The San Diego Foundation recently announced a Creative Catalyst Fund, an individual artist fellowship program which will fund 19 local artists for the 2012 calendar year. Spanning a multitude of disciplines, artists, musicians, dancers, writers, thespians and film makers are invited to apply for grants ranging from $5,000 to $20,000. Each grant will fund the creation of a new body of work and point towards an exhibition or performance in the coming year. If you're interested in learning more, visit the Foundation's grant page here.
Posted By zack | 7/11/2011 | 4:33 PM | Add a Comment
ICE Gallery is under transformation again, this time by resident artist Lee Lavy. Lavy has added color to the process which he debuted in his black and white ICE Gallery opening last year. Check out the intriguing and slightly creepy video shot and edited by fellow ICE member Michael James Armstrong below. Lee's show opens this Saturday from 6-10pm at the North Park gallery (3417 30th Street).
Posted By zack | 7/7/2011 | 4:31 PM | Add a Comment
For a second straight year, Sezio has been denied funding by San Diego County. Now we know the city and state have been hit hard with budget cuts, but we think we have a pretty strong case for a $5,000 dollar grant out of a 2.5 million dollar pot. Let me explain further:
Earlier this year we applied for San Diego County's Community Enhancement Program, which seeks to fund
"Cultural activities, museums, visitor and convention bureaus, economic development councils, and other similar institutions/organizations, including County programs and projects, which promote and generate tourism and/or economic development within San Diego County.
The project or "cultural activity" we specified in our application was a four night concert series held in East Village / Downtown San Diego. Those of you who attended last fall or saw one of the many videos, know this was not your average music series. Set in a 3,000 square foot warehouse turned giant living room and art installation, Four Day Weekend hosted intimate performances from eight emerging California-based bands (5 from San Diego, 2 from San Francisco, and 1 from Los Angeles).
The performances were available to all ages (a very rare thing in San Diego's music scene). They were affordable, priced between $10 and $15 dollars. The total event drew over 1,000 people (each night had a 250 person capacity), but was seen by hundreds of thousands more. The above video, which was produced by Sezio's extremely talented media team, was featured on Pitchfork.com, the world's largest music blog. "Dodos: Live in San Diego" right on the top of Pitchfork.com's home page. This brands San Diego internationally. This is how Brooklyn became Brooklyn and how Portland became Portlandia.
Above that, we played the TOT game. The Transient Occupancy Tax, which funds the community enhancement program and also the city's commission for arts & culture, is funded by hotel rooms purchased in San Diego County. Sezio brought Hotel Indigo on as an event partner, we put the bands up at the hotel the night they played, and the hotel offered discounted rates to in-town and out of town attendees of the festival. We made sure to get press from Los Angeles-based blogs to let all of Southern California know they were welcome in San Diego for the weekend (see here). We also supported the local economy, hosting after parties at East Village establishments like Bar Basic.
So we thought we had a pretty strong argument asking for $5,000 dollars to host the event again this fall. We were mistaken. 2.5 million dollars was split up between anything that contained the words Museum, Theater, or Chamber of Commerce. Take a moment to browse the distributions list here. Many of the funded organizations are the same ones that contact us on a weekly basis, asking us to help them promote their events, partner with them on openings and performances because they recognize that Sezio has a direct connection to youth that are interested in arts & culture in San Diego.
We've gotten our peers to notice our service to San Diego, we've gotten the institutions to notice, now it's time for the government, the council members, the donors, and the foundations to take notice, and to help us continue our crucial role in San Diego's burgeoning creative community.
Here's how you can help! Please take the time to email four people for Sezio this week. Explain to them how much you love and rely on our website to experience local art and music. How much you've enjoyed attending or performing at our one-of-a-kind events. If these four people receive a couple hundred emails from Sezio supporters, they can't help but fund us when the next grant opportunities come around.
Ron Roberts - Supervisor, District 4 - ron-roberts@sdcounty.ca.gov
Greg Cox - Supervisor, District 1 - greg.cox@sdcounty.ca.gov
Todd Gloria - Councilmember, District 3 - toddgloria@sandiego.gov
Kevin Faulconer - Councilmember, District 2 - kevinfaulconer@sandiego.gov
Title your email "Funding Request for Sezio, Inc.", and write them all at once. Copy info@sezio.org on there too...
Thank you sincerely for reading this, for taking the time to email in a petition for Sezio to be funded, and for reading our website, coming to our events, and for supporting art & music in San Diego. It means an incredible amount to all of us.
- Zack Nielsen (Sezio's Founder & Business Director)
Posted By zack | 7/4/2011 | 1:49 AM | View Comments (7)
Tin Can Alehouse will open their doors early this Wednesday and play host to a photography / art show featuring Little Deadman member Tyson Wirtzfeld. Tyson will debut 8 very large pieces he's been cranking away on at his new studio in the barrio. Fellow Deadman, Anthony Levas, will be spinning records (DJ Muchacho) along with DJ John Wilkes Booth is my Power Animal (Tyson). Cruise by Tin Can between 7 and 9pm this Wednesday for the free opening.
Posted By zack | 7/3/2011 | 10:53 PM | Add a Comment
School is out for summer, and the brothers Baliff and drummer Grant Nassif are hitting the road for a week this summer. Dirty Gold will kick off their mini tour tomorrow at Habitat House and then open two dates for Darwin Deez in SF and LA. Pick up a fresh white vinyl of their debut ROAR at a show, or order your copy online from Autumn Tone Records.
Posted By zack | 7/1/2011 | 5:37 PM | Add a Comment