The Ford Foundation announced an initiative to give $100 million “to the development of arts spaces nationwide over the next decade. The plan is by far the largest commitment the foundation has ever made to the construction, maintenance and enhancement of arts facilities.
The plan, called the Supporting Diverse Art Spaces Initiative, is one of several large financing projects that have resulted from a strategic overhaul of the foundation’s operations since its president, Luis A. Ubiñas, took over in 2008.
In addition to helping arts groups build new spaces and renovate and expand old ones, the latest initiative aims to encourage the construction of affordable housing for artists in or around some of these spaces and to spur economic development in their surrounding areas. Mr. Ubiñas said that during his travels around the country he had been astonished when he would visit an arts organization and find that “all around it have developed whole neighborhoods — of artists and their families, of businesses that cater to them, of diverse people who want to live in a thriving community.”
This notion of the economic benefits of the arts has become increasingly popular lately among arts financers and administrators, who are keenly aware that in times of economic paucity spending on the arts is sometimes seen as frivolous. Rocco Landesman, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, has been on the road frequently in recent months for a project that involves collecting information and anecdotes to help make the case to Congress and the public that the arts pay. (“Art Works” is the official slogan of the endowment’s project.)”
The New York Times 04/04/2010
04/01/2010
Subway Tunnel to Turn Into Cultural Space
“Last year, SHIFTboston, a nonprofit organization aimed at fostering creativity in urban planning, issued a call for ideas for its first annual “design inspiration” competition.
The winning proposal presented by architects Sapir Ng, an associate at Boston architecture firm Tsoi/Kobus & Associates (TK&A), and Andrzej Zarzycki, a former TK&A architect now teaching at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, laid the plans for turning an abandoned subway tunnel beneath Tremont Street into an underground art gallery, theater, and event space linking Boylston Street and the South End. That’s right: A party in the T.
Their idea stems from a growing movement in the architectural world, one that aims to preserve — and reuse — urban infrastructure.
Q. Most people use the T despite the fact it’s underground. You want us to go there for fun?
Zarzycki: The Tremont Underground Theater Space [TUTS], that’s what we’re calling it, is actually, we think, very current and appropriate. Historically, architects have worked to preserve architecture. That’s the point of the whole warehouse-chic, industrial-revival movement. But architects are slowly moving to preserve infrastructure as well, and work with the idea of keeping it part of the productive landscape. Infrastructure revitalization is about bringing new life and relevance to a city landmark.”
Visit the Tremont Underground Theater Space website at www.the-tuts.org.
Boston.com 04/01/2010
04/01/2010
“Yarnbombing” Hits the Streets
“The magnolia tree on the north side of Rittenhouse Square looks as if it were plucked from a Dr. Seuss book. Its split trunk is wrapped in a whimsical sweater of pinks, blues, purples, and oranges. The tree cozy is the work of Jessie Hemmons, 23, a graduate student in psychology at Chestnut Hill College and census worker—and a graffiti artist with a soft side. Hemmons is part of a growing trend of rogue knitters who have taken their ‘yarnbombing’ to the street to brighten the cityscape. She ties crocheted flowers to lampposts, wraps bike racks with rainbow-colored covers, and gave the Rocky statue a scarf. Her motivation is simple. ‘Times are tough,’ Hemmons said. ‘People want to see something bright and pretty.’ Yesterday morning she put up her largest installation yet. Passersby stopped to watch and snap pictures as Hemmons began stitching about 15 feet of knitting—a 30-hour project—to a tree near 19th and Walnut Streets.”
The Philadelphia Inquirer 03/25/2010
03/25/2010
“The day the music didn’t die was May 16, 2008.
Two months earlier, the Davis Joint Unified School District had sent layoff notices to its junior high and high school music teachers, essentially making them the last musical dominoes to fall in a budget crisis. Their replacements would be elementary school teachers whose entire music program was to be eliminated.
What happened next had less to do with saving jobs than saving a musical legacy that would have taken decades to rebound even if funding were restored.
Music education builds from fourth grade on, and without a ‘farm team’ coming up, orchestras and bands in the upper grades eventually would wither away.
