labricoleuse | Entries tagged with charity projects

"Art from the Ashes" is an exhibit currently running on the first floor of the Knoxville Museum of Art in Knoxville, TN. I have three pieces of artwork--millinery as sculpture, really--on display as part of it. The exhibit isn't mentioned on the KMA website, nor have i seen any press on it whatsoever, beyond an announcement at the RoaneViews blog aggregate. I don't know why this is so, this lack of exposure or information about it, and every reason i can think of either makes me sad or angry. I won't speculate.

It's a small exhibit, "Art from the Ashes" is, with maybe 50 pieces of work clustered in a single hallway-style gallery, all of which are being auctioned to support the Cumberland Plateau-based grassroots advocacy and relief organization United Mountain Defense and their support of the victims of the TVA Kingston coal-ash spill that happened December 22, 2008. (You may recall that, shortly after the spill, i posted an MSDS analysis of coal ash in this blog.)

If you didn't hear about the spill--which some have called the worst environmental disaster in the history of the US--it's not a surprise. It wasn't in the news much. GQ Magazine, of all places, has a really well-researched and extensive in-depth 17-page article on it, entitled "Black Tide," here in their most recent issue. If you prefer photojournalism and first-hand soundbites, photographer Carlan Tapp has assembled a striking and succinct seven-minute audio slideshow here.

A couple of my recent posts actually pertained to my work for this exhibit: the block spinners from bun feet constitute the bases of each piece, and the research into cornhusk milliners of the 1930s and experimentation with the medium was also a component of my process. My original proposal was for three pieces, collectively entitled "La Bricoleuse Couture Millinery: Roane County Collection."

At the exhibit opening, i met several of the people whose lives and work in Roane County and in various Appalachian relief and preservation organizations I've known of online for quite some time now--among them

lifeonswanpond and her grandson Evyn, Matt Landon of UMD, and artist Francesco di Santis. I guess i'm still a child of the pre-Internet world, because i never fail to marvel at how it feels to meet people in real-time whom i've previously known of or about only as pixels and text.

The exhibit itself is quite diverse in its range--sculpture, paintings, photography, seriography, jewelry, glassware, collages, mixed-media stuff, you name it. The museum doesn't allow photographs so i don't have any in situ images, but thankfully i did take photographs of my pieces before dropping them off.

( Read more... )

Anywhere you've got costume stock to pull from, you are pretty much guaranteed to have storage issues--how and where to store everything you own, methods for making it easily searchable, easily organized, how to fit everything into the often-limited space that you have. If you have a costume storage at your facility, like me you are probably always on the lookout for new and innovative storage ideas.

I've mentioned it before, but it bears a second look: Dickinson College hosts an online database of costume collection storage images--basically, pictures of how different facilities store costumes, all over the world. The archive includes all sizes and types of costume facilities, from universities to community theatres to rental businesses to professional companies, all kinds of stuff! This is a wonderful resource for those looking to overhaul their existing storage, expand their storage, or build a new facility. You can see how others deal with different storage issues, and adopt ideas that you like! The site allows guests to view it, but if you want to upload images of your own you need to contact Sherry Harper-McCombs at harpermc-at-dickinson.edu about getting a password.

To search the site though, go to ICON, Dickenson's virtual media center (choose Guest Account) and click on "Browse Collections" in the sidebar. You will be given a list of categories with radio buttons. Choose "Costumes." This will take you to the primary search page. You can search based on article of clothing (for example, if you want to see how other facilities store difficult items like hats, boots, or armor), on construction material (if, say, you have a bunch of unused pegboard wall and want to look at ways others have utilized pegboard for storage), or on the type of facility--university, rental house, etc.

Culling Overflowing Stock!

You are, like us, probably also concerned about what to do when you simply have more stock than you have space or use for, especially if the clothes are still in wearable condition! What with incoming donations and ongoing productions using newly-purchased or -made attire, we take in far more costumes and clothing items than we wear out.

