Make Your Concert a Successful Fundraising Event

How to Make Your Concert a Success

Concerts are fun, but they’re also a lot of hard work for the person planning and organizing a fundraising event. If you’re an advocate of animals, especially elephants, you’ll want your event to be a big success. Although the following tips are not in chronological order, using them as guidelines will make your event more fun and successful.

#1 Find a Band, Singer and/or Musician

Normally, it takes a big name to attract big crowds to concerts, but there are exceptions. Many people will attend a concert featuring musicians or singers with only a local following if the event is to benefit someone with a life-threatening situation or cause like an endangered animal. If your event is to benefit elephants, you’ve got both. Your responsibility is to publicize the plight of elephants, so always keep that focus in every detail of your event.

The goal is to make your success and keep your expenses as low as possible, so find bands, singers and musicians who are willing to perform free (or a small fee). Ask friends who are in a band. Look online to find the names of managers or people to contact about arranging them for your benefit. Convince them that your event is a big affair. Be sure to emphasize that yours is a benefit show.

Try to get as many singers, musicians or bands to donate their talents to your event. If you know a local celebrity, even if he or she is not a singer, get a pledge from him or her to appear on stage and address the crowd on the topic of elephants. A well-known TV or radio broadcaster is a good choice.

#2 Secure a Good Venue

Business people will tell you that the three most important things for a successful venture are location, location and location. It is important to obtain the best, most suitable location for a successful concert. Sometimes it is more of “what’s available” than what is ideal, but start by creating a list of locations you’d like to use. List them from “most desired” to “if all else fails.”

Talk to the principal of your school and see if you can use the auditorium at no cost. Sometimes it helps to get a faculty member (or several) who can go to bat for you and your event. Other possible venues in your area might include a church or organization that frequently conducts musical events. It’s easier to advertise a venue that often presents entertainment.

Ideally, the space you acquire should have nice acoustics and good lighting, but it is essential the venue is one where you can secure the entrance so you can charge a cover or sell tickets for entry to the event. If the climate in your part of the country allows for an outdoor concert, contact city or county officials about using an outdoor space (and permit, if needed).

#3 Advertise Your Event as a Big Deal

It is still possible to get free advertising in a number of ways. Sending out press releases to the local newspaper is a good start, but don’t leave out other free publicity. Radio stations are a good example. Often radio deejays will promote good events and may even call and “interview” you about the event if you contact them and convince them your concert is worthwhile. Likewise, television stations will also promote charity or benefit events, but they are sometimes more difficult to enlist.

Online websites are a great way to advertise. Sending out a Facebook invitation is a great method of making sure your concert gets attention. Creating a Facebook event, even creating your own free website on places like WordPress are great ways to advertise. Don’t neglect other websites such as MySpace. Word-of-mouth is still one of the best methods of advertising. Make sure your concert a “much talked-about” event so that friends will Twitter about it.

Posters and community bulletin boards should also be included. Get an artist or friend skilled at graphics to design a poster for the event. Make sure he or she includes the location, date and time, price and reason for the concert. Get local businesses to advertise your benefit concert in their next newspaper, radio or television ad. Brainstorm with friends and see if you can come up with new advertising ideas.

#4 Find Sponsors

No matter how well you advertise your cause, it never hurts to get sponsors. Some community-minded businesses welcome worthwhile causes to sponsor. Some businesses will buy a space in your concert program booklet. Others actually have an annual budget allocated for charitable causes. Ask them if they would like to be included in the program as a co-sponsor or ask them to sponsor 10 or 20 advance tickets to the concert. Tell them they can use the tickets to give to their employees or valued customers.

#5 Sell Food & Beverages

If you’re persuasive, you might be able to obtain a sponsorship from a local beverage company. They may provide free or low-cost soft drinks or bottled water for your benefit. Even if you can’t get free beverages, you can buy them in bulk at a discount and resell them for a dollar each (or more). Snacks can be obtained the same way. You might even consider contacting a local food vendor to provide food. In return, get them to make a contribution to the cause.

