My Photos Are So Delicious You Can EAT Them!

Hello out there museum and art enthusiasts! Sorry for the hiatus! I was so busy helping put up the artwork and sorting out the artists the last week and in Wisconsin over the 4^th of July—I just plain forgot.

But hey, great news: the Arts Alliance accepted not just one but TWO of my photos to display in their Annual Member’s Show! Although they do accept one piece from every member who submits artwork, it’s generally very special to have two pieces selected. So I know you’re all DYING to find out what they look like:

The first is a shot of raspberries from my garden at home in WI and the second is a shot of some bandaged cheddar that I used to sell as a cheesemonger (also back in WI).

Both of those are the actual photos taken by me! (I took a shot of the pictures hanging in the gallery but they had too much reflection so I thought it'd be better to just post the originals.)

When it comes to photography, and practically everything else in my life, food is priority numero uno!

Here are some other shots of the other member’s artwork. I would say that we have some pretty talented people around this place.

So in other news, I have currently been spending most of my time working on two sources of funding. The first is a letter to The Wilmington Flower Market. And the second is a letter to The Brandywiners. We have received funding from both of these places in the past so hopefully my carefully worded letters will strike a chord with them in the form of loosening their purse strings!

Both of these organizations are really interesting because they support completely different types of arts and culture programs. The Wilmington Flower Market is a group of women in the Wilmington area who organize a huge fair every year during Mother's Day weekend to raise money specifically for programs that benefit children. The Brandywiners support local performing arts groups. Since we qualify as both of these types of programs, I hope that applying for their grants will be fruitful.

We are looking for grants mostly to support our Camp Imagine program. It's a two-week arts program for kids aged 7-12 with both traditional art projects along with dancing, singing, and even yoga! The great thing about Camp Imagine is that kids can get scholarships that covers almost the entire tuition if their families are low-income. This is a great opportunity for kids who might not have positive role models or places to go in the summer.

One side note/reflection: something I'm beginning to learn is that my rhetoric training is starting to come in handy writing all of these letters. The key thing is to really do your research for all of these grants. The more you know about what they prefer to fund, the more you can angle your proposal to fit their requirements. It's a surprising amount of work but I think that my experience here is really going to benefit me in the long run. Unlike a lot of the sciences, humanities majors like myself find themselves short of funding much of the time. The current economic climate also changes the approach. Funders prefer to give money to organizations that are already financially stable. Paradoxical as this may seem, it makes sense to them to see that they are supporting something the community already values. All in all, I'm glad that Terry is helping me along with all of this stuff and giving me tips on all the whats, whys, and hows of grantwriting. I may not be doing archaeology but I do feel good that I am helping the NAA find more support so that it can go on providing the awesome programs and classes that Newarkers love so much!