May 3, 2008, is the opening of the third annual round of installations in Milwaukee, Wisconsin's neighborhoods by IN:SITE, a resource for temporary public art in the city and county. This year's installations, in the Sherman Park neighborhood, include Green Gallery-owner John Riepenhoff's vending-machine project at the Sherman Perk Coffee Shop, retrofitted to show and sell postcard photographs of Milwaukee by ten different artists. Madison artist Melanie Kehoss will show "Local Accents" in the park, sidewalk stencils of decorative elements she observed in local residents' homes. Art student Cari Enot will install "Step It Up Milwaukee," an "interactive trash can" at the bus stop at Chambers and Sherman, intended to raise awareness of the connection between waste, consumerism and their after-effects on the environment. There's also a celebration of the first IN:SITE mentorship project. [LINK]

Here come another three Bridge Conversations from people who work and live in multiple worlds. They include La Peña Cultural Center's Paul Chin talking with Vanessa Whang about crossing lines of culture and politics, race and ethnicity, the local and global; The Christensen Fund's Ken Wilson talking with Caron Atlas about cultural context and creative philanthropy; and Fractured Atlas' Adam Huttler and Creative Capital's Ruby Lerner discussing entrepreneurial strategies and changing paradigms for arts-service organizations. These are more of the conversations commissioned by the Center for Civic Participation’s Arts & Democracy Project and CAN to highlight a diverse group of people — including artists, community activists, educators, funders, political leaders and scholars — who are building bridges and creating hybrid and integrated programs, strategies and lives. The project is directed by Caron Atlas and coordinated by R. Lena Richardson. [LINK]

The Second Annual Black Lily Film and Music Festival for women artists gets underway May 1, 2008, in Philadelphia, Pa. The film festival features cinema from 30 women and trans directors, including the East Coast premiere of Tia Lessin and Carl Deal's "Trouble the Water," the 2008 Sundance Grand Jury prize-winning documentary about artists trapped in the flood waters of New Orleans. Also featured is Stephanie Black’s "Africa Unite," about the Marley Family reunion in Ethiopia, and Ava DuVernay’s "The Is the Life," which chronicles the underground early'90s L.A. hip-hop scene. There's a concert, music awards and a hip-hop night with women DJs, plus The Young Lily Girls Workshops in DJing, film editing, music production and the business of fashion as well as master classes. The festival runs through May 4. Black Lily is a nonprofit driven by women. [LINK]

San Francisco, Calif.'s Community Arts and Education Program, formerly the Neighborhood Arts Program, is celebrating its 40th anniversary. Neighborhood Arts was "a national trailblazer in nurturing art in places outside the circles of high culture," says Jesse Hamlin in the San Francisco Chronicle (4/21/08). Founded in 1967, " when the city was ground zero for countercultural ideas," says Hamlin, its purpose was "nurturing arts for and by the people where they live and work." The program, said former Mime Troupe playwright Joan Holden, "definitely had a populist and progressive vibe. There was this upsurge of culture up from the bottom - rock music, free theater in the park - and they nurtured that. They were multicultural before the word existed. They fertilized the grassroots." It grew to become the CAED program and it thrives in the city's ethnic neighborhoods today. (Thanks, Judith Tannenbaum.) [LINK]

May 23, 2008, is the deadline for grant applications to a new Creativity and Aging in America initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts. This Creativity and Aging funding opportunity will focus on the disciplines of literature and music. The program, managed by the NEA's Office for AccessAbility, is limited to fiscal year 2009. Projects must be conducted by professional artists and engage older adults (65 or older) as students, artists and/or teachers. Projects must be planned in cooperation with the target population including local organizations that address aging-related issues. Partnerships are encouraged, as is professional documentation. Grants are for $15,000 or $25,000 (with 1-to-1 match). An application in response to this announcement does not preclude an organization from applying under other Arts Endowment funding opportunities. Applications must be submitted electronically through Grants.gov, the federal government’s online application system. [LINK]

