AUGUST 2020.VOL. 20, NO. 08. PORTLAND, MAINE.
PORTLAND’S COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER. FREE!
Community Raises $175k Craft in a Time of Corona for Nonprofit Music Venue An interview with a Maine craft artist on the challenges of earning a living without arts and crafts events By Rosanne Graef My usual summer-time habit is to get ahead of a year’s worth of holidays, birthdays, and one-off gift-giving events. I scour newspaper calendars for festivals, powwows, and shows where folks from near, and occasionally far, gather to sell their useful, whimsical, clever, decorative, and skillfully done crafts and art works.
The stage is empty for the foreseeable future at nonprofit music venue One Longfellow Square. But the community rallied and raised funds to keep the venue alive until patrons may gather for shows again. -WEN file photo by Tony Zeli
ARTS & CRAFTS EDITION Page 5 Surviving the Pandemic at the Portland Conservatory of Music Page 7 Great Black Hawk bronze statue unveiled at Deering Oaks Park Page 9 Our wine guy offers a summer reading list for wine enthusiasts Page 12 New survey of local businesses offers a grim outlook Page 15 Arts & Crafts with Best Worst Trivia, crossword, Sudoku & more Page 17
Dr. Oren Gersten offers 5 evidenced based tools that may help bring down your stress levels
Page 4… It's time to fix the mayor position
West End, Portland – One Longfellow Square is deeply grateful to music lovers from near and far who have responded to our fundraising campaign with overwhelming kindness and generosity. We humbly say: thank you! After reaching an initial fundraising goal of $100,000, One Longfellow Square has eclipsed a second milestone of $175,000. OLS launched a GoFundMe campaign in mid-June, several months into the COVID-19 shutdown. The nonprofit performing arts center was in danger of closing forever with looming rent payments and no income on the horizon due to the nature of the virus and the live music industry’s reliance on dense crowds in small places. Incredibly, the community rallied around the venue and gave us a chance to survive the economic hardship of this pandemic.
What to do now that the pandemic has put the kibosh on these events? Gone, the pleasure of the hunt to discover something novel or exquisitely lovely. Remaining, my need to find just the right gift, as well as the creators’ needs to make a living or supplement their income. Like others, they may be working from home, but without the vending venues, how are they coping? I contacted a friend who’s active on the craft scene to find out. Laurie Babineau lives in rural Hartford, Maine, and has been creating and selling fine crafts and art for years. The past four years, under the name Wood B. Designs, she regularly attended at least a dozen events, mostly in the summer. Pyrography, the art of wood burning, is how she creates functional pieces such as her best-selling wooden spoons. She also does watercolors and combines pyrography and painting in fine art, as well as utilitarian pieces. Colder months find her offering crocheted items as well, mostly hats.
I asked her a few questions about There are many unknowns ahead. how things have changed: It’s a moving target to know when it will Marketing? “I’ve always had a webbe safe for the live music industry to resite, but most customers are through CONT'D ON PAGE 5 Facebook. Vending at fairs and festivals
Page 13… Patrick Kiruhura on cultural exchange (Part II)
Page 14… Safe return to business Zoom conferences
“W
e pass our support to each other because we know the value in what we do and how hard it is to make a living at it."
-Laurie Babineau, Wood B. Designs
is my best marketing tool. Advertising in publications is expensive and I never got much out of it. Being able to talk to people in person builds customer relationships, it’s a more personal connection ending with repeat sales and custom orders.” How’s business? “The pandemic has shut down my wholesale accounts. Those places are not open. No product is selling, so no orders for new items are being placed. All events I was vending at are cancelled—a huge loss of income. Most refunded my vending fee, yet some are holding it for next year. It’s a little tricky. I could use the money now but am glad I’m good for 2021 in terms of paying the fees. One of the events had to reschedule their first date and then cancel their second. I will most likely pay my vending fee a second time. I’m ok with that for these folks as they do a lot for community and raise money for kids to get art supplies. I know that they lost a lot more money than I did.”
CONT'D ON PAGE 3
Page 18… A visit to Ecuador & the Galapagos
