West Side Arts District Workshops - Sept 29 and Oct 11

As you all know! In July, a significant piece of legislation, known as the West Side Arts District Tax Exemption Act, was made law. Eligible artists living and working in the Valley, Olneyville and West Broadway neighborhood scan receive State Income and Sales and Use Tax Exemptions. This could mean if you work at the Steel Yard and are deemed an artist by the RISCA definition, you could benefit from some or all of these benefits!

Educational workshops will be held at Monohasset Mills on Thursday, September 29 and West Broadway Neighborhood Association on Tuesday, October 11, in collaboration with the RI State Council on the Arts (RISCA). Both workshops run from 6:30 - 8:00 pm.

Learn more at http://www.pcisprov.org/ and http://www.arts.ri.gov/, or call 401.751.4074.

Firehouse 12 (in New Haven, CT) grand opening

Firehouse 12 is a performance space and recording studio in New Haven, CT with a full bar and a full schedule of concerts and shows. It's run by Nick Lloyd, a great guy and great curator. The Grand Opening is this weekend, Sept. 23. Go if you can! You can check out the full schedule at www.firehouse12.com

This is from Nick:

We are happy to announce the Grand Opening of the Bar at Firehouse 12, as well
as the beginning of the Fall Concert Series. First the details on the Grand
Opening.


THE BAR AT FIREHOUSE 12 GRAND OPENING
Friday September 23rd at 9PM
The bar will open at 4PM as usual, but the real festivities will occur around
9PM. We will have drink specials all night long, as well as some fine food
brought in to celebrate the occasion. We are also working on getting the Mayor
down here to cut a piece of 2" analog tape tied up like a ribbon. As a special
one time only occasion, the Performance Space will be open to walk through with
your drink. There will not be a performance that evening, but the fall series
will begin the next night, Saturday September 24th. Which brings me to...

THE 2005 FALL CONCERT SERIES
Beginning Saturday September 24th at 8:30PM
After weeks of negotiations, here is the exciting lineup for the series of shows
booked here through mid-December. There are one or two more shows that are still
under discussion, to be announced very soon. All of the shows will be listed on
the website by tomorrow, with on-line ticket sales and music samples available
by early next week. As usual, ticket prices, set times and personnel may vary,
so please check the website for more details.

Thank you for your support and looking forward to seeing you at the opening!!

hands to birds

-a little bit yellow submarine, a little bit monty python, the aluminum birds are complete!
they are on view at the Baxter School for the Deaf on Mackworth Island in Portland, Maine.
Titled "soar" they are a collaboration between myself and Randy Garber, a Boston based artist.
Many thanks to Tommy without whom I could not have welded the aluminum.
and thanks to all who lent kind words and support.

Pawtucket Arts Collaborative Lecture Series

Chris Kane has alerted us to a great lecture tomorrow night:
Malcolm Grear, Graphic Designer
Wednesday, September 14, 7 pm

This lecture is part of the "Insights" section of the year-long series.

www.pawtucketartscollaborative.org

Shout outs and Thank yous...

I just wanted to thank and acknowledge some folks who I think have done some great things over the course of the past week, give or take a couple of days. So with that said, thank you...

Annusha for enduring your first couple of weeks with us seemingly effortlessly, while still getting an incredible amount of work done like: helping to get this blog up and going, organizing all of the fall course catalogues and posters for drop off thru out the city, managing to get the mailing of all of the course catalogues out last Friday (hey at least this time they were out before the first classes started, which I think is a real accomplishment for us), and still having enough energy to spare so that she is taking Nate's sculptural welding course to boot.

Nate and all those who've helped get the Metal Shop up and looking pro. Those tables are bangin'.

Howie, our newly appointed Director of Homeland Security, for installing new doors with a quality locking system into the corner building.

Lisa and Erik for your work and determinaton getting the West Side Arts District legislation pushed thru.

Will Machin and the Greenway Crew for putting together such a great show last Thursday night. Everybody I've talked to who was there was really excited by the work that you've done.

To all those involved in the Wickeden Garbage Can Project. They are looking great!