The National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts and MetLife Foundation have announced the renewal of the MetLife Foundation Partners in Arts Education Program. The goal of the program is to enhance arts learning in K­-12 Public Schools by supporting exemplary Community School of the Arts/Public School partnerships. More than 7,500 public-school students in eight cities are receiving sustained arts instruction during the 2007-2008 school year thanks to 12 community school/public school partnerships funded by these grants. In 2008, the project will award grants of up to $20,000 to support exemplary arts-education partnerships during the 2008-2009 school year and present an arts-education-partnership training institute in conjunction with the 2008 Conference for Community Arts Education in Philadelphia, Pa., on October 29. Deadline for applications is May 23. [LINK]

As part of its ongoing effort to help grow the field of community arts, CAN is facilitating a survey for the Crossroads Project for Art, Learning and Community. Crossroads wants to gather information from and build connections with those who are using its first publication, “The Beginner’s Guide to Community-Based Arts” by Mat Schwarzman and Keith Knight (Oakland: New Village Press, 2005). The book is unique in its use of graphic stories and its integration of academic, personal and “street” knowledge. It is used as a textbook and educational resource in dozens of universities, high schools and youth groups across the U.S. Crossroads has a few questions for those who have found the book useful. The goals of the survey are to share successful strategies for using “The Beginner’s Guide” and to develop ideas for future Crossroads publications. If you complete the survey, you may receive a free copy of Crossroads’ CD entitled "Through Our Eyes." [LINK]

The latest addition to the CAN database of Places to Study is a course from SIT Study Abroad: "Czech Republic: Arts, Community and Transition." Students spend four months in the Czech Republic, based in Prague, exploring the role of the arts in Czech society today. The 16-credit course includes intensive Czech language study; an interdisciplinary seminar on Czech history, politics, society, arts and culture, civil society and community revival; educational excursions to neighboring countries; a five-day rural visit to towns in Bohemia and Moravia; a field-study seminar in learning across cultures; an independent study project; and an extended homestay with a Czech family. SIT Study Abroad (formerly School for International Training) is a program of World Learning, an organization based in Vermont that has offered opportunities in experiential cross-cultural learning at all levels for 75 years. [LINK]

A legal process that has taken nearly four years may be coming to an end, says the Critical Art Ensemble Defense Fund. On Monday, April 21, 2008, Federal Judge Richard J. Arcara ruled to dismiss the indictment against University at Buffalo Professor of Visual Studies Steven Kurtz. In June 2004, Kurtz was charged with two counts of mail fraud and two counts of wire fraud stemming from an exchange of $256 worth of harmless bacteria with Professor of Human Genetics Robert Ferrell, University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. Kurtz planned to use the bacteria in an educational art exhibit about biotechnology with his art collective, Critical Art Ensemble. If the prosecution appeals this dismissal, the case will move to the N.Y. Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City. [LINK]

By taking aim at a music program, the school board may have struck the right chord to unite the community on the issue of school funding, says the Rapid City [S.D.] Journal. The board's intention to drop elementary band and orchestra drew 1,000 people to a board study session last week at Central High School. They were up in arms over the budget cut, estimated to save $161,925. Visit the paper's Web site to see a video of citizens speaking passionately to the issue and demanding a review of fiscal management. Attendees gave a standing ovation to Republican politician Stanford Adelstein when he pledged $165,000 (his own) to continue the program for another year: "For years, music has been an essential part of my life. This opportunity must not be taken away from our children." (Thanks, Arts Ed Listserv.) [LINK]

"Art Changing Attitudes Toward the Environment" is a May 8, 2008, seminar at United Nations Headquarters in New York City, part of the U.N.'s Unlearning Intolerance series. Focusing on climate change and "the intolerance of the needs of our earth and the attitudinal and behavioral changes that must be made in order to protect it," the seminar points to art as a catalyst "that can unite people in thought and action." Panelists -- seven visual artists and four environmental/social activists -- speak in two sessions: "Confronting Environmental Intolerance: Art, Action and Human Security" and "Art for Change: Vehicles for Environmental Action." The seminar accompanies an exhibit of the artist's works at U.N. Headquarters, May 9-31, part of the global Art for the Environment Initiative by the Natural World Museum and the U.N. Environment Programme. [LINK]

