This September, MRAC introduces Tomato Time, new coworking sessions guided by the Pomodoro Method, that will help you make progress on your grant applications. Continue reading for info on the upcoming sessions, registration links to join us, and some personal insights on work and focus from Program Director Scott Artley!
Jump to…
- What is Tomato Time?
- How Do I Join?
- Meet Your Session Host
- Finding Focus: Thoughts from Program Director Scott Artley
- Accessibility at Tomato Time Events
What is Tomato Time?
Because doing stuff is the hardest part of getting anything done, we’re introducing Tomato Time: coworking sessions to help you make progress on your grant applications (or anything else you want to focus on!).
Inspired by the body doubling accessibility strategy developed in the neurodivergent community, the 2-hour event will include work sprints using the Pomodoro Method. With 25 minutes of dedicated focus time followed by 5 minute breaks, each interval is called a “pomodoro” (the Italian word for tomato). This productivity hack supports sustained focus to complete tasks, especially the tasks you hate to do, without burning out.
Ready your laptop, favorite pen and notebook, beloved Squishmallow, picture of your mom, or anything else you need to work, and join us for what might be a huge boost to your process. At the very least, there will be opportunities to meet other applicants. Plus: snacks—and it’s hard to beat that.
How Do I Join?
We have two sessions this September, one in-person and one virtual! Our in-person session will be held at Open Book, a local center for book arts and community gathering place. Click on the registration links below to confirm your participation in either (or both!) sessions.
Arts Impact for Individuals Program Director Scott Artley will be at both sessions, but you are welcome to bring anything to work on, from grant applications to creative projects.
In-person Tomato Time at Open Book
Mon, Sep 16, 3:30–5:30 pm
1011 Washington Ave S
Minneapolis, MN
Register now with this link.
Tomato Time Online via Zoom
Mon, Sep 23, 6–8 pm
Register now for the virtual event on Zoom.
Meet Your Session Host
During September, Tomato Time will be hosted by Nicole M. Smith. As a Radical Healing Artist and Organizer, Nicole has experience and expertise in using artistic methods to address trauma, difficult experiences, and injustice, and to unravel dynamics of disempowerment, oppression, and systemic methods of control. She has crafted her approach by fusing methods including the Theatre of the Oppressed, the Art of Hosting, mindfulness, supportive listening, and the amplification of muted voice(s). Nicole does this through lecture, performance, teachings, and workshop/residency design and partnership.
Her work has been experienced at the International Federation of Settlements and Neighborhood Centers in Berlin, the Youth Service America Conference in Houston, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Conference in New Orleans, and more. In fall 2016, Nicole was honored to have been invited to the White House by the Obama administration for her work in the bisexual/queer community.
Finding Focus in a Distracted World: How Tomatoes Were the Key to Finishing My Novel
By Program Director Scott Artley
I wonder how many times I’ve circled lakes. Slow walks with friends, hot August bike rides blessed by a sun shower, impulsive detours on the way home, just to curve around the water a little longer, windows down, radio off. These moments of gentle repetition become rituals that let me escape.
Some of my best ideas have surfaced taking these turns around a lake. In these moments, my mind loosens its grip and spirals around what eventually feels so right it’s obvious. It’s a cyclical process, one that’s about both holding together and letting go, where I allow ideas to come by relaxing into them. A soft focus.
These moments are fleeting. A soft focus inevitably hardens. I have a lot going on. You do, too. My attention wanes, stolen away by the endless stream of news, chores, health issues, phone vibrations at the dinner table, distractions demanding my every moment.
I recently listened to a conversation with Dr. Gloria Mark on The Ezra Klein Show podcast. She described insightful research on attention, when it suddenly hit me hard. Her words pulled me into the moment where I was also doing dishes, craning my neck to catch up on a group chat, trying to not trip over my cat threading between my calves, and avoiding the heaping stack of mail staring at me from the kitchen table. Our attention is a finite resource, Mark emphasized, and it drains quickly. The ability to pay attention is akin to a muscle that gets fatigued (and could even become injured!) by a society engineered to twist our attention all day long. Making space for stillness and reflection is increasingly rare—and increasingly necessary. Our only hope is in cultivating cycles of focus punctuated by rest.
One tool that helped me reclaim forward momentum in exactly this way—especially in my creative work—is the Pomodoro Method. While writing my novel, I struggled to find time for uninterrupted work. I would try to pack every second I could steal away with nonstop effort. Words slowed to a stop the harder I tried to force them onto the page. That’s when I discovered this technique: a structured system of working in 25-minute intervals followed by short breaks. Inspired by a tomato-shaped kitchen timer used by the method’s creator, the name pomodoro comes from the Italian word for tomato. What struck me was how much it mirrored my time circling lakes: it’s a cyclical structure, alternating between intense focus and mindful rest. Start, work, and then actually listen to the tomato when it says to rest.
As I embraced this rhythm, I realized that concentration isn’t just about getting things done. It’s about paying attention—to your work, yes, but also to yourself. Focus, especially in a creative context, is about noticing. One of an artist’s units of meaning is attention itself, shaping our experience of the world through what they choose to focus on or asking us to notice what we often overlook.
This is the real gift of focus—to pause, reflect, and see the world again. It’s a gift artists give us, and a gift we can give ourselves. That’s the idea behind Tomato Time, a new event MRAC is hosting for applicants in September. We will gather together (once in-person, the following week virtually) to practice the Pomodoro Method. Yes, the name is a bit silly, and that’s intentional. Humor can be rest. We’re hoping it’s an opportunity to make some headway on writing your Arts Impact for Individuals proposal, but it can be a space for many kinds of focus, whether you’re working on a creative project or simply carving out a moment for yourself. In embracing this practice, you’re not just producing, you’re giving yourself the gift of attention, the space to fully engage with your work—and for your work to engage with community.
I hope you’ll join us and see how a little Tomato Time can make all the difference.
Accessibility at Tomato Time Events
Some pens, paper, and printed Arts Impact for Individuals grant guidelines will be available at the Open Book in-person event. Free parking is available at the lot on the east side of the building, with two designated accessible spots near the rear entrance, and inexpensive metered parking nearby. Entrances have powered push-button access, and the building has accessible nongendered restrooms on each floor as well as a quiet room for prayer or medical needs upon request. Please review Open Book’s accessibility information for any questions on site accessibility.
Automated live captioning is available for the virtual event. If you would like any additional modifications to aid your participation in this activity, please indicate requests in the registration form or reach out to Scott at scott@mrac.org or 651-523-6384. For complete details about MRAC’s access services and accommodations, please visit Accessibility at MRAC.