy for organizations to create uniform online applications or customized .pdf format applications that don’t include irrelevant questions.

So that is my rant and my suggestion– attract high caliber applicants by requiring only relevant and pertinent answers.

General Musings

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New Delivery System?

June 27, 2005

by:

Joe Patti

I came across this article on the Chronicle of Higher Education website discussing how students at the University of Texas-Austin have created “Swarmcasting” software that allows people to essentially run their own Internet television station. Seems to me it might present a possibility for organizations to broadcast their performances some day.

How to make money off it, I am not quite certain at this point. I imagine though that as since your digital cable line is the same one that delivers your highspeed cable modem, being able to watch broadcast over the internet on your 60 inch television isn’t that far off. Perhaps one day you will be able to choose between watching A Raisin in the Sun performed at Arena Stage for $60 or performed by the high school down the street for $5.

For those who are worried about piracy and reproduction of performances diluting their ability to get people to pay to view their work, the way the software delivers its product is unwieldly for use in filesharing networks. The software authors believe movies and audio distribution may take a form similar to the one they are creating in the future because of this hindering aspect.

It is hard to tell how exactly our dreams of the future will be executed. I came across this blog entry which recounts a speech made by President Lyndon Johnson when he signed the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967. The president seems rather prescient outlining his vision for the future since he describes what we know today as the Internet.

It bears mentioning that two years later on October 29, 1969, the first electronic message was sent over ARPANET, the precursor of the Internet. According to some accounts I read, Johnson set aside money in the 1968-69 Federal Budget to fund a project that emerged as ARPANET.

Alas, as visionary as he was, Johnson didn’t live long enough to see his dream really come into its own as it did when it surged into public life in the 1990s. If I am visionary about this application of technology for the dissemination of the arts, I hope I am around to see some of it. Though on the other hand, I am sure Johnson is happier not knowing that his vision is also the medium by which vast amounts of pornography is also available. I may be happier not seeing it, too.

Arts in an Age of Technology

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