‘At that point, we got the troops together to figure out how to turn this situation around,’ said Angelo Moreno, Davis Senior High School’s orchestra director. ‘We found out the price to buy back the elementary program and reset the other teachers’ jobs. We had eight weeks to raise $230,000.’
The situation was too desperate for mere bake sales and car washes. Student musicians launched a frenzy of public performances, and at each one, a parent volunteer took to the stage, begging for money. The community rallied, with professional musicians, retired music teachers, members of the UC Davis music department, corporate donors and, in particular, the parent volunteers who make up DSOMA, the Davis Schools Orchestra Music Association, stepping up to help.
‘We made it to $230,000 on the day of the deadline,’ Moreno said. ‘As I’m walking up to the school, parents are stuffing checks in my pockets. It took me aback how people came to the rescue of music. We weren’t going to let it disappear. Davis really defined itself then.’
In all, the community raised $1.77 million for the Davis Schools Foundation’s Dollar a Day campaign by May 16, 2008, which saved programs and teaching positions that had been threatened and assured a rosy future for Davis High’s orchestras. Six months later, Davis voters overwhelmingly approved Measure W, a parcel tax that funds city schools’ academic and extracurricular activities.”
The Sacramento Bee 03/23/2010
03/25/2010
Student Orchestra Worth Fighting For
“It would be extraordinary on any day—more than 800 student musicians performing together under one roof on March 22. For many of the orchestra students and families who gathered in Alpharetta, it was something they may not see or hear again for a long time. But they’re not going down without a fight. Fulton County School Board members voted to cut the $4 million a year elementary school band and orchestra programs because of the projected $120 million shortfall in next school year’s system-wide budget. That cut directly impacts 8,000 students, including the more than 300 fourth and fifth graders performing with older students on March 22…Parents have just hired a consultant, John Benham of St. Paul, MN, who has a track record of saving music from school budget cuts across the country. They hope they’ll be able to show the board alternatives to the budget cuts; they hope to show there is enough money in the tight budget for the programs.”
11Alive.com 03/22/2010
03/22/2010
4D Sidewalk Unveiled in SE Portland
“A new temporary public art installation, “4D Sidewalk,” has launched at the bside6 building, 524 E. Burnside. This publicly funded project is a collaboration between Cityscope, an urban workshop, and artist David Neveel, with support from bside6, LLC and in situ PORTLAND a program of the Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC).
4D Sidewalk creates a temporal event by recording and broadcasting a series of time-shifted video at street level, bringing the fourth dimension of time into the experience of the building. This interactive installation creates a feedback relationship with pedestrians and explores the extent to which a building can actively shape its environment. 4D Sidewalk can be experienced from 6pm to midnight daily through May 1, 2010.”
Regional Arts & Culture Council online 03/22/2010
03/18/2010
Students Making Music Without Instruments
“McKinley High School could become home to the music industry’s next great producer. That, or students will leave school with a greater appreciation for music, thanks to a new program. The program, music technology, has expanded from 50 students in the fall to 80 this semester. It is so new that there are no textbooks for it. Most of the instruction comes from online resources. In this course, students—freshmen to seniors—learn how to make music without an instrument. Teacher Brian Laakso said music technology engages today’s students to create, share, and appreciate music made via technology. And it’s relevant…Today’s youth have different outlets to make music, such as video games, or to showcase their talents on websites such as YouTube…So, his students have made music videos, their own cell phone ringtones, and they’ve used drum-beat machines.”
CantonRep.com 03/15/2010
03/18/2010
CauseWorld Mobile Application
“CauseWorld is a mash-up of location-based game apps such as Foursquare, GoWalla, or Loopt with cause marketing, and has added checking into actual products in retail stores as the newest way for consumers to use mobile-check-in services to earn money for charity. With the free iPhone app, users check in at retail stores to earn points, or ‘karmas,’ that eventually add up to real money from marketers for the charity of their choice. Since the app launched in December, CauseWorld users, with retail check-ins alone, are donating at a rate of more than $200,000 per month, thanks to sponsors such as Proctor & Gamble (P&G), Kraft, and Citi. In the next few weeks, those consumers will earn extra points when they pick up products such as Pampers, Tide, Gillette, or, yes, even Tampax, to scan the barcode with their phones. P&G was the first marketer to sign on for product check-ins, but Kraft has followed suit with 32 products, including Miracle Whip, Oreo, Ritz, and Philadelphia.” [Editor’s Note: Americans for the Arts is one of the CauseWorld recipients.]
