Yup, this is science. SECRET science.
If there’s anything that celebrates the ascendant victory of the Nerd Class — those who weren’t invited to the parties where you Actually Might Have Tried Alcohol Before Age 19, or otherwise shunned for trying to make the most of your education — it’s Brooklyn’s own Secret Science Club. The Club at The Bell House is like having a black hole hover over your high school, suck out all the droning teachers and thickheaded jocks and then spew out kooky, slightly tipsy teachers and a fascinating curriculum from the Learning is Fun Dimension. And now, it needs your help! The Club is usually FREE so it started a Kickstarter to expand its fifth season with more scientists (like Neil deGrasse Tyson), new projects and bigger audiences. Seeing a huge room packed for a science lecture on a random Wednesday night means we must be doing something right in Brooklyn. Read the rest of this entry »
We’ve all got business ideas, because that’s what drew many of us to BK: a hip new Groundhog Day-themed bar, a sitar music festival, dragon boat pillow fight/cupcake market … whatever. But what we’re lacking is the money to make it happen. This flat world of 2011 is full of ways to dig up the cash that beat ole George Bailey’s bank loans, but where to start? Kickstarter? IndieGoGo? Venture capital? A Twitter campaign? All-night Facebook Like-a-Thon?
If you are trying to figure out funding strategy, put this on your calendar: The BK-based DIY Business Association is hosting a micro conference Sept. 10: “Get Funding ASAP!“ to discuss different avenues of raising money, with expert advice from panelists such as Slava Rubin, co-founder of IndieGoGo, Sara Bacon, founder of Greenpoint Coworking, Natalia Oberti Noguera, founder of the Pipeline Fellowship and more. The cost is $25, which includes cocktails and networking groups. Oh, and what has two thumbs and is moderating this panel? This guy! Read the rest of this entry »
BK Farmyards' Kingston Ave. vision
You gotta root for a group that’s teaching Crown Heights high schoolers to farm. That’s BK Farmyards‘ plan, anyway, but they need some help. After feeding six people for 12 weeks on 600 sq. ft. in Ditmas Park last year, the land-transforming BK non-profit is partnering with the High School for Public Service to start a 1-acre farmyard on the school’s Kingston Ave. grounds. The farm will be one of the area’s few local food sources, and its young caretakers will learn a bit about food and the environment (they’ll also get their hands dirty with some actual… dirt). But fruitful dirt doesn’t come cheap, so BK Farmyards has set up a page on the funding platform Kickstarter to help bring in some much-needed financial aid. Read the rest of this entry »
Daniel Goldstein. Photo courtesy of No Land Grab.
Here’s your easiest route ever to associate producer status on a documentary film. The Brooklyn-based studio Rumur has spent the last six years producing Battle of Brooklyn, a documentary chronicling Daniel Goldstein’s fight against the Atlantic Yards development project and his effort to save his home at 636 Pacific St. Now Rumur is short on cash and time, and the studio needs some help to save its own project. With the help of the funding platform Kickstarter, they’re trying to raise $25,000 by December 1 to receive a matching grant that will meet the rest of their needs. You can pledge $1 (or more, they prefer) at Rumur’s Kickstarter page. There are several donation levels and each gets you a copy of the movie and Rumur swag like T-Shirts and DVDs. Read the rest of this entry »
If you’re still licking stamps on artists’ grant applications, there’s a new web site that may be worth your time. Kickstarter, a new site based in Brooklyn, is a “funding platform” for artists, inventors, journalists, musicians and other creatives who can post a video to attract $5-and-up pledges. Current cup-shakers include singer April Smith (left), whose slickly produced video has attracted more than $6,000 to seed her next album. There’s also Floating Doctors (a medical crew that visits remote areas via an eco-friendly boat), the creator of a puppet-cast TV pilot, and an artist who charges $1 for every square inch of her work. And so on. Read the rest of this entry »
Despite its super-smart concept for crowdfunding creative projects, Kickstarter doesn’t always inspire. Donate twenty bucks to get that girl from high school’s ska band a new amp? Nah. Support your roommate’s boyfriend’s recreation of Jackass II in his studio apartment? No can do. But here are six Brooklyn Kickstarter projects we can get behind, starting with a brand new campaign to send the Atlantic Yards documentary Battle for Brooklyn to the Oscars. Read the rest of this entry »
Yup, this is science. SECRET science.
If there’s anything that celebrates the ascendant victory of the Nerd Class — those who weren’t invited to the parties where you Actually Might Have Tried Alcohol Before Age 19, or otherwise shunned for trying to make the most of your education — it’s Brooklyn’s own Secret Science Club. The Club at The Bell House is like having a black hole hover over your high school, suck out all the droning teachers and thickheaded jocks and then spew out kooky, slightly tipsy teachers and a fascinating curriculum from the Learning is Fun Dimension. And now, it needs your help! The Club is usually FREE so it started a Kickstarter to expand its fifth season with more scientists (like Neil deGrasse Tyson), new projects and bigger audiences. Seeing a huge room packed for a science lecture on a random Wednesday night means we must be doing something right in Brooklyn. Read the rest of this entry »
We’ve all got business ideas, because that’s what drew many of us to BK: a hip new Groundhog Day-themed bar, a sitar music festival, dragon boat pillow fight/cupcake market … whatever. But what we’re lacking is the money to make it happen. This flat world of 2011 is full of ways to dig up the cash that beat ole George Bailey’s bank loans, but where to start? Kickstarter? IndieGoGo? Venture capital? A Twitter campaign? All-night Facebook Like-a-Thon?
If you are trying to figure out funding strategy, put this on your calendar: The BK-based DIY Business Association is hosting a micro conference Sept. 10: “Get Funding ASAP!“ to discuss different avenues of raising money, with expert advice from panelists such as Slava Rubin, co-founder of IndieGoGo, Sara Bacon, founder of Greenpoint Coworking, Natalia Oberti Noguera, founder of the Pipeline Fellowship and more. The cost is $25, which includes cocktails and networking groups. Oh, and what has two thumbs and is moderating this panel? This guy! Read the rest of this entry »
BK Farmyards' Kingston Ave. vision
You gotta root for a group that’s teaching Crown Heights high schoolers to farm. That’s BK Farmyards‘ plan, anyway, but they need some help. After feeding six people for 12 weeks on 600 sq. ft. in Ditmas Park last year, the land-transforming BK non-profit is partnering with the High School for Public Service to start a 1-acre farmyard on the school’s Kingston Ave. grounds. The farm will be one of the area’s few local food sources, and its young caretakers will learn a bit about food and the environment (they’ll also get their hands dirty with some actual… dirt). But fruitful dirt doesn’t come cheap, so BK Farmyards has set up a page on the funding platform Kickstarter to help bring in some much-needed financial aid. Read the rest of this entry »
Daniel Goldstein. Photo courtesy of No Land Grab.
Here’s your easiest route ever to associate producer status on a documentary film. The Brooklyn-based studio Rumur has spent the last six years producing Battle of Brooklyn, a documentary chronicling Daniel Goldstein’s fight against the Atlantic Yards development project and his effort to save his home at 636 Pacific St. Now Rumur is short on cash and time, and the studio needs some help to save its own project. With the help of the funding platform Kickstarter, they’re trying to raise $25,000 by December 1 to receive a matching grant that will meet the rest of their needs. You can pledge $1 (or more, they prefer) at Rumur’s Kickstarter page. There are several donation levels and each gets you a copy of the movie and Rumur swag like T-Shirts and DVDs. Read the rest of this entry »
If you’re still licking stamps on artists’ grant applications, there’s a new web site that may be worth your time. Kickstarter, a new site based in Brooklyn, is a “funding platform” for artists, inventors, journalists, musicians and other creatives who can post a video to attract $5-and-up pledges. Current cup-shakers include singer April Smith (left), whose slickly produced video has attracted more than $6,000 to seed her next album. There’s also Floating Doctors (a medical crew that visits remote areas via an eco-friendly boat), the creator of a puppet-cast TV pilot, and an artist who charges $1 for every square inch of her work. And so on. Read the rest of this entry »
