Deadline is August 8, 2007, to apply for Case Foundation's "Make It Your Own" awards. Case, publisher of "Citizens at the Center: A New Approach to Civic Engagement" (2006), is interested in achieving "sustainable solutions to complex social problems by investing in collaboration, leadership and entrepreneurship. The grant program is "a direct response to research showing that many people feel disconnected from public leaders and institutions and don't believe they have the power to make a lasting difference in their communities." Applicants must be individuals 14 or older. Twenty finalists will receive a $10,000 grant to fund their ideas. The final four (chosen by Case's online community) get an additional $25,000 grant. All applicants receive GOOD Magazine and online tools to help them share their idea with others and raise funds online. The top 100 finalists get $100 to jump-start their ideas. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Today CAN brings you an exciting story about teens from violent neighborhoods in Brazil and Colombia who visited Brooklyn, N.Y., to prove dance is a medium for social change. Dana Edell writes about Dance for Tolerance, a project that "began as a gesture in the mind and heart of Marco Stoffel, the visionary founder and president of the Third Millennium Foundation, and it has exploded into a dance symphony." TMF identified arts programs in Cali, Colombia, and Fortaleza, Brazil, that reach out to disadvantaged kids through dance, and challenged them to "create a new piece that would not only represent the concept of 'intolerance,' but also illuminate ways to overcome it." Then the foundation provided funding for two of these troupes, many of whom had never left their neighborhoods, to travel to New York City and work with Dance/Theatre/Etcetera Director Martha Bowers to share their dance, participate in a week of workshops and create new work about tolerance with Brooklyn teens for the Red Hook Waterfront Festival. Our story links to a great video by D/T/E. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

The think tank ixia has issued a report on the public-art planning process in England, the first in 15 years. It finds that: there is growing evidence of support for public art, but its impact is limited by narrow definitions and restrictive practice; a vision, policy, strategy and expertise in public art are key strategic success factors; a consistent set of good-practice principles has evolved, but are not consistently applied; and new approaches to planning negotiation can open lateral opportunities to extend public art. It recommends the following be included in planning documents: the Local Authority’s vision for public art, its policy and strategy; the wider policy context; the definition, benefits and principles of good public art; a rationale for the use of public-art expertise; and more. It's downloadable free on ixia's Web site. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Philadelphians passing through Rittenhouse Square this month are being encouraged by a team of artists to show their feelings through drawing. "Show Someone How You Feel About Something" is a public art service project coordinated by Zoë Cohen, ending July 30-31. Clipboards, paper and drawing materials are available, along with envelopes and a addresses of public and elected officials. Participants are invited to communicate something ("anything") that they feel strongly about through drawing, and to address an envelope to someone -- an official, friend, family member, etc. The drawings are then stamped and mailed by the facilitators. "Show Someone" aims to offer the possibility of interacting and communicating differently than is the norm in public and civic space. It's part of the alt.space festival coordinated by Philadelphia's Basekamp. Documentation is on blospot.com. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Farmer and earthworks artist Matthew Moore speaks at Farmlab in Los Angeles, July 27, 2007. Matthew Moore is a fourth-generation farmer whose land and life is quickly being overcome by suburban sprawl. He creates large site-specific earthworks on and around his family’s land, which highlight the grounds on which the urban and rural collide and compete. Moore also works with video and installation art, addressing issues of ecological, cultural and economic sustainability and the potential loss of the romanticized American farm. Farmlab is a short-term multidisciplinary investigation of land-use issues that are related to sustainability, livability and health. It was created by the team behind the Not A Cornfield project in downtown Los Angeles to serve as a catalyst for community involvement and change through the development of art actions, projects and more. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

The Oliver family of Seattle is completing all 63 assignments on Learning To Love You More, and their results will be displayed at Seattle's Bumbershoot Festival, September 1-3, 2007. Learning To Love You More is both a Web site and series of non-Web presentations comprising artwork made by the general public in response to assignments given by artists Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher (Ex., Assignment #9: Draw a constellation from someone's freckles). Carol Oliver (age 49), Mike Oliver (age 47), Nigel Oliver (age 20), Pete Oliver (age 14), Sydney Oliver (age 12) and Mary Oliver (age 5) have 40 more assignments to complete in the next month. Their videos, drawings, photographs, songs and writing will be on exhibition at Bumbershoot. You can see their achievements online at Learning's Web site and follow their progress toward Assignment 63 on their own blog. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Today can brings you "Higher Ground: Informal Arts, Cultural Policy and the Evolving Role of Nonprofits," a presentation by Tom Borrup from the June 2007 Americans for the Arts convention. Borrup wonders about the viability of the existing cultural infrastructure, including the nonprofit arts. Citing numerous new thinkers and researchers, Borrup says the predominant mode of 20th Century cultural participation – which involves sitting quietly as part of an audience consuming work created and presented by a discrete class of professional artists, managers and technicians – has ceased to be prevalent. Youth today are active creators of media content and hungry for interaction. He introduces the new terms that are characterizing this generation of informal creators: "prosumers" Pro-Ams, Next-Geners, all injecting a culture of openness, participation and interactivity into workplaces, markets and communities. In this new atmosphere, Borrup asks, what is the role or purpose of nonprofit art organizations, if there is to be one? [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

