Assets for Artists, a program aimed at helping artists throughout Berkshire County who wish to become home owners and/or strengthen their creative businesses, is now inviting new applications for 2009! 

Grants of up to $4,000 for artists seeking to become first-time home buyers and $2,000 for artist-entrepreneurs will be available for fourteen low- to moderate-income artists (all disciplines encouraged to apply).

The program provides state-funded “individual development accounts,” a financial tool that provides an incentive “match” for the participant’s own savings over a period of 6 – 24 months.

Click HERE to download the pre-application form, due Monday, February 23, 2009.  For more information on eligibility for the Assets for Artists program and the services to be offered, review the pre-application form and attend one of the upcoming information sessions:

Monday, February 9, at 7:00pm at the Lichtenstein Center for the Arts (28 Renne Avenue) in Pittsfield

Tuesday, February 10, at 5:30pm at MCLA’s Gallery 51 (51 Main Street) in North Adams.

A detailed overview of the program was printed in the January 2009 edition of the Berkshire Trade & Commerce and may be downloaded HERE. 

If you have any questions about the pre-application process or the program in general, contact Blair Benjamin at MASS MoCA (413-664-4481 x8104 or ).

Assets for Artists is a partnership between Berkshire Creative, MASS MoCA, MCLA’s Berkshire Cultural Resource Center, and Pittsfield’s Office of Cultural Development, with funding from the Massachusetts Department of Housing & Community Development and Berkshire Bank Foundation.

Yesterday we attended the inaugural Creative Economy Council meeting at the Institutue of Contemporary Art in Boston.  The Creative Economy Council is a new initiative to support the growth of the creative sector in Massachusetts.

B-HIPster alumni Helena Fruscio, now the Director of Operations at Berkshire Creative sits as the Berkshire representative.

We are so proud of you Helena!

Brinn K. says:

One word for this… delicious!

Not Your Mother’s Pumpkin Bread 

Ingredients:

     2 cups white sugar
     1 1/4 cups light brown sugar
     1 cup walnut oil
     1 (29 ounce) can pumpkin puree
     4 eggs
     4 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
     1 tablespoon baking soda
     1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
     1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
     1 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
     1 1/2 teaspoons salt
     1/2 cup cream sherry
     1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts
 
Directions:

1.     Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease three 8x4 inch loaf pans.
2.     In a large bowl, beat together white sugar, brown sugar and oil. Stir in the pumpkin. Mix in the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition.
3.     In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, coriander and salt. Stir dry ingredients into pumpkin mixture until smooth. Stir in cream sherry. Beat till thoroughly blended, 1 to 2 minutes. Fold in nuts. Spoon batter into 3 greased 8x4 inch loaf pans, filling no more than three quarters full.
4.     Bake in preheated oven until a tester inserted into center of a loaf comes out clean, about 65 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes in pans before turn out onto wire racks to cool completely. Can be kept at room temp. for 4 days or frozen.

(Brinn K. is a senior at MCLA and is the stage manager for MCLA Presents!)