Did anybody hear how the !POWAR! reception went?

I sadly was unable to attend the !POWAR! reception at the last Gallery Hop on October 1st. Did anyone attend or hear how it went?

!POWAR! (People of Winston-Salem Art Reclamation Program) is a program to use public art to fight graffiti and raise awareness of gang activity. A pilot program was held during the summer after East Ward Council Member Derwin L. Montgomery held meetings with local artists to come up with creative ways to fight graffiti.

During the pilot program, nine students age 11-15 worked with artist Marianne DiNapoli-Mylet to create a “mobile” mural on sailcloth that will be used to introduce the program to schools, corporations and organizations. The students also created a gang-prevention coloring book that will be printed and distributed to local schools.

ReBlog from DWSP: Upcoming Business 40 Improvement Project Corridor Wide Announcement for Downtown W-S

http://downtownwinstonsalem.blogspot.com/2010/09/upcoming-business-40-improvement.html


Let's not forget as we share our thoughts on the Business 40 Redesign that our history and connection to each other are just as important as beautiful aesthetics. Bridges are for connecting, after all.

Conflict Kitchen: Phase 2

Back in July, I posted about a Pittsburgh project called Conflict Kitchen that is serving the community cultural understanding via delicious food experiences. The folks at Conflict Kitchen have asked me to post an update on the second phase of their project, an Afghan cuisine restaurant called Bolani Pazi. They are looking for community support to get the restaurant up and running. Visit their website for more information.

DATS 2010: FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Update...

"Urban Ag" panel discussion, moderated by CFSA Executive Director Roland McReynolds...

Sharon Morrison, PhD, will be one of the panelists at "World Food in the Piedmont", an exploration abut how new populations are changing our ideas and attitudes about food. Dr. Morrision is Associate Professor at the UNCG Dept of Health Education and Director of the Undergraduate Program.

Greensboro's Table 16 will be one of the participating restaurants at "DATS MashUp", a collaborative, cross-cultural cooking experience teaming American chefs with refugee-immigrants.

3-day event at the stunning new Sawtooth in downtown WS!

Want to know more?

Check out:

http://youngprojects.blogspot.com

and in just a couple of days, the official registration site for DATS 2010...

http://2010.datstriad.org

See you there!

Solar Farm Doubles as Art Installation

Beautiful and breathtaking- you must check out this post from inhabitat.com on Light Sanctuary, designed by Martina Decker and Peter Yeadon.

Image from DeckerYeadon.com.

British Plan to Cut Arts Funding by 40%

So the British plan to slash arts funding by up to 40%, anticipating and expecting it to increase the philanthropic drive of the British people to save its own arts culture from faltering under such a large funding gap. While this fly-by-the-seat-of-your-knickers rationale…hmm…I’m left without much to say.

Arts organizations, especially the small ones, are always on the brink of folding in the U.S. How can arts survive? Combine form and function.

WFU Grad Explains How Photovoice and Psychology Came Together in Kenya

Janelle recently helped me make a discovery--North Carolina has some booming activity going on in Photovoice.

Janelle Summerville is a recent graduate of Wake Forest University and a current doctoral student at the University of Virginia. While attending WFU, she traveled to Kenya for a summer and asked female students there to document their identities using a digital camera. Janelle is a student of psychology, and these photographs provided her with wonderful qualitative data that helped shed light on the values of Kenyan girls--but I divulge too much. I'd rather let Janelle's words speak for themselves. The text of a short e-mail interview I did with Janelle is provided below. And thanks again for sparking my interest in Photovoice. I had no idea there was such a deep pool of scholarship and activity going on in this field. I can't wait to share posts on other NC projects later...

Janelle with the girls of Saint Edwin's Children's Home in Kimende, Kenya

Triad Community Arts: Why photography? What made you choose this medium to study self-esteem in Kenyan girls?

Janelle Summerville: As I was preparing to go to Kenya, I read several articles and books about incorporating art into psychological research. I became particularly engaged by the idea of utilizing different methods to encourage the power of the participant to actively play a role in representing themselves, rather than simply be represented by the researcher. Photography stood out for me for several reasons. From an artistic standpoint, the thought of seeing raw photography was fascinating to me. I was intrigued by the concept of what level of honest work would come out of girls who had never used a camera before and had lives that are not as image/media-dense as we have in the States. Secondly, I felt that photography gave the girls an opportunity to capture snippets of their lives in ways that transcends conversation and is not restricted the same way by self-perceived talent like you would find using painting or dance. Thirdly, the permanence and emotional power of it. Photography provided a way to capture a small segment of the reality of their daily experience and bring it back to present to others and share the experience, share their struggle in a way that a thousand words could not. Pictures speak to people and make things real for them, so I felt that it was my responsibility to bring that all back with me.

