july 1, 2020
Welcome to your Creative Connection. We hope you find these resources helpful. Please let us know what you are working on that we can share and send us photos of ways you are making creative connections! See more at the bottom of this newsletter. (Above: Students from Wharton Center's upcoming virtual program "Take it From the Top," which runs July 20-24. Photo credit: Harley Seeley)
pockets empty? how about $500!
Get yourself a super-simple-easy-to-apply-for City of Lansing Pocket Grant!
Do you have a creative arts-based idea you want to see come to fruition? Then a $500 pocket-sized grant could be your answer! Anyone interested in producing arts-based projects, events or installations in neighborhoods within the City of Lansing can submit brief proposals for a monthly review and quick turnaround. The Mini Pocket Grants for Art are awarded to people and organizations who collaborate with a Lansing non-profit to artistically bring an area to life. These grants are available until the funds are gone, between the dates of Oct. 1, 2020 - Sept. 30, 2021 . Learn more.
grants ● funding
work ● intern ● volunteer
jobs/careers
Lansing Community College is seeking adjunct graphic design faculty to teach courses in the art and design curriculum: graphic and web design. Responsibilities include teaching graphic design and visual communication courses, including but not limited to, digital media foundations, graphic design, typography, publication design, web design, interaction design (UI/UX), motion graphics and interactive media and more. Application deadline is Aug. 16, 2020. Learn more.

WILX is accepting applications for a news editor/photographer. General purpose of this position is to generate content for broadcasts, web channel and social media. The photographer’s primary focus will be to shooting/editing video and general news gathering, either teamed with a reporter or solo for across various media channels. Learn more.

internships
The Arts Council is seeking a social media intern who will work with the communications manager and other key staff to assist in monitoring all social media channels. Overall goal of the position is to increase engagement with followers and those in the arts community who could benefit from our services as well as create content and marketing campaigns and strategies. Those interested should email Dawn Gorman at  dawn@lansingarts.org.

featured call to visual & performing artists
Avenue for the Arts a nnounces a new arts event coming to Grand Rapids, Mich. this October ! Rapid Art Movement (RAM) is an arts event in constant motion. Restless, surprising, and on the move, every artwork and performance at the event will be mobile, constantly changing places over a three-hour period. There will be no fixed locations, only a geographic zone of ever-shifting activity. Participation is open to any visual or performing artist from West Michigan. Artists may participate individually or in groups. Learn more.
calls ● competitions ● classes
While some things have gone away, new things are being created. Creativity matters, so please keep making art, seeking out calls and submitting those applications when you can.

calls to artists
Women Made Gallery announces an international call for submissions for Craftivism: The Art of Activism. Craftivism is an art-form that fuses art, craft and action. This broad definition creates endless opportunities for artists to innovative solutions to today’s biggest cultural, structural, and societal issues. Open to women-identified and non-binary artists from the local, national and international community. Submission deadline is July 25, 2020. Learn more.

Chesterfield Music & Arts Festival announces a call to artists for this annual festival. This year the festival will be held Sept. 5-6, 2020 at Chesterfield Amphitheater in St. Louis, Missouri. All mediums welcome. $25 application fee. Submission deadline is Aug. 15, 2020.  Learn more.

Huron Valley Council for the Arts is seeking 50 artists to display and sell their work at the Arts & Greens Holiday Market. The Market is set amidst the beautiful greenery inside the Bogie Lake Greenhouses in Highland, Mich. and held Nov. 20-22, 2020. Submission deadline is Aug. 1 2020.  Learn more.

competitions
The City of Lansing announces a request for proposals for a new public art piece to be located in the northeast corner of Reutter Park in downtown Lansing.  LEAP  awarded the City of Lansing a Public Art for Communities 2020 Placemaking Grant to support the installation of permanent public art in Reutter Park at the corner of W. Kalamazoo St. and S. Capitol Ave. to enhance the area’s economic vibrancy and sense of place. Submission deadline is July 24, 2020. Learn more.

The Cedarburg Art Museum is accepting submissions for its 7th annual juried exhibition, “Masters as Muses.” Many artists can look back and find master artists who have provided inspiration for their style of execution or subject matter. In “Masters as Muses,” artists are challenged to include an image of a master artist’s creation in their application that has inspired their style of art or a specific subject matter. The idea is not to copy or re-create the master, but to re-invent. Application deadline is July 31, 2020. Learn more.

Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery announces their 10th Annual “Animals” Online Art Competition for the month of July 2020. 2D and 3D artists from around the world are called upon to make online submissions for possible inclusion into the Gallery’s August 2020 online group exhibition. The gallery encourages entries from artists (including photography & digital arts) regardless of where they reside to apply to this competition by submitting their best abstract or representational art. Application deadline is July 27, 2020. Learn more.

Touchstone Gallery announces and international online call for entries for "Us: What Divides Us and What Unites Us?" Open to all artists 18 years old and older. All original visual media that is the artist’s own concept, design and work, including and not limited to paintings, drawings, prints, sculpture, installation, street art, video and digital work. Three selected artworks will receive Juror’s Best in Show Prize of $300. Application deadline is Aug. 17, 2020. Learn more.

workshops/conferences
The Arts Council of Greater Lansing is presenting a virtual smARTS Workshop providing information and details on Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs (MCACA) Minigrants and City of Lansing Arts Project Grants. This event will take place via Zoom on July 22 at 3 p.m. Register to attend by emailing taylor@lansingarts.org. Learn more.

Creative Capital presents "Artists in a COVID Economy." How can artists manage a self-sustaining practice amid uncertainty and rapidly changing economic conditions? Amy Smith leads a discussion with Jae Rhim Lee, Daniel Park and Caroline Woolard, exploring ideas from cooperative principles to investment groups to imagine new forms in the face of COVID-19. This free online workshop takes place on July 21, 2020, 4:00-5:30 p.m. Learn more.

Avenue for the Arts presents How to Look at Art! Have a more meaningful art viewing experience by learning how to best approach an art exhibition and how to break art viewing into five steps. This course is taught by Avenue director Zachary Trebellas, a long-time museum docent with a bachelor's degree in Art History from Columbia College Chicago. It is open to all, and Michigan public school teachers will receive three SCECH hours for taking this course. Course is via Zoom on July 22, 2020 1-4 p.m. Learn more.

additional resources
highlighted competition -- calling women
The Bennett Prize , created in 2018, awards $50,000 to a woman artist to create her own solo exhibition of figurative realist paintings, which will travel the country. The Prize will propel the careers of women painters who have not yet realized full professional recognition, empowering new artists and those who have painted for many years. The Prize will expand opportunities for the public, who may not be familiar with figurative realist painting, to learn more about the creative vision of talented women painters in this increasingly popular genre. Deadline to apply is Oct. 16, 2020. Learn more.
going virtual? send us your opportunities
If you are developing online video classes, webinars, holding art sales etc., please let us know. Email the Arts Council at  dawn@lansingarts.org  to list your opportunity in our next Creative Connection.
photo opp! share your creative connections
Now more than ever, we would love you to send us photos of you. Whether it's earlier pics of you or your organization connecting with others or photos of what you're doing now to keep busy and make the best of these quarantined times! We want to keep our communications fresh, fun and full of our members doing what they do best! Send photos to dawn@lansingarts.org.
visit lansingarts.org for complete arts info!