Blogs

So I've been the Development Coordinator at the Sanctuary for about three weeks now through the Digital Media Arts Service Corp Program. It is a part of the larger AmeriCorps program, but focuses on empowering people through technology. After so many years of being a volunteer here, it is great to be at the Sanctuary full time. Volunteering and working with so many of you has been a great experience. I've learned so much, and I am really excited to be able to increase my participation in the Sanctuary.

I remember when I decided to get involved with the Sanctuary, about five years ago now. I was a graduate student at the University at Albany and saw Hudson Mohawk Independent Media present “Indy Media in A Time of War.” I signed up for the mailing list and have been coming back ever since.

This year, I'm going to help build the financial stability of the Sanctuary and help ensure its place in the community for many years to come.

Our friend Joe Lombardo, a key organizer of the United National Peace Conference in Albany we webcast from July 23-25, sent the following summary and assessment of the weekend events.  We thought you'd be interested:

What a week!

The Sanctuary for Independent Media, teamed with members of the Hudson Mohawk Indymedia Center collective, has spent the better part of the last 7 days planning, executing, and post-producing media for the United National Peace Conference, a major meetup for the antiwar and progressive communities that took place in Albany from July 23 to 25.

After attending a pretty damn cool panel on the future of Indymedia at last month's Allied Media Conference, we were looking for an excuse to test out a new crowdsourced-media web platform developed by the good folks at IndyPGH for their coverage of the G20 resistance in September 2009. Although we weren't closely involved in the planning of the UNPC's media strategy, a couple of weeks ago we found ourselves essentially in charge in that regard — and we decided to step up to the challenge.

To celebrate the end of the spring 2010 season and the hard that goes into making the Sanctuary happen, we had a pool party June 27th. Volunteers, presenters, supporters and members of our extended community came and celebrated our collective accomplishments.

This Fall will be the 5th Anniversary of the Sanctuary and as we reflect on our accomplishments, we're also building a strong foundation for our future.

What an exciting trip! Four of us from the Sanctuary just returned from the Allied Media Conference in Detroit this past weekend. It was great to meet like-minded people doing similar grassroots and community oriented media projects, spread the word about the Sanctuary, and see a slice of Detroit in all its building up from the decay of industry and making it for yourselves or its not going to happen at all glory.

Last weekend we had an AWESOME youth media workshop and film festival, as part of the N.Y. Shout Out Youth Media celebration. Huge thanks to everyone who came from near and far, to help make media, share ideas, brainstorm, act, write, edit, volunteer, cook food, and even just to watch and discuss the youth pieces.

We (fittingly) produced a ton of media during the day -- and the first finished pieces, which were completely produced between 2 and 4pm on Saturday, were four different short video public service announcements (PSAs). Each group got up on stage to screen and discuss their PSA, while other youth crew volunteers did a live video shoot of the discussion.

Here's what you made!

PSA 1: Youth Voices

Created by Andrew Vu, Darian Henry, Andrew Cullen, and Halle Prentice, with Branda Miller and Deyva Arthur.

PSA 2: High Fructose Corn Syrup

Created by Aden Suchak, Ben Maloney, Mike Mejia, Mike Irizarry, and Mohamed Gardner, with Gaetano Vaccaro, Amy Halloran, Jason Corwin, and Joe Lopez.

We're excited and honored that the Capital Region's altweekly, Metroland, chose to feature our current gallery show, a 30-year retrospective of political comics and graphic art by the NYC-based World War 3 Illustrated collective, on its cover this week!

You can read the full story at http://metroland.net/features.html, but the online version sacrifices much of the presentation. So I recommend you find a hard copy! We have a number here at The Sanctuary — or you can just click on the images below to download full-size scans.

Remember, if you haven't seen the show yet, it's up for almost another full month. Our gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., plus two hours before any event. As always feel free to contact us for more information.

Wow, the Sanctuary has a new and amazing mural! 

Peter Kuper's "Pissed Off Peace Dove," painted by artists Peter Kuper and Miles (seen immediately at completion, in front of our new dove.)

Now we have WW3 energy 365 days of the year...

and a perfect mascot watching over all of the Sanctuary folks hanging in the cafe.

Thanks, Peter, Miles,

and all of the wonderful WW3 artists who visited this weekend!

Seth Tobocman, a renowned artist and activist and founding member of the World War 3 Illustrated collective, sent us these thoughtful words about why the collective is still creating and publishing its magazine.

Why is this political comic book, which started in 1980, still publishing?

The oil slick off the gulf coast, the collapse of a speculative housing bubble, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Hurricane Katrina, the bombing and siege of Gaza, the massive anti-globalization protests in Seattle and other cities, the election of America’s first Black president. All of this proves us right.

We started this magazine in 1980 because we believed that Ronald Reagan was taking this country in the wrong direction. We believed that a new, radical movement would emerge to challenge these right wing policies.This was not a popular position at the time and even many who agreed with us cautioned us that it was unwise to be so bold and upfront about our politics.

UPDATE 5/14/2010: THIS POSITION IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE. Thanks for your interest!

Want to help develop a new model for community based media?
 
We are looking for a Development Coordinator VISTA to join our team at The Sanctuary for Independent Media.  The VISTA member will serve for one year in Troy NY, starting August 2, 2010.  This position is open until filled; if you are interested, please contact us immediately!

The Development Coordinator VISTA will work on building our grassroots fundraising capacity while organizing and expanding our grant writing efforts. Other priorities include continuing to build our capacity for handling volunteers and in-kind donations. Our goal is to put into place a solid foundation for attracting and retaining a full spectrum of support, ranging from financial and material to human resources.