Big-business Marketing for Small and Mid-sized Arts Nonprofits

by Randall Forte, LVAC executive director

This summer the Lehigh Valley Arts Council will launch a Cultural List Exchange Co-Op (CLEC), a Lehigh Valley arts community database that will foster collaboration, improve marketing intelligence, encourage and simplify mailing list exchanges, and expands audiences.

This regional initiative was built upon arts research, the Arts Council’s leadership in uniting the nonprofit sector, and the securing of broad funding towards the first three years of the program.

Ten cultural nonprofits (Act 1, DeSales University Theatre; Allentown Symphony Association; America on Wheels; Bach Choir of Bethlehem; Baum School of Art; Historic Bethlehem Partnership; Lehigh Valley Arts Council; Muhlenberg College Theatre & Dance; Touchstone Theatre; and PA Shakespeare Festival) have signed on to participate in the first phase of this program, and by the end of the third year, the goal is to have forty-five organizations onboard.

The cultural landscape is changing. The recent economic impact study, “Arts & Economic Prosperity IV,” demonstrated that the region’s nonprofit arts industry is a major economic contributor and rose 23% from $169 million in 2005 to $208 million in 2010. However, nationally there was a 20% decrease, coupled with a serious decline in public, foundation and corporate arts funding—all of which raises serious concerns about future sustainability.

According to Arts Council Executive Randall Forte, “We cannot expect growth will continue without deliberate, collaborative marketing initiatives. Nonprofits need to innovate and increase their percentage of earned income to remain relevant and viable. CLEC offers a means to meet the challenges.”

CLEC provides cultural nonprofits the training, tools and expertise to grow customers and revenues through streamlining access to substantial, targeted arts patron data. Target Resource Group (TRG), the nation’s leading provider of data management and consulting services, will house the data for CLEC and provide training for participants.

Once an organization has uploaded their segmented patron lists, TRG’s user-friendly eMerge interface allows the user to manage and analyze those lists in powerful ways. The program is also permission-based, so organizations retain 100% control of their data. A few of the immediate benefits are:

• Helping keep patron data current. Patron data is cleaned each quarter (for free!) through the National Change Of Address.
• Helping to identify the best organizations for partnering. Cross-penetration reports can help create successful partnerships, such as list trades, program ads, and collaborative events.
• Making the process of building direct mail lists easier than ever. With one-click trade requests, automatic merge/purge functionality, and nearly infinite filtering possibilities—all within the permission-based system—creating mail lists is no longer the chore it used to be.
• Gain a deeper understanding of patrons by using the geographic, demographic, and psychographic information that is appended to households.

TRG reports that communities that organize a network benefit from greater stability and audiences for their cultural organizations.

The Lehigh Valley’s unique geographic location provides additional opportunity for access to a bigger marketplace through regional exchanges. Nationally, TRG currently manages twenty community partnerships, including the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, and ArtPride New Jersey / Discover Jersey Arts.  Once CLEC is firmly established, the marketplace opens up to our neighboring co-ops.

CLEC is an engine for economic development, and local governments, corporations, and regional entities understand the value of investing in the future growth of our cultural sector.

Discover Lehigh Valley was the first and largest supporter of CLEC because they believe in its ability to attract a broader audience. Nonresidents spend nearly 50% more per capita than residents, as demonstrated by the 2010 economic impact study.  Moreover, there was a 52% increase in attendance by nonresidents, or 1.7 million of them spent an average of $30.77 per person. Now is the time to leverage and build upon the momentum of current growth in visits by nonresidents and meet the need to fill the increasing number of hotel rooms.

Additional funders include the Century Fund, City Center,  counties of Lehigh and Northampton, Harry C. Trexler Trust, Lehigh Gas Corp, Lehigh Valley Partnership, and Sylvia Perkin Perpetual Charitable Trust,

A Whole Month of the “Best Words in the Best Order” (from Samuel Taylor Coleridge)

by Elizabeth Bodien

What are you doing to celebrate National Poetry Month?

In this month, I like to read an old book of poetry and a new book of poetry.  The old book this year is The Nature of Things by Lucretius, translated from the Latin by A.E. Stallings. The new book is Night Thoughts  by Sarah Arvio.

In April, I go to more poetry events than usual.  I like hearing the Poetry Out Loud competitions. In spite of the ubiquity of electronic devices which offer us instantaneous access to poems, the work of our memorizing them honors the poems and poets while developing that often neglected human faculty.

Also, I am doing a workshop this month with soldier-poet Brian Turner who wrote the award-winning book Here, Bullet and Phantom Noise—which include poems about his experience in wartime Iraq.

And I am writing.

When did you begin writing poetry?

I began as a child and even started a poetry column in my high school newspaper. Then poetry hid in some underground cave until a few years ago when I took a poetry workshop where I was brought back to poetry – its magic, its mystery, the music of words.

Where do you draw inspiration?

The sound of a summer storm, taste of an artichoke, texture of tree bark, the curve of a hill, the rhythm of weaving or walking, anything might bring a poem.  Many of my poems are ekphrastic,  that is, inspired by art, such as painting or music. Or a poem might start with a phrase from some voice.  I like some poetic forms borrowed from the Japanese, such as tanka and haibun, which involve observations of the natural world.

Other people’s poems inspire me.  The margins of my books have scribbled fragments of new poems.  Current events and social injustice inspire me to write but without, I hope, getting boringly preachy. 

What opportunities do you pursue to read your work in public? 

I have enjoyed reading my work at libraries, bookstores, art galleries, colleges, on TV and radio, a weaving gallery, a health fair.

I enjoyed a recent reading,  Poems for Earth Day, on April 21^st at Exeter Library, Reading, PA.

What are you currently working on?

Inspired by the work of the artist June Linowitz, I have been writing poems this month based on her intriguing sculptures of heads, each representing an emotion or state of mind .  And I am polishing a long poem of 18 pages.   Also I am reviving hypnotic trance, which I immersed myself in decades ago, to both write and revise poems, with some surprising results.

So much poetry this month!  I recommend the list of activities suggested by the Academy of American Poets  and for those wanting to write, to try daily poem writing .

Photo credit: BCTV

 

My Life in Art–Charissa Grandin, An Artist’s Child

Because I was born into a family with an artist for a mother, art was an automatic, integral part of my daily life. Original framed oils and watercolors on every wall throughout my home were among the first sights I took in before I was capable of forming thoughts or words about them. As I grew I gradually became conscious that not all homes were created with art as a foundation as our home was. So in my experience, art extended beyond the canvas and became part of the home my mother created in each place we lived. Deliberate design went into every aspect of home.

As a very small child I remember regularly looking through and committing to memory the works of Mary Cassatt, Andrew Wyeth and others in coffee table books at my reach. While I watched Saturday morning cartoons my mom would be teaching private art classes in her studio upstairs. When I got a little older, I took a more participatory role as a model being required to sit very still for her portrait class students and as a student myself in her children’s classes. Not only did she teach regularly, she brought art to places where there was none. When I was a baby, my mother volunteered hours of her time to coordinate other volunteers and teach art at my brothers’ elementary school. There was no art program at the school and the principal was overtaxed and burdened. Grateful for the care and help my mom brought to the school, the principal was delighted to watch me in my infant seat in her office while my mother taught. When I was old enough to crawl, I was often the model for some of the art classes. The principal even included my mother and me in the school yearbook.

I developed my own drawing ability. I drew pet portraits for friends, excelled in interior design courses in school, and today enjoy the creative aspects of my marketing job including Photoshop, photography and web design.

