Today CAN brings you "Teaching Museum Studies Through a Social-justice Lens," a new essay by art historian Lila Staples. Coordinator of the Museum Studies/Arts Education concentration in the Visual and Public Art Department at California State University Monterey Bay, Staples does research into the relationship between education theory and museum studies. She is concerned about "the frequent disconnect between theory and practice in the museum field. Despite all of the exciting new thinking that has been done over the past couple of decades in terms of re-visioning the museum, the experience of the everyday visitor still often falls short of an experience of authentic discovery and understanding." Calling on learning and knowledge theories, Staples looks at how the relationship of museum and community has shifted over the centuries, and proposes that "...we teach museum studies, to a community-based Service Learning model, contributes to social justice in terms of connecting the museum visitor in meaningful and transformative ways to understandings of ethical representations and interpretations of multiple cultural perspectives." This essay is part of Community Arts Perspectives, a publication of the Community Arts Convening and Research Project, Vol. II, Issue 4. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Two young architects are planning a mega-eco-city in the desert Southwest, the hub of a new high-speed rail network, says Triple Canopy magazine. Rustam Mehta and Thomas Moran work with the VPL Authority, a public-private corporation that has, since 1977, been facilitating growth in the area circumscribed by Las Vegas, Phoenix and Los Angeles. In response to problems of congestion, irresponsible water use and unchecked development, VPL is rethinking energy and transportation. The solution: a high-speed rail corridor based at Central Station, a green, single-story, seven-square-mile building in the Mojave that's a city in itself -- living quarters, shopping, entertainment, child care, hospital and more -- within an hour-and-a-half of the three fastest growing metropolises in America. Climate control will employ thermal mass, night purging, natural ventilation, evaporative cooling and passive solar heat, efficient in the desert environment. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

CAN's Places To Study database has been updated, adding newly available programs in community-based arts, thanks to CAN's new assistant editor, Jamie Haft. Places To Study is a online guide to degree programs, special courses, fellowships, internships, institutes, workshops and other training opportunities in the field. We have concentrated here on programs with emphasis on training that includes experience in the field. Launched in 2005 in response to a demand from practitioners who belong to Alternate ROOTS, Places To Study now lists 106 currently available programs in the U.S., England, Scotland, Canada, Australia, Switzerland and the Czech Republic, including 53 graduate and undergraduate degree programs. Added in the last month are programs at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, the University of London and Portland State University in Oregon. As we add new listings, we will announce them in APInews. If you feel your program belongs on this list (it's free), email apinews@communityarts.net. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Today CAN brings you "What Can You Teach Me? Intergenerational Community Arts in the Baltimore Lumbee Community," a new essay by community artist and Lumbee tribe member Ashley Minner. The majority of Native Americans living in Baltimore are members of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, says Minner. Most of those who moved from North Carolina to Baltimore are now senior citizens, and they hold the memory of traditional tribal ways. Minner works full-time on developing and implementing an After School Art Program for Native American young people in Baltimore. She saw a chance to greatly affect her community by partnering the youth in her programs with the Native American Senior Citizens at the Baltimore American Indian Center, thereby preserving community culture, knowledge and traditions, ensuring community sustenance and engendering respect, understanding and compassion among the youth and their elders. She describes the joys and challenges of working with the two "anchor generations" of her community -- breaking bread, gardening and making art. This essay is part of Community Arts Perspectives, a publication of the Community Arts Convening and Research Project, Vol. II, Issue 4. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Today CAN brings you "Condom Sense: A Real Life Education with About Face Youth Theatre" by Paula Gilovich, director of the Chicago theater project. Gilovich talks frankly about what it's like for "the third generation" since the beginning of the AIDS pandemic, especially those who are LGBTQA (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, questioning and allied). In 2006, About Face Youth Theatre launched a program focusing on sexual health. Aware that there is almost no sex or HIV/AIDS education in U.S. schools, they noticed that young people coming through their workshops had "deep-seated, myth-based fears" of the disease, with many having suffered nightmares in childhood about having HIV. "Our project was created to turn this fear around," says Gilovich, and "to contribute to the about face necessary for the health and well being of our younger generations." They have since developed a interactive HIV education package, available to every high school in the Chicago Public Schools system. This essay is part of Community Arts Perspectives, a publication of the Community Arts Convening and Research Project, Vol. II, Issue 4. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Public Matters, a California collective of artists, educators and media professionals working on civic programs in neighborhoods, has been empowering teens to "green the food desert." Alissa Walker, in her "Design Is a Verb" series in GOOD Magazine (11/30/09), writes about a project to make-over the convenience stores in low-income communities. She talks with Public Matters' Mike Blockstein and Reanne Estrada about "Market Makeover," their grassroots, creative public nutrition initiative. They're working with progressive institutions and local store owners in South L.A. to physically configure store layout and signage, leading consumers away from junk food and toward health food. Putting cameras in students' hands has produced videos helping the community "understand how their neighborhood came to be a food desert, so they can have the power to see how they can shape their neighborhood in the future." [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

