Today CAN is happy to bring you a new essay by cultural critic Arlene Goldbard, "The Long, Hot Summer of Service: Community Artists on The Job." Goldbard brings news about national service initiatives that are making headlines right now, generating new hopes for community arts jobs. She details the opportunities embedded in President Obama's United We Serve campaign, and the groundbreaking text that's included in the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act of 2009 that lists socially engaged artwork as one of the activities eligible for the pilot Social Innovation Fund. This article discusses current developments with respect to volunteer programs, service corps programs and other job training and employment initiatives now being piloted around the country. A few examples are highlighted in each section. Most important: Goldbard makes a strong case for seizing this summer's opportunity for making community arts visible, and she offers suggestions for doing that. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Foreign Policy in Focus has an online review with Iranian-born filmmaker Maryam Habibian about her documentary, "The Mist," delving into the lives of Iran's young artists, poets and playwrights. "She is committed to showing her audience that a society cannot be defined solely by its political system," says interviewer Noor Iqbal (7/20/09), "and that when it comes to Iran, we are not facing a clash of civilizations. "It is quite a different cross section of the society from what foreign filmmakers might show," says Habibian. "It's a movie about real people, ordinary people. I guess from the point of view of the Western media, ordinary people aren't considered particularly newsworthy. But maybe now current events in Iran will have changed that somewhat. ... Young artists are really trying to stay out of politics. ... They write symbolically." [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

In August, Rescue Public Murals, a national initiative, will begin work to restore "Homage to Seurat: La Grande Jatte in Harlem," painted in 1986 by the late Eva Cockcroft. Located in West Harlem, New York City, the mural is on the side of an apartment building that faces Hope Stevens Garden, an active community garden that is helping coordinate the restoration. This is the only remaining New York City mural by the late Eva Crockcroft, an artist, art historian and author instrumental in the national community-murals movement. Cockcroft founded Artmakers Inc., a community murals organization now led by artists Janet Braun-Reinitz and Jane Weissman. Weissman, as director of GreenThumb at the time, commissioned the mural in 1986 as an Artists in the Gardens project; Braun-Reinitz, a colleague of Cockcroft, is the lead artist in the restoration. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

This summer, artist Justin Shull has been touring the U.S. in his Porta Hedge, a mobile artificial hedge with an exterior of recycled artificial Christmas trees. The interior conceals a remote observation system and satellite Internet uplink, mobile solar electric power, observation/escape hatch, bird camera, swings, chalkboards and Porta-Potti. Smudge Studio describes it as a "critical vehicle" that "seems to question icons of environmentalism. The design mobilizes, after all, a number elements that are popularly associated with 'sustainability' or 'green design.' But it does so in ways that don't quite add up." See a cross-country tour map and blog on the project Web site. There's a second Porta Hedge "Backyard Naturalist Study" installed at the U.S. Botanic Garden in Washington, D.C., part "Flora: Growing Inspirations." See CANtv for video. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Bostonians will visit Mobius Artists Space, August 13-14, 2009, to witness the culminating performances of a high-powered workshop for urban teens, part of the new URBANO Project. For six weeks, 13 high-school students from diverse neighborhoods across Boston will have have come to Mobius Artists Space for "INSIDE/OUT," URBANO's inaugural summer art and performance workshop for urban teens. They are working with Boston performance artists Mari Novotny-Jones and Alexia Mellor and L.A.-based artist GRONK on performance art, visual art and intense discussion, exploring their own identities and their neighborhoods and "what it means to be an artist in the city of Boston." URBANO Project staff will be present to answer questions about upcoming free arts and performance opportunities for Boston teens in the Urban Studio, the Teen Curatorial Program and more workshop with professional artists. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

First Lady Michelle Obama spoke recently at the White House on an oft-stated theme: Kids need more than just a good education, they need exposure to the arts — and early. Mrs. Obama addressed guests including executives from Google, Target and Bravo TV network, says Jocelyn Noveck in the San Francisco Chronicle (7/25/09). "An educational foundation is only part of the equation," she said. "In order for creativity to flourish and imagination to take hold, we also need to expose our children to the arts from a very young age." She's been inviting local kids to the White House. "These kids who are living just inches away from power and prestige and fortune and fame, we want those kids to know that they belong here, too ... and in the museums, and in libraries, and laboratories all over this country." (Thanks, Arts Education Listserv.) [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

