Today CAN brings you its year-end roundup, "Community Arts 2008: The Year of the Great Leap," by Linda Frye Burnham. "In the U.S.," she says, "those engaged in the field of community-based arts will remember 2008 as the year we all raised our heads at once and looked with guarded optimism to the future. The day was precisely November 4, when Barack Obama, a community organizer, was elected president." She details some of the initiatives being generated by activists in the field to help shape new arts policy. Burnham also discusses great leaps taken across the community arts field this year — in higher education, in action for cultural equity, in national cultural organizing and in contemporary arts theory. Making the leaps: Imagining America, the Cultural Equity Group, Water the Roots, the Community Arts Convening and Research Project and the Charleston Rhizome of Alternate ROOTS. And CAN is taking the greatest leap since we founded the site in 1999: We are looking for a new home. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Sarah Muehlbauer, first-year MFA student at Temple University’s Tyler School of Art, has won $20,000 and a show at the Smithsonian, thanks to VSA art. According to the new VSA arts e-newsletter, A3: Arts, Access, Action, Muehlbauer, 24, won the grand prize in "Green Light," a juried competition for emerging artists with disabilities by VSA arts and Volkswagen Group of America. The 15 winning entries are on view at the Smithsonian Institution's S. Dillon Ripley Center in Washington, D.C., through January 4, 2009. Muehlbauer was honored for "Rustle," a video that depicts her performance in a dress made of wax paper, expressing her changed outlook since being diagnosed with severe Crohn's disease in 2003. To compose the video's soundtrack, she chose the Scottish percussionist Evelyn Glennie, who has been profoundly deaf since childhood. See "Rustle" in the exhibition. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

The Fund for Folk Culture, founded in Austin, Texas in 1991, will cease operations in 2009. In a press release dated December 16, 2008, the FFC Board of Directors announced that the organization will conclude its current project and grant activities and close the Austin office no later than April 1, 2009, because "the philanthropic and economic environment in which we operate has changed dramatically." The FCC has supported the creation, conservation, innovation and value of traditional culture and folk arts in community life through programs such as project support through grants to individual traditional U.S. artists, incubation of the Alliance for California Traditional Arts, writing and research monographs, convenings, workshops and issue-oriented forums and development and capacity-building workshops. FCC with work with a handful of organizations in the coming months about taking on existing programs and services. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