There's a moving story in the recent National Performance Network newsletter showing that fruitful community-based work is being done at the mainstream level. Yolanda Cesta Cursach, staffer at Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art, writes about a unique residency by choreographer Nora Chipaumire, who 20 years ago escaped Zimbabwe's repressive regime and began to make art in the U.S. NPN's Community Fund enabled Chipaumire to visit Chicago prior to her performance at MCA for a two-week residency with local immigrant women. Cursach describes how the Community Fund's "unique framework" helped strengthen MCA's relationships with local partners, immigrant/refugee service agencies like Jane Addams Hull-House; the Coalition of African, Asian, European and Latino Immigrants of Illinois; Chinese Mutual Aid Association; Cambodian Association of Illinois; Centro Sin Fronteras; Polish American Association; Mujeres Latinas En Accion; Korean American Resource and Cultural Center; and more. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Today CAN brings you "LA Commons: Engaging Youth in Community-based Cultural Tourism," a new essay about an organization that's introducing Los Angeles to its own ethnic neighborhoods. Karen Mack, founder and executive director of LA Commons, writes about the organization's promotion of L.A.'s diverse neighborhoods through locally based, interactive, artistic and cultural programming. One such program is "Uncommon L.A.," launched in 2007 with "Trekking Los Angeles: Local Adventures in a Global City," a series of cultural tours and activities in three pilot neighborhoods — Leimert Park, Highland Park and East Hollywood (Little Armenia and Thai Town). For the past two years, "Trekking Los Angeles" has successfully connected Angelenos from around the city — and a few out-of-town tourists — with festivals, public art, restaurants, cultural centers and artists from the three communities. The events also served as an opportunity to connect audience members from a wide cross-section of the Los Angeles region with each other. This essay is part of Community Arts Perspectives, a publication of the Community Arts Convening and Research Project, Vol. II, Issue 4. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Artists will lead a conversation about public art and sustainability during "Waterpod: Autonomy and Ecology," an exhibition at New York's Exit Art this winter. The show is a survey of a five-month voyage around the boroughs of New York by Waterpod, a floating, sculptural structure and community-building space designed as a futuristic habitat and an experimental platform for assessing the design and efficacy of living systems. It visited the five boroughs and Governors Island from June to October 2009. The discussion, February 4, 2010, includes Jennifer McGregor of Wave Hill, a public garden and cultural center in the Bronx; public artist Mary Miss; Mierle Laderman Ukeles, a “maintenance artist” known for her service-oriented artworks; Mary T. Mattingly, Waterpod founder; and members of her team. The exhibition, January 9–February 6, 2010, is part of Exit Art's SEA (Social Environmental Aesthetics) program. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Kelly Hall-Tompkins is a professional violinist who has been playing in New York shelters for five years under the banner of Music Kitchen, says Daniel J. Wakin in the N.Y. Times (12/19/09). Music Kitchen is essentially Hall-Tompkins, 38, an ambitious New York freelancer who plays in the New Jersey Symphony. She's "not the only do-gooder in the classical music world," says Wakin. "Orchestras nationwide took part in a food drive this fall, and Classical Action raises money for AIDS programs through concerts and other activities. Hospital Audiences brings musicians and other performers into wards. But most classical music institutions — orchestras, opera houses and conservatories — pour their philanthropic efforts into large-scale music education for children, supported by hefty fund-raising and marketing machines. They organize youth orchestras; play concerts in poor, urban schools; and provide lessons." [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Today, the Corporation for National and Community Service released a draft notice spelling out how it will award grants under the newly-created $50-million Social Innovation Fund. Created by the 2009 Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, the Fund will “create new knowledge about how to solve social challenges in the areas of economic opportunity, youth development and school support and healthy futures, and to improve our nation’s problem-solving infrastructure in low-income communities.” The Corporation’s notice describes a plan to award five to seven grants of $5-million to $10-million over a five-year period to intermediary grant-making organizations, which will in turn grant at least $100,000 annually to promising nonprofit groups. The notice also offers a definition of “social innovation” and explains what evidence of impact grant makers and nonprofit groups will need to provide. [LINK] Posted by Jamie Haft

