Artists find success on Internet

Artists have always struggled to find places to fund or sell their artwork, but the Internet is making that easier. Thanks to a rise in online marketplaces, the days of being a starving artist have become a feast of opportunity.

Oakland artist Shawn HibmaCronan is known for his mobile artwork. Shawn needed thousands of dollars to complete his vision for an old van. So he turned to social funding site Kickstarter.com to raise money.

"The beauty of Kickstarter is that it can expedite the process and really draw in a community of people -- supporters that essentially want to be patrons of the arts, but don't have the privilege to completely fund a project like this, " said HibmaCronan.

HibmanCronan is one of a growing number of artists using the Internet to connect with art lovers. Selling art on the Internet is certainly not new, but the growing number of sites is.

Glen Helfand is with the California College of Arts in San Francisco. He says, "There used to be a network of grants that artists could get to fund projects. I mean way back in the ancient history, galleries might have given artists stipends. Now it's a much tougher game."

Saara Reidsema makes jewelry. "I sell mostly one of a kind or made to order rings, earrings, necklaces," she says.

Reidsema struggled to find a store to sell her goods. Then she found Etsy.com. "It has been amazing," she said.

"Etsy is an online marketplace where you can buy or sell handmade or vintage goods from artists all around the world," said Etsy spokesperson Natalie Schwartz.

Brooklyn-based Etsy was created eight years ago to give artists a place to showcase their work. Today the company boasts 18 million unique items for sale. It just opened a San Francisco office.

Schwartz says, "People are really excited about Etsy here in the Bay Area." The company charges 20 cents to list an item for sale, and takes a 3.5 percent transaction fee when the item sells.

Another online marketplace is taking a different approach. Atlanta-based ScoutMob.com opened up "Shoppe" just over seven months ago. The company showcases local artists on locally-themed websites.

ScoutMob co-founder Michael Tavani says, "It came about as a total experiment. We had a kind of small team of people who initially tested it out, we didn't have huge expectations for it and it really took off."

San Francisco artist Dave Marcoullier sells his carved wood designs on ScoutMob.com.

"Working with ScoutMob really allowed me to reach a national audience, even an international audience," said Marcoullier.

ScoutMob has two million subscribers. It recruits artists and showcases their crafts. ScoutMob pays the artists a wholesale price for art and then sells it at retail prices. Marcoullier says he's been so successful selling online he now does it full time.

"It's a really great feeling to say I am making a living an artist," he said.

Written and Produced by Ken Miguel

(Copyright ©2013 KGO-TV/DT.

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Protester climbs onto equipment at controversial Willits project

WILLITS, Calif. (KGO) -- This is day five for a protester who is perched 50-feet high on a piece of Caltrans equipment in Mendocino County.

Last Thursday, protester Will Parrish climbed up on construction equipment at the controversial Willits freeway project. He's part of an environmental coalition trying to stop a bypass being built on wetlands.

Nearly 45 people tried to bring Parrish food and water on Saturday, but California Highway Patrol officers moved in.

Four people were arrested and remain in jail. Parrish is still refusing to come down.

Caltrans wants to build a four-lane freeway around Willits, but critics say a smaller, cheaper road would do the job without so much environmental damage.

(Copyright ©2013 KGO-TV/DT.

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Experienced SF police investigators will be leaving in droves

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- San Francisco's most experienced police investigators will be leaving in droves at the end of next month. They were enrolled in a program designed to keep veteran officers from retiring, but that program is ending, which means the SFPD will have a big void to fill.

Central Police Station is in the heart of North Beach, Chinatown. It's staffed with the most senior officers. Of the 10 district stations, retirements are hitting this station the hardest. Half of its eight inspectors have left. The ranks of its patrol officers have also been depleted.

"The Chinatown beat, we had three officers, now we're down to one. A North Beach beat, same thing. We're down to one right now," said Central Police Station Capt. Garrett Tom.

DROP -- the Deferred Retirement Option Program -- was passed by San Francisco voters in 2008. It allowed retirement age officers to continue working while collecting their pensions from a special account. For inspectors, the DROP program ends at the end of June. Patrol officers have another year left. But some like Leon Sorhondo are leaving next month. Officer Sorhondo has been a cop for 40 years, 30 of them spent patrolling the streets of Chinatown.

"I just learned about a culture that was similar to my parents' background where emphasis on families and schools, education was very similar," said Sorhondo.

As veteran officers like Sorhondo leave, so go decades of invaluable experience and street savvy. Police union president Gary Delagnes says there'll be a huge learning curve.

"Learning how to conduct yourself out on the street, learning that six sense of police work, learning who to talk to, what questions to ask," said Delagnes.