"Myth of the Motherland" is a documentary film project taking young New York poets to Africa to dispel the prevalent myth that "people in the developing world are helpless victims." In 2008, filmmaker Lisa Russell will follow a group of young spoken-word artists, aged 18-23, from Urban Word NYC, on a creative-writing journey to 12 African nations to meet with scholars, writers, artists and others to address myths and biases about Africa and Africans. The experience, she says, will expose the young writers to a face of Africa they rarely see. "Giving local scholars, writers and poets a platform to mentor American youth," she says, "would flip the power dynamic we are accustomed to seeing." The documentary will be produced by Governness Films, a project of the Independent Feature Project. Hear the project's voices on MySpace. (Thanks ActALIVE.org.) [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

The Arts Education Partnership has jumped on the "let's train teaching artists" bandwagon with a report from its new Task Force on Higher Education. AEP joins a host of others focusing right now on improving the quality of arts instruction by upgrading the professional development of teaching artists, including the Center for Arts Policy at Columbia College Chicago and California College of the Arts' Center for Art & Public Life. The AEP report, "Working Partnerships: Professional Development of the Arts Teaching Workforce" (February 2007), broadens its focus to include "classroom teachers, arts specialists, teaching artists, higher-education faculty and members of arts and cultural institutions who provide arts instruction." The task force is looking at ways for higher-education institutions to partner with schools and community-based arts organizations in developing this workforce. An addendum illustrates best practices with 11 partnership profiles. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

If the Umoja Institute has its way, the old Carver Theater in the Treme neighborhood of New Orleans will become the Carver Cultural Center, with an 800-seat auditorium, food-and-retail concession space and classroom space. With the Center, the Umoja Institute of African American Culture, Trade and Economic Development plans to resurrect the history and culture of the historic neighborhood. They project a full program of stage performances by Mardi Gras Indians and jazz bands, mock jazz funerals, voodoo presentations and more. Treme, next door to the French Quarter, was the nation's first settled community for former slaves and free people of color, and is still struggling to recover from Hurricane Katrina. A grant from Texaco is getting the project started and it's strongly supported by local banks and businesses. See videos on the Web. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Attendees at a National Latina Health Network health fair at Miami's Carlos Albizu University, July 26, 2007, will learn from a theater project about HIV/AIDS risk behavior. The health project, “Sex Education Saves Lives," incorporates theater-based peer education, which the NLHN uses in all its advocacy work. The group is currently training students at CAU to become peer educators who will perform on campus and at local events. The July 26 health fair will include a Latino Youth Forum, presentation by student peer counselors, small group discussions and exhibits from local organizations and departments. NLHN is a growing network of health experts that is dedicated to improving the quality of health among Latinas and their families, and is committed to strengthening and supporting a network of Latina leaders in public health. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Chicago pedestrians were the surprised recipients of 220 daisies spattered with beet juice during artist Nicole Garneau's "220 Weeks of War/Acts of Love," June 8, 2007. Garneau and six volunteers performed the piece in front of Link's Hall at the three-way Clark/Sheffield/Newport intersection, with Garneau scrubbing the streets with 50 pounds of boiled beets. The beet juice and flesh made a complete circle around the intersection. The 220 flowers were dipped in the beet juice left on the streets and given away to audience and passers-by. Each flower bore a tag that said "This flower is a gift of love and compassion for you." Garneau is a performance artist who works in the Center for Community Arts Partnerships and is adjunct faculty at Columbia College Chicago. Photos of the event are on her Web site and a video (including friendly confrontations with cops and traffic) is on YouTube. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Chicago's Cuentros Foundation is in the midst of "Intercambio IV: Santa Clara del Cobre – Chicago," an annual visit by master coppersmiths from Michoacán, Mexico. The program includes presentations and hands-on coppersmithing workshops with youth and adults in and near Chicago. Cuentros is a neighborhood-based arts organization and "think-tank," interdisciplinary and cross-cultural. Its founding project, "Ritmo del Fuego — the Art and Artisans of Santa Clara del Cobre," examines the cultural heritage of Chicago’s 1.1 million Mexican residents, of whom about 25 percent originate from the state of Michoacán. The internationally renown community of Santa Clara del Cobre is examined and presented through a 597-page bilingual book, the video documentary "Huele de Noche," the Ritmo del Fuego Traveling Exhibition and extensive community programming. This year the artists pay ten visits to mainstream and ethnic Chicago arts centers, July 8-16. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

