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ROCHESTER — Downtown Rochester has added a new summer event to its lineup, and organizers are looking for artisan vendors, makers and handmade crafters to help make it a success.

The first Downtown Rochester Makers’ Market will be held 10 a.m.-4 p.m. on Saturday, June 24, on West Fourth Street, between Main and Walnut.

Rochester Downtown Development Authority Events Coordinator Jenna O’Dell said the DDA has added art as an initiative this year and is looking forward to hosting a space that can support local artisans and crafters in the area.

“We’re working on promoting art and artisans and the overall art feel, so we thought this would be a great addition for our event calendar,” she said.

The Makers’ Market — which replaces the former Junk in the Trunk and Thursday Night Market events — will include artisan vendors, crafters, vintage collectors and makers selling their handcrafted goods, wares and other specialty items.

“This is kind of like our summertime Kris Kringle Market, because it will be on West Fourth Street in the heart of downtown,” added Taylor Knuth, the DDA’s marketing coordinator. “We’re really excited to evolve this market opportunity in the summer season to show off local small businesses.”

Those interested in purchasing a booth space at the market are encouraged to fill out a registration form online at www.Downtownrochestermi.com, where they will be asked to provide three images of vendor artwork and one image of the vendor’s booth display. The deadline to register is Friday, May 5.

“It’s a great opportunity for artisan vendors and crafters to get their name out and spread the word about their business, whether they have a brick-and-mortar already or if it’s just an Etsy shop. We are really trying to build the relationship between artisan crafters, vendors and the community members that attend the event,” O’Dell said.

The Makers’ Market is a juried show, and acceptance is based on “the quality of design, workmanship, originality, and booth display as depicted in vendor’s photo submissions.”

Vendors will know if they have been selected to participate by May 8.

To stay in the know about all downtown Rochester happenings, text “JOIN” to (866) 603-4005 or visit downtownrochestermi.com.

Texas A&M University students in the School of Performance, Visualization, and Fine Arts are getting the chance to showcase their work in a week-long event.

CHANGSHA, China, April 25, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — EviDenS de Beauté, a French luxury skin care brand, hosted a grand brand ceremony in Changsha, China, on April 18, showcasing its brand image and achievements in the Chinese market. The ceremony, supported by its partner S’Young International, aimed to showcase the brand’s commitment in developing anti-aging products for sensitive skin and its ambitious expansion in China.

Changsha is one of the representative new Tier 1 cities in China, representing a high urban population share of new Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities (500 million), while Tier 1 cities like Beijing and Shanghai account only for 5% of the 1.4 billion population. Changsha, which has also been recognized as one of the new internet-famous cities in China, came as an ideal location for EviDenS de Beauté’s grand brand ceremony, as it represents a new consumer demographic with distinct characteristics and various beauty demands, especially Gen Z. At the same time, EviDenS de Beauté is able to link more consumer groups with anti-aging skincare needs in China.

The ceremony, which gathered over 300 guests, began with the performance of a romantic and beautiful love story depicting the original love story journey from acquaintances to couple in France and Japan, where the brand originated 15 years ago. Founder Charles-Edouard Barthes then gave a keynote speech, sharing the brand’s mission, development history and the team’s commitment to high-quality products.

EviDenS de Beauté came as a gift of love inspired by the ultra-sensitive skin of the founder’s Japanese wife. Barthes traveled throughout Japan to seek out exceptional biologists and successfully created gentle and efficient formulas for sensitive skin. He then founded EviDenS de Beauté with a touch of French art de vivre.

Also at the ceremony, Prof. Masaaki Ishibashi, the brand’s biotechnology scientist, gave a speech that emphasized the brand’s efforts in delivery quality products. EviDenS de Beauté, with over 1.98 million consumers globally, also presented product showcases “Evidens de Beauté SAHO” and “She’s EviDenS” to feature consumers’ feedback.

Meanwhile, Jessie Giraud, CEO of EviDenS de Beauté, presented on stage the “Evidens de Beauté Global Plan” for the next three years, pledging to continue partnering with S’Young International to achieve new heights in the Chinese market.

Specifically, for the Chinese market, the brand’s focus is primarily on high-end female consumers. Estimates show that the Chinese market for sensitive skin is worth US$8 billion and is gradually increasing. With that in mind, EviDenS de Beauté has invested heavily in brand assets and communication to increase their luxury profile, with a differentiated positioning as an anti-aging skincare brand specially formulated for sensitive skin.

In a bid to better promote its products, EviDenS de Beauté has centered its marketing strategy around the precise understanding of its target audience’s mindset and demands. The brand targets urban elites who value quality of life and taste, and have unique aesthetic preferences. With such approach, the brand has focused on the precise promotion of certain products, enabling the brand to exceed its sales targets in China.

Notably, EviDenS de Beauté maintained a 600% growth rate in 2022 on Douyin (Chinese Tiktok), the most popular short video and live-streaming platform. Its high-end mask has been ranked No. 1 in sales volume among high-spending customers. The brand’s customer repurchase rate comes in over 40%, well above the industry average.

In addition, EviDenS de Beauté has adopted an all-rounded marketing strategy to boost its high-end market penetration. For its online campaign, the brand has strengthened its endorsement through its presence on major e-commerce platforms and has deployed strong social media marketing to establish a more dynamic brand image. EviDenS de Beauté has also invited Chinese influencers, such as Teacher Xu and Li Jiaqi, to evaluate the brand’s products and services.

For its offline promotion, EviDenS de Beauté has built up its presence through high-end offline channels such as Rosewood, SKP SELECT, WANGFUJING, Joyce Beauty and niche channels like Little B.

To enhance consumer experience, EviDenS de Beauté has launched a variety of membership services, including one-on-one skin care consulting, VIP spas and customized afternoon tea, for its over 1 million high-end members.

SOURCE S’Young International

Ranked one of the most creative cities in the U.S., according to a poll by Singulart, it comes as no surprise that the Emerald City is brimming with artists, musicians and creators. The Seattle University community is no exception. 

From the SU Filmmakers, Free Verse and Fashion clubs to resources like the Billodue Makerspace and Media Production Center, students have several avenues through which to make their creative projects come to life. But post-grad—out in the ‘real world’—making those passions into a career can seem like quite the feat. 

Kevin Maifeld, the acting chair of the department of performing arts and arts leadership, feels that the support given to alumni after moving on from Seattle U is just as important as that given to its enrolled students. 

“We believe in fully supporting our students even after they graduate. And, I have to say, I am very proud of the support we give to our alumni,” Maifeld said. “Once you graduate, we don’t say ‘Goodbye, see you later.’ We want to hear from them. We want to be references for them—and I get asked all the time to be a reference for students—we want to hear about when they get that new job, when they change jobs.” 

A common fear for students of the arts is the job market upon graduating, especially with potential student loans and the high cost of living in cities like Seattle, which are hubs for creatives. The ‘starving artist’ is a term all too familiar for people looking to pursue artistic endeavors as a career, but Maifeld wants to push against that concept. 

“That’s a common myth: the starving artist,” Maifeld said. “What I’m hearing from people in hiring positions is that they can’t get enough candidates. In the old days, before COVID, they would have 50 or 60 applicants for every job, and, now, the job is up for a month and they have five or six. So it’s a great time, I think, for graduating students from Seattle U in the arts because, boy, there is an abundance of opportunities.” 

Some of these opportunities are shared with students and alumni of the performing arts and arts leadership department through weekly newsletters. Susan Meyers, the director of the creative writing program, has pushed for the inclusion of professional-development assignments in creative writing courses and events that highlight different voices within the industry. 

“It’s really been important to me to have conversations with students about what the professional and the industry contexts are out in the world, in all kinds of ways, for people who are interested in arts-based careers,” Meyers said. 

Students like Lia Gonia, a fourth-year communication & media and theater double major, have used those events and small department sizes to network, ultimately finding a job within the industry. 