All these experiences from early in life prepared me to be naturally attune to the visual and I excelled in areas favoring visual thinking and learning. Today, art still takes a similar subtle, yet fundamental role in my life. It is in the background continually running and powering my perception at all times. I see and find art everywhere I look on a subconscious level. On a more conscious and planned level, I am involved in helping my mother with administrative tasks in her gallery. When my own daughter, now 5, was a baby she rode perched on my back in a baby carrier while I helped my mom teach a children’s art class. Now my mother will do art projects with my daughter while I work on my laptop to manage and promote my mother’s business and work online. I intend to fortify an active role in today’s digital age helping her to market her work so that she can focus on her loves of creating and teaching.

My mother, Gwendolyn Evans, holds a Master’s Degree in Fine Art Education from Rhode Island School of Design, one of the top 3 national art institutions, and her work has been in over 80 juried shows. She has been teaching art to students of all ages and aptitudes for over 5 decades. Last year she moved to Bethlehem and opened a new in-home gallery and studio where she has over 400 paintings available for purchase. She also offers: private and group art instruction to beginner through advanced adult students, workshops and art placement in businesses and homes.

Access Makes the Arts Grow Wider | Expanding Gateways

by Randall Forte, executive director, Lehigh Valley Arts Council

This article appeared in The Express-Times newspaper on March 4, 2013.

The arts have never been more important to the Lehigh Valley. Hundreds of creative industries, nonprofit cultural organizations, and thousands of individual artists of all disciplines—dance, musical, theatrical, visual, literary and media arts—are invested in our community.

The Lehigh Valley Arts Council is the region’s central voice for the arts. It’s our calling to promote arts awareness and advocate its value. It’s our vision to ensure that everyone has access to a rich, diverse arts culture.

Arts are key to economic development in the Lehigh Valley. We give that reality voice by making sure data is gathered and made public. Lehigh Valley’s three cities have acknowledged the arts as part of their downtown revitalization plans. The region’s nonprofit arts and culture are a $208 million industry—one that supports 7,114 full-time equivalent jobs and generates $21.4 million in local and state government revenue.

Arts are the highest form of expression. They have the power to make our lives better, heal emotional wounds, spark initiative, and broaden perspectives.

Artists and their work keep us connected to one another —our fellow passengers on the journey— through image and movement, story and song.

It is only by expanding access to the arts that Lehigh Valley artists and arts organizations can enrich everyone.

The Arts Council acts as both advocate and catalyst to create new gateways, bringing people together to find solutions that advance greater arts participation. We have four major priorities for 2013:

1) Schools: Declining funding is shutting students out of arts experiences. Our educational newsletter, ArtLinks, that connects educators with current research and local arts resources, is distributed to every public and private school in the region. The Urban/Suburban Connection Program, an after-school enrichment program, improves literacy and fosters multi-cultural understanding.

2) Technology: In coalition with the Center for Vision Loss and the Center for Independent Living, individuals with disabilities, and several cultural organizations, we have launched a Pennsylvania Arts Access Program. It offers the sensory-impaired access to cultural events by providing arts groups with shared use of audio-description and open-captioning equipment.

3) Support for Arts Professionals: Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts Grants Program supports individual artists and community groups bringing the arts to underserved audiences. The Arts Council also offers workshops on topics like marketing, technology and legal and tax issues.

4) Sustainability: The Cultural List Exchange Co-Op, a cooperative marketing program, improves marketing intelligence and expands audiences. The co-op uses data mining that enables cultural marketers to save money through mailing list sharing. The Arts Council and Discover Lehigh Valley are program partners.

The Arts Council is open to everyone. Please join your voice with ours and help us open the door wider for the arts in the Lehigh Valley.

Janet Stepura–Artist and Art Store Manager

As an artist and store manager at Blick Art Materials for more than twenty-five years, Janet Stepura enjoys a unique perspective on the arts community. Executive Director Randall Forte spoke to her recently about her life in the arts in the Lehigh Valley.

Tell us a little about yourself as an artist. How long have you been making art? What medium do you prefer?

