"Go Local," the Winter 2007 issue of YES! Magazine includes community-based arts and culture in its survey of local reponses to profit-based globalization. The issue looks at local, living economies and highlights people experiencing the benefits of cooperation, sustainability and freedom from the fear of dependency. One story features Detroit artists telling stories and showcasing heroes of a community coming into its own. Alas, it's not online, but stories that are online include: "Independence from the Corporate Global Economy" by Ethan Miller; "Creating Real Prosperity" by Frances Moore Lappé, about how building local, living economies creates more jobs than multinationals; "Green-Collar Jobs for Urban America" by Van Jones & Ben Wyskida, on Oakland's progressive movement; a Human-Scale Economies Resource Guide; and a Discussion Guide. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

The 2006 Anti-Corporate Film Festival is set for the Victoria Theatre in San Francisco, Calif., December 1-3. The festival is presented by CounterCorp, an organization that "seeks to document, reduce and ultimately prevent the corrosive political, economic and social effects that large corporations have in the U.S. and around the world." The fest includes Bernadine Mellis' "Forest for the Trees," about the car bombing of environmental activist Judi Bari (followed by Q&A); Jeff Pearson's "Pirate Radio USA," about the showdown between "Big Media" and citizen media; Shawn Cronin/Twila Raftu's "Alternative Freedom," about the antimonopoly "free culture" movement; Christopher Smith's horror comedy "Severance," about corporate team-building; and Deborah Koons Garcia's "The Future of Food," about corporate control of world food production. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

API has received notice of a grant of $150,000 from the Nathan Cummings Foundation in support of the Community Arts Network. The grant will partially support continued production and expansion of the CAN Web site, including maintenance of current features and development of new content. CAN will continue to document projects that have led to sustainable changes in communities, as well as the work of training programs. The grant will also support continuing technical refinement of the architecture of the Web site, evaluation of the project's effectiveness and exploration of opportunities for connecting practitioners. The Nathan Cummings Foundation has provided API with support for CAN since 2002. This new grant covers 2007 and 2008. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Neighborhood groups in Stamford, Conn., have commissioned artists to "beautify" the city's sometimes ugly traffic-signal boxes, resulting in an impressive public art exhibition, says Alison Leigh Cowan in the N.Y. Times (11/25/06). "About 50 of the city’s 190 boxes, once covered with graffiti, are now suitable for framing," Cowan says. "A blown-up version of the green-and-yellow crayon box familiar from childhood sits by the Boys and Girls Club. Down the road is a white takeout carton that could feed the Chinese Army. The box outside the firehouse on Washington Boulevard appears to be aflame.'” It all started in 2003 when Springdale Neighborhood Association commissioned the first box. "The city was worried that if we did it, everybody else in town would want to," says association president Marilyn Trefry, "and they were right.” [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

January 16, 2007 is the deadline to apply for ArtsLink support for projects in Central Europe, Russia and Eurasia. This year, CEC ArtsLink will support U.S. artists, curators, presenters and arts organizations undertaking visual and media arts projects in those Eastern countries. Applicants must be working with an artist or organization in that region and projects should be designed to "benefit participants and audiences in both the U.S. and the host country." An example of a recent awardee is Roger Colombik of Wimberley, Tex., who got $3,700 to work in the Republic of Georgia collaborating with a group of young artists and curator Ketevan Kintsurashvili to develop a public art project utilizing large-scale banners mounted throughout Tbilisi. In 2008, awards will be made in dance, music, literature and theater. Guidelines are on the Web. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

York University in Toronto has a new Community Arts Practice Certificate program. A joint program of the Faculties of Environmental Studies and Fine Arts, the interdisciplinary curriculum is a 24-credit certificate that is earned along with a four-year degree. It's also available as a direct entry program for candidates with an undergraduate degree in a related field or with relevant work experience. The fourth-year culminating activity is community-based practicum, where students work with seasoned artists in placements with local cultural agencies and communtiy organizations. The practicum component is guided by a Community Advisory Group of 12 community arts practitioners, theorists and administrators. There are also international internships in Los Angeles, Mexico, Nicaragua and Panama. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Today CAN brings you a story of discovery and transformation from the Dead Man Walking School Theatre Project in Alamosa, Colorado. The Dead Man Walking School Theatre Project, an initiative of the Death Penalty Discourse Network based in New Orleans, La., offers stage rights to Tim Robbins' play "Dead Man Walking" to high schools and colleges who agree to incorporate the issue of the death penalty into their curriculum. So far the project has collaborated with 60 schools. CAN asked a team from rural Colorado's Adams State College to write about their experience. Cast members Shelly Johnson and Jared Williams talk about the life-changing challenge of playing Sister Helen Prejean and death-row inmate Matt Poncelet. Director John Taylor writes about how the ASC coordinating committee involved 3,500 of Alamosa's 8,000 residents in related discussions, debates, book clubs, exhibitions, public art, a reconciliation-and-forgiveness symposium and more. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Ten teen artists recently fought 60-mph winds on a ropes course in Maryland to learn about risk. Teens from Baltimore's ENCOUNTER theater workshop and the Dance Exchange's Teen Exchange Risk program joined forces at Upward Enterprises Ropes Course on a blustery Saturday in October, says Dance Exchange E News. They hoisted themselves over a 15-foot beam and took the leap from a platform 50 feet in the air to sail back to Earth on a giant swing. "The ropes course encouraged them to confront their fears, understand issues of safety and support, and then to take the risk. It also required them to invent new ways of working together – and thanks to the weather, to find warmth in the group as well,” explained Teen Exchange Director Elizabeth Johnson. (E News is available by e-mail subscription.) [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Officials in the Indian state of Bihar want to train homeless people to sing songs and enact plays to raise AIDS/HIV awareness, says Mary K. Brunskill on All Headline News. They're training many of the state's estimated 100,000 homeless to put on street plays about AIDS on trains, buses and busy roads. Participants get a few hundred rupees and further training to hone their skills. Vijay Prakash, Bihar's welfare secretary, told Reuters, "Beggars are great actors and very creative. They always had the skills but lacked direction, which we are giving them, and the experiments have so far been very successful. Some can dance very well, and we hope our training program will help them earn a living." (Thanks art4development.com.) [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