“The faculty know me by name. They know my interests. They’ve helped me make connections in the real-world—I got a small stage manager gig from going to an event that a professor told me to go to—so I am forever grateful for the theater faculty,” Gonia said. “They care about our success, and they are theater artists themselves, so seeing theater artists in action, giving me hope and motivation, has been really special.” 

Gonia is looking forward to combining her two majors and passions into a career. Hopefully doing marketing for a theater here in Seattle. But even if you’re not majoring in the arts, there are opportunities to immerse yourself within them. 

Aly Anabascher, a fourth-year sociology major, is set to attend the Vancouver Film School later this fall, something she says she wouldn’t have been inspired to do without her experience in the SU Filmmakers club doing projects like “Baby Teeth.” 

“It was so incredible to be able to be in an environment that was just focused on growing the skills that none of us really had,” Anabascher said. “It was an interesting experience because we are all amateurs, and we’re all trying to navigate this space together. And it was really fun to run into issues and then have to figure out how to fix them, adapting and moving on and not getting too stuck in everything.” 

There are endless ways to get involved in or support the arts, both here at Seattle U and in the broader community, something that Meyers stresses to students and friends alike. 

“There are so many ways to be a writer, to be an artist, to be a reader, to be a lover or supporter of the arts. To essentially have art and expression be a part of your life, it’s not a single path. It doesn’t have to look a single way,” Meyers said.

An emergency that’s often explained with abstract data, catastrophic predictions, and threats to the planet and its species, the climate crisis can be difficult to comprehend. For decades, warming temperatures and rising waters were largely connected to plants and animals, with imagery showing the devastation as it relates to polar bears, coral, and other threatened species. There’s been growing interest in recent years, though, in documenting the communities most profoundly affected and highlighting the human impact already underway.

Gideon Mendel, a South African photographer living in the U.K., has been taking this approach in his two companion series, Drowning World and Burning World. On view now at The Photographers’ Gallery as part of Fire / Flood, Mendel’s portraits are deeply personal, showing individuals and families in their homes and neighborhoods that have been destroyed by natural disasters. Taken in 15 countries since 2007, the collection insists on recognizing that although the regularity and intensity of wildfires, hurricanes, and other weather events are increasing, humanity has been feeling the effects of the crisis for decades.

Mendel began Drowning World first after floods overtook Doncaster, a small city in South Yorkshire. He started by photographing people partially submerged in what was left of their homes, a position that he recreated a few weeks later when visiting India. “When I got back, I put these pictures side by side, portraits from floods in the U.K, and India, and I felt like something quite strong was happening—a shared vulnerability, despite the huge differences in wealth, culture, and environment. That was the beginning of the journey for me,” he told LensCulture.

João Pereira de Araújo, Taquari District, Rio Branco, Brazil, March 2015, from ‘Drowning World’

Whether captured in Haiti, Brazil, Pakistan, or France, the photos assert that no community is immune to the effects of a changing planet, although some are surely left in worse conditions. Mendel explains in a statement:

My subjects have taken the time—in a situation of great distress—to engage the camera, looking out at us from their inundated homes and devastated surroundings. They are showing the world the calamity that has befallen them. They are not victims in this exchange: the camera records their dignity and resilience. They bear witness to the brutal reality that the poorest people on the planet almost always suffer the most from climate change.

When Burning World followed in 2020, Mendel was able to compare the two types of disasters and find commonalities, most notably how his subjects unanimously found strength and endurance. He photographs each person standing upright, remaining assured amid the ruin and choosing courage over fatalism.

Fire / Flood is on view in London through September 30. You can find more of the series on Mendel’s site and Instagram.

