Behind the Scenes: The April Monthly Report From SAW
It’s that time of the month again. Venture forward if want to hear more about what we’ve been working on behind the scenes here at SAW!
In Person Programs
Its been a quiet month in the SAW studios as year long classes draw to a close and our in person students are busy working to bring their anthology together.
We won’t be running the Year Long Intensive Program again in 2022-23, but that doesn’t mean we’re not planning lots of ways to bring people together:
6-week courses in comics making open to people living in Gainesville four times throughout the academic school year (September through to April);
Teaching Artist Residences bringing professional cartoonists to Gainesville to teach and make comics in sunny Florida;
Emerging Artist Residencies for local-Gainesville cartoonists who are beginning to explore their career in comics;
Free Draw Jams in the SAW space on the first Sunday of every month;
Donation-based skills exchange workshops starting in August;
Comics exhibitions, events, and book launches (like our end-of-year graduation party June 17, mark your calendars);
Teen programs (like our week long summer workshops in June);
Week-long low-residency and makers retreats (like Tom’s July workshop for creators and educators. And after that the next low-residency week October 24-28, mark your calendars);
Regular attendance at Zine and Comics conventions across the country.
We’re doing so much!
At the moment we’re especially excited to be hosting Carl Antonowicz as our Artist in Residence. He’s been in the SAW studio daily and sharing events like our in person Draw Jam (just this last weekend). Carl will be with us until May 18 and hopefully join us in the network for an artist talk before his time is up and he returns to Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Photo of the May In Person Draw Jam.
Online Events
Our next two Friday Night Workshops have been scheduled. This Friday we’ll be joined by Emma Hunsinger for an hour of Specificity and Simplicity.
The following week Josh Bayer and Hyena Hell are partnering up. You can register for both events now through Eventbrite - https://www.eventbrite.com/o/sequential-artists-workshop-14786871581.
Community Projects
Last month I gave a round up of the community projects that have grown out of the SAW space (there’s been so much great stuff happening!!!). This month I wanted to share a little bit of the conversations that Tom and I have been having about how we can best support the SAW Community Platform.
Tom and Emma at MoCCA in New York, April 2022.
So you probably know, Tom founded SAW as a non-profit school for comics back in 2012. That will always be our primary mission. But as the school has grown and Tom has had more support behind the scenes (from people like me and Karlo and our very generous volunteers and board of directors), we’ve realized how important Community and Connection is to learning and making meaningful stories.
That means the not-quite-a-school things - partnerships, collaborations, public events, peer-lead workshops etc. - that come out of this space are really, really important to us, even if we’re not the ones generating or facilitating them.
We've had to examine what it means to be community managers and leaders and we're seeing our roles as ones of planning and stewardship: having established a vibrant collection of resources and learning experiences, it's our duty to also facilitate the events, and enable the communities that arise around them.
We're asking everyone to take a look at and abide by our long-standing community guidelines, which you can always find here.
We’ve worked with the Board of Directors to create a form where you can submit your idea for what you’d like to exist here in the Mighty Network. It includes an outline of the support we offer to bring your ideas to life, whether that’s material (e.g.: events hosted through the SAW Mighty Network) or more abstract (e.g.: mentorship). Read it for yourself here.
We also have a complaints form for any kinds of problems or concerns that might arise. You can find that here or bookmarked in the About section of the Mighty Network.
We're happy to be here to guide and direct the community to more interaction, more learning and more creative and self-initiated possibilities. We'll step in to remind and maybe update the guidelines now and then, and also show you how others have accomplished similar goals, whether those are goals of creative collaboration or conflict management.
There are a bunch of changes in the works based on feedback we’ve received from online members and we’re looking forward to sharing them with you very soon!
Publishing at SAW
Our latest round of orders for the Graphic Novel Intensive Anthology and the Diary Comics Anthology has just gone out in the mail. If you haven’t had a chance, heard over to the shop and put your order in (Echo is close to selling out so get a copy while you still can!)
Drawing by Jen Sandiwch
Team Spotlight
Jen Sandwich and Ariel Bordeaux have joined the ongoing comics FLOW group as mentors.
Drawing by Ariel Bordeaux
Jen has a long history of generously joining us in the SAW in person space for guest artist talks. They make zines, comics, soft creatures and lots of other things. A recurring theme in their work is friendship. You can see more of their process in regular posts in the Comics Flow Ongoing Group and Graphic Memoir Intensive Group (there are handmade books and lots of notes and color-coded systems, its something to behold!)
Ariel Bordeaux is in the network fresh from publishing their latest Graphic Memoir, Clutter. Ariel currently makes comics, zines and painting that explore themes of daily life, parenting, relationships, emotion, self-image, identity and food.
Welcome Ariel and Jen! It’s so good to have you here with us!
Upcoming Online Programs
We’ve got a full calendar of classes planned for 2022:
There’s still time to sign up for our annual Graphic Novel Intensive, starting June 1.
There are limited spaces available in Beth Trembley’s Graphic Memoir Mentoring month in June. These 4 weeks will be best suited to anyone who has a graphic memoir in progress and is ready for a close reading to take it to the next level.
Mid-June Hyena Hell and Josh Bayer are offering a 4 week comics workshop.
July 2 we’re launching an online teen program, every Saturday for a month. Lead by SAW Instructor Jess Ruliffson, it will draw on her 10+ years experience teaching kids and teens. Share this with the young comics lovers in your life!
Looking even further ahead...
SAWCoWriMo Logo by Adrean Clark
Mark your calendars August for SAWCoWriMo (the SAW Community answer to NaNoWriMo).
September 5 the SAW Year Long Certificate 2022-23 program starts.
October/November we’ll be offering a 4 week course + 4 week mentoring period with Melanie Gillman.
Thank you Patrons
Big thanks to all our Patreon supporters! Jules, CB, Janice, Michael, Joshua, Barry, Kevin, John, Karen, Deborah, Warren, Lisa, Joan, Maria, Lisa, Sally, Scott, Natasha, Milica, Umi, Mazur, Marek, Libby, Chris, Brian, Selina, David, and Andrew!
Reach Out
Please let me know if there’s anything you think needs attention in these monthly round ups. Until next time, happy comics making!
- Emma @ SAW