"There is no reason for politicians to meddle in artistic undertakings," said L.A. Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, aiming to resolve the L.A. Opera's Wagner controversy. Yaroslavsky was responding to a move by Councilman Mike Antonovich to shift the focus of the citywide 2010 Ring Festival away from Wagner because of his anti-Semitic views. According to David Ng in the L.A. Times (7/21/09), it was Yaroslavsky's substitute motion in support of the Opera and the Ring Festival that turned the chamber's vote in the Opera's favor. In his motion, Yaroslavsky wrote that "it’s clear that the festival is not envisioned as simply a celebration of Wagner’s life; but rather, as an examination of his influence on Western culture and society -- for better and for worse. ... We should keep our sticky fingers out of this." [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

The online CAN Bookstore, facilitated through a relationship with Amazon.com, has closed. Until recently, CAN had listings for nearly 400 books of interest to the field through an affiliate relationship with the Amazon Web site. That made it possible for CAN to set up a community arts-oriented storefront, with Amazon doing the fulfillment of any sales it generated. CAN received four percent of the sales. Amazon is now in an adversarial relationship with the State of North Carolina (CAN's home state) and at the end of June 2009 Amazon canceled affiliate relationships with all residents of the state in an effort to force favorable legislation. The CAN Bookstore was collateral damage. CAN is looking for alternatives that will make it possible to recreate the bookstore in a different form. Until then, our apologies. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

"El Otro Lado" is an unusual collaborative public art project by Chrissie Orr about migration, human rights, boundaries and a sense of home, underway in Santa Fe, N.M. Critic Lucy Lippard describes it as "a model of socially engaged art, unique in Santa Fe. It deals with pressing issues and does so in a way that is accessible and non-invasive, provoking those whose lives are different to empathize and, hopefully, act.” Supported by the Academy for the Love of Learning, "El Otro Lado" presents public images of people who live, work and go to school in Santa Fe, with audio stories accessible by cell phone. The Web site offers documentation of 11 citywide public installations, individual participants, Tierra Encantada Workshops, Summer 2008 Intensive, City of Santa Fe Bus Panels, Women and Children’s Groups, radio interviews and blog. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

"Theatre, Facilitation, and Nation Formation In The Balkans and Middle East" is a new book by theater scholar and activist artist Sonja Arsham Kuftinec. Published by Palgrave MacMillan, it examines the ways theater can intervene in violent inter-ethnic conflicts. It looks at case studies in the Balkans and the Middle East, showing "how theatrical facilitations model ways that ethnic oppositions can move towards ethical relationships." Kuftinec is associate professor of theater at the University of Minnesota. She also works as a director and dramaturg developing collaborative theater projects with youth in the Balkans and Middle East and as a facilitator with Seeds of Peace. Kuftinec says she's interested in how people "come to imagine themselves as part of a nation in times of contested state sovereignty, and the role participatory theatre might play in this imagining." [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

