Call to Entry for New Art in Austin

The show formerly known as 22 to Watch is calling for entries.

Here is a link and some info:

http://www.amoa.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ex_artistsubmissions

CALL FOR ENTRIESDeadline July 16-- Submit on-line application, 5 images, bio, andartist statementThe Austin Museum of Art (AMOA) is currently accepting artists'submissions for New Art in Austin, which will be on view at AMOA-Downtown February 15 -May 11, 2008. The third in a triennialshowcase, the exhibition spotlights emerging artists in ourcommunity. A statewide curatorial team will evaluate the work oflocal artists who have been watched by AMOA staff and Central Texasart professionals over the past three years. Through thisexhibition the museum seeks to create a dialogue about contemporaryart in Austin, attract attention to artists within our community,and share their work with other art centers in Texas. As a state-wide traveling exhibition accompanied by a full-color scholarlycatalogue, the exhibition will bring cutting edge work in a varietyof media to a broad audience.

ARTIST ELIGIBILITY:Eligible artists must live within fifty miles of the Capitol andhave never had a solo show in a major mainstream exhibition venue inthe area. Artists of any age may apply.

WORK ELIGIBILITY:Work in all media is eligible. Only work made since 2005 will beconsidered for exhibition. New work that has never been exhibitedis preferred.

Sew Sister in Fortune Small Business

My favorite business magazine in the whole wide world is Fortune Small Business. Lucky for me my mother gets it for free at her office and saves me all the issues. On a recent trip home I was thumbing through the June 2007 issue and saw a familiar Austin name, Sew Sister. The cover story of the magazine is called Feisty Factories and is about how small manufactures within the untied states are flourishing. Sew Sister is an Austin based and woman run sewing factory. Pick up a copy of the issue if you get a chance and here is what the Money Magazine / Fortune Small Business had to say online…

It's impossible for U.S. garment factories to compete with Asian producers, right? Wrong. True, domestic apparel production is down 46 percent since 2000. Lower overseas labor costs account for much of this plunge, but Asian manufacturers also achieve economies of scale by concentrating on huge, relatively uniform product runs.

Megan Summerville, 33, has built a thriving apparel startup on precisely the opposite strategy. Before writing a business plan to expand her small apparel company in Austin, Summerville interviewed more than 40 U.S. designers, manufacturers, and suppliers. She found demand among apparel buyers who needed to place a number of small orders (as few as 16 pieces for each design) rather than a few big orders.

Says Summerville: "These clients were tired of wait times in port, high minimum orders, and samples that were far superior to the actual product received."

Last August, Summerville bought sewing equipment from a defunct lingerie manufacturer. Today the five employees of Sew Sister Fabrics (sewsister.com) crank out a vast range of jobs on 52 separate machines, including single and double needle, serger, zigzag and labeling devices.

Summerville operates the equipment of a much bigger company, but she happily accepts low-volume orders that her larger competitors can't afford to touch. Her typical order is 100 pieces or fewer for a mix of up to six different items, completed in three to four weeks. Revenues are small but growing, Summerville says.

Sew Sister now serves 24 clients, including local designers and a few national retailers. In fact, Summerville was recently forced to turn away several potential clients until she could hire additional employees. But she has no plans to change course. "A lot of folks in this business like to get in the groove of doing the same widget over and over," she notes. "You get faster, but then you box yourself into saying, 'I am just a lingerie manufacturer,' and your other possibilities just collapse."

Garage Sale at Parts and Labour

I am reposting this from MySpace...

New Bohemia, Feathers, and Prototype are getting together in Parts & Labour's parking lot to have a monster of a sale. (**Behind the store, located at Milton and SoCo, just south of Allen's Boots**)

I mean garage sale prices.Cool stuff that needs repair, cool stuff that never made it in the store, but now I want to reorganize so I need to get it out of my storage.

All kinds of stuff. clothes, jewels, dishes, knick knacks, everything and anything.Thursday June 7th 10 am-10pmNo sales tax if you bring cash!

Even if you don't want to buy anything come say Hi, I (talena) will be out there all day!!