A searchable database of all Goddard MFA-IA students and their work.

It was proposed at the MFA-IA-Spring residency in Vermont to create a searchable database for all MFA-IA students and alum.

Why create a database? There are several reasons:

• So that students within the program and alumn can find others who are working in their field, have the same interests or may be interested in collaboration or work.
• To put a face, name and disciplines together.
• To bridge the gap between students in Vermont and in Port Townsend
• So those who are graduating are not forgotten and stay connected.

The project began to jell organically at residency.

• Terre Parker brought up the suggestion
• I (Bridgette Mongeon) saw the incredible book created for graduation by Connie Porter and thought, "The MFA-IA needs something like this online, for all of the students." Terre and I discussed it and thought that this project was important. Below are some sample pages of the graduation catalog.

What will the database contain?

• Pages for MFA-IA students to display their work. For those working in theater, or dance or other mediums, video links or video will also be made available.
• This is only for the students of the MFA-IA and alum, though I have considered having a section for faculty and visiting artists, more on that later.
• It is not mandatory to be on this page. It is available to those who want it.
• It will have a searchable section for work or collaborations.
• It will be available for anyone to view online, however only MFA-IA students and alum can be featured.

What has happened since residency.

• Bridgette has volunteered to put up the site.
• Searching for ways to create a database This website word press theme was found. Basically this is a listings based website. It shows cars, but think about MFA-IA students instead of cars. You can search by different fields and a google map can be added.
• A fellow student at the Vermont campus has volunteered to create head shots and shoot artwork at the next residency for anyone who needs them for their listing. ( If anyone wants to volunteer to photograph students at the Port Townsend campus, please contact Bridgette through this blog, email (bridgette the at sign creativesculpture.com) or facebook.

WHAT IS NEEDED NOW?

Start up funds.

The cost for putting up the site is minimal.

• Woo theme 200 ( I have contacted them and they will give us a discount of 20-30% That is a $40-$60 discount on the cost of the theme.) Woo theme will cost $140-$160
• Cost for securing a URL- web address is about $10.00
• There is no cost, at this time, for hosting the site. Bridgette Mongeon will contribute hosting for the first 6 months.

Our total start up is $ 150- $170 we have $84.12 ( see below) Balance needed 65.88- $85.88

Several people have been contributing money through pay pal. Send it to Bridgette( the at sign) creativesculpture.com. Once I receive it I will post it on this blog post.

Angus-$25.

Kriota -$20

Marilyn-$19.12 ( pay pal took .88 out. Not sure why?)

Lisa S.-$20.00

What is the plan of action

Once the funds are received for the domain name and woo theme Bridgette will put up the site with a few listings. Then we will begin contacting everyone about joining and adding their listing. We will, of course, start with the financial contributors and work our way out from there. The site does have an option for individuals to put up their own listing. We will check into the ease of that. If that is a possibility then everyone can change their own listing as their work changes.

HOW ELSE CAN YOU HELP?

• Pass the word to others. We will need help in finding both students and alum.
• Need someone at the Port Townsend campus to help get the word out there.
• May need a couple of people that I can chat with about this project. There will be some decisions needing to be made, ie. how to organize the site categories etc. I would love some input. If you are interested let me know.

I'll add more suggestions as I think of them.

Thank you all for this huge and wonderful collaboration. I can't wait to see how it turns out.