Last summer, I met the funny and fabulous Marcia Connolly, a film maker from Toronto. Marcia was working on a film about the equally fabulous Colette Urban, who is our neighbor in McIvers as well as an artist, organic farmer and owner of Full Tilt. Marcia was acting as cinematographer to the film's director, Catherine Knight.
Pause a moment here to reflect that the reason that Catherine and Marcia were able to come to McIvers for nearly a month to make film about Colette's amazing life and performances was because they received support from the Canadian government. Yes, you heard that right - government support of the arts. For those who say they don't want to be told what art they have to support with their tax dollars, I ask you this - have you ever been surprised? Have you ever discovered that you really love something you hadn't heard of before? If you answered "yes" then perhaps government support of artists you never heard of isn't such a waste of money after all. Ok, I am done with my soapbox sermon and will stick the teat of the Canadian government back into my mouth now....ummm.....yummm.....
ANYWAY...Marcia was this incredible mixture of camp counselor from heaven and techie whiz kid. She, Catherine and Colette worked very, very hard and somehow she was still making jokes and full of energy at the of the day. So, when I thought about documenting Spindle 7, there was only one person I could imagine having with me. I was so happy when I received the funding from the Queens Council on the Arts because it meant that I could ask Marcia to be the videographer. And she said YES!
Today we start filming some solo runs in lead up to Sunday. Are you coming on Sunday? Please do!
2 comments:
Wait--is the queens council on the Arts a government sponcered agency?
and the US government does support the arts.. not perhaps the same way the canadian goverment does.. but..
Still its wonderful.. I think I will drive to Bliss, ride to (and back) and then head out to West Babylon....(squeezing 2 fiber activities into 1 day!)
I hope to see you, Helen!
Queens Council gets local and state funding, so it is government supported but it isn't a government agency. The program that is funding Spindle 7 is a re-grant program that allows them to give money directly to artists. This is the thing that doesn't happen any longer through the NEA.
To say that the US government supports the arts is pretty generous, in my opinion. They support some very large institutions and very "safe" programming. They no longer have any programs that fund individual artist projects, which in the visual arts, is how most people work, i.e. as individuals. Many Canadian complain about the state of the support for artists in Canada, and they cry out LOUDLY when it is threatened. Therein lies the difference....
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