The Music National Service Initiative is hiring "flexible, adaptable, team-oriented and hard working music lovers" in the San Francisco Bay Area. The MNSi is a social-enterprise start-up that is launching MusicianCorps™, a “musical Peace Corps” that "calls and enables musicians to serve in: underserved schools and communities to develop more successful students and youth; healthcare and therapeutic settings for patients recovery and improved functioning; the public domain for increased civic engagement, volunteerism, diplomacy and peace." Paid positions with benefits include Executive and Program Assistant, Director of Outreach and Development, Director of Finance and Administration and Bay Area Program Director. Salaries range $35K-$65K. Details are online. (Thanks, Bill Cleveland.) [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Artist Lily Yeh sends news from the Barefoot Artists project in the Rugerero Survivors Village in Rwanda: "Barefoot Artists will be working with Skyheat Associates, a New York-based non-profit organization, to bring electricity through solar energy to the 100 families in Rugerero Survivors Village over the next two years. This project also aims to train a cadre of women and men in design, fabrication and installation skills so that they can become solar engineers to help others in need. In addition, Barefoot Artists will be working with several partners -- the Rwanda Red Cross through its Western Provincial Coordinator Jean Bosco Musana Rukirande, the Rugerero Sector, and Ntamwete Hasha, Principal of Elementary School Centre Scolaire -- to begin the renovation of the school's dilapidated buildings, which are situated right next to the Rugerero Genocide Memorial." Read more on the Web and subscribe to the newsletter. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Check the December “National Endowment for the Arts Spotlight” Web page for some great community arts stories. This month's spotlight offers in-depth looks at NEA-funded projects like the "Arts at reStart program" at an interfaith, overnight emergency shelter in Kansas City, Mo., where homeless children take classes, workshops and field trips; Great Falls Symphony Association in Montana, which sends its symphony orchestra, 80-voice symphonic choir, regional youth orchestra, string quartet and winds quintet into schools and communities all over the state; the Latino Arts Initiative of the Nebraska Arts Council, in a state where the immigrant population rose at least 50 percent over the past decade; and Creative Time in New York City, which for more than 30 years has curated public arts projects that engage artists and communities in dialogue. Check the Spotlight archive for dozens more stories. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Tom Triplett and Alexis Cress, consulting staff at Fieldstone Alliance, have posted "20 Emergency Funding Sources for Nonprofits" online. "The financial impact of the recession on nonprofits may not be immediate, but it will come, and most likely before mid-year 2009," they say. The post includes ideas, opportunities and first steps possible through cash-flow management, contributed income, earned income, debt financing, and managing existing assets. Examples: Analyze the possibility of selling what you are now providing for free; reach out to other nonprofits that have loan funds for cash-flow purposes; rent office space or equipment to others. (Thanks, Arts Education Network Weekly News.) [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Culture should be something that we all own and make, not something given, offered or delivered by one section of "us" to another, says British educator John Holden. He's the author of "Democratic Culture: Opening Up the Arts to Everyone," a new report from Demos, "the think tank for everyday democracy." Downloadable free, the report looks at what "culture" means today, and challenges audiences, critics and cultural professionals to change their attitudes in order to allow greater access and participation. the current system, says Holden, is "wanting in terms of legislative frameworks, representation, transparency, equality, and universalism. ... There is a thin line between defending quality and erecting barricades against outsiders, and it is not always clear where that line is. Sometimes ‘maintaining standards’ just means preserving status." (Thanks, Arts Education Network Weekly News.) [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Today CAN is very excited to bring you "The New-New Deal 2009: Public Service Jobs for Artists?" by arts-policy writer Arlene Goldbard. It's an overview/contextualizing piece framing the question we hear everywhere right now: Will President-elect Obama's economic stimulus package include public employment for artists? Goldbard provides some background on previous programs, such as the WPA and CETA; links to some earlier writings on the subject; makes some points about why this is an appealing idea, what it can do and what can go wrong; and reviews the proposals that are out there now. "Just imagining a new idea hatching and spreading its wings fills me with excitement," says Goldbard, who began writing about this topic more than 30 years ago and worked at the San Francisco Neighborhood Arts Program in 1973, when the first CETA arts jobs were created. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Americans for the Arts joined other national arts advocacy organizations in submitting a policy brief to the Obama Transition Office. The brief outlines six topics and provides policy recommendations in each of them for the incoming administration. They include the Naitonal Endowment for the Arts; international cultural exchange; arts education "in school, work, and life"; naitonal service and the arts; the appointment of a senior-level administration official to coordinate arts and cultural policy; and the role of the arts in the not-for-profit community. Above all, the signers ask that the new Administration approach arts policy holistically to heal the fragmentation and lack of coordination that has characterized federal policy on the arts for years. Download the brief on the Web. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

The Teaching Artist Research Project (TARP) is undertaking the first national study of the work and universe of teaching artists. In the coming months, TARP will survey artists and the managers of the programs they work for -- whether in a school, for an arts organization, or in another community venue -- in a dozen communities: Chicago, Boston, Providence, Seattle, the Bay Area, Los Angeles, San Diego, Bakersfield, San Bernardino, Santa Cruz, Salinas and Humboldt County. TARP will follow the survey with in-depth interviews in each, says Nick Rabkin, principal investigator of the project, which is based at the University of Chicago. "We will collect basic data about teaching artists, learn how to best support their work and creativity, and [how to] make the field sustaining and sustainable," said Rabkin. Artists can register for the survey at its Web site. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

"Exploits in the Wireless City" is the theme of the fourth biennial Radiator Festival and Symposium, January 13-24, 2009, in Nottingham, England. The events aim to instigate discussion, debate and new interdisciplinary research networks based on the understanding that the development of digital networks is transforming our notion of (public and private) space, says Trampoline, an East Midlands arts organization that produces the festival. The symposium, January 15-16, will feature presentations, exhibitions and off-site projects throughout the city where the audience will have the opportunity to "explore, remodel and re-present space in its traditional and emergent forms." Included is the "Going Underground" project, which places five artists as "sleeper agents" in British cities. (CAN learned about this event through subscription to e-artnow, where you can post your own information related to contemporary visual arts worldwide.) [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Today artist Marty Pottenger and the Portland (Me.) Police Department will announce the department's first Poetry and Photography Calendar. The calendar, produced by police officers, detectives, local poets and photographers, tells the story of life and work within Portland's Police Department. It's a project of the Arts & Equity Initiative (AEI), of which Pottenger is founding director. AEI's mission is to improve municipal government and its relationship with the public through strategic arts projects with local artists and city employees."The project," says Pottenger in an AEI press release, "was conceived to address two challenges faced by the department -improve the relationship of the Police Department with the public and improve departmental morale through the creation of art." The calendar, available online, is dedicated to the memory of Portland Police Sergeant Johnsey, and includes two of his poems. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Art in the Public Interest (API), a North Carolina-based nonprofit organization, is seeking a new home for its primary project, the Community Arts Network (CAN). API requests proposals for the relocation and evolution of CAN, providing for its sustainable development and the secure archiving of its present content and databases. The API Board of Directors made the decision to issue the RFP after consideration of several key factors: the recent rapid growth of the field, the need to plan for staff succession and the need for long-term sustainability for CAN. “We hope to transfer all of CAN’s assets to an institution, agency, organization or coalition that is ready to contribute in a significant way to the emergent field,” explained Kathie de Nobriga, an API board member who is guiding the transition process. The API board and CAN staff have created a two-stage application process that is expected to take at least a year. The process, criteria and considerations may be found on the CAN Web site, as well as background material and questions to guide the applicant. This transition process is supported by a grant from the Nathan Cummings Foundation. Letters of Interest are due February 1, 2009. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Thousand Kites is inviting everyone to support the 9th annual "Calls from Home," a grassroots community radio program that reaches into U.S. prisons. "The program features phone calls from mothers and children, brothers and grandparents, sharing the intimate power of families speaking directly to their incarcerated loved ones," says the Kites team. "Poets and musicians read and sing across phone lines and prison walls." They suggest you can help "Calls from Home" reach a national network of listeners by downloading the program for your local community radio stations and asking them to broadcast it, or by playing it a community meeting, using the "Calls from Home" short program and facilitation guide. Started in 1998 by artists at Kentucky's Appalshop, the program was first a local response to the growing prison industry in their rural community. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Today a video has been added to a Community Arts Perspectives story posted on CAN in November, "Finding Our Wings: A Community Documentary Program" by Kirsten D'Andrea Hollander. The video is a trailer for a documentary being created by high-school girls in East Baltimore, Md., through a program sponsored by the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). Program Founder Hollander says the program's goal is "to help the girls discover the courage required to fulfill their artistic visions and cultivate their documentarian voices" and to graduate from high school and go on to college. The girls are learning to research their family trees and to shoot and edit footage about their lives. They will remain in the program until their graduations in 2011, 2012 and 2013. The documentary to emerge from this program will be shown in the Baltimore City Public School System. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

The Community Arts Forum (CAF) in Belfast, N.I., has issued a report on its work throughout 2005-7 exploring the role of arts and culture in both creating and resolving conflicts. Available on the Web, the "Communities, Culture and Conflict" report reviews "Arts: Towards an Inclusive Society," October 21-23, 2005, organized with Belfast City Council and Belfast Festival at Queen’s (CAN was a participant); and "Cultures and Conflicts," November 23-25, 2006, organized with the local Beat Initiative and two European networks, Les Rencontres and Banlieues d’Europe. These conferences attracted a total of 425 delegates from several dozen countries. The report also documents the seminar program that took place in community centers throughout the city, launching and connecting the two conferences. The events dovetailed with and enhanced a Peace 2-funded program, "Active Citizenship," which CAF ran 2006-8. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

