SEIU District 1199 New Connections Network

I am testing the waters for any interest in forming a group of artisticly inclined folks willing to help others that might want to create some Labor Art from our District!  I personally hold a Master of Fine Arts Degree and have plently of experience in teaching.  All levels of interest are welcome.  Talent need not be a determining factor for inclusion.  Fear will be your only obstacle.  If there is enough interest, let's start painting our world purple! ! !  ....Kendra

Hey, Kendra!  Great idea!  I haven't dabbled in the arts for a very long time but I'll bet there's some hidden talent out there just waiting to be discovered.  I'm not much for painting and such but I really wanted to be part of the photography group.  Maybe I'll have to dust off that camera and start documenting my world.  Anyone else out there ready to get in touch with their "inner artist"?  ---Debbie.

Well, we probable don't want my "inner artist" coming out, but would love to hear and see some ideas and maybe we can put together a traveling exhibit if it all works out!

Oh Jason, don't be shy.  I think for your first assignment, you need to shed all clothing and paint with your body!  All in the name and for the cause of Labor!!  That technique was real popular in the 60's!!! 

Sounds like a neat idea - It would be cool if we could develop a program for the children of members.

Hi

This is the first time I have really had time to look around on here.  This is the first thing that caught my eye. I am very interested. I was an art major in college before I dropped out for financial reasons. I dabble in a little bit of everything drawing, painting, beading, sewing, digital art, glass fusing the list goes on and on. I know we have a ton of talented people. I think all we need is to come up with a project. maybe we could pick a theme or medium and see what people come up with. maybe share our efforts at the next e-board or something.  Eve Beard

 

Hi Eve and welcome aboard!  I am as sure as you about having a ton of talented Unionists just waiting to let their inner artist go labor wild.  I am wondering if someone like yourself could put a few  ideas together and post some visuals on the site to get folks moving.  I know that if this endeavor takes off and we get enough people together expressing themselves, Jason has offered to get a show for us.  One idea for posting might be to get some stuff on here from the past for ideas.  There was a lot of labor art happening in the early 19th cen. that could be used for inspiration.  I remember attending a great show in Columbus years ago that featured American and European Labor art posters.  Food for thought?....Kendra

Hi Kendra

A labor art project sounds great. Maybe people can form subgroups according to their interests and then have a fun project for everyone.

A writers' organization that I belong to often has a photo shoot-out during meetings. Anyone interested in photography can bring their camera. We can apply this "shoot-out" concept to eboard and other meetings. If you're interested, you bring your camera to eboard, take a bunch of photos that capture the essence of that meeting and then create a slide show. We can post all those creative slideshows on the web for everyone to enjoy.

Nicki Chodnoff
web content developer

I love the photo shoot-out idea, Nicki!  Our discussion at the Library break-out session included a desire for more pictures and even video clips from EBoard meetings. 
     A couple of people specifically mentioned that they would have loved to have been able to show a video clip of Sue Morano's speech or Marc Dann's speech to their members at home.  Maybe we can start bringing a video camera to EBoard and have some clips posted here on the MC site afterwards? 
     With the photos, it would be great to have a more streamlined photo section, maybe with thumbnails and a bit more organization.  Everybody loves to look at pictures and we could get some great shots at EBoard meetings.  ---Debbie.

One thing I would love to see in our union is different interpretations of a life of a worker. This may apply to Stacy's mediums as well, but I think it would be awesome to have members create a pice of art (whether photo, painting, poetry, etc.) on the concept of a member's life. Some may watch the digital stories on this site, but sort of taking that one form of medium to tell a story but applying it to any medium an artist feels. Stacy, I think it would be great for you to talk with a member, get their personal story, and depict it in a way you think works best! If we can get Stacy and others to participate, I think we can have a wonderful traveling exhibit to show the lives of workers in our district!

Hi Debbie

Jason and I have been quietly working on designing a more streamlined and easier to use photo gallery. It has thumbnails and is much more organized. We are going over the almost completed versions this week. Hopefully, the new and improved photo gallery will be up in 2 or 3 weeks. We'll have a better time-line idea by the end of this week.

As for videos, you can attach a video to each forum message you post. So after the next eboard, if I see a  number of message posts with video attachments, I will create a separate eboard video forum. Since a couple of our eboards this year will be regional, it would be great to share videos for those not in attendance.

Thanks for the info, Nicki!  Now we just have to figure out who's going to bring the video camera to EBoard meetings so we can take videos to post! ;-)
    I think it would be really nice if we could have some videos of guest speakers, special presentations, etc.  The MCs and EBoard members are really started to get excited about this site and the things we can do with it. I love it when they come up with new ideas and suggestions!  Unfortunately, it keeps you scrambling around to try and make the software do what we want it to!  Thanks for all you do.  ---Debbie.

Just to update everyone, the new photo gallery is up and running. It is much easier to view, post and navigate around.

The photo gallery gives us a place for our creative release. So if you're creative juices are flowing and you want to do a video about your work place, a photo montage during the next E-Board or local event, or produce a labor-themed poster, there's a place to display everyone creativity. The sky is the limit on what you want to create. Just do it.

If you want some poster inspiration, I posted information about a poster company that offers labor-related posters in the Labor forum. They allow us to use their posters for free if you have your own personal home page on the web. Take a look at some of their posters, they are humorous and poignant and can be your starting point for inspiration.

There's an extraordinary group of people in SEIU, let's just let our talents flow and then post our projects online for all to share.

Nicki Chodnoff