Gurjeet Dhanoa, Rock Creek, Superior, Colorado, USA, March 2022, from ‘Burning World’

Florence Abraham, Igbogene, Bayelsa State, Nigeria, November 2012, from ‘Drowning World’

Jenni Bruce, Upper Brogo, New South Wales, Australia, January 15, 2020, from ‘Burning World’

Kevin Goss, Greenville, California, USA, October 2021, from ‘Burning World’

Top left: … Nigeria, November 2022, from ‘Drowning World.’ Top right: Uncle Noel Butler and Trish Butler, Nura Gunyu Indigenous Education Centre, New South Wales, Australia, February 28, 2020, from ‘Burning World.’ Bottom left: Rhonda Rossbach, Derek Briem, and Autumn Briem, Killiney Beach, British Columbia, Canada, October 16, 2021, from ‘Burning World.’ Bottom right: Joy Christian, Dorca Executive Apartments, Otuoke, Ogbia Municipality, Bayelsa State, Nigeria, November 2022, from ‘Drowning World’

Abdul Ghafoor, Mohd Yousof Naich School, Sindh Province, Pakistan, October 2022, from ‘Drowning World’

Amjad Ali Laghari, Goth Bawal Khan village, Sindh Province, Pakistan, September 2022, from ‘Drowning World’

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article In ‘Fire / Flood,’ Gideon Mendel Photographs Those Who Remain Amid Climate Disaster appeared first on Colossal.

For Shannon Haines, former executive director of the Maine Film Center, the most frustrating part of running an arts organization was getting bogged down in menial work. As one of just three full-timestaffers, Haines often found herself cleaning the office and stuffing envelopes, which meant less time spent promoting first-run screenings of independent films and organizing the annual Maine International Film Festival. Leaders at other Waterville arts nonprofits commiserated. So in 2014, several of them banded together to form Waterville Creates, to help streamline programming and marketing efforts while supporting and expanding Waterville’s unique arts assets.

By the end of 2018, Waterville Creates had officially absorbed three of its founding organizations, including the Maine Film Center, along with the Waterville Opera House, a live performing-arts venue, and Ticonic Gallery + Studios, focused on arts education and exhibition.

The organization maintains one nonprofit board, including representation from partner Colby College, a huge efficiency that helps avoid volunteer burnout. “We provide back-end support, including fundraising, HR, and marketing, for these amazing programs to grow and flourish,” says Haines, now the president and CEO of Waterville Creates. 

But not until now, with the opening of downtown Waterville’s Paul J. Schupf Art Center, last December, have all the divisions been under one roof. The center, owned by Colby and designed in partnership with Waterville Creates, houses the Joan Dignam Schmaltz Gallery of Art, a new downtown extension of the Colby College Museum of Art, and the Waterville Creates administrative offices. On the first floor is Ticonic Gallery + Studios, which includes a clay studio, arts classroom, and exhibition space. The Maine Film Center’s three-screen cinema, formerly located at Railroad Square, is on the center’s second floor, along with concessions (including beer and wine). 

The new building is also home to a dedicated rehearsal space, Studio 1902, and a costume room for the Waterville Opera House, with an enclosed glass sky bridge connecting the center to the historic 800-seat theater on the upper floors of the city hall, next door. “The fact that we’re all co-located is really energizing for people,” Haines says. “We’ve always been really good at collaborations and coming up with dynamic programs across the different media that we present, but to be in the same space makes it easier to generate those ideas.”

Scenes from the opening of downtown Waterville’s new Paul J. Schupf Art Center. Photos by Dave Waddell.

At the center of it all is the Ed Harris Box Office — the actor developed a fondness for Waterville while filming Empire Falls and donated to the building’s capital campaign. “Whether you are buying a ticket for the Waterville Opera House or the Maine Film Center, or registering your kid for an art class, you can now do it all in one consolidated location,” Haines says. “We’re counting on patrons who love the film center coming to a movie, seeing information about a show at the opera house, making that transition to also become opera house patrons, and vice versa.”

Haines is most excited about how the new location will help achieve the mission of arts experiences for all, thanks in large part to the building’s visibility, as well as the support already shown by the city and its residents. “We had more people come to our gallery in one day, in this new building, than came to an entire past exhibition at our former location,” Haines says. “We’re front and center in the heart of downtown. I think that says a lot about this community’s commitment to the arts as an important part of our future.”

Learn more about the Paul J. Schupf Art Center and Waterville Creates events and programs here.

