Dear Friends and Participants of the Yankee Homecoming Inn Street Artisans Revival,
This is the second mailing list update regarding the Artisans Revival. I’d like to touch upon several developments. As mentioned last week, there was a push to meet a 50% booking deadline by this week, and I am happy to report that that mark has been met. Due to a tremendous response over the weekend from several sources including the Salisbury Art Stroll and the Unitarian Healing Arts fair, as well as the Newburyport Farmers market, we are well on our way to securing the bookings needed to avoid any last minute alterations to the initial vision of the Inn Street Artisans Revival. Some initial dates and spaces are now fully booked. I would not be surprised to see a mostly booked show shortly after Memorial Day, with perhaps only individual spaces and weekday spots available by that time. I am in contact with several sources at the moment that have brought on some wonderful local individual talent as well as the possibility of several featured ‘group’ bookings, including local, non-profit and humanitarian organizations that are doing wonderful and effective things to our area and community.
Now that this initial phase of the project is in full gear, we can now begin to move forward with some other aspects of the Revival in which I am very excited about presenting.
But before I do, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you all for contributing to this first time event. I’d also like to take this opportunity to share something very personal to me, but has tremendous reverberations throughout the Revival on many levels. Some evident. Some not so evident.
First, I have never taken on something of this magnitude. Now that this ship has been cast, its time for the crew to sail her. I am in need of some help. Your comments, input, conversation, support, and encouragement of this vision has been so inspirational to me that mere words could never describe. For those that know me personally, you know that this has been a time of deep personal grief due to the sudden passing of my Mother last February. I wanted to share this personal part of this story with you, because my Mother played a very large role in making something like this happen, and for this, I will be forever grateful. Ill never forget showing her the first Yankee Homecoming program book from the 2013 design I did when it first came out to print. She was the first (and maybe only!) one that asked me to sign it! And even though I never got to share anything about this event with her, My mother, like my Grandmother, was my biggest fan. During her eulogy I made a promise to her and my family, that I intend to keep. Id like to dedicate the work I do for this first time Yankee Homecoming event, the Inn Street Artisans Revival, to my Mother, and to all the encouraging and supporting parents out there that seek to instill the love, beauty, and passion of the young artist within their children.
Now that this vision has taken wing, its time to flock together. I, along with the support of Yankee Homecoming Chairman Paul Swindlehurst, and Vice President Chair Dennis Palazzo, have scheduled a public presentation of this ‘first time’ Yankee Homecoming event, the Inn Street Artisans Revival 2016, at the Newburyport Public Library on Wednesday, June 8th 2016 at 7 P.M. I will host this event along with what I hope to be the volunteer core foundation support group of the Artisans Revival. There are many roles to be filled within the many categories that the Revival will present. I had heard it stated a long time ago that art is like a set of keys. You could drive a Rolls Royce, but without the keys,..you don’t go anywhere. And even though this event is entitled an ‘Artisan Revival’, its not just about fine art. Its about all forms of art. Music, culinary, healing, performing, poetry, historical,….you name it. The motto that is fast becoming the staple for the Revival is; “There’s literally something for Everyone’. Pardon the pun ; ) So if you have a burning desire to contribute to one or more of the categorys, Id love to speak with you, and have you join us during this presentation.
This presentation will be a ‘coming home’ of sort within itself. What many people may not be aware of is that this event is actually an ‘extension’ of an exhibit that I first put forth in motion ten years ago. This exhibit has been archived and is still available to be seen within a series of work entitled; ‘Reflections on Ten years’, that I am now currently documenting within the Spirit of Newburyport Blog;
Reflection on Ten Years;
Newburyport; An American Perspective
A quote within this presentation first recorded ten years ago;
“Newburyport: An American Perspective ’ is an attempt to embrace and preserve some of the town’s most cherished memoirs, greatest accomplishments and contributions to American values, as well as a perspective of the current state of the town and union. It is the artist’s way of bringing about a collective social message both positive and negative, with the intent to remember who we are, where we came from, and where we are going. It is also intended to confront some of the most current and pressing issues facing our country today such as personal dis-empowerment, rampant development and globalization, social unconsciousness, political and corporate corruption, corporate outsourcing, and continued degradation of personal freedom and civil liberties in exchange for security, that may all be contributing factors to the so-called ‘decline of American values’.
‘ It is a contemporary concourse designed to serve as a model for establishing a new modern day paradigm in personal and community development. It is an expression of the current state of the American Dream, a dream that the artist feels was once the pride and aspiration of all Americans and the envy of the rest of the world. It is a social call for a community movement, to once again answer the call as wayfarer’s, and lead a restoration (REVIVAL) of the American Dream through personal and community empowerment, at a time in which world events threaten to destroy the very fiber of the American way of life as we know it.
Come join us in a celebratory event of the enduring American spirit that can spark a social consciousness that has the potential to reek across our nation once again, ………………………………..like that of burning teas.”
As stated, this was first written ten years ago when most people didn’t have a clue as to what I was talking about,…or why. It doesn’t take much to look around this country today to understand what it is I am talking about now. If you have any doubt of the significance of this event, just take a look at the event that made it all happen in order for the Inn Street Artisans Revival to be born;
Inn Street Blues;
A story for another day.
As an independent artist in the Newburyport area celebrating ten years with the Spirit of Newburyport, I have had an incredible opportunity to flourish as an artist within this city. But I will be the first one to tell you that it has not been easy. Only those that have known me and personally witnessed my struggle over the years would know first hand on what it has entailed and just how it has come to be.
Some will question that I have used this opportunity for personal gain. Even though there are some that have shared this sacrifice with me, both willingly and unwillingly, I wish I could stand before you now and tell you that it has produced a secure home, studio, gallery, or license to create, produce, sell and distribute my work in Newburyport as a contributing member of my community. The fact of the matter is it has not, yet, fully, and I continue to struggle to maintain each and every one. I also understand that there are other artist within this community that will state the same. Yet, for all the time, pain, gain, loss, struggle, fears and tears, I am grateful that I am still here, and still have the opportunity to share with you a vision first put forth many years ago.
I will also say this here and now. For as long as I have an opportunity to share this vision, I will continue to tell the story. For within it, it tells the story of many who have come before us, and still do, that believe in this shared vision. A vision that dispels the ‘starving artist mentality’ and the realization that personal, individual empowerment, freedom of expression, and economic sustainability, still remains an important fundamental American principle, one in which generations have come, worked, fought, and died for, and still do.
Before I get off my soap box, I am going to share with you one more ‘Yankee Homecoming’ story. You can always skip over and get to the meat of this update if you want to, but in my opinion, you will be missing out on what this event is really all about.
For anyone that has followed my work over the years you know that I had the honor to design the 2013 Yankee Homecoming program book under the direction of that years chairperson, Tammy Jennings. For the whole story go here;
Tribute to Jack Frost;
But just to finish up this lil diddy before I move on, Id like to share what else happened that year. During the festival, and the time spent on the lead up doing the design work for the cover, I began to realize that most people, including myself, had never heard of Jack Frost, the man and artist, who first came up with the idea of of Yankee Homecoming, and design and produced the very first Yankee Homecoming Program Book. This baffled me. I remember running a contest for a $300.00 print at my Inn Street kiosk that year. I wrote a question on my chalk board; ‘Who is Jack Frost’? Would you believe that it took the full ten days of Yankee Homecoming for someone to answer it, and give away that 300.00 print?
Enough said.
Now lets get on with the show.
I’d like to begin featuring the Artisans of the Revival within these regular updates. If you would like to be featured, please send me a brief blurb, complete with website, articles and links describing you and your business. These features are to be used for all future press releases as well as marketing and promotional material, including the Yankee Homecoming web site and social media, facebook pages. The first submissions will be the first among the featured segments, and will progress accordingly. All Features will be archived within the YH web pages, as well as the Spirit of Newburyport Blog.
This feature element of the Revival will also apply to all non-profit and humanitarian organizations that will participate in the Artisans Revival, as well as the musicians, performers, writers, poets and demonstrators. More on all this in the next update, as well as the first non-profit feature and humanitarian cause to take part, Lucys Love Bus, of Amesbury.
Just one last point. Ha. Got ya. Thought I was done huh……. Never!
The first and main question I have been asked is, So, John,….tell me what the Inn Street Artisans Revival is all about?
This is simple. As stated in that first exhibit ten years ago;
” It is a social call for a community movement, to once again answer the call as wayfarer’s, and lead a restoration (REVIVAL) of the American Dream through personal and community empowerment, at a time in which world events threaten to destroy the very fiber of the American way of life as we know it.”
revival
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Acronyms,
Encyclopedia,
Wikipedia.
re·viv·al
(rĭ-vī′vəl)
n.
1.
a. The act or an instance of reviving: the revival of a person who fainted.
b. The condition of being revived.
2. A restoration to use, acceptance, activity, or vigor after a period of obscurity orquiescence: a revival of colonial architecture; a revival of the economy.
3. A new presentation of an old play, movie, opera, ballet, or similar production.
4.
a. A time of reawakened interest in religion.
b. A meeting or series of meetings for the purpose of reawakening religious faith, often characterized by impassioned preaching and public testimony.
5. Restoration to validity of something lapsed or set aside, such as a legal claim or status.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
revival
(rɪˈvaɪvəl)
n
1. the act or an instance of reviving or the state of being revived
2. an instance of returning to life or consciousness; restoration of vigour or vitality
3. a renewed use, acceptance of, or interest in (past customs, styles, etc): a revival of learning; the Gothic revival.
4. (Theatre) a new production of a play that has not been recently performed
5. (Ecclesiastical Terms) a reawakening of faith or renewal of commitment to religion
6. (Ecclesiastical Terms) an evangelistic meeting or service intended to effect such areawakening in those present
7. (Law) the re-establishment of legal validity, as of a judgment, contract, etc
Never forget this.
June 8th, Newburyport Public Library, 7 PM.
Be There. Mic Drop.
* You are receiving this notification because either you are registered as a participating vendor, or you have shown genuine interest in this years ‘first time event’. If however, this email has been sent to you by mistake, or you wish to not receive further updates, then please reply with ‘remove’ in the subject space.
Best Regards,
John William Brown
Artisans Revival Update
Tribute to Jack Frost
Gallery Blog 