An alliance of arts leaders and policymakers in San Francisco convened December 4, 2008, to launch the National Campaign To Hire Artists to Work in Schools. The campaign promotes the use of federal job-stimulus funds to employ artists to work in public schools and community centers. The concept has been presented to the Obama-Biden Transition Team and to Speaker Nancy Pelosi for consideration under the new Administration's Jobs and Growth stimulus package. The National Campaign's proposal, says the steering committee, draws on the historical precedents of Roosevelt's WPA jobs program and the national CETA Arts Program of the Ford-Carter years. In the coming weeks, the campaign will engage artists and arts advocates in all 50 states to build a broad-based constituency to promote its adoption by the new Administration and Congress. Visit “National Campaign to Hire Artists to Work in Schools” on Facebook. (Thanks, Arlene Goldbard.) [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

MSNBC.com has posted the text of a televised "Meet the Press" interview with President-elect Barack Obama in which he talks about his feelings about the arts. Obama says he wants "jazz musicians and classical musicians and poetry readings in the White House so that, once again, we appreciate this incredible tapestry that's America. [That] is going to be incredibly important, particularly because we're going through hard times. And, historically, what has always brought us through hard times is that national character, that sense of optimism, that willingness to look forward, that, that sense that better days are ahead. I think that our art and our culture, our science, you know, that's the essence of what makes America special, and, and we want to project that as much as possible in the White House." (Thanks, Cultural Policy Listserv.) [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

British artist Rajni Shah has a new book out using essays, films, images and conversations from her interactive performance/installation, "Dinner with America." "Dinner with America," says Shah, looks at "identity and community in the 21st century, exploring the place of consumerism, rights, ownership, voices, hopes, harvest and division through a dialogue around what the word 'America' means to us today." The live show invites its audience to enter the space through a maze, which becomes the U.S. flag and ends as the site of a shared communal feast. The piece's soundtrack features interviews with over 30 U.S. citizens including artists Alice Lovelace, Guillermo Gómez-Peña and Jeff Mather. Each book comes with a DVD, "Three Short Films about Dinner with America," by Lucy Cash. It may be purchased online. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Americans for the Arts has added 12 new bloggers to ARTSblog, which appears on CAN in Blognet, our blog feed from around the world. They are: Chad Bauman, Arena Stage, D.C.; actor Mark Baratelli, Orlando Fringe Festival, Fla.; Kate Crowley, Heard Museum, Phoenix; independent producer Amy Heibel; Shane D. Hudson, PlayMakers Repertory Company, Chapel Hill, N.C.; Christopher Jagers, SlideRoom.com, Dallas; Matt Lehrman, Alliance for Audience and Showup.com, Phoenix; Terence McFarland, Los Angeles Stage Alliance; Alan Núñez, Arts Horizons LeRoy Neiman Art Center, N.Y.C.; Scarlett Swerdlow, Illinois Arts Alliance; Diane Ruggiero, Asheville, N.C., Parks, Recreation & Cultural Arts; and Silagh White, ArtsLehigh, Lehigh University, Pa. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Today CAN brings you the final issue in the first volume of Community Arts Perspectives: A Publication of the Community Arts Convening and Research Project. Issue #7 offers essays on: Baltimore Clayworks’ Studio Satellites in inner-city neighborhoods by Founding Director Deborah Bedwell; three approaches to cultural organizing at Third World Majority, Raices and M.U.G.A.B.E.E. by Javiera Benavente of the Arts & Democracy Project at the Center for Civic Participation; critical questions about the relationship between environmental sustainability and the arts by Betsy Bostwick, public art manager for the Clackamas County Arts Alliance in Oregon; some riveting examples of personal transformation among women in a prison writing workshop by writers-educators Barbara Roswell and Pamela Sheff; and a report on 12 weeks with three N.Y.C. youth theaters -- Find Your Light, viBeStages and Ifetayo Youth Ensemble -- by Heather Stickeler, marketing and communications manager at the National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts. Volume Two of the publication will resume on CAN in summer 2009, co-published with Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

"Wild Caught Stories" is a year-long online conversation among six creative community builders, emanating from the Center for the Study of Art and Community. William Cleveland, Maryo Ewell, Puanani Burgess, Milenko Matanovic, Martin Tull and Alice Lovelace will share their differing perspectives on culture, community and current affairs, with the topic changing every six weeks. The question for the first cycle is: What Next? Now that the page has turned, what stories will we need to change our world? Readers may follow and comment on the discussion on the CSA&C Web site or on the front page of CAN, where "Wild Caught Stories" will appear in CAN's BlogNet, a collection of blogs from around the world relayed to the site electronically. William Cleveland is the director of the Center for the Study of Art & Community, based on Bainbridge Island, Wash., and a frequent contributor to CAN. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

"Body Burden," year two of Intermedia Arts' Art & Healing initiative to creatively explore the concept of health in the 21st Century, is underway in MInneapolis. Intermedia, in conjunction with numerous activist and social-service partners, is presenting gallery exhibitions, performances, brown-bag dialogues and youth workshops on the theme through January 9, 2009. Exhibitions include work by National Geographic photojournalist Peter Essick, examining the plight of workers and low-income communities worldwide exposed to work and home-related chemicals; and a group show investigating the concept of "body burden" from creative, philosophical, sociological and mythical perspectives. Workshops and roundtables will explore body image, environmental justice, cleaner products and production methods and learning and behavioral disability, in partnership with Environmental Justice Advocates of Minnesota, Women’s Environmental Institute, Health Legacy, Women's Cancer Action, the Learning Disability Association of Minnesota and Arc Greater Twin Cities. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

The Changing Lives Youth Theatre Company has been touring central Texas with an original, interactive play addressing domestic and dating violence. The company, 15-20 paid teenage actors, is a project of Theatre Action Project (TAP) and SafePlace, Austin's Domestic Violence Resource Center. In 2007-2008 3,200 middle- and high-schoolers saw the young company perform "Unmask the Unseen." Through educational theater and peer education, they help youth and adults reflect on the root causes of violence and learn to intervene in its ongoing cycles. Says TAP: "Youth, who are often more aware of their peers' problems than adults, can find themselves in a painfully powerless position, watching from the sidelines with no idea how to help. Youth and adults need more education regarding critical issues related to healthy relationships in a format that is interesting, engaging and accessible." [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

"Will our culture suffer if we don’t do more to teach the arts?" Fifteen leaders in arts and education carried on a one-week virtual conversation about that on ArtsJournal.com. They corresponded December 1-5, 2008, about whether this generation of Americans has developed the knowledge or skills to engage with our cultural heritage. Participants are: Sam Hope, National Office for Arts Accreditation; Jack Lew, EA; Laura Zakaras, RAND; James Cuno, Art Institute of Chicago; Richard Kessler, Executive Director, Center for Arts Education; Eric Booth, actor; Midori, violinist; Bau Graves, Old Town School of Folk Music; Kiff Gallagher, Music Nation Service Initiative; Bennett Reimer,Center for the Study of Education and the Musical Experience; Edward Pauly, Wallace Foundation; Moy Eng, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation; John Rockwell, critic; and Susan Sclafani, Chartwell Education Group. (Thanks, Arts Education Network Weekly News.) [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

“I helped make history taking my documentary around Ohio, New York and New Jersey. That is something I will always remember for the rest of my life,” says young doc producer Shon McGoy. McGoy was part of the Educational Video Center Youth Speakers Bureau team that spent much of the final three months leading up to the presidential election using their documentary on youth engagement in voting as part of a voter-registration drive for young and first-time voters. They traveled to college campuses, schools and community centers screening "Journeys Through the Red, White, and Blue," leading discussions and urging young audiences to get involved and vote. The campaign also distributed 600 DVDs nationwide, streamed video clips online, and produced broadcast news briefs airing youth views on the election. Their work was viewed by an estimated 20 million young viewers. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

"Creatives as Civic Leaders," Tom Tresser's presentation on how to put together a grassroots campaign for local office, is now available free on the Web. The presentation, with profiles of artists and creatives who hold elective office interspersed throughout the downloadable text, was Tresser's keynote at the November Alliance for Atists Communities conference. It also happens to be the opening piece for "Stand Up For Creativity - Organizer/Candidate Training," a full-day workshop by Tresser's organizaiton, Creativity Campions. The workshop is designed specifically for artists and cultural workers, who learn from experts in the mechanics of winning campaigns, work in small groups designing creative campaign strategies and hear volunteer "candidates" giving two-minute stump speeches. (You can also view the presentation without downloading it at Slideshare.) [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

The sponsors of "Convergence: the Intersection of Arts and Activism," a conference at Tufts University in April, are calling for conference proposals by January 28. Organized by students at Tufts College of Citizenship and Public Service and Massachusetts Campus Compact, the student-focused conference is set for the Tufts campus in Somerville, Mass., April 3-5, 2009. They hope to "engage and ignite student interest in arts and social activism." The weekend will feature speakers, panel discussions, performances, gallery shows and a community art project. Working artists, community organizations, faculty, administrators and students are encouraged to submit proposals for 90-minute workshops and panels on such topics as: creating a body of work focused on activism; working successfully with community organizations; the history, ethics, development or funding of arts and activism; courses being taught that combine arts, activism and community. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

danceABLE, Florida's upcoming mixed-ability dance festival, will feature Germany's DIN A 13 Dance Company and a film and workshops by Gerda König. DIN A 13, founded by König in 1995, will be in residence in Miami from December 27 through December 31, as part of the annual danceAble program presented by Tigertail Productions and Florida Dance Association, at WinterFest 2008 in Miami. König and company dancer Marc Stuhlmann will perform "Body Distance Between the Minds" on December 27. A documentary film, "Making the Difference: Dance and Taboo in Sâo Paulo," screening December 28, follows König's work in Brazil with dancers with and without disabilities and looks at the hidden taboos of Brazilian society through the eyes of the dancers. König's workshops, December 29-31, are geared to dancers with and without disabilities, novices and professionals, working together to explore movement in a mixed-ability environment. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

The Ecodrama Playwrights Festival and Symposium on Ecology and Performance calls for proposals for the symposium, May 21-31, 2009, in Eugene, Oregon. The events, sponsored by Earth Matters on Stage, a program of the Department of Theatre Arts of the University of Oregon, will be dedicated to nurturing "ecodrama": theatrical works that not only "take environmental issues as their topic, hoping to raise consciousness or press for change, but also work that explores the relation of a 'sense of place' to identity and community." January 1, 2009, is the deadline for proposals for workshops, round-tables, panels, working sessions, installations or participatory community gatherings that "explore, examine, challenge, articulate or nourish the possibilities of theatrical and performative responses to the environmental crisis in particular, and our ecological situatedness in general." [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

January 30 is the nominations deadline for the 2009 Coming Up Taller Awards from the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities (PCAH). The awards recognize and reward excellence in afterschool and out-of-school arts and humanities programs for underserved children and youth. Award recipients receive $10,000 each, an individualized plaque and an invitation to attend the annual Coming Up Taller Leadership Enhancement Conference. PCAH encourages nominations of programs initiated by museums, libraries, performing-arts organizations, universities, colleges, arts centers, community service organizations, schools, businesses, and eligible government entities. The nomination is online, as is a list of the 2008 winners. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham