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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

NC Community Arts Internship

Graduates from a four-year college who have demonstrated a strong interest in community arts administration as a career are invited to apply for a three-month internship with the North Carolina Arts Council. A stipend of $5000 is provided for living expenses. Applications are due May 1, 2010. Visit the NC Arts Council website for more information.

Study Community Arts: Auburn's Rural Studio

Back in the summer of 2007, I was lucky enough to get a little exposure to several former students of Auburn University's Rural Studio who were installing a public art piece in Arlington, Virginia titled CO2LED.

Rural Studio is a sought-after undergraduate program of the Auburn University School of Architecture. What most drew my attention was their outreach program. Students focusing in outreach work to further the $20K House, an experiment in innovative affordable housing. Students work out the question of what type of house can be designed for $10,000 in materials plus $10,000 in labor. Here is Version 3 of the house built in 2007.

The Rural Studio has encouraged creative ventures from many of its students, including the project CO2LED. Here are images I took while the piece was being constructed. It ran off of solar power and repurposed old water bottles into a sort of lightbulb, resembling the tops of reeds.

Artist Jack Sanders constructing CO2LED, 2007.

Close-up of water bottles, 2007.

Upcoming December Events

Chrome and Stone: Opening Reception
December 4 - 6-8:30 PM - Gateway Gallery - Winston-Salem
This exhibition will feature digitally enhanced photographs of hotrods and muscle cars by Walker Lewis, Jr. and infrared film photographs of England, Cornwall and South Wales by James C. Williams. The exhibition will contrast the vanishing media of infrared film photography with the burgeoning field of digital photography, a media that threatens to replace film. The Enrichment Center Percussion Ensemble will perform during the reception. The exhibition will remain on display through January 16.
Cost: Free. 777-0076 x238.

Our Journey Your Destination
December 10 - 7 PM - Enrichment Center - Winston-Salem
The Enrichment Center will present "Our Journey Your Destination," an original performance, on December 10, 7pm in Gateway Gallery. A dress rehearsal on December 9, 11am, will be open to the public. The program, a dramatic blend of dance, acrobatics, drama, and street entertainment with whimsical characters, will feature actors and dancers with and without disabilities and music by the Enrichment Center Percussion Ensemble. The show highlights the journey of the main character, "The Fallen Sparrow," a metaphor for the struggle between acceptance and denial suffered by a young woman who loses the use of her legs and is suddenly confined to a wheelchair. The performance was choreographed by Laurette Henry, director of the Enrichment Center Performance Company. A reception and sale of holiday gift items created by the Enrichment Center's artists will follow the performance.
Cost: Free. Seating is limited. 777-0076 x238.

Signing Artist/Gallery Contracts
December 11 - Noon- Associated Artists - Winston-Salem
Steve Virgil of the WFU Community Law Clinic will lead a conversation on the artist contract."The Artist and the Gallery - questions to consider before signing a contract."
Cost: Free. 722-0340.

ArtQuest: Community Arts Sundays
Sundays Through December 20 - 3-5 PM - Green Hill Center for North Carolina Art - Greensboro
Sponsored by Lincoln Financial. Explore the many cultures of your community. Each month features arts and crafts activities of cultures from around the world that contribute to our local community.

Study Community Arts in Graduate School- RISD Masters in Arts and Design Education

For those who are interested in going back to school and don't mind traveling far, here is a program recommended by the Community Arts Network.

Rhode Island School of Design: MA in Arts and Design Education
Community Arts Education Track

The MA Community Arts Education option is designed to provide a professional qualification for the "teaching artist" who sees a career in the expanding field of arts learning in community-based arts centers and organizations and in out-of-school time programming. In addition to the MA program’s set of core courses, a Community Arts Education student’s program of study includes professional practice internships which take place in one of a number of community arts organizations or agencies in Providence or in surrounding communities.

These include AS220, New Urban Arts, RiverzEdge, and CityArts for Youth. Additionally, studies include studio, graduate seminars, and liberal arts. The selection is dependent on personal interests and requirements specified for the track.

Image of RISD from Business Week

Fun Facts about RISD:

1. RISD is located in Providence, Population 175,000. The city has been dubbed a "Renaissance City" because of the nurturing environment it now offers to artists.

2. RISD brings over 200 prominent artists to campus each year.

3. Education is interdisciplinary. Students are encouraged to take classes outside their area of study.

4. Student body is about 2,300 people.

5. 94% of RISD students are employed after graduation, over 65% in their direct field of study. 6. Ongoing projects of interest at RISD include the design and construction of alternative housing for Pakistani refugees and the design of super-efficient homes.

7. The RISD Museum of Art has collections in Ancient Art, Asian Art, Contemporary Art, Textiles, Painting/Sculpture, Decorative Arts, and Prints/Drawings/Photographs.