There’s Something About a Parade…

Please join us as we march in the world-famous Holyoke St. Patrick’s Parade on Sunday March 22, 2009! The parade starts at high Noon, and will feature all sorts of bear-y goodness, including a dancing bear (ok, a person dressed as a bear) and artist Amy Davis’s Paddy O’Bearen submission riding on our float.

Easthampton City Arts
Call for Producers: Bear Fest 2009
Deadline for proposals: May 1, 2009

Ever wish to produce your own cultural event? Here’s your chance!

About the Call to Producers
Easthampton City Arts is looking for creative individuals to create, produce and manage cultural events that will take place from mid-June to mid-October. We seek producers who will develop cultural events/performances or public art initiatives around the Bear Fest theme (which can be broadly interpreted). Working with Easthampton City Arts and the Easthampton Cultural Council, producers will be responsible for selecting an event, lining up talent, creating a budget, planning and managing the event, and helping to promote the event. Themes can be broad or specific, ranging from dance and performance art to film and multimedia work. Events that reflect and include the downtown and mill areas are particularly encouraged. Easthampton City Arts has a total of $5,000 available and we are hoping to produce from four to eight events. ECA will assist in marketing your event. Deadline to receive proposals: May 1, 2009.

For those events/productions which generate a profit (after expenses paid), 20% of those profits are to be paid to Easthampton City Arts. ECA will then use these funds to produce additional cultural events.

About Bear Fest
Starting in June 2009, Easthampton City Arts will host a major public art event. The Easthampton Bear Fest will revolve around an exhibit of life sized adult & baby bears, which will be decorated and painted by local and regional artists and will be on exhibit from June through October 2009. In Mid-October, a City-wide, week-long (October 10 –17) celebration of the arts and auction of the Bears will take place.
Events are planned to occur throughout the four months of the Easthampton Bear Fest. However, we are particularly interested in events before and after each of the five Art Walks (5:00-8:00 PM) occurring during the festival (June 13, July 11, August 8, Sept. 12, Oct. 10) and during the week-long celebration. Events which attract out-of-town tourists as well as those geared to Easthampton residents (such as a community-wide dance) are desired.
There have been dozens of these displays throughout the United States and Europe, beginning in 1998 in Switzerland and followed by the Cow Parade in Chicago in 1999. Always wildly popular, ECA is expecting the Easthampton Bear Fest to draw crowds throughout the Summer and into the Fall. When the Bear Fest opens in June of 2009, the bears will be displayed throughout the downtown area, within a walking tour. A “Bear Track” map will be available for visitors to track each bear location. We can only imagine where the bears will hide. Some on street corners, up on a rooftop, on the pond or hanging in the air. Imaginations will soar!

How to Apply:
Please provide the following information on no more than two pages:
1. Contact info: e-mail and snail mail addresses, phone, fax and Web site (if applicable)
2. Describe your theme and event.
3. List some or all of acts/talent you would like to include; describe talent and how it supports your theme.
4. Tell us what day and time frame would be ideal for your event.
5. Outline schedule for your event (which act goes on first, second, etc.).
6. List technical requirements (stage, sound, lighting, etc.).
7. Give budget: Break down how you would spend the grant monies; this may include a producer stipend, talent fees and other fees you foresee.
8. Easthampton affiliation (if any)
9. Please describe your experience in producing previous cultural events. Also, include support materials; i.e., photos, CDs, press clippings, resume(s), etc. Include a self-addressed stamped envelope if you would like your support materials returned to you.

About Easthampton City Arts
Easthampton City Arts is an initiative designed to support and enhance arts and culture in Easthampton in order to improve economic opportunities for artists and cultural establishments, while increasing the role that cultural activity plays in the vitality of the community. Easthampton artists and the City Planning and Community Development department created Easthampton City Arts in collaboration with numerous partners. Through funding from the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s John and Abigail Adams Program, the City of Easthampton, and business and institutional support, Easthampton City Arts cultivates and promotes the city’s diverse artist and business community. During 2009 Easthampton City Arts will continue outreach, marketing, and highlighting of Easthampton artists through its website, directory, and gallery AND will guide Easthampton’s largest public art display ever: the Easthampton Bear Fest. We hope that you will want to participate.

Mail or drop off proposals by May 1, 2009 to:

Easthampton City Arts
43 Main Street, Suite 4
Easthampton, MA 01027
Questions:
Call 413-527-8278
info@easthamptoncityarts.com

We will be adding more as Artists arrive to collect their bears.

 

Easthampton City Arts is proud to announce the winning designs and artists for the 2009 Easthampton Bear Fest! There was stiff competition and from among 130 artist design submissions only 35 could be selected! So without further delay, CONGRATULATIONS to the following!