Today CAN brings you "Trimming the Sails: Assessing a Program in Midstream," a new essay by Phyllis Johnson describing program assessment through community engagement. Johnson is an associate professor at Columbia College Chicago’s Arts, Entertainment and Media Management Department [AEMM]. Eight years ago she developed the Arts in Youth and Community Development (AYCD) area of specialization within AEMM’s Master of Arts Management degree in collaboration with Columbia's Center for Community Arts Partnership. Much has been written on CAN about the foundation and development of AYCD. Here, with four years of graduates out working in the field, Johnson undertook an evlaution by engaging with the community to see if her program is delivering value. She describes the steps she took and the direct response of the participants, creating a useful model for program assessment. This essay is part of Community Arts Perspectives, a publication of the Community Arts Convening and Research Project, Vol. II, Issue 4. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Today CAN brings you "Getting It Wrong: How We Fail and What We Learn," a challenging new essay by Nicole Garneau and Sanjit Sethi. Garneau and Sethi manage two important community arts academic majors, in Chicago and San Francisco respectively, and here they examine what they see as a great reluctance to expose the inherent vulnerabilities of a community-based arts program or organization. They've gathered several "anonymously reported cases" from the field illustrating failures -- and differentiating between failures we learn from and those that stay buried in history for various reasons. Garneau and Sethi have taken this conversation into the field several times and now are "working toward creating a structure of inherent safety where individuals can, without fear, share and listen to these failures in order to create more determined strategies that can be used to explicitly address the varied territory of failure." This essay is part of Community Arts Perspectives, a publication of the Community Arts Convening and Research Project, Vol. II, Issue 4. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

The first-ever Amnesty International Human Rights Art Festival is calling for proposals for the festival, happening throughout Silver Spring, Md., April 23-25, 2010. The three-day event -- which includes theater, film and dance festivals -- will bring together artists, local businesses and politicians to highlight the use of socially transformative art to raise awareness of human rights and justice issues. "We are looking for positive, activist art treating specific themes in all media," says artist/organizer Tom Block. "Specifically, we need music, theater, performance, spoken word, installation, digital work, interactive workshops and have some minimal room for visual, wall-hung art." Professional poker-player Andy Bloch will run a "Poker for Human Rights" fundraiser during the festival, with proceeds going to Amnesty International. More info online. (Thanks, Claire Schwadron.) [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Boston College students, faculty and staff members recently stage an outdoor performance of "Not in My Name," which examines the place of capital punishment in society. According Roseanne Pellegrini in the Boston College Chronicle (12/3/09), the performance piece, presented on the college's Corcoran and O’Neill plazas, was the culmination of a three-day workshop offered by B.C.’s Arts and Social Responsibility Project (ASRP), which brought to campus actors from the Living Theatre in New York City to work with students. The Living Theatre typically performs “Not in My Name” in Times Square on days when prisoner executions are scheduled in the U.S. The ASRP was established this year to build on student passion for all types of art and performance in combination with social responsibility, to create engaging new projects, lectures and coursework. (Thanks, Sarah Ingersoll.) [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