So, I'm sure that I'm missing maybe 50 or so more folks that equally deserve a shout out, but these were the folks who's work has particularly stood out to me over the past week. Please don't hesitate to add to the list if you feel so moved.

Well I tried...

I just spent the morning writing this incredibly hilarious post about the happenings of the previous week, only to have it freakin' erased. I discussed the hot tricycle action of last Saturday night, the festivities at Paul's house (including a little something about Dave up a tree), an update on studio activity (which focused on our plan to make garbage cans for Wickeden, the city, and then the world). I also went into the visit from Mayor Cicilline, Senator Caprio, and Congressman Constantino and their announcment of the West Side Arts district, which was legislation drafted and lobbied for by Erik and Lisa of PCIS. And finally, I sent a big old thank you to the Lisa and Jenny (of Greenway fame), Will (who's birdhouses have revolutionized the idea of luxury housing for our winged friends), and everybody else who helped to make Thursday evening such a success. So, I'm sorry this was a lame-ish post, the other was great, I swear. I had some really funny imagry and discussed our mad cap antics, but aw well, now it's gone and lost forever. It's time I get over it. Here are some pictures...

photops

The photographer who was in the shop taking pictures for the projo, said that we should let her know when we are doing fun public action things. ie. installations, events etc. she gave me contact information and suggested that we call the picture desk and they might be able to publish a picture with a caption, even if we don't do a full press release/article. I'm passing on this information so that it doesn't get lost, and so that we can best utilize it as a group. We are going to get in touch with her about James Rouse community Service day. Here is an example of some of her work.

thanks y'all

contact;

Mary Murphy
Providence Journal Picture Desk
277-7316
pdesk@projo.com

PCIS party for West Side Arts District

Hey kids... if you don't already know, we are having a party at Erik's space at Monohasset to celebrate this legislation. Thanks to everyone who came out to the press conference. It was really great to have you all there. Hope you can make it by this evening while floating back and forth to Wil's show in the Yard...
Lisa

You are cordially invited to celebrate the new
West Side Arts District
Join PCIS for food & drink as we recognize those who helped pass this legislation

September 8, 2005 5:30-8:00PM
Monohasset Mill, Unit #102
RSVP: info@pcisprov.org

The new West Side Arts District
encompasses the Valley, Atwells, Olneyville and West Broadway neighborhoods in Providence,
offering State Income Tax and Sales & Use Tax exemption to eligible artists.

The new West Side Arts District - Press Conference Wednesday at 10:00 am at the Steel Yard

ALERT!

A press conference announcing the new West Side Arts District - Artist Tax Exemption in the Valley, Olneyville, Atwells and West Broadway neighborhoods - will be held TOMORROW, SEPT 7 at 10:00 am at The Steel Yard. Mayor Cicilline, Rep Steve Costantino, Sen Frank Caprio, and Kip McMahan among others will talk about the district.

The Steel Yard is included in the district that offers State Income and Sales & Use Tax Exemption for artists that live and work in the district.

Please join us and spread the word!

Best,

Lisa & Erik
PCIS - Partnership for Creative Industrial Space

mustache

/Users/nathannadeau/Desktop/clay.ai

An Email update from John Oles...

Hi Clay, thankyou very much for your concern. I was forewarned about the storm from a friend whose father worked for the Dept. of Health and Safety, and I was able to evacuate without a problem on Saturday morning. I spent 4 days in North texas with a friend, and i am now staying at the Penland School of Crafts in western North Carolina until i figure out what's next. While i lost most of my clothes and my portfolio (i may be able to retrieve these in a few months) i was blessed to have gotten as far away from the city as possible, and my heart goes out to those thousands of people who have lost loved ones, homes, and everything else....Thanks again for the email, and give my best to all those at the Steelyard....'looks like i'll be seeing you guys again sooner than later. john.

Can you deny this sad face?

Hello everyone,

The Steel Yard's fall course announcements are in, the posters are printed, and we need help distributing these goodies about town. If you are available for a few hours sometime over the next few days, email me or mr. sharp and we'll pair you up with a buddy (or two) for this adventure. The list is split up geographically into five areas (west side, east side, south providence, downtown/risd, and pawtucket/north providence), so if you have a preference, let us know. Thanks for your help!

Anusha