If you’re an elephant advocate, you’ll want your concert to be a big success. These tips are not all-inclusive, but using these guidelines in your planning will help make your event a fundraising success.

Copyright 2012 S. R. Morris

3 Artists Featured in 3 Settings

3 Artists Featured in 3 Settings In Pasadena 

If three is your lucky number, you’re in luck. Three different artists with three different views of art will have their opening receptions at three settings (in two separate locations) in Pasadena on Saturday, July 7.

The three artists are David Askevold, Gregory Michael Hernandez, and Nate Page. The settings and locations are Caldwell Gallery of the ArmoryCenter for the Arts, The Artist Studio @ Colorado One, and the Armory’s Main Stairwell (respectively). The views will be on display for Pasadena art lovers to appreciate in the months ahead.

David Askevold: Once Upon a Time in the East

Armory Center for the Arts will host David Askevold: Once Upon a Time in the East, a traveling retrospective exhibition organized by David Diviney, Curator of Exhibitions at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. The exhibition features works that consider the four strains of Askevold’s exploratory journey: sculpture/installation, film and video, photo-text works, and late digital images.

It includes key pieces from each stage of the artist’s career. David Askevold: Once Upon a Time in the East will be on display in the Armory’s Caldwell Gallery and Mezzanine Galleries from July 8 through September 15, 2012. A reception, free and open to the public, will take place from 7-9 p.m.

“It is very exciting to be bringing this show to the Los Angeles area – aside from some small works the recent group exhibition She Accepts the Proposition, David’s work hasn’t been seen in LA since its inclusion in the Getty’s California Video show in 2008,” notes Armory Chief Curator Irene Tsatsos, “and not on a large scale since the show at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE) in 2002. There is considerable enthusiasm for this exhibition, identified by Artforum as one of the top 50 shows of the year.”

Born and educated in the United States, Askevold (1940-2008) spent much of his career in Nova Scotia. Recognized as a pioneer in the development of conceptual video and photo-based art, he broke into the international art scene in 1970 when his work was included in the seminal exhibition Information at New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Askevold made his way to Southern California, teaching at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, and the University of California, Irvine, and participated in exhibitions at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE), Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), and Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art (LAICA). He had a rich career in Southern California as an artist and teacher.

Once Upon a Time in the East begins with Askevold’s early, ground-breaking video works from the early 1970s, considered to be the first conceptual video art ever made in Canada. It includes The Nova Scotia Project, a large-scale, multi-disciplinary work from the mid-‘90s in which Askevold systematically documented the thousands of harbors along the rocky coast of Nova Scotia.

This epic project comprises four elements: Once Upon a Time in the East, a series of aerial photographs of small craft harbors taken by the provincial department of fisheries and oceans; The Road Journal, photographs taken at road level on the way into the harbors; the End of the Road Matrix, photographs of structures such as fishing sheds from each harbor; and, Don’t Eat Crow, a garden shed housing a video installation.

The exhibition also offers a mix of later pieces, primarily photo-based, and a video installation entitled Two Beasts, which was to be his last work. Askevold was collaborating on Two Beasts with his former student and New York artist Tony Oursler when he died in 2008; Oursler completed the project in 2010.

Gregory Michael Hernandez: A Bridge Between Landscapes

ArmoryCenter for the Arts and One Colorado present Los Angeles-based artist Gregory Michael Hernandez as the Artist-in-Residence at The Artist Studio @ One Colorado. The residency will run from July 2 through October 27, 2012. The Artist Studio, located at 24 Smith Alley in Pasadena’s One Colorado complex, is an interactive artist space in which visitors are invited to engage with artists as they work. His reception is on Saturday, July 7, from 6 to 9 p.m.

While in residence, Hernandez will maintain open studio hours on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 10am-5pm, and on Saturdays from 11am-5pm. Studio visits are free and open to the public. Armory and One Colorado are continuing their over ten-year collaboration presenting innovative programs that introduce the arts and artists into daily life.

