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.

"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.

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.)

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.

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.

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.

“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.

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.