Four hundred years after he first crisscrossed Spain, Don Quixote de la Mancha will zigzag around south Bethlehem, Pa., says Geoff Gehman in the Lehigh Valley Morning Call. On July 9-10, 2005, more than 130 artists will perform a mobile outdoor version of Cervantes' 1605 novel, renamed "Don Quixote of Bethlehem," in a "theatricade" that will travel for about 150 minutes and two miles. Bethlehem's Public Library, Touchstone Theatre and seven other community partners have turned the town into Quixote country for the last five months during the literacy, ethnic-diversity and community-building project, which included a 24-hour marathon reading ("Quixote" is Bethlehem's Book of the Year), school programs and an interactive gallery exhibition chronicling Quixote history from Spain to Broadway to Bethlehem. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

The National Endowment for the Arts has announced recipients of its Summer Schools in the Arts program, an initiative designed to enhance the quantity and quality of arts-education opportunities for youth while creating a variety of model programs. Twenty-five grants totaling $756,236 were awarded to organizations in communities ranging from Lewiston, Maine, to Sitka, Alaska, to St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. Budget cuts to year-round school arts programs plus the advantages offered by summer programs, including increased free time for students and lack of competition with other academic requirements, were among the key reasons for initiating the program last year. At summer's end, the NEA will distribute information regarding the learning outcomes from these 25 programs to public-policy makers and arts-education leaders. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Street Art Workers is seeking posters for an international street-art campaign about land and the effects of globalization. The U.S. network of printmakers, stencil artists, graffiti writers and painters want you to design and submit posters that will be printed and wheatpasted in cities across Europe and North America. The strongest designs will be published as a mass-produced, newsprint poster collection. This will be a 24-page, two-color newspaper that will include up to 30 posters and be distributed by volunters. The majority of posters will be wheatpasted in public by participating artists and "folks who just want to paste up their city." SAW encourages artists to collaborate with grassroots, social-change organizations of their choosing to make posters. (Thanks, Josh McPhee.) [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

The U.S. House of Representatives on June 23, 2005, passed the Obey-Lowey-Leach floor amendment to restore $100 million to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). Following heated debate over the merits of CPB, the amendment passed by a vote of 284 to 140. All the House Democrats and 38 percent of House Republicans (87 members) voted for the amendment. Americans for the Arts reports that many of the speakers in the debate referenced the flood of messages they had received from constituents. Visit AFTA's E-Advocacy Center to view the voting records. The Center provides an opportunity to send an e-mail reponse to individual House members regarding their votes. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

"Restricted Area," a play developed by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Center project on translational science outreach & theater, is slated for the EPA's 2005 Community Involvement Conference (7/12-15/05). Environmental Protections Agency conferees in Buffalo, N.Y., will see the Thomas Meloncon Forum-Theatre play focusing on lead poisoning, air pollution and environmental justice in an urban African-American neighborhood in Houston. Tex. The actors in the play represent residents of Houston's Fifth Ward, where a Superfund site threatens the health of children at an adjacent elementary school. The performance, partially sponsored by Mothers for Clean Air/5th Ward-Houston, will be followed by a panel on childhood lead poisoning and scientific translational outreach. Read a Houston Chronicle article on the play by environmental writer Dina Cappiello. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

"La Reconquista de Justicia, Paz, Libertad y Amor" is Baldwin Park's response to threats of violence toward a piece of its public art on June 25, 1005. Facing a second protest by Save Our State against a public artwork by California artist Judy Baca, a manifesto has been posted by the "Committee to Defend 'Danzas Indigenas,'" indentifying themselves as "men, women, children, teachers, activists, employees, and residents from the city of Baldwin Park who support human and artistic rights, and oppose racism and xenophobia." The committee is summoning drummers, musicians and artists on June 25 to a "celebratory festival to confront this latest incarnation of terrorism by disarming its violence with love, humor, dignity, compassion, understanding, indigenous spirituality, inclusivity and resistance." [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

