Alchemical Blog

We had a lot of fun last Spring with the Trash Art Challenge and exhibits which took place at Spark Contemporary Art Space, the Palace Theater, and the Gear Factory.  Hopefully, with enough support and time we can once again continue this effort in 2010, if you are interested in creating trash art and exhibiting trash art, get in touch.

 In the meantime, Dale Fiegl, one of the artists who created and exhibited trash art for our exhibits, and helped to curate the Spark and Gear Factory shows has been in touch with an update.

Dale now has two online presences that he'd like to share.  Check out his work at:

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Planning meeting notes from Saturday night for the 2010 Upstate NY Permaculture Gathering.

2nd Planning Meeting for 2010 Upstate NY Permaculture Gathering (March 13, 2010)
1/16/10, 7:30pm - 9:00pm, 24 people in attendance.
(David, Jessica, Marcia, Seth, Michael, Sasha, Nick, Vanessa, Valerie, Helen, Lucy, Candee, Inma, Eli, Staphanie, Jody, Lenora, Ursula, Frank, Raishad, Zay, Pete, Kayleigh, Arthur)

1.  Name

• Changed from Consulta to Gathering to avoid confusion on the part of the public.
  
• Subtitle "Care of People, Care of Earth, Return of surplus to both"
  

• Program/Agenda (Valerie, Marcia, Nate)
• Timeline
  
• 10am - 11am, opening/welcome/open space configuration
  
• 11 am - 1 pm, 4 Pre-Programmed sessions, 2 running concurrently at a time 11-11:50 and 12-12:50
  
• "Green Infrastructure for the Health of Onondaga Creek" - Lindsay Speer, Permaculture Designer and Community Organizer
  
• Intro to Permaculture - Andrew Leslie Phillips, Hancock Permaculture Center
  
• Financial Permaculture - Jason Eaton,
  
• Social justice?  Beekeeping? Other? Liberation Ecology?
  
• 1pm - 2pm soup and bread lunch
• 2pm - 4:30pm Open Space sessions
• 4:30pm - 5pm Closing
• Venue: Heat, Air quality, parking (signage), set-up of workshop areas for day of event.
  
• Endorsements/Promotions (Frank, David, Jody, Michael)
  
• RSVPs using the Meetup.com platform
• Dedicated Gathering webpage will be on Alchemical website
  
• Flyer (draft from Corinne)
• use 2 columns
• add ethics sub-title (Care of People, Care of Planet, Return of Surplus to Both)
  
• add short 1-2 sentence Permaculture definition
• Include mention of childcare and possibly types of activities
• childcare should specify age group (4+ ?)
  
• Committee should provide any final info within two weeks for final flyer copy (by 1/30/10)
• Spanish translation particularly for Westside
• Target audience 1) Upstate NY Permaculture Community 2) Syracuse environmental and sustainability groups 3) General Syracuse population
  
• Logo
• rare moccasin snake from central ny?  I can't find anything on this yet
  
• Endorsement letter
• Start last paragraph with I/We instead of just We
• Ask endorsing organizations for small cash donation towards signage
  
• Include mention of Gear Factory
• Mention of venue as warehouse/air quality
  
• electronic distribution/promotions
• Goodle spreadsheet will be used
• Mention of outreach to SUNY-ESF Landscape Architecture dept, Cooperative Extension, Slow Foods
  
• Sign for outside of Gear Factory for week of event, Raishad provided referral.
• Other possible activity/visual outside of GF leading up to event
• Press Release to be drafted by David
  
• Child Care (Ursula, Kim, Cher, Karen, Casey, Allison)
• Ideas/activities - numerous have been proposed within committe
  
• Scheduling supervision
  
• Coordinate with parents for volunteer time
• Childcare Age Limit?
  
• Food (Joanne, Jessica, Eli , Kayleigh, Helen)
  
• Stone Soup - to be made day of with contributions from attendees
  
• Volunteers to make soup - additional pots to be made beforehand according to number of RSVPs
  
• Bread - donations sources
  
• Sweets?
• Clean-up?
• Zine Project (Nate, Karen, Eli)
• Format
• Creation station at event
• copying and mailing - ask for $1 to cover postage and copying, and get address for mailing
  
• Information/Guests (Candee, Michelle, Sasha)
• Brochure/Flyer with appropriate information for sending to RSVPs
  
• directions/map
• acommodations (couchsurfing/hostel on Oak St/house guests/etc/hotels/motels/camping)
• Restaurants/food/SRFC
• Calendar of other events (SUNY-ESF Green Building Conference)
• Point of contact/distribution of info
• Budget (Frank, David)
• Needed costs - committees to provide this info
  

• "Split Estate" Free film screening at Palace, Thursday Jan 21, 7pm - land rights/hydrofracking, and panel discussion following
  
• Finger Lakes Permaculture Guild - Community Training in Ecological Design Thursday evenings 6:30pm - 9pm, Feb 18 - May 6 - Tuition $200 - fingerlakespermaculture.org - 607-227-0316 - Ithaca, NY
  

• Committee work within themselves, send appropriate info to Frank for flyer/budget
• Final potluck and planning meeting - Saturday, February 20, 6:30 pm
  

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In June, ANP member Lindsay Speer, a community organizer with the Onondaga Nation, participated in a canoe trip down Onondaga Creek with representatives of the Onondaga Environmental Institute and County government to highlight ideas for the revitalization of the Creek.

A video was just posted on the Post-Standard web site, at: http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2009/10/plan_aims_for_revival_of_onond.html

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Besides the great turnout of folks to watch the film, the donations, and the general good time at Saturday's "Homegrown" screening and Bulb Give-Away, there was a chance to network about possible partnerships and boy did I come out of that day with some great possibilities.

 I want to point out a student initiative at S.U. that I learned about for the first time on Saturday through students who were volunteering for the day at the WCC.  I talked with Elizabeth, who is co-heading the development of a student run EcoHouse at 821 Comstock Avenue in the University Neighborhood.  

 It seems like they have the support of the University to be able to get some funding, as well as the assistance from other groups on campus like the Landscaping Club, so things should move along at a smooth pace there and showcase what students can do for the neighborhood.  It would probably be good to keep in mind the challenges that renters face in the midst of trying to create healthier and more ecologically sensitive living arrangements.

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"Fall Equinox, also known as Mabon, occurs in the middle of September. It is the main harvest festival of the Wiccan calendar and marks the beginning of Autumn. The Goddess manifests in Her Bountiful Mother aspects. The God emerges as the Corn King and Harvest Lord. Colors are Orange, Dark Red, Yellow, Indigo, and Brown. It is the festival of thanksgiving.

Select the best of each vegetable, herb, fruit, nut, and other food you have harvested or purchased and give it back to Mother Earth with prayers of thanksgiving. Hang dried ears of corn around your home in appreciation of the harvest season. Do meditations and chanting as you store away food for the Winter. Do a thanksgiving circle, offering thanks as you face each direction -- for home, finances, and physical health (North); for gifts of knowledge (East); for accomplishments in career and hobbies (South); for relationships (West); and for spiritual insights and messages (Center)."

- Lore and Rituals by Selena Fox

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• We had a total of 7 people attend, pretty good for a first meeting. 2 people who RSVPed yes did call to cancel due to family obligations at the last minute. So we will be looking for more of you to join us next time and continue building this network ;>)
  
• Please spread the word to your friends, family and colleagues who may also be interested. I think we have a great start to the group with 36 registered members after a fairly low-key recruiting (and up to 41 by the time I am posting this). I invited certain keywords from the Meetup website, posted a message to the Alchemical Nursery mailing list, and posted a few tear-tag signs around town (only 4 actually), so we could very likely attract many more folks to participate. Please link to the Meetup website Permaculture and Urban Homesteading and if you are able, print out some of the flyers from the files section and post them in good spots in your neighborhoods and towns.
  
• The Meetup mainly focused around discussion of Permaculture and folks current projects and sites. We can get more focused in the future with specific topics, so if you have something to recommend please send your thoughts to the group.
  
• Ideas for future activities that we postulated included: having guest speakers from the Rochester or Ithaca Permaculture groups; having someone from the RUST group in Albany join us for a session; making contact with Urban Roots from Buffalo; a screening of the Dervaes family video "Homegrown" see http://www.homegrown-...; work parties at member sites that can incorporate hands-on learning experiences; supporting and visiting the Earth Activist Bus at Bread and Roses Collective when it rolls into town sometime this fall.
  
• OK, so let's get the conversation flowing and try to set up a plan for the next Meetup. Who wants to chime in?
  

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Well, Co-Working is supposed to be the best of both worlds.  An opportunity to work and network, while hanging out and having a good (or at least decent we hope) time with other people.  Now that Alchemical Spaces is up and running at the Gear Factory you can try it out for yourselves.

Although we are recruiting social entrepreneurs for our reserved desk spaces, we always welcome walk ins if space is available to try out the office and get a feel for co-working, oh yeah and do some of that networking stuff, and and project genesis as well.  

Want to get a feel for the Near Westside and the community of artists, radicals and superstars that is growing there?  Come to a co-working Meet up we will be hanving regularly, take a walk around the neighborhood, through Lipe Art PArk, down warehouse row (Fayette St) to Kind Coffee, etc etc.

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Just sitting here at the Spark gallery on Monday evening, feeling the breeze that permeates this space when the doors are open, and relaxing.  So if anyone wants to stop down and say hi, feel free, in fact I encourage it and look forward to seeing you.  I'll be here Tuesday night from 5-9 as well.

 The Trash Art is still up, and we are still taking bids on the pieces if you want to take one home.  Starting bids are very reasonable.  We aren't trying to make a killing here, just trying to cover our costs, share art with others (where else can you take home a piece for likely under $20, unless bidding gets hot and heavy at the Palace this coming Thursday during the Film Fest that is), and share the spirit.

I'm gonna post some pics from Saturday night in the Photo Gallery on the site here while I'm staffing the gallery tonight, so look for them soon.  We've got video of some of the performances coming soon too.

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I wass reading some online material about social entrepreneurship, which in a nutshell can be used to describe Alchemical in a pinch.  And the term bootstrapping kept rearing its head.  And I realized that we have been bootstrapping Alchemical from the very beginning.

Part of that bootstrapping consisted of money out of Liz and my pockets, to pay for our 501(c)3 paperwork, bassic supplies and materials, and most recently inusrance costs and a new office space deposit. 

But the most important aspect of bootstrapping a project like this is the wide-ranging support group that we have.  And I just wanted to send out a great big thank you, cause even though I've realized all along that our success depends so much on you, our supporters, I don't know if we have taken the time to put that down on electronic ink and really recognize that fact. 

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So bear with us Internet Explorer users.  If you or your loved ones use IE there may be serious side effects, one of which is that you may not be able to render the Alchemical website in your browser.  Fear not, there is a simple fix for you, use a different browser, may I recommend Firefox; and a not so simple fix for us, figure out what the bug is.

Please notify anyone you tell about Alchemical and our website, that they should try to use Firefox until we can find the script error that is causing the problem for IE browsers.   Sorry for the inconvenience, it's not floating out boat either that 60% of the web browsers out there can't access the site!  If you can help, get in touch.

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