You're invited to participate in "The Art of Weaving Faiths," July 22, 2007, at the Santa Monica (Calif.) Museum of Art , led by Nobuko Miyamoto of Great Leap. The day-long event is open to 20 female participants. They'll tour the exhibition "Identity Theft: Eleanor Antin, Lynn Hershman, and Suzy Lake, 1972–1978," about role-playing and identity, then explore their own understanding of who they are and how they see others. This is the fourth event in the latest Great Leap "To All Relations" series, using creative processes to explore faith, culture, identity and race. "Food, means of expression, family traditions and personal histories will be shared with the objective of interconnecting and weaving each contribution into one unique story," says Great Leap. See online photos of the last event, at L.A.'s Senshin Buddhist Temple. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

"Youth Voices Rising," at San Francisco's CounterPulse, July 13, 2007, will feature performances by young "revolutionary artists" from the Art in Action Youth Leadership Program. Art in Action is a small, multiracial collective founded in 2000 by artists and youth advocates based in Oakland, Calif. They describe themselves as working with young people impacted by violence and poverty "to cultivate leadership through dance, theater, music, spoken word/poetry, painting, storytelling, and media arts." They're just kicking off their annual leadership-training summer camp all over the Bay Area, using techniques based in popular and political education. The CounterPulse evening will showcase participants doing theater, digital stories, hip-hop and spoken word. Samples are on Art in Action's MySpace page, plus a video about their programs (including participation the Bay Area's Silence the Violence campaign). [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

This year's Imagining America conference, "Citizenship for a Just World: Activating Knowledge, Cultivating Engagement," is set for Syracuse University, September 8-9, 2007. The conference addresses new kinds of citizenship and public engagement that have no fixed geographic boundaries but still respond to specific communities located around the world. Session topics include regional responses to the Onondaga Land Rights Actions; turning artists and humanists into elected officials; cultural citizenship in Los Angeles; contradictory value systems involved in community arts partnerships; and more. A session by scholar Randy Martin and performance artist Karen Finley discusses what happens as artistic work becomes part of public debate and civic participation. Speakers include Syracuse Chancellor Nancy Cantor, Design Corps Founder Bryan Bell, USC Professor George Sanchez, Animating Democracy's Pam Korza, and MLA Director Rosemary Feal. See the schedule on IA's Web site. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

An eco-artist, an urban ecologist and a photographer will lead an "ecovention" in England's Gunpowder Park July 15, 2007, sponsored by The Arts Catalyst. An ecovention is an artist-initiated project that intervenes in or transforms a local ecology. This art-&-ecology study day will be led by American artist Brandon Ballengée, who collaborates with scientists on hybrid environmental-art/ecological-research projects that involve the public through performative, collaborative field trips. For this event, he'll work with urban ecologist Dusty Gedge and David Cottridge, a top British bird photographer who has co-created multimedia projects inspired by landscape and soundscape of the park. Gunpowder Park is 90 hectares of new country park "for the benefit of people, wildlife and the arts" in Lee Valley Regional Park at the top of Greater London. Further project field trips are set for July 22 and 29. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Minneapolis' Pangea World Theater recently presented a play at the historic First National Conference of Arrest Grantees sponsored by the Battered Women's Justice Project. An arrest grantee is an organization funded by the U.S. Department of Justice's Office on Violence Against Women to establish or improve a coordinated criminal-justice response to domestic-violence cases. Pangea presented "Journey to Safety," a new play based on a Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights (MAHR) report, that depicts issues of interpretation, fear of deportation and community pressures experienced by battered immigrant women. Pangea and MAHR created a training on the issue, designed for government agencies, educational institutions and civic groups, including a video and facilitators guide. They presented the play June 26, 2007, in St. Paul at the conference, "Milestones and Momentum: Strengthening Community Responses to Violence Against Women." [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham