CAN is happy to welcome Canada's Art Threat to Blognet, a network of Weblogs from all over our community, relayed electronically to the CAN site through rss feeds. Art Threat is a blog about politics and the arts. Based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, it covers political art of all genres, discusses policy as it pertains to culture, and showcases artists whose work inspires social change. The blog, edited by Rob Maguire, recently posted a long review of Arlene Goldbard's CAN essays on the prospects of public-service jobs for artists and a design for a new WPA. Other recent posts include those about a shoe-throwing shrine to Bush in Iraq; Flesh Mapping, an exhibition on prostitution and the sex trade; and the technology issue of Redwire Magazine. Look for their posts on the front page of CAN under "BlogNet." [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Patrice Walker Powell, former director of the Expansion Arts Program at the National Endowment for the Arts, has been named acting chair of the federal arts agency. Most recently, she has been serving as deputy chair for states, regions and local arts agencies at the NEA. She will lead the agency until President Obama announces a permanent replacement for Dana Gioia, who resigned earlier this month after six years on the job and goes to the Aspen Institute. As head of Exapnsion Arts (which concluded in 1995), Powell was responsible for oversight of NEA-funded programs in rural, inner-city, tribal and ethnically diverse communities. In this capacity, she managed several initiatives including the Community Foundation Initiative with 26 participating foundations, and the Rural Arts Initiative, which funded 20 state arts agencies in their efforts to help stabilize rural arts organizations. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Special events about health equity are taking place around performances of "The Woman Who Fell From the Sky" at Teatro Vision in San Jose, Calif. The play by Victor Hugo Rascón Banda, based on the true story of an indigenous Rarámuri (Tarahumara) woman who was institutionalized for 12 years in the U.S., is "a staggering look at insensitivity in the health profession and at a woman who spirit is sustained by her memories of home." Directed by Elisa Marina Alvarado, it runs through February 8. Special events include "Cultural Competency In the In-Patient Mental Health System," a discussion with the San Jose Health Dept., January 29; and "Health Equality Takes Center Stage," an event by The Health Trust, featuring a talk by Julie Gerberding, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Portland State University calls for proposals for the Inaugural National Conference on Sustainability and the Humanities, May 14-16, in Portland, Ore. Leerom Medovoi, director of the Portland Center for Public Humanities, says "Understanding Sustainability: Perspectives from the Humanities" aims to bring together humanities scholars working in fields such as ecocriticism, green cultural studies, environmental ethics, philosophy of science and environmental history; local designers, city planners and social-service providers; and artists and activists shaping ideas of green ethics and aesthetics. March 1 is the deadline for 250-word proposals for formal papers, panels, workshop presentations, media screenings, performances, interviews, etc. E-mail: Publichumanities@pdx.edu. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Is art inherently political, regardless of its intentions or motives? That's a question being asked in a series of online conversations about art and politics in Art21's blog, Flash Points. "Over the next six weeks we’ll explore the diverse ways that art and politics intersect, inform, overlap, and challenge each other. It is our hope that a discussion here on Flash Points will provide additional insight into the role of art in this particular moment in time," says Program Coordinator Mark Mayer. Art21 is a nonprofit organization founded in 1997 to make contemporary art more accessible to a broad audience through public television and the Internet. Other series questions: What role has political art played both in the history of art but also in the broader context of history? Can and will art participate in this new mandate of “change,” and if so, how? [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

The National Center for Creative Aging (NCCA) is offering organizations and governmental agencies the opportunity to "become a founder of this vibrant new community." A limited number of memberships are available, providing benefits that include tailored technical assistance with program content; partnership development; research and evaluation and business models; and educational, marketing and advocacy support. Also included are participation in webinars led by experts in the field of creative aging; listserv subscription; posting access to the Web site and newsletter; discounts on publications and events; and, for the first 100 members, a one-hour phone consultation with NCCA leadership designed specifically to address the needs of your organization. The introductory membership rate is $250; it may be purchased online with a credit card. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