In his residency entitled A Bridge Between Landscapes, Hernandez will create hybrid forms, images, and projects that metaphorically bridge two or more locations, combining his working materials and influences and mingling images from both desert wilderness and urban built environments. While at work in The Artist Studio, Hernandez will be preparing a solo exhibition at Roberts and Tilton Gallery, Culver City in 2013.

Hernandez considers his work to be an ongoing, slow evolution from one body of work to the next, using preceding projects as conceptual stepping stones for those in the future. In accordance with his mission to construct a grander, hybrid art form, visitors will have the opportunity to both experience and witness this interactive process. Therefore, The Artist Studio will be used as an intersection between a gallery, a workshop, and a think-tank for the germination of future projects. Hernandez invites discussions with other artists and the public in order to cultivate inspiration for future work.

In conjunction with his residency Hernandez will make his signature Captive Universe pieces available to visitors.  These photographic collages are comprised of 26 individual photographs that, when assembled, offer a panoramic, three-dimensional expansion of Renaissance one-point perspective. Visitors will be provided materials to cut, fold, and shape these photo-globes, which may then be taken home or given to the artist to be integrated into a future exhibition.

A graduate of BiolaUniversity, Hernandez lives and works in Los Angeles and has had solo shows at LAX Art and Emma Gray Headquarters, both in Culver City. He has participated in group exhibitions at the TorranceArt Museum, Gallery 727, and the L.A. Municipal Gallery. The artist is a 2011 recipient of the California Community Foundation Fellowship for Visual Artists and received a grant from the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department for a project at LAX Airport. He is preparing for an upcoming solo exhibition at Roberts and Tilton Gallery, Culver City, in 2013.

One Colorado is an outdoor shopping and dining destination on one city block in the heart of Old Pasadena. The property unites 17 individual historical buildings. In addition to its retailers and restaurants, One Colorado offers public art programs, cultural events, and entertainment. For more information please visit www.onecolorado.com.

Nate Page: Instituted Angles of Path and Display

The Armory’s Main Stairwell will feature Nate Page: Instituted Angles of Path and Display from July 8, 2012 through June 30, 2013. The opening reception will take place from 7 to 9 p.m. on Saturday, July 7.

Considering the ultra functional and prescriptive design of the Armory’s main staircase, the artist has created an installation that challenges the authority of the existing architecture and also encourages users to re-examine their passage through this transient space.

The ArmoryCenter for the Arts is located at 145 North Raymond Avenue, Pasadena. Gallery hours are Tuesday – Sunday, noon-5 p.m. Admission is free with a $5 suggested donation. Armory members, students, and seniors are free. For information about Armory exhibitions and events, call 626-792-5101 x122 or visit the Armory online at www.armoryarts.org.

Copyright 2012 by S. R. Morris

An Intimate Interview With Rachael Worby

Former First Lady Of WV, Conductor
Speaks About Music, Life & Musicians

Rachael Worby, Artistic Director and Conductor of MUSE/IQUE, gave us some time in her busy schedule to ask a few questions and gain a little insight into what motivates her and what she thinks about Pasadena and the arts. Here’s a little from that interview.

Steve Morris: We’ve heard you say before that music is your life. Why do you say that?

Rachael Worby: This is something I give a lot of thought to because I recognize in my daughter that dance is her life. Reflecting back on my childhood, I would have to say that living was my life, but when I became an adult, I became much more aware of the profound power of live music. Music happens to be my life whether it’s recorded or live, and all kinds of music is my life.

This morning I was listening to a recording of Neil Young off his most recent recording of “Oh Susannah.” So, I go from that to the performance this Saturday on the Beckman Mall at Caltech with MUSE/IQUE and for me it’s one continuum. Music is now my life because I believe in the power of music and the joy of that power is a deep healing factor, and because of the universality of music, for me it is at the center of my social activism. That’s why it is my life.

SM: So, it’s a powerful influence that motivates your life?