A partnership between UC Irvine and the San Diego Unified School District uses the arts to boost language skills of K-2 students in 15 schools in San Diego's least affluent neighborhoods. Says Liane Brouillette, principal investigator for the ITQ Teaching Artist Program: "Instead of asking children to sit quietly at desks, teachers co-teach 27 arts lessons [theater, dance, visual art] with teaching artists in their own classrooms. This boosts the amount of verbal interaction--a key factor in learning a new language--between adults and young English learners. ... Over a million children who are unfamiliar with English attend California schools. English learners make up a quarter of K-12 students. ... Arts activities that allow for the use of nonverbal communication in combination with verbal interactions can be an effective way for teachers to directly interact with many children at once, providing feedback and building vocabulary. (Thanks, ArtsEdMail.) [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Triple Canopy, a cross-sector, nonprofit publisher/producer about culture, politics and engagement, announces its first call for proposals, commissioning ten projects of interest to the community arts field. Project areas are: "Research Work" produced outside academia; "Internet as Material," new-media journalism as engagement; "Thinking Through Images," fostering conversations about images between artists, writers, researchers and cultural practitioners in different fields; "New Media Reporting" for journalists to produce an immersive experience of stories and subjects that shape our age; and "New Programming," exhibitions, panel discussions, performances, screenings and public events examining the intersection of culture, politics and technology. Commissioned projects will be published in Triple Canopy magazine and presented before live audiences. Deadline is February 15, 2010. Triple Canopy, based in Brooklyn, N.Y., works collectively with writers, artists and researchers on projects in an online magazine, public programs and print publications. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Oakland's Art in Action will launch its Green Youth Art & Media Center in Oakland, Calif., on January 14, 2010. The solar-powered center, at 2781 Telegraph and 28th St., offers entrepreneurial, vocational and green-job readiness training for Oakland youth between the ages of 18 and 25. Center activities include leadership development, new media, arts training, music production, community organizing skills and green-job education, plus a business that sells and contracts merchandise produced by program participants. The Center’s Youth Green Team remodeled the 3,000-square-foot site, putting in recycled fiber carpeting, a mini-garden, a Kijiji Grows aquaponics system, four state-of-the-art recording studios, a computer lab and an eco-dance floor made of bamboo. The Grand Opening, starting at 3 p.m., features a Youth Arts Festival with freestyle rap and dancing and live painting, followed by arts performances and a ribbon-cutting. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Community-Engaged Scholarship for Health is a free, online mechanism for peer-reviewing, publishing and disseminating products of community-engaged scholarship. Products are all health-related and may be in forms other than journal articles. Says the service: "The first twelve products accepted by CES4Health.info - including a film about health impacts of the built environment in post-Katrina New Orleans and a cultural competency curriculum for health professionals - reflect the depth and breadth of knowledge made possible through community-academic partnerships. And yet regrettably, such products rarely 'count' in the faculty promotion and tenure process nor are they routinely disseminated beyond the communities with which the work was conducted. CES4Health.info aims to change this situation by tackling these challenges head-on." CES4Health.info is a component of Community-Campus Partnerships for Health. (Thanks, Imagining America.) [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

LAPD had a busy 2009, according to their year-end newsletter. It included new projects focused on recovery from addiction, drug-policy reform and countering the criminalization of homelessness. On Skid Row, LAPD has been doing grassroots community cultural development with the LAMP Community, L.A. Community Action Network, United Coalition East Prevention Project, Church of the Nazarene and Skid Row Advocates, and elsewhere with 18th Street Arts Center and The Box Gallery. With Skid Row organizations and the Urban Institute, they wrote "Making the Case for Skid Row Culture," soon to be published by Americans for the Arts. They premiered the Spanish-language version of their play "Agents & Assets" in Bolivia during a two-month residency. Three performances in the works are "History of Incarceration," "Let's Go" and "Walk the Talk" (folded into a parade). And more... [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

CAN has added to its Places To Study database an M.A. in Arts & Cultural Management at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. The 36-credit program in arts management emphasizes cultural studies, cultural policy and leadership, arts education and arts and community development. Students learn from active arts administrators both in the classroom and in the field, and draw on the richness of the Twin Cities community. Practical experience is integral to the program. Students complete a professional residency at a cultural organization either in the area or around the country. The program culminates with a paper exploring a topic related to the residency, demonstrating synthesis of coursework and fieldwork, and delivered by students at an annual arts administration symposium comprising graduate students, faculty and arts professionals. [LINK] Posted by Jamie Haft

CAN has added to its Places To Study database an M.A. in Applied Drama at Goldsmiths, University of London. The program investigates the ways in which drama and theater practices are developed in a wide range of non-traditional theater settings. Students consider questions of ethics, social inclusion, access, participation and documentation of the field. Jennifer New, corporate publicity officer, says the program "is unique in considering the development of cross-arts participatory practice within the field." Previous graduates have continued with research study or have found employment in the following areas: working with people with profound learning disabilities; cross-arts projects in a range of educational, community and social contexts; education and outreach; in prisons; and more. Program length: one year full-time, two years part-time. Goldsmiths also offers an M.A./Postgraduate Diploma/Postgraduate Certificate in Cross-Sectoral & Community Arts. [LINK] Posted by Jamie Haft

Today CAN added the Open Society Institute Media and Arts blog to BlogNet -- blogs from the field appearing automatically on CAN's front page. Recent posts from OSI's arts blog include many stories about cultural participation and engagement -- posts about new publications from OSI grantee iDebate Press; outcomes from the 2009 U.N. Climate Change Conference debated by more than 1,000 members of the Debatewise Global Youth; Debate Club Association in the Czech Republic, an Open Society Institute grantee, nominated for the Gypsy Spirit 2009 Award for its work with Roma youth. It also includes calls for proposals in OSI arts and media grant programs, like the Central Eurasia Project. OSI was founded by philanthropist George Soros to "build vibrant and tolerant democracies whose governments are accountable to their citizens." [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Museum director Richard Koshalek plans to install a 145-foot-tall inflatable meeting hall on Washington's National Mall to "foster a wide-ranging public debate on cultural values." Koshalek, newly appointed director of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, wants the inflatable to swell out of the top of the internal courtyard of the museum, which sits on the Mall midway between the White House and the Capitol, says Nicolai Ouroussoff in the N.Y. Times (12/14/09). "The project could become something Washington has never had: a real democratic forum for the debate of cultural issues as varied as, say, Hollywood morals and the impact of fundamentalism on the arts. ... [T]he Hirshhorn project is informal, egalitarian and free of conventional hierarchies. ... It could also, of course, become a political punching bag." [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

"Let Us Work Together: A Practical Guide & Discussion on Creating Community-Based Writing Projects" is one of the workshops in March's Split This Rock Poetry Festival, now open for registration. The fest, March 10-13, 2010, in Washington, D.C., offers "poetry, community building and creative transformation as our country continues to grapple with two wars, a crippling economic crisis and other social and environmental ills." It features feature readings, panel discussions, youth programming, film, activism and workshops like: "Absorb, Write, Move: Strengthening Community Organizing through Poetry and Movement," "Radical Diversity: The Presentation of Poetry as an Agent of Radical Change," "Poesia Para la Gente: Writing to Save Lives," "Fire and Ink: Social Action Writing" and "The Care and Feeding of the Rural/Small Town Poet-Activist." See the Web for the schedule, tickets, lodging and sharing rides/rooms. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Today CAN brings you a new essay by William Cleveland, Erik Takeshita and Wendy Morris, "Learning Culture and Change: A Place-based Community Arts Training Model." The article presents the development and pedagogy of their Institute for Community Cultural Development, a training program they began in 2002 at the request of Intermedia Arts in Minneapolis. The institute trains "community development folks interested in leveraging the power of the arts and artists interested in community development." Step by step, the authors track the genesis of the institute, the selection of Fellows, the role of faculty, the framework ("bones, tendons and nervous system"), details of the curriculum and outcomes for the participants so far, some of which are spectacular. They "believe elements of our work may be instructive to others interested in propagating arts-based community development." This essay is part of Community Arts Perspectives, a publication of the Community Arts Convening and Research Project, Vol. II, Issue 4. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Today CAN brings you a new essay that presents a dilemma: There is tension between community arts and the academy. Who are the experts? In "What’s Good Enough? Excellence and Expertise in Community Arts Training," artist Jerri Allyn, former director of ACT: Artists, Community and Teaching at Otis College of Art and Design, claims "Higher Ed thinks it's got the upper hand with scholarship and research. The trend in colleges and universities toward rigorous standards and measured learning outcomes, however, does not reflect the visceral, organic process and excitement that can happen between professors and students, either in a classroom of engaged participants learning together or in the field making new discoveries." She contrasts her experience teaching in higher ed with training programs in the field, such as the Blues Camp at Centrum: A Gathering Place for Artists in Port Townshend, Wash. This essay is part of Community Arts Perspectives, a publication of the Community Arts Convening and Research Project, Vol. II, Issue 4. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

At an upcoming event, leaders of national arts service organizations and regional arts organizations will discuss the NEA’s 2008 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts. The three-hour roundtable will take place at the NEA on Thursday, December 10, 2009. The conversation will focus on “how these findings should inform the arts community’s work going forward, as well as how the survey should be expanded and refined in the future.” The agenda will feature: remarks by NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman, a presentation of the report’s findings, responses from the field (including by Carlton Turner, Alternate ROOTS, and Helen De Michiel, National Alliance for Media Arts + Culture) and a discussion about planning for the future facilitated by NEA Senior Deputy Chairman Joan Shigekawa. The convening will be Webcast live on the NEA's Web site. [LINK] Posted by Jamie Haft

