two new fellowships at macdowell

MacDowell is excited to annouce two new Fellowships being offered by the Heinz Endowments in support of Pittsburgh-area artists who are selected for a MacDowell residency. Starting with the September 15, 2010, deadline for the winter/spring 2011 residency period, artists from the greater Pittsburgh area who are accepted to MacDowell through the standard application process will be eligible for these Fellowships. While not a monetary award, the Heinz Endowment Fellowships will cover all residency costs. To qualify, artists must reside in the 10-county, greater Pittsburgh area and must follow MacDowell’s standard application process. Other Fellowships recently introduced at the Colony include those offered in partnership with The ASCAP Foundation, The Concordia Foundation, and The Dedalus Foundation.

a new website launching

I am very excited to share with you the announcement of our new business - CITY BEAUTY GUIDE. While the information below will introduce you to the concept, this first phase of the business is the most critical and I want to personally ask for your help to get the email circulating. Please click the link below, take the survey (it's quick and easy) and submit your reviews for the beauty or grooming services you do. Please then forward the email below to your friends, family and business associates and ask them to do the same. Remember your Facebook and LinkedIn networks too! Your contribution will help us build a robust database of salon and spa reviews before we launch the fully searchable CITY BEAUTY GUIDE website. Thank you for your time and support. I know you both have such a great network of friends and contacts and hope that you will forward this and ask them to do the survey and spread the word!

xo Julie

We are very excited to introduce you to CITY BEAUTY GUIDE, our new business venture. Our goal is quite simple - to create a comprehensive guide to salons and spas based on collective consumer reviews and ratings.

CITY BEAUTY GUIDE will solve the problem of "too much choice," "best value for money," "how do I know it's really good?" and "don't know where to go" a little like your favorite restaurant guide.

While magazines continue to be a great resource for expert editorial opinion and what's "hot," nothing beats real life recommendations from women who have experienced the good, the bad, and the ugly. In the world of beauty and grooming, peer opinion is King (or Queen, as the case may be!).

Before the CITY BEAUTY GUIDE website and book come to life, we need to capture thousands of consumer reviews. We ask you to take this brief online survey and share your opinions of the various salons and spa services that you visit.

Looking and feeling good isn't just our passion, now it's our business. CITY BEAUTY GUIDE will fast become your "go-to" guide to beauty and grooming spots from coast-to-coast, starting with New York City.

So go ahead, in the name of beauty, click here: www.citybeautyguide.com and share your point of view!

The CITYBEAUTYGUIDE Team

P.S.Please forward this email to your friends, family and associates and ask them to participate.

FREE ARTS TUNE-UP

ARTS INFORMATION FOR INDIVIDUAL ARTISTS & SMALL BUDGET ORGANIZATIONS

The Arts Tune-Up is free, but you do need to REGISTER through SurveyMonkey by clicking on this link: www.surveymonkey.com/lacac_atucc08

We are pleased to announce an "Arts Tune-Up" event for individual artists and small budget organizations. This free event is designed to put you in contact with arts consultants, working artists, and administrators who can provide information and answer questions on a variety of topics including fundraising, how to market and publicize your art, information on new loan fund programs for artists and organizations, benefit opportunities for artists, training programs for artists and organizations, board development for arts organizations, arts education resources, and much more.

Saturday, May 3: Culver City
10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Veterans Memorial Park Teen Center
4135 Overland Avenue
Culver City, CA 90230

Parking is available and free of charge

HERE IS HOW THE ARTS TUNE-UP WORKS!

There will be several tables set up with an arts expert/consultant located at each table.
Locate the table that has the topic you want to learn more about and join that table. Each table discussion will last for 25 minutes. After 25 minutes an announcement will be made, indicating that that session is over. Then rotate to another table with a topic you want to learn more about as the sessions repeat. There will be a series of 5 round-robin sessions of 25 minutes each.
You are welcome to come by for one session or stay for all five.

Schedule Registration and Check-in: 9:45 – 10:00 a.m.
Welcome: 10:00 – 10:10 a.m.
Round 1: 10:10 – 10:35 a.m.
Round 2: 10:40 – 11:05 a.m.
Networking: 11:05 – 11:20 a.m.
Round 3: 11:20 – 11:45 a.m.
Round 4: 11:50 – 12:15 p.m.
Round 5: 12:20 – 12:45 p.m.
Wrap up: 12:45 – 1:00 p.m.

Topics for Artists:
Artist Residencies & Live-Work Housing
Arts Education In-School Resources and Working in Arts Education (K-12)
Cultural and Community Outreach
Fundraising for Individual Artists
Getting Your Sh*t Together
Health Insurance for Individual Artists
Legal Issues and Contracts, Copyright and Collections
Marketing for Visual Artists
PR (for Performing Artists)

Topics for Organizations:
Arts Education In-School Resources (K-12)
Board or Bored: Practical Tips for Engaging Your Board
Cultural and Community Outreach
Fundraising for Organizations
Legal Issues and Contracts, Copyright and Collections
Marketing for Organizations

AND MORE...