Visit ArtsBlog to read about more iPhone applications that benefit the arts!
Advertising Age 03/16/2010
03/18/2010
Nashville Lands National Folk Festival
“No longer just the country music capital of the world, Nashville has been chosen to host next year’s National Folk Festival. The longest running multi-ethnic music festival in the United States—which boasts Native American, Caribbean, Middle Eastern, and East Asian music among its offerings—will begin a three-year engagement with the city starting in 2011. Mayor Karl Dean was pleased with the announcement, saying, ‘No city in the United States can match the raw talent, creativity, and long history of making music like we have here in Nashville. You combine that with our growing international diversity and growing recognition and appreciation for the arts, and you have a city that is well primed to host the National Folk Festival and to create an event of a caliber worthy of serving as the celebration of its 75th anniversary.’ Another reason for Dean’s excitement may be the economic benefits of hosting the festival, which some are predicting will attract upwards of 150,000 attendees and stimulate the local economy to the tune of 15 million dollars.”
American Songwriter 03/12/2010
03/11/2010
Balance STEM Learning with Arts
Joseph Piro, an associate professor of curriculum and instruction at Long Island University’s C.W. Post campus provides commentary on the importance of the arts being included in STEM education: “In the midst of all the STEM frenzy, we may want to do something riskier, and more imaginative, to save the country: turn STEM funding into STEAM funding. Inserting the letter A, for the arts, into the acronym could afford us even greater global advantage. Many may be puzzled by this statement, considering that the arts have held a traditionally marginalized place in both American society and the school curriculum. And, in the eyes of some, support for the arts has a dubious payback, especially in areas of national concern such as defense, homeland security, and technology. The arts are something we do when we stop being serious…Perhaps if we tried to achieve a synergistic balance between the arts and sciences we could curtail debates that have traditionally turned the issue of arts funding into an us-against-them argument. The ancient Greeks promoted not a hierarchy of subjects, but a continuum of learning. They made no firm distinction between the arts and the sciences, so why should we?”
Education Week 03/09/2010
03/11/2010
Transforming Vacant Storefronts with Art
“Crestwood Court has won the MAXI Award from the International Council of Shopping Centers for its ArtSpace. The mall transformed vacant storefronts awaiting redevelopment into an arts experience. It was the first development of its kind in the country. ‘When we were faced with the grim realities of a slumping economy, our owners challenged us to put the empty space at the mall to good purpose until the mall could be redeveloped,’ says Leisa Son, marketing manager of Crestwood Court. When Jones Lange LaSalle first offered space to artists just over a year and a half ago, Son and her team expected about 20 artists to be interested. Instead, 200 showed up to the first organizational meeting, and the tenant list is still growing.”
ksdk.com 03/04/2010
03/03/2010
High-Crime City Saves the Youth with Music
“For years, the neighborhoods that sprawl over the mountains in northern Medellin, known locally as ‘Las Comunas,’ have been consumed by poverty, unemployment, and gang warfare. For young people, the lure of crime can be overwhelming. Pressure to join armed gangs for protection and to earn a livelihood is constant, and with a lack of other viable options, the young people from these communities are often drawn into the world of violence and crime. However, amidst all of this chaos and violence comes a breath of fresh air, in the form of the rather eerie sound of beautiful classical music flowing through the air in the Barrio Popular #1 neighborhood. In the heart of ‘Las Comunas’ grows a seed that was planted many years ago, with the intention of giving the young people of this area an alternative path in life. The Music School of Barrio Popular #1 has blossomed over the years, guiding the lives of many hundreds of young people from the neighborhood, by showing them that drugs and violence are not the way to go.”
ColombiaReports.com 03/01/2010
03/04/2010
Revitalizing Music Education in Haiti
“In an effort to revitalize music education in Haiti, Loyola University New Orleans music professor and Haitian native Jean Montès, D.M.A., will travel there in late March with a group of students and volunteers to deliver musical instruments to the earthquake-devastated Holy Trinity School of Music. The group, with the generous support of the Greater New Orleans Youth Orchestra, is organizing a massive effort to collect music instruments from individuals who no longer use them. After collecting unwanted instruments and funds to purchase others, the group will travel to Haiti for three days to deliver the supplies to students of the school…Items that will be accepted for the drive include brass, woodwind, string, and percussion instruments. Also accepted will be supplies such as strings, rosin, reeds, music books, solo and ensemble sheet music, and scores.”
Loyola University New Orleans Press Release 03/01/2010
03/04/2010
Obama Proposes Consolidation of Arts
“As part of a budget plan designed to reshape federal support for education, President Barack Obama is seeking to consolidate more than a dozen discrete programs into three broader, competitive funds focused on ‘effective teaching and learning’ across the academic-content areas. The proposal emphasizes literacy, the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and a final catchall category dubbed a ‘well-rounded education.’ But elements of that approach are facing stiff resistance from an array of organizations as well as from Democratic and Republican lawmakers…The literacy fund at the Department of Education would consolidate six existing programs into a $450 million fund for fiscal year 2011, and the Well-Rounded Education fund would consolidate nine programs into a $265 million spending pot. Among the programs targeted for consolidation for the latter fund are the Arts in Education program, Foreign Language Assistance, and Teaching American History.”
Education Week 02/26/2010
02/25/2010
Music Therapy May Help Stroke Patients
“Words and music, such natural partners that it seems obvious they go together. Now science is confirming that those abilities are linked in the brain, a finding that might even lead to better stroke treatments. Studies have found overlap in the brain’s processing of language and instrumental music, and new research suggests that intensive musical therapy may help improve speech in stroke patients, researchers said at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In addition, researchers said, music education can help children with developmental dyslexia or autism more accurately use speech. People who have suffered a severe stroke on the left side of the brain and cannot speak can sometimes learn to communicate through singing, Gottfried Schlaug, associate professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School told the meeting…Schlaug showed a video of one patient who could only make meaningless sounds learning to say ‘I am thirsty,’ by singing the words, and another was able to sing Happy Birthday.”
The New York Times 02/20/2010
02/25/2010
Singapore Looks to the Arts for Growth
“Singapore may be best known as a hub of electronics manufacturing and transportation, but as it plans for its next stage of economic growth, its leaders are looking toward a radically different sector: the arts. Support for theater, museums, and other cultural activities has been quietly moving up the official agenda of the city-state in recent years. But this month, an economic panel appointed by the government recommended that establishing Singapore as a ‘leading cultural capital’ and a ‘distinctive global city’ should be among officials’ top three priorities in the next decade…From 2005 to 2008, the government doubled its support for the arts to 110.3 million Singapore dollars from 55.1 million Singapore dollars.”
New York Times 02/20/2010
02/18/2010
Ground Zero Arts Center Gets Go Ahead
“After endless debate over the final location for a performing arts center to be built at Ground Zero, New York City officials told Crain’s last week that the Frank Gehry-designed theater will be constructed on the originally planned site, and that below-ground construction work on the foundation will start next quarter. The 1,000-seat theater and rehearsal facility, to be run by the Joyce Theater, a dance presenter, was originally scheduled to open this fall. But disagreements between city and state officials, and the complexity of building at Ground Zero, have kept the project on the back burner. Now, after much wrangling, the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. has released the $50 million needed to construct the subterranean support structure for the center, which will be built in the area bounded by Fulton, Greenwich, Vesey, and Washington streets near the 1,776-foot-high 1 World Trade Center…But even if the foundation work moves ahead as planned, the project faces numerous challenges, leaving skeptics questioning whether it will ever be built.”
Crain’s New York Business 02/14/2010
02/18/2010
New Rule on Cargo Is Shaking Art World
“Collectors and dealers of fragile, phenomenally expensive art have never wanted for reasons to stay awake at night. A piece could plunge from a wall. Somebody could stumble into it or step on it or add a new color to it with a splash of red wine. Contemporary art, sometimes made to resemble trash, has occasionally been mistaken for it and thrown away. But those responsible for safeguarding art will soon have a new category of anxiety, the stuff of real nightmares: the possibility that airline employees could open carefully crated works of art to search them the way checked baggage is sometimes searched now, poking around Picassos instead of sweaters and socks. The Transportation Security Administration has mandated that beginning on August 1, all items shipped as cargo on commercial passenger airplanes—estimates are that as much as 20 percent of art shipped around the world travels this way—will have to go through airline security screening.”
