Perhaps the most significant lesson from last year’s One Club-launched inaugural Creative Week New York City was the need to reach out beyond one’s sphere. That was the assessment from Kevin Swanepoel, president of The One Club, when asked what was learned and has since been applied to the upcoming second annual Creative Week NYC, slated for May 10-16.
“That first year’s event was driven by ourselves and by close partners of The One Club right out of the gate,” related Swanepoel. “While that helped the event get established, we soon realized that to widen its reach and make it more relevant we had to embrace the other nonprofit organizations like us that work with creatives. We established an advisory board, tapping into people throughout the creative community to help us do just that. This event is not meant to be about The One Club. This event is not about making money. Its spirit is to celebrate creativity in New York in all its forms. The only way to do that is to bring more groups on board.”
While The One Show Festival brings a cross-section of creatives and artisans to New York during Creative Week NYC, expanding the drawing power are other varied attractions such as the New York Photo Festival, the Brooklyn Art Project, walking tours of Manhattan offering historical perspectives, tours of NYC advertising and design agencies, special museum and art gallery exhibits, a Mad Men presentation screening at The Paley Center for Media in which the series creators and stars reflect on the show, a screening of The One Club-commissioned documentary Art & Copy (directed by Doug Pray of Oil Factory) chronicling the contributions of ad industry pioneers (also held at The Paley Center), the first annual Copywriters Poetry Smackdown at the Bowery Poetry Club, and live musical performances.
Also on tap is SHOOT‘s 8th annual New Directors Showcase Event at the DGA Theatre in New York on Tuesday, May 11. As part of Creative Week, SHOOT had been asked to consider moving its evening Showcase event from its traditional late May date up a few weeks to coincide with Creative Week. SHOOT publisher, Roberta Griefer, agreed to hold the event during Creative Week and was invited to join the Creative Week advisory committee. SHOOT has added a daytime agenda this year, called the SHOOT Directors Symposium that will take place before the evening New Directors Showcase Event, which will feature notable directors, cinematographers, agency creatives, industry executives and other artisans discussing issues of the day, new technologies, mentoring and education of talent, and varied forms of advertising/ entertainment content that are emerging.
Swanepoel referred to the SHOOT events as being of particular appeal to The One Club’s constituents, including the creative directors and art directors who are involved in commercials, film and other content forms. “There’s a definite interest in the New Directors Showcase and a lot of traction created by that event and the Symposium for our constituents during Creative Week,” he related.
Key in the growth for the overall weeklong event next month and in the years to come is the recent proclamation from NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg formally recognizing Creative Week NYC. “Going forward into year three, this will mean a lot in terms of gaining more involvement from the creative community, museums and the arts throughout the city,” said Swanepoel. “This will lead to other organizations and partners going forward. We’re even now seeing people holding their own events to plug into Creative Week, It’s taking on a life of its own.”
Swanepoel added that this year’s Creative Week could draw upwards of 12,000 to 13,000 people, roughly double the attendance in ’09. “And our plans are to step up our organizing efforts for next year and beyond,” said Swanepoel. “For this year, we started to organize back in October or November of 2009. Once this year’s event is wrapped, we will begin organizing in June for Creative Week in 2011.”
Snubs and Surprises In Oscar Nominations
In one of the more wide-open Oscar fields in recent history, there were plenty of nominations surprises Thursday. Not too long ago, it seemed that people like Angelina Jolie and Nicole Kidman were destined for best actress nominations, while general audience disinterest in the young Donald Trump movie "The Apprentice" might have indicated its awards chances were dead on arrival. But the members of the film academy had something different in mind. Here are some of the biggest snubs and surprises from the 97th Oscar nominations. SURPRISE: Jeremy Strong and Sebastian Stan, "The Apprentice" The young Trump movie "The Apprentice" has been one of the bigger awards season question marks, especially after it failed to resonate with moviegoers in theaters. And yet both Jeremy Strong, for his portrayal for Trump lawyer Roy Cohn, and Sebastian Stan (who was also in the conversation for "A Different Man" ), for playing the future two-time president, made it in. Only Strong got nominated by the Screen Actors Guild. SNUB: Marianne Jean-Baptiste, "Hard Truths" This will forever be one of the more confounding awards season oversights. Marianne Jean-Baptiste delivered one of the all-time great performances in Mike Leigh's "Hard Truths," as the perpetually aggrieved and sharp-tongued London woman Pansy. The general thinking is that it was either going to be Jean-Baptiste or Fernanda Torres, and Torres got in for the equally beloved "I'm Still Here." SNUB: Pamela Anderson, "The Last Showgirl" This is perhaps up for debate, but there was certainly a lot of goodwill behind Anderson's movie-star turn in Gia Coppola's "The Last Showgirl," especially considering her SAG nomination. But like with Jennifer Lopez and... Read More