Fresh TALK: Art Meets Food in Barcelona

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Conversations About Creativity in the 21st Century

Cathy Byrd meets creatives at the intersection of contemporary art and food in Barcelona. Iranian-born Mariam Shambayati talks about her multi-media art project Moulinex-Me and the conceptual dinner parties she stages in the Food Cultura Museum. The anti-museum's founders Montse Guillén and Antoni Miralda have generated projects revolving around art and food for decades. They introduce their most recent collaboration, Off Menu—a series of fantastical events that offered a creative alternative to Alimentaria, Barcelona's annual culinary festival.

Sound Editor: Jay Agoglia | Photos: Courtesy of Moulinex-Me and Food Cultura Museum 
Art Meets Food sound bites: Moulinex-Me Cena3 dinner conversation; Disco Kitchen, Off Menu 2012

Cathy Byrd se encuentra en Barcelona con creativos de la intersección entre el arte contemporáneo y la comida. De origen iraní, Mariam Shambayati habla acerca de su proyecto artístico multimedia Moulinex-Me y de las fiestas y cenas conceptuales que se organizan en el Food Cultura Museum. Los fundadores del anti-museo Montse Guillén y Antoni Miralda  llevan a cabo proyectos de arte y comida desde décadas. Ellos presentan su colaboración más reciente, Off Menu, una serie de fantásticos espectáculosque ofrecieron una alternativa creativa a Alimentaria, la anual feria culinaria de Barcelona.

Fresh VUE: Adaptive Actions

Attention Artist Interventionists!

Based in Montreal and initiated in London in 2007 by Jean-François Prost, Adaptive Actions encourages and documents interventions that speak to the collective imagination in the workplace, the home and public spaces.

Adaptive Actions is calling for photos
sound and text to include in their
next book Heteropolis.

Atención! Adaptive Actions ha abierto una convocatoria para incluir fotografías, sonido y texto en su próximo libro Heteropolis.

Deadline 4 June 2012.
Submission guidelines here.

Heteropolis will include 30-50 contributions, 5 texts and an interview with political theorist Michael Hardt, co-author, with Toni Negri, of Empire, Multitude and Commonwealth. Published both in French and English, the book will be printed in 2012, in a limited edition. The book will be edited by Marie-Pier Boucher, Jean-Maxime Dufresne, Gema Melgar and Jean-François Prost.

Fresh Talk: Nomad Studio, Barcelona

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Conversations About Creativity in the 21st Century

In this episode, Cathy Byrd talks to a couple of creative nomads from Holland. Artist Iris Tonies and writer Arnout Krediet live on their boat in Port Veil, Barcelona, with their two children. They talk about how they made themselves at home, founded Estudio Nómada and became animators in the local art scene. The last week in May, they'll be projecting films on the mainsail of their boat during SCREEN, an annual city-wide video art festival.

Sound Editor: Jay Agoglia | Images: Courtesy Estudio Nómada and Cathy Byrd | Music: Oumou Sangare, Ah Ndiya

En este episodio, Cathy Byrd habla con dos nómadas creativas de Holanda. La artista Iris Tonies y la periodista Arnout Krediet viven con sus dos hijos en su barco, en el Port Vell de Barcelona. Ellos hablan de cómo se fundó el Estudio Nómada y cómo llegaron a formar parte de la escena artística local. La última semana de mayo, durante el festival SCREEN, proyectarán películas sobre la vela de su barco coincidiendo con el festival de vídeo arte que se da cita anual en la ciudad.

Fresh VUE: Philadelphia, The New Barnes

Contributed by Jonathan Lerner



At a private preview for the new Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, not everyone was happy that the collection had been moved from the founder's historic home. 

The new venue is crisply geometrical and soothingly minimal, while richly and subtly textured.  A lot of attention was paid to bringing in natural light. Besides Impressionists, Old Masters and early Modernists, Barnes collected early American furniture, ceramics and metalwork, and Native American and African art. Many African motifs were incorporated into the design of the new building. 

The structure that houses the art is totally of the moment, but the collection galleries inside exactly reproduce those of their original setting, including Barnes' eccentric and didactic "ensemble" arrangements of the works. At first, I was overwhelmed by the density and quantity, and then, it slowly dawned on me that I was in the presence of greatness.

Jonathan Lerner writes on architecture and design.

Fresh Talk: Franklin Sirmans

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Conversations About Creativity in the 21st Century

Cathy Byrd talks on the phone with Franklin Sirmans, curator of contemporary art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Their conversation considers the essential role of public art at LACMA, covers the latest news on Michael Heizer's Levitated Mass installation and previews upcoming LACMA exhibitions to feature the Broad Collection (2012) and the work of Noah Purifoy (2014). Recently appointed Artistic Director for Prospect.3 New Orleans, Franklin shares some of his thoughts about the 2014 exhibition.

Sound Editor: Leonardo Madriz 
Photos courtesy LACMA, except where noted
Episode Sound: Excerpt of audio recorded while moving Michael Heizer's 340-ton rock from Riverside to Los Angeles, CA. Courtesy of LACMA

Fresh Rx.6 with Kesha Bruce

Solutions for Your Creative Dilemmas

I started offering online encaustic classes and they've been very popular, but I know I should be thinking bigger. I share the info on FB, Twitter and LinkedIn and also list on SeekYourCourse.com. Where and how can I get more exposure?

You’re definitely on the right track.

For every creative, the two biggest challenges are communicating value, i.e. making it clear to potential clients/students/collectors exactly how they will benefit from what you have to offer, and most importantly, establishing yourself as a trust-worthy, expert authority in your particular field.

You should definitely enlist the help of other artists who blog.Ask former students to write about their experience and include images of the work they created using your teaching techniques.
 
Chances are, most of your enrollment will come by word of mouth. This is why getting other artists to write about your classes is so important. In fancy marketing terms, it’s called “third-party validation.”
 
It’s also the reason you should be including testimonials by past students on your website, complete with photos of the artists who wrote them and links back to their websites. Not only does this help build your credibility as an artist and a teacher, it’s a great way to connect and give back to artists who have supported you by taking your classes.

While running a contest or listing your classes on other on-line course websites isn’t necessarily a bad idea, offering the class to targeted art bloggers in exchange for a review on their blog would likely be a more worthwhile step. In fact, why not go one step further and organize a “blog tour,” where you appear as a guest blogger on several blogs over the course of several weeks, sharing a specific technique from each of your course offerings?

And last, but not least, how are you using your own blog as a platform to establish yourself as an authority in your field? Are you creating free content in the form of videos, tutorials, or advice about the technique on a regular basis? What can you create and distribute—for free—that sets you apart and establishes you as a “go to” person for this specific technique?

It might seem counter intuitive to give away information for free, but in fact this goes a long way towards gaining the trust of your readers and marketing your expertise. Try not to think of the gesture as giving away your best secrets. Instead, think of it as a way to gain trust, which is ultimately what you’ll need to rely on to gain new students.

Send me your questions: freshartinternational@gmail.com. I'm here to help!

Kesha Bruce

Fresh Talk: CineMarfa 2012

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Conversations About Creativity in the 21st Century
 
Cathy Byrd meets with Jennifer Lane and David Hollander to learn more about CineMarfa, a film festival that takes place this May 16-20. Professional filmmakers, Jennifer and David lived in Los Angeles for a dozen years before they fell in love with Marfa and made West Texas their home. The two talk about why they created CineMarfa and introduce some of the films featured in the second annual event. This is the first in a Fresh Talk series about creative energy in the American Southwest.
Sound Editor: Jay Agoglia | Images: Courtesy of CineMarfa, except where noted | Sound Track excerpt: Harmony Korine, TRASH HUMPERS, 2009

Fresh VUE: The American Southwest

FAI finds endless creativity in  the parched American Southwest.
Miles of Fresh Talk to follow.