TCA: In the article I read [on Wake's website], you stated that Kenyan girls do not tend to value themselves as individuals the same way U.S. children do. What values did you find some of the girls had?

JS: In the short time I was there, I found that academics were highly valued, being useful to the group as a whole (through work to sustain and maintain the children’s home such as cooking, cleaning, food errands, etc.) was also highly valued. Girls as young as 7 would participate in the daily operations of the building in a way that many U.S. children would not be allowed to – but it was of vital importance that the girls worked together to promote the well-being of all. Physically, long hair was valued, although the girls all had their hair completely cut off. Additionally, I was a bit surprised to hear how highly valued light skin and more caucasian traits were.

TCA: How was the process of using photography to collect information different from using surveys or interviews? What benefits and drawbacks did you find with this process?

JS: They worked so well together. Photography opened up conversations in interviews that would have never happened and allowed for a starting point for discussion and exploration. Surveys, in my opinion, often offer a preliminary understanding similar to a sketch before it is filled in with paint or a skeleton without flesh. It’s a wonderful base and support from research, but neglects some of the detail you can get with interviews and an artistic method. In the end, I used a mixed-method approach and photography was an integral part of the full picture of self in the context of an orphaned Kenyan girl. The only drawbacks came from the organizational aspects such as downloading and labeling the COUNTLESS photos that the girls took. Additionally, the director of the children’s home did not want me to leave the cameras with the girls for fear that they would be assaulted for them or feel driven to sell them for food, etc. I felt silly for not considering that possibility, but was able to adjust my plan in order to accompany them to different places and spend enough time with them each day that we could get diverse photographs to represent their daily lives and experiences. The major benefit was the look on the girl’s face taking photographs as they ran around capturing anything and everything. It was such a joy being able to be a part of that and giving them a chance to represent themselves in that way.

Upcoming August Events

African American Atelier Presents: 25UNDER25
Through August 6 - Greensboro Cultural Center - Greensboro
25under25 highlights a diverse group of eclectic and vibrant young artists from the Triad Community. An extensive range of expression and media will be showcased, integrating the experiences and perspectives of the members of the millennial generation.
333.6885 or info@africanamericanatelier.org

Pathway to Freedom
Through August 20 - 8 PM - Snow Camp Outdoor Drama Site - Snow Camp
An exciting account of the struggles and heroism of the 1840's and 1850's along the "Underground Railroad" from NC to Indiana. Both individuals and some organized religions fought slavery in the legislature and on the farms, while some, led volunteers and free slaves in clandestine efforts to help escaping slaves to freedom. Music in the play is the music of the period and enriches the emotions of the play.
800.726.5115 or snowcampot@aol.com

Alternate Roots Annual Meeting
August 10 - 15 - Lutheridge Conference Center - Arden, NC
In 2010, Alternate ROOTS launches a three-year initiative, The Aesthetics of Diversity. It will explore issues and opportunities to advance a progressive agenda in the South through the lens of the South’s newest citizens, immigrants from Spanish-speaking countries, India, Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean. Aesthetics of Diversity will examine questions of art and culture focusing on place in 2010, people in 2011, and traditions in 2012. The goal is to build bridges across and among diverse communities and inform discussions such that members of various communities have a lens through which to view how they may positively impact change in their community.
404.577.1079

Photography Dialogs: John Rosenthal and Linda Foard Roberts
Wednesday, August 11 - 5:30 PM - Green Hill Center for NC Art - Greensboro
Rosenthal will speak about his latest series of color photographs of New Orleans taken one year and a half after Hurricane Katrina. Roberts will present her large format digital photographs "Simple Truths" portraying her family and home. Both photographers will then discuss the nature of their medium.
333.7460 or liz.busch@greenhillcenter.org

Recycle Labyrinth Swap-a-Thon
Saturday, August 14 - 2-5 PM - SECCA Grounds - Winston-Salem
During the Swap-a-Thon event, volunteers from Piedmont Craftsmen will help guide visitors through creating and experiencing the labryinth.The community is asked to bring useable household items (non-clothing) that they can incorporate into the labyrinth while walking through it. (Please limit the size of the items to be no larger/heavier than a microwave oven. If you can't carry it easily, then it is too big.)Visitors may also select one item to take home that they can use, making the labyrinth an ever-changing installation as items are added and taken away.At the close of the project, the labyrinth will be disassembled and left-over items will be donated to local non-profit organizations, such as Habitat ReStore, Rescue Mission, and Goodwill Industries.
Free. 725.1904 or seccainfo@ncdcr.gov

Again and Never Again: Can We Coexist with Ourselves?
August 19 - September 1st - Guilford College Art Gallery - Greensboro
Environmental artist Bryant Holsenbeck will create, with community participation, a monumental installation made entirely from recycled materials, Aug. 19-Sept. 1. (316-2483 to schedule time.) She will discuss her endeavor to live one year without using disposable plastic products at the reception in the Guilford College Art Gallery, Wednesday, Sept. 1, 5-7 p.m. as part of 'green & beyond', the college-wide theme year on sustainability. Exhibition runs through Oct 1.

Lanterns of Hope
Saturday, August 28 - 6:30-9 PM - Summer on Trade - Winston-Salem
During Summer on Trade at the corner of Sixth and Trade Streets, the Forsyth County Public Library will be providing attendees with peace lanterns to decorate with their own art.
Free. E-mail esparze2@forsyth.cc.

Catch Up with DWSP

Recently, the Downtown Winston-Salem Partnership blog has had several arts-related posts. Check 'em out:

Winston-Salem Bus Shelter Competition!

Charlotte Blog takes notice of efforts in the City of Arts and Innovation

MICD 25 Spotlight on Winston-Salem, NC

Acts of Creation Opening at Enrichment Center

A reblog from Life in Forsyth: Local Acts of Creation.
Don't miss the opening of Acts of Creation at the Enrichment Center this Friday!

DATS 2010: Food for Thought update

DESIGN, ART, TECHNOLOGY SYMPOSIUM

An Annual Piedmont Event About Important Ideas

2010: FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Sawtooth Center, Winston-Salem

October 9, 10, 11

(This notice covers my contribution to DATS 2010. Click here for the official site.—Andrew Young)

My paid role is to insure multicultural and alternative viewpoints through the creation of venues and other forums at this year’s event. Food is about culture. It is one of those rare, big tent themes in which everyone in the Piedmont has an interest. Everyone can bring their experience and know-how.
The best gardener I knew was my grandmother. The most flexible cook I knew was my mom. Both were frugal and could do a lot with a little. In my view, those are high standards for designers, artists, and technology innovators, whether in good economic times or bad. (more)
Why I proposed food as the DATS theme (more)
Food Geography (more)
Participate in a venue (more)

Recreation of a UN shelter, food and water at Festival Park.

Grant to Fund Master Plan for Business 40 Bridges

Today the Winston-Salem Journal published new information on the Business 40 bridges project. The Creative Corridors Coalition will administer a grant to the Arts Council and City of Winston-Salem to assemble a team of urban designers, artists, and planners to create a master plan for the two-year construction project.

My hope is that the new bridges will allow for safer, more inviting pedestrian activity. I did some basic research a few years ago on bridges for the Florida Community Design Center in Gainesville, Florida. Here were a couple of my favorites:

One not so practical for two- or four-lane traffic:

By Miro Rivera Architects, this bridge is over Lake Austin in Austin, TX.

Zubizuri Bridge in Bilbao, Spain.

Documentary by WFU Student, Courteney Morris, Now on YouTube

Just got word that a short documentary by Wake Forest University student, Courteney Morris, is now available on the university's YouTube page. Here it is below:

Citizen Artist!

While browsing the Community Arts Network website (pretty much the best resource there is on socially-minded and interactive art), I found a syllabus for a class called Citizen Artist. The collaboration between high school and college students reminded me so much of Transforming Race, a project I posted on earlier, I couldn't wait to get a link to the syllabus up on the blog.

'Conflict Kitchen' Feeds You Public Art in the Form of Food

A delicious sandwich shop has sprung up in Pittsburgh called "Conflict Kitchen." Funded by the Sprout Fund, the Waffle Shop, and the Center for the Arts in Society at Carnegie Mellon, the restaurant is an experiment in public art. Conflict Kitchen only serves a yummy dish from a country with which the United States is in conflict. Currently, Conflict Kitchen is serving up an Iranian dish called Kubideh. Later in the year, the Conflict Kitchen will serve up dishes from other countries. Check out the great NPR story on the project.

Image from kubidehkitchen.com

Digital Arts & Technology Symposium 2010

There is a bit of information available on the Center for Design and Innovation's website regarding the food-focused Digital Arts & Technology Symposium (DATS) scheduled for this fall, and Greensboro artist and blogger, Andrew Young, has plenty of brainstorming available. Check out his blog to get psyched for DATS 2010.

RECYCLE LABYRINTH SWAP-A-THON

Learned of this cool community art partnership between Piedmont Craftsmen and SECCA via local blog, Life in Forsyth. Scheduled for Saturday, August 14 from 2 to 5 PM. Visit Life in Forsyth for more information!

Upcoming July Events

Art Can! Feed the Hungry
Saturday, July 3 - Mid-Morning to Early Afternoon - Greensboro
Art Can! is a new Fun Fourth attraction, sponsored by the United Arts Council of Greater Greensboro, to create a temporary public art installation made of canned foods items. Architects Shermin Ata of Shermin Ata Architects with Micah Martin and Emily Hinton of Moser Mayer Phoenix Architects have joined forces to design a U.S. Flag public art installation constructed out of Campbell Soup cans. Fun Fourth attendees will be able to watch the installation as well as construct their own designs made out of donated canned goods.
373-7523 or alayman@uacarts.org

Opening: Frau Fiber and Sewing with the People
Friday, July 2 - 6 - 11 PM - Elsewhere Artist Collaborative - Greensboro
Elsewhere is sewing non-stop this June with particularly exceptional visiting artist Frau Fiber. Our fabric workshop has undergone a renovation to become Revolution Textiles, a new site for community convergence around the patterns that thread our times past and present. We're hosting a full month of textile-related events and fabric related programming. Frau Fiber is working with former mill workers, Boys and Girls Club groups, newcomer women, and people like you who want to learn to sew and/or help create a collaborative quilt utilizing Elsewhere's fabrics collection. A special opening event for the collaborative quilt, featuring a free community dinner and ceremonial final stitch.
549-5555

Opening of Happy Hill: Past and Present
Friday, July 9 - 7 PM - Diggs Gallery at WSSU - Winston-Salem
Happy Hill is Winston-Salem’s oldest African American community. For generations, residents have preserved the oral history of the neighborhood and its families. The exhibition documents this important legacy through the art and testimony of community leaders such as Georgiana Paige McCoy, Maurice Pitts Johnson, Kathleen Bitting Mock, Pastor Edith Jones, Nathaniel Tucker, William “Rock” Bitting, Jerry Hanes, Glen Johnson, Ben Piggott, Leander Sales, Kayyum Allah, James Funches and others. The exhibition includes architectural models of area homes embellished by local participants, paintings, photographs, video documentation of the community and a multi-media installation of a juke joint. The show features works by celebrated artists Chandra Cox, Juan Logan, Larry Sass, Leon Woods and Willie Little.
750-2458

StoryLine and SECCA Partner to Collect Arts-Based Community Stories

Check out SECCA's blog for more information.

Littoral: Redefining Art

While trying to decipher the meaning of a Lockheed Martin ad I read about in the Washington Post this morning, (It reads, "The shape of littoral dominance has a familiar look." Hmm...) I found a United Kingdom organization, Littoral, whose mission has very little to do with seashores and coasts but everything to do with community arts.

Littoral is "a nonprofit arts trust which promotes new creative partnerships, critical art practices and cultural strategies in response to issues about social, environmental and economic change."

Most of their work, collected under the title New Fields, examines and promotes the relationship between arts and agriculture.

Image from Littoral website.

A particularly unique project involves a collaboration between trade unions and artists called Routes. Littoral puts it best: "Invoking the historical links between the arts and the trade union movement, the project was framed to encourage the unions to rethink their cultural role as promoters of cross community unity in post-settlement Ireland."

In 2003, Littoral learned that "Transport House" (image below) , the trade union headquarters building, would be sold. Transport House was very important both historically and architecturally. Littoral led two artists to document the history of the building and propose future uses (such as a cultural and community arts center for working people) Again with Arts Council funding, two artists were employed to document the history of the building, and its possible future use as a cultural and community arts centre for working people. Visit Littoral's website for an extensive and captivating explanation of what has followed the initial proposal.

Photo of Transport House by Frankie Quinn.

StoryLine Turned 1!

