ANIMATING DEMOCRACY E-NEWS

 Animating Democracy News and Updates

Judy Baca featured in People Magazine

www.sparcmurals.org
In the May 24, 2004, issue of People Magazine, Judy Baca was featured for her work on the Great Wall in Los Angeles. As Baca begins to work on the restoration of the mural, People Magazine cited how 400 youth from across the region worked on the mural in its early phases and are now working with their children to restore it. ‘“All these people made the wall together,” she says. “That’s the story—what they made together.” The restoration is expected to cost $550,000 in donations and will take three summers and more than 250 youth to complete. Animating Democracy supported design and dialogue efforts to add the last four decades of the 20th century to the Great Wall.

Glenn Wharton returns to Hawai’i to regild the Hilo Kamehameha sculpture

www.arts-hawaii.org
Last month, conservator Glenn Wharton returned to Hawai’i, this time to restore and regild the sculpture of King Kamehameha I in the city of Hilo. In 2001, Wharton restored the community-painted statue of Kamehameha in North Kohala in a public dialogue centered process supported by Animating Democracy and facilitated by the Hawai’i Alliance for Arts Education.

Urban Word NYC hosts Queer, Questioning, & Allies Poetry Dialogues

www.urbanwordnyc.org
During the second weekend in June, following a series of after-school writing workshops and group discussions, Urban Word NYC sponsored a Poetry Dialogues performance session featuring Queer, Questioning, & Allied youth and elders in a poetic dialogue. The performance centered around issues including homophobia in hip hop and what it’s like to come out. Beginning in early April 2004, Urban Word NYC, in collaboration with Live Out Loud, hosted weekly writing workshops for New York City youth ages 13–22 who identify themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, transgender, or queer and their allies. Led by Vanessa Tobar, Bushra Rehman, and Regie Cabico, a participant in City Lore’s Poetry Dialogues Project supported by Animating Democracy, these workshops offered an opportunity for youth to safely and creatively respond to issues affecting their communities.

Regie Cabico hosted as Artist-in-Residence at Liz Lerman Dance Exchange

www.danceexchange.org
During the first week in May, slam poet champ and Animating Democracy Lab participant Regie Cabico participated in a residency project with the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, also an Animating Democracy alum. Funded by the National Performance Network, the residency enabled Cabico to share the tools of his process through writing workshops in order to advance Dance Exchange’s productions. After two days of writing, Dance Exchange invited members of the community into their space for an informal “work-under-construction” featuring spoken-word pieces developed during the workshop.

BLIND NESS: The Irresistible Light of Encounter opens in New York

www.pingchong.org
In late May, Ping Chong & Company announced the New York premiere of BLIND NESS: The Irresistible Light of Encounter, a new multidisciplinary theater work written and directed by Ping Chong and Animating Democracy participant Michael Rohd. The production explores Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, colonialism in the Belgian Congo, and its continuing reverberations today using text, movement, performance, shadow puppetry, object theater, and visuals. It intercuts Heart of Darkness with the real-life figure of King Leopold II of Belgium and activists such as Roger Casement, E.D. Morel, William Sheppard, and others who orchestrated one of the first worldwide mass-media human rights campaigns to stop Leopold’s abuses in the Congo.

 News from the Field

Artists subpoenaed in Patriot Act case

www.caedefensefund.org
Three members of the Critical Art Ensemble, the artists’ collective that strives to educate the public about the politics of biotechnology and that also contributed to the Henry Art Gallery’s Animating Democracy project Gene(sis), have been served subpoenas to appear before a federal grand jury. The jury will consider bioterrorism charges against Steve Kurtz, a university professor whose art involves the use of simple biology equipment. According to the subpoenas, the FBI is seeking charges under Section 175 of the U.S. Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989. As expanded by the Patriot Act, this law prohibits the possession of "any biological agent, toxin, or delivery system" without the justification of "prophylactic, protective, bona fide research, or other peaceful purpose.” A grand jury in the case was scheduled to convene June 15 in Buffalo, NY.

Walk & Squawk announces a new collaboration between Detroit and South African Artists

www.walksquawk.org
The Walking Project, a new endeavor of Walk & Squawk Productions, is a performance and cultural exchange project developed in collaboration with U.S. and South Africa-based artists through a series of residencies in Detroit and KwaZulu-Natal through 2005. Conceived by Walk & Squawk Artistic Directors Hilary Ramsden and Erika Block, the project explores the pathways created by people who walk across fields in South Africa and vacant lots in Detroit and what connects them. From examining how changing patterns of movement can alter attitudes and perception to how people make their own paths and the influences of culture, geography, language, economics, and love, The Walking Project asks how and why people’s paths cross and how taking a different path might alter a life. Project activities include theater and music performances, a postperformance discussion, a gallery exhibition, a performance workshop, a dance party, a voter registration drive, and a garage sale.

The September Project to engage citizens at public libraries on September 11, 2004

www.theseptemberproject.org
The September Project is a new civic dialogue project, sponsored by the University of Washington's Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities, designed to encourage citizens to share ideas about democracy, citizenship, and patriotism through roundtables, talks, and performances. The main activity of the project will take place on Saturday, September 11, 2004, when people across the country will gather in public places like local libraries to discuss ideas that matter and encourage voter registration.

MetLife Foundation invites applications for Museum Connections Program

www.metlife.com/Applications/Corporate/WPS/CDA/PageGenerator/0,1674,P291,00.html#museum
Deadline: July 30, 2004. The Metlife Foundation invites applications for its 2004 Museum Connections Program. The program makes grants to U.S.-based art museums in eligible states to support creative and innovative projects that increase dialogue between museums and the community, expose the collections and cultural resources found in museums to a broader segment of society, and build new audiences for the arts. In 2004, the following states are eligible: Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin.

Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art opens The Interventionists: Art in the Social Sphere

www.massmoca.org
The Interventionists, a new exhibition at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art that explores the work of contemporary artists who have used artistic strategies to engage nonarts audiences, opened in late May. This exhibition represents a large survey of projects dedicated to social change and provides insight into the changed role of political art since the late 1980s. Strange audio-guided bus tours of the Berkshires, genetic engineering laboratories, low-rider lawn mowers, parasite mobile housing units, and architectural clothing are among the examples of this new work. The exhibition runs through spring 2005.

 Articles and Publications

Three new case studies posted online

Three more in a series of case studies about Animating Democracy-funded projects have been posted to the Animating Democracy website. To view each case study in its entirety, click on the link following each title. 

Cornerstone Theater Company Case Study

www.americansforthearts.org/AnimatingDemocracy/reading_room/reading_002.asp
In its Faith-Based Theater Cycle, Cornerstone Theater Company created original community-based plays in collaboration with specific faith-based institutions, as well as interfaith communities, to explore how faith both unites and divides American society. The project provided an opportunity for Cornerstone, in partnership with the National Conference for Community and Justice/Los Angeles region, to engage multiple communities around this powerful and often challenging theme, and to work in depth, over time, and with cumulative impact. This case study, written by Cornerstone members, offers an inside look with further reflections by Animating Democracy liaison Caron Atlas. The case examines how dialogue and art can embrace strongly felt points of view without neutralizing them and the relationship between private and public in a project focusing on faith that also touched on politics and sexuality. It explores artistic questions raised for Cornerstone about balancing both community and outside artists’ visions while maintaining a high standard of artistic excellence. The case study also provides insights into the mutual growth of both Cornerstone and the National Conference for Community and Justice/Los Angeles region in their arts-based civic dialogue practice as well as tensions—such as the safety/trust needed for good dialogue and the risk taking needed for good art—that arose and were worked out in the collaboration.

New WORLD Theater Case Study

www.americansforthearts.org/AnimatingDemocracy/reading_room/reading_002.asp
New WORLD Theater’s youth initiative, Project 2050, is a multiyear exploration of the midcentury demographic shift, when it is projected that people of color will become the majority in the United States. Addressing issues compelled by these changing demographics, the project engages youth communities, professional artists, scholars, and community activists in civic dialogue and artistic creation. This case study is written from New WORLD Theater’s perspective based on its own reports and evaluation materials. It recaps the history and evolution of this ongoing initiative that is blurring the lines between intergenerational art, activism, politics, and culture. It explores the philosophical underpinnings of the program, the challenges of designing dialogue for and with youth, and the outcomes, including how and why Project 2050 became a core program for New WORLD Theater and inspired the creation of a youth action community coalition.

San Diego REPertory Theatre Case Study

www.americansforthearts.org/AnimatingDemocracy/reading_room/reading_002.asp
In 2003, the world premiere of Nuevo California at the San Diego REPertory Theatre marked the culmination of an intensive three-year project that brought together citizens on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border to imagine their region’s binational future. The International Border Fence, a 14-mile metal wall that divides San Diego and its neighboring city Tijuana, served as the project’s springboard for dialogue on critical regional issues and the new play’s theme. This case study offers insights about how project partners employed community-based dialogue for the new play’s aesthetic development, and reveals how they grappled to create a theater piece that was both “multipartial” and “good art.” The project’s pairing of San Diego REPertory Theatre and San Diego Dialogue also sheds light on the potential benefits and possible pitfalls in forging effective, mutually beneficial partnerships between arts groups and dialogue-focused organizations. Finally, as one of a handful of Animating Democracy-funded projects that features a cross-cultural dimension, Nuevo California offers a window on the rewards and challenges of conducting community-based art projects in a transnational context.

“Building Upon a Strange and Startling Truth” posted online

www.americansforthearts.org/AnimatingDemocracy/reading_room/critical_perspectives_essays/002.asp#essay5
In Lisa Chice’s essay "Building Upon a Strange and Startling Truth," written for Animating Democracy’s Critical Perspectives writing experiment, Chice (formerly with the Lower East Side Tenement Museum and now working with the Brooklyn Historical Society) considers the dialogue activities intended to link the history of St. Augustine's Episcopal Church's Slave Galleries to contemporary civic issues on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. She explores how civic dialogue served to advance the historic preservation and restoration of the slave galleries and the Lower East Side community as a whole, noting in particular how communal effort to reveal the story of the slave galleries helped visitors to move beyond internal barriers. In terms of addressing current neighborhood issues such as housing and allocation of education resources, the dialogues may not have resolved these issues, but were an affirmative effort that galvanized participants and opened communication channels within the community.

Documentation from the Los Angeles Learning Exchange posted online

www.americansforthearts.org/AnimatingDemocracy/programs/learning_exchanges/los_angeles/default.asp
Animating Democracy reviews notes from all Learning Exchange sessions to identify key findings, and questions for further discussion or investigation for reporting purposes. A by-product of that process is a summary document compiled, organized, and edited by Animating Democracy Project Associate Andrea Assaf. The Los Angeles Learning Exchange held in November 2002 offered an opportunity to explore challenges and issues related to dialogue and diversity. This convening also provided an opportunity to think through various intergroup dialogue models, collaborative conversations and approaches to art, intergroup partnerships, and diversity within groups.

 Events on the Horizon

Monongahela Conference
Dates: June 2004
Pittsburgh, PA

Artists, designers, and planners are gathering in Pittsburgh to work on the restoration of nature and public place in laboratories set up throughout the region. On June 11, the McKeesport residency team presented their work concerning the MonValley Trails Initiative. On June 18, the Braddock residency team presented their work, which is focused on Open Space, Highways, and Restorative Redevelopment. On June 25, the Homestead residency team will present their investigation into Mines and Streams in the Streets Run Watershed. The Monongahela Conference is organized by 3 Rivers 2nd Nature (3R2N), a five-year project that addresses the meaning, form, and function of the three river systems and 56 streams of Allegheny County. For more information, contact Robin Hewlett, outreach coordinator, The Monongahela Conference, rhewlett@andrew.cmu.edu, T: 412.818.8415

Weaving the Threads of Connection: The 28th Annual Meeting of Alternate ROOTS
Dates: August 10–15, 2004
Arden, NC

www.alternateroots.org
We are the ones we’ve been waiting for! We are a coalition of cultural workers committed to eliminating all forms of oppression, and to uplifting and celebrating the unique voice of Southeastern communities. This is a special year for ROOTS. We have partnered with Art in the Public Interest to better document our work so that we may gain a greater understanding of our impact. We are in a new location this year, and we have called our founding members together to honor where we started, as well as the voice of hip-hop activists to explore directions for new growth. And what would a ROOTS meeting be without doing the business of our organization? We will conduct business meetings and present our new strategic plan, which outlines the work of ROOTS for the next two years. As an added treat, we are most excited to welcome to the Annual Meeting Dr. Ysaye M. Barnwell, member of the acclaimed a cappella quintet Sweet Honey in the Rock. She will conduct a studio and share in our closing festivities.

 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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