The New York Times 02/12/2010
02/18/2010
“Be The Next” Helps At-Risk Arts Programs
“Best Buy and the GRAMMY Foundation have joined together to launch the Be The Next initiative; an innovative partnership joining the corporate resources and relationships of the leading consumer electronics retailer with the established music education programs and initiatives of the nonprofit organization of The Recording Academy. The Be The Next initiative will expand on GRAMMY Foundation’s support of music education by leveraging Best Buy’s philanthropic @15 platform, Club Beats, and Best Buy Mobile resources. Through these programs, Best Buy will pledge up to $1 million in funds to at-risk music education programs in schools across the country.”
Business Wire 02/11/2010
02/03/2010
Now Accepting Fellowship Applications
After a one-year hiatus, The Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC) is restoring its “Artist Fellowship” program and will honor one extraordinary artist in the field of dance, movement, music or theater by awarding a $20,000 fellowship in the performing arts this spring. Applications are now being accepted online at www.racc.org/grants.
RACC established the Artist Fellowship program in 1999 to honor and support uniquely talented local artists who have contributed to the community in very meaningful ways. The accompanying cash award allows the selected artist to explore a particular project, or enhance his or her artistic process. RACC rotates the discipline being honored every year, and past recipients have crafted ideas and developed works that reflected the shape of our region and the voice of their time.
They include:
Mary Oslund and Obo Addy (Performing Arts, 1999)
Christine Bourdette and Terry Toedtemeier (Visual Arts, 2000)
Jim Blashfield (Media Arts, 2001); Michele Glazer (Literary Arts, 2001)
Tomas Svoboda and Keith Scales (Performing Arts, 2002)
Judy Cooke and Michael Brophy (Visual Arts, 2003)
Chel White (Media Arts, 2004)
Craig Lesley (Literary Arts, 2004)
Thara Memory (Performing Arts, 2005)
Henk Pander (Visual Arts, 2006)
Joanna Priestly (Media Arts, 2007)
Kim Stafford (Literary Arts, 2008)
RACC did not award a fellowship in 2009 because of the unstable economic climate. After thoroughly assessing the organization’s strong fiscal position and re-affirming the value of this career-changing award in our community, RACC’s Grants Review Committee recommended, and the RACC Board of Directors unanimously approved, restoring the fellowship program in 2010.
A panel of community representatives from both in and outside the tri-county area with expertise in the performing arts will select the fellowship winner. Review criteria for the Fellowship Award includes proof of sustained high artistic quality in the applicant’s work, as well as evidence of the applicant’s involvement in the community and the importance of his/her work to the local culture. Artists who are current, physical residents of Clackamas, Multnomah or Washington counties and meet strict eligibility criteria are eligible to apply. Guidelines can be downloaded from the RACC website and access to the online application form, www.racc.org/GrantApps.
All applications must be submitted electronically through RACC’s GrantsOnline system. To be eligible to apply, applicants must submit an “Intent to Apply” form electronically no later than 5:00pm, Wednesday, March 31, 2010. The deadline for electronic submission of the full application is April 7, 2010 by 5:00pm. Applicants are then required to physically submit hard-copies of the application along with supplementary materials.
Regional Arts & Culture Council online 02/02/2010
01/27/2010
Art Hangs in Limbo of Saints – Colts Game
The outcome of the Super Bowl will determine where two famous paintings hang for the next few months. The Indianapolis Museum of Art and the New Orleans Museum of Art have each wagered a three-month loan of one of their works as part of a bet for their respective teams. Apparently the combination of art and hometown teams got the museum directors all riled up as Tyler Green reports on ArtsJournal’s, Modern Arts Note blog.
Art museum director Super Bowl trash talk: It’s ON
“In response to the proposed Super Bowl bet between the Indianapolis Museum of Art and the New Orleans Museum of Art about which I posted on Monday, NOMA director E. John Bullard has come roaring back in defense of his Saints.
First, some background: On Monday, IMA director Max Anderson initially proposed wagering an IMA loan of an Ingrid Calame painting. That was a nice choice… but apparently Anderson wasn’t too worried about having to pay off the bet: “We’re already spackling the wall where the NOMA loan will hang,” he tweeted.
On Tuesday morning Bullard emailed MAN HQ:
“Max Anderson must not really believe the Colts can beat the Saints in the Super Bowl. Otherwise why would he bet such an insignificant work as the Ingrid Calame painting? Let’s up the ante. The New Orleans Museum of Art will bet the three-month loan of its $4 million Renoir painting, Seamstress at Window, circa 1908, which is currently in the big Renoir exhibition in Paris. What will Max wager of equal importance? Go Saints!”
Anderson TwitPics from his seat at the Colts’ Lucas Oil Stadium. I expect a response…
UPDATE, Tuesday, 2:20pm EST: SNAP! Anderson tweets back at NOMA: “We’ll see the sentimental blancmange by that “China Painter” and raise you a proper trophy: [A Jean-Valentine Morel jeweled cup, which won the Grand Medal at the 1855 Paris World Fair.]”
UPDATE: Tuesday, 11:20pm EST: These museums are getting serious.
In an email I received while I was, er, on my way to dinner, Bullard raised the stakes: “I am amused that Renoir is too sweet for Indianapolis. Does this mean that those Indiana corn farmers have simpler tastes? If so why would Max offer us that gaudy Chalice — just looks like another over-elaborate Victorian tchotchke. Let’s get serious. Each museum needs to offer an art work that they would really miss for three months. What would you like Max? A Monet, a Cassatt, a Picasso, a Miro? Sorry but we have no farm scenes or portraits of football players to send you.”
Ouch!: I suspect Bullard knows that the Indianapolis Museum of Art actually owns a farm. (It’s part of the IMA’s endowment.)
A couple hours after Bullard’s rejoinder, Anderson replied to both Bullard and to @NOMA via Twitter: “Colts will win; here’s how sure I am: [the IMA’s four-by-six-foot JMW] Turner for Vigée Lebrun’s Portrait of Marie Antoinette.”
I think we might have a winner…”
Modern Arts Notes 01/28/2010
01/28/2010
No Dancing at the Jefferson Memorial
“So you think you can dance at the Jefferson Memorial? Think again.
A federal judge has ruled against a woman who was arrested for dancing with a group of 17 others at the memorial dedicated to President Thomas Jefferson. The woman, Mary Oberwetter, and others were dancing to music on their headphones near midnight April 12, 2008, the eve of Jefferson’s birthday.”
Washington Post 01/27/2010
01/26/2010
“Self-Made Man” Donated to Business Park
“Developer Bob Blettner believes that the business parks he creates should evoke emotion and that the people who work there should be celebrated — through art.
Not with just watercolors in an atrium or landscape prints in a conference room, but with big, bold, expressive sculptures.
“I wanted to use art, these life-size sculptures, to celebrate positive emotions that people tend to have when they’re at certain physical spaces,” said Blettner, chief executive officer of the Blettner Group, which designs and builds business parks in the Upper Midwest.
Now he wants to put a 10-foot bronze sculpture of a man chiseling himself out of stone in a public place — the median of Deming Way south of Airport Road. The location is also the entrance to Blettner’s Middleton Corporate Center business park.
Blettner has tried to donate the sculpture to Middleton before, but city officials were concerned that it posed a safety hazard should motorists ever run into it.
This time, designers from Gary Brink and Associates have suggested replacing shrubs currently in the 14-foot-wide median with “jagged rocks” that would surround the sculpture.
“If a vehicle were to enter the median, their wheels would be hung up on the stone before it hit the sculpture,” said Abby Attoun, the city’s associate planner.
The Middleton Plan Commission this month approved the design of the median, but it needs to go back to the city’s Arts Committee to finalize the lighting details. The plan could have final city approval by March, Attoun said.
Liesel Fenner, who manages the public art program at Americans for the Arts, said more developers are integrating art in their projects. Fenner, whose arts-advocacy organization is based in Washington, D.C., recommends that communities develop policies on how to handle art donations.
“The donation policy is usually to ensure that there’s a mindfulness about the overall direction about the city’s overall art collection,” she said.”
Wisconsin State Journal 01/22/2010
01/19/2010
Sundance Reveals Special Events Roster
Screen Daily.com 01/19/2010
01/14/2010
Right Brain Initiative Continues to Grow
“The Right Brain Initiative, a regional arts education program grounded in diverse community alliances, is pleased to announce today a series of new partnerships achieved during Fall 2009. The Initiative began its second school year bringing integrated arts learning experiences to K-8 classrooms throughout the Portland metropolitan area this
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| Photo: Briana Linden |
fall. The recent support received from all sectors of the region is an important indication of the program’s relevance and viability.”
“Thomas Breuckman, principal, Beach School in North Portland said of his new relationship with Right Brain: “At Beach PK – 8, we are very excited to begin a partnership with The Right Brain Initiative! The Initiative will help us achieve our academic (and other) goals by giving us the resources and the planning tools to integrate arts activities into our curriculum, inviting each student to engage in learning—not only with reading and writing, but also with collaboration, team work and problem solving.”
Regional Arts & Culture Council online 01/12/2010
01/12/2010
Jeffery Deitch Named MOCA LA Director
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles Online 01/11/2010
01/12/2010
Human Ear Ice Sculptures on Display
“Installation of the third annual Triumph Winterfest illuminated ice sculpture exhibit begins this week in Vail, Colorado.
The exhibit, called “are you listening…”, is composed of several larger-than-life ice sculptures of the human ear. Exploring the “pathways of listening,” Argent poses the questions, “What do we listen to? What or who is creating the sounds we listen to? When we do, how is it filtered through our systems of consciousness and knowledge?”
The exhibit engages the viewer to contemplate the interpretation of sound and conversation, especially in this day of modern technology.
Triumph Winterfest has garnered national media attention. It has been named one of America’s best public art projects by the Americans for the Arts. “are you listening…” will be on view throughout the day and evenings, until the ice melts.”
Vail Daily 01/11/2010
01/07/2010
Are Ticket Prices To High?
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts President Michael Kaiser wrote that restructuring the reliance on ticket sales as part of performing arts group budget balancing must end if the goal is to build larger audiences: “The central challenge facing arts managers is to fill the ever-widening gap between rapidly increasing expenses and earned income, primarily from ticket sales. This gap continues to grow each year since the number of seats we have to sell does not increase but expenses do. Unfortunately, the favored technique used to fill budget gaps has been increasing ticket prices. When we increase prices, typically at budget time, we hope that a small increase will not be noticeable and we need the added revenue to break even. However, we have been doing this for so long that tickets prices are now too high for many people to afford regularly.”
The Huffington Post 01/04/2010
01/05/2010
A Creative Work Force: What it Means
Product Design & Development 01/05/2009
01/07/2010
Three Theaters Coming to NYC’s 42nd Street
“Three new theaters promising low-priced $20 tickets are going up on West 42nd Street. Expanding the New York City’s performing arts industry amidst a gloomy economy, the project is an infrastructure investment for the city, which is pitching in $25 million of the $60 construction cost. Amidst the noise of the construction, Mayor Michael Bloomberg was joined at the site by Council Speaker Christine Quinn and theater representatives on [December 29] to give a peek at what is to come. ‘Art and culture is the heartbeat of New York City, and even though times are tough we can still feel it pulsating here at 42nd Street,’ Bloomberg said…The 70,000-square-foot project, known as the Signature Center, is being constructed at 10th Avenue and 42nd Street, across from the Manhattan Plaza—home to many of the city’s artists, actors, and playwrights. After enduring the noise of construction until its completion in 2012, the new center will bring some extra jobs to the local performing arts community—up to 400 jobs a year.”
The Epoch Times 12/30/2009
01/05/2010
Newsweek 12/30/2009
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CREATIVE STRATEGIES 
As a lover of the reuse of underground spaces for cultural and other reasons I loved seeing the post on “Subway Tunnel to Turn into Cultural Space” on your site! Great assortment of posts and news here.
Thanks!