News: Shows, Courses, Publications etc.

[Caffyn Kelley]

A place to post timely news to share with this social network.

[linda weintraub]

Exhibition title: 30 BELOW: Project Eco-Runway
Curator: Linda Weintraub, with Tracy Dietzl
Place: DeRicci Gallery, Edgewood College, Madison, WI.
When: January 11 – 30, 2009

The “30-BELOW” exhibition presents remarkable achievements of members of the Madison community who demonstrated how people might use fewer resources to attain greater comfort. Middle school children, college students, faculty, and residents dedicated themselves to this task. After presenting their creations in a lively parade and fashion-show, the entries were judged according to the three criteria for determining the merits of clothing in the 21st century:
- WARM: Functional was judged by Professor Majid Sarmadi from UW Madison
-
- HOT: Ecological was judged by Karen Hitchcock Marketing and Communications Manager for Madison Environmental Group, Inc. and EnAct
-
- COOL: Fashionable was judged by Linda Weintraub, curator of this project and author Avant-Guardians: Textlets for Art and Ecology
 
Curator's Statement: Humanity’s first efforts to make clothing occurred more than 100,000 years ago in the cold climates of northern Europe and Asia. Neanderthals survived several ice ages because they learned to stay warm and dry by wrapping themselves in the thick, furry hides from hairy mammoths, bears, deer, musk oxen, and other mammals. This discovery initiated the process of designing and fabricating clothing. While humans have been investing their ingenuity in improving clothing for tens of thousands of years, we still have not perfected the products. “Thirty-Below: Project Eco Run-Way” challenged students, faculty, and community members to make the needed improvements.
Clothing remains an area for creative exploration to this day because the functions it is being asked to serve have increased over time. Neanderthals likely strove to fulfill a single criterion – UTILITY. If the clothing repelled water, insulated heat, blocked wind, allowed for movement, was light, durable, and smelled good it satisfied its wearers.
As civilization progressed, people discovered the expressive and formal potential of the materials out of which clothing is made. Delighting their sensibilities was added to utility as criteria for clothing. Such delight was achieved by arranging hue, shininess, smoothness, pliability of fibers and furs. In this manner STYLE was introduced. Creating new aesthetic combinations has been stimulating the human imagination ever since. Style allows clothing to convey tribal, national, religious, and professional characteristics. In addition, it provides opportunities to express such personal information as gender, age, marital status, wealth, social status, sophistication, individuality, and so forth.
Recently, ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT was added to the definition of “good” clothing. Thus, in addition to function and style, the merits of clothing depend upon whether a garment is produced, worn, and discarded according to the principles of sustainability. Environmental mandates oblige us to also seek answers to the following questions:
- Are the resources used to make the clothes endangered?
- Do they originate locally?
- Are they sustainably grown or harvested?
- Are they polluting during manufacture?
- Are they adaptable for re-use?
- Can they be disassembled to facilitate recycling?
- Are they packaged in an extravagant manner?
- How are the workers who participated in their manufacture treated?
- What is the affect upon the ecosystem where the materials originated?

[Will Garrett-Petts]

The Small Cities Community-

University Research Alliance presents WHOSE SHOW IS IT, ANYWAY? COMMUNITY-ENGAGED PERFORMANCE AND EXHIBITION ARTS IN THE SMALL CITY
March 26 - 28, 2009

Thompson Rivers University
Kamloops, BC



Conference Presentations & Panels

Thursday, March 26 
2:30 pm - International Building

Friday, March 27
8:45 am - 6:00 pm - Grand Hall

Saturday, March 28
8:45 am - 10:00 am - Grand Hall


Arnica Lunch & Artwalk
 Saturday, March 28
12:30 - 1:30 pm


Workshops
Saturday, March 28
1:30 - 4:30 pm
Campus Activity Centre


http://www.tru.ca/cura2009.html

[Jan Jordaan]

Dear AFH Friends and Associates.

AFH sends warm greetings and wishes you a prosperous 2009! Please receive our first newsletter of the year. All comments and letters are welcome. Here is what’s in store for the month of February:

Art for Humanity: what is art?

AFH defines art as that which is created to inspire all of humanity with freedom of expression, the quest for excellence, pride, dignity, and respect for individual rights, reflection and heritage. In this month’s issue:

Dialogue among Civilizations News
DAC project artists and poets profiles
DAC Conference News
DAC receives UNESCO's stamp of approval
DAC receives endorsement of Japanese Embassy
DAC artist at work

Women for Children News
Overwhelming response to Iziko museums WfC exhibition

General News
Kulturland exhibition in Bremen, Germany
One - World Associations 'Stand-up' exhibition
Artfully Aware advocacy organisation
Reflections of Zimbabwe - by Lauryn Arnott
Letters and comments

Feedback from readers

Click on the link to download our February 2009 Newsletter,
http://www.afh.org.za/images/stories/news/newsletter_feb09.pdf

[Deryk houston]

Hi,

My artwork was used in Elizabeth Wellburn's children's book called "Echoes from the Square" - it's a fictional picturebook based on the true actions of the Cellist of Sarajevo, who performed during the 1992 siege of that city, amidst snipers and shellings.

Elizabeth has recently uploaded a video in which she reads the story, accompanied by my original artwork from the book and music performed by the cellist himself.

You may want to share this video.....(???on your website or?????)

Here is the YouTube link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMrf_sd3gkA

there is also an interactive website for the book which has been joined by Dr. Phil Zimbardo, whose book and TED talk about "The Lucifer Effect" provides an amazing psychological overview of good and evil, including a curriculum strategy to provide an environment in which children learn to be ready to take the heroic path, rather than to accept evil. We're hoping that our new site will be a place for sharing educational ideas related to critical thinking and responsible action, qualities that we believe can lead to a more peaceful world.

Here is the link:
http://echoesfromthesquare.ning.com

thanks and bye for now

Deryk Houston and Elizabeth Wellburn
[e-mail]

[Phyllis Reeve]

RUINS IN PROCESS: Vancouver Art in the Sixties

[N.B.Look for paintings by Islands Institute featured artist Judith Williams in Scott Watson's "Transmission Difficulties" section.]

The Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery at The University of British Columbia and the grunt gallery, Vancouver, are delighted to announce the launch of Ruins in Process: Vancouver Art in the Sixties, an online resource and digital archive incorporating hundreds of photographs, press clippings, audio recordings and film clips. Drawn from private collections and archives as well as public sources, Ruins in Process brings together the research of many artists, curators and writers in an exploration of the diverse artistic practices of Vancouver art in the 1960s and early 1970s. Collaborative methods, interdisciplinary activity and an interest in emerging technologies are revealed in the selections of the contributors to this educational resource.

The website has a fully searchable digital collection, video interviews with artists Ingrid Baxter, Christos Dikeakos, Carole Itter, and Gary Lee-Nova, as well as a number of essays that contextualize the work in the archive.

www.vancouverartinthesixties.com

Project Sites
Five project sites document in detail the work of specific artists and collectives and explore the relationships between artistic media.

Aboriginal Art in the Sixties, curated by Marcia Crosby and Roberta Kremer, examines the relationship of visual artists to broadcast and print media, political movements and the city.

Al Neil, curated by Glenn Alteen, combines documentation from performances, concerts and readings as well as photo-documentation of collage, assemblage and text by and about the artist.

Expanded Literary Practice, curated by Charo Neville and Michael Turner, looks at the relationships between writing and visual art and the merging of the two in concrete poetry.

The Intermedia Catalogue, curated by Michael de Courcy, archives the activities of this interdisciplinary collective of artists, musicians, writers, film and video makers and performers.

Transmission Difficulties: Painting in the Sixties, curated by Scott Watson, examines the many challenges to the idea of high art that were posed by electronic communication and psychedelic exploration.



Ruins in Process is produced through a partnership of the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery at The University of British Columbia and the grunt gallery, Vancouver. The project is managed by Lorna Brown, with design and technical direction by Jeff Khonsary and Courtenay Webber of The Future. Editorial direction is provided by Scott Watson, Glenn Alteen and Lorna Brown. Additional project site design by Dexter Sinister, Archer Pechawis, and James Szuszkiewicz.

Image: Carole Itter, Raw Egg Costume

[Phyllis Reeve]

Agnes Denes, one of the artists featured in the Islands Institute on-line show, eARTh, is also one of the stars of Radical Nature for a Changing Planet 1969-2009, at the Barbican Art Gallery in London,
June 19-Oct 18, 2009

[Phyllis Reeve]

Third Art of Science Exhibition at the Friend Centre, Princeton University through April 2010.
Images captured during the course of research projects.
Visit the website www.princeton.edu/~artofsci/2009 before July 1, and vote for your "People's Choice."

The starbursts got my vote.

[Art In Nature Challenge Project]

The School of Living Arts for Creativity & Ecological Culture
www.SchoolLivingArts.com

Dear Friends,

I am pleased and proud to announce the launching of The School of Living Arts for Creativity & Ecological Culture, a new holistic learning center on 6.5 acres in New Lebanon (Berkshires/ Hudson Valley), New York.

Our first program, “How to Transform a Northeast Homestead Into a Model of Sustainability,” is a five-day intensive, hands-on designand implementation of Permaculture and Biodynamic principles and will take place August 24th-August 28th, 2009. Taught by Andrew Faust, one of the premier Permaculture teachers in North America, this course is open to everyone from beginners to graduates of the Permaculture Design Certification program.

Please note that the deadline for registration is July 10th. You can read a detailed course description by clicking on:
http://angelamanno.com/sla/02-dec.html -- and while you're there, I invite you to visit all the links including our Gallery of Earthly Delights with photos of the grounds and our Vision & Mission Statement!

Please pass this announcement to others who may want to attend this event and feel free to be in touch at [e-mail] with any questions!

Thanks so much and I hope to hear from you soon!

Angela
-------------------------
Angela Manno
Founder & Director,
School of Living Arts for Creativity & Ecological Culture
[e-mail]
970-275-1525
www.SchoolLivingArts.com

http://www.DianaLeafeChristian.org
http://www.EcovillageNews.org

[Beverly Naidus]

Arts for Change: Teaching Outside the Frame is now available in bookstores everywhere, and directly through me, the author, or through the publisher, New Village Press. It features stories from teaching artists from around the world, and includes practical and theoretical information about why practicing and teaching art for social change and healing is so crucial in this time. The writing style is like a collage, combining a fable, with memoir, stories and strategies for working in community and within institutions. Please take a look at it and tell me what you think.

[Cathy Fitzgerald]

Hi all

I've made a new short film for the UK Guardian's 1minutetosavetheWorld Climate Change Film Festival. The public can vote on the films before Fri 6 Nov 09 - the best films will be presented at Copenhagen in Dec.

Here's the link to my film - you vote by rolling your cursor over the yellow stars. Any comments gratefully appreciated.

http://www.1minutetosavetheworld.com/2009/10/once-i-counted-birds/

Cathy Fitzgerald