ANIMATING DEMOCRACY E-NEWS

 Animating Democracy News and Updates

National Coalition of Dialogue and Deliberation announces new initiative

www.thataway.org
In partnership with Animating Democracy, the National Coalition of Dialogue and Deliberation is developing a web feature that will help members of the Dialogue and Deliberation (D&D) community strengthen their work by including the arts. This new networking feature includes descriptions of successful arts-based civic dialogue projects and links to artists who will work with D&D practitioners to bring the arts into their projects. For information on how artists and organizations can be included in this project, contact Leah Lamb at leahlamb@gmail.com.

 News from the Field

Liz Lerman Dance Exchange announces 2005 Summer Institutes

www.wesleyan.edu/ccst/general-information/institutes.html
Liz Lerman Dance Exchange will host several sessions during their Summer Dance Institute 2005 at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT. During the first session, June 13–17, 2005, "Dance is Big: Art-making and Community Building" and "Words and Movement" will examine the theory and practice of teaching and choreographing in community settings. In the second session, June 20–24, "Dance Intensive for Senior Adults" will immerse senior adults, both with and without previous dance experience, in the artistic processes of creating, refining, and performing. "Dance Deep," a three-credit graduate course will also be offered. The registration deadline to participate is Friday, June 10, 2005. On-campus housing is available.

MetLife Foundation announces 2005 Museum Connections Program

www.metlife.com/Applications/Corporate/WPS/CDA/PageGenerator/0,1674,P291,00.html#museum_i
The Museum Connections Program, a multiyear initiative of the MetLife Foundation which supports projects developed by art museums to increase interaction between museums and the people in their communities, has released its 2005 grant submission guidelines. Grant awards are based on clearly defined project outcomes; the potential of a project to involve communities in the arts; demonstration of an organization’s sustained commitment to community, innovation, and creativity; and the project’s potential for replication. For 2005, art museums in the following states are eligible to apply for support through the program: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. The deadline for proposals is July 29, 2005.

Levine Museum of the New South wins awards for dialogue project

www.museumofthenewsouth.org/exhibits/detail/?ExhibitId=9
The Levine Museum of the New South won the prestigious Excellence in Exhibitions Awards at the American Association of Museums’ recent annual conference for "Courage: The Carolina Story That Changed America." An exhibition that commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision. The Knight Foundation provided funding for a series of community dialogues about race, courage, and contemporary issues of access, equity, and inclusion to accompany the exhibit. Conversations on “Courage” targeted teams of managers from local businesses and organizations, and this decision, says Zimmern, was critical to the project’s success. The teams came together for a two-hour session that included a tour of the exhibit and then a facilitated discussion on diversity, interracial trust, social justice, and the community's choices for the future. Zimmern thinks that the impact of the conversation series is in large part due to the fact that the participants continue to see and work with each other, often on a daily basis. Museum officials originally targeted 500 participants for the follow-up conversations. When the exhibit ended in mid-August, 1,741 business and community leaders in 111 groups had participated, including groups from the area’s largest corporations, city and county governments, a number of large law firms, and other sizable employers.

Museum Executive Director Emily Zimmern attributes the success to a combination of factors: the museum created a welcoming and comfortable atmosphere; the historical exhibit provided safe, common ground for starting conversations about emotionally powerful topics; and the Community Building Initiative’s facilitators were very skilled in guiding groups to share reactions, memories, and ideas about the highly-charged topics. The relationships and conversations started at the museum continue to grow and deepen at the workplace, whether in lunch rooms, board rooms, or on shared work projects.

InterRelations Collaborative publishes 9/11 The Peace Book with Faith Ringgold

www.inter-relations.org
Following September 11th, youth from across New York City came together to document their experience in their own words and images. The Peace Book, published by the InterRelations Collaborative and visual artist Faith Ringgold, explores concepts of peace and understanding as a result of terrorism and aims to bring attention to continued terrorism and young people in need abroad.

 Articles and Publications

Art in the Public Interest announces new CANuniversity section of website

www.communityarts.net/canu/
The Community Arts Network, a section of Art in the Public Interest, has announced the creation of CANuniversity, a new collection of resources of their website devoted entirely to people involved in or interested in community-arts training. Resources and tools on CANu include: writings by or about this topic by practitioners, educators, and students; Places To Study, a directory of college and university courses in degree and nondegree programs, as well as internships, fellowships, apprenticeships, certificate programs, workshops, and institutes; syllabi from past and continuing courses around the world; a discussion group hosted on Yahoogroups; and more.

 Events on the Horizon

Critical Unity in Critical Times: The National Critics Conference
Dates: May 25–29, 2005
Los Angeles, California

http://annenberg.usc.edu/ncc
The 2005 National Critics Conference will mark the first time national organizations for dance critics, fine arts critics, classical music critics, jazz critics, and theater critics have gathered to discuss the arts and arts coverage of our times. The three-day conference will feature seminars, panels, and practical writing workshops through presentations by internationally known critics, authors, artists, and arts leaders. Among many speakers are three nationally-renowned Pulitzer Prize-winning critics will talk about the art and craft of critical writing: Margo Jefferson, New York Times, Dan Neil, Los Angeles Times, and Alan M. Kriegsman. Single-day and student rates are available.

Public Engagement and Intercultural Practice: New Democratic Spaces for Scholars and Artists
Dates: September 30–October 1, 2005
Camden, New Jersey

www.ia.umich.edu
The world around the campus is changing rapidly, even as colleges and universities seek to expand their civic commitments and partnerships. Cities and regions are shaped by layered histories of migration, encounter, translation, and contest. At the intersection of campus and community are networks of public scholars and artists. They are developing the skills and strategies for new approaches to civic engagement. “Public Engagement and Intercultural Practice: New Democratic Spaces for Scholars and Artists” will provide a forum where innovative public scholars and public culture-makers in the arts, humanities, and design can "bring the work" and move it forward.

Proposals are being accepted on the following topics: Bring the Work: New Forms of Intercultural Practice; Undergraduate Education: Liberal Learning and Intercultural Engagement; Working Across Professional Cultures: Arts and Humanities Partnerships in Health and the Environment; Urban Universities, Faculty Diversity, and Public Scholarship: Responses to George Sanchez's "Crossing Figueroa: The Tangled Web of Diversity and Democracy" (forthcoming from Imagining America's Foreseeable Futures Series, available in advance on request); Advancing Civic Dialogue and Academic Freedom One Year After the 2004 Election; and Shifting Borderline: Democratic and Cultural Spaces for Artists and Public Scholars.

 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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