The University of Massachusetts Fine Arts Center is planning to suspend the activities of New WORLD Theater (NWT), citing major budget challenges. NWT Director Andrea Assaf writes in the Public Humanist column of the Valley Advocate (July 14, 2009) that the Fine Arts Center withdraws its support and fiscal sponsorship effective September 30, 2009. NWT, now 30 years old, was founded by artist Roberta Uno (now at the Ford Foundation) to produce and present theatrical works by artists of color. NWT annually produces the Project 2050 festival/symposium (canceled this summer by the Center). NWT, now looking for a new home, was recently awarded several hundred thousand dollars in grants from foundations, but programs that this money is intended to support cannot go forward without the University's approval. Fans have launched a Save New WORLD Theater page on Facebook. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Artists Jaime Ochoa, Anthony Ortega and others are restoring a historic 120-foot mural at Ave. 61 & Figueroa in Highland Park, Calif., defaced by taggers. Steve Lopez writes in the L.A. Times (7/15/09) that local artists had created tribute to their history, going back to the Aztecs, in memory of Daniel Robles, a victim of gang violence in 1995. It had been sacred ground, respected and untouched by taggers for years. The markings appeared to be the work of "kids who either didn't understand their own history or didn't care." Lopez witnessed the restoration with writer Luis Rodriguez, who is circulating the Comprehensive Neighborhood Arts Project proposal, calling for artists to band together, and for politicians and community leaders to use new funding sources, like tourism and billboard taxes, to support citywide art, music and cultural projects. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich has called for Los Angeles Opera to “delete the focus on Wagner" from its 2010 four-opera “Ring” cycle. Critic Mark Swed in the L.A. Times (7/15/09) says Antonovich "asks this on the grounds that Wagner was a racist and anti-Semite whose music Hitler enjoyed and employed to his own ends." Swed goes on to say, "Oy vey! I hardly know where to begin," listing all the aspects of the economic and public-relations disasters that would descend upon L.A., which has been counting on a citywide, 50-partner celebration of the " Ring" for ten years. He discusses the issues in great detail and finishes: "So let the Wagner Festival go forth and let the conversation be vigorous." This "Ring" production, by the way, is extremely experimental. See amazing pix at http://www.laoperaring.com/ and video on CANtv. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Audiences will gather on Labor Day aboard the SS Red Oak Victory in Richmond, Calif., for a production of "Rivets," a musical based on Rosie the Riveter and Richmond's historic Kaiser Shipyards. The Galatean Players Ensemble Theatre production was written by Kathy G. McCarty and Mitchell Covington. “The show’s characters are fictional,” McCarty explains, “but the story is based on a decade of historical research. Henry J. Kaiser's Shipyards produced the ships that helped America win WW2, and changed our country forever. The Richmond Shipyard employed over 40% of the area’s 250,000 shipyard workers. With most of the country’s men at war, women entered the work force for the first time in history." The Red Oak Victory, the last surviving Victory ship built Richmond Shipyard, is being restored as a museum. See a "Rivets" video on CANtv. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Rapid growth of the arts in healthcare has begun to impact policy in the U.K. and English arts leader Mike White has written a new book about it: "Arts Development in Community Health: A Social Tonic" (Abingdon, Oxon., U.K.: Radcliffe Publishing, 2009). White is director of arts in health at the Centre for Medical Humanities at Durham University. The "pioneering practice of arts in community health… began in the U.K. in the late 1980s through sporadic pilot projects placing local arts development in health promotion and primary care contexts," writes White. Now it's impacting arts funding policy, multisector partnerships for health-service delivery, and local-authority cultural strategies. The book considers how and why arts in community health came about, the characteristics of its practice and the challenges it poses for evaluation. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

"On the Wall Four Decades of Community Murals in New York City" is a new book from The University Press of Mississippi. The book (288 pp., 150 pix) by Janet Braun-Reinitz and Jane Weissman (foreword by Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan; introduction by Timothy W. Drescher), is the result of six years of research and hundreds of interviews, says the publisher. It "brings to light murals that were hitherto 'lost' to history or unknown outside their immediate surroundings. Documenting six chronological periods, the book highlights significant murals and introduces the artists and sponsors that created them. In relating the many fascinating stories behind the murals, the authors describe the interactions between artists and residents--including the controversies that have led to the destruction of several notable murals." The project Web site has photos, stories and endorsements from Howard Zinn and Lucy Lippard. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

A new initiative in the United Arab Emirates aims to embed land/ecological art installations across the region, continuously distributing clean energy into the electrical grid. The intent of the Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI) is that each land art sculpture will have the potential to provide power to up to 50,000 homes in the UAE. Directed by artist Elizabeth Monoian and architect Robert Ferry and sponsored by the Society for Cultural Exchange, a nonprofit in Pittsburgh, Pa., LAGI is in a research phase, seeking further sponsorship. At the conclusion of 2010, the initiative plans to have pragmatic and comprehensive site/art proposals that will arise from an open competition to which artists, scientists, engineers and architects will be encouraged to submit ideas. See the blog section of the site (bLAGI) for related arts examples. There is a video about the project on the Web site of the Tavis Smiley Show: http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/voices/656.html. (Thanks, Land Arts listserv.) [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Nau, the Portland-based sustainable apparel company, has launched an annual Grant for Change program recognizing an individual or group working to create positive community change. Through August 17, 2009, individuals can submit their stories or nominate others at the Nau Web site. The Grant for Change leadership panel will select one final grantee who will be awarded $10,000 to help further his or her cause. Nau will also support the grantee’s efforts for one year by hosting content and providing progress to readers on its site. Nominations so far are viewable online. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Arts funding is on the decline, as is the demand for artists' work and the availability of arts adjunct teaching positions, says Grantmakers in the Arts (GIA). "Vital Signs: Arts Funding in the Current Economy," the summer issue of the GIA Reader includes a Foundation Center report that anticipates a drop in 2009 foundation arts giving by a percentage in the high single digits or low double digits compared to 2008 giving (a year in which arts giving declined by 1.1 percent while overall foundation giving rose by 2.8 percent). Public funding for the arts shows an overall decline from $4.51 per capita in 2008 to $4.27 per capita in 2009. A Seattle "snapshot" shows that artists there are witnessing decreasing demand for their work, the closure of exhibit and performance venues, and the loss of such “day jobs” as adjunct teaching positions. The GIA Reader is now downloadable online. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

The new issue of CultureWork (7/09) has an interesting article about groups that bring people together to write about their ideas and experiences and share them with others. "Writing Together: The Art of Community Writing Organizations" by Jennifer Furl discusses the work of organizations like Write Around Portland, InkTank in Cincinnati, the N.Y. Writers Coalition in New York City and the Neighborhood Writing Alliance in Chicago. "Most of these groups offer writing workshops to adults living on low incomes who may not otherwise have access to these kinds of opportunities," writes Furl, a writer and editor living in Portland. She examines the transformative effect of of these workshops by looking at their main components: engaging in the act of writing, sharing writing with an audience of peers, and receiving feedback from others in the group. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

“Certain kinds of trauma visited on peoples are so deep, so cruel, that ... only writers can translate such trauma and turn sorrow into meaning, sharpening the moral imagination." That's writer Toni Morrison, speaking in an interview with Fran Liebowitz at the June 3, 2009, New York launch of National Coalition Against Cenorship's Free Speech Leadership Council. Morrison, a much honored fiction writer, is editor of the newly published "Burn this Book," a collection of essays on censorship. Her own books have been challenged in dozens of U.S. schools and banned from classrooms and libraries for being obscene and “harmful to minors.” Says Morrison: "A writer’s life and work are not a gift to mankind. They are its necessity.” See the story on the NCAC, with links to much more on Morrison and the Council. See the Morrison interview on CANtv. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Artists in Amsterdam are taking a radical approach to urban planning and community development and are inviting the public to a international August symposium on the topic. "Out of the Blue," August 3-9, 2009, is organized by The Blue House (Het Blauwe Huis), focusing on three strands in "understanding experimental communities": Instant Urbanism, Hospitality and Accelerated History. The Blue House is a four-year durational project in IJburg, a new urban district on a cluster of man-made islands east of Amsterdam. In 2005, artist Jeanne van Heeswijk arranged for a large villa in Housing Block 35 to be taken off the private market and be redesignated as a space for community research, artistic production and cultural activities. Out of The Blue will take place in the future 'Activity Centre' on the island presently under construction, to include a 50-room motel and an amphitheater. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