To coincide with the first major U.K. exhibition of works by the Renaissance great Donatello, the Victoria and Albert Museum released the latest addition to its How was it made? series, which explores the process behind some of art history’s most lauded pieces. The short video follows sculptor Simon Smith as he creates a scaled-down iteration of the 15th-century Prato Pulpit, a relief featuring dancing cherubs made for the Cathedral of Prato.

Referring to marble as “the emperor of all stones,” Smith draws a portion of the original work on a small block and explains the unique characteristics of the material as he carves. “It’s all about trapping shadows,” he says. “Carving is all about having deep cuts here and lighter here and the angle here and how the light plays on it. And certainly in relief because relief carving like this. It’s kind of halfway between sculpture and drawing.” While demonstrating how Donatello might have approached his work, Smith offers a compelling glimpse into how two artists’ techniques overlap and converge centuries apart.

Donatello: Sculpting the Renaissance is on view through June 11 in London and includes Smith’s panel, which viewers are encouraged to touch. Find more about the demonstration on YouTube. (via Kottke)

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article An Insightful Demonstration Recreates Donatello’s Marble Carving Technique appeared first on Colossal.

Contact: James Carskadon

STARKVILLE, Miss.—Mississippi State University graduates at the Starkville campus will have a memorable commencement on May 12 when the traditional ceremonies return to Davis Wade Stadium.

Ongoing construction at Humphrey Coliseum necessitates a departure from the usual ceremony location. Davis Wade Stadium previously has served as a host venue for commencement, most notably when former U.S. President George H.W. Bush spoke to MSU graduates in 1989.

MSU President Mark E. Keenum will serve as the featured speaker for this year’s ceremonies and the university will also present Rodger L. Johnson and Thomas B. “Tommy” Nusz with honorary Doctor of Public Service degrees for their lifetime achievements and longtime support of university programs.

Those who wish to watch the Starkville campus ceremonies remotely can do so via the MSU TV Center’s livestream at https://livestream.com/mstv/live and the MSU Facebook page at www.facebook.com/msstate.

Complete logistical information for visitors planning to attend the ceremonies at Davis Wade Stadium can be found at https://www.registrar.msstate.edu/students/graduation. MSU’s spring 2023 graduation schedule is as follows:

Wednesday, May 10:

11:30 a.m.: Doctor of Veterinary Medicine Commencement, Newell-Grissom Building

3 p.m.: Doctoral Graduation and Hooding Ceremony, Bettersworth Auditorium, Lee Hall (invitation only)

Thursday, May 11:

10 a.m.: Meridian Campus, MSU Riley Center

Friday, May 12:

8:30 a.m.: Starkville Campus: Academic Affairs; College of Architecture, Art and Design; College of Arts and Sciences; College of Education; and ACCESS, Davis Wade Stadium

6:30 p.m.: Starkville Campus: Bagley College of Engineering, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, College of Business, College of Forest Resources, and College of Veterinary Medicine, Davis Wade Stadium.

Johnson, of Atlanta, Georgia, will be presented with his honorary doctorate during the 8:30 a.m. ceremony on May 12. A 1971 MSU civil engineering graduate, he has had a distinguished career in sales, marketing, engineering, operations and human resources with private and public companies. In 2004, he was named the Bagley College of Engineering’s Alumni Fellow based on his notable achievements as a practicing civil engineer. A generous supporter of the university, Johnson is in his third term of service on the MSU Foundation Board of Directors.

Nusz, of Houston, Texas, will be presented with his honorary doctorate during the 6:30 p.m. ceremony on May 12. A 1982 MSU petroleum engineering graduate, he recently retired as chairman and CEO of Oasis Petroleum. He was instrumental in the return of MSU’s petroleum engineering program in 2015. A longtime supporter of the university, his contributions have boosted key facilities such as Nusz Hall, the home of MSU’s G.V. “Sonny” Montgomery for America’s Veterans, and Nusz Park, MSU’s new softball stadium. He is a past president of the Bulldog Club and has served on the MSU Foundation Board of Directors.

Mississippi State University is taking care of what matters. Learn more at www.msstate.edu.