Carson Folk Musicians Find Support on the Web
Submitted by Carson Now Reader on Thu, 06/28/2012 - 6:29pm
Carson City, NV – Two local folk musicians are finding benefactors for their music via the Internet. When the husband-and-wife folk duo Tom and Mary Kay Aufrance went looking for some financial help with publishing their upcoming music CD release, they decided to try a novel approach - auctioning off sponsorships on their CD via ebay.
Tom and Mary Kay, who perform as the traditional American music act ‘Slim & Minnie’ at events like the Carson Rendezvous, Reno Celtic Celebration and Plumas-Sierra County Fair, say they’re excited to have sold their first sponsorship within the first 24 hours of posting their ebay auction for personalized copies of their upcoming CD "Cowboy Boots and Golden Slippers. "There are 18 tracks on the CD, so we have 17 still available," according to Mary Kay.
"Lately, since the economic downturn, we have been economizing like everybody else," says Mary Kay, who plays accordion and sings with husband Tom on guitar, mandolin and vocals, too. "So, I was getting that ‘hard times’ kinda feeling just like in the folk songs we sing, until we decided to act like real folk musicians always have done and just get out there and put out our tin cup." But they didn’t sit on the street corner with their instruments and their tin cup. Instead the Aufrances put out their virtual ‘tin cup’ on the Web, by offering to feature the photographs and names of anybody who would sponsor a tune on their upcoming CD.
The remaining CD and sponsorship auctions are viewable on ebay under userid personalsecurityzone
http://members.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=personalsec...
"Our ebay auction promises folks that we will dedicate their tune to them on the CD, including their name and photo, and we will send them 2 autographed copies of the CD," explains Mary Kay. "We don’t expect our offer to go viral with millions of hits, but our first sponsorship came from a Facebook friend in Canada who wants to give her sponsorhip as a gift to a horsewoman she knows at Lake Tahoe!"
"Everybody right now is looking for ways to exploit technology to maximize and customize the ways people engage with the arts," said Sunil Iyengar, research director at the National Endowment for the Arts, as quoted in an article by Patricia Cohen writer for the NYTimes.com (Mar. 16, 2012 "Artists Find Benefactors in Web Crowd"). Recently United States Artists in Los Angeles, a nonprofit that supports American artists, began USA Projects, and New York Foundation for the Arts started Artspire, two nonprofit variations of online crowd-funding devoted solely to artists or fledgling cultural groups.
Cohen also reports that "This mass microphilanthropy is a really interesting phenomenon," said Ruby Lerner, president of Creative Capital, a nonprofit that offers artists financial and career support. "We advise all our artists to do it."
Personal contributions — whether from the Medicis, village parishioners or passers-by who toss money into a busker’s hat — have always been the primary way artists have supported their work.
So, the Aufrances put out their busker's hat on the web and are hoping for more sponsors to complete their CD release project goal.
You can find the Aufrance auctions on ebay (until they expire in 9 days) by searching for seller name personalsecurityzone.
For more information:
Tom and Mary Kay Aufrance
www.aufrance.com/music/
P.O. Box 1600
Carson City, NV 89702
Phone: (775) 841-1193
- Carson City
- accordion
- artists
- arts
- Arts and Entertainment
- Auction
- Canada
- Career
- carson
- Carson City NV
- CD release
- celebration
- celtic
- City
- county
- cowboy
- cultural
- events
- fair
- financial
- folk
- foundation
- gift
- Guitar
- help
- Hours
- information
- internet
- Lake
- local
- Los Angeles
- Mandolin
- Members
- money
- Music
- musicians
- National Endowment for the Arts
- new
- Nonprofit
- Novel
- NV
- online
- Philanthropy
- photographs
- Plays
- President
- research
- sing
- songs
- Sponsors
- Support
- tahoe
- Technology
- the Arts
- traditional
- United States
- USA
- virtual
- vocals
- folk songs
- Lake Tahoe
- Mary Kay
- reno