StoryLine recently had its first anniversary on June 4. The celebration featured several moving moments by local artists and storytellers, including an especially well-received performance by Cara and Mackenzie Hagan. The two sisters joined StoryLine conversations with dance for a short performance that can only be experienced and not described.

Check out Cara's story at http://www.storylineproject.org/stories/listen/family?page=2, and listen to all the other special stories collected over the past year.

Picture from StoryLine facebook page

Art Can! Feed the Hungry...Fun Fourth Public Art Project

Temporary Public Art Project to Feed the Hungry at Fun Fourth Art Can! is a new Fun Fourth attraction, sponsored by the United Arts Council of Greater Greensboro, to create a temporary public art installation made of canned foods items. Architects Shermin Ata of Shermin Ata Architects with Micah Martin and Emily Hinton of Moser Mayer Phoenix Architects have joined forces to design a U.S. Flag public art installation constructed out of Campbell Soup cans. Fun Fourth attendees will be able to watch the installation as well as construct their own designs made out of donated canned goods. "We're pleased to bring our creative community together to help stock and replenish the Greensboro Urban Ministry Food Bank at a time when folks generally aren't thinking about feeding the hungry. It's a wonderful example of how Art Can! make a difference," said UAC Interim President and CEO Altina Layman. Want to help? Canned food donations will be accepted for the project at the Freedom Run and Walk on June 26th, 1776 performances at the Carolina Theatre on July 1 and 2nd and Kickoff Block Party on July 2nd. Donations will also be accepted at the Parade and Street Festival on Saturday, July 3rd in designated areas marked by balloon columns. Construction will take place on July 3rd mid-morning to early afternoon in the parking lot off of Davie Street, near Summit Station Eatery. Prior to June 26th, donations may be dropped off at the following downtown locations: Carolina Theatre, Action Greensboro and the Greensboro Cultural Center between 11am - 5pm Monday-Friday. On July 4th, donations may be made at the News & Record Pops Concert and Gate City Fireworks Spectacular at Grimlsely High School Stadium. For more information, please contact Altina Layman at the United Arts Council at 336-373-7523 or by email at alayman@uacarts.org.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT: Altina Layman 336.373.7523, extension 242 alayman@uacARTS.org

Great Article in The Chronicle about Art & Racial Identity

Here is the article from The Chronicle bit by bit. It was too large to scan in as one image. My apologies! Click each image to enlarge.

A Women’s Weaving Group

• Supporting refugee and immigrant women to preserve traditional weaving
• First organizational meeting held at the Greensboro Central Library on June 10
• Efforts to create viable model
• Meeting attracts Nepali and Montagnard weavers; others welcome!

Pastor Y Hin Nie hosted the meeting and invited Betsy Renfrew, a Greensboro artist who has been working with Montagnard weavers intensively for the past two years, to discuss with several women who attended the possibilities in forming a cooperative or other group to preserve and promote backstrap weaving, a practice known among many Southeast Asian refugee women who live in the Piedmont. Such a group could also purchase hard to find thread and other materials, hold classes, sell work and keep technical and traditional skills alive.

A second meeting is planned for July at the Greensboro Historical Museum, details to come. 

• See videos of Montagnard backstrap weavers in Greensboro on YouTube.
• Read about the Montagnard weaver whose work was prominently featured at the Green Hill's 2009 Winter Show
• See related work on a women's sewing and English conversation class.

For more information, please contact Betsy Renfrew at betsyrenfrew@triad.rr.com

Somebody Visit The EnergyXChange!

About 2.5 hours west of the Piedmont, the EnergyXChange is a center that uses landfill gas (methane and other gases that escape from landfills) as an energy source for a clay studio and a glass studio. Artists can do residencies at the EnergyXChange. The complex includes four greenhouses, three cold frames, a retail craft gallery, a visitor center, along with the two aforementioned studios.

And EnergyXChange encourages group visits, which is why I am emploring you to visit and tell me about it, so that I can post your journal entry here.

Image from EnergyXChange website.

Graffiti: Public Menace and Public Art?

Last night, the Winston-Salem City Council held a public hearing on the possibility of making tighter restrictions to discourage graffiti artists. Graffiti has its obvious destructive qualities, but it's also a form of public art.

Work by artist/photographer, JR.

And in the instance below, discovered at inhabitat.org, graffiti can mobilize a community. Artists Jeroen Koolhaas and Dre Urhahn work with youth to paint humongous murals in favelas (large squatter settlements) in Brazil.

Images from favelapainting.com.

City of W-S Human Relations Department and WFU Art Department Collaborate on Art Project as Part of Kenan Institute for the Arts' ACCORD Initiative

As part of the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts’ ACCORD Initiative, the City of Winston-Salem Human Relations Department and the Wake Forest University (WFU) Art Department are collaborating on a visual art project entitled Transforming Race.

The Transforming Race project will culminate in the presentation of visual art pieces by five public high school students and five WFU art students that address issues relating to racial identity and diversity at a gallery opening on Thursday, June 10, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Liberty Arts Center at 526 North Liberty Street in downtown Winston-Salem. The opening is free and open to the public. The art will remain on display at the Liberty Arts Center for just one evening before traveling to high schools throughout the county during the next academic year.

Photo credit: Paul Marley, WFU Art Department.

The ACCORD initiative, which stands for Artists Contributing to Civic-Oriented and Responsive Democracy, is a project of the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts dedicated to sparking dialogue about the essential role of the arts and civic-minded artists within a thriving democracy. Through this initiative, the Institute is partnering local nonprofit organizations and governmental agencies with area college students to create arts-based projects that address community needs and/or social issues.

The high school and college students participating in the Transforming Race project are working together in pairs to examine racial attitudes, personal experiences, and the overall relevance of diversity. The goals of Transforming Race are to: create a dialogue among participants about racial identity that leads to insights about those different from themselves; have participants work together to find words, images and metaphors that can communicate the problems and joys of being a person raised in a multiracial, post-segregation society; use the content developed in the workshop to create art objects that convey the feelings, attitudes and conclusions of the participants; and use the art to communicate issues of racial identity beyond the participants to the high school community and further.Participants in the project include five artists from WFU: Becky Bowers, senior; Courtney Whicker, junior; Mary Alice McCullough, freshman; Katie Wolf, freshman; and Lauren Arrington, junior; as well as a videographer, Courteney Morris, senior. Participating high school artists are Rae-Yao Lee, a junior at Reagan High School; Victor Mendoza, a junior at Parkland High School; Elizabeth Rosales, , a junior at Parkland High School; Brandon Wilkins, a junior at Parkland High School; and Jonathan Cunningham, a sophomore at Mt. Tabor High School.

Transforming Race is the second project of the ACCORD Initiative. This partnership project is a strong example of such community outreach. For more information, contact the Kenan Institute at 722-0030.

My Art Generates Power. What Can Your Art Do?

Via the highly informative green design blog, inhabitat.org, I learned of a call for artists for the Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI). LAGI describes itself as a program that brings together...

artists, architects, scientists, landscape architects, and engineers in a
first of its kind collaboration. The goal of the Land Art Generator Initiative
is to design and construct a series of land art installations across the United
Arab Emirates that uniquely combine aesthetics with clean energy generation.

LAGI hopes to create a tourist destination around the ability to view these sculptural projects that also generate energy.

LAGI is currently holding an international design competition in which design teams can choose between three different sites, one of which is shown below. LAGI intends to see winning concepts through to construction with the artist team that proposed the design. Want to create a permanent land art structure in Abu Dhabi? Get drawing!

Image from www.landartgenerator.org.

Review of The Yesman

Check out Jana Tasich's review of The Yes Man, an original play that is the result of a collaboration between The Enrichment Center, students at UNCSA, and Art Tasting.

Local Theater Students Use Arts To Teach

Here is an article from the May 6, 2010 edition of the Winston-Salem Chronicle on Wake Forest University theater students using teachers' curricula to further students' understanding of their lessons. Excuse the format- I didn't have a scanner big enough to get the full page in one file.

Creative Aging Symposium: Thursday and Friday in Greensboro

The Creative Aging Symposium offers artists and healthcare professionals ways to embrace creativity and advance culture change in aging service environments. Because of the rapidly expanding older population and related lifestyle changes, we must find new ways to improve the quality of life for older adults of all ability levels. This highly interactive two-day Symposium will highlight important research results and raise awareness of resources available at the national, state and local levels during the General Session on Thursday. Workshops on Friday will offer experiential concurrent sessions providing valuable hands-on tools to encourage innovative thought and implementation of new creative programs.

Objectives: (1) learn about the untapped potential of older adults and the growing field of creative aging, including research and programming at the national, state and local levels (2) receive hands-on training in creative programs that you can take back to your community (3) learn about the resources and creative opportunities that exist for older adults locally, regionally and nationally, and (4) connect with other artists and aging service providers in your area.

What an impressive organization to have right here in the Piedmont. Attend if you can!

Teaching Literacy While Instilling Empathy in Students

Troubles, Worries, Work

Moving day. It always scared me to death.
Troubles, worries, work.
It includes everything to make me crazy. Some people
like it, but not me. There is always some
hope but what are hopes? Hopes bring
troubles, worries, work,
and they include everything to make me crazy. Some people
like it, but not me. I would like not to move.
I would like to stay, because actually days
are not moving. There are no moving days.
Time stays. We move. I would like to stay
not to move.

-- Madmax

Stumbled upon a great resource called Teaching Tolerance, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center. One particular project drew me in-- teachers use poetry by homeless people to teach literacy. Students read and understand a poem, write a poem based on their feelings about home, learn to understand why some people are homeless, and empathize with other homeless children. This method of teaching has such multiplying benefits. While attempting to reach a singular of teaching literacy, teachers can affect students' emotional maturity, give a social studies lesson, and encourage students to express themselves in artistic ways.

The poem above is from a writing workshop at the Clergy Coalition Shelter for the Homeless in Hoboken, New Jersey.

Pixels for Food: Artist Bill Brown Uses Design Skills as Fundraising Tool

A friend of mine named Bill Brown, who is a graduate of Wake Forest, spoke yesterday at a conference in New Orleans called Launch Fest, self-labeled a "fun conference for serious entrepreneurs." The project Bill discussed is called Pixels for Food. Bill has been working at a community center and food pantry for the last year called the Community Center of St. Bernard. Pixels for Food is an online donation site inspired by his experience there. Check out a screen shot of the site below. The site is interactive, so be sure to visit yourself.

The Enrichment Center and UNCSA Collaborate on Play as Part of Kenan Institute for the Arts' ACCORD Initiative

As part of the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts’ ACCORD Initiative, The Enrichment Center and students from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA), who are also part of Art Tasting, an emerging performing arts organization in Winston-Salem, are presenting an original short play by Ian Antal and Suzy McCalley. The play, entitled “The Yesman,” will be performed Thursday, April 29 at 7:00 p.m. at The Enrichment Center at 1006 S. Marshall Street in Winston-Salem.
Visit the Kenan Institute's website for more information.

Gulu Choir Sings "Home"

Although The Voice Project is by no means local organization (it's based in Uganda), it offers a truly inspiring example of social change through art. Ravaged by conflict and war, Ugandan women, victims of rape and widowhood themselves, are using songs to bring home boy soldiers who have fled to the bush in shame and fear of the violence they committed. These songs are played on the radio or sung by women's choirs in villages across Uganda.

I found out about the organization because of an international exchange in which musicians offer up their talent and music in various ways to help bring attention to the work of the Voice Project. The Gulu Women's Choir sings a song I enjoy, "Home" by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. I applaud these musicians for bringing attention to the project with their voices, but the truly remarkable voices are those of the women who communicate love, acceptance, and forgiveness with their voices.

"Home" in Gulu from The Voice Project on Vimeo.

Alternate ROOTS Annual Meeting in NC!

Alternative ROOTS Annual Meeting Website: Click Above

Presenting: Public Performances by Renown Artist, Tim Miller

Groundbreaking performance artist, world renowned humorist, writer, social and political satirist, post-modern avant garde artist and gay rights activist, Tim Miller, will perform this week at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Co-founder of two of the most influential performance spaces in the United States: Performance Space 122 on Manhattan's Lower East Side and Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica, CA, Miller is an internationally acclaimed performance artist whose frank and unabashed antics on stage and off have earned him the distinction of being one of the most controversial and sought after performers/artists/writers/political satirists and humorists of our day.

The San Diego Union Tribune says his latest performance piece, The Lay of the Land, "scores him points through humor, vivid personal anecdote and recurring sense of marvelously frank, poetic sensuality. It’s the kind of testimony and revelation that doesn’t deny his gay sexuality, yet its honesty and tenderness speak directly to any- and every- one."

You won’t want to miss this golden opportunity to see Tim Miller in Lay of the Land and to see the Student Project Performance that he has created at UNCSA.

Public Performances

Thursday, April 8 - 8:00 PM - Agnes deMille Theater, UNCSA

Saturday, April 10 - 7:30 PM - Patrons Theatre, Performance Place, UNCSA

Limited free tickets are available for UNCSA Faculty, Staff and Students.
Tickets for the Public, $7; Seniors and Students, $5. Available through the Stevens Center and Watson Hall Box Offices.

721-1945

**The material is of an adult nature and not recommended for children under 13 years of age.**

Catching Up with Kathy Ann

Last spring, the Piedmont Triad Initiative for Community Arts enlisted the help of then Salem College senior, Kathy Ann Canafax, to serve as an intern, researching social media and seeking out the best tools for online communication in the Triad. Kathy Ann was an impressively thorough, driven intern, bound for an interesting future. I checked in on her last week to see what she is up to now...

I am currently in my ninth month of AmeriCorps*VISTA service with Arts In Reach
in New Hampshire. VISTAs (Volunteers In Service To America), unlike other
AmeriCorps members, work in a not-for-profit organization to build capacity and
develop resources that increase sustainability. Although my primary tasks
are fundraising/grantwriting, strategic planning, and social media, I have also
gained experience in special event planning, Board governance, media relations,
and program
evaluation.

One of my biggest accomplishments has been assisting the Executive Director in
the creation of a short-term strategic plan. By combining her inner knowledge of
the organization with my academic understanding of planning structure, we were
able to create a working document that has helped us secure almost $20,000 in
grant funds. The greatest accomplishment of the organization this fiscal year
has been our most recent special event. Despite our feature performer
cancelling within two weeks of the event, our Board and staff cultivated a
lucrative guest list, and with the help of a charismatic presenter we have over
$37,000 in received and pledged donations from the
event.

My familiarity with nonprofit use of social media, especially through the
Piedmont Triad Initiative for Community Arts, has been particularly helpful
during my VISTA term. We have already taken a few steps toward greater
engagement of our participants through the internet, including Facebook and
YouTube, but I am hoping to create a persuasive report to be included in our
long-term strategic planning effort, which begins this month, that includes ways
to engage participants, donors, and community
members.

Ultimately, my year with Arts In Reach has been the perfect start to a career in
not-for-profit and arts management. Arts In Reach empowers teenage girls through
arts activity, and I have seen firsthand the transformation of a participant
from awkward and shy to confident and bold, through our group mentoring
activities and various means of artistic expression. Being able to
experience all aspects of a not-for-profit, from writing grants in the office to
assisting monologue practice in theatre class, is an invaluable beginning to
understanding my own strengths and interests in arts administration.

-Kathy Ann Canafax

Carolina Music Ways: Old Timey Radio Show

Before March is through, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention this March 17th Winston-Salem Journal article about Carolina Music Ways' elementary school program titled "The Carolina Music Ways Old Timey Radio Show."

Local musicians visited elementary schools to share with students their musical heritage. Musical selections ranged from traditional Moravian tunes to Doc Watson to John Coltrane. Visit the Winston-Salem journal for the in-depth article.

Wake Forest University Students Design Bottle Tower for Earth Day

Wake Forest University students are busy erecting a tower made of 2,000 plus bottles for Earth Day. This project, which reuses old plastic bottles, will serve as a "pledge collector" at the Annual Piedmont Earth Day Fair on Wake Forest's campus. Visitors to the fair will be invited to write down an environmental pledge and insert the piece of paper into the tower. To get an idea of what such a structure might look like, Wake Forest students have provided pictures from past examples of bottle towers, which you can check out on their facebook page for the project.

Esse Quam Videri

I have always thought that North Carolina's guiding slogan, "Esse Quam Videri (To be, rather than to seem)," is about the best state motto for which one could ask, one from which North Carolinians should draw pride. Now an enthralling photodocumentary project, Esse Quam Videri: Muslim Self Portraits has taken on the motto and its connotations to present the personal and varied stories of those who practice Islam in North Carolina.

The photographs are accompanied by a statement from the participants and sometimes an additional audio recording of why the participants posed as they did to present their "Muslimness" and how it has, in part, defined their identities. I've included a few of the photographs below.

Ansar, High Point, North Carolina, 2009

Tamir, Statesville, North Carolina, 2008

Cyclones, Charlotte, NC, 2008

All images are reproduced from the Esse Quam Videri: Muslim Self Portraits website.

Making Sense Out of Garbage: Artist Sayaka Ganz

Every so often, green design blog Inhabitat features incredible examples of environmental art that I immediately can't help but repost here on the Piedmont Triad Initiative for Community Art's own blog. Visit Inhabitat for a short profile of artist Sayaka Ganz, who travels the world, absorbing different cultures and making art out of trash.

From Ganz's website:

Stream

Sparkle

Flare

Convergence I