I have been making art seriously for almost 30 years. For about 12 years I worked as a sculptor and sold my pieces through a gallery in the Northern Liberties area of Philadelphia. With changes in job responsibility and thus limited time available to make ceramic work I turned to making artist books.

I have always been more of a three dimensional thinker. About 6 years ago I had a show of my work at the Cedar Crest College library. My schooling was at Kutztown University in Ceramics and Fiber Arts.

What are you currently working on?

I am currently working on cut paper artist books. I am fascinated by late 19th century naturalists. This I explore with handmade boxes filled with ephemera similar to that found in Curiosity Cabinets. A recent piece is a hand cut paper landscape that rolls up into a test tube. When pulled from the tube the paper retains some of its curl to give the impression of a small mountain. I also make small editions of tunnel books with a similar naturalist theme.

Retail is demanding. Has it been challenging to carve out studio time for yourself with the requirements of retail management?

It’s been very difficult to manage both my retail responsibilities and still make time for my art. Fortunately, being surrounded by both art materials and artists all day helps to keep the ideas flowing. My job deals with helping the public so I tend to not to have a very social life outside of work. Choices must be made on a daily basis to find the time to make things; for instance I haven’t had cable television for over 23 years! When you love it, you make time for it.

Do you find inspiration from the local artists you meet on a daily basis?

It’s the best part of my job! Both well known artists and just the regular person who wants to get back to self expression can be so inspiring to speak with. Every day I’m asked questions about materials that I don’t know the answer to. The process of researching materials and problem solving with people prompts me to keep an open mind about the possibilities of materials and various forms of self expression. I am a firm believer that we do not pass judgment on how people choose to express themselves. I coach the associates at the store to treat everyone with the same amount of respect, whether they are just doodling in a sketchbook or creating a piece that will be sold for thousands of dollars. The desire to create something is an amazingly powerful gift and should be encouraged in everyone

From your viewpoint, has the arts community changed much in the past two decades?

The Lehigh Valley has gone through many changes over the past two decades, some of which follow the financial trends of the country. During difficult times people often return to art as a means of coping. On a weekly basis I hear the phrase, “I used to enjoy art when I was in school but I haven’t done anything in so long…” They always return to the simple acts that allow them to lose themselves for a few hours. The onset of computers changed the face of art all over the world. Still, those people often express the desire to “get their hands dirty” again and will wander the store to smell the paint or touch the papers. Life is about change so I try not to lament the past but it’s hard to hear that children in our schools may only have art for a very limited time each year. The art room was my refuge; now many children must find that excitement from a cart.

I am sure you have seen many artists mature in their work over time. Who stands out as exciting and up-and-coming?

Strangely enough I don’t often get to see the finished products of the people I help! We do try to encourage our customers to bring in their work and provide a free venue for exhibition in our store on a monthly rotation. Anyone who asks can have a show! That makes me very happy to be able to offer someone who may never have been considered for a show through the usual channels to put their work on display. We don’t take any commission on pieces they may sell. What a thrill it is to see someone sell their first piece. I have my own favorite local artists and am continually impressed by the range of talent we have in our local area. As far as who stands out as exciting it’s more the small groupings of artists who join together and work to keep the local art scene strong that impress me.

Over the years you have developed relationships with many local artists. Some have left the area. Do you keep in touch with a few?

Because of my longtime affiliation with the store, I have met many very talented people through the years. Some make it a point to stop by and say hello when they pass back through the area. Recently a gentleman popped into my office and said, “You may not remember me but you helped me get started with oil painting 20 years ago.” He proceeded to tell me of the various exhibitions he was participating in and the name of the gallery representing his work. Others have regrettably passed away and are sorely missed. I feel incredibly fortunate to have met so many wonderful people over the years; it’s why I’ve stayed at my job for so long. Many people may thank me for the help they receive while shopping at the store. I appreciate offering me a chance to say thank you to the local art community for making my life that much richer.

Building a Bridge to Arts Access | The Art of Reaching Out

by Randall Forte, Lehigh Valley Arts Council executive director

2013 heralds the Lehigh Valley as the fourth region in the state to formally inaugurate a Pennsylvania Arts Access Program. In doing so, the Lehigh Valley joins other statewide partners in helping the cultural community become more accessible to and inclusive of people with disabilities.
Basically, the program provides people who have sensory disabilities (blindness/low-vision or deafness/hard-of-hearing) greater accessibility to cultural events by meeting the following goals:

1.  Helping arts organizations increase accessibility
2. Building audiences and awareness
In return, cultural organizations gain access to an untapped segment of the market while positively confronting their fears about complying with the Americans for Disability Act.

It took two years and the commitment of many to build community-wide arts access collaboration in the Lehigh Valley. Under the leadership of VSA Pennsylvania (the state organization on arts and disabilities) and Philadelphia’s Amaryllis Theatre Company, the Tri-County Accessible Arts Coalition was created in 2011 to nurture relationships among the region’s disability and cultural communities.

The coalition includes the two largest disability service organizations in the region, the Center for Vision Loss and the Lehigh Valley Center for Independent Living; a number of individuals with disabilities; and a few cultural organizations, Muhlenberg College Theatre & Dance, Shawnee Playhouse, and the Lehigh Valley Arts Council. The groundwork has been laid and the practical steps of securing the necessary equipment, providing the training, and building audiences are underway.

Background of the Program

In 2003, under the leadership of Mimi Kenney Smith, Amaryllis founded the Greater Philadelphia arts access initiative, Independence Starts Here! Amaryllis was then asked to serve as the Pennsylvania affiliate for VSA, the international organization for arts and disabilities (now part of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts), and ever since has been working with the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and other statewide and local partners to increase accessibility to cultural events.

Three regions in the state, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and York/Lancaster, currently have programs established, and these programs are serving as models for the Lehigh Valley. On October 5, 2012, the 2012 National Accessibility Leadership Award for exceptional initiatives or programs that make the arts accessible and inclusive for older adults and individuals with disabilities was presented to the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts at its annual conference in Washington, D.C.

In the Lehigh Valley

In late 2010, Mary Ann Alexander, a blind woman working at the Center for Vision Loss in Allentown, spear-headed a new theatre access committee with VSA PA / Amaryllis. She invited members of the disability and cultural communities to join the committee, and in 2011, they established the Tri-County Accessible Arts Coalition with its own logo. The group meets monthly and has produced five accessible performances (four at Muhlenberg College Theatre and one at Shawnee Theatre) using equipment and training from VSA PA / Amaryllis. The coalition is currently led by Rita Lang of the Center for Vision Loss.

The Lehigh Valley Arts Council joined the coalition in 2011 to promote the program in the larger cultural community. The Arts Council also began to secure funding from local businesses and foundations to purchase audio-description and open-captioning equipment that will be shared among local arts groups.

Audio description is a form of audio-visual translation using natural pauses to insert narrative that translates the visual image into an audible form. Patrons use headsets to hear the audio description. Open captioning provides the audience with an electronic text display to the side of the stage, displaying lyrics, dialogue, and sound effects in real time. The Arts Council is responsible for housing, maintaining, and scheduling the equipment. It will work with the coalition to coordinate the mechanisms for marketing the accessible performances, such as managing monthly e-mail campaigns to a list of patrons developed through disability providers.

VSA PA / Amaryllis will provide training in audio description and open captioning to staff, board, or volunteer members of cultural organizations, and offer customer service training (which includes appropriate language, disability awareness, and tips for welcoming patrons with disabilities) to development, front-of-house, and other personnel of arts organizations.

Expanded Benefit Pool

While the program was created for primarily adult audience members at performing arts events, a growing number of beneficiaries have emerged beyond that initial market segment. For instance, the equipment is now regularly used at numerous children’s theatre productions in Philadelphia. Audio-description equipment has also been used to provide foreign language translation for a documentary film from Cambodia, and captioning is used on an ongoing basis to provide Spanish language translation at Fulton Opera in Lancaster and at selected productions in Greater Philadelphia. Most current research suggests that not only students with sensory disabilities can benefit from audio description and captioning, but also students with speech or language disabilities, as well as those with learning and cognitive disabilities.

The aging population of baby-boomers has also created a greater need to provide more accessible performances. According to the U.S. Census, more than 45% of people over 65 years of age have a disability. Seniors with disabilities control more than 40% of net assets in America.

Engaging the Local Community

Nonprofit arts organizations are invited to join the coalition and gain access to the use of this equipment. Thank you to the following organizations for their support toward the purchase of equipment: Butz Family Foundation; Just Born, Inc.; Keystone Nazareth Charitable Foundation; Rider Pool Foundation; and William C. Rybak Handicapped Citizens Fund of the Lehigh Valley Community Foundation.

Home Is Where the Art Is

Bringing home a new painting or sculpture is akin to welcoming a new life into your household. The emotional attachment is amazing! Oftentimes you think you know where you will display it—but very soon the artwork will guide you to where it wants to live.

Shortly after the Arts Council’s annual benefit auction, Art for Everyone, on November 11, 2012, we surveyed the buyers about their relationship with their new purchases. We asked them two questions:

• How often do you purchase art?
• What attracted you to the artwork?

Their answers revealed the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Joanne Stathos was charmed by Kim Robertson’s acrylic painting, Cascade of Cabbage Roses because the colors and brush strokes immediately caught her attention.

To me the painting has a sunny disposition—it brightens a wall in our living room that needed a pick-me-up. It just brings a smile to my face each day!

 

Michael and Miria Ioannou enjoy living with art and purchase it regularly.  They acquired five pieces at the auction this year and already hung all of them in their new condo in Toronto.

Light and Airy by Melissa Paramus

We’ve added to our Melissa Perhamus collection –a grand total of two!

Twelve Elaesser an encaustic  and multi-medium piece by Lee Lechey

From the Past by Rudy Ackerman

Tango by Vivian Fishbone

Tiny Worlds by Nina Boodhansingh

We are drawn to non-representational or abstract art. They attracted us for various reasons: color, movement, engagement. They really complete a more modern, streamlined space.

Timothy Frey and his wife bought a watercolor print, Santa by Angela Garrison. They usually buy art while on vacation, although they stumbled onto this event while strolling at the Promenade.

 

We host the Christmas family get-together at our house.  Since we have five grandchildren now, we thought Santa would be nice to hang aside our tree.

Stephen and Marianne Phillips are avid collectors and picked up two pieces at the auction to complement their contemporary furnishings in their new condo on Hilton Head Island.

Untitled by John Altobelli

Wooden Vessel by Jim Fazio

We already owned an Altobelli but we love his fluid, abstract style. And the black cherry vessel is beautifully executed.

Charles and Susan Kalan bought an original watercolor, Spring Red by William Christine, to add to their collection of work by artist recipients of the Allentown Arts Commission Award.

Michael and Sybill Stershic buy art far less for their own collection than they used to, although they enjoy attending art shows and auctions regularly.  In spite of space constraints, they still bought four pieces:

Frank Sinatra – The Voice, a serigraph print by Leroy Neiman.

We thought it would be a great gift for our son – and he loves it. 

Weyerbacher an acrylic by John Gaydos.

It was a chance to get a reasonably priced painting of a local subject by a local artist for the Discover Lehigh Valley office.

Covered Bridge photograph by John Harry.

We know the artist, plus the photograph is excellent.

Meadow’s Bridge, Hellertown”= an acrylic on canvas by James Doddy.

Nice piece, excellent technique.

Like so many artists, Photographer John Harry enjoys buying the work of colleagues.  About the photograph, Little Lehigh 5, by Bernhart Hochleitner, he sadi:

 I like the technique; it is a good complement to some of my work. I hung it in the spare bedroom, which I use as a short-term gallery.

He was also attracted to two small acrylic paintings, Pears and Grapes by John Gaydos.

I like the artist and the size and subject. I also have just the right space in the kitchen for them.

Bruce and Karen Ellsweig buy art often and were especially drawn to the red iridescent Christmas Bowl by James Harmon.

It fits perfectly on our dining room table.

 

What was the last piece of art that you bought?

Wenda Boyer–Horsehair Jewelry Designer with a Personal Touch

by Emily Phillips, LV Arts Council college intern

This month’s Arts Council Membership Profile features jewelry designer, Wenda Boyer, and her unique and stunning designs using horsehair.  Her company, Braided Love, is only five-years old and combines her lifelong enchantment with horses and an appreciation for fine jewelry. It also serves as a connection to other horse owners.

Wenda owns two horses currently, named Opie and Bellagio, and they were the main inspiration for her to begin making jewelry out of horsehair. She had enrolled in a class and was hooked after the first session. Her creations include bracelets, earrings, necklaces, and key rings, which she sells all over the United States, Canada, and Europe. More than 95% of her customers buy from her website and most of her customers are horse owners.

Every piece of jewelry has a personal story. Most of her customer’s horses have died so the jewelry is providing this incredible sense of peace and closure for them. “I can’t tell you how many times customers have called me when they receive their jewelry,” Wenda says, “and they’re crying and telling me how happy they are that they have their horse with them forever.  It’s probably the main reason I do it. I am able to give back to people who have lost such a wonderful thing in their life.”

In order to buy a piece of jewelry from her, customers can e-mail her through her website, order a specific style, and then mail her their own horsehair. If customers don’t own horses, she selects from her own stock of horsehair. Once she receives it, she washes and sanitizes it, and then begins to braid it into jewelry. In order to personalize and create one-of-a-kind pieces, Wenda will often use beads that her customers select from the catalogue or send to her. These add color and texture to the bracelets and necklaces.

Wenda has started an amazing business that not only fills her customers with joy, but also allowed her to help hundreds of horse owners all around the world. For more information on Braided Love, visit Wenda at her website.

Photographer Max Alper on “My Life in Art”

I have been a photographer and an educator my entire adult life. I have pursued both with the conviction of a religious zealot.

As a teenager in Pennsylvania, I discovered the exhilaration of photography when I received a 35mm camera as a gift. Soon afterward, I became a member of a local photography club which had access to a darkroom. My mind and life opened—I had entered another dimension of being—as I created images that seemed to appear magically on film. To me, the photographic reflections of the material world seemed more real than reality itself. So it is here, in this spiritual and aesthetic realm, that I have spent most of my life.

However, there were several forays into commercial activities that required balancing personal values with demands of clients. When I moved to New York City, I established a studio that specialized in headshots for actors and performers. They were wonderful to photograph; I admired their energy, humor, and unconventional attitudes. I also interacted with casting directors and theatrical agents in efforts to assist actors develop their marketing materials.

Later, I created a series of New York scenes, black-and-white prints, in the tradition of “street photographers.” The city’s inherent complexity, tension, and pageantry provided many opportunities to capture memorable images. I became acutely aware of Cartier-Bresson’s advice to seek the “decisive moment”—the desire to seize and shape a random event. The effort required patience and tenacity, but the results were extraordinarily satisfying.

While the actors’ headshots were controlled and formulaic, the city scenes were spontaneous and provocative. The constraints of the studio were surpassed by the chaos of the streets.