RW: When I work with the young people at Hathaway Sycamore’s hillside 5 acres, and I walk into a room filled with rough-and-tumble kids, who have been challenged in unfathomable ways who can’t sit still or sit up, and I have one violinist begin to play one piece by Bach, I hear and see the entire room come to a palpable silence that would only happen in the most reverential moment in a synagogue or church or Carnegie Hall.

There I am in Altadena or Pasadena or somewhere and I’m looking at this audience and I realize that I, myself, am delivering something to these young people, which is most like a religious experience. I can’t describe it. I stopped yesterday after the cellist with whom I as traveling played a piece of Bach. After she completed, I looked and the whole room remained silent and I looked at this group of 20 young people and four or five adults. You don’t understand what just happened. It’s something rich, that’s indescribable and something glorious.

SM: What kind of momentous event, or major incident, occurred in your life that changed your life and made music so important to you?

RW: I suppose, as a young person, my major incident, was “Westside Story.” That was a major incident. It was an encounter and other incidents in my life were women like Meanus Demoan and Odetta, and performers like Philoneus Monk and Glen Ghoul. This all goes back to the major influence of my life being raised by my parents for all this music was church music and it was all in my home.

My brothers and I were all raised, modestly to be sure, by people in a tiny, tiny space, one bedroom, and one bathroom that we shared. Always there was a way to hear recorded music. There was a record player always, with records always and, as unremarkable as it was, there was a small spinet piano. This is just the way I was raised. Fortunately, that’s the way I raise my daughter, too. We’ll be having a dinner party and I’ll say, “Why don’t you choose the music?” and she’ll say, “Do you think I should put on Philoneus Monk?” I have to stop in my tracks and remember the first time another adult heard my daughter saying those five syllables: Philoneus Monk.

Janis Joplin was an incident. Jimmie Hendrix was an incident. Bob Dylan was an incident. These people, who performed and got on stage with passion, that for some of them it burned so brightly that it burned them out. They were provocative for me. The art of making art was very intense for me.

SM: So, music had an impelling influence on your life. Do you believe that’s what motivates successful musicians?

RW: Today is the 50^th anniversary of the Rolling Stones and their first concert appearance. Fifty years of the Rolling Stones! That’s passion! You don’t have to be burning your guitar to express your passion. Neil Young, his voice, the first time I heard it, was so clear, that I knew, by the sound of his voice, that was the real deal. Ricky Lee Jones is the real deal. Arturo Sandoval is the real thing. People, for whom the art of making art, is an absolute necessity.

Someone once said, “You know you’re a writer if you have to write, or if you can’t not write.” Jessye Norman, Arturo Sandoval, Ricky Lee Jones, The Rolling Stones, Neil Young are examples. I’m not interested in talking about the age of the Rolling Stones or the age of Mick Jagger. I’m interested in the fact that Mick Jagger does not need to walk on another stage, and he hasn’t walked on stage for at least 30 years. He would still be living as palatially as he does. He does it because he has to.

Why would Neil Young be on tour now with Crazy Horse? Why is he on tour? He’s on tour because he has something to say and he can’t help himself from saying it. He has something he wants you to hear.

SM: One last question? Even with the economy like it is, it seems that music or art has not had a negative effect in Pasadena and other places. Why do you believe that is?

RW: I think Pasadena is a community which keeps its art healthy, to the very best of its ability. Our museums, our dance company, our theatres, our musical organizations, are all on solid footing. That’s a real tribute to this community. I would say it’s a tribute to the community of Los Angeles at large because all of the philharmonic and symphonies, presenting organizations and chamber of groups, large and small, and the museums and dance companies, are thriving. Los Angeles has always supported the arts.

Copyright 2012 by S. R. Morris

Riderless Horse Sculpture Moved

Artist’s Riderless Horse Sculpture Moves to Pasadena Neighborhood

The ArmoryCenter for the Arts has announced that the “Eighteenth Brumaire,” a large-scale sculpture by Los Angeles-based artist Steven Bankhead, has been temporarily moved to the garden of the Madison Neighborhood Casita, 805 N. Madison Ave. in Pasadena.