There will be lots of basic information for individual artists and small arts organizations. While seasoned artists, arts administrators and board members are welcome to attend, the information is geared more toward those people who are earlier in their careers and are looking for some basic ideas to help them with the business side of their work.

The Arts Tune-Up is free, but you do need to REGISTER through SurveyMonkey by clicking on this link:
www.surveymonkey.com/lacac_atucc08

voice and vision retreat in ny

Voice & Vision is proud to offer its 7th annual Summer Theater Intensive (STI) at Bard College this July 15-29.

STI is a multi-disciplinary training program for early career theater artists, including undergraduates and recent college graduates, graduate students, and emerging theater artists of all disciplines (actors, writers, directors, dancers, puppeteers, etc.). Students work alongside resident artists developing new works at the concurrent ENVISION Retreat. The community setting encourages dialogue and association between resident and student artists and a sharing of ideas and experiences.

The Mabou Mines Theatre Company will provide intensive performance workshops on developing physical approaches to character, adapting text to theater, and the opportunity to experiment with innovative theatrical ideas. In the afternoon, each student will participate in the development of an experimental theater work inspired by the tales of 1001 Arabian Nights. The project, led by Ruth Maleczech and Sharon Fogarty of Mabou Mines, an Obie-award winning ensemble, and Theodora Skipitares, Obie-award winning director and puppeteer, will be given a public performance at the culmination of the Retreat. Additional workshops, readings, and events, including attendance at performances at Bard SummerScape are offered over the course of the two-week Retreat.

STI Alumnus remembers: “I gained a broader, more diverse understanding of what theater is and means. I came away with more and more approaches and techniques for my own work and, most importantly, wonderful new relationships.”

Limited work-study opportunities remain for qualified applicants. Spaces are filling up fast!

More information and an application are available on our website: www.vandv.org/student.html or call 212-268-3717.

International Intensive: Practical Methods of Theatre Training

August 27 - September 1, 2007 Donetsk, Ukraine

PARTICIPANTS: actors of dramatic, physical, musical and dance theatres, dancers, choreographers, directors, stage designers, playwrights, script writers.

Participation fee:495 EUR by payment before July 1st, 2007(by payment before August 1st - 595 EUR).

The fee covers attendance of the programme, accommodation (five nights) and the transfer from Donetsk Airport on arrival day.

VENUE: Donetsk Theatre of Opera and Ballet.

To register, please send your CV and a brief letter of motivation to info@iugte.com
For more details, please visit:
http://www.iugte.com/projects/PracticalTheatre.php

"To make difficult habitual, habitual - easy, easy - beautiful", this is the greatest inspiration and the mastery of a performer in self-improvement. Participants will gain hundreds of interesting ideas and effective devices for practical work on the stage, starting from methods of individual training to creation of a performance in creative group. This is an excellent chance to investigate possibilities and to reconsider stereotyped views.

7 week writing lab in LA

This is an offer from Daily Creator BB:

Creativity Lab

A 7 week workshop in which students will develop the musculature and habits of authentic, connected writing. In-class exercises will act as the basic currency of class; exercises are designed to connect each writer to his or her source material and to engage the deeper mind.This is the place to take risks and to explore possiblity. Warning: Participants may find themselves thinking, writing and moving in new ways as a result of this work.

For More Information:brookeberman@yahoo.com

Price: $300.00

Location: Mid-Wilshire

BIO:Brooke Berman is an award winning playwright whose work has been seen across the U.S. and in London. Brooke has won assorted awards and fellowships. She has taught multi-disciplinary creativity labs for nearly 10 years in New York City and has taught playwriting for 5, most recently at New Dramatists through the "24 With 5" teaching collective which Brooke helped to form. Brooke has also taught at Fordham University, Eugene Lang College, The University of Rochester, MCC Theater Company and Soho Rep in New York. Originally a performer, Brooke wrote and performed autobiographical monologues for over ten years. She trained in the experimental theater with Anne Bogart and has studied playwriting with Marsha Norman, Christopher Durang, and Jon Robin Baitz and Maria Irene Fornes. Brooke is a member of New Dramatists, The Dramatists Guild, and the MCC Playwrights Coalition, and is the Director of the Playwrights Lab for the MCC Youth Company, a fully operational theater company and training ground for NYC public high school students. Brooke is currently living in Los Angeles working on assorted film projects. Her play HUNTING AND GATHERING will be produced Off-Broadway in the 2007-2008 season.

