A Twelve Step Program to Art Addiction
So you�re an artist, you�re a creator. You make things with paint, or paint things with music, or work wonders with fabric, or fabricate wonders inside a computer screen.
You�re communicating with the world and your message needs to be heard loud and clear. You�ve got the art out of your head and onto the canvas of your choice � now, how to get it into our heads? Where to go? What open manholes dead ends, convenience stores, and freeways are ahead on your path? Or maybe you want to be an artist and you want to learn and then practice the craft to get the ideas out of your head and into ours. What courses are there? Who�s teaching what and where and how and�so many questions�
There are a lot of answers too. There are resources out there to be tapped into. Writers centres, arts funding bodies, media opportunities, radio shows, galleries, philanthropists, festivals, gigs, underground arts cooperatives and communities... The internet � that big monster warehouse in the sky - is chock full with sites full of lists full of links to other sites full of lists full of links to other sites�
So how about a roadmap? What we all need is a few street signs, some inspirational locations for stopover, some sustenance along the way, and some of that dialogue and inspiration with others out there doing what you do, or with the means to help you do what you do. Now, there�s one big fat bursting-to-the-seams roadmap online. Easily foldable, easily found, fits in the palm of your hand on your mouse on your mousepad.
The Program, in the words of Producer Krissie Scudds, �gets anything it can on creative culture, smartens it up, fills it out, does a nip'n'tuck, and lays it down for you.� The Program emerged from that swell creative swell that was the noise youth media arts festival in 2001. While noise happens over the course of one month, The Program was designed to stay online and grow � and in March 2003 it�s being re-launched with some fresh and excitable new blood reporting on artists, exhibitions, events, news, opportunities, and any object of interest to young creatives around the country.
Music, film, dance, words, video, installation, exhibitions, festivals, markets, workshops, comedy, physical theatre, animation, graffiti art, street art, DJing, activist art, design, fashion, should I go on, no, I�d better stop, how about forms of art and locations for art never heard of yet � wherever the creative juices are flowing, The Program will be out there gathering it up and bottling it for you and sending you off to the source for more.
And if the reporters miss it, you can report yourself. Contributions are welcome for feature stories, news, events, reviews, opportunities � if you have a burning opinion of some art you�ve seen, or you�d like to see, or you�ve got some advice for others out there about getting it out there, write it down and send it in and The Program will add it to the mix.
Well then what if you�re an arts organization, festival, venue, funding body, co-op, publisher, that wants to find the artists? The Program is also about hooking up young artists with the organizations that can help. �The Program is all about sparking connections between young people and the arts community,� says Krissie. �Recognizing that arts and creativity mean something different for everyone. One man's opera is another man's grunge; oils to one, pixels to another.�
It�s about encouraging the community and discussion that nourishes creativity. And creativity nourishes knowledge and acceptance, and knowledge and acceptance nourish peace and tolerance, and peace and tolerance�get it?
Oh, and it�s also about free stuff � The Program hunts for the good things and gets free tickets to them and gives them away. Nice.
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