SPARC's Web site is showing photographs by three artists, created as an artistic response to the crisis currently unfolding in Oaxaca, Mexico. Photographs by Francisco Alvarado-Juárez, Ezequiel Leiva and Antonio Turok are on the Web at SPARC (Social and Public Art Resource Center in Vencie, Calif.), illustrating the nationwide response to government repression that began with a strike by teachers in Oaxaca. Federal police takeovers, mass arrests, hunger strikes, a cross-country march, bombings and killings have spread across the country, joining unrest around the outcome of the contested presidential election and other regional and local elections. Go to the SPARC site to view photos and find links to news stories. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

"Meth," a forum-theater play created and performed by people who have struggled with methamphetamine addiction, will be Webcast by Headlines Theatre on December 10, 2006. Headlines has been working with many Native and non-Native organizations over the past year to explore the human factors and root causes that lead to addiction. In October, Headlines began a Theatre for Living workshop with 20 participants at Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre; the resulting forum-theater production will ask the audience to engage in concrete-solution investigation. "Meth" will have ten performances at Japanese Hall, Vancouver, B.C, November 30-December 10, then go on tour to 28 B.C. communities in January and February 2007. To find out more and to join the December 10 Webcast, see the Headlines Web site. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

We're extremely excited to bring you a major new CAN essay on the convergence of the community art and sustainable community movements. Educator Patricia A. Shifferd and ecologist Dorothy Lageroos have identified this convergence as one of those creating a new worldview capable of dealing with the crises of our time. This important essay offers a brief history of the two movements; a comparison of their underlying values and assumptions; examples of convergence between the two movements; and a discussion of how more conscious cooperation between them would be mutually beneficial to the “Great Work” of realizing a new way of relating to each other and to nature. The piece includes a simple outline of the major steams of thought leading to these premises, as well as a bibliography. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Economist Ann Markusen has authored a new study that says fine artists are increasingly contributing their talents to for-profit projects, such as advertising and graphic design. "Crossover: How Artists Build Careers across Commercial, Non-profit and Community Work," released this month by the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute, is based on interviews with artists in Los Angeles and San Francisco. "There are artists who are afraid if they do commercial work it will undermine their stature as a fine artisan. Our study completely disproves this," says Markusen in an interview with Minnesota Public Radio's Marianne Combs (11/1/06). She offers several recommendations on how the arts sector can emulate the coalitions being built in the high-tech and healthcare industries. The MPR article links to the study. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

The PBS TV series "Independent Lens" will feature "Two Square Miles," a documentary film that opens a window on rapidly changing American communities, November 28, 2006. Barbara Ettinger's film tracks the conflicts that unfold as a proposed cement plant threatens to reshape Hudson, N.Y., a small community on the banks of the Hudson River. The questions explored about the future of Hudson are similar to the concerns of citizens in communities across America. How is the global economy affecting our communities? Can a traditional small town main street, with mom and pop stores, compete with big-box stores and consolidation? Can goals of environmental conservation and economic development co-exist? Can artsy exiles from the big city co-exist with the long-time, working-class population? Can idealistic goals drive real political change? Visit the interactive PBS Web site. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

The longest-running U.S. showcase for international documentary films is underway at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The Margaret Mead Film and Video Festival was founded in 1977 in honor of pioneering anthropologist Margaret Mead on her 75th birthday and her 50th year at the museum. It encompasses a broad spectrum of work, from indigenous community media to experimental nonfiction. Highlights of this year's fest, November 8-12, 2006, include a salute to filmmaker Sherr Klein, a marathon showing of Spike Lee's "When the Levees Broke," Jonathan Demme's post-Katrina project "Right to Return/Pioneers," a Hip-Hop Field Report, films about change in China and demos of viedo games emphasizing social and political issues. Programs include discussions with filmmakers. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Nov. 7, 2006, was a great day for the arts all over the country, says Americans for the Arts. "Thousands of voters turned out to support critical local ballot measures that had a direct impact on the arts," says AftA's Arts Action News. All ten of the local ballot measures tracked and supported by the Arts Action Fund passed overwhelmingly, as did a state ballot measure on the arts in Louisiana. "These local and state measures will infuse millions of dollars for arts-education programs in local schools and increased funding for cultural facilities and general operating support for nonprofit arts organizations." Current Republican House leaders, who received grades of D and F on Afta's 2006 Congressional Arts Report Card., while Democratic House leaders Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer each received a grade of A. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

