Hixson notes that since the days when the conventional wisdom was that "art must be taught because aesthetic appreciation and creative thinking are necessary skills for successful navigation through the world," a dichotomy in what people consider to be art education has developed -- with some notions "clustered around cheery finger-painting 12 year olds, while others are focused on gaunt 20-somethings in black designer jeans mounting conceptually based video installations."

Since most M.F.A students now have to incur substantial loan dept, since selling art and/or getting grants cannot be counted on, and since they may need to get another degree in education to teach K-12, their best option is to teach in an M.F.A. program, Hixson states. But she also points out that "Just as a majority of funding organizations are directing their generosity toward art in high schools, graduate art programs are producing hundreds and hundreds of M.F.A.'s looking for work.

"What is needed is a real paradigm shift to accommodate these developments in the arts. And that is what the New Examiner is beginning to observe," Hixson writes to introduce this special issue which includes "In the Thick of it - Training Artists in the Public University: An Interview with Judith Russi Kirshner" by Kathryn Hixson; "THE MFA: Academia's Pyramid Scheme by Karen Kitchel"; "Part-timers Unite! Adjunct Professors Struggle for Equal Rights" by Franklin Cason; Jan Estep, and Kathryn Hixson.

Judith Russi Kirshner, the new Dean of the College of Architecture and the Arts at the University of Illinois at Chicago has a goal of integrating college art programs with both the larger University environment and the urban Chicago environment. In the interview, she addresses funding issues; the role of the university in the community including a planned new art center; how the college is addressing the needs of contemporary practicing artists; and how the separate departments -- architecture, performing arts, art and design, and art history -- work together.

"We are developing more interdisciplinary programs which are important ingredients of the experience that people involved in the built environment and visual culture will face when they graduate," she says.

Kirshner talks about the state university as dynamic in that it emulates what happens in the real world. "The voice and research of the architect, musician, or actor has to be as strong and as compelling as the voice of the engineer or the history major," she tells Kathryn Hixson.

She also sees the University as having the potential of an alternative space for artists. "The University is now beginning to offer opportunities for generative experiments in these institutions in the way that other alternatives spaces might have done in the past. It is happening in classrooms, in the studios, and across the campus in very dramatic ways."

"THE MFA: Academia's Pyramid Scheme," by Karen Kitchel tracks the history of the MFA degree from its creation as a response to the needs for teachers that the GI bill created in 1944 to the current situation where "Students enrolling in art programs today seem unaware or unconcerned that the supposed teaching market has long since peaked."

She quotes David Bayles and Ted Orlando (Art & Fear) as saying "If 98 percent of our medical students were no longer practicing medicine after graduation, there would be a Senate investigation, yet that proportion of art majors are routinely consigned to an early professional death."

Kitchel urges more of the art community to join the discussion, and she enumerates a few voices who are addressing the problem -- Dave Hickey's essays on how art functions in a democracy "and the ways in which the art bureaucracy middle-men are sucking the juice out of it"; Carol Becker's book ZONES OF CONTENTION which "articulates forbidden questions about how we train young artists to fail." She also mentions a pilot curriculum which David Mendoza is designing for traditional art departments which attempts to reintegrate artists with the world.

"This is our challenge, Kitchel concludes. "all pyramids eventually collapse. The college-manufactured pile of short-term artists is no different. Our only hope is to dramatically rebuild its structure, to critically reassess issues of entry, purpose, employment, maintenance, market and audience. Without massive remodeling, there is no reason to believe that future generations of M.F.A. graduates will end up anywhere else than on the growing mountain of casualties."

In "Part-timers Unite! Adjunct Professors Struggle for Equal Rights," Franklin Cason; Jan Estep, and Kathryn Hixson examine how corporate downsizing has seeped into academia. "So like everybody else in the last ten years, academic institutions have more and more become employers of adjunct, temporary, part-time workers. The effects of this situation are being felt by teachers, administrators, and students alike," they state.