Propelled further toward stylistic liberation, I was profoundly affected by two events in my life. The first was the death of my mother. During my period of grief, friends and relatives related stories about near-death experiences (popularized by the media) of the spirit surging through a narrow passageway toward brilliant light. I also read again Dante’s The Divine Comedy and was deeply moved by the powerful descriptions of the soul’s journey. These concepts were burned into my subconscious and months later evolved into visual equivalents in my photographs.

A new series was born. This body of work portrays human figures who are approaching or passing through restricted space—corridors, windows, rooms, streets, and tunnels. The narrative movement is from a realm of shadows into bursts of light. The environments create metaphoric settings for a journey that ultimately releases an individual from the material world, represented by the strong geometric patterns in the photographs. These moody images are grounded in quasi-realism, but clarity of form is reduced into a haze of light and color. The series was first exhibited in New York City. 

The second event that affected my artistic style was my participation in a residency at the American Academy in Rome. The theatrical grandeur of the architecture, the sensuous Bernini statues, and the passionate people were all powerful influences on my psyche. Everything was emotionally charged, surging with the life force! I became a disciple (almost against my will), and soon my photography was transformed—more illusionistic, mysterious, and provoking strong feelings.

Experimentation continued with form, planar relationships, and luminosity. I developed a new series of distorted portraits (I refer to them as “fantasy faces”), independent of conventional visual syntax or preconceived commercial requirements. The photographs are “surfaces of personality” that can be attractive or grotesque, placid or agitated, lucid or mysterious. By diminishing the specificity of the faces or camouflaging them in some surprising way (through makeup, masks, or color tonalities), I was able to conceal aspects of their true character. The visual effect is further heightened by an unusual crop or a compelling camera angle.

Other techniques (which have become a permanent part of my technical repertoire) include deliberately defocusing the images by shooting through diffusion filters or distorted glass, by manipulating color gels on the lights or reflecting pinpoints of light off glass or mirrored surfaces, and by using delayed or double exposures. Appropriately, this series had its first exhibit in Rome.

I have truly been fortunate. The various series of photographs have received positive responses from gallery directors. Recent exhibitions in the Lehigh Valley and in Philadelphia have been successful. This year, I will surpass my 100th exhibit—an important time for celebration and reflection.

Throughout my life, I also spent many years as an educator. As a faculty member and arts administrator at New York University (where I received my PhD), I was responsible for programs in art, photography, writing, and filmmaking. My academic-related activities include serving on committees of several organizations, such as the National Endowment for the Humanities (Media Division) and the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (Emmy Division). In addition, I have been a contributing editor of Arts Magazine (NY) and have written art reviews for The New Republic. One of my greatest pleasures was writing and narrating a radio series for WGBH-Boston. I also wrote two books (published by Macmillan) which included numerous photos that were created for the project. At NYU, I enjoyed congenial interaction with students and colleagues. Both the university and the city provided an abundance of intellectual stimulation and expansive cultural opportunities.

I cannot imagine a more fulfilling life than one devoted to the arts. Surely it is a glimpse of eternity on earth.

The Arts Encourage Civic Engagement–Please Vote!

by Randall Forte, LV Arts Council executive director

Why are there always millions of dollars spent on elections but never enough money to govern?

Candidates will spend more than $2 billion on this election while they are screaming about a $10 trillion national debt. Has our democracy, “this great experiment,” been reduced to who has the most money for advertising to attack their opponents with falsehoods and innuendo?

Public service is tainted when candidates disrespect their opponents—it reflects a disrespect for the office and, ultimately, a cynicism for the electorate.

If ever there was a case to be made to expand the arts in our schools, now is the time. The arts encourage civic engagement by nurturing a free exchange of ideas in the context of mutual respect for someone who has a differing point of view.

The arts are not just passion and volume (that’s propaganda!) but appeal to reason and aesthetics. The arts teach skills we admire in our elected officials: empathy and problem solving. As citizens, maybe we need to evaluate a candidate’s capacity to lead by his/her involvement in the arts.

Remember to vote!