Liz Lerman Dance Exchange will lead "Building Performers," a two-week summer camp at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., July 14-25, 2008. To quote from the Museum's intriguing p.r.: "Create a performance based on the Museum’s historic and storied past! Discover what’s hiding in the columns of the Great Hall, unveil the myths behind the Museum’s friezes, and bring the outrageous characters found in and around the Museum to life. Under the guidance of members of the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, tell a story using movement, improvisation, and creative drama. The session culminates with the campers’ original performance for family and friends in the Great Hall." Created by an act of Congress in 1980, the National Building Museum is a cultural institution dedicated to exploring and celebrating architecture, design, engineering, construction and urban planning. [LINK]

The District of Columbia Commission on the Arts and Humanities is seeking an artist or artist team to enhance the Metropolitan Branch Trail. The selected artist(s) will work with urban designers, transportation and trail planners, landscape architects, civil engineers and District government employees to create a plan that visually unifies an eight-mile multi-use trail running from Silver Spring, Md., to D.C.'s Union Station. It will connect to the Capital Crescent Trail, the Anacostia Tributaries Trail System and the National Mall, part of the East Coast Greenway. This "artistic driven identity" will be included in the trail's signage, amenities maps and materials. The Commissions is working with the District Department of Transportation and surrounding communities. The commission, worth $7,550, is open only to artists in D.C., Virginia and Maryland. [LINK]

The U.S. State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs has issued an RFP for a substantial grants program called Arts Exchanges on International Issues. Grants of $200,000 to $600,000 will support programs that "utilize the arts to engage civil society - particularly youth and diverse and underserved populations - and that foster linkages and build partnerships between U.S. and overseas nonprofit arts and cultural organizations and local communities." Project themes are limited to: 1) Mixed Visual Artistic Mediums: Cultural Exchange between American Indigenous and Minority Artists and Indigenous and Afro-Latino Artists from Latin and Central America; and 2) Mixed Visual Artistic Mediums: Cultural Exchange between American Women Artists and Women Artists from Africa and/or the Middle East. Applications (due May 22, 2008) must be made through nonprofit organizations or institutions of higher education. [LINK]

Facts and myths of joining the U.S. military will be discussed by tonight's audience for Luis Alfaro's play "Hero" at Teatro Vision in San Jose, Calif. The play looks at a young soldier returning from duty in Iraq and his decision to go to war. Its run at Teatro Vision (through April 27) is its northern California premiere. Tonight's discussion will be led by David Ledesma, an active organizer promoting alternatives for youth to joining the military. It will provide an overview of the benefits and experiences offered by the military. The free discussion is co-sponsored by One Voice, the San Jose Peace and Justice Center, and KPFA 94.1 FM. [LINK]

Jamaican-Canadian poet d'bi.young.anitafrika will lead an April youth workshop in Dub Poetry, presented by the 2008 Magnetic North Theatre Festival in Vancouver. d'bi.young sees Dub Poetry as a storytelling form with an anti-oppression framework, emerging from "the psyche/life experience of conscious ghetto youth in Jamaica and England in the late '70s-early '80s... They demanded an art form that would represent and reflect the working class linguistically, socially and politically. Coming from the roots of reggae, dub fiercely challenges capitalism, imperialism, patriarchy and other forms of oppression." The workshop will promote "the ideas of accountability and responsibility between storyteller and community: the artist as leader and revolutionary keeper of the sacred." The youth workshop is set for April 26-28, culminating at the Dub Storytelling Performance at The Cultch. [LINK]

Another new entry in CAN's Places To Study database is "The Citizen Artist," a service-learning course at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. Already in progress this spring in the Department of Theatre and Film, the six-unit course partners eight BGSU undergraduate and graduate students with 32 11th-grade American Government and Economics students from Libbey High School in Toledo, using theater to explore the concept of citizenship. They've been partaking in civil discourse through research, discussions and interviews with friends, family and community members and using the gathered material to create a theater performance that will premiere tomorrow, April 16, 2008. Artist Kate Collins, who developed this course, has shared her syllabus with CAN and established a blog where students are sharing their progress through the course (http://libbeycitizenartists.blogspot.com/). [LINK]

