DANCE - FINE ARTS - MUSIC - THEATER - WRITING

ARTBITS by Richard B. Harper


VOLUME 24 * * All Arts News On the Web * * April 30, 2020

STUFF YOU SHOULDN'T MISS

      ArtBits always features a calendar of the goings on of Franklin County artists. Check out these events around Franklin County. Each issue includes the entire text of our weekly newspaper column.


     Franklin County's arts and music gatherings bring new opportunities, gossip, "show-and-tell" and occasional workshops. There are also booked and acoustic Open Mic Nights that feature music, readings, and more from the best new artists in Vermont.

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RESOURCES FOR ARTISTS

      The new Vermont Community Foundation Arts Recovery Fund can deliver "fast-tracked support" to Vermont's struggling arts community with direct grants to individual artists and cultural organizations. The Fund has grants to cover income losses due to lost jobs, canceled gigs, exhibits, or workshops. For nonprofit arts groups the Fund provides unrestricted operating support.
      The Vermont Rapid Response Artist Relief offers grants up to $500 to artists who have lost jobs or had a specific, scheduled gig or commission, contracts, workshop, classes, and so on cancelled. Thus far, the Fund has awarded 164 grants totaling $64,435 to artists.
      The second round of funding is open to applications until May 13. Call Dominique Gustin (802.828.5425) or email for more info or click here to apply online.


MAY-JUNE ART DEADLINES

LOCAL SOUR SERIES ART (May 8)--Groennfeld Meadery is now accepting artwork for their Chaos Sour Series which uses local ingredients and features local artists. The first in the series is a blackberry blueberry sour called Rumble. Cash prize. All artists will get a special invitation to the release party. A reception for voting to be held on in early June after the gathering ban is lifted in St. Albans.
      Click here for more info.


ART YOU CREATE

     Mike Barkyoumb's Intro to Watercoloring is online thanks to Northwest Access TV. Mr. Barkyoumb looks at the basic needs to start a painting, gives tips, and does demonstrations. www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMY6U3DNY3U


      Do you have colored pencils? Artist Phil Davies is posting lessons in a series called "The Art Isolation Challenge." It's a 30-day challenge based on 30 different themes. His How to Draw a Lime Wedge in Colored Pencils for the Day 1 challenge, "Edible," is at arttutor.com.
      The Art Isolation Challenge Facebook group provides the themes and place to share for 24,546 members so far. Find them on Facebook for some of the the other participants.


IN THE ARTS COUNCILS

SWANTON--The Swanton Arts Council Art Journaling Group has started meeting virtually.
      Art journals, junk journals, art pages and more are on the table and make for fun for artists, writers, scrap bookers, and more. The group meets to share ideas and to take time to create. Email to participate or learn more about art journaling or creating your own junk journal.


SWANTON--The regular Swanton Arts Council board meeting and update will be held via Zoon on Monday at 6 p.m.
      SAC meetings are held on the first Monday of each month. Email or message via Facebook an hour before the meeting for the link. Click here for the April minutes.


ALMOST LIVE ON STAGE

     With all venues shut down, we have to rely on ourselves for entertainment so sing from a manhole. Record yourself in the garage. Paint your fence purple and gold and Kelly green. OK, maybe not that.
      You're housebound? Your show is cancelled or postponed? You're bored? How about putting on a show?
      Get the band together and video or livestream a rehearsal every day. Or set up your easel and video a painting coming together. Read a few pages from your novel or a short story or a poem. Get in costume and video that play or the dance. Do some improv in your living room.
      We're locked down, too, and missing you. You'll get in a session and we'll like seeing you. Please share your efforts with your local arts council, too. And if the artist has a donation button, the audience can express appreciation through PayPal, Venmo, or other services.
      Here's a roundup for this week.


Friday
      Andrew Lloyd Webber will stream his musicals in the free YouTube series, The Shows Must Go On, every Friday at 7 p.m. for 48 hours. A new show begins tomorrow. Clips of famous performances and behind-the-scenes footage also appear on the channel beside the full shows.
      Click here for Mr. Webber's YouTube channel for all the details and to subscribe.


      Summer Sounds favorite John Bartus will perform a new Social Distancing Concert Live from the Florida Keys from his studio in Marathon, Florida, thanks to Facebook Live every Friday at 7:30 p.m.
      Find the link on Facebook.


Sunday
      Carol Ann Jones was live on Sunday with another dining room concert "having withdrawal from playing out." Find them on Facebook
      Find them on Facebook feed for other events and for this Sunday's kitchen concert.


Ongoing
      The Vermont Humanities Council presents Frederick Douglass and the National Crisis of the Civil War online on Wednesday at 7 p.m. Yale historian David Blight, winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in History for his biography Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom, tells Douglass' story: an escaped slave who became one of the leading abolitionists, fiery orators, and beloved writers of his era. Click here to view.


      This 2019 performance from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, is the Aria Fantasy by Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival Resident Composer David Serkin Ludwig. The ensemble is Michael Brown, piano; Bella Hristova, violin; Richard O’Neill, viola; and Mihai Marica, cello. Click here to enjoy.


      Cedric Watson of Lafayette, Louisiana has been nominated four times for Grammy Awards and has played with some of the great names in Creole music. He livestreamed last week and will do "solo concerts on Facebook and Instagram throughout coronavirus season." Donations and tips are appreciated. Find him on Facebook.


      Key West singer-songwriter Adrienne Zolodnik did a virtual live show from her home studio last week. She has written "lots of new tunes" and will play requests in folk, rock and Americana. She has Venmo and PayPal accounts. Find her show and more on Facebook.


MAKING IT WORK-THE CREATIVE ECONOMY

     "Amid all this chaos we're doing what we can to keep our music alive," Summer Sounds favorite Banjo Dan Lindner wrote.
      He has a new option for accessing the music of Banjo Dan and the Mid-nite Plowboys, the Sky Blue Boys and Cookie, and the New Bremen Town Musicians, Willy Lindner, Al Davis and Banjo Dan. You can now download a select few of their albums as well as most individual songs from them directly. And the money goes not to some corporate entity in Cupertino or Seattle, but right to the musicians.
      Where the money goes is important since a $9.99 download on a program like iTunes nets the artists about 94 cents. The record company takes $5.35 and Apple keeps the remaining $3.70. Artists get nine cents for each individual song downloaded on iTunes. CDBaby gets a 25% cut of self published album sales, while the artists get to keep the other 75%. Amazon sets the retail price of a digital release and the wholesale price is based on their tiers; self published musicians take around 60% of Amazon’s retail price. They pay a "proportionate share" of the Prime streaming service revenue. Online streaming services pay each time users click play, but they don't pay much. One online service estimated that listeners have to stream an artist's songs 849,817 times on Rhapsody, 1,546,667 times on last.fm and 4,053,110 times on Spotify respectively to earn a monthly salary equal to minimum wage.
      Musicians who manufacture and sell the physical CD or stream the music from their own websites keep 100% of the profits.
      Most of Mr. Lindner's music is now available for download and every album including the four-part Songs of Vermont series is also still available in CD format. Click here for more info and to download.


FRANKLIN COUNTY BOOKSHELF

     Ethan Dezotelle has begun a very special edition of The Daily Harold. It turns out that Harold of Guinea has quite a few young fans. He and Mr. Dezotelle picked out a book to read to them. Looks like there will be more. Find them on Facebook.


      ArtBits features a quick weekly peek at library events in and around Franklin County. That popular feature has a page of its own at the Franklin County Bookshelf here on the AAC site at AllArtsCouncil.org/books. We also take an occasional peek at the bookshelf or night stand of the folks you know in and around Franklin County. Those reviews can be found on the ArtBits Bookshelf.


Good News!

There are so many events around the region that we miss some of them.
Be sure to check these calendars for what's happening near you ...
All Arts Council of Franklin County
Cambridge Arts Council
Franklin County Regional
Chamber of Commerce
Island Arts
St Albans Community Arts
Swanton Arts Council
Young Tradition Vermont

Music!

Links to the Summer Music series in Franklin County
Summer Sounds
Summer Music at Grace
Downtown Summer Concert Series
Summer Evenings with
Vermont Treasures
Citizens Band
Wednesday Night Live
Enosburg Town Band


SUPPORT LIVE ARTS IN YOUR TOWN!


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Dick Harper, Chair
P.O. Box 1
Highgate Springs, VT 05460
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