http://www.communityarts.net/apinews/ News and information about community-based arts from the Community Arts Network and Art in the Public Interest. Copyright 2010 Fri, 12 Mar 2010 10:49:39 -0500 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.21 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Oakland's New Village Press has a new book out by two CAN writers: "By Heart, Poetry Prison and Two Lives" by Judith Tannenbaum and Spoon Jackson. Tannenbaum, author of "Disguised as a Poem: My Years Teaching Poetry at San Quentin," met Jackson at San Quentin State Prison in 1985, where he is serving life without parole. They have been collaborating ever since. Of "By Heart," part memoir, part essay, Gloria Steinem writes, "A boy with no one to listen becomes a man in prison for life and discovers his mind can be free. A woman enters prison to teach and becomes his first listener. And so begins a twenty-five year friendship between two gifted writers and poets. The result is 'By Heart' — a book that will anger you, give you hope, and break your heart." http://www.communityarts.net/apinews/archivefiles/2010/03/from_new_villag.php http://www.communityarts.net/apinews/archivefiles/2010/03/from_new_villag.php Literature/Narrative Fri, 12 Mar 2010 10:49:39 -0500 The 12th annual Allied Media Conference will examine participatory media as a strategy for social-justice organizing, June 18-20, 2010, in Detroit. Conference tracks include "The Art and Practice of Disability Justice," "Communication Strategies for Ending the Prison Industrial Complex," "Indigenous Media and Technology," "Creating Safe Communities," "Medios Caminantes: Medios creando, fronteras derrumbando," "Do-It-Yourself Technology," "Radio Active: From the streets to the airwaves," "Rad Art: 2-D images for 3-D movements," "Trans & Queer Youth Media," "Eco-Justice Media Making for Sustainable Communities," "Media Policy for Social Justice," "INCITE! / To Tell You the Truth," "Pop Ed Intifada: teaching and learning for collective liberation" and "Kids." Participants include Thousand Kites, 7th Generation Indigenous Visionaries, Creative Interventions, Palabra Radio, The Beehive Collective, Justseeds Artists Cooperative, Media Action Grassroots Network, INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence, The Palestine Education Project and more. http://www.communityarts.net/apinews/archivefiles/2010/03/12th_annual_all.php http://www.communityarts.net/apinews/archivefiles/2010/03/12th_annual_all.php Media Arts Fri, 12 Mar 2010 10:26:25 -0500 here.]]> http://www.communityarts.net/apinews/archivefiles/2010/03/1000_kites_camp.php http://www.communityarts.net/apinews/archivefiles/2010/03/1000_kites_camp.php Corrections Fri, 12 Mar 2010 10:02:53 -0500 This spring, Auburn University continues its annual interdisciplinary series, Art in Agriculture, which brings together artists, designers and scientists to examine a topic related to agriculture, food, the environment or natural resources. This semester’s series is titled, “Reclaiming Ground,” and includes two exhibitions, several workshops for kids and seven lectures. One exhibition combines agriculture and architecture, called “Agritecture,” and another features sustainable designs by students in the Landscape Architecture Program, Design Program and Art Department. The lectures investigate questions such as: What is the role of the artist and designer in society at large? Can ordinary citizens make a difference in their local ecologies? How can a university encourage its students to become involved in their community? Art in Agriculture is jointly hosted by AU’s College of Agriculture, College of Liberal Arts and Department of Art. http://www.communityarts.net/apinews/archivefiles/2010/03/art_in_agricult.php http://www.communityarts.net/apinews/archivefiles/2010/03/art_in_agricult.php Environment Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:15:06 -0500 Artist Mary Geisser is blogging from Providence, R.I., where she's leading "Pages of Possibility," a book-making workshop with children ages three and up at the Fox Point Community Library. "Books are a gateway into imagination, literacy, information and creativity," writes Geisser. "They are powerful tools to excite young learners into learning to read and write. When children are provided with opportunities to create their own books they are given a method to share their own stories, poems, and ideas." In Week 1, 22 children made accordion books; the focus of Week 2 was making paste paper for book covers and collages. The blog has a rss feed and the Web site has a gallery of books in progress, recipes for materials and a bibliography. The project will culminate with an exhibition of the children’s books and artwork at AS220, May 2-29, 2010. http://www.communityarts.net/apinews/archivefiles/2010/03/for_kids_pages.php http://www.communityarts.net/apinews/archivefiles/2010/03/for_kids_pages.php Visual Art Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:18:47 -0500 The Beehive Collective's latest project is "The True Cost of Coal," a graphics campaign that details the ecological effects of the coal industry and mountaintop removal. The Hive is on the road with this project and will be at Boston College today, March 11, 2010, as guests of ALC Political Action, the Arts and Responsibility Project and the Global Justice Project. In 2008, the Hive allied with Appalachian grassroots organizers fighting mountaintop-removal coal mining, a practice that "blasts mountains into moonscapes to fuel the ever-growing global demand for electricity." Working with Appalachian collaborators, they've designed a "visually-stunning multi-tool for activists and ordinary folks ... a graphic that honors history, respects complexity, shows everyone's place in the big picture, and inspires real solutions." They'll show it at 7 p.m. tonight in Higgins 300. Visit the Hive site for details and tour stops. http://www.communityarts.net/apinews/archivefiles/2010/03/beehive_collect_1.php http://www.communityarts.net/apinews/archivefiles/2010/03/beehive_collect_1.php Environment Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:59:12 -0500 Landscape artist Mary Miss is keynote speaker at the second annual symposium by iLand (interdisciplinary Laboratory for Art, Nature and Dance) in New York City. The March 26-27, 2010, symposium is titled "Connecting to the Urban Environment: Creating embodied and relational approaches to environmental awareness." Mary Miss developed "City as Living Lab," a framework for making issues of sustainability tangible through collaboration and the arts. Miss has collaborated with architects, planners, engineers, ecologists and public administrators on projects like creating a temporary memorial around the perimeter of Ground Zero, revealing the history of New York's Union Square Subway station and turning a sewage treatment plant into a public space. The event also features iLand Founder Jennifer Monson, choreographer, who will present her recent work on aquifers and waterways in relation to urban development. http://www.communityarts.net/apinews/archivefiles/2010/03/mary_miss_to_ke.php http://www.communityarts.net/apinews/archivefiles/2010/03/mary_miss_to_ke.php Environment Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:19:14 -0500 The National Center for Creative Aging is expanding its frontier to the garden with "Creativity Matters: Civic Engagement and Gardening Symposium," April 12-14, 2010, in Washington, D.C. Events begin with "Generating Community: How Does Our Garden Grow? Intergenerational Program Development," a training by Susan Perlstein, founder of NCCA and Elders Share the Arts, at IONA Senior Services, recently named a “Center for Excellence in Dementia Care” by the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America. Day 2 is a full-day workshop at the United States Botanic Gardens, located at the foot of the U.S. Capitol, with keynotes and breakout sessions with garden experts. Day 3 focuses on civic engagement and community involvement as participants visit and work at the Common Good City Farm and other D.C. gardens. It's all sponsored by the MetLife Foundation. http://www.communityarts.net/apinews/archivefiles/2010/03/nccas_civic_eng.php http://www.communityarts.net/apinews/archivefiles/2010/03/nccas_civic_eng.php Elders Tue, 09 Mar 2010 10:57:22 -0500 Artists and teachers working together on diversity may be interested in an upcoming free online workshop by Facing History and Ourselves: "Civic Dilemmas: Religion, Migration, and Belonging." Through facilitated online activities and conversations, the workshop, April 7-14, 2010, will consider how schools negotiate both the needs of diverse student populations and a democracy's need to create a sense of belonging. It will feature three Facing History publications: "Stories of Identity: Religion, Migration, and Belonging," "What Do We Do With a Difference: France and the Debate Over Headscarves in Schools," and "Identity and Belonging in a Changing Great Britain." By registering for the workshop, you are committing to logging on to the site and participating in the online discussion at least three times, for a minimum time commitment of three hours over the one-week period. http://www.communityarts.net/apinews/archivefiles/2010/03/online_workshop.php http://www.communityarts.net/apinews/archivefiles/2010/03/online_workshop.php Cultural Democracy Tue, 09 Mar 2010 10:40:43 -0500 The relationship between a theater project at a rehabilitation center in Sri Lanka and the massacre of child soldiers there three months later will be explored in an upcoming lecture by James Thompson. Thompson will examine complicity between the two events and the responsibility of the theater practitioner to both during "An Unfortunate Incident: a performance lecture on the Bindunuwewa massacre," March 10, 2010, at the University of Manchester in England. It's sponsored by an organization called methods@manchester: research methods in the social sciences. Thompson is director of research in the School of Arts Histories and Cultures, director of the Centre for Applied Theatre Research and director of In Place of War, a research project on performance and war. He discussed the massacre in "Performance Affects: Applied Theatre and the End of Effect" (Palgrave, 2009), a book exploring performance projects in disaster and war zones. http://www.communityarts.net/apinews/archivefiles/2010/03/applied_theatre.php http://www.communityarts.net/apinews/archivefiles/2010/03/applied_theatre.php Theater/Performance Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:57:22 -0500 On March 17-18, 2010, students at Columbia College Chicago will work around the clock to create a mosaic mural designed by children participating in Chicago-area domestic-violence programs. They'll be joined in the Tile-a-Thon by volunteer mosaic artists attending the annual conference of the Society of American Mosaic Artists (SAMA). The Children and Teen Issues Committee of the Chicago Metropolitan Battered Women’s Network worked with children from violent homes to design the mural, titled: "A Child’s Vision of Peace." Every year SAMA hosts a volunteer event to create a mural for a local nonprofit organization as a gesture of appreciation to the city hosting the conference. This event is also part of Mosaic Bottega, a spring mosaic celebration at Columbia that includes a March 30 panel discussion, "The Chicago Public Art Group: Transforming the City through Community Based Public Art" (see CAN Calendar). http://www.communityarts.net/apinews/archivefiles/2010/03/columbia_chicag.php http://www.communityarts.net/apinews/archivefiles/2010/03/columbia_chicag.php Public Art Thu, 04 Mar 2010 11:54:06 -0500 "Transforming Lives Through the Creative Arts" is the theme of the 10th Annual BuildaBridge Institute, set for June 2-6, 2010, at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. This year's institute offers, for first-timers, Foundations for Arts in Transformation; Arts in Education; Arts, Creativity and Human Development; and Organization for Community Arts featuring collaborative work and fundraising. Returning participants may take Arts in Healing; Arts in Social Services; Leadership Practicum; and new courses in Arts Relief and Development. Everyone takes Skills Development Workshops in different art modalities and Methods Lab Practicum sessions where they can observe and assist a master teacher in a direct arts service program with youth/seniors in a local shelter/nursing home. BuildaBridge is an ecumenical Christian organization based in Philadelphia. It has carried out arts relief programs in Palestine, South Africa and Guatemala. http://www.communityarts.net/apinews/archivefiles/2010/03/10th_annual_bui.php http://www.communityarts.net/apinews/archivefiles/2010/03/10th_annual_bui.php Education Thu, 04 Mar 2010 11:26:49 -0500 On January 15, 2010, Los Angeles County's Camp Kenyon J. Scudder probation facility celebrated its dining hall's new mural, designed and painted by 30 teens from the camp. They worked for 14 weeks with Michael Massenburg, artist-in-residence with Theatre of Hearts/Youth First (TOHYF). The mural covers an area 20 ft. by 50 ft. and incorporates images the girls created during their training to represent ideas important to them. The mural project is the first of its kind under Los Angeles County's Civic Art Program administered by the Arts Commission. According to an Arts Commission press release, Camp Scudder Director Pauline Starks noticed "a significant change in the girls' overall attitudes and behavior during this process. ...I really enjoyed watching the girls paint the walls and their proud faces when showing off their accomplishments to visitors." Images are online. http://www.communityarts.net/apinews/archivefiles/2010/03/la_teens_in_pro.php http://www.communityarts.net/apinews/archivefiles/2010/03/la_teens_in_pro.php Visual Art Thu, 04 Mar 2010 11:07:24 -0500 Today CAN has added to its Places to Study database the Master of Arts in Cultural Studies at the University of Washington, Bothell. Housed in UWB’s Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences, this two-year, 60-credit program on cultural studies has a special emphasis on participatory action research strategies and diverse forms of community collaboration. Through classroom seminars, community-based learning, a capstone research project and portfolio, students have “multiple opportunities to link art, culture, community development and social change.” Examples of recent community partners include: Imagine Children’s Museum, Seattle Human Rights Film Festival and Wing Luke Asian Museum. The program’s goal is to provide students with “a rich toolkit of skills and a vital network of professional and community relationships that will enhance their future careers across a range of arts and cultural practices and fields." http://www.communityarts.net/apinews/archivefiles/2010/03/new_in_places_t_45.php http://www.communityarts.net/apinews/archivefiles/2010/03/new_in_places_t_45.php Education Thu, 04 Mar 2010 10:23:55 -0500 The Somerville (Mass.) Arts Council has accepted its first artificially intelligent board member and the Armory is mounting an art show that projects memories from the recently deceased. That's what will happen in Somerville, Mass., in 2040, according to "The history of Somerville, 2010-2100," a community art project that is exploring what the future might be like. Organizer Tim Devin, with support from the 2010 Somerville Arts Council, has been talking to current and former residents at Future Information Tables on the street in different neighborhoods and gathering official plans and think-tank vision statements. They are collected on a Web site and in a book that may be downloaded there for free. Anyone can join in online, and all material collected by Dec. 31, 2010, will appear on the Web site and in the final version of the book. http://www.communityarts.net/apinews/archivefiles/2010/03/2040_somerville.php http://www.communityarts.net/apinews/archivefiles/2010/03/2040_somerville.php Literature/Narrative Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:19:51 -0500