Thanks for enjoying our January CAP ArtsLetter! My original title was "Short and (always) Sweet" but I kept adding wonderful things like the great interview with Elizabeth Seldin of Clockmaker Arts. So now it's not so short but certainly still sweet!
- Robin, Program and Grant Director
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Happy New Year!
from Executive Director, Megan Barber
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Happy New Year Everyone!
It's cold and snowy, but I notice the days getting longer and I am grateful for that!
I am also grateful for art - for the joy and poignancy of music, poetry, color and paint.
How can we open our hearts even wider in 2022 and make our very lives a work of art?
I take inspiration from this poem by Hafiz, and I hope you will too!
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I sometimes forget
that I was created for Joy.
My mind is too busy.
My Heart is too heavy
for me to remember
that I have been
called to dance
the Sacred dance of life.
I was created to smile
To Love
To be lifted up
And to lift others up.
O’ Sacred One
Untangle my feet
from all that ensnares.
Free my soul.
That we might
Dance
and that our dancing
might be contagious.
~Hafiz
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CAP Grantee Feature
Clockmaker Arts, with Elizabeth Seldin
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"And at the end of the day, it's all about having fun" |
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Clockmaker Arts is an Ithaca-based theatre, film and artistic training studio founded by Artistic Director, Elizabeth Seldin (left - taken backstage at the State Theatre).
They do a little bit of everything--productions, teaching, theatre, and film, all designed to empower individuals through creative expression in a process oriented, trauma informed and courageously healing approach.
“It’s not what we do, it’s how we do it,” Elizabeth said in an interview with CAP Ithaca College intern, Aldi Alvarez. “We do project based work, and we also have theatre classes and training workshops. But mostly it’s about working with individual artists or a group of artists on projects by helping them cultivate healthy practices within collaboration, as well as empowering practices through the process of what they create.”
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Clockmaker Arts was initially founded by Seldin as a theatre company umbrella for an original solo performance Off-Broadway musical that she created and was directed by fellow Clockmaker Artist, Evie Hammer-Lester and through their partnership the company began to grow. |
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2021 featured an original musical written by Carley Robinson and Elizabeth Seldin (both pictured left), and directed by Gabriella da Silva Carr called “In Case You Forgot” which dealt with themes of social justice, performed at the State Theatre.
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“If I had to pick three words for Clockmaker Arts, it would be ‘healing’, ‘magic’ and ‘play’,” Seldin says. “The basic principles that have always been true regardless are that we create performances, we support artists, and we have an immense amount of fun doing it while cultivating courage with our artists that breeds amazing opportunities to grow and transform in honest conversation within the work."
Right: Elizabeth and Clockmaker Artist Tyler Gardella in "What Haunts You" at the Kitchen Theatre.
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When asked how Covid-19 affected their services, Seldin reflected that Clockmaker Arts actually benefited in some ways from the pandemic. Their classes, online due to the pandemic, have actually opened up the opportunity to work with people internationally.
Having shows online meant that they didn’t have to work with the sort of limitations that could otherwise bring challenges to a live performance. Their online performances “What Haunts You,” and “What If In A Snowstorm,” provided the opportunity for them to work with a cast based in NYC, Northern Ireland, Ithaca, Virginia, California, and Sweden!
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Clockmaker Arts received CAP's "Specific Opportunity Stipend (SOS)" and the "Creative Recovery Grant"
When discussing the grants Seldin said, “When you get a grant, it’s a reminder that your work matters. It’s money that gives you the ability to do what you need to do and love to do. And because of the two grants, I am able to have enough faith in myself to know my work matters.”
“There’s nothing better than being in collaboration with other people,” Seldin said when asked about what the best part of Clockmaker Arts was. “I love how brilliant everyone is. I love that I get to witness it, support it, and play in collaboration with it. Working with people and getting to see how incredibly different they are and celebrate that as well as bearing witness to seeing the beautiful dance between individuality and the core of human understanding that all people experience such as anxiety, grief, love, and is simply incredible. It just makes life alive, brilliant, colorful, healing and worth engaging in. It’s just a gift to connect.”
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At the time of this interview, Clockmaker Arts has many different budding projects going on that will be broadening their horizons, ideas which include interactive theatre and cultivating a training studio to not only teach aspects of theatre (like acting, dancing and singing), but also one that incubates a stronger community and a desire for practice.
“A lot of theatre is ‘You get this role’ or ‘You try to perfect a specific aspect of the training,’ and that’s not what I’m about at all,” Seldin said. “Because I think everyone is super talented and I think everyone can learn anything and I think it’s about cultivating a space that encourages that. It is about ‘the practice.’ It is about the process. And at the end of the day it is about having fun.”
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Hugo Medina in the CAP ArtSpace
Come see this exhibit through January 30
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Hugo Medina's large scale "Portraits" has filled the CAP ArtSpace. Come see this impressive show!
Monday - Saturday, 10 to 5, at 110 N. Tioga (on the Commons in the Tompkins Center for History and Culture).
“Painting portraits of individuals from my travels and day-to-day encounters, I intentionally connect with the “others” of society. Through visualized investigations, I strive to depict their inner struggles as a form of artistic anthropology.
Observing and recording the purposefully overlooked members of society has facilitated my growth not only as an artist but as an immigrant striving to overcome my own history of trauma.”
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Thanks Trust Company for their annual sponsorship of our CAP ArtSpace! |
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What's Next at CAP?
(You may be wondering)
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It's our 30th year!
We are brainstorming cool ideas to celebrate.
Grant Awards
Panels are meeting this month to review requests for our 2022 Artist in Community Grant, Grants for Arts Programs, Arts Education grants, and ACOD (Arts and Cultural Organizational Development) grants. Awardees will be announced in early February.
SOS Grant - due March 5th
Be Creative Workshops and More
Stay tuned for an AWESOME 2022 CAP workshop series.
Art Trail First Saturday on February 5th. Save the date.
ArtTrail.com will have the list of who is open by Jan. 25th.
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Thank you Visions FCU !!
Our ArtsLetter sponsor
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It’s time to take control of your debt, and we want to help. Our Debt Experts can explore options for you to consolidate loans, reduce your interest, and lower your payments. If you’re ready to make this a priority in the new year, request an expert today at visionsfcu.org/debtfree
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Want to Join the Greater Ithaca Art Trail?
You don't need to have a studio! Applications will be at ArtTrail.com by February 15th and will be due in early April. We'll keep you posted!
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Sustainable Arts Foundation
This San Francisco based non-profit supports artists and writers with families. "Our mission is to provide financial awards to parents pursuing creative work. This year, we will make awards of $5,000 each to twenty artists and writers with children" Half of the awards are earmarked for artists of color. https://apply.sustainableartsfoundation.org/
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Do you know about our local Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts?
Located east of Ithaca, on a 200 acre property, Saltonstall offers free residencies with stipends to artists and writers who are current residents of New York State and/or one of the Indian Nations located in NY state.
Residencies are designed for those looking for a quiet, supportive environment in which to focus on their craft. Artists can apply in the categories of poetry, fiction and creative non-fiction, photography and filmmaking, painting, sculpture, visual arts.
Visit their website to learn more about this wonderful opportunity, their spaces and accessible facilities, wonderful meals, and more at www.saltonstall.org
Applications are due on Sunday, January 23 at 11:59pm.
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So Many Local Art Events
Tompkins County is artisticly amazing!
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Hangar Theatre
Next Up: DSP Shows: Howard Jones Acoustic Trio Tour, live at the Hangar on February 11, 8:00 pm. Hangartheatre.org.
Ithaca Ballet
Children & Adult classes will resume on Monday, January 10th.
Civic Ensemble
Learn about their Youth Forum Theatre Troupe for 8th to 12th graders and ReEntry Theatre program, open to all who have experienced incarceration. civicensemble.org
Cherry Arts
Next up in March: "The Wetsuitman" ("a film noir. A docu-play. A family drama") with both live and livestreamed performances. thecherry.org
Community School of Music and Arts
Sign Up Now for Winter Classes! "Come join us and be creative with others in person. We're offering small classes in a giant space." Starting the week of January 24.
Dorothy Cotton Jubilee Singers
will join forces with Ithaca College School of Music to present a virtual concert in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr on January 29th.
Kitchen Theatre
Next up: "Fade," by Tanya Saracho from Feb 1 to 20.
Story House Ithaca
Next up live on Sun, Jan 23 at Cornell Cooperative Extension
Opera Ithaca
Stream their production of Hansel and Gretel. Watch the trailer here.
Corners Gallery
"Iterations, new work by Barbara Page from Jan.15 to Feb. 26th.
Artist’s Reception: Jan. 15, 3pm to 5pm.
Cayuga Chamber Orchestra
Chamber Music Series, Dvorak and Harbison on Sunday, February 20 at 3:00 PM, First Unitarian Church
History Center in Tompkins County
They've been on break but will re-open on January 19th.
Cinemapolis
State Theatre
This is Ithaca - Latest Podcast
A day in the life of a mayor, and Take a ride with a mail carier. thisithaca.org
The Gallery At South Hill
Marc Reed’s drawings using charcoal pencil and chalk pastel on paper are inspired by specific stories in mythology. January 8 – February 6. Reception Saturday, Jan 8, 3-5pm
Tompkins County Public Library
There are always great events at the library!
State of the Art Gallery
Their latest exhibit (through January 30) is "The More You Look, the More You See," featuring work by ten member artists. You can also see the work online!
The Ink Shop
November 5 - January 28
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Consider a Donation to CAP
Support Tompkins County Arts!
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Your support of our annual fund makes our work of strengthening the arts throughout Tompkins possible!
Learn about all we do on our website (ArtsPartner.org) and please consider a donation!! If you would like to pay via check, see our address below. Donations are tax deductible and we'll follow up right away with a thank you/receipt!
THANK YOU!!! We love what we do and hope you do too!
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