Dealing with the loss of this expertise will be difficult, especially when 68 of the most seasoned inspector-sergeants leave in a month. They're the ones who investigate crime -- a job where experience really counts. Inspector Herman Jones of the Financial Crimes Unit has been a cop for 30 years. He's retiring from DROP in a week and a half.

"You have to make the mistakes and you have to know the people. You have to create a belief, for the lack of a better term, that people can come to you and get the job done," said Jones.

The retirements will hit the financial crimes unit hard. At the end of June, Jones and three of the six inspectors here will retire.

"Not everybody is walking out the door. We still have a lot of talent," said Deputy Chief Lyn Tomioka.

Tomioka says senior officers will support and train newer cops. The inspectors' ranks will also be filled.

"We do hope to promote people before the end of the fiscal year and then we have probationary sergeants or inspectors that have worked the station investigation teams," said Tomioka.

To replace retiring patrol officers, the department is relying on new recruits. There are now two academy classes and another one with officers transferring from other police depts. Still, the end of the DROP program will leave a big void.

(Copyright ©2013 KGO-TV/DT.

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Marin Ballet celebrates 50 years of dance

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. (KGO) -- The Marin Ballet is celebrating 50 years of service this year and it's bringing back some of its alumni for a spectacular reunion. One of those performers is now a major artist with the Boston Ballet who came from humble beginnings in the Bay Area.

Boston Ballet dancer John Lam is coming home to dance for the Marin Ballet's 50th anniversary.

"Marin Ballet has been part of my life and career since I was 4-year-old and I think it's great to come back to my hometown and celebrate this amazing anniversary with Marin Ballet," said Lam.

Lam's current artistic director at the Boston Ballet, Mikko Nissinen, was also artistic director at Marin Ballet years ago when Lam was around 10.

"John showed from the get go, tremendous potential. He was what we call super talented," said Nissinen.

Lam didn't have the same advantages as lot of kids in wealthy Marin County.

"My parents are refugees from Vietnam," said Lam.

His family lived in the low income Canal District of San Rafael and he was in a community daycare program while his parents worked full time to support three kids. That's where he first heard of Marin Ballet Scholarships.

Marin Ballet co-founder Phyllis Thelan brought up the idea of scholarships more than 20 years ago, after seeing a dance program in New York that worked with inner city kids.

"It takes a village to do this," said Thelan. "We got scholarships and I think our idea was all we had to do was simply put it out there, 'Hey, everybody, we have scholarships...come and get them.'"

But Thelan learned it took someone to find those children and take the scholarship offers to them. That person is Felecia Gaston from Performing Stars of Marin.

"I had scholarships offered by the Marin Ballet and I went to the child care center. I said, 'Who wants to take ballet?' and John was the only boy of eight girls that said, 'I do, I do,'" said Gaston.

"The only reason why I was able to go to Marin Ballet was because of Performing Stars of Marin," said Lam.

Performing Stars acts as a bridge for low income kids so they can have access to cultural activities outside their community, like the Marin Ballet.

"It's knowing the community, it's knowing the parents, it's knowing their children and having their trust," said Gaston.

"They were a very huge influence in making sure I had my ballet shoes, my uniform, making sure I had transportation," said Lam.

"Performing Stars got him involved, we took it from there, trained him and moved him off to the National Ballet of Canada, where he completed his training and then went on to a professional career," said F. Lawrence Ewing, the executive director of Marin Ballet.

Ewing says the school is so proud that Lam will reunite with other alumni and inspire young dance students at the 50th anniversary celebration.

"It's like family to me and so I'm honored to be invited back to show them this is what happens with a child that comes from the Canal District," said Lam.

Performing Stars of Marin honored Lam at an event on Friday at 11 a.m.

The Marin Ballet's 50th anniversary celebration is Saturday, April 13, at the College of Marin.

(Copyright ©2013 KGO-TV/DT.

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Teacher helps kids fight bullying through student-made film

HAYWARD, Calif. (KGO) -- Middle school can be a testing ground between childhood and young adulthood. But an enlightened teacher has found a way to fight bullying by putting it on a big screen.

Maybe you don't remember all the gritty little details of middle school. It could be that it's because after all the trials and trauma, you really don't want to.

"This is the jungle right here; junior high is the jungle," Bret Harte Middle School teacher Alex Kopel said.

Kopel is cool, calm and observant.

"I ask kids if they have been bullied at Bret Harte and they say, 'No,'" Kopel said. "And I say, 'You're lying because I've seen it.' I've seen everyone bully, and everyone in denial."

Kopel has used his background in film to start a conversation in a place where bullying had become an issue.

"Kids feel likt they're trying to survive, be tough; they don't want to be seen as weak," Kopel said.