I know that many theatres who operate without state-sponsorship raise a lot of money through yearly costume sales (especially in October!) or by running ongoing eBay auctions as a means of dealing with stock overflow. However, theatres like ours that are in residence at a state university often are restricted from such sales by legal SNAFUs. As such, we've always got to look for other ways to deal with overstock. Donation of clothing is our primary means of removal. We've got several stock-culling projects underway right now that i'd like to highlight.

Denim culling

One of the coolest things we've done this fall was participate in Access Cotton, sponsored by Cotton Incorporated, the "fabric of our lives" people. They've partnered with Habitat for Humanity to collect and recycle old denim into home insulation for HfH houses. Our stock manager and several student workers and volunteers went through our denim stock (jeans, overalls, jackets), culled out things in odd sizes/styles or too damaged to keep, and hauled them over to the drop boxes on campus. This program is especially great because it doesn't matter how damaged the denim is--it's getting shredded anyhow. If you don't have a participating organization in your community, maybe it'd be worth contacting the local Habitat for Humanity chapter and seeing whether they want to get involved with hosting one--could be not only a great way to cull your denim stock, but also to gain some great visibility for your theatre, AND to give back to the community and help some folks in need!

Fur culling

Most theatres have far more fur coats in their stock than ever would be used onstage--it's one of the most commonly donated articles of clothing. Furs are also hard to store properly, take up lots of space, and quickly become rotted when stored improperly (as they often have been before being donated even). Culling your fur stock frequently is a good idea, but what to do with them?

Start by calling local animal shelters and wildlife rescue centers, and ask if they'd like them for bedding. Or, if you live near the Humane Society headquarters in DC, they take old furs through their Coats for Cubs program--if your theatre's within a day's drive, see if a local chapter might want to co-sponsor a fur drive and deliver the results of the collection. The same goes for PETA's headquarters in Norfolk, Virgina, who collect still-wearable fur coats for the needy. College campuses are a great place to find animal rights groups who may help with fur recycling.

Coat/Jacket/Sweater/Pullover culling

Fall and winter are the perfect time to cull your sweaters, coats, jackets, and pullovers from stock. Churches and community groups are spearheading clothing drives for the needy at this time, or you might elect to head up your own warm-clothing drive! Here, we're going to be taking ours to the "anything warm" clothing drive sponsored by our local YMCA, but organizations like One Warm Coat can provide you with all the tools you need for either hosting your own drive or finding one nearby to drop your culled items off.

Business attire culling

There are many organizations all over devoted to the intake of business attire donations--suits; shirts/blouses; dresses; slacks; ties; skirts; briefcases; dress shoes; coats and accessories (purses, scarves, jewelry, belts). Often they are part of larger community organizations who help low-income men, women, and at-risk youth in learning to interview for employment and better their economic situations. Some examples are the many different local organizations in the US that make up the Women's Alliance (many of which also provide clothing and training for men), and Dress for Success, who have chapters all over the US, UK, Canada, the Netherlands, and New Zealand.

It does take some time and labor to deal with stock culling, but if you have folks in the shop put in just one hour a week toward sorting and culling a box of stock, you can quickly get together a pile ready for pickup or drop-off, free up some space and feel good about where the culled items are going--to reuse, rather than a landfill.

Ah, Halloween, the costumer's favorite holiday. Hope you all have exciting plans and, more importantly, exciting costumes! What are you going to dress up as?

(I think i've made it fairly clear what i'll be wearing!)

In addition to today being Halloween, it's also the opening day for bidding in the annual NC Conservation Network Holiday Auction, to which i've donated two one-of-a-kind hats:

The auction features 160 items, from travel weekends to handmade artwork, and runs until November 21st.

I've made it a personal goal this year to be active in charity projects, such as my adoption of some pet projects over on DonorsChoose.org, and contributions of one-of-a-kind handmade hats to charity auction events is something i hope to continue as an ongoing effort. This NC Conservation Network auction is the first organized event i've put hats into; i'm planning a larger effort (i.e. more hats) for inclusion the PlayMakers Repertory Company fundraising auction in the spring as well. I'm hoping this becomes a tradition, both these events--i'd like to do a yearly "mini collection" of fundraiser hats, only available via bid in these sorts of fora.

Anyhow, if you know anyone who would be interested in the link to the NC Conservation auction, please pass it on, and have a safe and happy Halloween!

This year's topic is Poverty. I've spent the past couple days thinking about what to write and doing some googling of potential topic inspiration.

I first considered posting a run-down of links to a bunch of different Instructables.com pages illustrating how to make various amazing costumes out of recycled/dumpster-dove materials. I ultimately chucked that plan, though, because really, anyone can sift through that site for hours and hours and find tons of cool stuff; a links-list from me wasn't going to be all that edifying, nor would it actually explore any real confrontation of poverty and theatre.

I then thought about looking for particular organizations to spotlight, groups that use theatre as a tool for illuminating or combating poverty, seeing what sorts of productions they do and such, and that turned up some really cool information.

The first group i found was the Los Angeles Poverty Department (check that acronym), a theatre group based in Los Angeles' Skid Row, comprised of homeless performers. According to their website:

Los Angeles Poverty Department was founded in 1985 by director, actor, activist, and writer John Malpede. At its inception, LAPD was the first performance group in the nation made up principally of homeless people. LAPD is dedicated to building community on Skid Row, Los Angeles. Since 1985, the company has offered performance workshops that are free and open to the Skid Row community— partnering with numerous social service and advocacy groups, including SRO Housing, Inc.; LA Community Action Network; The Downtown Women’s Action Coalition; St.Vincent DePaul Center; The Salvation Army’s Women’s and Men’s drug recovery programs; and the Inner City Law Center.

A theater-without-walls for people living in Los Angeles’ inner city, LAPD has also partnered with communities and arts organizations across the United States to create powerful original works that speak to a range of political issues. Extended residencies have been held in Chicago, Philadelphia, Miami, San Francisco, Houston, and Minneapolis, among other cities.

On a Carolinian regional note, they did a post-Katrina residency in Charlotte, NC, called Emergency Evacuation Plan for the City of Charlotte, which looked pretty cool. They filmed some of the workshopping process and put it on YouTube, and i think the homeless people are much better at generating performative interest than the super-overacting volunteer they show.

I then did some looking around at other performance groups for homeless people. I found Off the Streets, who describe themselves thus:

OTS is a professional theater group for the homeless. Cast members, in different stages of homelessness, travel the country performing a play in an effort to:

1) Rebuild and repair their self esteem.
2) Commit to sobriety as well as trying to reconnect with their families and their faith.
3) Earn money to rebuild themselves financially.
4) Educate audiences about homelessness, addiction and life on the streets.

For their efforts cast members receive a stipend for each rehearsal they attend and split an equal share of the gate for each performance.

I also found At Home On Stage, a non-profit organization linking the professional theatre community in NYC with homeless people, working together to put on therapeutic and benefit productions. They describe themselves thus:

AT HOME ON STAGE is a non-profit project that aims to explore the experiences of homeless individuals living in New York City, using the power of theater to help them not only find and express their voices, but share them with the New York community. Many organizations utilize the performing arts to simultaneously entertain and educate audiences; New Yorkers, of all people, know the importance of the stage in our culture and city at large. AT HOME ON STAGE will use the talents of trained actors, directors, and improvisers to allow those who are so often ignored and underserved, a chance to share their stories.

Another organization i came across was Artists Striving to End Poverty. Here's what ASTEP says about their organization:

ASTEP creates change for three groups:
Children – ASTEP empowers young people with the tools of self-expression and decision-making necessary to lead healthy lives and to contribute to their communities
Communities – ASTEP renews communities’ commitment to the arts and strengthens relationships, including relationships between artists and their communities as well as those between children and adults
Artists – ASTEP reconnects artists with the power of the arts to transform society, encouraging them to use their talents in innovative and inspiring ways

They currently run programs both in the US and abroad--in southern India (Shanti Bhavan) and, beginning in 2009, Africa. Performance seems to be a big component to the programs they run, and wow, what an opportunity to volunteer! In the US, they pay for your travel; for programs abroad, you have to get yourself to south India or Africa, but then you've got room and board while you're there. If you do the Shanti Bhavan program, looks like you also get a free trip or two to Bangalore. The US programs generally are one month in duration, and the Shanti Bhavan program is six weeks.