"Nearly two years into [Portland] Mayor Tom Potter's term, it's strange that one of the only things his much-vaunted 'Visioning' project has brought to fruition is, of all things, a play," says Stacy Riger in Willamette Week Online. "'One Day' is the result of a collaboration between Sojourn Theatre and visionPDX, a Portland mayor's-office initiative promoting dialogue about urban growth in Portland. For the last year via an online survey, visionPDX has asked Portland residents to pontificate on issues like socioeconomic divisions, the economy, gentrification and what the city's future will look like if the population continues to grow." Using that research, "One Day" follows eight people and their eight choices during 24 hours in one city, addressing politically charged issues. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

At an African conference on the creative economy, the Rwandan Prime Minister announced that the creative industries would be a primary economic activity in his country, but not on the Western model, says Sharada Ramanathan in The HIndu. "He publicly declared that his country would develop its own model of cultural enterprise, and not submit to western paradigms in its reconstruction project. And his assertion was worthy of his experience in a society that had healed with such sensitivity and swiftness, by drawing from its own cultural resources." Ramanathan goes on to wonder if "this nascent trend called Creative Industries be transformed into a new vision." Or, he asks, will it produce "a new hierarchy of the dominant versus the dominated leading to appropriation and exploitation of human creativity"? (Thanks, Cultural Policy Listserv.) [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Today CAN brings you Tom Borrup's review of a new book by cultural critic Arlene Goldbard from New Village Press. "New Creative Community: The Art of Cultural Development," says Borrup, is in almost every way a new book even though it’s billed as an updated and expanded version of the 2001 book by Goldbard and Don Adams, published by the Rockefeller Foundation. "The book serves an ambitious agenda. It’s a much needed document of history, a theoretical proposition for a field called community cultural development, a global comparison of similar practices, a set of recommendations for codifying the practice, a blueprint for supporting and building the infrastructure of the field, and a never-give-up argument for public funding of the arts." Though often in agreement with the author, Borrup has a few bones to pick with Goldbard. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Today CAN brings you Libby Maynard reviewing a new book by Tom Borrup and Partners for Livable Communities, published by Fieldstone Alliance. Maynard, director of The Ink People Center for the Arts in Eureka, Calif., and herself an experienced community builder, welcomes "The Creative Community Builder’s Handbook" as a guide to "a way of looking at our communities that the rest of the world knows well, uses and supports. In the U.S., it is mostly misunderstood." The book looks at researchers, theorists and practitioners; gives examples of successful creative community-building efforts; and walks the creative community builder through the process. While appreciative of Borrup's attempt to order a "messy process," Maynard regets that the "sense of the joy that comes from even the small successes wasn’t conveyed in the book." Ultimately, she says, "that’s what makes it all worth it." [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

A new study on the arts and civic engagement has been released by the NEA. The study, "The Arts and Civic Engagement: Involved in Arts, Involved in Life," reveals that people who participate in the arts also engage in positive civic and individual activities -- such as volunteering, going to sporting events and outdoor activities -- at significantly higher rates than nonarts participants. "The report shatters the stereotype that art is an escapist or passive activity, showing instead that it is associated with a range of positive behaviors. The study also reveals that young adults (18-34) show a declining rate of arts participation and civic activities," says an NEA press release. It's based on a 2002 NEA survey that interviewed 17,135 adults ages 18 and older about their activities in a 12-month period. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Today CAN brings you a series of participants' reflections on New WORLD Theater's recent INTERSECTION conference/festival. INTERSECTION is New WORLD Theater's biennial conference/festival examining new aesthetics and work practices by artists of color. INTERSECTION IV: Re/Generations, an intergenerational, cross-cultural gathering that looked at historical models and new directions in multicultural performing arts and activism, took place at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, April 7-9, 2006. This batch of essays is by Caron Atlas, Jacqueline Johnson and Raul Matta, and Alice Lovelace. [LINK] Posted by Steven Durland

Participants in a new institute at Liz Lerman Dance Exchange will have a chance to take part in building the company's next major work, "Prayer as a Radical Act." The latest in a series of Dance Exchange projects to examine spirituality both within and beyond traditional settings and belief systems, the piece will premiere at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center March 31 and April 1, 2007. The institute, November 13-18, 2006, is designed as a highly collaborative, multiple-choreographer structure. "We will build the dance by asking questions – and will turn to the participants to help us explore the answers," says LLDE. Questions include: "When is action prayer? When is meditation a form of activism? How does prayer live in everyday tasks? Can it be used to validate questionable acts in society?" [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham