August 27, 2010

Stone Soup


dr. billie bondar from last year's shoe project
OK, this project from the non profit arts group I belong to here in Rochester, is just pure fun. Taken blatantly from the Brooklyn Feast project and borrowed a bit from SLOOP in St. Louis, we are thrilled to start this baby up this fall. Here's the scoop:

Stone Soup, produced by Art Esprit, provides an opportunity for a local artist to receive funding up to $1,000 for a specific art project. Community members are invited to a dinner of homemade soup and bread, where they will have the chance to decide which one of five projects will be funded. The first of these dinners will take place on Saturday, Nov. 6 at the Roberge Center.

A call for proposals will be put out for artists who plan to execute their project in the Greater Rochester area. Requests may include, but are not limited to, equipment, supplies, seed money, or whatever else the artist deems necessary to complete the project. The call for proposals will be issued ASAP. Proposals must be submitted electronically stonesoup(at) artesprit(dot)org and must be received by midnight on Oct. 23.

From the proposals received, a panel of six from the members of Art Esprit will choose five artists to present their proposals at the Stone Soup event. Selected artists will be notified by Oct. 25. Artists not selected will be invited to submit their project again for the next Stone Soup.

Guests at the Stone Soup event will each pay $10, and receive a ballot for voting — and will be entertained with music, poetry, and/or stories while enjoying their soup. Each artist will be introduced, and then guests will have the opportunity to see the artists' presentations and to vote on the one they would like to see receive the funds. Each artist will set up their presentation on a table in the perimeter of the room and will have a chance to speak to everyone in the room as they pass by. There will be a voting box at the door which will be manned and they will collect the ballots (printed on the back of the entrance tickets).

At a specified time, the votes will be tallied and the winner announced. The artist will immediately be awarded the funding for his/her project. They will get a big bag of money with a dollar sign on the outside! He will be expected to present a very short but concise report on the project (photos, demonstration, etc.) at the next Stone Soup event!

It's all so exciting!

2 comments:

susanna said...

FUN! You live in such a special, artistic, creative town, Susan.

Susan Schwake said...

hi susanna -- YES! it will be a great time I think! our town is coming along... it all takes time!