Bankhead’s monumental sculpture, which utilizes the materials of billboard construction, will be on display through May, 2013. A public reception at the Casita, was held featuring refreshments, music by DJ Tailspin, and free pulled-pork barbecue — prepared by the artist.

“It was a lot fun,” states Sinéad Finnerty-Pyne, Gallery Manager and Assistant Curator of the ArmoryCenter for the Arts. “Some people just drove by and don’t know what it was all about. We want to educate people, invite them to meet the artist and enjoy the piece. It’s a community-building opportunity.”

The sculpture first appeared on the rooftop of Steven Turner Contemporary on Wilshire Boulevard, across from Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Bankhead meant to elicit a dialogue about the Getty’s opulence during its Pacific Standard Time campaign throughout Southern California in 2010, following the global financial crisis.

“He has strong political views, but his work has definitely got some tongue-in-cheek,” explains Pyne. “He’s interested in these kinds of social environments in which he engages the public and it’s part of his art practice.”

By relocating the work to Pasadena’s Madison Neighborhood Casita in 2012, Bankhead wants to once again challenge the viewer to question how location, in this case, can enlighten the potential for new meaning.

“This riderless horse piece was once on a rooftop on Wilshire Boulevard, but now it’s at La Casita, a small house directly across the street from MadisonSchool,” says Pyne. “He likes to move to get a new look and a new perspective.”

La Casita serves the MadisonSchool community with after school programs and a computer lab. It’s an environment where students can come and get there homework done and get tutoring services.

“The house is owned by the PasadenaUnifiedSchool District, but the Armory has a contract for a specific amount of time,” Pyne says. “We thought it would be interesting to launch a temporary public arts program there. We’ve been doing it now at La Casita for quite awhile.”

Born in 1971 in Augusta, Georgia, Bankhead earned a BFA at AuburnUniversity and an MFA at OtisCollege of Art and Design (2001). His project-based work is guided by an interest in signs and sign processes. It is his belief that all paintings are signs; forms of communication between the artist and the viewer.

For more information about “Eighteenth Brumaire,” artist Steven Bankhead, and the ArmoryCenter for the Arts, visit the website www.armoryarts.org.

Copyright 2012 by S. R. Morris

Nude But Not Rude

Nude But Not Rude Art Exhibit Opened in Pasadena

e. e. cummings once wrote “A pretty girl who is naked is worth a million statues.” Residents of Pasadena who agree are now enjoying Linus Galleries’ art exhibit titled “The Nude But Not Rude.” The exhibit began June 15, 2012 and all artwork will be available for sale.

“We had an amazing amount of nude art to choose from,” states Gallery Owner Linnea Lenkus. “It’s inspiring always. We are so excited because this art show will bring in so many talents from all over the world portraying one of my favorite subjects.”

Nude But Not Rude is a collection of nude portraits that go beyond the physicality and obvious nakedness of the body. Featuring artwork by renowned artists such as Dan Pyle, Eric Pederson, Jeff Outlaw, Steve Rude, Loreal Prystaj, Randal Barbera, Ekaterina Bykhovskaya, Grace Modla, and more, Linus Galleries attempts to bring sophisticated and compelling artwork to their audiences.

During the opening reception, Linus Artist Steve Rude presented a live demonstration painting of a nude model. Gallery owner Linnea Lenkus, herself a popular fine art nude photographer, announced the last art exhibit’s winners.

Shown in April, Linus Galleries’ last art show was called the Lonely Planet. It was a collective art exhibition which encompassed the themes Landscapes, Abstracts, Portraits, and Green. Part of a community of local, national and international contemporary artists Linus Galleries states their mission is to bring these artists together and present them to a broader audience of art lovers.

LinusArtGalleries is located at 545 S. Raymond Ave. in Pasadena. The gallery is owned and curated by fine art photographer, Linnea Lenkus. It features two dimensional art from all over the world. Its two locations are Pasadena and Long Beach, California.

Copyright 2012 by S. R. Morris