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

Greensboro's Interactive Resource Center a Model for Community Arts Programming

Even though the Interactive Resource Center is a new nonprofit in Greensboro, they seem to be old pros at utilizing local artists to contribute to its mission. Upon visiting the website for the IRC, one immediately realizes that two stories on its homepage involve artists.

To give some background, the IRC is a day center for the homeless population in Greensboro. The center runs a number of services from providing lunch to connecting the homeless to needed resources to giving access to shower and laundry facilities. Below are short summaries of the project, however anyone interested in the project should really visit the links below, which have great in-depth videos and summaries of the projects.

Community Arts Story Number One:

Artist John Martin will work with citizens who visit the IRC to create a piece of public art. Clients will carve designs out of foam, and Martin will cast the foam in aluminum. In this way, the users of the center will also be responsible for enhancements to the building grounds.

Community Arts Story Number Two:
In celebration of a global event titled Help-Portrait, local photographers set up a temporary studio at the IRC to supply clients at the center with professional photographs.

Greensboro photographers contribute to global event, Help Portrait.

Arts for Life Benefit via Life in Forsyth

Eat at selected restaurants next Thursday and benefit Arts for Life! Get more information at Life in Forsyth.

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

Remember the ARRA and the promise of arts funding? A lot of funding from the ARRA has gone to sustaining existing arts education. However, there were also new opportunities in this act. Although this website from the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies is a bit wordy, it may be worth an artist or arts organization's time to scan through this stuff. The page outlines different areas of government funding and how some of that money could be used for the arts. Here are a couple blurbs from the page that seemed especially promising to me:

Transportation Enhancements: States have different emphases with these projects, but they can include "landscaping design, street furniture, lighting, public art, historic preservation, and gateways. State arts agencies have developed experience working in partnership with state departments of transportation on joint projects funded by the TE program."

Elementary and Secondary Education: "These funds can always be used to support arts education."