Call For Entries: Submission Deadline for the Crest Hardware Art Show Now Extended Through Friday

The 11th Crest Hardware Art Show is less than a month away, but you still have time to submit your hardware-themed artwork for this time-honored showcase. The deadline for submissions has been extended through this Friday, June 8, and the show will kick off on June 30 with the always fun Crest Fest.

If you're in need of some inspiration, you might peruse some work the show has featured in previous years on We Heart New York, L Magazine and Craft or on the show's Flickr page. Personally, we'd love to see something inspired by Crest's resident animals: Franklin, a pot-bellied pig who's been featured in the New York Times and has his own Facebook page, and Finlay, an African Grey parrot who's been known to play tricks on cell phone-weilding customers.

For more check out our previous post about the show and the full guidelines and entry form. Following the June 30 opening, where you'll be able to enjoy music art, food and more, the show will remain on display through August 31.

We'll leave you with a brief video of "Running Man," an amazing zoetrope by Greg Barsamian that was featured in the show back in 2008:

-- John Ruscher

Call For Entries: Apply To Be One of Lady Liberty's First Artists-In-Residence

 

No, you won't get studio space in her crown, but the new Statue of Liberty National Monument and Ellis Island artist-in-residence program, which kicks off in July and is accepting applications through May 21, could give you the chance to get pretty close to Lady Liberty. 

According to the National Park Service, the residency "aspires to share with the public the scenic beauty and stories of Statue of Liberty National Monument and Ellis Island through the world of art" and will challenge artists "to make this park come alive for all—to generate excitement about it for visitors and strangers alike."

A jury will select between three and six visual artists, who can choose to participate in a two-, three- or four-week residency. This includes studio space in the New Jersey City University Visual Arts Building in Jersey City, campus housing, and "unparalleled access to the park's resources, including the museum, library, oral histories, and other places not normally accessible to visitors, such as our archives and extensive museum collections not publicly displayed." Don't worry, New Yorkers—local artists will have the choice of living at home and commuting. There's no stipend, but studio space, housing and bragging rights as one of the Statue of Liberty's first artists-in-residence sounds like decent compensation to us.

Work created during the residency will be exhibited as part of the Statue of Liberty's reopening in late 2012 (it closed last October for renovations), and artists will also be asked to donate two pieces and present two hour-long public programs and a three-hour workshop/demonstration.

For more information, including the application form, head over to the National Park Service website.

-- John Ruscher

Display Your Fine Craftsmanship at Housing Works' "Made In Brooklyn"

Housing Works' Crosby St. LocationCrafts folk, authors, illustrators, fashionistas, jewelry designers, furniture gurus, photographers--in other words, everyone reading this--if you're based in Brooklyn and care about helping put an end to AIDS, then Housing Works wants Y.O.U.

For those not in the know, Housing Works is a chain of book stores, cafes and thrift shops throughout New York that donates 40% of their earnings towards ongoing AIDS research, creating housing for victims in need and expanding vital health services.

On May 19, the Brooklyn Heights location (122 Montague St.) will be presenting Made In Brooklyn, showcasing the work of local artisans who's work has any sort of Brooklyn thread to it.  Sound broad? That's because it is! But we think that's great.

Any work you submit will be on a donation-only basis, though any flyers, cards, contact info you want to attach, Housing Works will happily display it, in addition to giving you a nice little tax credit.  So think of it as instant exposure while backing a worthy cause.

See? This is Dirty Projectors and Björk perfoming a benefit at a Housing Works bookstore a couple years back:

Credit: Ryan Muir

Join their ranks, people! 

You've got unti May 12 to submit your work, so get cracking--any and all inquiries can be directed to Housing Works/event manager Nefertiti Moore: n.moore[at]housingworks.org

Call For Entries: Be Part Of This Summer's Crest Hardware Art Show

A hand truck and shopping cart crocheted by Olek. A skull made out of Phillips-head screws. A chandelier with snaky spirals of rubber tubing. These are just a few of the creations that have been featured in past editions of the legendary Crest Hardware Art Show at Williamsburg's Crest Hardware, and you have until May 31 to add to that list by submitting your own work for this summer's exhibition. 

The 11th Crest Hardware Art Show opens on June 30 with Crest Fest 2012, a day-long throw-down full of art, music, food, beverages and other great stuff from local vendors, and the art will remain on display through August 31.

Per tradition, all work "must be about, made with or inspired by hardware," so keep that in mind when crafting and submitting your entry. Check out the full guidelines and official entry form, and soon you, too, could be part of what Time Out New York has described as "a cadre of talented artists capable of turning lug nuts, bolts and rivets into show-worthy pieces."

For additional inspiration we'll leave you with this Brooklyn Independent Television segment about Crest Hardware and its renowned art show:

-- John Ruscher

Be Part Of Make Music New York, NYC's Largest Music Festival

Iannis Xenakis' Persephassa performed on Central Park Lake for MMNY 2010

New York is an exceptionally musical place every day of the year, but there's one day when it gets really musical. That's because of Make Music New York, an annual festival that takes place on the first day of summer and features hundreds upon hundreds of free concerts throughout the city.

This year Make Music New York is happening on June 21 from 10am to 10pm, and if you're musically inclined or interested in hosting a performance, you have until April 21 to register and finalize your own event. The folks at MMNY can help you coordinate your concert with others in your neighborhood, secure the necessary permits and promote it through Time Out New York, Metro New York and WNYC.

Past MMNY highlights include an amazing rowboat-based performance of Iannis Xenakis' Persephassa on Central Park Lake (check out the video clip above) and Punk Island, in which dozens of punk bands invaded Governors Island. Of course your event doesn't need to take place on an island or body of water. It could be anything from a "acoustic sidewalk setup to a full-scale amplified block party." For the last two years the festival has featured over 1,000 concerts, so sign up, tune up and hit the streets.

-- John Ruscher

Project Runway Seeks The Best New Fashion Designers For Its 10th Season

Fashion designers, are you ready for Tim Gunn to take you under his wing? Think you've got what it takes to really wow Heidi Klum? If so, get ready. Project Runway is currently casting for its 10th season, and you've got until March 15 to throw your name in the hat.

While we're usually wary of reality television, we've weirdly always loved Project Runway, as its not just a random group of people "getting real" or facing off in ridiculous competitions. It's an up-close look at aspiring fashion designers as they receive guidance from one of the industry's best (Gunn, a former chair of fashion design at Parsons), refine and realize their creative visions and vie for a chance to show their work during New York Fashion Week. Oh, and the $100,000 that the winner receives to launch their own fashion line doesn't hurt either.

For your application (which you can download here) you'll need to whip up the following:

Two recent photos of yourself: one full-length shot and one close-up of your face

A "virtual portfolio" of your work with photos of 3-10 of completed designs, images of detail work that you have produced, images of patterns if you work from them and images of your sketches

A 3-5 minute personal video featuring a personal introduction, a summary of your design goals and achievements, why you need Project Runway to achieve your goals and anything else you think they need to know

Hit the jump to check out the casting flyer and a video mashup of what your Project Runway experience might be like. And if you think you need to brush up on some skills, feel free to peruse our wide variety of fashion classes.

All right designers, you've got two weeks. As Gunn would say, "Make it work!"

-- John Ruscher

The 2nd Annual Greenpoint Film Festival Wants Your Visionary Films

 

Hey filmmakers—while you're readying your submissions for June's Northside DIY Film Fest, why not aim for even more North Brooklyn domination by entering the Greenpoint Film Festival?!

The inaugural Greenpoint Film Festival, produced by Brooklyn arts organization Woven Spaces, went down over four days back in October, presenting local talent alongside film titans like David Lynch and Jonas Mekas, who premiered his documentary about the East Village's now-defunct Mars Bar. The festival will return this fall, and the deadline for submissions is April 3—or May 3 if you don't mind a slightly higher entry free.

Before you submit your film, note the festival's requirements:

The film must have been completed between May 2010 and May 2012.

