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Newsletter Art & Activism August 2009 IN THIS ISSUE :: AUGUST ARTIST OF THE MONTH: BEV GRANT :: ARTS IN ACTION PROFILE: UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS :: HELP EXPAND OUR REACH What is the CultureWorks Collective? A network of artists & activists... A virtual network...that pulsates! A capability, not an organization... An enabler, not a structure... The CultureWorks Collective is dedicated to integration of art and activism in ways that unite and inspire people to achieve progressive change. We work with progressive organizations to help them better understand the integral role art can play in reaching their goals. We work with artists to help them connect with the causes they believe in. BEV GRANT Artist of the Month--August Bev Grant is a veteran social activist, feminist, labor singer/songwriter, "cultural worker" from Park Slope Brooklyn, where she has lived for over 30 years. Bev is an award winning songwriter and has used her music as an organizing tool in both community and union organizing, often writing songs for specific issues or campaigns and facilitating the creation and use of music by others. The most recent example is a song called "Take A Walk In My shoes" written for a domestic violence survivor's advocacy group called Voices of Women Organizing Project (VOW). You can listen to the song here. Another example is called "No Sweat!" and was performed by Bev and co-writer, Pat Humphries, at the University Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) conference in the summer of '99. It can be found on Hands, released in 2001, by Pat Humphries, and on the 2003 album "Power of Song" by the Brooklyn Women's Chorus. Bev's work is described in Sing Out! Magazine as "unhesitatingly fervent, unflinchingly personal and reflecting the diversity of a real person's musings." She has appeared on numerous compilation recordings, including the recently released Grammy-nominated Smithsonian/Folkways "Best of Broadside" album. Rolling Stone Magazine calls THE BEST OF BROADSIDE "topical songwriting [as] holy warfare" and "a grand tribute to a stubborn ideal" (David Fricke, Rolling Stone, August 31, 2000). "Virtually every important singer/songwriter of the American folk revival is heard on the collection..." Billboard. In 2006, Bev won the Honorary BAXten Arts and Artists in Progress Award. The BAXten award honors "individuals in the arts who have revealed and transformed our creative world by instigating enduring change deepening the definition of their field and paving the way for others." ARTS IN ACTION PROFILE: Union of Concerned Scientists To draw attention to the personal dimension of global warming, the Union of Concerned Scientists has partnered with Penguin Classics to publish a unique and compelling interactive anthology, Thoreau's Legacy: American Stories about Global Warming. The book features 67 first-person accounts and photographs of global warming. UCS teamed up with Penguin Classics in September 2008 to encourage writers and photographers to submit their personal impressions of global warming for publication in the anthology. Hundreds of bookstores across the country joined the effort by displaying easels and distributing free bookmarks about the project. Reviewers at UCS and Penguin selected the contributions from nearly 1,000 submissions, judging the pieces on the quality of the writing, scientific accuracy, and story told. The authors follow in the long tradition of great American environmental writers, such as Henry David Thoreau, who have broadened our awareness and sharpened our perspective about the world we share. A foreword by noted author Barbara Kingsolver helps to set the context. The interactive book is available for free here. A limited edition hardcover is available for purchase. This is not the first time UCS has wedded science with art to communicate with the public. For the last three years cartoonists across the country have entered the group's scientific integrity editorial cartoon contest. A panel of award-winning cartoonists helped UCS narrow down the entries that appeared in the group's annual calendar. And last year, UCS issued a call for entries to artists and photographers in the Washington, D.C., area to grace its new office walls with relevant artwork. A three-person jury featuring former Washington Post Art Director Michael Keegan reviewed more than 100 entries and selected the 16 that best represented the show's theme, "Earth in the Balance." The show continues through the fall. CultureWorks Goals 1. Expand the website: Build a site that is truly interactive -- a tool to connect activists and artists around the world. 2. Promote the project and website globally: Spread the word through labor, environmental, and peace organizations. 3. Hire a grant writer: Build capacity to apply for project grants. 4. Spread the word: Draw attention to artists using their art for progressive change, and to activists incorporating art into their campaigns. 5. Hire a training director: Develop progressive organizations' ability to use art to reach their goals for change. 6. Hire an Executive Director: Establish the collective as a resource for artists and activists; manage and develop our impact and reach. 7. Agitate - Educate - Organize! http://www.cultureworkscollective.com
 Humanities & Social Sciences Online 
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