What's New At BCA

For the summer issue, the online literary journal Cross Bronx (crossbronx.org) is seeking short stories, creative non-fiction, poetry, and photography on the theme of HOME.

What does home mean to you? What is it like to have a love/hate relationship with your home? What if home is a friend's couch, or a shelter, or a park? Is is a color, a sound, a sudden sharp sense memory?  Home is a complicated concept, and for this issue we want new and challenging views of what "home" means. We want to meet fictional characters who wrestle with the diverse emotional, physical, and spiritual landscape of "home." We want poetry that illuminates different aspects of "home" - safety, warmth, family, confinement, repression, fear, love, food, sex, etc. We want photographs that show us something we've never seen before.

Submissions are welcome from Bronx-based writers, as well as from writers of work that place in the Bronx.

The deadline for summer submissions has been extended to July 15, 2009 (right around the corner.)  The summer edition is scheduled for publication in late July (online only.)

A PubParty and reading will be held on Wed, Oct 7th, as part of the Bronx Culture Trolley night.  Support the community of writers in the Bronx and promote yourself by submitting work!

For Fiction & Creative Non-Fiction

• Submissions can be no more than 6,500 words or approximately 20 double-spaced pages.  Very short works welcome. 
• Send prose submissions/proposals to: prosesubmit@bronxarts.org.

For Poetry

• Submissions of up to three (3) poems per author.
• Send poetry submissions to: poetrysubmit@bronxarts.org.

For Original Digital Art/Photography

• Up to three (3) submissions per artist, with a maximum file size of 100 megabytes.
• Send digital art/photography submissions or a link to a website to: artphotosubmit@bronxarts.org.

Submissions will be accepted by e-mail only. Include full name, mailing address, and e-mail address in the body of your e-mail. All text pages must be titled and numbered with one-inch margins, double-spaced and typed in 12-point font.

Also if you have any questions or suggestions about The Bronx Writers' Center, please contact Maria Romano, maria@bronxarts.org.

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Deadline for submissions to the summer edition
is July 15, 2009

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Wednesday / June 3 / 5:00-9:00pm
BCA’s Annual Event

BCA will celebrate the 20th anniversary of its prestigious BRIO Award on Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009, from 5:00-9:00pm as part of First Wednesdays Bronx Culture Trolley at the Longwood Art Gallery @ Hostos Community College, 450 Grand Concourse at 149th Street in the Bronx.

• 25 new BRIO Fellowship winners will receive their award at the annual presentation ceremony and, of course, our highly regarded Bronx Culture Trolley will tour the “hot” cultural spots along the South Bronx Cultural Corridor.
• The day is especially near and dear to us as we honor two special friends of BCA: Wally Edgecombe, a visionary, a cultural activist, a highly regarded musicologist, and the creative force of Hostos Center for the Arts and Culture for over 25 years; and Lorraine Pizarro, a quiet behind the scenes staff person at BCA has served diligently for almost 25 years, working her way up from part-time receptionist to her current position as BCA’s Business Manager.
• It is also a bittersweet time for all of us as Bill Aguado steps down as Executive Director after 30 successful years at BCA, passing the torch to long-time board member Deirdre Scott, a cultural success story in her own right, with over 20 years of experience in cultural and organizational development, technology and new media development.

Please come and bring family and friends to this special event beginning with a new exhibition at the Longwood Art Gallery @ Hostos. We look forward to seeing you there.

With public and private sources of funding significantly reducing their support of the arts, local community arts organizations are experiencing difficulties managing their programs. Funds are generally provided for programming, but not for its management. The focus of this initiative is to address the “back-office” needs of program management and related technology, marketing, and staffing expenses. It is designed to upgrade the project management capabilities of arts organizations while alleviating the financial pressure to successfully realize their artistic goals. In the end, successful endeavors will facilitate the successful delivery of arts programming on a community level. Available funding for this initiative will be either $2,500 or $5,000. Applications are limited to Bronx-based arts organizations with budgets under $500,000. Click here for application and guidelines.