Keys To The Studio in Toronto will present a concert tonight, April 15, 2008, offering music "you've never heard before." It features performances by the Keyholders, "the originators of the music on the program, who also happen to be people diagnosed with intellectual and developmental disabilities (such as Autism, Tourette’s, etc.)." Keys To The Studio gives these emerging musicians the opportunity to collaborate with professional musicians in one-to-one sessions, rehearsals with bands made up of peers, workshops, recordings, public jam sessions and concert performances. Says Keys Director John Jowell, "Original music from people diagnosed with developmental and intellectual disabilities is virtually absent in the world of the arts." It's all happening at the Masaryk-Cowan Community Centre in Parkdale, Toronto. There are articles and audio interviews on the Keys Web site. [LINK]

Just added to CAN's Places To Study database: a new, graduate-level Community Arts Fellowship at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Applications are due May 15, 2008, for the fellowship's inaugural year, starting August 1. It's a full-time, ten-month commitment with a stipend of $18,000. This is an opportunity to work inside an arts organization experimenting with and defining new ways of hands-on collaboration between artists and a broad community. Working in The ARTery space -- a hands-on, drop-in, collaborative art-making gallery -- the Fellow will develop public interactive projects and in-depth engagement with exhibitions, and provide an accessible entry point to the Arts Center for active participation by people of all skill levels and ages. The ARTery is part of the Kohler Center's Community Arts Department. [LINK]

"The Power of Community Building" is one of the General Sessions at the National Performing Arts Convention in Denver, Colo., June 10-14, 2008. The June 11 General Session will be hosted by playwright-actor-professor Anna Deveare Smith and introduced by NEA Chair Dana Gioia. It will include "inspirational tales of art & community building" by Louisiana Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu and Director Bill Rauch of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, plus an introduction to Denver by Mayor John Hickenlooper and Director Erin Trapp, Denver Office of Cultural Affairs, and a performance by the Denver March Powwow. The conference an interdisciplinary gathering of the performing arts field, the first fully integrated convening of its kind, encompassing the annual meetings of Chorus America, the Composers' Consortium, Dance/USA, Early Music America, League of American Orchestras, OPERA America and Theatre Communications Group. [LINK]

Looking to "wake up community movements through new forms of cultural art villages and by restoring small communities that have disappeared in rapid industrialization"? Apply for a residency in South Korea through the Seok-Su Art Project, August 1-October 30, 2008. Stone & Water, a nonprofit , community-based "supplemental art space" in An-Yang, has organized the SAP for 20-25 Korean and international artists. Successul residency candidates can expect to carry out public art and ecological projects using vacant spaces around Seok-Su Market and An-yang River; to conduct activities to restore small communities; and to conduct education/art programs with local residents. Residency activities are supported by Arts Council Korea and An-yang City. Photos from SAP 2007 may be found online at: http://www.cyworld.com/stonenwaterresidency. [LINK]

Attempting to see the world through others' eyes, choirs in three countries are appearing online in short films singing other countries' anthems. France sings USA, Kenya sings India, Japan sings Turkey. It's in honor of Pangea Day, May 10, 2008, "a global event bringing the world together through film." At18:00 GMT that day, Cairo, Kigali, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai and Rio de Janeiro will be linked for a live program of 24 short films, live music and speakers, broadcast in seven languages to millions worldwide through the Internet, television and mobile phones. The featured films were selected for their ability to allow us see the world through another person's eyes. A documentary will be created to catalyze future activities. Pangea Day began with a wish from filmmaker Jehane Noujaim, winner of the 2005 TED Prize. (Thanks, Leslie Neal.) [LINK]

Today CAN is proud to bring you four more dialogues in our series "Bridge Conversations: People Who Live and Work in Multiple Worlds." They include conversations between Alaka Wali and Lena Richardson on drumming circles, sustainable conservation and valuing difference; Francisco Guajardo and Edyael Casaperalta on intentionality, consciousness and creating new opportunities; Harriet Barlow and Kathy Engel on "the Commons" and crossing borders; and Maribel Alvarez and Jason Bulluck on paying attention to the “little stuff,” engaging in critical discourse and understanding how power can be shaken up. These are more of the conversations commissioned by the Center for Civic Participation’s Arts & Democracy Project and CAN to highlight a diverse group of people — including artists, community activists, educators, funders, political leaders and scholars — who are building bridges and creating hybrid and integrated programs, strategies and lives. [LINK]

