Artifact notes...

hello all,

Writing here from the midst of hiatus to "update" the blogosphere on what's up with Artifact.

So what is up with Artifact? Well, the reading series is on hiatus for a few more months and hopefully will be making a comeback in the winter of 2008. As most of you know, I had baby Mina Natalia Benham-Cunningham in May & so have been slightly pre-occupied with that undertaking. But there have been other changes as well. Chana Morgenstern, who co-founded Artifact with me & has continued to host Artifact in her apartment after I moved to Oakland last fall, and has moved to Providence, RI to begin her Ph.D at Brown. Renee Evans, who has been such an incredible asset to Artifact, has also moved there, so we have lost 2 major players over here and miss them both dearly. Chana had been working as our fund-raising director and spearheading our public writing projects arm of Artifact. Now that she is leaving, I believe it's best to dismantle this part of Artifact. In the meantime, I will be accepting any help offered in the way of fund-raising, mainly in grant-writing.

Chana & Renee's departure means a new space for Artifact, and likely that space will be public. I'm currently on the lookout for a suitable spot, so if anyone has any suggestions or connections, please contact me at artifactsf at gmail dot com. I am looking for a space in SF, close to transport, that will house 50+, and will allow booze & won't make demands on our programming. A tall order, but I'm keeping my fingers x-ed. If nothing in SF turns up, I may move it over here to the East Bay...so we'll just have to see.

In publishing news, Digital Artifact, led by Amanda Davidson, has made it online debut & looking towards a second issue. Their site looks amazing, thanks to the artwork of Renee Evans and the web developing of Jay Thomas. In print, I am working with Brent Cunningham and Neil Alger to bring Artifact Press and Hooke Press together which has been something we've been talking about for a long time.

So that's the news. Be well & I hope to see you all at an Artifact reading soon(ish).

xoxo,
Melissa Benham