A prize of $7,500 will be awarded to a winning project to provide a "cool, relevant and functional" alternative to diminishing arts coverage in the traditional news media. The USC Annenberg School for Communication and the National Arts Journalism Program (NAJP) are sponsoring the search, to culminate at the first-of-its kind live and virtual gathering of journalists, innovators and media entrepreneurs for an all-day National Summit on Arts Journalism, October 2, 2009, in Los Angeles. "Five inspired and promising arts journalism models will be showcased at the Summit in front of a live studio audience and a national web audience of concerned journalists, cultural leaders, artists and media entrepreneurs," says USC. Each of the five receives $2,000. NAJP members and NEA Arts Journalism Institutes alumni will vote on the projects with the most potential. Prizes are: $7,500, $5,000 and $2,500. Winners will be announced in October. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Americans consuming and participating in the arts are getting older, and their numbers are declining, according to new research released June 15, 2009, by the National Endowment for the Arts. "Arts Participation 2008: Highlights from a National Survey" features top findings from the 2008 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts. Since 2002, attendance is down at opera (34%), ballet (25%), classical music (19%), jazz (27%), nonmusical plays (23%), arts-and-crafts fairs/visual arts festivals (26%), parks and historic buildings (21%) and museums/galleries (14%). Fewer adults are creating and performing art. For example, the percentage of adults is down in dance performance (six points) and weaving and sewing (12 points). Only the share of adults doing photography has increased. The arts audience is aging, and educated Americans are participating less than before. See a CBS interview with Sunil Iyengar, NEA director of research and analysis, at: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5088294n&tag=contentMain;contentBody [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

The National Endowment for the Arts has announced $29,775,000 in grants to 631 nonprofit arts groups under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Most grants were in the amounts of $25,000 or $50,000, with a few grants of $250,000 going to municipal and county entities. Among the grantees of interest to CAN users were Americans for the Arts, Appalshop, Children's Theater Company, City Lore, Cloud Foundation, Cornerstone Theater Company, COSACOSA, Dell'Arte, DreamYard, East Bay Center for the Performing Arts, Fund for Folk Culture, In the Heart of the Beast Theatre, Junebug Productions, the National Performance Network, Socrates Sculpture Park, Touchstone and Urban Gateways. Nearly $20 million in grants were made in April to 63 state and regional arts agencies. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Teatro Jornaleros Sin Fronteras – Day Laborer Theater Without Borders – is a Spanish-language theater troupe of day laborers who perform for their fellow workers at job sites around Los Angeles. Jennifer Bleyer in The Christian Science Monitor (6/29/09) quotes Juan José Mangandi, a Salvadoran laborer who serves as the troupe's director: "In our culture, some guys have never seen a play.They think that only high-life people, like in Hollywood, can make theater. But when they see us, they say, 'He's like me.' " The troupe was formed last fall as a project of Cornerstone Theater Company. Participants in Teatro Jornaleros Sin Fronteras were recruited at day labor job sites, says Bleyer, and from the approximately 50 people who auditioned, the troupe was established with about a dozen members who hail from Cuba, Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador. See video in CANtv. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Events parallel to the Second Athens Biennale are taking place in vacant buildings, parking lots and derelict plots of land in the Kerameikos and Metaxourgeio district of downtown Athens. ReMap 2, through October 4, 2009, features more than 40 cultural events and art happenings, including exhibitions, open-air and site-specific installations by Greek and international galleries, independent curators, art groups, architects and Kerameikos and Metaxourgeio (KM) residents. Projects includes the Open Air Screening Room and the Guerilla Playground explore synergies between art and everyday life in the transitioning KM neighborhood, and The Documentation Project keeps an online real-time visual diary of what is happening there. "SiteSpecificStrategies," a September symposium, brings together KM residents, architects, urbanists and scientists who will explore the role of architecture in shaping future urban identity, using the KM area as a reference and siting architectural events in the neighborhood. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Scores of Seattleites have been crocheting for months to create artist Mandy Greer's "Mater Matrix Mother and Medium," a 200-foot fiber "river" among the trees at Camp Long. Greerr installs the piece this week at Polliwog Pond. It's part of a spring and summer of temporary public artworks, performances and films commissioned by the Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs "to celebrate the splendor of Seattle's urban creeks" and encourage stewardship of essential watersheds. They include "Waterlines," a performance in Volunteer Park where Stokley Towles traces the city's water flow through interviews with city utility employees; a large, biodegradable water tower at the Bitter Lake Reservoir by John Grade; artists' new short films on the work of Seattle Public Utilities; and a residency on the Fremont Bridge, plus a neighborhood art project, by Kristen Ramirez. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

