This Challenge Is Making Us Hungry … For Incredible Content
Today, we are kicking off a weekly challenge series to get your creative juices flowing and give out a few prizes along the way. Every week we will choose one winner to receive a $50 prize.
This week, the challenge is to create a piece of creative content that’s easily sharable on social media thanking the Charlotte restaurant community for keeping us fed during these strange times.
You can create a graphic, drawing, video, song, or anything else your brain can come up with. Get creative with it! We’re looking for something that will be striking and easy for others to share on social in support of our restaurant community.
Entries must be sent to thebiscuit@charlotteiscreative.com by 6pm this Sunday, April 26. The winner and runners-up will be notified by Wednesday, April 29 via email. Even if you don’t win the grand prize, we will share select entries that we receive, so please include any social media information you would like us to use to properly credit you. Everyone who participates will keep the rights to their art.
This QC Creative Challenge is supported by Charlotte Center City Partners and Charlotte SHOUT.
All good things,
Tim Miner, Matt Olin & Porter Metzler (Social Media Scoundrel)
Charlotte Is Creative
Celebrate National Library Week From Home
It’s National Library Week — a celebration of libraries, librarians, and library workers and all of the knowledge, resources, and fun they provide to the community. Sounds great, right? We think so, too! However, there’s one little problem… we can’t actually go to the library at the moment. It’s a good thing Charlotte Mecklenburg Library has a wide variety of online resources to keep us entertained from the safety and comfort of our home!
Here are 6 of our favorite digital resources available through the library.
Here are the next two batches of The Biscuit Blitz, five-minute interviews with inspiring Queen City creatives.
Stay-At-Home Can’t Keep Bryan Li from Laughing
Matt Olin, co-publisher of The Biscuit, dishes with Bryan Li, comedian and co-owner of Open Rice, in a rapid-fire five-minute interview about how Bryan is keeping his wits, sharpening his comedic chops and adjusting to the immense impact COVID-19 has made on the restaurant industry. Watch the 5-minute interview with Bryan.
Being Conversational & Reciprocal in the Virtual World
It’s impossible not to smile, laugh and be inspired by just spending one minute listening to Stacy Cassio, founder of Pink Mentor Network. On this batch of The Biscuit Blitz, co-publisher, Tim Miner, spends FIVE+ minutes with her, so you’re in for a lot of smiles, laughs and inspiration. Stacy talks about how she shifted her business to the digital realm just in time for COVID-19 and how mentorship is something all of us need to be mindful of. Watch the 5ish-minute interview with Stacy.
We’re collecting links to creative events and resources popping up all over the Queen City. If you’re ready to press “pause” on Netflix, check out our calendar of creative online events. Here are a few we’re really excited about.
Make a Communal Coloring Book at The McColl Center
While you’re at home, you might as well indulge your creative curiosity. To keep the community of professional artists and the Charlotte community engaged in creative work, the McColl Center for Art + Innovation has launched an active series of weekly Connected Art Workshops. This Thursday, Andrea Vail will offer online participants a chance to share their feelings through lighthearted drawings and contribute to the virtual Communal Coloring Book Project. If you’re apprehensive of buying a ticket and jumping in, the Center has even included a Q & A about the class on the registration page.
View a list of upcoming (and past) workshops here.
All Hands on Deck! Queens College Art Burst Sets Sail Online
Like so many, Queens College was forced to postpone its production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s classic musical comedy, H.M.S. PINAFORE, to October. But rather than give the whole thing a heave-ho until then, they’re launching a new online series called Virtual Art Burst with a special 1-hour production of the musical directed by Alistair Donkin, who will direct the fall show. Register for tickets to watch Art Burst when it airs Thursday from 4 to 5pm.
Lend a Hand from Home During Do GOOD Week
You can’t keep a GOOD organization down. The team at SHARE Charlotte has developed an array of online resources to celebrate Do GOOD Week (April 19-25) and enable Charlotteans to engage with local nonprofits and lend a hand from home. SHARE Charlotte has launched a separate toolkit for nonprofits looking for effective ways to reach out to new and existing volunteers through Saturday.
