Attack of the Monster Agenda Email
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Colin Tedford
Mar 24, 2010, 11:08:21 PM3/24/10
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Hi everyone,
In the last few months I've been brimming over with ideas for & thoughts about Trees & Hills. I've finally collected some of them here for us to discuss. I know it's a lot, but maybe once we've looked it over, we can prioritize what we want to talk about (I'm most interested in the Arts Council / Going Local section, but think we should start with How Do We Work Together first).
T&H as Local Arts Agency?
Recently I read an Americans for the Arts paper by Maryo Gard Ewell called "Effective Community Arts Development: Fifty Years, Fifty Tips" (pdf attached). The first section, "Start With A Big Idea", jumped out at me in how much it sounded like the direction Trees & Hills has headed - and it felt good! I've excerpted that section below; I think the rest of the document has value for us, too.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
1. If would-be arts developers aspire to enable “more art for more people,” they are thinking too small. That is an idea for arts people. There must be an idea, a philosophy, about all people and the way that people can live—and live together. The goal is a human community, not merely an arts community.
2. This philosophy must simultaneously imagine an evolution of the arts and an evolution of the community...Just having more arts available will not necessarily make the community a better place to live. Arts developers should articulate a thrilling vision of what a meaningful, healthy community for all people could be, and how the arts can help make it so...In 1969 Robert Gard said, “One of the first principles of community arts councils should be the assumption that they are and should be an instrument of social change affecting change in both the arts and community life in general..."
3. Democracy is perhaps the biggest idea in America. Why not ground arts development work in furthering democracy? ... This can mean three distinct things, and all are important:
- Creating more access to the arts. This is what most people think of, and it is the “more arts for more people” idea.
- Enabling all people to participate in art-making that is based in their own personal story, worldview, vision, and culture.
- Using the arts to raise important questions, and engaging people in dialogue about them.
4. Community development includes economic development, agriculture, natural resource conservation, transportation, housing, health, social justice movements, and more. The effective arts developer will partner with some or all of these efforts, for goals will overlap.
5. Community development is a process based on an assumption of local wisdom and an assumption that most of the resources needed to get something done are right there in the community.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Developing a coherent social vision sounds a bit daunting, but we've had the idea of working with local groups and people involved with our themes, and I'd love to pursue that more. Maybe someone who has experience with community comic grants might have some interest in helping us grow into a group that can help other groups secure grants to work with us ;) We might also try doing a few small comics workshops based on our anthology themes. We could potentially generate interesting projects outside the anthologies, too; for example, this year I'm working with a sustainability project to produce some instructional comics about gardening.
Going (More) Local
I propose a shift in attitude to focus more locally. Who is our audience? What is our purpose? If we take on more of a role like that described above, I think it makes the most sense for us to focus on the region we live in and serve. I believe the region has easily enough potential readers here to keep us busy - we just need to reach them. That shouldn't require monumental effort, since we have so much culture so close together here.
As a concrete action, I propose we stop exhibiting at the big, expensive, faraway shows (ie, MoCCA and SPX). I love MoCCA; I attended it for 3 years prior to the 4 years T&H tabled there. It feels good to participate in these shows, and they get comics out there, but we don't make much money at them. We take in about the amount of money we pay for the table, or enough over to say we made some money if we don't think about any other costs. In contrast, we have brought in 3-4 times our table fee at smaller events in New England. I think the money we spend on the big shows would be better spent at these (not necessarily comics-centric) events, and we could find more of them. We can still make field trips to the big shows as attendees to connect with other cartoonists and a few fans, trade (and maybe quietly sell a few) comics, have a great time and spend way less dough.
I don't suggest we ignore the world outside of New England. What we do will have plenty of relevance and appeal for people outside the region, and I think we should send comics out for review like we've been meaning to, work with distributors (ie continue w/ Microcosm & finally talk to Tony Shenton, Panel to Panel, & maybe a few zine distros), and try to boost sales through the website. I also think it would be great to encourage people in other places to pursue a similar community-minded model, and put in some work (at least written materials) to help them do so. (I'm interested to see if the fledgling Brattleboro Comix Lab may provide a model for groups at a local, rather than regional, level)
My Bookmobile Pipe-Dream
I "tele-commute" to my day job now, and only work about half-time, so I have a fair amount of travel flexibility which I hope to use in service to Trees & Hills. I now have a dream, inspired by Gabby Schultz's former ownership of a grease-powered house-truck, of traveling around New England in a grease-powered Trees & Hills Bookmobile, which we could use to not only sell books from, but maybe run workshops from, make comics in, and use as a group tour vehicle in lieu of paying for lodgings. This could be a large vehicle, or something smaller with a trailer. There are tons of details to work out, so for now it's a pipe-dream, but I'm putting some energy in to see if I can make it happen.
Trees & Hills Zine Fairs?
We've talked a little about maybe someday putting on a convention of our own, but not put any energy into it because it could take a lot, and we're already busy. However, we have a chance to put on a small scale event, and that could lead to bigger (or a greater number of small-scale) events. The Starving Artist, a non-profit community arts resouce center in Keene, NH, has expressed some interest in hosting an comics and/or zine fair. I think we could probably fit 10 tables in, maybe 12; if we just sold half tables, we could have 20 or so exhibitors. That's small enough that it might be a T&H-only event, but in future I'd love to open it up to our Boston & Maine neighbors and other friends from away, and to non-comics zines. If the Keene event went OK, I could see potential for expanded versions in other places like Burlington VT or around Northampton MA (I hear the Flywheel non-profit space in Easthampton has just opened up in its new, larger digs). I'd favor a zine-fair approach to the extent possible: cheap tables, free admission, etc.
What About The Distro?
I also wanted to talk about goals for the distro and how we can achieve them. I would love for us to carry and keep in stock a comprehensive selection of comics produced in our region. Currently we stock a partial selection, and rarely re-stock when something sells out. I don't have many thoughts to share on how to get there yet, but I wanted to get the goal out there. I think if we do more business in general, through doing more shows / events and working with more stores, and building web sales, that will get us closer. We might consider some sort of subscription / preorder / fundraising program for the distro - like, someone pays $x now and later receives a selection of comics worth $x (or a little more, and probably with free shipping). There are some different things we could try with that, but the basic idea would be to get some extra cash up front with which to expand our stock.
A Surfeit of Submissions
We received more submissions than usual for Play. For now we're just printing them all, but in future we need to decide how to deal with receiving too many anthology submissions. Possibly we could have an online extension of each anthology, with the print version focused on the more community-oriented comics. I'd like to figure this out at or shortly after MoCCA so we can include our decision in the re-stated call for TIME submissions.
Odds & End for Later
- Anthology planning & book collection printing.
- Website blah-de-blah.
- T&H database.
Going (yikes!) Corporate
Somewhere down the line, we will most likely want to incorporate. I'm in no hurry to do it, but I do think we should start researching our options soon so we have time to reach a comfortable consensus instead of jumping into something because we suddenly realize we should have done it last year. Decisions will likely include "for-profit" vs. "non-profit", and whether to structure as some sort of cooperative or what. This isn't quite as clear-cut as it may seem; I think we all agree T&H does not primarily exist to generate profit, but ArtSpider, a new NH artist resource network, was advised by many in the non-profit sector to incorporate as a for-profit for greater funding stability.
Retreat!
I'm moving into a new place soon, with more space and a big yard & woods with trails, so I'd be glad to host the next retreat. Perhaps June would be a good time? Convention season will be basically over by then; Marek will be away in July, plus 2 of my housemates are moving out in July, which makes everything a little uncertain after June.
How Do We Work Together?
We've expressed interest in the past in having input from more people, and distributing responsibilty, and though we've done that to some extent, I think Trees & Hills faces special challenges as a decentralized regional group. If we all lived in the same town or county, it would be easy to meet up and work things out regularly. As it is, it seems we mostly have to work through the internet. I'd like to find out if there are other decentralized groups who've managed to succesfully work in a collective way (and if so, how). As a start it might be useful to set a few guidelines for how we decide things through this discussion list - how many people should be "present"? How long should we wait for responses / leave discussion open on a given question?
A tentative way might be to leave a few days for people to declare they want to particpate in a given discussion, then proceed if we have enough people (as established by whatever guideline - and if there aren't enough, we might still have discussion but not make binding decisions), and work until we have consensus. We might also want to set parameters for discussions - for instance, to break down big emails like this one into more manageable pieces. Also, email subject lines need to be left intact because it breaks the threading when you change it.
I don't want to build a bureaucracy, but I hope a few simple customs will help us exercise our collective power to do great things even more than we already have.
Whew! I think I'm forgetting a few things, but probably smaller-picture practical things that can wait anyway.
So, uh...what do you think?
(Again, out of all these, I think the best discussion to have first is the one about how we decide things, since it impacts all the others.)
Best,
Colin
www.colintedford.com
-------------------------------
Trees & Hills Comics Group
Bringing together cartoonists in VT, NH & western MA
www.treesandhills.org
In the last few months I've been brimming over with ideas for & thoughts about Trees & Hills. I've finally collected some of them here for us to discuss. I know it's a lot, but maybe once we've looked it over, we can prioritize what we want to talk about (I'm most interested in the Arts Council / Going Local section, but think we should start with How Do We Work Together first).
T&H as Local Arts Agency?
Recently I read an Americans for the Arts paper by Maryo Gard Ewell called "Effective Community Arts Development: Fifty Years, Fifty Tips" (pdf attached). The first section, "Start With A Big Idea", jumped out at me in how much it sounded like the direction Trees & Hills has headed - and it felt good! I've excerpted that section below; I think the rest of the document has value for us, too.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
1. If would-be arts developers aspire to enable “more art for more people,” they are thinking too small. That is an idea for arts people. There must be an idea, a philosophy, about all people and the way that people can live—and live together. The goal is a human community, not merely an arts community.
2. This philosophy must simultaneously imagine an evolution of the arts and an evolution of the community...Just having more arts available will not necessarily make the community a better place to live. Arts developers should articulate a thrilling vision of what a meaningful, healthy community for all people could be, and how the arts can help make it so...In 1969 Robert Gard said, “One of the first principles of community arts councils should be the assumption that they are and should be an instrument of social change affecting change in both the arts and community life in general..."
3. Democracy is perhaps the biggest idea in America. Why not ground arts development work in furthering democracy? ... This can mean three distinct things, and all are important:
- Creating more access to the arts. This is what most people think of, and it is the “more arts for more people” idea.
- Enabling all people to participate in art-making that is based in their own personal story, worldview, vision, and culture.
- Using the arts to raise important questions, and engaging people in dialogue about them.
4. Community development includes economic development, agriculture, natural resource conservation, transportation, housing, health, social justice movements, and more. The effective arts developer will partner with some or all of these efforts, for goals will overlap.
5. Community development is a process based on an assumption of local wisdom and an assumption that most of the resources needed to get something done are right there in the community.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Developing a coherent social vision sounds a bit daunting, but we've had the idea of working with local groups and people involved with our themes, and I'd love to pursue that more. Maybe someone who has experience with community comic grants might have some interest in helping us grow into a group that can help other groups secure grants to work with us ;) We might also try doing a few small comics workshops based on our anthology themes. We could potentially generate interesting projects outside the anthologies, too; for example, this year I'm working with a sustainability project to produce some instructional comics about gardening.
Going (More) Local
I propose a shift in attitude to focus more locally. Who is our audience? What is our purpose? If we take on more of a role like that described above, I think it makes the most sense for us to focus on the region we live in and serve. I believe the region has easily enough potential readers here to keep us busy - we just need to reach them. That shouldn't require monumental effort, since we have so much culture so close together here.
As a concrete action, I propose we stop exhibiting at the big, expensive, faraway shows (ie, MoCCA and SPX). I love MoCCA; I attended it for 3 years prior to the 4 years T&H tabled there. It feels good to participate in these shows, and they get comics out there, but we don't make much money at them. We take in about the amount of money we pay for the table, or enough over to say we made some money if we don't think about any other costs. In contrast, we have brought in 3-4 times our table fee at smaller events in New England. I think the money we spend on the big shows would be better spent at these (not necessarily comics-centric) events, and we could find more of them. We can still make field trips to the big shows as attendees to connect with other cartoonists and a few fans, trade (and maybe quietly sell a few) comics, have a great time and spend way less dough.
I don't suggest we ignore the world outside of New England. What we do will have plenty of relevance and appeal for people outside the region, and I think we should send comics out for review like we've been meaning to, work with distributors (ie continue w/ Microcosm & finally talk to Tony Shenton, Panel to Panel, & maybe a few zine distros), and try to boost sales through the website. I also think it would be great to encourage people in other places to pursue a similar community-minded model, and put in some work (at least written materials) to help them do so. (I'm interested to see if the fledgling Brattleboro Comix Lab may provide a model for groups at a local, rather than regional, level)
My Bookmobile Pipe-Dream
I "tele-commute" to my day job now, and only work about half-time, so I have a fair amount of travel flexibility which I hope to use in service to Trees & Hills. I now have a dream, inspired by Gabby Schultz's former ownership of a grease-powered house-truck, of traveling around New England in a grease-powered Trees & Hills Bookmobile, which we could use to not only sell books from, but maybe run workshops from, make comics in, and use as a group tour vehicle in lieu of paying for lodgings. This could be a large vehicle, or something smaller with a trailer. There are tons of details to work out, so for now it's a pipe-dream, but I'm putting some energy in to see if I can make it happen.
Trees & Hills Zine Fairs?
We've talked a little about maybe someday putting on a convention of our own, but not put any energy into it because it could take a lot, and we're already busy. However, we have a chance to put on a small scale event, and that could lead to bigger (or a greater number of small-scale) events. The Starving Artist, a non-profit community arts resouce center in Keene, NH, has expressed some interest in hosting an comics and/or zine fair. I think we could probably fit 10 tables in, maybe 12; if we just sold half tables, we could have 20 or so exhibitors. That's small enough that it might be a T&H-only event, but in future I'd love to open it up to our Boston & Maine neighbors and other friends from away, and to non-comics zines. If the Keene event went OK, I could see potential for expanded versions in other places like Burlington VT or around Northampton MA (I hear the Flywheel non-profit space in Easthampton has just opened up in its new, larger digs). I'd favor a zine-fair approach to the extent possible: cheap tables, free admission, etc.
What About The Distro?
I also wanted to talk about goals for the distro and how we can achieve them. I would love for us to carry and keep in stock a comprehensive selection of comics produced in our region. Currently we stock a partial selection, and rarely re-stock when something sells out. I don't have many thoughts to share on how to get there yet, but I wanted to get the goal out there. I think if we do more business in general, through doing more shows / events and working with more stores, and building web sales, that will get us closer. We might consider some sort of subscription / preorder / fundraising program for the distro - like, someone pays $x now and later receives a selection of comics worth $x (or a little more, and probably with free shipping). There are some different things we could try with that, but the basic idea would be to get some extra cash up front with which to expand our stock.
A Surfeit of Submissions
We received more submissions than usual for Play. For now we're just printing them all, but in future we need to decide how to deal with receiving too many anthology submissions. Possibly we could have an online extension of each anthology, with the print version focused on the more community-oriented comics. I'd like to figure this out at or shortly after MoCCA so we can include our decision in the re-stated call for TIME submissions.
Odds & End for Later
- Anthology planning & book collection printing.
- Website blah-de-blah.
- T&H database.
Going (yikes!) Corporate
Somewhere down the line, we will most likely want to incorporate. I'm in no hurry to do it, but I do think we should start researching our options soon so we have time to reach a comfortable consensus instead of jumping into something because we suddenly realize we should have done it last year. Decisions will likely include "for-profit" vs. "non-profit", and whether to structure as some sort of cooperative or what. This isn't quite as clear-cut as it may seem; I think we all agree T&H does not primarily exist to generate profit, but ArtSpider, a new NH artist resource network, was advised by many in the non-profit sector to incorporate as a for-profit for greater funding stability.
Retreat!
I'm moving into a new place soon, with more space and a big yard & woods with trails, so I'd be glad to host the next retreat. Perhaps June would be a good time? Convention season will be basically over by then; Marek will be away in July, plus 2 of my housemates are moving out in July, which makes everything a little uncertain after June.
How Do We Work Together?
We've expressed interest in the past in having input from more people, and distributing responsibilty, and though we've done that to some extent, I think Trees & Hills faces special challenges as a decentralized regional group. If we all lived in the same town or county, it would be easy to meet up and work things out regularly. As it is, it seems we mostly have to work through the internet. I'd like to find out if there are other decentralized groups who've managed to succesfully work in a collective way (and if so, how). As a start it might be useful to set a few guidelines for how we decide things through this discussion list - how many people should be "present"? How long should we wait for responses / leave discussion open on a given question?
A tentative way might be to leave a few days for people to declare they want to particpate in a given discussion, then proceed if we have enough people (as established by whatever guideline - and if there aren't enough, we might still have discussion but not make binding decisions), and work until we have consensus. We might also want to set parameters for discussions - for instance, to break down big emails like this one into more manageable pieces. Also, email subject lines need to be left intact because it breaks the threading when you change it.
I don't want to build a bureaucracy, but I hope a few simple customs will help us exercise our collective power to do great things even more than we already have.
Whew! I think I'm forgetting a few things, but probably smaller-picture practical things that can wait anyway.
So, uh...what do you think?
(Again, out of all these, I think the best discussion to have first is the one about how we decide things, since it impacts all the others.)
Best,
Colin
www.colintedford.com
-------------------------------
Trees & Hills Comics Group
Bringing together cartoonists in VT, NH & western MA
www.treesandhills.org
mo...@simons-rock.edu
Mar 25, 2010, 12:27:54 PM3/25/10
to treesa...@googlegroups.com
More soon--still thinking big picture etc.--but on first pass I am
lukewarm at best on this idea:
lukewarm at best on this idea:
> As a concrete action, I propose we stop exhibiting at the big, expensive,
> faraway shows (ie, MoCCA and SPX).
A.
**********************
www.mymonsterhat.com
one-of-a-kind
custom made
monster millinery
**********************
Daniel Barlow
Mar 28, 2010, 9:04:19 PM3/28/10
to treesa...@googlegroups.com
I think Colin just wrote up our next T&H agenda! Maybe we should hold a spring meeting between MoCCA and Maine. I'll volunteer my place, but I am a bit out of the way for people.
Seriously, there are some good ideas here .... (although I agree with Anne that I'm not crazy about skipping MoCCA or SPX. But let's talk!)
-Dan
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Marek Bennett
Mar 28, 2010, 9:34:40 PM3/28/10
to treesa...@googlegroups.com
Roger that, Dan. My place is also availabull
if it's more central. Lots of spare rooms for overnighters, cat escort
services, boating/swimming facilities, plus bonfire/woodchuck roast potential
(before 2:00 am, please, Dan)...
-- M
mo...@simons-rock.edu
Mar 28, 2010, 10:21:57 PM3/28/10
to treesa...@googlegroups.com
Remember, dear comics folks, that I have the crazy derby schedule--not as
nuts as last year, but still something where I need advance notice.
nuts as last year, but still something where I need advance notice.
But yes--I like the discussing idea.
My place is of course available, but then again, we did have the last one
here (and I drew a minicomic of it! Where's that photo of the agenda upon
which we kicked butt?)
A.
Blake Parker
Mar 29, 2010, 10:54:53 PM3/29/10
to treesa...@googlegroups.com
| yay, cats. I like the Bookmobille ia - is- ahhh typing! idea. Can we paint it like the mystery machine? -------------- "When someone wants a sheep, that proves he exists." --- On Sun, 3/28/10, Marek Bennett <ma...@marekbennett.com> wrote: |
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