Works in any language other than English must have English subtitles at the time of submission.

Short films and student works must be under 50 minutes. Features must be 50 minutes or longer.

Films must be available for exhibition in 16mm film, BluRay or DVD.

All filmmakers must have obtained any necessary clearances to exhibit the film at the time of submission.

Full details are available on the submissions guide page. We'll leave you with some wise words from Mekas, from his 1979 film Paradise Not Yet Lost: "Be idealistic, don't be practical. Seek the insignificant small but essential qualities, essential to life."

-- John Ruscher

Tech Competition // NYC BigApps 3.0 Invites You To Build Apps That Improve City Life

With New York City's tech community getting some much-deserved attention through the Cornell tech campus planned for Roosevelt Island and the recent protest of SOPA and PIPA, we wanted to make sure all of you Silicon Alley fans are aware of an awesome competition that brings together NYC and technology.

NYC BigApps 3.0 invites software developers to create apps that use city data to improve the NYC experience. As the name suggests, the competition in its third year, with past winners such as the Roadify iPhone App, which employs user-submitted data and official transit data to give users alerts on subway, bus and driving conditions, and Big Apple Ed, a online guide to NYC public schools.

This year's competition will award $50,000 in prizes, including $10,000 and a chance to present their app at one of NY Tech Meetup's popular gathers going to the Best Overall Application.

If you'd like to enter, then you better get coding. The deadline for submissions, January 25, is less than a week away. Some submissions are already in, and you can check out videos, images and descriptions here.

So programmers of NYC (many of whom we happen to know here at 3rd Ward), let's show the city what you've got.

-- John Ruscher

Call For Entries // 12 x 12 Gives A Dozen Designers A Chance To Create Furniture Out Of Reclaimed NYC Wood

Want to build a desk out of Brazilian Ipe, Cumaru and Greenheart from the old Coney Island Boardwalk? Maybe a bookshelf made from Eastern Spruce and Vintage Yellow Pine salvaged from the recently demolished East Village dive Mars Bar? Or how about using the Oak and Cypress vats from Queen's Stock Distillery Co. to craft a nice coffee table? If so, you'll want to throw your hat (or portfolio, in this case) into the ring for 12 x 12, a contemporary furniture design competition organized by the Sawkill Lumber Co. 

12 x 12 will supply twelve furniture designers with reclaimed wood from twelve historical New York City sites. Since we are always professing our love for wood, design, reclaimed materials and NYC, we're excited to be co-sponsoring the competition along with Brooklyn Woods, which provides woodworking and cabinet making training for low-income New Yorkers, and Build-It-Green!, the only NYC nonprofit retail outlet for salvaged and surplus building materials.

The winning designers' furniture pieces will be featured in an exhibition during Design Week in the spring and auctioned off to benefit Brooklyn Woods' woodworking education and job training programs.

You have until January 31 to submit your portfolio. If you're one of the twelve lucky designers, part of NYC history could be arriving on your doorstep by mid-February.

--John Ruscher

Call For Entries // Make Your Culinary Dreams Come True

Have you crafted the perfect sparkling molasses-kombucha-agave beverage? Think you make the best portable, personal-size pies in town? Or maybe you're just a really good cook. Whatever the case, if you want to make that your business, you best check out The Next BIG Small Brand competition by Rooster Design Group.

The application is pretty simple: Write 500 words about what your culinary concept is and how you plan to execute it--something of a condensed business plan. If it's something that's already in the works, include any relevant links or photos. Formal culinary training or experience is in now way required; however, a great idea for a culinary brand is. Currently the opportunity's being offered to New Yorkers and Bay Area folks exclusively.

Meanwhile: The rewards are huge--branding and design by Rooser themselves, PR representation, kitchen equipment from Breville, and retail opportunities at Whole Foods, Bi-Rite, and Brooklyn Flea. Not too bad, right?

Well you've got until February 5 to make it happen. Semifinalists will be announced February 9, and a winner will be chosen March 27. Get to it, foodies.

--Layla Schlack