ReBuilders Source is one of the unique creative resources listed in BCA’s new Creative Bronx! Black Book. A worker-owned cooperative in the South Bronx, Rebuilders Source rescues used and surplus building supplies and other materials from contractors, businesses, and property owners, as a green alternative to landfill disposal, and offers these often brand-new materials as retail to the public at substantial savings. A special discount card made especially for BCA artists can be downloaded by clicking here.

“You can get creative and really use this stuff for anything,” says Omar Freilla, founder of Green Worker Cooperatives, the non-profit incubator of Rebuilders Source. For folks interested in starting their own cooperatives, an eight-week training program, Coop Academy, starts in March; to find out more email mo@greenworker.coop.

On our recent visit we found all different colors of paint for $5 a gallon, scrap wood, sinks and toilets, moldings, large glass panels, assorted new cabinet doors for $5 and $10 each, and free items that artists might use - paint swatches, small interesting pieces of hardwood and linoleum, and more. A large shipment of marble is coming in soon. ReBuilders Source, 461 Timpson Place, Bronx, NY 10455. 718-742-1111

Support BCA While Searching & Shopping Online! What if the Bronx Council on the Arts earned a penny every time you searched the Internet? Or how about if a percentage of every purchase you made online went to support BCA's cause? Well, now it can! GoodSearch.com is a new Yahoo-powered search engine that donates half its advertising revenue, about a penny per search, to the charities its users designate. Use it just as you would any search engine, get quality search results from Yahoo, and watch the donations add up! GoodShop.com is a new online shopping mall which donates up to 37 percent of each purchase to your favorite cause! Hundreds of great stores including Amazon, Target, Gap, Best Buy, eBay, Macy's and Barnes & Noble have teamed up with GoodShop and every time you place an order, you’ll be supporting your favorite cause. Just go to GoodSearch.com and be sure to enter Bronx Council on the Arts as the charity you want to support. And, be sure to spread the word! For help, please contact Luis Pagan.

The Bronx Council on the Arts would like to find Bronx writers with published books and recording artists with CDs in distribution. Please e-mail link to your web site (if you have one) to Lydia Clark or send a copy of the book or CD to: Lydia Clark, Bronx Council on the Arts, 1738 Hone Avenue, Bronx, NY 10461.

With expected opportunities in the field of Creative Aging, BCA is seeking performing, visual or literary artists who have experience working with older adults; teaching artists who are interested in learning about working with older adults. We are especially interested in artists experienced in sequential instruction.

Please send resume and letter of interest to Ed Friedman.

PLEASE NOTE
The Deadline for Submission for the 2009 BRIO Award
was Friday, January 23, 2009

PLEASE NOTE
The Deadline for Submissions for BCA's
2008-2009 Arts-in-EducationGrant
was Friday, November 14, 2008

BCA’s 2009 Community Arts Fund Grant Deadline
HAS PASSED

PLEASE NOTE
The Deadline for Submissions for BCA's
2009 Community Arts Fund Grant
was Tuesday, October 28, 2008

BCA's 2008-2009 NYSCA/BCA Community Arts Grants Deadline
HAS PASSED

Painter and Eight-Time BRIO Winner Daniel Hauben was Honored on August 13th at a ceremony at the Freeman Avenue Subway Station where his stained glass installation, The El, is on permanent display. Hauben was among 45 artists recently recognized at the 2008 Americans for the Arts annual convention for the best public art works in the United States. His work was among those chosen from more than 200 entries across the country.

Bronx Artist and 2007 BRIO winner Blanka Amezkua was frustrated at what she said is a lack of exhibition space in the Bronx — where she lives and teaches art — compared with other areas of the city, so she decided to set up the bedroom of her Mott Haven apartment as a gallery and open it to the public. The Bronx Blue Bedroom Project, the name of her new gallery space, is now a monthly stop on BCA's First Wednesdays Bronx Culture Trolley. Above Blanka puts the last touches on the art installation in her bedroom in her Alexander Avenue apartment in Mott Haven.

• Click here to read the story.
• Click here to hear Blanka talk about having an art gallery in her bedroom.

The Bronx Culture Trolley celebrated its 50th trip this year. And with each of those trips, the Bronx Culture Trolley has grown in popularity and gained increased public awareness, not only in the five boroughs, but nationally and internationally as well. Click here to read about the trolley’s first five successful years.

• Click here to view this month's Health News entries.