Campus-Community Partnerships: Supporting or Destroying the Field of Community Arts?

Community Arts as a practicing field of community-based organizations working with artists has existed independently of higher education but not without impact to or from the academy. Art movements have influenced the development of art schools and colleges, supported the efforts of social movements, and illustrated civil- and human-rights activities. Through critical and thorough examination of the Arts and Crafts Movement, the Harlem Renaissance, the Black and Chicano Arts Movements and currently the Hip Hop Movement, one can witness how artists and community activists have collaborated in ways that connect social justice, equity and diversity to ideologies and identity representation that are profound and revealing.

Financial resources have always lagged behind these movements. Artists have been and continue to be incredibly resourceful when it comes to mounting an exhibit, installing public art, publishing, or producing a performance. They lead philanthropic efforts by producing the new avant-garde, delivering the next contemporary aesthetic, and creating pop culture icons that subsequently become corporatized and commodified. Once artists create the next new best thing, funding agencies launch new initiatives and philanthropies allocate funding. The next phase becomes the expectation that the artists/arts organizations will sustain the level of financial support without continued funding or resources from funders by building internal capacity.

Campus-community partnerships gained recognition with the emergence of the service-learning field of study. The 1960s and early ‘70s gave rise to the Civil Rights Movement, the War on Poverty and the antiwar movement. Both the community and academy were stages for protest, civil disobedience and radical ideologies about how to make change. Community activist and educators were drawn together around the idea of action in community or civic engagement combined with reflective learning practices. In the academy we witnessed these movements through Ethnic Studies, African American Studies, Chicano Studies and Asian Studies departments. The combination of community action with learning connected service in communities to social justice and transformation. Also known as civic engagement, action inquiry and community-based learning, this new pedagogy drew in higher-educational institutions through the stimulus of federal, state and local funding to colleges and universities engaging in this work.

The Corporation for National Community Service, a federal funding agency in Washington D.C., has a mission to improve lives, strengthen communities and foster civic engagement through service and volunteering. This is done through specific programs Senior Corps, AmeriCorps and Learn and Service America. Learn and Serve America provides grants to schools, higher-education institutions and community-based organizations that engage students, their teachers and others in service to meet community needs. Multi-year funding from this program supports campus-community partnerships nationally. California College of the Arts benefited from Learn and Serve America through sequential funding to establish the Center for Art and Public Life as a local convener of campus-community partnerships using a service-learning pedagogy and civic-engagement framework. The Corporation also connected many institutions to local Campus Compact organizations. Campus Compact is a national coalition of college and university presidents committed to the civic purposes of higher education. To support this civic mission, Campus Compact promotes community service that develops students' citizenship skills and values, encourages collaborative partnerships between campuses and communities, and assists faculty who seek to integrate public and community engagement into their teaching and research.

In 1999, the Lilia Wallace Foundation funded a consortium of six art colleges and their community partners who serve youth. This consortium became identified as the Community Arts Partnership Institute (CAPI) and the partnerships were known as the Community Arts Partnerships (CAP). CAPI facilitated the sharing of successful strategies and supported the work through annual convenings and workshops, technical assistance, sponsorship of site visits and peer mentoring, Web site development and maintenance, and publications. The institutions involved in this partnership included: Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), Columbia College Chicago, California State University Monterey Bay, Xavier University of Louisiana, Cooper Union and Institute for American Indian Arts.

This began a new initiative in funding community-campus partnerships whose work was not only with community social-service agencies, but who also worked with art organizations. Nathan Cummings Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Irvine Foundation and others continue to support this work. One problem with this new model can be seen as college and universities increase their funding to work with community organizations, specifically cultural art organizations, there is also a simultaneous decrease in funding for cultural art organizations. It is conjecture on my part to say that funding for community-based activity is being diverted to the academy through service learning and campus-community partnerships that are initiated by the academy. As we [higher education] train our students to work in the community, we have to bear witness to our community partners experiencing funding setbacks and, in some cases, closure.

Three Major Initiatives

I will discuss three major initiatives that I participate in that examine and critique campus community partnerships on three levels, local, state and national/international. The local initiative, 100 Families Oakland: Art & Social Change, originated in Oakland, California, in 2004 to engage families and neighbors in the process of making art to encourage human engagement and civic participation. In 2002, I became an active participant in California Campus Compact, a membership organization of colleges and universities who utilize service learning in supporting community service through partnerships and collaborations. The national/international initiative is Voices from the Cultural Battlefront: Organizing for Equity, a 20-year conversation through conferences, meetings and a publication, about the role of art and culture in the struggle for human rights, social justice, cultural equity and policy, and for a healthy natural environment. My participation in this dialogue began in 1991 and continues through the present. All of these initiatives have shaped my politics and core values about art, education, community and civic engagement.

100 Families Oakland: Art & Social Change

In 2004, F. Noel Perry, founder of 100 Families Oakland: Art & Social Change, and the California College of the Arts Center for Art and Public Life (Center) partnered to launch the 100 Families Oakland Project. The mission of 100 Families Oakland is to enliven the creative spirit and celebrate the power of families and neighborhoods in Oakland through the inspiring and transformative process of making art. This is done by engaging families in making art and sculpture centered on the theme of family in order to achieve a better understanding of self, family and community. Through involvement in a creative and imaginative process, participants have the opportunity to envision possibilities, environments and types of relationships not previously considered. In the long term, through involvement in a common project where new possibilities are envisioned, diverse groups around the city can build stronger connections among themselves and with community leaders, increasing the capacity of these groups to jointly solve problems facing their communities.

The pilot year of the project, January 2005 through April 2006, brought together 25 to 30 families per site at the East Oakland Youth Development Center, Oakland Asian Cultural Center, Unity Council’s Fruitvale Transit Village and the M. Robinson Baker YMCA, hosted by the Attitudinal Healing Connection in West Oakland to take art classes and create paintings, drawings and sculptures centered on themes and issues of importance to each family. There was a curricular component in which artists were selected to develop art workshops that would engage families, encourage collaboration between family members and neighbors, and create art works that could be shown in exhibitions in various venues in Oakland. The exhibitions celebrated the power of family, the creative spirit of Oakland, and what art can mean to a community in terms of connecting families and neighborhoods.

Building Collaborations from the Ground Up

During the 100 Families pilot year, the major task was to create a collaborative process with organizations and agencies that had not previously worked together. This situation warranted the commitment and cooperation of many individuals collaborating to achieve a common goal and to accommodate the needs of 100 families and more than 500 individuals. While, the process of implementing the 100 Families Oakland project was daunting at times, a core team of individuals worked extraordinarily well together due to sound knowledge, insights and connections, which resulted in a firm platform to build the project and move it forward.

There were various leadership components, individuals and organizations that participated to ensure the success of the project. The primary project team consisted of three individuals — founder F. Noel Perry; myself, project manager; and exhibition manager Cherie Newell — who collaborated on every aspect of the project and brought together additional individuals and organizations during planning and implementation phases. A planning group was assembled by the founder to assist in developing the foundation and initial template for the project. A leadership council was invited to assist in fundraising and act in an advisory capacity. A half-day planning charrette was hosted at the Oakland Museum to introduce the project to community artists and activists who would focus the planning process on real issues affecting Oakland residents and neighborhoods. Host sites were selected that represented diverse constituents in Oakland and had expertise in developing and implementing community activities with art components. A group of artists were hired to work with the families to create artwork and build social networks. Finally, a group of individuals with expertise in design, photography, filmmaking, marketing and public relations, fundraising and exhibit installation added the missing components needed in professionalizing and sustaining the project.

New partnerships with the City of Oakland Office of Parks and Recreation, United Way of the Bay Area, the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Making Connections and Alameda County Office of Education Arts Active Parents Project have engaged new participants by bringing the 100 Families Oakland Project to recreation centers, schools and additional community-based organizations throughout the City of Oakland. The Center also strives to engage past participants in order to deepen its relationships with neighborhoods and sustain art making among these families.

It is the goal of the 100 Families Oakland Project through the Center for Art and Public Life to continue the work in subsequent years with the same Oakland neighborhoods, while adding new communities, leading to sustained art making and community involvement among families, neighborhoods and communities. However, building partnerships is easier than sustaining them, especially if the funding is going to and through the college. While all the partners benefited financially during the 100 Families implementation phase, the program has yet to show an impact on community institution building and sustainability. As community organizational sustainability was not an initial objective for the program, it has become an issue as the collaboration relies on community-based art organizations. The leadership council is now examining how the program can be sustained within the community incorporating the college as a partner, not necessarily as the main partner. Some funders have agreed to continue support for the program whether or not the college is the anchor partner. The group is currently examining how to integrate 100 Families Oakland into a comprehensive citywide art-education model that would use collaboration as the overall leadership model.

California Campus Compact

In order to assess and understand the needs of community partners and the impact of service learning on the relationship between university and community, the Center for Art and Public Life participated in Community Voices: A California Campus Compact Study on Partnerships (April 2007). California Campus Compact, formed in 1988 as an association of colleges and university leaders in California, supports more than 60 member institutions of higher education as they develop strategies to integrate community service learning and academic study. In December 2004, I participated in a two-day retreat with eight other universities to assess our community-partnership structure and develop tools to address how to better provide services in an equitable and collaborative way. What was realized at the retreat was that our conversation was void of a critical component — partner input. None of the partners were a part of the conversation, so the information was “one-sided.” One of the next steps identified was to create a process for community-partner input.

Spring 2005 provided this opportunity. Sponsored by the California Campus Compact, 99 community partners in California participated in 15 focus groups to examine their understanding of service learning, mutual benefits and reciprocity of benefits for the community partner. Eighteen of CCA’s community partners participated in the focus groups. The feedback that pertains to the Center for Art and Public Life is summarized as follows:

The community partner participants in the focus group at CCA demonstrated a tremendously deep commitment to and practice of co-educating college students and the potential for creating a more just society through campus-community partnerships. Because most of these partners are directly involved with cultivating the arts through education in society as well as furthering arts education for the purposes of social transformation, they come to the partnership table in solidarity with the goals of California College of the Arts. Most participants expressed that both sides of the partnership — community and campus — are all working for the same goal, rather than each party seeking institutional self-interests that are separate. The theme of social justice and individual and societal transformation through the arts and education was particularly strong. Many expressed the desire that college students will be inspired to be lifelong learners, activists and artists and that participating in campus-community partnerships is a way for them to contribute to the cause of social justice as well.

The heart of the partnership experience is the relationships that are cultivated through open communication and friendship. A hallmark of “getting the partnership started” is taking the time to learn one another’s work cultures, strengths, weaknesses and institutional constraints, and developing a sensitivity to “institutional equity,” particularly when larger and smaller organizations partner together. They reflected that there are many personal benefits for their involvement in the campus partnership, including personal growth, developing satisfying personal relationships with staff, faculty and students, and strengthening the arts network and “social capital” in general. They stressed that characteristics of healthy partnerships include room for feedback, reflection, appreciation and evaluation, and that evaluation should be built in at the inception of partnership projects. Successful partnerships that are sustained over time are effective — at a time when resources are scarce, it is important that partnerships get “twice the work done in half the time” rather than creating twice the work. Learning to navigate the various bureaucratic structures of the partner organizations involved can be challenging.

Because of their commitment to participating in the education of college students, some partners wish to participate more fully in orchestrating the learning experience in the future. They would especially appreciate more feedback on what students have learned through their service experience. The college may also wish to strengthen the important role they play in acting as a convener of arts partners, to continue to deepen the many relationships they have already cultivated with them, and to consider together how the group might build on effective characteristics of partnerships community partners outlined. While the heart of a good partnership is based on informal relationships, these partners indicate that written agreements, MOUs [memoranda of understanding] and other “paper infrastructure” are helpful as guides. It may be important for this campus to note that while they expressed a deep commitment to the goals of service learning the term “service learning” did not resonate particularly strongly with this group.

The focus groups yielded valuable comments that included our partners’ experience and perspective on motivations and benefits of the community-campus partnership. While partner organizations agreed that doors were opened providing new resources, opportunities and access to new information and future trends in industry, they also examined the challenges such as partner equity and contested the meaning of service learning. Promoting equity and social justice was of major importance.