MORE FINANCIAL RESOURCES FOR CREATIVES:
In an e-mail to its subscriber base today, the Knight Foundation reminded the Queen City creatives of several supportive financial funds still open for applications:
Timelapse Video: Watch Emerson Stoldt Build a Masterpiece
Since the onset of stay-at-home, we’ve encouraged creatives from across the Queen City to share their #CreativityInCaptivity. So, it was an absolute treat to get this timelapse video of Optimist Park resident, Emerson Stoldt, creating a large painting based on the sculpture “The Ecstacy of Saint Teresa” finished with a 24-karat-gold teardrop.
Emerson says, “I’m an architect and artist … [I] have been working my full-time architectural design job from home for about 6 weeks now. I’ve been painting a lot more since this all started, it’s been a great way to stay (relatively) sane.”
You can follow Emerson on Instagram and watch the creative process for this class piece unfold on our YouTube channel right here.
Bryan Kalantek’s Got Mad LOVE for His Neighborhood
Charlottean Bryan Kalentek also answered the call for #CreativityInCaptivity by sharing his version of Philadelphia’s famous “Love” sculpture from Robert Indiana. Robert cut the letters out of plywood, painted them and installed them in his front yard. About the project, he said:
“Was listening to NPR while making this love sculpture yesterday and heard your ad to ‘send us your creativity.’ [This] was my first time using a jigsaw, so I’m very impressed with myself!”
Bryan, you SHOULD be proud.
What are you doing to engage your #CreativityInCaptivity?
Reach out and tell us. We want to share it so you can inspire your neighbors to follow your example.
As reported by WFAE, the YMCA held virtual camps for kids at home during last week’s spring break. With the future of stay-at-home orders up in the air, it’s unclear if the Y will be allowed to host in-person camps this summer. So, we decided to ask a few stock image Charlotteans if they had any ideas — just in case summer camp has to go virtual, too.
The local media community is working incredibly hard to provide accurate, uplifting and actionable information to assist with the new realities we face. Here are some stories from this week we think are worth your time.
Charlotte singer/songwriter, Brit Drozda, performed on Amplifier podcast’s new series, Songversations, on WFAE yesterday. You can tune in to future installments Tuesdays and Thursdays at noon.
For those of us cooking at home, Hola News shared recipes for Galletas de mantequilla (Butter Cookies) and Velitas de canelones (Cannelloni candles) on their Web site.
The COVID-19 crisis has brought a new focus on local small businesses we hope will continue — and drive future success — when stay-at-home is over. QCityMetro spotlighted Great Things Boutique and their efforts to establish a retail reputation on the West Side.
Charlotte INNO interviewed BLKTECHCLT founder, Sherrell Dorsey, about renewing her organizations’ relationship with Flatiron School to offer counseling and coding instruction that will assist students in establishing careers in the tech industry,
To help us all commemorate “The Bard’s” Birthday on Thursday, Charlotte on the Cheap posted information about Chickespeare’s contest to write and film a 10-minute, craft-beer inspired Shakespearean play by Friday. The article also shares links to the all-day virtual celebrations by the Folger Shakespeare Library.
It may only be Wednesday … but it’s already been a week. As we approach the end of our first full month of stay-at-home, our team here at The Biscuit finds itself in dire need of comfort food. Hoping against hope, we punched “Papi Queso” and “recipe” into Google and found this incredible recipe for Mushroom Gruyere Grilled Cheese by Charlotte’s reigning cheese champs available on the Food Network. Day. Officially. Made. Get the recipe here.
Now, if you … like us … doubt you can get the luxuriously crispy exterior of Papi Queso’s bread just right on your own, luckily they’re still up and running at Optimist Hall. If you’d rather get the real thing — while basking in the knowledge that you COULD make Papi Queso’s Mushroom Gruyere Grilled Cheese if you wanted to — you can order online right here.
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