The Wallace Foundation Web site has three new features on the cost and funding of high-quality out-of-school-time programs in the U.S. The foundation has posted "The Cost of Quality Out-of-School-Time Programs," a 90-page report Jean Baldwin Grossman, Christianne Lind, et al. It's a data-filled examination of the costs of 111 diverse, quality OST programs in six cities; the post includes a short bibliography on OST. Wallace and the report’s research team also created an online “OST cost calculator" with examples of program costs and options, quality strategies and other resources. The site also links to "Financial Strategies to Support Citywide Systems of Out-of-School Time Programs," a report by The National League of Cities’ Institute for Youth, Education and Families. The report, that details strategies for funding out-of-school-time services, including dedicated taxes, charitable trusts and tapping federal sources. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

"What’s this? The U.S. government paying attention to the arts and actually soliciting input from the field?" asks Susan Elliott on Musical America's Web site (1/21/09). Music critic Elliott is news editor for Musical America, the online descendant of a weekly arts newspaper founded in 1898. In "Obama Team Convenes Arts Leaders," she reports on the meeting called for January 15 by former NEA Chair Bill Ivey, who now heads Obama’s transition team for arts and culture. Attending were the CEOs of 20 mainstream groups such as Opera America, Dance USA, the League of American Orchestras and more. Ivey was surprised, says Elliott, that this group was not asking for money to grow the field, but to be part of the shaping of economic and cultural policy. One thing they have in common, she says, is "wanting to be closer to their communities." [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

“The artist’s paycheck is every bit as important as the steelworker’s paycheck or the autoworker’s paycheck," says Robert Lynch in the N.Y. Times (1/25/09). “Arts jobs are jobs,” says Opera America's Marc A. Scorca. Times writer Robin Pogrebin quotes Lynch, Scorca and other arts leaders who are supporting the inclusion of artists in the job-saving, job-creating American Recovery and Reinvestment bill that goes to Congress this week. Arts groups, meanwhile, are urging federal departments like Transportation or Labor to factor culture into their financing. "A transportation enhancement program, for example, could pay artists for related public artworks; through the Labor Department displaced arts professionals could receive new training to stay in the work force," explains Pogrebin. And she mentions possible candidates for NEA Chair, like Michael Dorf and Wynton Maralis. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Facing History & Ourselves offers two new downloadable books on teaching about cultural identity and difference. "Stories of Identity: Religion, Migration, and Belonging in a Changing World" uses storytelling to reveal experiences of immigrants through memoirs, journalistic accounts and interviews, reflecting, say the publishers, a global phenomenon where identity and citizenship are increasingly challenged by the blurring of national boundaries." "What Do We Do with a Difference?: France and the Debate over Headscarves in School" provides background to France’s national debate over the veil as a declaration of religious practice. Both have downloadable audio clips that work well in classrooms with differentiated reading levels. Additional features include timelines, glossaries and connection questions for classroom discussion. Go online to download PDFs, listen to audio clips or purchase copies. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

The "Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship" is a new peer-reviewed publication from the University of Alabama Center for Community-based Partnerships. Editor Cassandra E. Simon, UA associate professor of social work, calls it "a new kind of research journal," with both quantitative and qualitative scholarship, and hybrid content linked to a developing Web site. The first issue, Fall 2008, includes articles on establishing and evaluating equitable partnerships between universities and communities, and the importance of linking both with families; how to engage minority participants in healthcare research; the benefits of engaging youth in citizen science projects; and the overall value of youth-adult projects. The issue involves faculty, student and community-based writers and engages high-school students as partners and stakeholders. CAN writer Jan Cohen-Cruz is on the editorial board. Submission guidelines are online. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

"Anytown, USA: The Beast of Bladenboro" is a festival of documentary films produced by continuing students at Duke University, celebrating the revitalization of a small N.C. town. The docfest, January 24, is a product of "Anytown, USA: The Beast of Bladenboro I and II Beginning & Intermediate" (BOB 1& 2), a fall course by filmmakers Randolph Benson and Erika Simon at the Center for Documentary Studies. Students documented the Second Annual Beast of Bladenboro Festival, October 25, 2008, which aims to build community spirit, pride, and economic development in a small town that lost its mill in the 1960s and its school in the 1990s. The festival theme is based on the renowned legend of a mysterious vampire beast that terrorized the town in 1954. The fest comprises seven films, 4-10 minutes long, including Adair Hill's "The Big Hairy Beast of Bladenboro," told by the town's children. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Seattle, Washington's Office of Civic Partnerships, a team focusing on funding for arts programs in the city, has been honored for work in race and social justice. In December, the office received a 2008 Excellence in Management Award from Seattle Management Association for the team's work to advance the city's Race & Social Justice Initiative, a citywide effort to eliminate institutional attitudes, practices and policies that result in racial disproportionality. The award singled out smART ventures, a flexible, small awards program in which 77 of 119 projects funded (since the program’s launch in 2006) have been awarded to diverse and underserved populations. Open to groups and individuals without nonprofit status, smART ventures aims to encourage innovative ideas and respond to one-time opportunities. (Thanks, Animating Democracy.) [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

"Renewable Resources: Arts in Sustainable Communities" is the theme of the 2009 Americans for the Arts convention, set for Seattle, Wash., June 18-20. It features sessions on arts education, civic engagement, diverse cultures, economic development, leadership, private sector, public advocacy, public art and "greening" your organization. Featured speakers include the Wallace Foundation's Daniel Windham, Urban Bush Women's Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Chicago writer Luis J. Rodriguez, author Jon Hawkes ("The Fourth Pillar of Sustainability: Culture’s Essential Role in Public Planning"), Chairman of the House of Representatives Interior Appropriations Subcommittee Norm Dicks and public artist Hock E Aye VI Edgar Heap of Birds. Advance workshops, June 17, look at creative aging, the creative economy, assessment and more. Register online. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Today CAN brings you the second in a series of essays by Arlene Goldbard on "The New New Deal." This one actually crafts a new WPA for artists, including its budget. In December, CAN published the first of Goldbard's essays on the future of the arts: "The New New Deal 2009: Public Service Jobs for Artists?" In The New New Deal Part Two, "A New WPA for Artists: How and Why," Goldbard first catches us up on the very latest in arts initiatives being put before the Obama Administration in response to The American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan announced this month. Then she gets down to brass tacks, designing the new WPA. Its elements include Communities Creating Culture, supporting partnerships between communities and experienced cultural development practitioners; Enlivening Public Institutions, supporting teaching artists and others working in social institutions; an ArtistsCorps modeled on AmeriCorps, with significant training components; a National Story Archive aimed at cultural preservation; and Community Cultural Development Centers in neighborhoods nationwide. The whole program has a price-tag of $5 billion, a sum equal to two weeks’ worth of Iraq War costs. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Seeking out the traces of Washington's black artists and writers makes for a lively and especially relevant tour, says Holland Cotter in the N.Y. Times (1/16/09). As an African-American first family makes Washington its home, Cotter points out that artists, writers and performers of African descent had been flourishing in D.C. for 150 years before 1957, when it officially became the country’s first city where blacks were the majority. Cotter talks about the black arts histories of neighborhoods like Anacostia, Howard University, U street and more. His artist roster includes Alma Thomas, Frederick Douglass, Duke Ellington, Elizabeth Catlett, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Langston Hughes, Sweet Daddy Grace, Lois Mailou Jones and Marian Anderson, Marvin Gaye and the godfather of D.C. Go-go, Chuck Brown, plus two important exhibitions now on view. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

The U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee has released an $825-billion economic recovery package, including opportunities that could help art and artists. Americans for the Arts has analyzed the package in relation to their AftA's Nine Recommendations for Economic Recovery & the Arts, and it points to the following aspects of the package that could benefit the arts: $50 million more for the NEA; $1 billion for Community Development Block Grants; extended unemployment insurance coverage; $250 million for Economic Development Assistance; $31 billion to modernize public infrastructure; $200 million to put approximately 16,000 additional AmeriCorps members to work doing national service; $5 billion for working training and employment services. Go to AftA's Arts Action Center to write to your representatives in Congress. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Americans for the Arts today released its policy recommendations to President-elect Barack Obama and the U.S. Congress, as they begin consideration of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan. The nine recommendations suggest ways existing federal programs, as well as new proposals, can provide critical support to the country’s arts, as well as economic infrastructure: (1) include artists in proposal for unemployment & healthcare benefits for part-time employees, (2) boost arts projects in community development block grants, (3) provide economic recovery support to federal cultural agencies, (4) include cultural planning through economic development administration, (5) increase cultural facilities support in rural development program, (6) link transportation enhancements with state arts agencies, (7) create the Artist Corps, (8) make human capital investments in arts job training, and (9) appoint a senior-level administration official with arts portfolio. Download it for details. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Folk singer and activist Pete Seeger will take part in a February 1 panel discussion on activism through the arts at the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, Mich. The panel, focusing on the practice of profiling from the McCarthy era to the present, is presented in conjunction with the AANM's current exhibition, "A Yemeni Community: Photographs from the 1970s" by Milton Rogovin. Joining Seeger will be activist/educator/poet Gloria House of the University of Michigan, Dearborn; Mark Rogovin, the photographer's son and co-founder of the Peace Museum; moderator Francis Shor, professor of history at Wayne State University; and Ismael Ahmed, director of the Michigan Department of Human Services, former executive director of Arab Community Center for Economic & Social Services (ACCESS), founder of AANM's Concert of Colors and participant in CAN's Bridge Conversations. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts has awarded 15 grants totaling $215,000 for exemplary community school/public school arts-education partnerships. Among the winners: The Arts Council of Long Beach, California's Eye on Design program, where third-grade students plan, produce and present a site-specific public artwork; City Lore's Telling Stories program with P.S. 11 in Queens, N.Y., where third-graders learn storytelling and dance-theater inspired by their investigations of local Chinese and Indian communities; the New Orleans Ballet Association/Mary Bethune Elementary partnership in Orleans Parish, offering dance as "a powerul modifier towards self-empowermant and social change"; and a partnership among Street Level Youth Media in Chicago, Ill., with Higgins Community Academy, Mark Sheridan Math and Science Academy and Chicago Children’s Museum helping seventh- and eighth-graders create group media-art work for the museum's permanent exhibit, “My Community Matters.” [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

The National Endowment for the Arts has announced the recipients of the first Creativity and Aging in America grants. Fourteen projects were funded out of 55 applicants, for a total of $330,000. The program supports projects that involve older Americans as creators through literature and music, and that promote lifelong learning in the arts. Funded projects include Gemini Series' intergenerational life-writing program in San Antonio, Tex.; the Elder Play Project at the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Conn.; Settlement Music School of Philadelphia's Program for Seniors in Pa.; the Stagebridge Playwriting Project in Oakland, Calif.; , an older-writers-in-residence project at Woodland Pattern in Milwaukee, Wisc.; the Big Band Youth Outreach Project by the Cleveland TOPS Swingband in Westlake, Ohio; and the Songwriting Works competition by Arts Northwest on the Olympic Peninsula. (Thanks, National Center for Creative Aging.) [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Today CAN brings you a new story from Tom Borrup, "The Creative Economy: Views from Abroad." It's a report from the recent Creative Clusters international conference in Glasgow, and thoughts on what community-based art can bring to the table. "Ingredients I believe are central to the Creative Economy equation," says Borrup, "include the role of artists, respect for indigenous/multiple cultures and equity (both economic and cultural). Unfortunately, they are not always present in the mix." He compares frameworks for creative industries created in the European Union and the U.S., reviews what are thought to be core fields and best practices, and analyzes the "mixed bag of models" presented at the conference by practitioners from Croatia, England, Scotland, Denmark, New Zealand, Jamaica, Singapore, Mauritius and Sweden. "The Creative Economy at its best, I found," says Borrup, "is about communities taking responsibility for their condition and creating meaningful work and a viable economy with the most powerful resources at their disposal." [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Barack Obama will be wasting a glorious opportunity if he fails to give attention to the potency of the arts in our national life, says theater critic Jeremy McCarter in Newsweek (1/10/09). In a major article called "Will Work for Food," McCarter explains how the arts prepared the way for Obama. He delves deep into the history and meaning of FDR's WPA arts programs and their longterm effects on the culture. He reviews the current state of the NEA, the necessity for Obama to be its champion, and the dangers of centering power in the hands of a "secretary of art." McCarter finally centers on Obama's greatest strength -- his understanding of the "Beloved Community" coming together to write "the next great chapter in America's story." He talks of artists and education and healthcare, and of Walt Whitman and Sam Cooke. Don't miss it. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

The Center for Land Use Interpretation (CLUI) spent 2008 as the first artist-in-residence at the University of Houston’s Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center. The CLUI is a California research organization involved in exploring, examining and understanding land and landscape issues. The CLUI has worked with U. Houston students in the School of Art, College of Architecture and the Creative Writing Program and established a field station on the banks of Buffalo Bayou. "Texas Oil: Landscape of an Industry" is the CLUI's residency-culminating exhibition at the University Art Museum's Blaffer Gallery, January 17-March 29, 2009, showing how the extraction and refining of oil has sculpted the state’s terrain. It's accompanied by a publication and a series of events including Buffalo Bayou boat tours, field-station site visits, screenings and public talks. The Buffalo Bayou field station will remain as a permanent research platform. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Dell'Arte International, the ensemble theater company in tiny Blue Lake, Calif., is sponsoring an Inaugural Ball "to celebrate the end of the last eight years and the beginning of a new American era." Revelers are encouraged to "bring the last of your cash" on January 20, and "come dressed as your favorite political character. You're also reminded to bring something warm for Dell’Arte’s “Brother, can you spare a dime?” warm-clothing drive, which will benefit Food for People and Humboldt Domestic Violence Services. For Citizens, there's a flat Inaugural Ball entry fee of $8 and you’ll receive free peanuts. But, says Dell'Arte, feel free to bribe them into upping your social status to Committee Chair for $20 (includes a "lucky plastic charm") or Cabinet Member for $40 (includes one drink ticket and "get out of jail free" card). [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Cornerstone Theater Company's sixth Institute Summer Residency takes place in Eureka, Calif., July 9-August 9, 2009. Applications are due March 13. The Institute offers an intense, hands-on collaborative experience creating theater and exploring strategies for community engagement while living with and within a small, diverse community. Students learn both through classroom training and creation of a community-specific production through a community collaboration process. Eureka is located in Humboldt County along California’s northern coastline. Cornerstone is partnering with Sanctuary Stage for this collaboration. This year Cornerstone offers one Altvater Fellowship that will focus on all aspects of the Summer Residency with a production and/or producing focus. The fellowship offers a stipend of $2,000, travel and lodging not included; applications due February 20. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Today the CAN Bookstore added "Arts for Change: Teaching Outside the Frame," an upcoming release from New Village Press by artist Beverly Naidus. Naidus presents strategies and theory for teaching socially engaged art, along with an historical and contemporary overview of the field. The book features interviews with more than 30 activist artists teaching in colleges and universities in the U.S., Canada and U.K. "The issues these teaching artists address are provocative and diverse," says New Village's Lynne Elizabeth. "Some came to this work through personal healing from injustice and trauma or by witnessing oppressions that became intolerable. Many have taught for decades, deeply influenced by social movements of the 1960s and 1970s, yet because the work is controversial, tenured positions are rare." The book, due out in February, is available by advance order. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

The Vermont Arts Council will use this year's Big Read selection, Ray Bradbury's novel, "Fahrenheit 451," as a platform for discussing artists and social change. In addition to encouraging Vermonters to read the book, the Arts Council will sponsor exchanges on how artists use their work as social commentary, to provoke public awareness and, in some cases, effect social change. The Big Read kickoff, January 24, 2009, at Essex High School Auditorium in Essex Junction, will feature a keynote speech by journalist Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now!, on themes from her latest book, "Standing Up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times." The kick-off event will also include a video interview with Ray Bradbury (also online) and a preview of a new documentary by filmmaker Deb Ellis featuring interviews with Vermont artists whose work targets social issues. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Performance artists StaceyAnn Chin and Marga Gomez will part of "Race, Sex & Identity: A Conversation in the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Community" in Miami, Fla. Chin, a New York–based Jamaican lesbian spoken-word poet, and comic Gomez will join the panel discussion, January 19, 2009, at Miami Light, moderated by South Florida African-American lesbian activist and performer Bishop S.F. Makalani-MaHee. The panel is part of Tigertail Productions' weeklong SpeakOut project for GLBT youth, which includes chin's workshops at local schools, a Youth Open Mic & Poetry Slam at the Miami Beach Regional Library and a reading and performance by Chin at Books & Books. SpeakOut grows out of Tigertail's WordSpeak project, which sponsors a team of Miami teens who attend the national Brave New Voices spoken-word youth slam and festival in the summer. See/hear Chin perform online. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Find out what arts grantmakers are thinking and doing in response to the current economic climate at "Economic Turmoil and Change," a new Web project by Grantmakers in the Arts. The Web site collects and synthesizes ideas, actions and responses related to some timely questions: What are foundations and other funders doing? How is funding being affected now, and how is it apt to be affected in the next 12-24 months? Since many believe that economic turmoil and a change in federal leadership offers the opportunity for substantive change, what role can arts and culture play in that change? Can we play a role in creating a stronger civil society and more sustainable communities? What are the possibilities for change within the arts and culture sector itself? How can arts funders help? The site welcomes contributions; send them to Tommer Peterson, GIA deputy director for programs: tommer@giarts.org. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Dance/MetroDC will convene Inaugural Movements, a series of site-specific improvisations and dances during Inauguration Weekend, January 17-19, 2009, in Washington D.C. "All kinds of movers and shakers, all levels of experience welcome," said Peter DiMuro, Dance/MetroDC's director. Inaugural Movements will take place all over the capital from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday, Sunday and Monday. The organization will be selling "Barack Dance Yes We Can" buttons all weekend to support Dance Is the Answer, a citywide spring focus on dance coordinated by Dance/MetroDC, April 24-May 3. DanceMetroDC is a nonprofit branch office of Dance/USA, the national service organization for professional dance, established to provides resources, promotion, and collaborative opportunities for the dance community in the metropolitan DC area. Inaugural Movements info: info@dancemetrodc.org [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

We made an error with yesterday's APInews announcement of the next Split Rock Poetry Festival in Washington D.C.. The next festival takes place March 10-13, 2010, not 2009. Please forgive the mistake and change your calendars. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Today CAN brings you the text of Maryo Gard Ewell's recent presentation to the Wisconsin Regional Writers Association on its 60th anniversary. Gard and two performers presented a lecture as a readers-theater piece, titled "Looking Back, Looking Ahead," during the WRWA conference in Wausau, October 27, 2008. The organization was founded by Ewell's father, community arts pioneer Robert E. Gard, and in its first year membership surpassed 1,000, with regional chapters in eight counties. Ewell uses quotes from Gard's writings to point out why she believes ordinary people writing about their own lives is "important to the future of the United States as we know it, and as it can be. ... Democracy is messy. Yet you writers may help us understand our diversity, our fundamental resilience, the messiness that goes along with democracy, and also the exhilaration that only democracy can bring. Our goal is not a TV World: Our goal is a real world, a good world, of flawed human beings trying to figure out how to survive together. Who better to help ensure this understanding than you?" [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Suicide will be the topic of discussions after performances of Smashing Times Theatre Company's "Testimonials," set for venues across Northern Ireland in February 2009. The piece, very popular with young people, consists of three dramatic monologues adapted from the experiences of those who have lost loved ones to suicide or been through a suicidal crisis and survived. Each performance is followed by a post-show discussion with a counselor and invited guest speakers from the Samaritans and other organizations. The project is aimed at people working and/or living within the districts of the Northern Board area, including Coleraine, Ballymoney, Ballymena, Moyle, Antrim, Magherafelt, Cookstown, Newtownabbey, Carrickfergus and Larne. "Testimonies" is part of the Acting for the Future project, which uses participative drama workshops and a professional theater performance to promote positive mental health and suicide prevention. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Muslims and Jews will gather for "deep dialogue" following the January 10, 2009, performance of "Leaps of Faith," a theater piece created by artists of different faiths in Los Angeles, Calif. "In a world where religious difference often becomes divisive and destructive," says artist Nabuko Miyamoto of Great Leap, the organization that developed the piece,"we have been exploring how people of multidimensional cultures and religious beliefs can live side by side. Now, with the escalating violence in Gaza, our work is taking on even more importance." Cast members are Jewish, Palestinian, Buddhist, Mormon and more. Saturday's post-performance discussion at the National Center for the Preservation of Democracy in downtown Los Angeles will be led by members of New Ground, a program of the Progressive Jewish Alliance and the Muslim Public Affairs Council. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Today CAN has added to its CANUniversity section the syllabus for "Cultural Ecosystem: The Arts in Community," a Goucher College course designed by Maryo Ewell and Randall Vega. Required for the Baltimore institution's Master of Arts in Arts Administration, it explores what cultural and economic contributions can be made to a region, large or small, by strengthening the arts sector, and how embracing a policy of cultural democracy transforms a community and affects the choices of the arts administrator. Students identify their community's demographics, cultural groups and political and social institutions and create a cultural planning proposal. They become conversant with the basic vocabulary of Cultural Democracy, cultural planning, economic development and cultural tourism and create Web pages, power-point presentations and papers. Texts include writing by Tom Borrup, Craig Dreeszen and Maryo Ewell. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Are art teaching and learning sustainable in the postcolonial African environment? That's the topic of the Kumasi Symposium in Ghana, July 31-August 14, 2009. The symposium is subtitled "Tapping Local Resources for Sustainable Education Through Art." The organizers are calling for proposals for plenary sessions, workshops, exhibitions and performances addressing symposium strands like Art Education Practice, Community Arts Practice, Art History and more. The proposal must be designed to fit into in a 6x6-ft. "curio kiosk" for trading intellectual and cultural capital. The "art-based social experiment" is sponsored by the Department of General Arts & Art Education at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, in collaboration with the African Community of Arts Educators. Proposals are due by January 17. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Today CAN brings you a story for election season, "Do It Yourself: Producing Performance Art on Election Day" by Pegi Taylor. Milwaukee performance artists Pegi Taylor and John Loscuito wanted to make their fellow citizens more aware of the voting experience and the places where they vote. My Vote Performs (MVP), on November 4, was the first time in U.S. history that there was nonpartisan performance art at polling places on an Election Day. Taylor describes the basic principles and elaborate process of getting permission to pair artists with polling sites like Rufus King High School, the Pulaski Indoor Swimming Pool, Milwaukee's Central Library, Craig Montessori School, the Rose Senior Center, the Wisconsin Humane Society, and more. The story is linked with the MVP Web site, which has its own soundtrack. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham