Giving POV to Oddball Art

Sue Schardt, of Dorchester, Massachusetts, launched Margin Media to give emerging artists a platform for expression. In one of her blog posts on the site, for example, Sue Schardt references an article about Manny Farber, a painter whose side job was writing movie reviews.

Manny Farber is best known for naming termite art. Mr. Farber began his career at the University of California, San Diego in 1970, where he taught and worked. His movie criticism was published in the New Republic, the Nation, and elsewhere. His writing style was described as punchy and witty, with a close observation to detail and a keen awareness of the overlooked.

In an exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art in 2018, his art work reflects this connection between art and the movies. The show opened with the painter’s stationery, candy, and auteur drawings, which were done using oil, ink, and pastel on paper. Candy reminiscent of that sold in movie theaters and other objects were also subjects of the works.

Mr. Farber makes an obvious connection between the mundane and what appears on the movie screen. He called this termite art because it gave definition to the larger-than-life depictions burrowed in the unpretentious and unfashionable act of watching a film. 

Margin Media and the Finding Sanctuary Multi-Media Production

via WordPress https://ift.tt/3hPrzYJ

NFCB, Community Counts, Bader Award

Sue Schardt is a recognized public media trail blazer who has successful developed initiatives to support greater diversity in public media and to expand coverage to more people in local communities across the United States. In her capacity as president of SchardtMEDIA and, more recently, as executive producer of Localore and CEO of AIR, she is sought out as an expert presenter by media organizations across the United States and overseas. She was among those invited to the Kiev by Ukrainian national public broadcasting leaders interested in the formation of non-profit media in the United States; in Moscow, her remarks focused on podcasting and emerging media innovation and, in Melbourne, her presentation was among those concerned with creating successful, co-collaborative productions. Closes to home, Schardt has been an active advisor to and participate with the Third Coast International Audio Festival, Greater Public, the Public Radio Program Directors Association (PRPD), Public Media Journalists’ Association (PMJA), and the National Federation of Community Broadcasters (NFCB). The latter recognized Schardt with a lifetime achievement award in 2018.

More on NFCB: NFCB has enhanced the impact of community media while fostering innovation in public media services. The organization supports local radio stations through a suite of customized services that range from education and representation offerings to organizational consulting and peer-to-peer exchange. The NFCB also leads initiatives, such as the Community Counts program, an effort designed to strengthen service sustainability amongst community radio stations in a time of evolving technology and limited resources. The program, which spans 18 months, provides a blend of expert-led training and peer-based learning to 10 radio stations who meet eligibility requirements and complete an application process. Visit https://nfcb.org


For more on PRPD, visit https://prpd.org/

For more on PMJA, visit https://www.pmja.org/

For more on Greater Public, visit https://www.greaterpublic.org/

For more on Third Coast International Audio Festival, visit https://www.thirdcoastfestival.org/

For more about Sue Schardt, visit https://www.MarginMedia.org

Compassionate Journalism

Media influencer Sue Schardt has close to 30 years of experience in communications and has been the executive producer of Localore since 2010. Sue Schardt is currently operating an independent production group, MarginMedia.org, to continue to develop new collaborative work with a diverse range of people living in local communities. 

In a recent post, she muses about compassion, reflecting back on a childhood fainting spell and the tenderness of her elementary school principal. Schardt continues, then, describing her experience with the Red Cross food pantry, and the Boston public city school teachers who line up in their cars to collect and transport food to the homes of their students across the city during this time of hardship.

This emphasis on compassion in a time of pandemic connects to Schardt's approach to journalism and public media. In a 2017 report to the public media field, “Break Form, Making Stories with and for the People, the ethos of Localore is expressed in the view that the core tenants of journalism - fairness, objectivity, and balance - also includes love.

Today, Schardt believes even more strongly that today's chaos and strife present tremendous challenges to those we entrust to bring us the news, and that journalists who lead with compassion are key in confronting the rampant cruelty and divisiveness that mark our present reality. 

Journalistic Purpose During a Time of Pandemic and Unrest

An executive producer at Margin Media, Sue Schardt believes stories have the power to bring about positive change. Her work is rooted in an understanding how stories make it possible for people to recognize themselves as part of a larger whole, and that media, when directed with clear, positive intention, is an important unifying force when uncertainty and fear prevail.

In a recent post on her company site, she shares her insights into the present moment, with people across the planet converging in ways that, even six months ago, were unimaginable. The emergence of millions of “brave and necessary” protesters moving against racial injustice, a pandemic dismantling normative structures of governance and economies are, together impacting people in every corner of the world. “We must recognize this moment of profound, shared vulnerability, when rigorous journalism and our best storytellers can lead us to a better world,” says Schardt. “There is a new calling.”

Break Form: Making stories with and for the people is a report published by the American Press Institute analyzing “Localore: Finding America,” a production Schardt created and oversaw as Executive Producer for ten years. She stresses the relevance of lessons of Localore for today’s journalists. One of the project’s lead producers Steve Mencher worked with disparate faith communities in Kansas City. He describes how the experience influenced his approach to journalism. “I believe in importance of fairness, objectivity, and balance,” says Mencher. “I’ve learned, too, there is also love. Love and the core tenets of journalism can go together.”

Read Break Form: Making stories with and for the people:
https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/publications/reports/break-form/

For the latest on Sue Schardt, visit MarginMedia.org.

 

Anti-celebrity Termite Artist Making Change from Inside Public Media

Sue Schardt operates Margin Media out of a studio located on the top of Savin Hill in Dorchester, Massachusetts. She oversees productions, and, as executive producer, she draws on her extensive experience working as a creative, socially conscious leader in public media. What many in her professional circles don’t know is that Schardt is also a musician and free-form radio DJ on WMBR-FM based at the Massachusetts Institute. She was among the artists featured in a major exhibition at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), “One Day at a Time: Manny Farber and Termite Art.”

Described by the Los Angeles Times as an “anti-celebrity” show, the exhibition had at its centerpiece paintings by Manny Farber, who died in 2008 and was better known to the public as a movie critic than as an artist. One unique aspect of Farber’s colorful, motion-infused still-life pieces is that they were not presented from a side view, but from above, framed on surfaces such as tabletops.

Interwoven with Farber’s still-life paintings were the works of three dozen artists, including Schardt, who were not so much influenced by him but who shared an affinity and sensibility. This was brought together “sympathetically” by MOCA’s former chief curator, Helen Molesworth, as her “swan song” exhibition. As reviewed in the Times, the end result was “user-friendly yet enjoyably strange.”

For a review of the Manny Farber exhibition, visit

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-manny-farber-termite-moca-20181019-story.html

Anti-celebrity Termite Artist Making Change from Inside Public Media

Sue Schardt operates Margin Media out of a studio located on the top of Savin Hill in Dorchester, Massachusetts. She oversees productions, and, as executive producer, she draws on her extensive experience working as a creative, socially conscious leader in public media. What many in her professional circles don’t know is that Schardt is also a musician and free-form radio DJ on WMBR-FM based at the Massachusetts Institute. She was among the artists featured in a major exhibition at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), “One Day at a Time: Manny Farber and Termite Art.”

Described by the Los Angeles Times as an “anti-celebrity” show, the exhibition had at its centerpiece paintings by Manny Farber, who died in 2008 and was better known to the public as a movie critic than as an artist. One unique aspect of Farber’s colorful, motion-infused still-life pieces is that they were not presented from a side view, but from above, framed on surfaces such as tabletops.

Interwoven with Farber’s still-life paintings were the works of three dozen artists, including Schardt, who were not so much influenced by him but who shared an affinity and sensibility. This was brought together “sympathetically” by MOCA’s former chief curator, Helen Molesworth, as her “swan song” exhibition. As reviewed in the Times, the end result was “user-friendly yet enjoyably strange.”

For a review of the Manny Farber exhibition, visit
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-manny-farber-termite-moca-20181019-story.html

Obstacles Faced by Local Journalism

For more than two decades, Sue Schardt has been committed to building a stronger and more inclusive media industry, including as CEO of the Association of Independents in Radio in Dorchester, MA. Beginning in 2010, Sue Schardt began building Localore, a new local journalism ecosystem involving hundreds of independent and station-based producers working in partnership with individuals and organizations based in communities across the U.S.

Local journalism has declined significantly across the country in recent years, with thousands of local news outlets closing or operating with significantly diminished resources. One important factor in this decline is the consolidation of newspapers and local radio stations over two decades. The traditional business model of local newspapers is all but obsolete. As more people get their news online, it’s increasingly difficult to attract the kind of advertising revenue necessary to keep local newsrooms afloat and, while podcasting represents a boon for audio producers, the pipeline for new voices is quickly narrowing as the most resourced players begin to dominate the field. This now includes players such as Facebook and Google who command enormous attention from news consumers by aggregating content, yet with few of the safeguards provided by traditional journalism. As a consequence, advertising revenues are drawn away from local newsrooms and at a time when making the leap into digital is already beyond the resources and abilities of many smaller news organizations.

These are among the factors contributing to the erosion of a community-based news culture and at a time of national crisis, when local connection is more important than ever.

The Michael Bader Award from the NFCB

Sue Schardt is an executive producer at Margin Media in Dorchester, Massachusetts and an executive producer and creator of Localore, an independent public media production designed to bring diversity, invent new story forms, and expand public media's reach to more people in local communities. Sue Schardt received the Michael Bader Award for Lifetime Achievement from the National Federation of Community Broadcasters in 2017 for her contributions to the public media industry where she’s work for more than two decades.

The Michael Bader Award is an annual award granted to a single contribution or in honor of a lifetime of contributions to community radio. Those who have received the award have made a significant impact on the advancement of the vision and mission of community radio as a whole. Sue Schardt has worked extensively with public radio stations and leading networks in the U.S. and abroad. She worked with Koahnic Broadcast Corporation to build a new infrastructure for Native American radio stations, including developing a set of ethics and guidelines specifically designed for those covering Native American communities. Her work to diversity and strengthen the ecosystem for independent and community based journalists and producers is especially notable.

The eponymous Michael Bader was a dedicated attorney with a strong focus on community radio stations. Throughout his career, he helped numerous stations get started and protected their rights in his capacity as an attorney. In addition to professional assistance, he also supported many stations financially and with his time and attention.

The Advantages of Inclusivity in Marketing

Sue Schardt is an accomplished media executive and experienced producer and program developer for a broad range of media networks. Committed to building and promoting inclusivity in media, Sue Schardt spoke about the transformative power of media at the launch of the public independent production initiative, Localore: Finding America. Learn more about the work at http://marginmedia.org

Inclusivity in media is not just morally justifiable, it can also have many tangible benefits, as shown in a survey made by Female Quotient in partnership with Google and Ipsos. In examining the effects of inclusivity marketing on positive outcomes with consumers, the survey found that 77 percent of Millennials have taken action based on an ad campaign that was inclusive or diverse.

Moreover, 85 percent of Latinx consumers surveyed reported taking action based on an ad campaign they viewed as inclusive or diverse. In addition, 69 percent of Black consumers reported they were more likely to purchase from a brand that positively related to their race and ethnicity, and 71 percent of LGBTQ respondents were more likely to seek out a brand that represents a variety of sexual orientations in its media presence.

The Power of Story, the Sound of the Other

Sue Schardt, executive producer of Margin Media, is passionate about the power a single story has to bring positive change to those listening. Schardt was recognized in 2018 by the National Federation of Community Broadcasters (NFCB) with the “Michael Bader Lifetime Achievement Award,” with NFCB President Sally Kane citing Sue Schardt’s particular contributions through Localore and her work with independent talent to reach new corners of local communities by experimenting with new ways of producing stories.

Localore: Finding America draws on many story-forms common to public media platforms – social/digital, television, radio, short form documentary, and live events. The production partnered with scores of public media stations, local community groups, and non-profits nationwide to collaborate with the Localore production units, making stories “with and for the people” to capture a wide spectrum of American diversity.

One 2016 production based in New Orleans (NOLA) led by Eve Abrahms was “Unprisoned: Stories from the System.” It featured a series of podcasts, radio programs, and live events over the course of a year. One live event, produced with Bring Your Own Story (BYOS), showcased nine storytellers, including formerly incarcerated individuals and family members of returning citizens. It drew an audience of 300 and included those connected to the storytellers as well others from the wider NOLA community who’d had little exposure to the impact of prison culture – this in a town sometimes referred to as “the world’s incarceration capital.” According to statistics at the time of the event, approximately 60 percent of the people in New Orleans are African American, and African Americans make up about 85 percent of the local prison population.

Sue Schardt cited as inspiration for her remarks that evening “The Sound of the Genuine,” a 1980 commencement address delivered by the Reverend Howard Thurman’s to the graduates of Spelman college. Schardt said, “ Stories make us human. The act of sitting across the table from another person – meeting them eye to eye – the act of standing up on a stage to share what is burning in your mind, that comes from the deepest part of you, is an act of courage. Each time you do this is a demonstration of your power. There is power in this because, when you choose to tell a story out loud, to have to overcome the fear you may have in committing this act, you are bearing witness to what it is to be a human being. You are demonstrating what is it to be alive in the world, and you are making it possible for another person to see themselves reflected in your experience. It is an act of helping; an act of healing.”

The full script of Reverend Thurman’s “The Sound of the Genuine” is here [linkto: http://www.dailygood.org/story/1846/the-sound-of-the-genuine-howard-thurman/]

The full transcript of Schardt’s remarks are located here [linkto: https://marginmedia.org/the-sound-of-the-other-in-you-nola/]

For the latest on Sue Schardt and Margin Media, go here! [linkto: https://marginmedia.org/]