Artist Name                       Title of Bear

Jeffrey Calvi – - – - – -  Madam Bearterfly
Luke Cavagnac – - – - -This Bear is Worth One Thousand Words
Sara Chalifoux – - – - – Transoceanic Bear
Amy Davis - – - – - – - – Paddy O’Bearen
Jo-Ann Denehy – - – -  Bear Hugs
Deshria – - – - – - – - – - -Rubber Ducky, You’re the One
Adell Donaghue & Justin Brown – - – - Ursa Major
Jennifer Dorgan – - – -Garden Bear
John Casey Douglas -Astronaut Bear
Michael Fitzgibbon – Aurora Bearalis – PEOPLE’S CHOICE WINNER!!
Amalia FourHawks – -A Bear With A Buttoned Down Education
Gary Hallgren – - – - -  Wire Hair Bear
Elsie Hasskarl – - – - – -Berry Bear
Beverly Hosmer - – - -Ted E. Bear
Amy Johnquest - – - -Clem the Circus Bear
Jim Johnson – - – - – - The Bearon
Jim Johnson – - – - – - Honey Bear (getting 1 small bear for 2 designs)
Heather Kasunick – - Garden Party
Mary Klaes – - – - – - – Master Essential
Silas Kopf – - – - – - – - Aloha Bear
Gary LaCroix – - – - – -Mountain Park Bear
Jill Lewis – - – - – - – - – Williston Button Bear
Michael MacTavish – Chrome/Mirror Bear
Leah Moses – - – - – - – Bumble Bear
Dianne Murphy – - – - The Gingerbear Man
Kim Parkhurst - – - – - Three Bears
Maria Parasiewicz – -  Peace Bear
Crystal Popko – - – - – -Hiding Bear
Marcia Reed – - – - – - -Ursa Great Spirit
Ruth Sanderson - – - -Papa Bear & Baby Bear
Greg Stone – - – - – - – -Something’s Fishy
Christopher Woodman – - Bear, Bath & Beyond
Jean Zampiceni – - – -Mother & Child at Parade

Easthampton City Arts hosted a Welcome the Bears Kids Party on Friday, February 20th. Lots of kids and their families where there to vote on their favorite bear, make a mask, and enjoy seeing the Bears in their natural state!

 

The Bears have arrived and are now awaiting delivery to their artists.

 

February 19, 2009

Welcome the Bears Mardi Gras Party & Fundraiser

Thursday February 19th,  7-9 PM
hosted by Eastworks
Live Jazz Music by Carol Abbe Smith Ensemble
Cajun Style eats by Apollo Grill
Be one of the first to see the “naked” bears on their arrival to Easthampton and vote on your favorite bear
CASH BAR
Tickets are $15
call (413)527-8278 for tickets/available at the Apollo Grill and at the door

February 20, 2009

Welcome the Bears Kids Party

Friday February 20th,  10:00 am – 2:00 pm
Eastworks
juice and goodies
make your own mask
vote on your favorite bear
FREE  and open to the public

Easthampton, Massachusetts – Starting next summer and continuing through the fall of 2009, Easthampton will be the setting for a premier art event, Easthampton Bear Fest! From June through mid-October 2009, downtown Easthampton will host an exhibit of life sized, fiberglass bears that are creatively painted, decorated, and festooned by artisans from Easthampton and the region and placed in various public spaces within an easy walking tour. A total of 30 bears, 20 life-size and 10 smaller, will be displayed.

This is a call to you, area Artists, to let your imagination get the better of you and create an amazing work of art that will be seen by thousands of visitors who will come just to see your and your fellow artists’ creations. Imagine what you could do with a life sized sculpture of a bear!

Each bear will be sponsored by businesses and individuals, and will be auctioned off at the end of the Easthampton Bear Fest, to benefit Riverside Industries Art Program, Easthampton Public Schools Art Programs, the Artists who decorate them and Easthampton City Arts. Artists will be paid for their work, supplied with the bear sculpture, and have approximately three months to prepare their bear for display. The artists’ and sponsors’ names will be highly visible with their bear.

We anticipate many visitors interested in seeing and tracking the bears, including art lovers, kids and families, and unsuspecting people just traveling through. We will be publicizing this event far and wide in an effort to get the word out. Be part of this amazing public art event culminating in a Week Long Celebration of the Arts in October 2009 here in Easthampton, Massachusetts!

You may download the package by clicking on “Call to Artists” tab at the top of this page, or for a paper copy write to Easthampton Bear Fest, c/o Easthampton City Arts, 43 Main Street, Suite 4, Easthampton, MA 01027; call Briana Taylor at (413) 527-8278; or email info@easthamptoncityarts.com Businesses or individuals interested in sponsoring a bear may also use the same contact information listed above. The Easthampton Bear Fest is sponsored by Easthampton City Arts. For more information visit our websites at EasthamptonBearFest.com and EasthamptonCityArts.com

The deadline for application is February 18, 2009; participating artists will be selected in a juried competition and notified of the results no later than February 27th, 2009.

If you are submitting a proposal, please email ECA with your intention to do so and contact information so that we may add you to a proposal list; this is not required but will be helpful. Thanks for your interest and we look forward to seeing your ideas!

Also, if you do not work or live in Easthampton you will have to pick up your naked bear and then be able to deliver it back to Easthampton City Arts by June 10, 2009!