Testimonials:

"… A few writers in our Collective have studied with Brooke at various points in their development. Each has raved about her ability to bring them deeper, submerge them in their own history orwhatever they may wish to claim and manifest as their own. They resurface invigorated and able to get inside of their material more readily and more freely."

-- April Biggs, poet and director of The Biggs, a writing collective

"It is not axiomatic that a fine playwright make a fine teaching of playwriting, or any other kind of writing, for that matter. But Brooke brings the same sense of imagination, wonder and rigor to herwork as a teacher as her writing so clearly manifests."

-- Daniel Aukin, Artistic Director, Soho Rep Theater

"Brooke has a way of reaching students by working in a comfortable,relaxed and non-threatening atmosphere... (she) brings her full attention to her students and their world."

-- Lynda Cury, Educator and former Director of Education, MCC Theater

“Brooke Berman teaches her students the invaluable lesson of how to write first from the heart, then from the head. Her process allows the writer to access parts of their creativity they never knew existed.”
-- Katie Miller, Director of Education & Outreach, MCC Theater

writers retreat

This was sent to me by Daily Creator L.D. who runs a writing retreat and is opening that retreat to our community of writers. - SJ

AN INVITATION TO THE WRITER'S JOURNEY RETREAT WITH BEST-SELLING AUTHOR LAURA DAVIS

"There is no other word to describe Laura's writing retreat thanjust plain JUICY. The peaceful Commonweal environment, the ruggedcoast outside the door, Laura's clear authentic presence, and thenourishing, fresh, organic meals provided just the right settingfor my weary soul and stale writing habits to get renewed andrefreshed. I breathed new life into my writing and it only couldhave happened in a gorgeous setting with Laura's fierce protectionof the sacred writing space."--Erica Ross-Krieger, author of Seven Sacred Attitudes: How to Live in the Richness of the Moment

Dear Friends, Colleagues, and Fellow Writers,

Last summer, I had the great honor to lead my second magnificent writer's retreat at the Commonweal Retreat Center in Northern California. I don't know if I can find the words to tell you what a powerful,inspiring, and transformative experience it was, but it was incredible for all of us--teacher and students alike. To be able to share so intimately in an environment that was utterly safe, to bepart of a writing community that was deeply accepting and supportive, and to be lifted out of our ordinary lives and plunked down in a gorgeous, serene setting designed for deep introspection,relaxation and peace...the results were extraordinary.

If the retreat itself was not enough, we were also graced with Claire, a cook who prepared the freshest, finest organicingredients with such love and artistry that we swooned at everymeal. We were deeply nourished on every level.

To build on this phenomenal experience, I am inviting you to thethird annual residential writing retreat this coming summer, in August of 2007 for what promises to be an incredible week of creativity and community-building.The retreat will begin on Wednesday, August 8th, 2007 and conclude on Monday, August 13th. Here are some of the relevant details:

The Setting: Commonweal is an incredibly beautiful retreat centerin Bolinas, California, near Point Reyes. To see for yourself, goto Commonweal's website and click on the photos that say, "NaturePhotos from Commonweal." It's a gorgeous, wild, beautiful haven:http://www.commonweal.org

Experience Required: We will be a mix of beginners and experiencedwriters and everything in between. An open heart and the desire towrite are all that is required.

About the Facilitator: Laura Davis is the author of sevennon-fiction books, including The Courage to Heal, Becoming theParent You Want to Be, and I Thought We'd Never Speak Again.Laura's groundbreaking books have sold more than 1.8 million copiesaround the world. Laura leads weekly writing practice groups, editsbooks, and has been mentoring and supporting writers for the past 18years.

CEUs: Authorized by CABS Provider No. PCE879 to qualify for 30 hours of continuing education credits for MFTs and LCSWs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences.

Price: The total cost of the retreat, including room and board, is$1250 (US) for a double occupancy room. A limited number of singlerooms are available for $1500 (US). Rooms will be assigned on a first-come, first-served basis. A $300 non-refundable depositis required to reserve a space in the workshop.

For more information and a registration form, you can go to: http://www.lauradavis.net/writing-retreats.asp

You can also email me with questions:lauradavis@lauradavis.net

I hope you can join me this summer.In the spirit of healing,Laura Davis

"Writing with Laura is a dream come true...she's funny, smart,insightful, and willing to risk putting her own life experiencedown on the page. Writing practice has proven to be a form of meditation in action for me: it has revealed dark corners of my mind that were begging for illumination, and healed broken pieces ofmy heart. I have cried, laughed and marveled at the insights a simple thing like writing practice has given me. This is an experience not to be missed."

--Nancy London MSW, author of "Hot Flashes, Warm Bottles: FirstTime Mothers Over Forty"