Survivor:
An Artist's Opportunity Workshop

May 30 - June 1, 2008

Made possible by:
The Joan Mitchell Foundation
& The Dedalus Foundation

Dumbo Art Center’s annual workshop is a free total immersion weekend for emerging visual artists at the threshold of a professional career or new to New York City. The workshop aims to empower artists with information, practical know-how and self-sufficiency in order to advance their careers in the complex and competitive New York City art world.

In addition to free admission, all attendees receive free information packages.

NO PRE-REGISTRATION REQUIRED

FRIDAY MAY 30, 2008

6 - 7 PM REGISTRATION

7 - 8 PM SPEAKING FROM EXPERIENCE
The weekend kicks off with a panel of three mid-career artists, all of whom once arrived in New York City without contacts or connections. Each will tell their own story on how they were able to penetrate the art maze, gain visibility for their work and jump-start their careers by taking advantage of opportunities and non-profit resources. Introduced and moderated by Breda Kennedy, DAC Executive Director

Artists:
Heide Fasnacht
Kanishka Raja
Jane South

8 - 8:30 PM BREAK AND RAFFLE DRAWING
Artists who attend the first panel discussion, SPEAKING FROM EXPERIENCE, will each receive a raffle ticket. At 8 pm, 40 artists, whose numbers are drawn, may proceed to the DOCTOR SESSIONS beginning at 8:30 pm, where they will have an opportunity to meet one-on-one with an arts professional and show work samples and documentation for fifteen minutes.

DAC recommends that artists bring only laptops or small portfolios for review. Light boxes for slides are limited, but will be available.

8:30 - 9:30 PM DOCTOR SESSIONS

Patrick Amsellem, Associate Curator of Photography, Brooklyn Museum of Art
Omar-Lopez Chahoud, Independent Curator
Ian Cofré, Independent Curator
Benjamin Evans, Gallery Director, NURTUREart, Inc.
Felicity Hogan, Independent Curator
Louky M. Keijsers, Director, LMAK projects
Sara Reisman, Associate Dean, The Cooper Union
Erin Riley-Lopez, Assistant Curator, The Bronx Museum of the Arts
Herb Tam, Associate Curator, Exit Art
Hyewon Yi, Gallery Director, SUNY Old Westbury

SATURDAY MAY 31, 2008

12 - 1 PM REGISTRATION

1 - 2:30 PM PERFECT PACKET
Visual artist, Melissa Potter, will share expertise and tips on creating an artist portfolio that best represents your work for a variety of application procedures including exhibitions, special project proposals, residencies, and grants. She will cover strengthening of all the various components of a packet: resumes, visual materials, artist statements, project narratives, and recommendation letters to avoid some of the common pitfalls artists often face when putting together challenging proposals. Effective time management will also be discussed in order to maximize artist opportunities.

2:30 - 3 PM BREAK AND RAFFLE DRAWING

3 - 4 PM NYFA SOURCE
Linda Park, Senior Program Officer at New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), will help you become knowledgeable in the use of NYFA Source, the nation's most extensive online directory of awards, services, and publications for artists, which features over 8,500 programs. Find grants, residencies, space awards, equipment access, professional development programs, legal, financial, and business resources available to independent artists in all disciplines across the USA.

The NYFA Source Artist Workshop will cover basic searches by discipline and advanced searches on a range of criteria, an overview of the range of programs and resources included in the database, tips for getting the most out of your search, as well as additional information on successful grant writing strategies.

Users can access NYFA Source (www.nyfasource.org) free of charge for information ranging from cash grants and artist-in-residence programs, to marketing and opportunity listings. This resource covers the range of support available to U.S. artists on the local, state, national, and international level, and allows specific queries based on discipline, location, gender, ethnicity, career point, application deadline, and many other criteria. Find out how to make this tool work for you!