WorldForum TheatreFestival Austria 2009 will honor the memory of Brazilian director and social theorist August Boal, all across Austria, October 22-November 1. Forum Theatre groups and teachers from Austria and around the world will present Forum Theatre in its social, political, pedagogical, individual and aesthetic dimensions with performances, workshops and panel discussions. Events will take place in Vienna, Salzburg, Carinthia, Tyrol and upper Austria, culminating in Graz, October 27-November 1. October 29 is dedicated to international women's Forum Theatre, with forum models and topical workshops, and an exhibition and conference of women jokers. On the festival performance roster: Cardboard Citizens from England, Jana Sanskriti from India, CTO Rio from Brazil, Combatants for Peace from Israel/Palestine, GTO Paris (with Julian Boal), Giolli and Roberto Mazzini from Italy, Aktionstheatergruppe Halle from Germany and Mixed Company Theatre from Canada. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

We're happy to welcome the National Center for Creative Aging to BlogNet, CAN's network of Weblogs from all over our community. NCAC's blog, Creativity and Aging, keeps track of breaking news in that fast-growing field. Recent posts take note of the Time to Move Conference in England, July 9-10, 2009, to celebrate older people dancing, sponsored by, Take Art, is the Arts Development Agency for Somerset; NCAC's own recent intergenerational programs symposium in San Francisco, with the MetLife Foundation; a poetry competition called "Celebrating Poets over 70" (deadline: November 15); and essays on the creative side of the recession, collecting art in older years and what happens when creative success comes later in life. Catch up with Creativity and Aging on CAN's front page or the BlogNet home page. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

In Place of War will launch a new international network of theater practitioners and academics at a reception at The Martin Harris Centre, University of Manchester, England, July 24, 2009. The In Place of War Network is a collaborative initiative for academic and practice-based research into the role, function and impact of theater and performance in places of armed conflict. Practitioners from Kosovo, Gaza, Sudan, D.R. Congo, Sri Lanka, Northern Ireland and the U.K. will be at the launch, talking about theater in refugee camps, in war-affected villages, in towns under curfew, in cities under occupation, in refugee communities in foreign/host countries -- and about why, in times of disruption, individuals and communities have turned to performance? The project also has an online resources, including a database and a social network. A new book, "Performance in Place of War," is due in September. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Five middle school bands in California's San Fernando Valley squared off in June during the first Battle of the Bands Family Music Festival to raise funds to save their music programs. Proposed state budget cuts threaten to strip schools of much-needed cash, says Esmeralda Bermudez in the L.A. Times (6/7/09). The battle took place at Sutter Middle School in Canoga Park. "The prize was a big one, considering that some schools might receive as little as $200 in spending cash next year," writes Bermudez. Competitors hailed from Sutter, Columbus, Pacoima, Gaspar de Portola and Patrick Henry middle schools. Portola's orchestra and chamber ensemble tied for first prize ($2,500) and its band took second ($750) to buy instruments, sheet music and supplies. Portola's sole music teacher, Susan Treworgy juggles the choir, orchestra, chamber ensemble and band on her own. (Thanks, ArtsEdMail.) [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

TechSoup.org has won Carnegie Mellon University's ArtsTech Award for enabling arts organizations to save over $100 million in expenses to date. TechSoup makes software donations to nonprofits and libraries from 35 major technology providers, and its Refurbished Computer Initiative gives nonprofits a chance to get low-cost, high-quality computers with a new operating system and up-to-date software. The San Francisco-based organization's Web site has a number of resources for the arts, including a case study on how a New Mexico dance company made use of TechSoup to improve its outreach, management and fundraising and saved $17,000. The site's Learning Center offers tutorials on tools like Google Online Mapping, and there's an archive of Webinars on such topics as the successful use of Facebook, YouTube and Webanalytics. Other online aids include Green Tech tips, a blog and a Tech Beginner's Guide. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham