Cafe Huntington

UPDATE: You can visit the Mil-Ton Farms facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mil-Ton-Farms/300950742991

Project Description:
Mil-Ton Farms is a family farm located in Ona, WV. We offer locally grown meat, eggs, and produce. We are also active in the community sharing our farm and experience with those interested in local foods, and in raising their own meat and produce. Our latest community project has involved chicken processing. This year there have already been two workshops with the third scheduled for June 7th. During these workshops participants are taught the process of butchering a chicken. People come for different reasons. Some own their own backyard flocks, but need to learn how to harvest the meat from those flocks. Others bring their families for an educational experience. They want to know where their meat really comes from. We also give the kids a quick science lesson showing them the organs, and sometimes even the eggs in process. A few people just come to be part of the process to get fresh humanely raised meat for themselves. We offer these workshops free to those who bring their
own chickens or who only want to watch. Plucking chickens is a time consuming and messy task. We would like to build a Whizbang Chicken Plucker to make the process more efficient. The plucker would be used for the workshops, and also be offered for rent to other local farmers.

Project Importance:
This project helps connect people with their food. Developing and promoting local foods is important for health, sustainability and for the economy. Participants learn where their food really comes from, and what is involved to get that food from the farm to their refrigerator. It also helps connect a wide variety of people. It may sound like an unlikely social event, but most workshops involve a group of strangers, pushing past their comfort zone, working together toward a goal. We always have a good time. The chicken plucker will help provide these opportunities for more people. It will help develop sources for local meat, and education to the community.

How Money Will Be Used:
Parts for the plucker cost about $500. That includes a plan book, motor, plucker fingers, a plate for the tub, and other miscellaneous parts. Assembled pluckers cost upwards of $1000. We will assemble the plucker ourselves once the parts are purchased. Any extra money will be used to purchase other supplies for processing such as knives, gloves, freezer bags ect.

3 Month Goal:
Summer is prime time for raising and processing chickens. The broilers we raise are ready for processing in about eight weeks. If we receive this money for the plucker, we will order more chickens to use for workshops, and for sale through the farm. Thus providing more education and local meat to the community.

Project Description:
Trackside Live is a newly developed live performance video shoot that captures high quality video and audio recordings of unique bands performing in a relaxed atmosphere. Part “Cool Hang” and part recording session, Trackside Live takes place at Trackside Studio between Huntington and Barboursville, WV. Bands are filmed and recorded performing live, with the edited videos to be posted to the Trackside Web Channel. Our goal is to start with local and regional acts, with the potential of getting national acts to record when they are in town for nearby performances.

Project Importance:
The important aspects of Tracskide Live are two fold. First, we look to provide bands with a high quality video and audio recording that they likely wouldn’t have access to otherwise. This will inevitably aid in getting work, as a video is a great way of introducing a band to a potential buyer. However most bands are at the mercy of grainy, low quality cell-phone footage that doesn’t translate the material or performance adequately.

Secondly, posting these videos to the web makes them accessible to the world. This puts groups in front of a broader audience, not limited to those that attend their shows. Some people are unable to attend music events due to time, money or location, especially those who have to drive from rural areas to the larger cities. If a performer is in town and records a session at Trackside, their audience is no longer limited to the hundred or so people who make it to the show.

How Money Will Be Used:
Each session uses three cameras that record to removable data cards or “flash cards.” If each camera has three storage cards, approx. $15 each, this eliminates the need for breaks in the recording in order to “dump” video off the cards to free up space. A portable hard drive, 1 Terrabyte-approx. $100, to house all the video, will be purchased to keep all files organized and accessible.

Approximate cost of cards and hard drive: $235.

3 Month Goal:
Having the storage capacity we need will benefit us greatly going forward. We’ve recorded three sessions already and look to record at least one a month. Once the data is transferred from the cards, they can be used again an infinite number of times.