I do believe education is one of the major inroads to try to create that equity. And I would say that it is imperative that campus-community partnerships are about that goal. Yeah, everybody. Higher-education organizations should have that public education facility to the community in a way that allows that this is a model. In our case, we had high school students or kids that are planning to drop out or have dropped out or are drug dealers or are rehab people, and they may not even live [in the target neighborhood] but are being recommended to come and participate [in this university-sponsored program]. It is an opportunity for them to be able to enter a system that they might not be able to enter, period. But until these partnerships continue to happen, we won’t be able to scale that change. It can create the equity that we hope will happen. We’re investing in the equity that we hope we’ll see happen. —CCA Partner

The published report of the California Campus Compact, “Community Voices,” was released in April 2007. Of notable importance to the Center was the recognition of characteristics of effective partnerships, and benefits for community partners and student. The process of community-campus partnerships that began in 2004 in part led to the development of the Community Arts BFA at the California College of the Arts. The Community Arts major is an interdisciplinary, community-based approach to creative practice. This major explores ways artists interact, collaborate and intervene in a variety of social networks with the aim of building sustainable community relationships, engaging cultural diversity and stimulating social transformation. Students study the history of community arts and draw from a wide range of cultural theories and practices in art, critical studies, art education, service learning and civic engagement. Encouraged to experiment with new genres, mediums and technologies, students create their own set of hybrid practices, adding new thinking and ideas to the field of community arts. Students can choose a specific methodology of practice that includes: art education, studio practice, community engagement and/or arts management.

Voices from the Cultural Battlefront: Organizing for Equity

The final initiative that has provided me with the most consistent and longstanding engagement in the area of civic engagement is Voices from the Cultural Battlefront: Organizing for Equity. Voicesis an ongoing 20-year national and international conversation about the role of art and culture within the struggle for human rights, social justice, cultural equity and, most recently, for a healthy natural environment. Hundreds of activists grounded in the cultural life of their communities from all seven continents have participated in these conversations. Joining together to address the right to culture and the impact of global free-market capitalism on this right, participants have represented a variety of disciplines, including art, youth services, education, health and more.

The forums have been convened by a core group of U.S. artists and community organizers, including Marta Moreno Vega, Caribbean Cultural Center, N.Y.; Dudley Cocke, Roadside Theater, Ky.; Olga Garay, Department of Cultural Affairs Los Angeles, Calif.; Kalamu ya Salaam, Listen to the People Project, New Orleans, La.; Sonia BasSheva Mañjon, Center for Art and Public Life, Oakland, Calif.; Bernice Johnson Reagon, founder, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Washington, D.C.; Amalia Mesa-Bains, California State University Monterey Bay, Calif.; Tonya Gonnella Frichner, American Indian Law Alliance, N.Y.; Peter Pennekamp, Humboldt Area Foundation, Calif.; Claudine Brown, Nathan Cummings Foundation, N.Y.; E’Vonne Coleman-Cook, Duke University, N.C.; Caron Atlas, Center for Civic Participation, N.Y.; and John Kuo-Wei (Jack) Tchen, New York University, N.Y. Recent conveners of the dialogue include Marinieves Alba, International Hip-Hop Exchange (IHX), N.Y.; Jamie Haft, Imagining America, N.Y.; Maurice Turner, Highlander Center, Tenn.; Carlton Turner, Alternate ROOTS, Miss.; Thenmozhi Soundararajan, Third World Majority, Calif.; and Nick Szuberla, Appalshop, Ky.

A result of an earlier dialogue was a publication, “Voices from the Battlefront: Achieving Cultural Equity” (1993), which documented the spirit and thinking of the early convenings, especially two international conferences, “Cultural Diversity Based on Cultural Grounding,” hosted by the Caribbean Cultural Center: Africa Diaspora Institute in New York City in 1989 and 1991. The book is a collective call to action by African American, Latino, Asian and Native American cultural workers, scholars, activists and artists towards political, social, economic and cultural equity and community change.

This political and cultural dialogue was initially conceived of and hosted by Marta Moreno Vega, founder and president of the board for The Franklin H. Williams Caribbean Cultural Center in New York. The momentum gained through this ongoing conversation has produced forums and meetings in various cities in the U.S. and abroad. Most important, it has elevated the discourse on cultural policy and equity in disenfranchised communities using cultural organizing as the framework.

Voices from the Cultural Battlefront represents artists and community activists who are locally based and who examine how global developments impact local community issues. Organizing for cultural equity is the thread that represents joint commonalities in spite of obvious differences, i.e., language, social structures, religion and political beliefs. An outcome of the organizing effort is the development of the Cultural Equity Group (CEG), a coalition of cultural arts organizations and artists working for the equitable distribution of funds and resources to assure that under-resourced and under-served emerging and mid-sized organizations grounded in the culture and arts of their communities are fairly funded. The objective of the CEG is to stabilize the field, providing necessary technical assistance and program management resources to assure the continued growth of the cultural arts field. Marta Moreno Vega, Caribbean Cultural Center, is using the Voices economic analysis to propel this effort forward.

The Caribbean Cultural Center (CCC), founded 30 years ago as part of an extraordinary period of social, political and cultural development that took place in the United States, and which directly led to the founding of a number of community-grounded cultural organizations, is and has been at the forefront of this movement toward cultural equity. CCC has laid a foundation based in the Civil Rights Movement, which brought a heightened consciousness to African Americans, Latinos/Chicanos, Asian/Pacific Islanders and Native Americans, as well as cultural workers and artists who saw the value of knowing and owning one’s own culture as an affirmation of group identity and worth. This movement extends to organizations across the United States including but not limited to San Francisco’s Galeria de la Raza, Berkeley’s La Pena Cultural Center, Los Angeles’ Japanese American Cultural and Community Center, Inner City Cultural Center, The Watts Towers Cultural Center, San Antonio’s Carver Cultural Center, Kentucky’s Appalshop and Roadside Theater, all of which grew out of community-grounded ideals and social-justice movements, resulting in pioneering groups that are now reaching their 30th year anniversaries. Simultaneously, there exists a younger group of cultural organizations that are rooted in their communities and continuing the struggle for cultural equity and self-determination. These organizations are between 10 and 25 years old. Equally important is the recognition of the culturally grounded arts and cultural organizations that were not able to sustain operations due to decreased government and foundation funding, conservative environments, the NEA cultural wars, and infringement of freedom of expression imposed by U.S. Senators with conservative ideologies.

In 2007, Voices from the Cultural Battlefront forums were held at New York University, June 8-9, as part of the 30th anniversary celebration of the Caribbean Cultural Center, and in New Orleans, December 6-7, as part of the National Performance Network’s national conference. These forums focused on the impact of global free-market capitalism on human rights, local community life and the natural environment. In 2008, the dialogue continues at Maryland Institute College of Arts in Baltimore, Md., as part of the Community Arts Convening & Research Project, March 16-18; Intersections V in Amherst, Mass. at Creative UpRising(s), April 4-6; and will continue at Alternative ROOTS Annual Meeting in Arden, N.C., August 5-10; and Imagining America in Los Angeles, Calif., October 2-4.

Conclusion

The simultaneity and force of these initiatives convinces me to commit further to the integration of community, education and the arts. In establishing the Center for Art and Public Life at the California College of the Arts from 2000 to 2008, my focus has been to continually challenge both the institution and the community in defining what enables transformative change and how education integrates with art and community in producing and sustaining that change. The Center’s mission is to create community partnerships based on creative practice that serve the college and the diverse populations of Oakland and San Francisco. The programs of the Center are now woven across disciplines into the structure of the college and delivered through a variety of academic, professional, extracurricular, and experimental approaches.

Simultaneously, with an internal focus on the San Francisco Bay Area through partnerships and collaborations, the Center has also participated in a national consortium of universities and colleges that are also committed to sustained educational practices through the arts with identified community partnerships. California College of the Arts Center for Art and Public Life and Maryland Institute College of Arts, Columbia College Chicago Office of Community Art Partnerships, California State University Monterey Bay, Xavier University of Louisiana Art Department, Massachusetts College of Art and Cooper Union are hosting a series of national convening and discussions to initiate and support the following: 1) to provide students, faculty and community partners a variety of experiences through different types of exchanges; 2) to broadly recognize the field of community arts for its contribution to the promotion of healthy communities, engaging in work that builds on social justice and equity, and links communities with artists and arts resources; 3) to build the capacity of community nonprofit organizations working with artists, art institutions and diverse populations including youth, elders and families; and 4) to develop and implement a peer review process that critically examines curriculum, pedagogy, practices, theories and projects of academic partners that support community arts.

Toward these goals, national consortiums of colleges and universities have successfully engaged in continuous gatherings beginning with the Wallace Foundation funded Community Arts Partnership (CAP) Institute 1999 — 2003 which produced two publications: “p{art}ners Successful Strategies for Developing Artists and Youth” (2003), and “Art/Vision/Voice: Cultural Conversations in Community” (2005) a book of cases from CAP. The subsequent consortium, of which CCA’s Center for Art and Public Life is a participant, has convened to continue the work supported by earlier Wallace Foundation support, and is currently supported by the Nathan Cummings Foundation. These convening have included “Community Arts at a Crossroads: Where Do We Go From Here?” which took place in New Orleans, La., June 2-3, 2006, hosted by Xavier University of Louisiana; “Crafting a Vision for Art, Equity and Civic Engagement: Convening the Community Arts Field in Higher Education” in Oakland and San Francisco, Calif., November 2-4, 2006, hosted by the California College of the Arts; the Community Arts Partnership Institute in Chicago, Ill., October 20-25, 2007 hosted by Columbia College Chicago; and The National Community Arts Convening and Research Project in Baltimore, Md., March 16–18, 2008, hosted by Maryland Institute College of Arts.

As we continue the dialogue through cultural activism and art production, we must also support community arts not only as a field of study, but also as a call to activism through community engagement and campus-community partnerships. We must examine and critique the service-learning pedagogy used in the academy and question the benefits and reciprocity to and for the community. In collaborations with the community, how are we cognizant of equitable distribution of funds, resources and capacity building between the academy and the community in planning, developing and implementing these partnerships? How do we ensure the long-term commitment of the academy in sustaining these partnerships and not just using them for the semester that the classes are offered or until the funding is depleted?

As educational institutions train and educate students for public life and endeavors in art, culture, politics, community building, health and economics, we must incorporate a pedagogy that is inclusive of social justice, equity, other ways of knowing and mutual respect for communities that have been disenfranchised and silenced by mainstream dominate culture upon which the Western Academy has been built.

This essay is part of the Community Arts Convening & Research Project, 2008, funded by a Nathan Cummings Foundation grant to the Maryland Institute College of Art. The essay was reviewed and selected by the project's Editorial Board: Ron Bechet, Xavier University of Louisiana; Lori Hager, University of Oregon; Marina Gutierrez, Cooper Union; Ken Krafchek, Maryland Institute College of Art; Sonia Mañjon, California College of the Arts; Amalia Mesa-Bains, California State University Monterey Bay; Paul Teruel, Columbia College Chicago; and Stephani Woodson, Arizona State University.

Sonia BasSheva Mañjon, executive director of the Center for Art and Public Life (CAP) at California College of the Arts (CCA), has more than 20 years of experience in higher education and nonprofit administration. Highlights of her tenure at CCA include the establishment of the Community Arts Program, the first BFA program of its kind in the United States; the revival of the Subject Matter Art (SMART) teaching concentration program; the restructuring of the diversity-studies curriculum and leadership of the Campus Diversity Initiative; creation of the Visiting Artists and Scholars program; direction of 100 Families Oakland: Art & Social Change, a highly successful community program that engages families in art making; and raising over $8 million dollars for CAPL initiatives. Mañjon recently accepted the newly created position of vice president of diversity and strategic partnerships at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, beginning July 1, 2008.

Works Cited

Cruz, N., G. Dwight. & T. Stanton, T. Service-Learning A Movement’s Pioneers Reflect on Its Origins, Practice, and Future. San Francisco, Calif.: Jossey-Bass, 1999.

Mañjon, S. 100 Families Oakland: Art & Social Change. San Francisco, Calif.: California College of the Arts, 2007.

Mesa-Bains, A., R. Bechet, K. Krafchek and P. Teruel, eds. Art/Vision/Voice Cultural Conversations in Community. Chicago and Baltimore.: Columbia College of Chicago & Maryland Institute College of the Arts. 2005.

Sandy, M. Community Voices: A California Campus Compact Study on Partnerships Final Report. San Francisco, Calif.: Campus Compact, 2007.

Spitz, J.A, & M. Thom. P{ART}NERS Successful Strategies for Developing Artists and Youth. Chicago, Ill.: Columbia College Chicago, 2003.

Vega, M. M. & C.Y. Greene. Voices from the Battlefront: Achieving Cultural Equity. New York: Africa World Press, 1993.

Original CAN/API publication: July 2008