ANIMATING DEMOCRACY E-NEWS

 Animating Democracy News and Updates

Americans for the Arts announces Exemplar Program Field Advancement grants

www.AmericansForTheArts.org/AnimatingDemocracy
The Animating Democracy/Working Capital Fund Exemplar Program, a program of Americans for the Arts supported by the Ford Foundation, has made Field Advancement grants to Exemplar grant cohort members. Through a competitive proposal process, grantees were invited to describe and define activities or projects that would serve their learning interests, and that may also inform and engage the field. Learning activities will focus on areas such as organizational health and stability, curriculum models, and programming models at the intersection of art and civic concerns. Field Advancement grants have been made to:

• Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum
• Institute of American Indian Arts
• Cornerstone Theater Company and Liz Lerman Dance Exchange
• East Bay Center for the Performing Arts
• Wing Luke Asian Museum
• National Black Arts Festival
• Sojourn Theatre

For a full listing of grants made, including descriptions of field advancement activity, visit www.AmericansForTheArts.org/animatingdemocracy/programs/programs_015.asp.

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 News from the Field

Bill Rauch named artistic director at Oregon Shakespeare Festival

www.osfashland.org
Bill Rauch, former artistic director of Cornerstone Theater Company in Los Angeles, has been named the new artistic director at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF). Succeeding Libby Appel, who will retire at the end of the 2007 season, Rauch will work part time beginning in November 2006 and will start full time in June 2007. Says Rauch, “…I look forward to partnering with Paul Nicholson (executive director) to lead OSF to achieve its full potential as both a regional resource and a truly national theater company.”

Creative Capital and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts announce Arts Writers Grant Program

www.artswriters.org
Initiated by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and administered by Creative Capital, The Creative Capital | Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant is a three-year pilot program designed to support critical writing on contemporary visual art through project-based grants issued directly to individual authors. The first program of its type, the Arts Writers Grant was founded in recognition of both the financially precarious situation of arts writers and their indispensable contribution to a vital artistic culture. Approximately 20 grants will be awarded per annual cycle, ranging from $3,000–$50,000. Art historians, artists, critics, curators, journalists, and practitioners from other fields that engage contemporary visual art and culture are welcome to apply. The Creative Capital | Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant will open for online submissions on August 14, 2006. The deadline for grant applications is September 18, 2006.

For more information about the program, visit www.artswriters.org.

Sprout Fund organizes The Idea Round Up

www.sproutfund.org
www.engagepittsburgh.org
On September 9, 2006, at a one-day event in Pittsburgh, The Sprout Fund will engage creative young thinkers and regional leaders in a conversation that promotes new thinking about the topics that matter most to their communities. During this civic engagement symposium, participants will learn about what’s happening in other communities nationally, engage in panel discussions with regional leaders, and work in small design groups to generate ideas. Twenty local visual artists will take part in the event by illustrating the ideas generated throughout the day. The Sprout Fund will also announce plans to release $100,000 in funding to support projects that grow out of the ideas developed during this event.

The Idea Round Up is the launch event for The Sprout Fund's Engage Pittsburgh 2006, an initiative that will involve citizens in developing ideas and implementing projects to achieve positive regional change and broad-based community goals.

City Lore opens Weavings of War, Fabrics of Memory

www.citylore.org
On September 9, 2006, City Lore (NY) will open a new traveling exhibition—Weavings of War, Fabrics of Memory. Weavings of War addresses a widespread international trend in which textile artists from around the world (mostly women) have broken with tradition to depict their own experiences of modern warfare. Displayed at the opening will be more than 50 woven, embroidered, and/or appliquéd rugs, wall hangings, articles of clothing, and household objects that turn the lens of folk art on modern-day tools of destruction: helicopters, tanks, rifles, grenades, minefields, massacres, and labor camps. Each piece will be accompanied by photos and interviews of refugee-artists reflecting upon modern warfare in Afghanistan, Vietnam, Laos, Chile, Peru, Palestine, and South Africa.

Weavings of War, Fabrics of Memory will close October 15, 2006.

Unconditional Theatre documents anti-war protests in Crawford, TX

www.untheatre.org
In summer 2005, members of the San Francisco-based Unconditional Theatre visited Crawford, TX, to interview participants on all sides of the anti-war protests. As a result, Founding Director John Warren developed Voices of Activism: Crawford. Part performance and part dialogue, the piece shares the stories of the "regular people" who camped outside George W. Bush’s ranch and aims to engage viewers in constructive dialogue across the ideological divide.

Voices of Activism: Crawford is available for tour. Unconditional Theatre can work with your community to craft a unique event based around the performance and the issues it raises. For further information or to schedule an event, contact John Warren, founding director of Unconditional Theatre, at untheatre@earthlink.net.

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 Articles and Publications

New Village Press to release New Creative Community

www.newvillagepress.net/pub_newCreativeComm.html
This October, New Village Press will release New Creative Community: The Art of Cultural Development, a new publication by Arlene Goldbard. Defining the field of community cultural development, New Creative Community describes how communities express and develop themselves via creative accounts. Through personal stories, detailed observations, and histories, the photograph-rich book covers topics including community-based arts, theater grounded in oral history, and murals celebrating cultural heritage.

Document Arlington Project profiled by the Washington Post

www.humanitiesproject.org
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/09/AR2006080900621.html?referrer=emailarticle
In August, the Washington Post profiled the Document Arlington Project, a project in which teenagers create documentaries about Arlington County. During the five-week apprenticeship, funded by the Arlington Community Foundation and the county’s Cultural Affairs Division, six students were divided into two groups to examine issues of economic development and the county’s first African-American fire station through individual video interviews and research. Participants were offered production training, a public screening of the documentary in the fall, and a $750 stipend upon completion of the project. At the end of the project, each issue will result in a 15-minute documentary.

Community Arts Network debuts Blognet

www.communityarts.net/blog/blognet.php
In August, the Community Arts Network (CAN) announced a new feature to its website that aims to increase networking across the field of community arts: CAN Blognet. The Blognet page features links to recent entries in the web blogs the Community Arts Network regularly surveys as it develops and posts its own web content. Currently included on CAN Blognet are blogs from the Education and Community Programs at the Walker Arts Center; Arlene Goldbard; LeisureArts; Portland Public Art; The Artful Manager; and Seeing Peace: Artists in Collaboration with the United Nations. CAN Blognet is updated four times daily.

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 Events on the Horizon

Cities, Art, & Recovery: What Comes After
Dates: September 14–17, 2006
New York City

www.lmcc.net/art/recovery/2006/index.html
From Sarajevo to New Orleans, from Kigali to Beirut, artists have commented forcefully on their contemporary political and cultural predicament. On September 14–17, 2006, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council will host the second international summit of artists, architects, poets, writers, performers, filmmakers, and musicians, to consider the role of art and culture after crisis in cities across the globe. Cities, Art, & Recovery will explore the themes of art and recovery in an international scheme by featuring a thorough program of films, exhibitions, symposia, performances, and a public art competition.

Katrina: After the Storm: Civic Engagement through Arts, Humanities, and Technology
Dates: September 27–30, 2006
Champaign-Urbana, IL

www.katrinasummit.uiuc.edu
Katrina: After the Storm: Civic Engagement through Arts, Humanities, and Technology is a free three-day summit that will unite the collective experience and expertise of artists, writers, community members, technologists, scientists, humanists, teachers, healthcare professionals, and social entrepreneurs to inspire innovative approaches and solutions to the critical social issues brought into focus by Hurricane Katrina. Event highlights include the screening of excerpts from the Katrina documentary Perseverance, followed by a panel discussion; an opportunity to record your personal story; performances; and a block party followed by spoken word performances. On Saturday, September 30, a town hall meeting will bring together participants from Louisiana, Champaign-Urbana, and other sites to discuss the issues Katrina exposed and how to address them in all communities.

Not In Our Town
Dates: October 6–8, 2006
Bloomington, IL

www.theworkinggroup.org/gathering
Ten years ago, one town took a stand against hate and violence. Hundreds of communities acted in response and a movement took shape. Launched in 1995 with a national PBS special about how the citizens of Billings, MT, joined forces to resist bigotry in their town, Not In Our Town is a media and grassroots organizing project that encourages community response to hate violence. The Not In Our Town gathering will bring together local and national Not In Our Town leaders to share their experiences and strategies for addressing hate in schools, the workplace, and the community, and will aim to develop a set of model structures for local initiatives.

For more information about Not In Our Town or to register for the event, visit www.theworkinggroup.org/gathering.

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 About Animating Democracy

Animating Democracy is a four-year initiative of Americans for the Arts and is made possible with support from the Ford Foundation.

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