Get a “Marketing Degree” in Derby Sq, Salem

 Salem Event, Salem Farmers Market, Salem Festivals, Salem Shopping, Volunteer Opportunities, Workshops  No Responses »
Jun 022015
 

sfm-opening-dayKnowledge is power, and what you learn from speaking directly with the vendor/instructors at the upcoming “semester” of the Salem Farmer’s Market will make you a better student of food, better cook, and all around better at marketing (…the study of going to the market…). “Classes” are held Thursdays from 3-7pm, June 11- Oct 22 at Derby Sq on Front St. — rain or shine.

TomatoesSeriously, where else can you talk to a person about which tomatoes go best with a hamburger vs a salad (there is a difference). Or talk about lobsters. Yes, did you not know that lobstahs are in our yard? The Salem Farmer’s Market is not your grandma’s farmer’s market. Local produce, things from the ground, the sea, and more await you. Plus there are musical performances (not by the vendors, although you never know) by talented singers & bands.

And just like attending school, you will see familiar faces/booths from previous Salem Farmer’s Markets, as well as new businesses that wish to “sign” you up for their “classes.”

The Salem Farmer’s Market participates in SNAP and accepts the EBT card. SFM is currently looking for volunteers to help with set up and break down of the market. Click here for more info. SFM is a Salem Main Streets project in partnership with the City of Salem, the Salem Ma Chamber of Commerce and Mass in Motion Salem.

What is Art? Salem Arts Festival Provides Answers

 Salem Event, Salem Festivals, Salem Shopping  No Responses »
May 312015
 

Is art “either a plagiarist or a revolutionary” (as artist Paul Gauguin once stated) or is it “filling a space in a beautiful way” (artist Georgia O’Keeffe)? Art is many things to many people. You will experience that next weekend (June 5-7) when the 7th annual Salem Arts Festival rolls out across Salem Ma.

Let’s go to an unbiased source, the Oxford Dictionary, where art is defined as “The expression or application of creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting, drawing, or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.”

Then add dance, theatre, film, music, photography, and even knitting.  Now you have the palette from which the Salem Arts Festival is drawn.

The SAF seeks & presents art and performance for the sophisticated art patron as well as for the art novice.  And this especially includes interactive activities for children. This is a family-friendly event which annually attracts 5000 attendees.

The Salem Arts Festival schedule includes The Gallery, performances, Street Fair, and art-making activities all to be found within easy walking distance of each other at Old Town Hall, Derby Square, Front Street, and Artists’ Row.

What is your definition of art? Will it alter or be reinforced after attending the Salem Arts Festival?

The SAF promotes the arts in downtown Salem through this festival for residents and visitors by providing opportunities to highlight the existing artist community and encouraging general community participation in the arts.

The Salem Arts Festival is organized by Salem Main Streets and a collaboration of Salem organizations which provide support for the festival, including the City of Salem, Salem State University Center for the Creative and Performing Arts, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem Arts Association and Creative Salem.

Photo Credit – Social Palates

Pub Crawl Takes on Roadside Rubbish to #CleanSalem

 Salem Event, Volunteer Opportunities  No Responses »
May 272015
 

What makes Salem Ma so interesting is the diversity of people and ideas and how they can twist “that’s been done before” into something new here. In keeping with what we said in a recent blog about Salem Main Streets re-branding to being “more people-focused than building-focused” the Wicked Pickah pub crawl fits that bill.

Simply put, it is a pub crawl fundraiser event on May 31st to wipe the streets clean of our roadside rubbish! Alex Lacy, who grew up in Salem (and has a B.S. in Environmental Science) and Garrett Gilbert have merged the sometimes self-indulgent pub crawl with a community waste clean up day to create what sounds like a lively undertaking.

“I’ve had this trash pick-up pub crawl in my head for a long time,” explains Lacy. “Downtown Salem is a great layout for a restaurant-restaurant hop. It could also use a clean sweep. After voicing the idea to close friends who still live in Salem, they helped me plan and organize the Wicked Pickah.”

WickedShe points out that “This #cleansalem event is a way for friends to gather and work (but it really feels like play) together to rid our downtown streets of their built up rubbish. We had a rough winter and now that the snow has melted, the evidence of our strife is tangible.”

She continues, “Everyone involved in the planning has been great: creating T-shirt designs, posting videos, helping to pick routes, distributing flyers, and just by being positive about the event and its outcome (please no rain!).”

(Full disclosure: if there are enough participants, Lacy & Gilbert have offered to donate proceeds to support the projects of Salem Main Streets, but it is such an interesting concept that we would be blogging about it anyway.)

Lacy says “Upon arrival at Artists’ Row at 11am, participants will receive sturdy trash bags, fool hardy gloves, and surefire hand sanitizer. Throughout the crawl, bagged dreck will be hauled to the final location of our crawl so that we may marvel at our streets’ new found purity and bask in our new- (and old)- found sense of community.”

The entry cost for the #cleansalem Wicked Pickah  is $15 and can be purchased at www.gofundme.com/cleansalem. Those signing up early will receive a finely woven and originally designed T shirt as well as a few drink specials at the bars they will visit along the way.

For updated info on Wicked Pickah go to the Facebook event page or send questions to cleansalem@gmail.com .

Every city & town has roadside rubbish. How you deal with it sets you apart. Wicked Pickah sounds like our style. Let’s #cleansalem together.

Volunteers Needed for Salem Arts Festival

 Salem Event, Salem Festivals, SMS News, Volunteer Opportunities  2 Responses »
May 232015
 

Inclusion. That is one of the things we strive for in events taking place in Salem. For example, last year you may have attended the Salem Arts Festival for the first time or for the 6th. This year, you can be a part of it as a volunteer.

SAF VolsVolunteers are being sought to assist with set ups, break downs, greetings, handing out brochures, assisting at performance stages and other duties as needed. The Salem Arts Festival takes place June 5-7.

Over 5,000 people attended last year’s family-friendly Festival which transformed downtown Salem, MA into an opportunity for the arts community to showcase a wide range of talents: painting, photography, sculpture, dance, music, writing, film, new media, performance, theatre, poetry, and more!

Volunteering is a great way to meet the artists and interact with fellow supporters of the arts.

Just as an FYI, there is also research pointing to volunteering as a provider of individual health benefits in addition to social ones. “The Health Benefits of Volunteering: A Review of Recent Research,” by the Corporation for National & Community Service established “a strong relationship between volunteering and health: those who volunteer have lower mortality rates, greater functional ability, and lower rates of depression later in life than those who do not volunteer.”

Help the community and you help yourself.

The Salem Arts Festival needs assistance in the following areas.

Friday, June 5
Gallery Installation
10 am to 2 pm. Seeking shifts of 2 hours, as many as possible.

Opening reception set-up
4 to 6pm. Seeking 4 volunteers.

Gallery sitters & greeters
6 to 9pm. Seeking 4 volunteers to gallery sit during the opening reception and help direct guests.

Opening reception clean-up
8:30 to 10 pm. Seeking 4 volunteers.

Saturday, June 6
General set-up
9:30 to 11am. Seeking 6 volunteers. Duties include hanging signs and putting out A-frame signs, setting up info tables, preparing the gallery, assisting at performance stages, and assisting street fair vendors.

Greeters (outdoors)
10:30am to 6pm (broken into four shifts of 10:30am to 12:30pm, 12:30 to 2:30pm, 2:30 to 4:30pm, and 4:30 to 6pm). Seeking 4 volunteers per shift. Duties will include handing out arts festival programs and assisting guests with directions, etc. Greeters will be stationed at specific locations.

Gallery sitters/greeters
Indoor Gallery. 10:30am to 6pm (broken into four shifts of 10:30am to 12:30pm, 12:30 to 2:30pm, 2:30 to 4:30pm, and 4:30 to 6pm). Seeking 2 volunteers per shift. Duties will include greeting guests, directing them to other activities, offering other general directions and keeping an eye on the work in the gallery during gallery hours.

Information table
Derby Square. 10:30am to 6pm (broken into four shifts of 10:30am to 12:30pm, 12:30 to 2:30pm, 2:30 to 4:30pm, and 4:30 to 6pm). Seeking 2 volunteers per shift. Duties will include handing out programs and other literature as well as directing people to Arts Festival events or around Salem. Volunteers at this table will also assist in the sales of merchandise for any SAF performers.

Performance stage help
11am to 6 pm, Derby Square and Artists’ Row. Duties will include helping bands get on and off these stages as quickly as possible and include moving some equipment. Seeking 2 volunteers to commit for the full day.

General breakdown
5:30 to 7/7:30pm. Seeking 4 volunteers. Duties include taking down signs, picking up A-frame signs, tidying up gallery, bringing in information table, helping out at performance stages to close them up for the night.

