The National Science Foundation has awarded a $700,000 grant to the Civilians, a New York theater company, to finance the production of a show about climate change. “The Great Immensity,†with a book by Steven Cosson “This Beautiful City†and music and lyrics by Michael Friedman “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jacksonâ€, tells the story of Polly, a photojournalist who disappears while working in the rain forests of Panama.
via Arts, Briefly – Science Foundation Backs Climate-Change Play – NYTimes.com.
Ian Garrett
Calling international graduates of the visual arts working with recycled and re-used materials to enter the Creative Graduate Prize 2010!
The Creative Graduate Prize™ was founded by sustainable innovation think tank and laboratory Societás™ in 2005, in partnership with online arts platform Medium Magazine. The prize has gained a global reputation for spotting the future stars of the art world, with previous winners from as far and wide as USA, China, Japan, Singapore, Netherlands, Poland, United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, France, Germany, Mozambique and Canada.
This year’s jury is made up of leaders from the international creative industries known for their ability to spot the best emerging talent across the visual arts disciplines, including Yann Mathius – director of talent incubator the Design Laboratory and of online arts platform Jotta.com; Hussain Chalayan and SHOWstudio collaborator, artist and craftmaker Lone Sigurdsson, founder of WasteKnot; trend spotter and champion of female creative talent from around the world, Chauncey Zalkin, founder of What Women Make; acclaimed British artist Tessa Farmer and Creative Graduate Prizeâ„¢ founders publisher of Medium Magazine Laurie Cansfield and founding director of Societásâ„¢ and NEW FRONTIERSâ„¢ Melissa Sterry.
The Creative Graduate Prizeâ„¢ 2010 is supported by media partners including online arts platform Pelime, champion of graduate talent Cut Click magazine, female talent hub What Women Make and online arts platform of Central Saint Martins and the University of Arts Jotta.com. Galleries supporting the prize include amongst others Material and Lazarides.
Past winners and runners-up include amongst others New York based Japanese illustrator Yoko Furusho, British photographer David George, Dutch installation artist Florian de Visser, Polish sculptor Halina Mrozek, Canadian photographer Edith Maybin, New York photographer Carrie Schechter, Singapore digital artist Cai Jia Eng, Chinese illustrator Li Li, Cardiff filmmaker Gareth Lloyd and British artist Alex Bunn.
The theme of this year’s prize is ‘Illusion’ and the deadline has been extended from the 17th to the 31st October 2010.
Entrants should submit a piece of 2D, 3D or Linear work using recycled or reused materials.
Entries should be sent to submissions (at) mediummagazine.net (subject: CGP). Entrants must include their name, nationality, the college or university they attended and the qualification they gained (CGP is open to graduates only), the title of the work and details of the the recycled/reused materials used. The entry should be sent in the following formats: 2D – JPG, min. 72dpi / 1000pix wide; 3D – photos of work, JPG, min. 72dpi / 1000pix wide; Video – MPG, up to 12mb; Audio – MP3, up to 12mb; Text – Email or Word Doc
The Creative Graduateâ„¢ 2010 prize includes: a Key-2 Luxury keyring; a feature in Medium Magazine; a feature in Jotta.com magazine and press coverage across our media partners.
To find out more about the prize drop by the Creative Graduate Prizeâ„¢ pages on Twitter ( http://www.twitter.com/cgprize ), MySpace ( http://www.myspace.com/creativegraduateprize ) and IQONS ( http://www.iqons.com/cgp ). If you’d like to support the prize drop us a line or download the prize media pack on MediumMagazine.net.
via our LinkedIn Group —>Â Details | LinkedIn.
CALL FOR SCRIPTS: EMOS (Earth Matters on Stage)â„¢ Ecodrama Playwrights Festival ~ 2012
At the University of Oregon’s Miller Theatre Complex, May 24-June 3, 2012
CALL FOR SCRIPTS
First place Award: $1,000 and workshop production
Second place Award: $500 and workshop production
Honorable mentions: public staged reading
The Guidelines for Playwrights below describe the focus of the Festival. Please read. The Deadline for Submissions is July 1, 2011.