The film began as an after school project. And then became more cinematic. The name of the film is 'I Got Your Back.' For these students, the mere act of writing it, shooting it, and acting in it, is a form of therapy.

"There is something about this age...where things just affect you more than any other time in life," Kopel said.

Now at Bret Harte Middle School, the problem of bullying is out in the open, with its multiplex of emotions.

A film by kids, for kids, in their own language.

"The world is moving fast; a lot of these kids come from places with no real sense of family or community," Principal Lisa Davies said. "Unless we create that in schools, students will not have that experience."

It's one of those junior high school lessons for which they will never receive a grade but maybe one of the most important they learn.

(Copyright ©2013 KGO-TV/DT.

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Tech Savvy Teachers – 3 Steps to Take Now

Today’s primary school students have grown up never knowing life without Google, the Internet and social networking. And they use technology naturally in every phase of their daily life. For teachers, this demands some new thinking and learning that will help you be more effective in teaching the tech savvy student.

To become a tech savvy teacher, doesn’t require a ton of new courses or tremendous understanding of computing technology. It’s more about creative thinking around how the technology provides value in the classroom. To that end, here are three ideas that teachers can use to become more tech savvy that don’t demand a ton of time or new technology expertise.

One of the largest discrepancies in technology use is the gulf between how teachers use and view their PC or tablet, and how the students do. I’m not suggesting that you become device obsessive like many kids, but rather, use some of the same tools. Use Facebook (with privacy and security controls in place!) or another social network, start to consume some media via Netflix on line or Pandora, and even try a few games. The goal here is to expand your own vision and horizons to see what they are seeing and to hopefully spur some new ideas for your class. Even using more than basic Google functionality is a good way to become more tech savvy.

One of the byproducts of using technology more like your students do is that you’ll see ways where their usage creates ideas for new assignments or tasks that can leverage their use of the technology. It’s not just about doing research on-line for a book report, but actually looking to make them more creative in their use of technology. One local teacher near my district had their 10th grade music class find a negative and a positive review of a recent chart topping record, and then explain why they thought these two credible sources had opposite perspectives. This made the students think about what they see on-line, and not just take it all as gospel. There are numerous other examples such as having kids design what app they think the world needs and why, or reading foreign news sites to discuss how they view US events differently.

One of the most amazing aspects of the internet, and a very attractive part of the student’s use, is that very interesting people are only a click away! And the ability to get interesting individuals to interact with your students via tools like Skype is easier than you think. For example, finding an animator from a recent hit movie who will spend 15 minutes with your class on Skype is not that hard. Of course the rich and famous often won’t respond, but those who work with or for them might. And it never hurts to ask. There are so many ways that someone involved in some aspect of your curriculum can add value that you can be really creative.

Clearly these three approaches don’t nearly cover all of the possibilities. In fact some of you are probably already doing some or all of them. The key is to use the technology to lower the barriers between teacher and student and to create even more “common language” among you.

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Careers built on distance learning

A starting position as a bank teller can lead to bigger things. Photograph: Alamy

James Elwood left school with a clutch of good A-level grades, but despite pressure from his teachers to consider university he took an entry-level job as bank cashier.

Four years and several promotions later, he works for Santander as a business manager, providing advice and support to small companies. He has also completed a degree in business studies with the Open University, which delivers all its courses via distance learning – an experience he thinks has played a key role in his success.

"When I had to write essays, I was analysing my experiences with the companies I worked for, so the process helped me become a better employee," he explains.

Combining work with distance learning has allowed Nick Walker to set up his own business at the age of 19. He is currently taking a degree-equivalent course in games development via the online learning provider train2game. The course typically takes about three years to complete. In the meantime, he earns an income from his app development company Icey Monty, which he set up with fellow student John Esslemont.

According to Zoe Molyneux, external affairs and communications manager at the Studentroom, the UK's biggest online forum for students, more young people are exploring distance and part-time learning options. "This is partly down to rising tuition fees, but also questions about whether a degree will guarantee them a job at the end. So they're keen to find out if there are other ways of achieving their goals," she says.

In recognition of this, more colleges and higher education institutions are upping the range of part-time and distance learning they offer, including blended learning (a mix of distance and face-to-face learning), foundation degrees (two-year courses with a focus on work-based learning) and more vocational courses like higher national certificates.

Walker feels he made the right choice. Not only does the money he is making cover the cost of his studies, but he is debt-free and can afford to take time out when it suits him – he plans to spend a couple of months later in the year skiing. "I've got the time and the funds to actually have a social life as well, which is good."

Now 22, Elwood owns his own home and car and thinks he is "four rungs up the ladder" from friends who chose the university route. "Instead of being 22 with a degree and one year of work experience, I've got a degree and nearly five years of work experience behind me ... I don't regret my decision one bit."

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