#community-arts

#community-arts

Every first and third Friday of the month, locally sourced Artist Activators offer up free art making. Block Fest animates and celebrates the unit block of Turk Street with free arts activities, cultural offerings, community information, and discussion for the local residents, workers, and visitors. From live performance and art exhibition to screen printing workshops and crochet jams, Block Fest is a monthly celebration of the Tenderloin's creative spirit.

CLUSTER (Cairo Lab for Urban Studies, Training and Environmental Research) in collaboration with THISS Studio and Orient Productions have completed an independent outdoor community arts space in Cairo, located in Giza's Agouza Children's Park, one of the city's few remaining publicly accessible green spaces. Titled Pergola and perched close to the Nile river front, the bright red, ten-metre tall structure offers a new beating heart for an emerging cultural scene in Cairo.

But in the final days before it was approved in 2016, the developer's lawyer added a sweetener to the deal: Podell promised to cover $500,000 of the costs to build out a community art space at a 100-percent affordable-housing project next door. He had earlier donated land to the city to make that affordable housing project possible. The project was voted through 11-0.

Deborah Rutter believes living an "artful life" is essential to well-being. The former president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts said that means recognizing that everything that makes daily life beautiful - from the music playing in the grocery store to the architecture of the buildings along your commute - exists because of artists. "I have a personal belief that artists hold up a mirror to who we are as human beings and who our society is," Rutter said. "Our artists are telling the story of what's happening today. They are the truth-tellers."

In 2016, while artist McKay Lenker Bayer was still an undergraduate, her professor assigned the class the task of exhibiting their work. Unsure about presenting her work to the public, she downsized, quite literally, showing miniature paintings with teensy-tiny labels. And the idea for a minuscule exhibition space was born. In 2018, Lenker Bayer established Tiny Art Show, a community art project that utilizes unique and unexpected spaces around Provo, Utah, to show original work by numerous artists. Until this year, the project was largely nomadic, but Tiny Art Show now has its own dedicated space.

What was once a laundromat is now becoming a stage, a classroom, and a canvas for the neighborhood,

This Tony Award-winning musical, based on the 1899 Newsboys Strike, features two casts of teen and adult performers bringing the story to life. Set in early 20th-century New York City, the production follows charismatic newsboy Jack Kelly as he leads a group of young paper sellers in a stand against powerful publishers raising prices. The tale highlights themes of unity and justice, with reporter Katherine Plumber joining the cause to prove her worth in a male-dominated field.

"This ceremony, in honor of Sajda Musawwir Ladner, is the catalyst in the transformation of Jersey Street," said Lorna Harris, emcee for the event. Located steps from 425 Jersey St., where the Universal Temple of the Arts center opened in 1990, the intersection now bears the name of the singular figure who spent decades of her life committed to the surrounding community. "My mother was here at a time when people encouraged her to go other places, and she stuck, she stayed the course and she affected so many young people," said Rashida Ladner-Seward, Musawwir Ladner's daughter and the current executive director of the arts group.

Every first and third Friday of the month, locally sourced Artist Activators offer up free art making. Block Fest animates and celebrates the unit block of Turk Street with free arts activities, cultural offerings, community information, and discussion for the local residents, workers, and visitors. From live performance and art exhibition to screen printing workshops and crochet jams, Block Fest is a monthly celebration of the Tenderloin's creative spirit.

The verb for the act of making musical sounds is play. Yet too often, parents and musical professionals approach it as something else - as work, or showbiz, or obligation, or eat-your-peas self-improvement technique. Instead of being something you do for your own enjoyment, making music becomes something you do for others, because you're supposed to, not because you want to. It's a great way to discourage kids from learning music.

Forget pricey tickets and velvet ropes-this weekend, the circus is coming to town, and you won't need to shell out a dime to see it. The brand-new Down to Earth Festival is set to turn New York City parks and plazas into open-air stages, with a lineup that mixes contemporary circus, high-wire thrills, opera installations and participatory dance. It all kicks off Friday, August 29, and runs through September 7.

EPACENTER, East Palo Alto's creative youth development center, will now offer its arts-related job training opportunities and arts programs to people of all ages and abilities.

"For us, it's a triple threat... It's not just a budget cut. It's existential." - Naomi Fisher, co-founder of BFI, on the cumulative impact of funding cuts.