The mission of EMOS’ Ecodrama Playwrights Festival is to call forth and foster new dramatic works that respond to the ecological crisis, and that explore new possibilities of being in relationship with the more-than-human world. The Festival is ten days of readings, workshop performance/s, and discussions of the scripts that are finalists in the Playwrights’ Contest. Some readings and workshops will be followed by facilitated talkbacks with the playwrights. In addition, a symposium on the second weekend of the Festival includes speakers, panels and discussions that will advance scholarship in the area of arts and ecology, and help foster development of new works.  The call for proposals for scholars and those wishing to participate in the Symposium can be found at www.uoregon.edu/~ecodrama.
The EMOS award includes a workshop production. The winning plays will be chosen by a panel of distinguished theatre artists from the USA and Canada. Past judges have included:
- Robert Schenkkan, Playwright, winner of 1990 Pulitzer Prize
- Martha Lavey, Artistic Director, Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago, IL
- José Cruz González, Playwright, SCR Hispanic Playwrights Project; faculty Cal State LA
- Ellen McLaughlin, Playwright, NY
- Timothy Bond, Artistic Director Syracuse Stage, NY
- Olga Sanchez, Artistic Director, Teatro Milagro, Portland, OR
- Diane Glancy, Playwright, Native Voices Award, faculty Macallister College
- Marie Clements, Playwright, British Columbia
Guidelines for Playwrights
What kind of theatre comes to mind when you hear “ecodrama� Political plays that advocate for environmentalism, or educational theatre about recycling? While these examples would fit, please let your imagination soar WAY beyond them!
Ecodrama stages the reciprocal connection between humans and the more-than-human world. It encompasses not only works that take environmental issues as their topic, hoping to raise consciousness or press for change, but also work that explores the relation of a “sense of place†to identity and community.
Help us create an inclusive ecodrama that illuminates the complex connection between people and place, an ecodrama that makes us all more aware of our ecological identities as a people and communities; ecodrama that brings focus to an ecological concerns of a particular place, or that takes writer and audience to a deeper exploration of issue that may not be easily resolved.
While many plays might be open to an ecological interpretation, others might be called “ecodrama,†Examples are diverse in form and topic: Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People, in which the town’s waters have become polluted and a lone whistle blower clashes with powerful vested interests; Schenkkan’s The Kentucky Cycle, the epic tale of a land and its people – Indigenous, European, African – over seven generations; August Wilson’s Two Trains Running that bears witness to the loss of inner city sustainability; Moraga’s Heroes and Saints, about the embodied impact of industrial agriculture; Marie Clements’ Burning Vision, which documents the impact of Canadian uranium mining on first nations communities and land; Giljour’s Alligator Tales, a one-woman play by a Louisiana Cajun native about her relationship to her neighbors, the weather, the oil rigs off the coast and the alligators on her porch; Norman’s Secret Garden in which nature consoles a child’s grief; Albee’s The Goat, or who is Sylvia, that confounds human species taboos.
- Winner of the 2004 EMOS Festival ~ Odin’s Horse, by Chicago playwright Rob Koon, in which a writer learns something about integrity from a tree sitter and a lumber company executive, went on to premier in Chicago in 2006.
- Winner of the 2009 EMOS Festival – Song of Extinction, by Los Angeles playwright EM Lewis, in which a musically talented teen and his father whose mother/wife is dying come to understand the deeper meanings of “extinction†from a Cambodian science teacher. Song of Extinction premiered in Los Angeles and was recently published by Samuel French.
For us at EMOS, the central questions are†“when we leave the theater are things around us more alive? do we listen better, have a deeper or more complex sense of our own ecological identity?â€
We need your voice, so does the theatre, so does our world. Imagine! Write! Submit!
Thematic Guidelines
We are looking for plays that do one or more of the following:
- Put an ecological issue or environmental event/crisis at the center of the dramatic action or theme of the play.
- Expose and illuminate issues of environmental justice.
- Explore the relationship between sustainability, community and cultural diversity.
- Interpret “community†to include our ecological community, and/or give voice or “character†to the land, or elements of the land.
- Theatrically explore the connection between people and place, human and non-human, and/or between culture and nature.
- Grow out of the playwright’s personal relationship to the land and the ecology of a specific place.
- Theatrically examine the reciprocal relationship between human, animal and plant communities.
- Celebrate the joy of the ecological world in which humans participate.
- Offer an imagined world view that illuminates our ecological condition or reflects on the ecological crisis from a unique cultural or philosophical perspective.
- Critique or satirizes patterns of exploitation, consumption, or other ingrained values that are ecologically unsustainable.
- Are written specifically to be performed in an unorthodox venue such as a natural or environmental setting, and for which that setting is a not merely a backdrop, but an integral part of the intention of the play.
Submission Guidelines
We are looking for full-length plays that are written primarily in English (no ten-minute plays please; one-act plays are okay if 30+ minutes in length). Submitted plays should address the thematic guidelines as listed above.
- All submissions should include a cover page with:
- Play Title
- Author Name
- Contact Information
- Two blind copies of the FIRST 30 PAGES OF THE SCRIPT ONLY. Please do not put the author’s name on the script, only on the title page.
- A synopsis of the play and cast requirements.
Submissions must be received by July 1, 2011 to:
EMOS Festival/Theresa May, Artistic Director
207 Villard Hall, Theatre Arts
University of Oregon
Eugene, OR 97403
Deadline: July 1, 2011
Early submission encouraged. / No electronic submissions please.
Evaluation Process
After reading the first 30 pages of all submitted plays, we will evaluate the submissions to reduce the size of the pool. We will then request two full paper copies be sent to us by Sept. 15, 2011.  Winners will be selected from this smaller pool.
Questions? See our Frequently Asked Questions on the EMOS Website at www.uoregon.edu/~ecodrama. If you still have a question, email: ecodrama@uoregon.edu
CultureMap Houston: B Corps take hold in Houston: Companies like New Living make doing good a rule
Benefit Corporations continue to gain notoriety — the concept was profiled in depth in Esquire earlier this month — but the term is still foreign to many people. I didn’t know what a B Corp was until a few weeks ago, when I learned that Houston houses one. Jeff Kaplan and Adam Brackman’s New Living, a sustainability-focused green building and home store in the Rice Village (in the old historic Wagner Hardware store) is a member of this evolved new class of business model.
ashdenizen: tipping point launches first of four discussions
At this weekend’s Tipping Point conference, there’ll be a panel discussion on the first morning at the Examination Schools, Oxford (pic), which will examine ‘A History of Cultural Responses to Climate Change’.
The discussion is chaired by Quentin Cooper (presenter of Radio 4’sMaterial World) and the panel includes Diana Liverman, Nigel Clark,Siobhan Davies and Wallace Heim, the Ashden Directory co-editor, and guest blogger here.
This is the first of four discussions on culture and climate change, organised by Joe Smith and myself. The discussions will be recorded and made available on the Open University iTunesU.
This blog will be reporting on the panel discussion and, more widely, on the two days of the Tipping Point conference.
via ashdenizen: tipping point launches first of four discussions.
Banksy’s Coin-Operated, Politically Charged Plaything Mocks BP | Inhabitat
This colorful kiddie ride comes courtesy of gleeful art prankster Banksy, an artist well known for his graffiti and politically charged installations. In his most recent creation, the artist transformed a coin-operated ride into a searing statement against the BP oil spill.
Stolen Chair Theatre Call for Community Supported Theatre Season II
Last year, Stolen Chair launched the country’s first Community Supported Theatre (CST), an innovative new program connecting theatre-goers and theatre-makers. Our 45+ members watched us develop Quantum Poetics from its earliest research stages to its world premiere, which Radiolab’s Robert Krulwich called “Very very funny. Metaphysics with a big fat grin.” Along the way, CST members munched truffle popcorn during our Movie Night, enjoyed exclusive talks from some of the science communinity’s hottest speakers, and danced the night away at the scientastic Atoms & Eves Valentine’s party. The CST was profiled in American Theatre, theChronicle of Philanthropy, and Greenwich Time.
The CST kicks off its second season this November, but before it does, we’re looking for a fresh new name for this one-of-a-kind community.
Furniture puns welcome. Thievery puns also welcome.
The contest is open only to new members. The winner will recieve a free membership for Season Two, devoted to the creation of Stolen Chair’s 14th original play, Cut Paste Corset Perfect, a new work inspired by the curious world of Victorian photocollage.
- How: Click Here to submit your name suggestion.
- When: All submissions must be received by September 16
Stay tuned for more news on Season II: Cut, Paste, Corset, Perfect coming soon!!!
Destination Schuylkill River – DestinationSchuylkillRiver: The River is your destination for ART this Fall
This fall along the Schuylkill River, art that celebrates the environment and our connection to the Earth, “Eco-Artâ€, is on the agenda. A series of three diverse locations will feature art installations by multiple local and national artists on three successive weekends:
Sep 19th – November: Ground Play: Nexus at the Schuylkill Center
Opening Reception, September 19
4pm – 6pm, Ground Play/ Family Friendly Activities
6:30pm – 8pm, Artists’ Tour and Performances
In Ground Play, Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education invites six artists from NEXUS Foundation to respond to the history and physical space of its Brolo Hill Farm. The work in Ground Play is an expression of the insightful ways these six artists use color, scale, sound, texture, humor, fear, storytelling and performance as their own artistic playground, coming up with new modes of expression and creating experiences meant to delight and provoke visitors. Featuring the work of Susan Abrams, Nick Cassway, Jebney Lewis, Michael McDermott, Leah Reynolds, Jennie Thwing.
Exhibit will be up through November. Find out more HERE.
September 25 & 26: Destination Schuylkill River curated by ecoartspace
Starting one week before the 1st Annual Manayunk Eco Arts festival, five artists from across the country will be in Manayunk installing eco-art along the canal and in other Manayunk public spaces. Come out and watch the process, see the completed pieces at the Eco Arts Festival on September 25 and 26, and then visit the installations as they slowly return to the Earth over the coming months.
Milwaukee-based artist Roy Staab will create a work suspended over the Manayunk Canal using plant materials. Toronto-based Chrysanne Stathacos will be creating a poem of flowers to float on the Manayunk Canal. Habitat for Artists’ installation will examine how our culture approaches conservation. NYC-based artist Chere Krakosky will hang a clothesline along the Canal to talk about issues of energy and domesticity. Finally RAIR (Recycled Artist-In- Residency) an exciting, new non-profit in Philadelphia will also take part. Find out more HERE.
October 1 & 2: East Falls Eco Art Project
A special feature of the 5th annual Arts by the River and Eco Fair in East Falls (October 2, 10-5 at Inn Yard Park) will be fish-themed eco art. Eleven unique pieces of fish-themed art which use repurposed or natural materials are being commissioned. Chosen works will be revealed complete or in-progress at the festival and will ultimately be installed along the East Falls Riverfront Business District. One additional piece will be created through a community-process at the festival itself; “Waffles the Catfishâ€, a 4’5†tall, 80 lb. sculpture will be decoupaged by festival-goers. Attendees are invited to bring something about themselves or their families on a 3×3†paper, and have their memory preserved on Waffles.
Also new this year is the East Falls Weekend Gallery, which will feature local artists’ work displayed at the Masons’ Building, 4200 Ridge Avenue. Artist reception on Friday, October 1, 7-9pm with gallery hours continuing on Saturday from 10am to 5pm.
Find out more HERE.
Tanna Center for The Arts by Vanuatu Pacifica Foundation — Kickstarter
The Project
Tanna Center for the Arts will be a 6-hectare/14.8-acre off-the-grid artists retreat, cultural preservation and technological education space. Its site is situated on the island of Tanna’s northern up country in the archipelago of Vanuatu.
Our vision is to build an eco-haven using a majority of local materials and talent, engineer it using energy efficient design fueled by renewables, and fortify global understanding of one another and the changes we face together by making art to share with the world in this inspiring place.
The Goals
Preserve local communities, language & pristine lands through collaborative art & tech projects. Engage Tanna’s youth in applying select mainland technologies that serve island tradition. Invite artistic and inventive exchange with a global art community in a retreat and creative lab at The Center. Create a project that is candid about navigating the competing economic, cultural and ecological aims presently confronting island nations.
The Motives
To preserve his culture, respected island leader Isso Kapum – son of Chief Jack Kapum of the Naihne Tribe – reached out to Paul D. Miller(aka DJ Spooky) to create opportunities for Tanna’s native population through an artist retreat. This can generate jobs, cultural exchange and, most importantly, training for youth who leave home in search of work. Training in sustainable construction, water & waste management, permaculture, and renewable technologies can offset this loss. These practices have been extinguished from the culture and are needed for the survival of Tanna’s eco-system, currently threatened by status quo, carbon-heavy practices.
Building skillsets for Tanna’s youth that drive a localized, sustainable economy along with international tourism remain key aims expressed by island leaders. Bringing artists who’s work and acclaim can magnify global awareness of both climate and cultural concerns faced by the Tannese is one way Paul feels such aims can be met.
Common Ground on Shrinking Islands
Of Vanuatu’s 83 charted islands, the archipelago’s 243,304 citizens inhabit 65 of them. Issues associated with rising sea levels currently affecting the islands include saltwater intrusion that has severely affected drinking water, food production and export crops. Increased storms, inland flooding and cyclones have already affected coconut harvests and coastal erosion. This increase, along with bleached coral reefs, results in lost tourism revenue that feeds island families.
The ecological impacts of unsustainable development have also brought near-shore overfishing, fish poisoning from waste disposal and deforestation in recent years. A lack of employment opportunities and inaccessibility to markets can lock rural families into subsistence mode, putting tremendous pressure on local ecosystems.
With an economy centered firmly on tourism, contributing 72 per cent of GDP, and agriculture, coconuts make up 31.1 per cent of exports, these losses devastate island society. The late 2005 relocation of an entire coastal village on Tegua Island in northern Vanuatu to higher ground rendered them among the first documented climate change refugees.As islands lose revenue they also lose inhabitants, culture and languages, forever. According to Vanishing Voices: The Extinction of the World’s Languages, Vanuatu is considered to be the country with the highest density of languages per capita in the world, with an average of about 2,000 speakers for each of the 100 indigenous languages. Some of these languages are endangered, with only a handful of speakers, and several have become extinct in recent times.
Every two weeks a language disappears from Earth forever and with it a completely unique view of reality. This is a natural resource as valuable as fresh water and clean air. It must be preserved as carefully as we would an endangered plant or animal species.
Shared goals of stabilizing climate and preserving cultures render Tanna an ideal location for the project’s aims.
The “Happiest People on Earth” Have Things to Teach
Amid such instability, the NEF Happy Planet Index found the Vanuatuans to be, not just happy, but the happiest people on planet earth in their inaugural research of 2006. The Tannese social bonds and ideas of interdependence are ones that the world needs now.
Our hope is that Tanna becomes a home for global sustainability that remains rooted in Melanesian society.
The Funds
Anything you contribute will cover the construction of an initial ‘outpost’ on-site, a feasibility assessment and design of the first phase solar electricity systems for one village and three new structures between now and May 2011, when our first invited artists will arrive.
In December, local leadership, DJ Spooky, Engineers Without Borders and the Vanuatu Pacifica Foundation have arranged for R. David Gibbs, a New York-based solar and energy engineer with remote-location experience, to undertake a feasibility study with local renewables engineers, village electricians and tech trainees. The first goal is to replace diesel generators with solar PV and thermal systems that can power villages and initiate the design of the Tanna Center for the Arts’ off-the-grid retreat, cultural preservation and eco-education facility.
You’ve probably noticed we’re starting at $10,000 here on Kickstarter but with $20,000 we can complete the solar design phase, engage local craftspeople to build the initial structure(s) and create an ‘outpost’ that allows us to invite collaborators from around the island and the world to begin realizing this vision. Everybody’s help with a little or a lot is welcome, needed and much appreciated! .
(Please be in touch for specs if you can offer any material donations of PV panels, inverters, marine transport, etc.)
The Leadership
Our non-profit sponsor, Islands First, is working to empower South Pacific island nations to navigate the political entropy impeding climate progress.
Our guides in this project are the people of Tanna and a board of advisers comprised of respected artists, businesspeople, scientists, tribal and global thought leaders. With time, we’ll increase local representation beyond the Naihne people to include broader representation from the archipelago.
By using our collective creativity and media savvy, we hope to create an exchange that empowers islanders to offer their unique cultural perspective as a main export and inspire visiting artists from around the world to impact their own cultures with the beauty emanating from this amazing place.
“Smart People. Smart Island. Smart Cultures. Beautiful World.”
More at www.the-vpf.org
via Tanna Center for The Arts by Vanuatu Pacifica Foundation — Kickstarter.
TPS REPORTS: PERFORMANCE DOCUMENTS
About the Exhibition:
TPS Reports: Performance Documents is an exhibition of the “stuff†that results from performances: detritus, photographs, drawings, sculptures, videos, etc. We are not interested in the documentation of the performance itself, just the results. We are mostly looking for the items that were made as the primary goal of the performance.
About The Theme:
How does this stuff live on after the performance? Is it possible or necessary to understand the performance based on what is created through it?
Eligibility:
Open to all artists worldwide. Work is limited in size to no more than 1x1x1 meter.
How to Submit Your Work:
Please submit the following items in one email to tpsreports@spacecampgallery.com
- Up to 5 artworks
- You may include up to 3 views of detailed or 3D work)
- JPG or PDF for non-moving work
- MP4, WMA, or Quicktime for video or other time based work
- Artist Statement about the work
- Artist Biography, 3rd person
- Artist Resume or CV
- Image List including size, media, date, and sale price (if for sale)
- List of special instructions/requirements for installation
- Please include your name in each file title (i.e. Jane Doe, Resume.doc)
- Messages are limited to 25MB
- Links are acceptable for large video files
- All documents must be in either Word or PDF format.
- Any accepted work may be used in promotional materials such as show cards or on the website.
Review and Selection:
Work will be reviewed by the curator. Artists will be contacted by November 15, 2010 and informed what works are selected for the exhibition. Work will be due to the gallery by January 15, 2011.
Costs:
There is no submission fee to enter or participate, but artists are responsible for shipping both directions. Artists will receive 70% of the sale price for anything sold during the show.
Dates to Remember:
- Submissions due: October 5, 2010
- Artists informed of artwork selected for exhibition by: November 15, 2010
- Work received by gallery: January 15, 2011
- Exhibition: February 2011
- Opening Reception: First Friday February 4, 2011
- Artwork returned: End of February
About the Location:
SpaceCamp MicroGallery is a small contemporary arts gallery located in the Murphy Arts Building in Indianapolis, Indiana. SpaceCamp is dedicated to bringing small (size wise) but large (idea wise) national and international art to Indianapolis. The co-gallerists are Flounder Lee, Paul Miller, and Kurt Nettleton. http://www.spacecampgallery.comÂ
The Murphy is a collection of galleries, studios, and restaurants. It is also the temporary home of the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art. The Murphy and SpaceCamp are located in the Fountain Square Arts District near Downtown Indianapolis.Â
About the Curator:
Flounder Lee is an artist/curator/educator living in Indianapolis, Indiana. He has curated several recent shows such as Double Vision: A Dual Channel Video Festival and One Performative Night. He is an Assistant Professor of Photography at Herron School of Art and Design at IUPUI. He received his BFA from the University of Florida and his MFA from California State University Long Beach.