Community artists interested in teaching in schools will be happy to learn about "Yes Child, No Child, Whose Child, Every Child" in Oakland, Calif., May 15-17, 2008. It's the 2nd Annual Teaching Artist Institute by a dynamic team that is focusing on teaching artists' training: the Alliance for Arts Learning Leadership, California College of the Arts' Center for Arts and Public Life (CAPL) and the Alameda County Arts Commission. And it's hosted by Berkeley Rep and CAPL. The Institute asks the question “What is the role of the Teaching Artist in making social change?” Classroom strategies, cross-cultural communications and the role of California State standards in achieving equitable classrooms will be part of the curriculum. The event features a performance of “No Child…” by Nilaja Sun on the struggles and miracles of America’s public schools. [LINK]

Intermedia Arts in Minneapolis is looking for local artists ages 10-18 to take part in "Project Girl: A Multimedia Exhibition and Guide to Un-Mediafying Your Life." Project Girl is a nationally touring visual arts exhibition designed to defend adolescent girls from the harmful effects of media messages. Intermedia wants artwork by local girls to be part of the exhibition June 5—August 16, 2008, in its Minneapolis gallery. They are looking for visual art, writing, photography, video or other work that addresses the media’s influence on girls through TV, magazines, movies, and commercials. Deadline for artwork is April 25. Intermedia's opening night reception, June 6, features Project Girl Co-creators visual artist Kelly Parks Snider and video producer Jane Bartell, and a keynote by Lyn Mikel Brown, author of "Packaging Girlhood" and co-creator of Hardy Girls Healthy Women. [LINK]

CAN is happy to welcome visual artist Michael Schwartz to Blognet, a network of Weblogs from all over our community, relayed electronically to the CAN site through rss feeds. Schwartz's blog, "Community Arts and Murals," reports on participatory and community-based visual arts projects. Says Schwartz: "We will examine how projects transform the places we live, change and save lives, transcend differences, challenge stereotypes and build a more egalitarian and democratic society." His latest posts are about his most recent project, "Hello Tucson, Hello Philadelphia." They include videos of schoolkids in both cities doing a creative exchange about their neighborhoods and compiling the information for murals at both schools. And Schwartz has embedded the CAN widget on his blogsite, cycling APInews to his online audience automatically. [LINK]

The North Carolina legislature is evaluating the impact of requiring one credit in arts education for graduation from N.C. public high schools. Two key issues being are studied by the Joint Select Committee on Arts Education: 1) the role of arts education in preparing N.C. children to compete in a global economy, including the development of a creative work force, international understanding and math and science learning; 2) the role of arts education in advancing N.C.'s educational goals, including increased literacy skills, improved student performance and social character development, and arts education impact on youth at risk. On April 17, the A+ Schools Program at UNC Greensboro has been invited to do a one-hour presentation to the committee. [LINK]

Have you got a complex policy issue that needs visual explanation? Send it to the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP) by April 22 and you could win $1,000 and 1,000 posters. CUP, located the Old American Can Factory in Brooklyn, N.Y., makes "educational projects about places and how they change." They bring art and design professionals together with community-based advocates and researchers, who work with CUP staff to create projects ranging from high-school curricula to educational exhibitions. In March, CUP launched Making Policy Public, a series of fold-out posters that use innovative graphic design to explore and explain public policy. Each poster is the product of a commissioned collaboration between a designer and an advocate. The first two issues were about globalized shipping networks and how Social Security works. If you have an idea for a collaboration, download the application. (Thanks, Caron Atlas.) [LINK]

A digital repository has been created for the archives of the Alliance for Cultural Democracy, a national activist arts organization that flourished from 1982 to 1994. The archive is part of an interesting site, "Docs Populi," by Lincoln Marshall Cushing, librarian, archivist, author and lecturer on political posters. So far the ACD Archive includes such documents as a membership directory from 1989 and a copy of ACD's magazine, Cultural Democracy, Issue number 33, Summer 1986, edited by Charles Frederick, Lucy Lippard and Neil Sieling. The issue contains called "Imaginaction" by Charles Frederick and "One of the Striking Miners Took Some Equipment And Started Filming What Was Going On" by Helen Lewis. The site also has a link to ACD's Declaration of Cultural Human Rights on the CAN site (posted 2004). Wonderful. (Thanks for the info, Michael Schwartz.) [LINK]

The songwriter who convinced many artists that they could make social change with music has won a Pulitzer Prize. Dylan received an honorary Pulitzer on Monday, says Hillel Italie in a AP story (4/8/08), cited for his "profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power." Said Italie: "Thanks to Bob Dylan, rock 'n' roll has finally broken through the Pulitzer wall. ... It was the first time Pulitzer judges, who have long favored classical music, and, more recently, jazz, awarded an art form once dismissed as barbaric, even subversive. ... [S]uch protest anthems as 'Blowin' in the Wind' made Dylan a poet and prophet for a rebellious generation." Dylan's memoir, "Chronicles, Volume One," received a National Book Critics Circle nomination in 2005 and is widely acknowledged as the rare celebrity book that can be treated as literature. [LINK]

The National Storytelling Network is inviting applications for the fifth annual Brimstone Award for Applied Storytelling. The award focuses on the transformational properties of storytelling and aims to increase understanding of the ways storytelling can promote change in individuals and communities. The program provides a grant of $5,000 for a project that will be completed in calendar year 2009. The grant will support a model storytelling project that is service-oriented, based in a community or organization, and to some extent replicable in other places and situations. Many types of projects can be considered for the award, including community, organizational or institutional programs, curricular activities, short residencies and projects combining complementary art forms. Applicants who are not members of the National Storytelling Network must pay the current membership fee. Deadline is May 2, 2008. (Thanks, Craig Zelizer.) [LINK]

The March 2008 issue of the Journal of Health Psychology is a treasure trove of information for those interested in arts approaches to healthcare. There are 15 articles by experts across both fields. Titles include; "Theatre of the Oppressed and Environmental Justice Communities: A Transformational Therapy for the Body Politic"; "Telling My Story: From Narrative to Exhibit in Illuminating the Lived Experience of Homelessness among Older African American Women"; "Expanding Health Literacy: Indigenous Youth Creating Videos"; "Love Stories about Caregiving and Alzheimer's Disease: A Performative Methodology"; "Using the Arts in Teaching and Learning: Building Student Capacity for Community-based Work in Health Psychology"; "The Impact of Participation in Performing Arts on Adolescent Health and Behaviour"; "Playing in the Mud: Health Psychology, the Arts and Creative Approaches to Health Care"; and more. [LINK]

"Willing and Able: Re-Figuring Dance, Performance, and Disability" is the theme of the 10th annual Dance Under Construction conference hosted by U.C. Berkeley, April 25-26, 2008. The inter-campus graduate student conference incorporates perspectives on dance from the visual arts, geography, architecture and medical studies, examining "how particular framings of the body define ability in dance and movement." The keynote address is by Petra Kuppers, a CAN writer and author of a new book from Routledge, "Community Performance: An Introduction." The schedule, available on the Web, is jam-packed with dozens of workshops, performances, videos, papers and other presentations. The conference is supported by several U.C. Berkeley units: Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies; Arts Research Center; Disability Studies; and Townsend Center for the Humanities. [LINK]

Today at Arts Advocacy Day in Washington, D.C., Americans for the Arts released new research on the attitudes of business executives and educators toward creativity and innovation. Key findings of the four-page report, "Ready to Innovate: Are Educators and Executives Aligned on the Creative Readiness of the U.S. Workforce," launched in partnership with The Conference Board and American Association of School Administrators, are on the Web. Those surveyed were overwhelmingly positive about creativity in the workforce and supportive of arts training. While 97 percent of employers say creativity is of increasing importance, only 72 percent say that hiring creative people is a primary concern. Eighty-five percent of employers concerned with hiring creative people say they can’t find the applicants they seek. The report resulted from a 2007 AftA National Arts Policy Roundtable. [LINK]