ANIMATING DEMOCRACY E-NEWS

 Animating Democracy News and Updates

National Exchange on Art and Civic Dialogue

Dates: October 9-12, 2003. Flint Cultural Center, Flint MI.

Topics for Preconference Practitioner’s Exchange Announced
As part of the National Exchange, Animating Democracy will host a preconference half-day Practitioner’s Exchange on Thursday, October 9, 1:00-5:00 p.m. The preconference, which will offer dialogue and artist practitioners opportunities to share approaches, methodologies, and skills, will have limited enrollment and will require pre-registration and an additional fee of $75 for participation. This preconference option is only available to registered attendees of the full exchange.

Confirmed Workshops:

• Playing Together: An Intersection of Art & Dialogue Models
  Gillian Eaton, theatre director and consultant, Plymouth, MI
  Maggie Herzig, associate, Public Conversations Project, Watertown, MA
  
• Abundance/The Workshop: A Creative Dialogue About Money
  Marty Pottenger, playwright, solo performance artist, and director
• Practicing the Story Circle
  Theresa Holden, project director, The Color Line Project, Junebug Productions
  Curtis Mohammad, community organizer, Junebug Productions

Additional workshops may be added. For more information on these workshops, and updates on National Exchange programming, visit www.AmericansForTheArts.org/AnimatingDemocracy/FlintExchange.

Why Flint?
An exciting convergence of interest and opportunities make Flint, Michigan a perfect context for the National Exchange. One of Michigan’s ten largest cities and the birthplace of General Motors Inc., Flint is home of the Flint Cultural Center, a complex consisting of seven cultural institutions offering great facilities and a beautiful campus-like landscape, and Flint Youth Theatre, an Animating Democracy Lab participant. The city hosts community-building initiatives that utilize and support the arts and creative process, including local residencies by Urban Bush Women and John O’Neal/Junebug Productions (also Animating Democracy Lab participants) coordinated by the Cultural Center. And a noteworthy constellation of Flint-based foundations support civic engagement and community development efforts consistent with Animating Democracy’s interest in artistic activity that nourishes dialogue on a wide array of community issues.

Flint Youth Theatre will open its fall season at the conference with a new production of ALIEN SOIL, a production exploring loss of home---by force, by choice, or by necessity. A full program will include dinner, dialogue activities, and the performance. Local visual artists may provide an opportunity for people to explore the issue through a visual art experience over the course of the conference. Animating Democracy will collaborate with the Flint Cultural Center and artists from Junebug Productions and Urban Bush Women to feature some of their community-based work in Flint. Local artists will be included at meals, late night social times, and the Open Mic.

Registration Information www.AmericansForTheArts.org/AnimatingDemocracy/FlintExchange
Deadline: May 30, 2003. In order to insure a diverse group of 250 participants that includes artists from all disciplines, cultural and civic leaders, civic dialogue specialists, scholars, and funders from throughout the country, Animating Democracy has instituted an invitation process that will draw from responses to an open call of interest from the field. Animating Democracy encourages individuals interested in attending the Exchange to submit a one-page letter of interest by May 30, 2003. Invitations will be made based on a review of submissions by June 27, 2003. Interested persons must be committed to attending the entire convening, Thursday, October 9, 5:00 p.m. to Sunday, October 12, 1:00 p.m. There is a registration fee of $200 and the hotel costs are approximately $80 per night for a single or double room. A limited number of scholarships will be made available.

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Michael Rohd and Sojourn Theatre Company to be Artists-in-Residence

www.AmericansForTheArts.org/services/events/convention_03/portland.asp?id=981
Animating Democracy Lab participant Michael Rohd and Sojourn Theatre Company will be featured as the artists-in-residence for the Americans for the Arts 2003 Annual Convention, June 7-9 in Portland, Oregon. They will offer movement exercises on Sunday and Monday mornings, and conduct interview sessions to gather stories and perspectives from conference participants on the convention theme. The results of the interviews will be used in a performance piece presented on the closing day. In addition, Sojourn will present a workshop entitled HOW THEATRE, COMMUNITY, AND COLLABORATION COMBINED TO MAKE A STRONGER OHIO, based on their work with the Council on the Arts of Greater Lima in the Animating Democracy Lab.

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Andrea Assaf and Dora Arreola to be Participants at the 2003 New York International Fringe Festival

www.fringenyc.com
Joining hundreds of other performers and panelists, Animating Democracy Associate Andrea Assaf and San Diego Repertory project participant Dora Arreola were selected to present their work at this year’s New York International Fringe Festival. GLOBALICITIES, a new multi-media, community-based project written and produced by Andrea Assaf, takes an anachronistic, playful, and poignant look at war, democracy, and capitalism. EL SUENO DE SOR JUANA, performed by Mujeres en Ritual and choreographed by Dora Arreola, will present the masterpiece of México's most famous poet, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, to the nightlife of contemporary Tijuana through text and movement.

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 News from the Field

National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation Extends Invitation of Membership

www.thataway.org
Since its conference in October 2002, the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation (NCDD) has continued to pursue its mission of building understanding and cohesion in the field of dialogue and deliberation through its first initiatives and partnerships. Now, as part of its activities associated with a two-year grant award from the Hewlett Foundation, NCDD seeks to expand its membership to strengthen the network of practitioners and scholars of dialogue and deliberation and improve dialogue practice throughout the field. NCDD welcomes individuals, organizations, and networks to join its efforts in uniting the growing field, and is looking for members who can actively participate in furthering its mission.

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Seattle ARTS UP Open for Nominations

www.cityofseattle.net/arts/what_we_do/community_arts/artsup/default.asp
Nominations are open for a Seattle-based program called ARTS UP: Artist Residencies Transforming Seattle's Urban Places, designed to encourage arts-based civic dialogue through creative collaboration between artists and communities. ARTS UP helps match artists from around the country with Seattle communities to collaborate on projects that promote discussion about community building, identity, issues, and ideas.

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 Articles and Publications

Pittsburgh Post Gazette reviews Andy Warhol Museum’s WITHOUT SANCTUARY extended work

www.post-gazette.com/ae/20030410menslife0410fnp3.asp
In continuing its work creating dialogue surrounding racial tension and crime, the Andy Warhol Museum recently presented an extension of its Animating Democracy Lab Project at the Artist Image Resource’s 518 Foreland Gallery entitled WITHOUT SANCTUARY: ARTISTS’ PROJECTS. Showcasing seven exhibiting artists and working with community members from some ten organizations, the exhibition takes the issue of racial atrocity to the next level---extending its scope through issues of gender and age, with a continued emphasis on personal stories. In its many components, the exhibition confirms the potency of the dialogic process. Carrie Schneider, artist/educator at the museum, reveals: “By allowing others the time to tell their stories, by discussing disagreements in a respectful manner, by designating a safe space to talk about important issues, much can be accomplished in terms of understanding our history, each other and ourselves." WITHOUT SANCTUARY: ARTISTS’ PROJECTS closed April 30, 2003.

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 Events on the Horizon

ARTrepreneur: The New Arts Leader June 7-9, 2003

www.AmericansForTheArts.org/services/events/default.asp
Americans for the Arts' annual convention is the largest annual gathering of arts supporters in the U.S. This year's convention in Portland, Oregon, will explore ways in which arts leaders can persevere in times of crisis, overcome funding challenges while remaining engaged in and committed to improving communities through the arts, and learn new techniques for achieving strategic goals.

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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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Do you have news you would like to share with Animating Democracy and the broader world of art and civic engagement? Send an e-mail to adi@artsusa.org with "Animating Democracy E-News" in the subject line. Please be sure to include full contact information.

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