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.