Sunday, June 7
General set up
9:30 to 11am. Seeking 6 volunteers. Duties include putting up signs, setting up info tables, preparing gallery, assisting at performance stages, and assisting street fair vendors.

Greeters (outdoors)
10:30am to 6pm (broken into four shifts of 10:30am to 12:30pm, 12:30 to 2:30pm, 2:30 to 4:30pm, and 4:30 to 6pm). Seeking 4 volunteers per shift Duties will include handing out arts festival programs and assisting guests with directions, etc. Greeters will be stationed at specific locations.

Gallery sitters/greeters
Indoor Gallery. 10:30am to 6pm (broken into four shifts of 10:30am to 12:30pm, 12:30 to 2:30pm, 2:30 to 4:30pm, and 4:30 to 6pm). Seeking 2 volunteers per shift. Duties will include greeting guests, directing them to other activities, offering other general directions and keeping an eye on the work in the gallery during gallery hours.

Information table
Derby Square. 10:30am to 6pm (broken into four shifts of 10:30am to 12:30pm, 12:30 to 2:30pm, 2:30 to 4:30pm, and 4:30 to 6pm). Seeking 2 volunteers per shift. Duties will include handing out programs and other literature as well as directing people to Arts Festival events or around Salem. Volunteers at this table will also assist in the sales of merchandise for any SAF performers.

Performance stage help
11am to 6 pm, Derby Square and Artists’ Row. Duties will include helping bands get on and off these stages as quickly as possible and include moving some equipment. Seeking 2 volunteers to commit for the full day.

General breakdown
5:30 to 7/7:30pm. Looking for 6 volunteers. Duties include taking down signs, picking up A-frame signs, cleaning up gallery, assisting with art pick-up, striking information table, helping out at performance stages to close them out for the festival, gathering any festival related things that are outdoors, packing up any festival materials. Breakdown will include some jobs that require the ability to lift.

Please contact Kylie Sullivan at Salem Main Streets at kylie@salemmainstreets.org with your name and your date/time availability.

The Salem Arts Festival is organized by Salem Main Streets and a collaboration of Salem organizations which provide support for the festival, including the City of Salem, Salem State University Center for the Creative and Performing Arts, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem Arts Association and Creative Salem.

( Photo courtesy John Andrews of SocialPalatesPhotography )

A New Look for Salem Main Streets!

 Uncategorized  1 Response »
May 202015
 

Salem Main Streets is pleased to announce a new brand and look! The local nonprofit, focused on the continued revitalization of downtown Salem, is updating its previous black and white logo of a building for a more modern, bold, and colorful vibrant look.

“When Salem Main Streets was first established in 2001, it was based on a traditional Main Streets model of historic preservation, so the building in our old logo made good sense,” says Kylie Sullivan, Executive Director of Salem Main Streets. “Salem Main Streets has evolved significantly since then. The current model is more dynamic, is more people-focused than building-focused, and, most importantly, is about creating a sense of place and identity. We needed a flexible new look to reflect that change.”

The logo and brand extension was created by local designer Elissa Von Letkemann. “Working with the Salem Main Streets staff and committee members on this was a fun challenge. The experience of being in downtown Salem is different for everyone, so the new logo had to communicate and support a sense of place while not focusing too heavily on any one aspect such as landmarks, restaurants, or otherwise.” Von Letkemann explains that the friendly, positive colors are meant as a nod to the culinary, historical, arts, and commercial destinations in town, while the map locator icon works double-duty as an exclamation point.  Salem Main Streets’ materials and websites will be transitioning to the new brand over the next few days.

Salem Main Streets’ mission is the revitalization of downtown Salem as a vibrant, year-round, retail, dining, and cultural destination through business retention, recruitment, and the promotion of the downtown district.  SMS produces and supports multiple community events and initiatives throughout the year, including the Salem Farmers’ Market, Salem Arts Festival, Salem’s So Sweet, and the October Information Booth. SMS operates thanks to the generosity and partnership of the City of Salem, the Salem Chamber of Commerce, Destination Salem, and many other local business sponsors and community volunteers.

The Salem Main Street Initiative is a preservation-based, volunteer driven strategy for commercial district revitalization. The Initiative is modeled on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s National Main Street Program. Main Streets works because it involves all interested stakeholders in the downtown and provides a comprehensive strategy of work, tailored to local needs and opportunities of the community.

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