On June 16, 2005, the Appropriations Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives approved deep cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting but slightly improved the long-term funding picture by striking efforts to completely eliminate funding by 2008. Immediate funding reductions in the FY 2006 Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill include a $100-million cut for programs, elimination of $39 million to help local stations switch to digital transmission, $40 million to upgrade aging satellite technology, and a $23-million cut to the "Ready to Learn" program, which provides money for the creation of shows such as "Sesame Street" and "Reading Rainbow." The next step in the legislative process is for the full House to consider the bill, which could occur as early as next week. To respond, visit the Americans for the Arts E-Advocacy Center. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Get inside the process of building a community performance by and about a small Washington town in Scott Morris' three-part series of stories in the Everett Herald. The series (May 20-22, 2005, including online multi-media presentations) follows the making of "Common Wealth: A Play About the People of Darrington and the Sauk-Suiattle," created by theater artist Will Weigler and citizens of the town (pop. 1,136). Morris leads you through Weigler's struggles to get the populace involved in a production about village history, which eventually played to sold-out audiences in a big tent in Old School Park, preceded by a pie social and band music. Will Weigler has a great Web site of his own about how to do this work. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

For arts journalism, it's the best of times and the worst of times," says András Szántó, director of the recently defunct National Arts Journalism Program at Columbia University. In a Simi Horwitz story on Backstage.com (6/9/05), he says, "It's the worst of times in the uncertainty, anxiety, insecurity and dislocation facing arts journalists in institutions that are being staffed by outsourced freelancers with pay scales that are comparable to artists. Within news organizations, they're trying to keep up with an arts world that is being marginalized. It is the best of times in that the universe of arts coverage is expanding in radio, magazines, on the Internet. Self-publishing is unprecedented. ...There are more voices and more points of entry." (Thanks, Arts Journal.) [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Albany Park Theater Project's new performance includes dinner, discussions and cooking classes. July 6-10, 2005, the Chicago teen theater company presents "Saffron," drawn from true stories of the owners, staff and customers of Noon-O-Kabob restaurant: "One evening. One restaurant. One family from Iran that never meant to open a restaurant. One magic table around which a dying Bolivian revolutionary gathers with his family. One Puerto Rican waitress who's always changing the radio station. One Mexican busboy who's weak at the heart. One Persian waitress who's lost in a dream. One Mexican cook who, wherever he is, he's there. One giant rice pot and one set of flying shishes. One corrido and one tango. One oud, one zarb, one daf, and one guitar. One cup of tea. One big world in one small storefront. Welcome to Saffron." [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

"Srebrenica Now" is an exhibition (London, July 8-17, 2005) to mark the tenth anniversary of the massacre at Srebrenica in July 1995. Staged by Bridging Arts and the Refugees and the Arts Initiative, it features photographs by Bosniaks and Serbs now living in the town. The photographers are families and friends of those killed, and other displaced Bosnian refugees. "The pictures show people coming to terms with the past and looking towards the future," says organizer Susan Roberts. "They provide a powerful, human and moving reminder that the issues around Srebrenica have not gone away – and neither have the hopes and fears of people living there." Events include a debate and two documentaries. See the Web gallery. (Thanks, Creative Exchange.) [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Bomb and death threats have been received by the City Council of Baldwin Park, Calif., in advance of a second protest against a 12-year-old public artwork by Judy Baca. Councilmember David Olivas reports getting "many letters" like one from Arizona threatening violent "Minuteman" support for a Save Our State protest slated for June 25, 2005, against the artwork for its alleged anti-American sentiments. Frente Latinoamericano, a newly formed coalition of progressive groups in Los Angeles from all over Latin America, is organizing an artists' and citizens' reponse to what they call racism. "This inevitably will be a battle in the media, and counter-protesters must be prepared to convey a message to the larger world through a creative response," says Baca. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

A weed- and trash-filled lot in Boston will be transformed into an attractive public space that improves the neighborhood’s quality of life, thanks to the Art and Community Landscapes program of New England Foundation for the Arts, the NEA and the National Park Service. Deadline is August 15 for proposals for the site-specific public art project in Boston's diverse Allston-Brighton neighborhood. The second site open for proposals this year is the Schuylkill River Water Trail Project, Reading, Pa., a federally designated National Recreation Trail in the urban heart of Berks County. The project will create public art installations in “RiverPlace,” a community-based planning and development initiative that brings together seven adjacent municipalities. Grants of up to $50,000 per site will support the projects. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

There's big community arts news from Malden, Massachusetts. The tiny community (56,000 pop., five miles square) five miles north of Boston is pushing hard to make room for art. Malden Redevelopment Authority is acquiring vacant downtown space for studios and is converting the former Sacred Hearts Convent into artists' live/work space. Galleries are opening around Malden Square (the mayor even has one in his office) and plans are being laid for an artists-in-the-schools program. Local arts organizer Sand T is encouraging use of every building in Malden for the arts and has opened a gallery her own garage called artspace@16. Sand T's Web site is a good grassroots model for advocating city redevelopment through the arts. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

This summer is another great time to visit Headlands Center for the Arts in Sausalito, Calif. Headlands will feature summer events with three of their 2005 Bridge Project artists -- artists awarded residencies at Headlands because of their community leadership in using art for social change. Kentucky documentary filmmaker Tom Hansell, who has created films about energy policy, sustainable ecotourism and corporate exploitation through the eyes of people living in coal-mining communities, will discuss his work June 16. Bradley McCallum and Jaqueline Tarry will talk with writer-curator Franklin Sirmans about their unique installation and film work on police violence and teen homelessness during "Hitting the Streets" on August 7. Read about them on the Headlands Web site. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

The new issue of Public Art Review should be of great interest to those with questions about the public-art planning process. PAR# 32, Spring-Summer 2005, identifies four frequently addressed public-art components: control, process, outcome and support. It features a whole package of articles examining: the planning experiences of four cities (Eugene, San Diego, Nashville and Tacoma); what happens when museums go public, reaching out to new audiences; advice from a panel of planning experts; how to forge consensus on a public-art selection panel; why some public art projects are never realized; and the importance of planning for maintenance and conservation. PAR has been redesigned, with more pages, more color, more content and more ads. In these days of shrinking arts publications, that's great! [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

New on CAN: Erika Block, director of Detroit's Walk and Squawk Performance Project, writes about the group's fascinating new initiative. For The Walking Project, Walk & Squawk is using the paths people make across Detroit and South Africa to explore how our paths are formed through culture, geography, language, economics and love. The cultural-exchange project is being developed with U.S. and South Africa-based artists during residencies in Detroit and KwaZulu-Natal, 2003-2006. It will use locative technologies to create alternative maps of "desire lines" by converting GIS (geographic information systems) data into audio and visual material for the Web, for installations and for live performance. Block's presentation at the Second World Culturelink Conference in Zagreb will be streamed live over the Internet at 4:45 p.m. June 11, 2005 (10:45 a.m. EST). [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

"We're absolutely middle-American," said Pennsylvania Schools Superintendent Joseph Yarworth. "And we're having an argument over our values." He referred to the extended public debate over a book banning at Muhlenberg High School. Bruce Weber's N.Y. Times story, "A Town's Struggle in the Culture War" (6/2/05), describes the battle and gives an overview of current book banning in the U.S. According to the American Library Association, says Weber, 547 books were challenged last year, up from 458 in 2003. The ALA's Judith Krug attributes the spike to the empowerment of conservatives and President Bush's re-election. "In 1980, we were dealing with an average of 300 or so challenges a year, and then Reagan was elected," she said. "And challenges went to 900 or 1,000 a year." [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Critic Terry Teachout, writing in Commentary (6/5/05), sees the rise of arts blogs as a profound cultural change. "Artblogs are barely more than three years old. It is far too soon to say which of their opposing tendencies, the atomizing or the embracing, will have a more profound effect on the wider culture they have already started to shape. It may be that blogging will encourage the creation of a new kind of common culture, exerting something of the same unifying force as did the old middlebrow media.... Or not: if the experience of political blogs is any indication, blogging may be more likely to foster discrete subcultures of shared interest, larger and more cohesive but nonetheless separate." (Thanks, Arts Journal -- where Teachout blogs.) [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

The XV International Poetry Festival of Medellin, "the most massive poetry festival in the world," takes place in Colombia June 24-July 2, 2005. A euphoric crowd of 100,000 is expected to respond with shouting and stomping while 80 poets from 52 countries read their works in theaters, parks, hospitals, prisons and city squares. Founded by 13 Colombian poets in 1991, the festival has "the utopian objective of reducing the limits of crime and beginning to build a city for life" in a city where there is a violent death every two hours. "The smear campaigns of some foreign ministries, warning travellers not to visit Colombia, have not prevented that in these 14 years more than 630 poets have accepted to visit our country," say the organizers on the festival Web site. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

New on CAN: At a small, liberal-arts college affiliated with the Presbyterian Church in North Carolina, students recently used the ideas of Paulo Freire and Augusto Boal to examine campus attitudes toward religious difference. Sharon Green is an assistant professor of theater at Davidson College, where religious organizations and exploration of faith are woven into the fabric of the institution and student life. But during a theater workshop, Davidson students identified religious discrimination on campus as a significant concern. Green writes about teaching a community-based theater course exploring the topic, with the goal of overcoming the "culture of politeness" to get at real feelings, and also relinquishing the authority that a professor at an institution like Davidson traditionally possesses. The course's final public performance caused a stir. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

"inSite_05/ Art Practices in the Public Domain" is a program set for the San Diego, Calif./Tijuana, Mexico, region August 27-November 13, 2005. The program includes public art interventions, on-line actions, a two-city museum exhibition, public programs and performances. “inSite_05 envisions the San Diego/Tijuana border region as a social fabric whose survival is dependent upon its flows – of people, goods and services and information,” states Artistic Director Osvaldo Sánchez. “inSite strives to stimulate new experiences of public domain and interconnectedness.” At the heart of inSite is a process of two-year periodic artist residencies that culminate in the creation and presentation of new public artworks throughout San Diego and Tijuana, based on engagement with communities on both sides of the border since 2003. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

This month CAN posts an essay by Jimmy Boyle, a Scottish artist who writes about his public art commission from the Craigmillar Festival Society when he was an inmate in Glasgow's Barlinnie Prison. The society spearheaded a notoriously successful community arts experiment. "Craigmillar [is] a housing estate, often described as one of the worst areas of multiple deprivation in Scotland," says artist David Harding in an accompanying intoduction. "Here in the '60s and '70s evolved a model for using the arts as a catalyst for social inclusion and progress which gained international fame." Once known as "Scotland's Most Violent Man," Boyle is now at liberty, a widely shown artist and a prison-reform campaigner who works with young offenders. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

The public-radio program Studio 360 recently presented a show on farming that included a number of interesting public art projects. Produced by by Kurt Andersen and Verlyn Klinkenborg, it included segments on Teatro Campesino, the theater wing of California's United Farm Workers movement; Arizona artist/farmer Matt Moore; and the Barnstormers. Moore, whose family farm is being pushed out by urban sprawl, has been plowing the floor plans of the coming tract houses into his barley fields. The Barnstormers are a New York/Tokyo-based artist collective that has painted murals on dozens of barns, tractor-trailers, shacks and farm equipment in the rural town of Cameron, N.C., which has become their "mecca." Hear the show on the Web and explore the links. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham