thelmasmith

The American Folklife Center (AFC) at the Library of Congress announces a new pilot program that will train members of indigenous communities to document their own cultural traditions, archive this heritage for future generations, and undertake the task of protecting their intellectual property rights to these recordings and the traditions they document. The project is a collaboration among the AFC, the Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) at Duke University in North Carolina, and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) based in Geneva, Switzerland. http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2008/08-095.html

a national women’s art exhibition – deadline August 1
Sponsored by the Oakland Community College Womencenter, Farmington Hills, Mi., From Our Perspective is accepting digital entries, with a deadline of August 1st. This juried exhibit will feature women artists and will include two- and three-dimensional works of art.  The Juror, Susan Goethel Cambell, lives and works in Detroit, Mi. and has work in many public and private collections, including the National Museum of Women in the Arts, The New York Public Library, The Detroit Institute of Arts, The Toledo Museum of Art and The University of Michigan Special Collections Library. Fee: $25 for up to 3 works. Awards: Best of Show $800.00, President’s Award $250.00 and a Purchase Prize of $250.00 (for smaller pieces).  To view full prospectus, and to upload images online, go to www.oaklandcc.edu/womencenter/artshow.htm.  Exhibit runs Sept. 18-Oct. 10 2008.  Please contact Arlene Frank with any questions at womenart@oaklandcc.edu

The U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs has issued an RFP for this substantial grants program. Grants of $200,000 to $600,000 will support programs that “utilize the arts to engage civil society – particularly youth and diverse and underserved populations – and that foster linkages and build partnerships between U.S. and overseas nonprofit arts and cultural organizations and local communities.” Project themes are limited to: 1) Mixed Visual Artistic Mediums: Cultural Exchange between American Indigenous and Minority Artists and Indigenous and Afro-Latino Artists from Latin and Central America; and 2) Mixed Visual Artistic Mediums: Cultural Exchange between American Women Artists and Women Artists from Africa and/or the Middle East. Applications, due May 22, must be made through nonprofit organizations or institutions of higher education. www.communityarts.net/apinews/archivefiles/2008/04/grants_for_arts.php

National Endowment for the Arts to Manage Design Competition forRosa Parks Statue in US Capitol
The National Endowment for the Arts today announced a design competition, in partnership with the Joint Committee on the Library and the Office of the Architect of the Capitol, for a statue of civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks. Commissioned by the U.S. Congress, the sculpture will be permanently installed in National Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol Building. The Rosa Parks statue represents the first commission of a full-sized statue authorized and funded by the U.S. Congress since the 1870s. The Chrysler Foundation has provided $100,000 to support the administration of the competition.

http:www.nea.gov/news/news08/RosaParks.html

I was at the University of Arizona Museum of Art today. This is from a new installation by
El Anatsui.

These works are copyright of the artist and are shown here under the doctrine of fair use for educational purposes. The work above uses the rims of screw on caps of cheap liquor that the anglo world has exported to Africa for the last several centuries. It references that societal problem, the problem of garbage, and also the West African textile tradition.

Not to mention that it is lusciously gorgeous and cries out to be carressed.

More societal commentary. Aluminum printing plates used in their most maleable form to comment on waste and waste paper in particular.

If you are traveling or happen to be around Tucson, Arizona, do yourself a favor and go to the University of Arizona. There is the Museum, two galleries, the Center for Creative Photography, the Flanrau Observatory, the Arizona Historical museum and much more.