Breakfast, long considered the most important meal of the day, may now be the most important meal of the month for members of Newburyport’s artistic community.

The inaugural session of Breakfast for the Arts was held at the Firehouse Center for the Arts at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 11. The series of monthly networking meetings is designed to bring together artists and art supporters to hash out ideas over a cup of coffee and a plate of breakfast burritos.
Breakfast for the Arts is the creation of Karen Dardinski, a retired caterer who serves as manager of the Firehouse Center’s art gallery. Dardinski and a group of friends from the artistic community met regularly for coffee at the Middle Street Café, where they talked about different ideas and events happening within the town’s arts community. When the café closed, they started meeting in Market Square, but Dardinski wanted to keep up the energy of the group and make the meetings more formalized.

“I would like the Firehouse to be the umbrella for all the (cultural) information of the area,” she said, adding that there’s no overarching arts organization in the town.

Almost 20 people showed up at last Tuesday’s breakfast, with the group running the gamut of Newburyport’s arts community. After food was served, Rob Napier, chairman of the Newburyport Cultural Commission, spoke about the NCC’s upcoming grant cycle.

The NCC receives its funding from the state and then distributes it in the form of grants to local arts programs. In 2005, the NCC gave grants to groups such as the Newburyport Art Association, the Open Air Sculpture Group and Newburyport High School. 

“Nobody gets a whole lot of money from us, but we try to spread it out a little bit,” he said.
According to Napier, the NCC typically gets about $3,200 in grant money from the state. This year, however, the NCC has about $11,000 to play with, thanks to the release of some “encumbered funds” in the NCC’s bank account, Napier said.

Later, Michelle Fino, director of the Northern Lights Documentary Film Festival, presented a short film from the festival. Fino, who is also co-director of Random Acts, Newburyport’s 24-hour play festival, hopes the breakfast is a great place for organizations to plan events together and for artists to promote their work. Fino also works at the Jeanne Geiger Crisis Center, a domestic violence prevention center in Newburyport. During her presentation, she promoted an upcoming breakfast the crisis center is sponsoring.

“We’re all looking to draw an audience to things,” she said. “People who go to the arts traditionally support non-profits. Any time organizations come together, it’s to the benefit of the community.”
Artist Erika Marquardt and her daughter Taika Brand-Matthews were at the breakfast. After Napier’s presentation, they said they wanted to approach him about getting a grant for an art program for local students. Marquardt said the breakfast can help artists get together and share ideas for their individual projects.

“It’s fun, people have to get together,” she said. “We’re artists, we don’t often know the technical part, how to get money and stuff.”

The next Breakfast with the Arts is Tuesday, Nov. 8 at the Firehouse Center for the Arts, located at One Market Square in Newburyport. Meetings will be on the second Tuesday of the month thereafter. Admission is $5, including breakfast. For more information, call the Firehouse at 978-462-7336.