ANIMATING DEMOCRACY E-NEWS

 Animating Democracy News and Updates

Animating Democracy announces search for fall intern

www.AmericansForTheArts.org/AnimatingDemocracy
Animating Democracy is seeking an undergraduate or graduate student for a fall 2006 internship. Primary responsibilities include research and content development for the National Arts Policy Database and Animating Democracy website, including profiles of arts- and humanities-based civic dialogue and engagement projects. In addition, the intern will provide research, communications, and marketing support and assist Animating Democracy staff with various projects to support the program’s goals. Candidates must have strong writing and research skills and be familiar with Microsoft Office products, including Word and Excel. A student with interest in community arts and/or arts-based civic engagement is preferred.

Application deadline is August 18, 2006. For more information on this or other internship opportunities at Americans for the Arts, visit
www.AmericansForTheArts.org/about_us/internships.asp.

 News from the Field

School of Museum of Fine Arts partners with Boston Biomedical Research Institute to create exchange between art and science

www.smfa.edu/Student_Life/Professional_Development/Institute_for_Art_Civic_Engagement.asp
The School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Boston's Institute for Art and Civic Engagement and the Boston Biomedical Research Institute have announced a new collaborative partnership in which an advanced student at the school will be selected to spend a three-month residency at the Research Institute’s facility in Watertown, MA. The goal of the program is to foster a mutual exchange and evolving dialogue between the artist and a group of scientists, in which each would explore and learn from the other regarding their work, methods, philosophies, techniques, and technologies. The residency will ultimately result in a new body of work created by the artist(s) to be exhibited in the Research Institute’s exhibition space.

The Autobiography Project ends in Philadelphia

http://autobiographyproject.com/
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is the one of the most popular autobiographies of all time. In honor of Franklin’s 300th birthday, the Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary and One Book, One Philadelphia (a project of the Philadelphia Mayor’s Office and the Free Library of Philadelphia) invited Philadelphians to submit a memoir of their own, using no more than 300 words. During the six weeks of The Autobiography Project, participants received writing support at free, drop-in writing center locations on campus at Drexel University and Free Library of Philadelphia branches; online, with interactive feedback; or by attending a writing workshop. At the conclusion of the six-week, citywide writing workshop, 20 submissions were chosen for publication on bus shelter posters throughout the city of Philadelphia. The posters were displayed June 26–July 23, 2006. A full list of autobiographies can be found on the project website.

Guthrie Theatre commissions The Falls

www.cornerstonetheater.org/what_mainpage.html#falls
The Minneapolis-based Guthrie Theatre commissioned Cornerstone Theater Company to create The Falls—a community-based play inspired by Thornton Wilder’s The Long Christmas Dinner—written by Jeffrey Hatcher and directed by Cornerstone’s Founding Artistic Director Bill Rauch. Developing The Falls took more than two years and involved hundreds of people from communities surrounding the site of the new Guthrie Theater Complex. The play was generated through story circles led in the participating communities and through individual interviews.

The Falls will open August 19–September 10, 2006.

 Articles and Publications

CIRCLE report examines civic engagement at the college level

www.civicyouth.org/PopUps/WorkingPapers/WP46LongoMeyer.pdf
In May 2006, The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning (CIRCLE) published a report that explores surprisingly high levels of civic engagement among college students. Looking at existing research, Nicholas Longo, program officer at the Kettering Foundation, and Ross P. Meyer, a graduate student at New York University’s Robert F. Wagner School for Public Service, examined how college students understand, define, and view politics/political engagement; whether students are politically engaged; and how institutions of higher education may foster greater political participation among students. The report notes that the rise in civic engagement indicates there is no connection between community service and political participation, that is to say that “community service, it seems, may simply be an ‘alternative’ to politics.”

Australia Council on the Arts releases new report

www.ozco.gov.au
In January 2006, The Australia Council on the Arts began a community assessment project to explore the role of the arts within communities in Australia. With the goal of developing a strategic framework to support community cultural development, youth, education, and regional development, the council designed a call for submissions in order to hear a broad range of recommendations from the field. The resulting report—the “Community Partnerships Scoping Study Report”—recommends that the council form a “creative communities strategy” and develop a new model for providing a national network of services to artists, communities, and community organizations.

A full copy of the report can be downloaded via the Australia Council on the Arts website: www.ozco.gov.au/arts_resources/other/cpss_report/.

Public Conversations Project publishes guide for facilitating dialogue in Jewish Communities in the United States

www.publicconversations.org
Public Conversations Project has published Constructing Conversations about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: A Guide for Convening and Facilitating Dialogue in Jewish Communities in the U.S. Written by Maggie Herzig of Public Conversations Project and Mitch Chanin of The Jewish Dialogue Group, the 202-page guide explores general approaches and session formats on the topic of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In addition, the guide features a 27-page appendix on Jewish texts and dialogue written by members of The Jewish Dialogue Project.

Available in print at www.cafepress.com/pcp_press for $18.00 plus shipping and handling, or for download via the Public Conversations Project (www.publicconversations.org) and Jewish Dialogue Group (www.jewishdialogue.org) websites.

 Events on the Horizon

Creativity Matters
A National Summit Conference on Arts and Aging
Dates: November 3–4, 2006
Newark, NJ

www.creativeaging.org
Research confirms a direct correlation between creative expression and healthy aging. Yet, despite the growing recognition that creativity matters, older adults lack ready access to the arts. The proposed National Summit Conference on Arts and Aging will bring together the leading organizations and professional community-based artists from across the country to address these problems and identify steps to their solutions. Following a gala opening, the conference will break out into workshops designed along two tracks. An accessibility track will explore how to ensure that older people have access to the arts as audiences and consumers. A best practices track will focus on how to ensure and enhance the quality of the programs that engage elders as participants. Workshops will be organized by artistic medium, including visual arts, movement/dance, theater/storytelling, writing/literature, music, folk arts, and multidisciplinary. Findings from the conference will be disseminated to artists and arts organizations after the conference through a summit conference report and best practices guide.

 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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