Mira Allen's Field Reports

Winters and such...

Mira Allen — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 11:56:22 -0700

It’s getting cold here! The trees are all losing their beautifully colorful leaves and it’s pretty much no turning back at this point- I am about to experience my first New England winter. And I’m very, very scared.

The other day I was talking to Andre from Salvation Army about the upcoming winter. He stopped by the gallery during a benefit show that we had for them. According to him, I’m probably going to be reduced to a wimpering child before the winter is over. He said it gets so cold here it will make my fingers bleed. Awesome.

Speaking of the benefit show, it was a great success. xQuicksilverx spearheaded a collaboration with some local bands that packed the house and raised some money for the Salvation Army. It felt good to be part of that.

It’s almost time for the ‘Zine show to come down and I’ll be sad to see it go. We have some amazing cover art on the walls, some of it even hand painted on wood block. Plus there’s something pretty rad about being able to hang out on a comfy couch while at work. And that part of my job is to read graphic novels? Who could ask for more?

Other than that, I’ve been just focusing on getting everything for our annual fundraiser. On Nov 16 we will be screening Jean Cocteau’s 1947 silent film 'La Belle et La Bete.’ If that wasn’t exciting enough (there is most definitely a soft spot in my heart for silent films) local gothic cellist Wisteriax has been hard at work on an original soundtrack that she will be playing live during the screening. AND all of this amazingness will be accompanied by lasagna. And wine. So if you live anywhere near me, I expect to see you there. Visit www.119gallery.org to get all the info.

Database confusion

Mira Allen — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 12:53:37 -0600

After spending next to a month scratching my head over switching our org's database to Salesforce, we've decided (thankfully) that it might be more trouble than it is worth. Luckily I have the Organizers' Database at my fingertips which seems to take care of most everything that I need without the massive headache that Salesforce proved to be.
Today I just started our first email campaign with constant contact. I can't tell you how much easier it is.
We've got a pretty full month coming up with two exhibitions and a pretty kick-ass lineup of music, workshops, and even a volunteer awareness night. I'm really looking forward to the 'zine show...
Other than that- things are great. It's getting a little chilly (okay- it's pretty cold) but the leaves are all turning beautiful colors so I'm just hoping I'll survive the winter without crying like a little girl.
Wish me luck:)

The New Job...

Mira Allen — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 11:01:25 -0600

My how time flies! I just realized it’s been a month here at the 119 Gallery. I’ve spent it settling in and getting to know a whole new community. While it’s safe to say I miss my island home, it’s nice to be on a bigger piece of land. Lowell is a great town. There are a ton of artists here, a ton of non- profits, and a ton of interesting people.

Last Thursday a feature writer from Artscope Magazine came to interview Mary Ann about the ‘Mask’ show happening in the first part of September (you can check it out at http://119gallery.org/news/mask_nr.pdf). We’re all pretty excited about it because Artscope is one of the top two art mags in the area so it will be great exposure. We realized that if we can get into Artscope, we should be setting our sights higher. I’ve started scouting around for bigger regional and national art press contacts, so if any of you out there in cyberlandia have any suggestions, send ‘em! I’d be totally stoked!

On Friday my boss Mary Ann and I ventured into Cambridge to check out the Papercut Zine Library. The gallery is hosting a zine exhibition in October (I'm attaching the press release) and we’re looking for more local artists to bring on board. It was pretty impressive to see how many quality, unique zines are produced right here in New England. I browsed publications on subjects ranging from The Worst Poetry In The World (that was the actual title) to transgender comics to anarchist manifestos. We left feeling elated at all the possibilities for the show.

I have been working with a great marketing consultant named Deby Baker from Jericho on the marketing plan for the last three weeks and she’s been a huge help. We decided it's time to give the member database a huge overhaul (it’s largely unfiltered and needs to be organized into member interests and demographics so that we can reach our constituents in a more targeted fashion) so I’ve been playing around with Salesforce in preparation of migrating our info over by the end of the month.

Before we move all of our info, Deby and I are working on putting a survey monkey together to get a better grasp on our contacts’ interests so that we can make sure to minimize superfluous emails. We plan to ask people about their preferred form of contact (email, text, facebook etc. etc.) and interests. This is because we are way more than an art gallery in terms of events and we want to make sure the right people know about the right events. In any given month we have everything from dance performances, art receptions, heavy metal bands, experimental noise or sushi battles.

I’m pretty stoked on the new job.