A "Case Study on National Cultural Arts Organizations" is a new project that will document and research the historical and cultural relevance of 12 organizations that represent historically under-represented ethnic communities. Initiated by artists Marta Moreno Vega, director of the Caribbean Cultural Center/African Diaspora Institute, and Sonia BasSheva Manjon, vice president for diversity and strategic partnerships at Wesleyan University, the project received a National Endowment of the Arts Chairman’s Extraordinary Action Award. These organizations have been pillars of communities of color, represent cultural identity, said Manjon, and many are in danger of closing their doors because of the economic downturn. Their memory, she says, could be forever lost. "For that reason this historic profile is time-sensitive." An 80-page, full-color publication will come out after July 2010, with an accompanying pdf for Web site publication. (No Web link yet.) [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Manhattan-based Stolen Chair Theatre Company recently launched its artistic season based on the economic business model of community-supported agriculture (CSA). In CSA, farmers sell memberships (or “shares”) to individuals who then receive a weekly portion of crops throughout the growing season. In Stolen Chair’s community-supported theater (CST), theater-goers invest “seed” money to reap a season’s worth of “creative harvests.” Jon Stancato, co-artistic director, said, “What really struck us were all the ways in which the farms try to let consumers gain insight into their process.” From November 2009 through July 2010, CST members will engage in Stolen Chair’s ensemble-based theatrical process to create a new play, “Quantum Poetics: A Science Experiment for the Stage.” CST is supported by The Field's Economic Revitalization for Performing Artists. Visit Stolen Chair’s web site to purchase a CST share! [LINK] Posted by Jamie Haft

Leveraging Investments in Creativity (LINC) recently released selected findings on the financial circumstances, strategies for adaptation and concerns of artists during the recession. LINC, in partnership with Helicon Collaborative and Princeton Survey Research Associates International, developed “The Artists and the Economic Recession Survey” in summer 2009. Four findings include: 1. Artists’ incomes are relatively low, and 51% reported income decreases. 2. Forty percent of artists don’t have adequate health insurance, and more than 50% are worried about losing what they do have. 3. Despite the challenges, 89% think artists have a special role in helping strengthen communities in these times. 4. Some opportunities have emerged from the recession: one-third of artists have seized the opportunity to experiment and collaborate more. A full report will be available for download on LINC’s Web site in spring 2010. (Our link takes you to a pdf file.) [LINK] Posted by Jamie Haft

Deadline is February 2, 2010, for applications for the NEA's Big Read, designed to "revitalize the role of literature in American culture and to encourage citizens to read for pleasure and enlightenment." The Big Read provides U.S. communities with grants and comprehensive resources to support their efforts to read and discuss a single book or the work of a poet. Funded organizations must conduct month-long community-wide reads of a selected book or poet’s work between September 2010 and June 2011. Grants ranging from $2,500 to $20,000 may be used for expenses such as book purchases, speaker fees and travel, salaries, advertising and venue rental. Eligible applicants include literary centers, libraries, museums, colleges and universities, art centers, historical societies, arts councils, tribal governments, humanities councils, literary festivals and arts organizations. Visit the NEA Web site for program details. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Art in the Public Interest, CAN's nonprofit publisher, has named a new member to its board of directors: Robert Donnan. Donnan is an award-winning writer, a multimedia producer and an independent community and economic development consultant. He often partners with Regional Technology Strategies (RTS) and the Alliance for Creative Advantage to conduct creative economy assessments, research comparative case studies, and draft strategic recommendations. He also works closely with communities to help local and regional leaders translate recommendations into action and accomplishment. Over the past 20 years, he has held senior positions with the Aspen Institute and the Southern Growth Policies Board. He resides in Saxapahaw, N.C. Donnan joins Linda Frye Burnham, Kathie deNobriga and William Cleveland on the board. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

The Wormfarm Institute in Reedsburg, Wisc., is calling for submissions to its Roadside Culture Stand project; deadline is December 31, 2009. Roadside Culture Stands (urban/rural) are artist-designed and -built mobile farm stands that will be used to display and sell fresh local produce and the work of local artists. "The Roadside Culture Stand," says Wormfarm Project Director Donna Neuwirth, "tangibly unites art and farming – reminding us that culture surrounds our food and food imbues our culture. This project is open to artists, architects, mechanics, farmers, visionaries and handy folk throughout the upper Midwest." Each stand will be built on a 5x10-foot steel flatbed trailer, will incorporate an informational display component that highlights area food and cultural offerings and will have a home base but may also travel to local festivals, county fairs etc. Winning entries get $3500 for fabrication. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

The Choral Arts Society of Washington, D.C., has created an Online Learning Community for teachers and learners working to integrate music into a core curriculum, and membership is free. By joining the community, you can learn more about music integration, access and share music-integrated lesson plans, access choral arts recordings, download composer study guides, enter teacher contests and (soon) utilize dynamic music-history resources. The site also has answer keys, a book-of-the-month club, in-school programs and an online shop where you can buy cds, including a teacher's guide to Civil Rights music-integrated classroom materials. All materials are aligned with the National Standards for Education. The Choral Arts Society was founded in 1965 by Norman Scribner; it comprises 180 professional-caliber volunteer singers. (Thanks, Stephanie Cronenberg.) [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Today CAN brings you "The Liberatory Critique," a new essay by Ken Krafchek, graduate director of the M.A. in Community Arts at Maryland Institute College of Art. Krafchek tackles the academy-based educational experience and its cornerstone, the “critique." Writes Krafchek, ”The academy, or high-art institution, exists to transmit the values and principles of the dominant cultural paradigm to its students by way of teachers who support this agenda." The mainstream critique, as practiced at most art schools, is, he says, "... a process of assessment and ritual of indoctrination that at best is subjective — the antithesis of the liberatory educational model practiced by professional cultural workers." Krafchek presents, step by step, a method of critique developed by himself and his colleagues at MICA, a "liberatory" pedagogy that "nurtures the artist's unique voice in relationship to a broadly inclusive community of peoples, values, ideas and opinions." This essay is part of Community Arts Perspectives, a publication of the Community Arts Convening and Research Project, Vol. II, Issue 4. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Today CAN brings you a challenging new essay by dancer Carol Marie Webster: "The Rubber Meets the Road: Community Arts Activism and Cultural Hegemony." Webster takes the position that "..more frequently than is admitted, practitioners in the field spend far too much time engaged in the perpetuation and recapitulation of the dominant cultural hegemony, often evading directing the critical lens at themselves, hence dodging radical reflexivity and dulling the transformative potential of such encounters. This essay will offer a brief critical exploration of some of the ways in which United States culturally hegemonic language and practices are called upon by community arts activists in order to define themselves and identify and pathologize the 'other,' frustrating the notions of empowerment, voice, equity and power-sharing often expressly held to be central to the field." This essay is part of Community Arts Perspectives, a publication of the Community Arts Convening and Research Project, Vol. II, Issue 4. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

The Portland State University Art and Social Practice program is calling for contributions to a 2010 conference, "Open Engagement: Making Things, Making Things Better, Making Things Worse." "Open Engagement" is a free conference, May 14-17, 2010, in Portland, Oregon. Directed by Jen Delos Reyes and Harrell Fletcher and planned in conjunction with the Portland State University MFA Monday Night Lecture Series, it will examine "art as service, as social space, as activism, as interactions and as relationships, and tackle subject matter ranging from urban planning to alternative pedagogy, play, fiction, sustainability, political conflict and the social role of the artist." The conference will feature Mark Dion, Amy Franceschini and Nils Norman, artists whose work "challenges traditional ideas of what art is and does," and will showcase work by Temporary Services and InCUBATE. Deadline for submissions is January 15, 2010. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham

Just added to CAN's database of places to study community-based art is the Art and Social Practice MFA concentration at Portland State University in Oregon. Founded by artist Harrell Fletcher, the Art and Social Practice MFA is a two-year program "that will educate and activate students to develop and utilize their artistic skills to engage in society and transcend traditional studio art paradigms. Students will learn about a variety of working artists and non-artists who have engaged in civic activity, and will apply their knowledge and abilities to initiate, develop and complete projects with the public – individuals, groups and institutions. Collaboration is highly encouraged," says Fletcher. The program includes a blog and a Monday Night lecture series. [LINK] Posted by Linda Frye Burnham