I was also interested in trying to find information on theatre programs and performance groups that serve inner-city communities--teachers starting drama programs in crime-ridden low-income schools, or churches putting on productions for at-risk youth, etc.

I came across the fascinating Our Town production that teacher Catherine Borek put together at Dominguez High in Compton, CA, chronicled in a documentary by Scott Hamilton Kennedy. I found dozens of states with Shakespeare programs for their prison systems. I also found the NC Women's Prison Writing and Performance Project, which encourages the participants to develop performances from the script up.

Are there any theatre programs in your area that fit this bill? Please comment and tell me about them!

Charity Auction for Blog Action Day!

I mentioned a couple of days ago that there's a charity component to Blog Action Day; at the time, i encouraged y'all to help me fund sewing machines for a high school costume program. By the end of the day, we'd done it! The class had their funding for the new sewing machines. Thank you SO much to everyone who contributed!

I also mentioned in that post that i was going to support a second poverty-related charity, in addition to adopting some costuming-related projects for underpriveleged classrooms through DonorsChoose.org.

I'm also going to auction "Aunt Pittypat," the 1830s high-crowned bonnet whose construction i chronicled, to benefit Historic Green, an exciting organization dedicated to rebuilding the Holy Cross area of New Orleans 9th Ward into an ecologically sound, carbon-neutral neighborhood while simultaneously restoring and preserving its historic architectural history.

You can access the auction here:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230300742969

...and it runs for a week, so happy bidding!

Got any friends who love the 1830s? Forward the link for a great cause! This is the first in a series of millinery auctions i'm going to be doing to support various charities throughout the year. More on that as it happens...

On Wednesday October 15th, I intend to participate in Blog Action Day 2008 and encourage those of you who write your own public-access blogs to consider doing so as well. Heck, even if your blog is a private journal for your friends' readership only, consider participating anyhow. (It's probably a more interesting writing prompt than whatever LJ will come up with that day!) Blog Action Day is kind of like an enormous blog carnival on a specific, consciousness-raising topic.

It can be a cool challenge, especially if you have a narrow-topic blog like this one, to figure out how to apply the theme to your own subject--it's always something really broad though, it's just a matter of some creative thinking. Last year's topic was The Environment, and i wrote one of my most-read and linked-to posts for it, Running a Costume Shop in a Drought, about ideas for reducing water usage in a shop where you do a lot of vat and machine dyebaths.

This year's topic is Poverty. I've been brainstorming what i'll write about--something to do with costume construction on literally no budget, i think, because even the poorest communities find ways to make theatre, and find ways to make costume elements for that theatre. (If you've got a suggestion, please comment; i'd love to hear your suggestions and input!)

There's also always a fundraising aspect to Blog Action Day that you can take part in, in whatever manner you choose. There are usually a couple of charities that are linked on the main site, or you can choose a related charity of your choice. You can donate any earnings you receive from your blog that day (like if you get a percentage of ad revenues), or request that your readership make donations, or run a donation-fueled raffle or auction (especially if your blog documents your artwork or artisanship or retail/service business). This year's "official" charities are microlending site Kiva.org and the Global Fund, which fights AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria.

Last year, i found out about the event on the day-of, and all i did was write my post; i didn't have time to plan or consider the charity aspect. This year, I'm doing two things, and i'm starting one of them in advance of the date.

Because i am both a costumer and an educator working in the US, the first charity i'm supporting is Donors Choose, a site that allows you to fund projects for underprivileged and underfunded schools around the nation. I'm adopting a few "pet projects" that i'm going to try to get funded over the course of this academic year--projects that directly relate to what i do, cultivation of an appreciate for theatre and its production, particularly costuming.

The most immediate of those projects is Mrs. W's theatre program at Queen City High School, Queen City, TX, who are seeking funding for sewing machines so that they can set up a sewing lab space for making costumes. This project expires tomorrow and right now, has only my own donation funding it.

Queen City is a small town near the eastern border of Texas, right up near the state lines into Arkansas and Louisiana. It's about halfway between Little Rock and Dallas. Here's what Mrs. W says about her students and her project proposal:

Nearly half (47 percent) of my students are considered at-risk students. Most students in my school come from single-parent or economically disadvantaged homes. For many of my students, school is a safe and secure place where they can escape from the problems they face at home.

[...] I am asking for sewing machines that will allow students to create their own costumes. By making their own costumes, students will be able to save the school money (ordering costumes is quite expensive compared to buying fabric). In addition, by making their own costumes, students will have a sense of ownership in the program.

By supporting our upcoming program with sewing machines, you will not only be a part of an amazing educational experience for these students, but you will also help them learn skills that they can use throughout their lives. Many of my students are not college-bound students, so the sewing skills they will learn in class will help them secure careers in the textile industry or as homemakers.

I already donated $54 toward this project, leaving only $600 to be raised. I know times are hard right now--the economy is tanking, gas prices are exorbitant (if you can even find gas, which here in the shortage-plagued South is not easy right now), and it feels like the worst time ever to consider charitable giving. Every little bit you have counts toward getting by.

Here's the thing: if every person who reads this blog on LiveJournal alone gave only $2 to this project, those kids would have sewing machines tomorrow. Two dollars! Or five, or ten, whatever you want to contribute.

If you honestly don't have the money, don't feel bad or ashamed or anything--times, as i said, are tough. Maybe instead you can spread the wealth by spreading the word; send the link to your local costume society email list or repost it in your own costume-related blog perhaps.

How great would it be though if by tomorrow night, all of us pooling the change we dig out of our couches, bought these kids in Texas sewing machines? ...Not only to help them in the making of costumes for their drama program, but in learning such a valuable vocational skill set so that they might also mend or make their own clothing and linens, or get work as dressmakers or alterations professionals, not to mention the interpersonal collaborative skills that producing theatre itself engenders.

You could donate on behalf of your own school/class/costume society/etc., or you could donate in someone's honor--say, your grandma who taught you how to sew, or your sister who does costumes at her church pageant every year, or your high school drama teacher. You can also donate anonymously.

And if, by some chance, you click through to contribute and the project has been funded already, check out some of the other great school projects I've assembled here, all costuming and theatre related! I'm going to keep coming back to these projects over the course of the academic year and donating, myself, and continuing to update that links page as new ones pop up.

If you're an educator and your school suffers from underfunding, check into doing some project propositions through Donors Choose. And, if your school or class or church or temple or synagogue or book club or sorority or dance troupe wants to adopt some pet projects of your own, search the site on whatever keyword floats your boat and find some students out there who'd really appreciate your help!

Oh, and i mentioned a second charity...but that'll wait til the 15th. :D

ETA (3:30pm): In answer to the question, "What happens if I donate but the project doesn't make its funding deadline?"--you'll receive site credit, and can apply the funding to another worthy project of your choice. If we can't get these kids in Queen City their sewing machines, there's a number of related projects on my Giving Page, including Ms. K's class in Yorktown, VA, also seeking sewing machines for costuming, or Ms. S's NYC middle-schoolers, hoping to costume Beauty and the Beast this spring, or Mrs. F's 6th-8th grade drama classes, who need textbooks for adding a technical theatre component.

ETA (5:20pm): Bravo, y'all, go go go! I see three folks have already chipped in and we're down to $560 left!

ETA (10/13/08 9:12am): They're funded! Queen City's getting sewing machines!! Bravo, you guys, that is so wonderful. Please, if you still want to participate, choose one of the many other worthy projects on my Giving Page and throw a couple dollars their way.