6 - 7 PM DOCTOR SESSIONS

Boshko Boskovic, Associate Director, Sean Kelly Gallery
Tania Duvergne, Independent Curator
Heng-Gil Han, Curator, Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning
Zeljka Himbele, Independent Curator
Olga Kopenkina, Independent Curator
Karin Laansoo, Independent Curator
Kate McNamara, Curatorial Assistant, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center
Piper Marshall, Assistant Curator, Swiss Institute
Kristine Siegel, Program Director, International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP)
Frances Wu, Curatorial Associate, Independent Curators International (ICI)

SUNDAY JUNE 1, 2008

11:30 - 12:30 PM REGISTRATION

12:30 - 2:30 PM TOOLS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
Visual artist, Sara Greenberger Rafferty, imparts a “for us, by us” approach to building an artist's website and the basics of digital imaging. Come to learn about some conventional and alternative tools to get your work on the web, and the basics of image-editing for this purpose. This workshop is not only an introductional 'how to,' but will also help artists figure out why the 'why to' of artist's websites. Various approaches and techniques will be introduced and examples artist websites will be shown. Artists will leave the workshop knowing more about why they need/want a website and how to implement a solution appropriate to their individual context.

Sara Greenberger Rafferty lives and works in Brooklyn and is a full time Instructor of Art at the Suffolk County Community College, part of the State University of New York, Selden, NY. Her work has been exhibited in New York at P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, Artists Space, Guild & Greyshkul, D'Amelio Terras, Mary Boone; Sandroni Rey Gallery and Champion Fine Art in Los Angeles; PICA in Portland; Sutton Lane in Paris; ARTSPACE in Auckland, New Zealand; and in Pescara, Italy.

3 - 4 PM Getting Your Shit Together = GYST
Tucker Neel has got his shit together and will introduce GYST, the acronym for a software package created by artists for artists i.e. "Getting Your Shit Together." Written expressly for visual artists, GYST is a database program to help artists keep track of their artwork, business aspects, proposals, mailing lists, etc. It also includes tons of information on every aspect of an artist's career, including over 200 web links and resources for additional perspectives on business aspects of the arts.

Tucker Neel is an artist, freelance writer, and independent curator living and working in Los Angeles. Embracing a polymorphous practice, Neel utilizes drawing, painting, sculpture, video, installation, and online communication to create works that investigate personal, public, and political attempts to solidify memory in a material form. He holds an MFA from Otis College of Art and Design and a BA in Art History and Visual Arts from Occidental College. As a curator he organized inaugural exhibitions for The Regent Galleries in downtown Los Angeles and his artist-curator project Perpsectives In the Crowd at the Bolsky Gallery at Otis College was a Critic's Pick on artforum.com. His work has also been reviewed in the L.A. City Beat newspaper and on Flavorpill.com. He writes monthly art reviews and criticism for Artillery Magazine, ISM Magazine and Fine Arts Magazine in New York. You can read his art criticism and reviews at www.tuckerneel.blogspot.com. Commissary Arts in Venice, CA provides Tucker with representation (commissaryarts.com). To view Neel's works please visit tuckerneel.com.

4:30 - 6:30 PM MAKING A STATEMENT
Sarah Schmerler teaches artists how to pack the punch in a statement about their work:

"As an artist, you will need to write about your work many times throughout your career e.g. grant and exhibition proposals, artists' statements, press releases. As close as you are to your own artwork, you would think it easy to write about it. Not so! Many artists get tangled up in knots, trying to find a way, within the art of writing, to express what they are already saying in their visual art. MAKING A STATEMENT is a session aimed at untangling those knots in an enjoyable and methodical manner. Hands-on exercises loosen you up and teach you to translate visual thoughts into words, first by writing about work by others, then about your own work. By the end of the workshop, you will leave with a statement that says what you want to say about yourself and your art."

Sarah Schmerler is currently a freelance arts writer and has been published in The New York Times, ArtReview, Time Out New York, Art in America, and Art on Paper, among other notable publications. Schmerler is also an Adjunct Professor at The New School for Social Research where she teaches “Writing for Artists.”

Copyright © 2007 Dumbo Arts Center