Attention artists and arts organizations across New York State: the 2020 New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) application opened today! Before I share Fractured Atlas’s timeline, let’s go over some important details about the application process and eligibility: The application is made up of three major parts: 1) a Sponsored Request Form (SRF), 2) Consolidated Funding Application, and 3) supporting materials. Fractured Atlas must submit all documents on behalf of our fiscally-sponsored projects, so we appreciate you adhering to our internal timeline to give us time to review your materials thoroughly and submit them on your behalf. Due to the volume of requests we handle every year, Fractured Atlas fiscally-sponsored projects will only be permitted to submit one application (regardless of NSYCA’s two-request limit). If you applied in the Individual Artist category (IND) last year, you must sit out this year. Your grant application must be for activities that take place between January 1 — December 31, 2020.

by Molaundo Jones, Social Media Specialist at Fractured Atlas Zeke Zelker, creator of “Billboard” Filmmaker and entrepreneur Zeke Zelker has been a member of Fractured Atlas for seven years. His project “The Billboard Sitters” is a 25-episode web series focusing on four people who live on a catwalk in front of a billboard in hopes of winning a mobile home and “nine-sixty” thousand dollars. “Billboard” is a movie centered on the radio station who hosts the contest and the struggles of the entrepreneur trying to salvage the station.

by Molaundo Jones, Social Media Specialist at Fractured Atlas Suzi Banks Baum | Photo Credit: Jake Borden Suzi Banks Baum has been a member of Fractured Atlas for 4 years. Her project New Illuminations is an artist residency in Gyumri, Armenia bringing book arts and personal narrative writing to women artists. By reconnecting artists with the Armenian tradition of hand-bound books, New Illuminations extends care through art making in a community lying far outside the international gaze. It puts art supplies in hands of eager artists and builds a community of makers in a city hobbled by trauma and poverty.

Tax season is fast approaching! It’s been a year since the new tax law was passed. We’ve received numerous questions from our projects about its impact and now we have the scoop. In this article, you will get a basic overview of the New Tax Law’s adjustment to the Pass-through Deduction and great tips as you prepare to file your 1099. Fractured Atlas recently had the pleasure of speaking with Rus Garofalo, President of Brass Taxes, about what to expect this filing season with the new tax law.

[This time of year brings a whole host of looking back, looking forward pieces. Instead of a round-up of the top books or movies, or predictions about what’s to come in 2019, I thought it might be a good time to check in on our anti-racism, anti-oppression journey at Fractured Atlas.]

How many minutes each day do you spend drafting emails? How about attending meetings? Chatting on Slack? Water cooler conversing with coworkers? Do you measure it in any way? Or, when you think about it do you merely quantify the time simply as a “lot/little” or “more/less than I used to?”

by Molaundo Jones, Social Media Specialist at Fractured Atlas Candace Thompson-Zachery | Photo credit: Shoccara Marcus Candace Thompson-Zachery is the founder of Dance Caribbean COLLECTIVE, an organizing body of dancers, choreographers and educators driven to facilitate Contemporary Caribbean Dance Performance, preserve Cultural Legacy and promote Community Engagement in the Caribbean Diaspora with a focus on Brooklyn, New York. Candace has been a Fractured Atlas member since 2016. How has Fractured Atlas benefitted your artistic practice? As the founder of Dance Caribbean COLLECTIVE, an initiative that was and is morphing a lot, I knew that I wasn’t ready to go into non-profit status without understanding exactly how that organizational machine worked. Becoming a fiscally sponsored project meant that I could raise funds for our projects and have access to support and resources without the stress of non-profit governance. Basically, I could still be an artist and run my projects successfully knowing that fractured atlas would handle most of the paperwork associated with fundraising. Dance Caribbean COLLECTIVE | Photo credit: Shane Drumond How has Fractured Atlas benefitted your revenue/income generation? We have successfully ran two crowdfunding campaigns in 2016 and 2017 that led to production of our flagship event the New Traditions Festival. We’ve also been able to qualify for grants and funding through the fiscal sponsorship program. What specific Fractured Atlas services/programs have you used? I have used the event insurance for our productions, the fiscal sponsorship program and I have also been to one of their networking events. Why do you think artists and organizations should become members of Fractured Atlas? I think Fractured Atlas really puts time and effort into supporting artists. All of my interactions with the organization have been, professional and encouraging. The staff are willing to guide you through any processes necessary for you to achieve success. Also I appreciate how generous Fractured Atlas is with sharing the ins and outs of their organizational structure and their blog has a lot of helpful management tools and strategies. Dance Caribbean Collective | Photo credit: Shane Drumond Do you have any upcoming events that people should know about? I’ll be performing on January 4th for the Bronx Artists Now Showcase — http://www.hostos.cuny.edu/culturearts/events/Year2019/January/Bronx_arts_now/Bronx_arts_now.shtml. I’ll also be teaching for the Winter Intensive with Movement of the People Dance Company in January : http://www.movementofthepeopledance.com/bios-and-class-descriptions.php. What is your biggest accomplishment as a result of being a Fractured Atlas member? Our biggest accomplishment has been the creation of The New Traditions Festival- a series of performances happening during June in Brooklyn NY, in celebration of Caribbean-American Heritage Month. A full pre-festival season of public events including talks, dance classes, and film screenings lead up to the festival performance weekend. For the participating choreographers, we provide a residency and mentorship program to aid in the development of their work, and the culminating performance festival featuring their pieces. You can follow and learn more about Dance Caribbean COLLECTIVE at www.dancecaribbeancollective.com; on Facebook at @Dance Caribbean COLLECTIVE; on Instagram at @candancefit, @dancecaribbeancollective; on Twitter @candancefitt and dancecaribco; and on LinkedIn @Candace Thompson-Zachery. Join Us: Click here to become become a member. Fractured Atlas on Social: Instagram | Tumblr | Twitter | Facebook

It is December, which means that I am watching way too many holiday movies -(specifically the romcom variety that Hallmark and Netflix do so well), and it seems like I’m not alone. As I’ve been watching movie after movie, I have noticed some common themes: baking cookies (yum!), accidentally falling in love with a prince (or Santa’s son!), really fake looking snow (or incredibly not winter friendly outfits!), and people loving their jobs (just kidding).

Apps, articles, books, and courses to build a reflective & resilient self-care practice in your life & work After months of seeing that documentary about tiny homes pop up repeatedly in my Netflix queue, I finally sat down and watched it. And that lead to watching this one about adopting a minimalist approach in life, and then books like Dan Harris’s 10% Happier and Jeffery Pfeffer’s Dying for a Paycheck, and a course on Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction. By that point, I had fallen firmly down a rabbit hole of research on resiliency and self-care.

by Molaundo Jones, Social Media Specialist for Fractured Atlas Melissa Dowler and Cynthia Siadat, LCSW, Co-Founders of She Sees Cynthia M. A. Siadat, LCSW, and Melissa Dowler are the founders of She Sees, a volunteer-driven organization dedicated to inspiring the next generation of diverse female filmmakers and empowering young women to tell their stories through film. They have been members of Fractured Atlas since 2016.