Project Description:
Jewel City Films would like to purchase a “new” used Sony Handycam and fluid-head tripod. Jewel City is an independent filmmaking studio that captures weddings and special events as inspiring documentary films. We have one Sony HDR-XR500V Handycam, but we need a second one along with a Bogen/Manfrotto fluid head tripod. We have 2 cameramen and have been shooting with a second camera that is much lower in quality and virtually useless in low-light situations. We need a second HDR-XR500V to be able to shoot with both cameramen in low-light situations like nightclubs and reception halls. The Sony HDR-XR500V Handycam is recognized as the industry standard within it’s price range for low-light shooting. In fact the model was discontinued in 2010 due to it’s taking sales away from Sony’s higher priced models. We also need a fluid head tripod for one camera. Fluid head tripods are the industry standard for film shooting because they insure a smooth motion of the camera while
mounted on the tripod. We have been using a standard photographer’s tripod which makes the camera’s motion jerky from the gears and rubbing parts. Bogen/Manfrotto is known for being one of the best mid-priced tripod manufacturers. The second camera is mounted on an handheld stabilizer.

Project Importance:
Jewel City Films is so dedicated to Huntington, we named our company after it. We are a very small startup company, so small that we have only been contracted for one paying job so far. However, Jewel City Films is dedicated to the idea of offering progressive, artistic film documentary services for special events at an affordable price.

Both founders of Jewel City Films have chosen to headquarter this company in the heart of beautiful, historic, downtown Huntington because we want the Central Business District to shape and define our style of filmmaking. While at the same time we are being shaped by the city, we hope to “re-brand” the city as well through artistic and creative cinematography along with a strong viral presence. The difference between bland buildings and a beautiful downtown cityscape quite often is perspective. Anybody can pick up a camera, but it takes the artistic mind of a filmmaker to tell a story through moving pictures.

Here is a video sample of how we are trying to re-brand the city:

How Money Will Be Used:
Despite being discontinued, new unopened HDR-500Vs still sell for $1,000-$1,200; but used models are available online for around starting around $600. Used Bogen/Manfrotto tripods are difficult to find, and nearly all of them are in very bad shape. New models are available on eBay that include a 128LP fluid head mount and 190XB tripod legs starting around $200.

3 Month Goal:
The main issue low-light exposure and our cameras’ processing power. As a wedding and special event filmmaking service, we must be able to shoot in low-light situations like theatres, nightclubs, reception halls, dinner theatres, etc. With only one camera that can shoot in this light, we cannot offer a 2-camera package in dark venues, or drag around a very obtrusive light rig. We also cannot offer a professional quality video shot from a rickety old tripod.

Basically, the next 3 months are prime wedding and special event season in West Virginia and we cannot go to work at full capacity without this equipment. With a camera that will cost at least $600, and a set of tripod legs with a fluid head mount that will cost about $200–even buying used equipment, this grant will most likely not be able to cover all of the costs. However, combined with our own funds, it might be enough to get us started.

Project Description:
Huntington artists John Farley and Lorin Michki will exhibit recent drawings, paintings, prints and other works exploring questions of the “human condition” at Gallery 842 in Huntington, WV August 19—September 23. Entitled (re)discovery, this exhibition is organized in collaboration with the Cabell Huntington Coalition for the Homeless, whose mission and vital, civic services improve the welfare—the human condition—of so many in our community. A percentage of any money generated from the sale of artwork will be donated directly to the CHCH. The collaboration with the CHCH is rooted in real-world events. Lorin lost his home and nearly all his possessions in a fire last summer, and was faced with the prospect of rebuilding. John took him in. Simultaneously, John was working at Gallery 842 and developed a personal relationship with “Steve”, a homeless man who searched the trashcans down 4th Avenue for food. John frequently bought him lunch.

Project Importance:
Through this exhibition, the artists seek to promote and foster a spirit of personal and civic engagement, further elevate the arts within our community, and demonstrate the kind of collaborative spirit that will lead to increased awareness and change. The process and product of art-making is a universal thing, to be made relevant, enjoyable and accessible to all.

How Money Will Be Used:
Money awarded through Café Huntington will be used primarily to subsidize the cost of producing high-quality giclée prints (reproductions) of original works of art to be sold at low-cost through this exhibit, in an effort to make more accessible a product that is, for many, an unattainable luxury. By offering an affordable alternative to the prohibitively higher cost of owning an original work (although they will be for sale too!), the artists hope to increase sales, thereby funneling more money to the CHCH. Any leftover dollars will be used to offset the costs of framing and the design/printing/mailing of exhibition postcards and posters.

3 Month Goal:
As mentioned above, the grant money will be used to make high-quality giclée prints so that the artists may sell their work more affordably, to a broader demographic, with the ultimate goal that more money will be donated to the Coalition for the Homeless. The prints will be produced in collaboration with local artist Denise Spaulding of the Pendleton Art Center in Ashland, KY, who offers this service to regional artists at a reasonable cost.

Project Description:
“Cup O Swank Studio’s Tools of the Trade Competition” is for high school age students in Huntington who plan to pursue the visual arts as a career. I held the first one in 2009, with the goal being to hold one every two years. The first was paid for with a percentage of my earnings from art sold in West Virginia, as well as a generous donation from Blick Art Materials. The winner receives professional art supplies that are specifically tailored to the winner’s interests and needs, as well as a solo exhibit several months after receiving the prize, to show how their work has advanced because of owning pro-grade materials. Since that first one, I have not earned any income from art within the borders of my state. As West Virginia advances further along the path of nurturing creatives, perhaps I may begin to pay for the prizes with funds from outside the state, but for now, I wish to give my home a fighting chance to participate in a proven method of producing genuine,
immediate growth in the creative class in West Virginia. West Virginia loses it’s best and brightest to cities that are far more welcoming to creatives. A currently popular plan in economically depressed areas throughout the country is to actively seek and recruit artists from elsewhere, offering them all sorts of financial and social incentives just to live in the neighborhoods. Once implemented, these areas are soon thriving in myriad ways. The rest of the country is rapidly learning…artists make great neighbors. The majority are active in their community, generously sharing their time and labor to improve the space. The point need not be hammered, but most people employed in the arts keep their property cared for, volunteer, donate, recycle, and often grow food and flowers. Taking our city’s young creatives seriously by continuing my program will pay off for all of us. The poorest outcome that can arise from this project is that a talented Huntington teen will f
eel great about themselves, increase their self-esteem, make some art and pursue another field to earn a living, but continue to be creative throughout their lives, and remember who thought them worthy of a prize because of their gifts. The most likely outcome is that prize-winners will become prosperous and successful in their chosen field. If they’ve felt welcome and have stayed in the area, Huntington will profit from being the home of one more success story who contributes to our economic, cultural and social growth. If they are living elsewhere, Huntington will have a genuinely natural ambassador, who will speak of us when discussing “growing the creative class” as “the city that put it’s money where it’s mouth is”. You can’t buy better advertising than genuine praise backed up with facts. Photos and more info can be found here… http://cuposwank.wordpress.com/tools-of-the-trade-competition/

Project Importance:
My program gives the up-and-coming Huntington creatives tangible proof that their home town is making progress toward genuine understanding of their value to this community. We are all aware of very famous, successful native West Virginians. Yet how often do you hear those hard-working creatives praising the place from whence they came? It’s usually only silence, and I believe projects like mine can change that.

To see viable, self-generating creative growth in our community, we can’t continue to ask our future innovators to attempt to “build a house” with a toy hammer and rubber nails. We all know that a skill, an independent trade, is a kind of insurance policy in all economic weather. For our city’s economic future, Huntington’s young creatives need to be genuinely built up, and to build…you need tools.

How Money Will Be Used:
The entire amount I receive from Cafe Huntington will be used to purchase professional art supplies for the competition winner. Any advertising, printing, shipping costs, etc., will be absorbed by myself. To ensure that the supplies will be relevant to the competition winner, I wait until a winner has been determined, and only then, from their required essay, do I begin purchasing supplies that are genuinely wanted and needed by that individual.

3 Month Goal:
As students will be out on Summer break, I will go ahead and begin taking entries for the competition as soon as I receive the grant, by putting notices in newspaper, contacting school board, etc., but I will allow an extra long lead time for entries, with the most effective deadline being late September, to make sure that art teachers are aware and all students have a fair chance to compete. The winner will be chosen within 1 week of deadline, and supplies will then immediately be purchased. I will schedule a date for the winner to publicly accept their prizes as soon as materials are received. (I usually receive materials within a few days of placing order).