By Anna Marden, News Staff

The All Asia bar and restaurant wasn’t crowded Tuesday, Jan. 4, but it was certainly lively. Many people were wearing decorated cone-shaped party hats and some had more unique headgear – a fake turkey, a trucker hat with a radio antenna, a handmade Jigglypuff Pokémon hat.

A small crowd stood gathered around the stage, watching the diverse artists perform. It wasn’t the standard bar show, which typically features several bands of the same genre. It included live music, stand-up comedy and DJs.

In the background, the 1970s German film, “Even Dwarfs Started Small” projected onto the wall, without sound.

This was the Day of the Fancy Hats, hosted by unStandard, a Boston-based event company which produces multi-genre art events, aimed at bringing people together.

After graduating from Boston University in 2008, Anna Miller developed the concept behind unStandard while living at home in Brooklyn.

When she moved back to Boston last January, she said she quickly decided to restart the unStandard event company and use it to connect with and cater to the Boston art scenes.
Miller described unStandard as “an event company that will curate, produce and promote its own events and also collaborate with existing event companies, artists and other people.”

Miller told a long tale of the development of her project, beginning with its New York roots and detailing the development of the website, the progression of the unStandard platform in Boston and her ideas for its future.

The main motivation for creating unStandard, Miller said, was to meet interesting people, particularly artists of various genres. She also said a huge part of her mission is to foster the connections for collaboration and integration of multiple art scenes.

“So, there’s a comedy scene, there’s a music scene, there’s a theater scene, there’s a film scene. I want to put all the scenes together [and] find different platforms for making these scenes touch. And if not touch, for people who know of unStandard to be aware of these scenes.”

The event planning for unStandard in Boston kicked into high-gear in September, when Miller planned the first big event, which took place at a loft space in the Fort Point neighborhood of Boston. The party, which was open to the public, featured numerous artists, bands, DJs, poets and other performers.

“I wanted to do a big multimedia show,” she said “I wanted to create a big experience with a lot of music and just fill the walls with art.”

Miller called the party a good first event, but she said it was tough to manage primarily on her own.

She realized it would be easier to plan shows at smaller traditional venues.
In August 2010, Miller said unStandard began to regularly host events at Out of the Blue art gallery in Central Square. Miller said these shows drew audiences of 20 to 30 people.

This semester, Miller has begun planning slightly larger events at venues such as The Middle East and All Asia, and she continues to hold shows at the Out of the Blue gallery. The first event of 2011 was The Day of the Fancy Hats.

Laura Crawford is a standup comic who hosted The Day of the Fancy Hats show. She said she has also performed at unStandard shows at Out of the Blue gallery.

“Working with unStandard is always something different,” Crawford said. “I think they bring really unique acts together.”

She said unStandard helps her meet people who do different types of performance than she does, because it helps attract a new audience to comedy shows.

Crawford said she will host another event at All Asia Jan. 18. There are several other unStandard events coming up, including one on Friday, Jan. 14 at Tavern at the End of the World in Sullivan Square and Sunday, Jan. 16 at the Middle East in Cambridge in Central Square.

“Right now promotion is the big, big thing,” Miller said.

Miller said she wants to eventually produce large-scale multi-genre festivals and employ a number of people with different functions who can help her promote and plan events.

Reaching out to the college students in Boston is something else Miller has in mind, saying the college scene “needs some waking up.”

Miller said she thinks many college students are unaware of the arts scene in the city, and that unStandard can be a way for students to meet new people.

“In general, it’d be great to have more prominent and frequent opportunities for college students to experience the local music and art scene and see that Boston is full of art and energy and [is a] very interesting place to live with interesting people,” said Miller.