New Art Examiner reports that part-timers now make up 30 to 90 percent of university teaching personnel. They typically earn less than a third of what full-timers earn per course; they seldom receive benefits such as retirement plans and health insurance; and because they do not have long term contracts, they can be easily dismissed if class enrollments aren't met. Since it is not uncommon to have more than 400 people apply for full-time tenure track positions, many academics will take part-time jobs despite these circumstances.

Part-time teaching does offer some benefits. A few that New Art Examiner points out are: more time in the studio, freedom from administrative duties, and opportunities for knowledge sharing.

Although, there are also some benefits for students in having practicing professional artists as well as in the variety of courses that part-timers make possible, New Art Examiner believes that "The most troubling result of the excessive use of adjunct teachers is the potential impact on the quality of higher education". Problems cited include lack of training, lack of administrative support, lack of incentive to adequately prepare curriculum, lack of continuity in the core curriculum, lack of time and incentive to develop school community or spend time with students, the lowering of opportunity for full time positions, and tension between part-time and full time faculty.

"On top of everything else, frustration at the perceived lack of respect may simply drive potentially good teachers away. The profession of teaching is emotionally and intellectually demanding and without proper financial and collegial support teachers may become exhausted by the present system," New Art Examiner states.

In response to this situation, part-timers at both Columbia College and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) have organized to negotiate new contracts. At SAIC, a Part-Time Faculty Advisory Committee was formed in 1996, and it initiated collegial negotiations which resulted in increases in pay, access to benefits, and improved job security. At Columbia College through the Illinois Education Association of the National Education Association, Part-Time Faculty at Columbia (P- FAC) unionized, adapting a constitution, bylaws, an executive committee. P-FAC become a legally recognized bargaining unit which is currently in negotiation with the college.

Noting that the unionization at Columbia and the collegial negotiating at SAIC may be the wave of the future for part-time teachers, New Art Examiner, which documents these negotiations in detail, concludes that "If part-time teachers are given more respect and more liveable wages, the appeal of the profession may begin to attract more talented people back to the teaching field, while augmenting the positive attributes part-timers already offer to universities and campuses across the country."

In the editorial which opens this special issue of New Art Examiner, Kathryn Hixson concludes that "What is heartening is that the discussion about arts and education, as complicated with jostling ideologies as it is, continues in such a serious manner. This signals that the power of the arts in our culture is still very vital, and able to withstand the ongoing siege of accusations of either perversion or banality."

Source:
Education Special Issue
NEW ART EXAMINER 26(5)
February 1999
If you cannot find the New Art Examiner, call this toll free number:BR> 1-800-221-3148 for the nearest retail outlet
Or call 312-649-9900 for credit card orders.
web site -- http://www.newartexaminer.org (or try http://huitzilo.tezcat.com/~examiner/)

Backstage reports that a statement from the Governor's office indicated that the increase would supplement the council's administrative activities -- holding NYSCA with $41.2 million in grants monies and increasing the operations account to $5 million. Last March, Arts advocates asked for a $10 million increase.

New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver explains, in the Winter issue of FYI, that after the governor proposes a spending plan for the arts, the legislature has a significant role in shaping that appropriation and making further recommendations. "We in the assembly regard our commitment to the arts not only as a way to enhance the quality of life for our communities, but also as a critical economic tool for boosting local economies," Silver says. "For every dollar the state has invested in the arts, four dollars are generated in the form of local sales, employment wages, tax revenue and other economic revenue."

Silver notes that artist and art organizations "can and must have a presence in Albany. He urges artists and arts organizations to get involved in the process, and he calls attention to Arts Day which the legislature sponsors every March in Albany. "It is a chance for the arts to be highlighted in a unique way before the budget is passed and a critical opportunity to speak to individual legislators and lobby leadership in one concentrated effort," he writes in FYI.

In related news, Backstage reports that NYSCA's new chairman Richard J. Schwartz says that the arts are in wonderful shape in both the city and the state. "We did the McKinsey study a couple of years ago, and that showed a $13 billion economic impact in the state, the lions share in the city, and its only grown since. I would like to credit some of that to the catalytic effort which NYSCA grants make," Backstage quotes him as saying.

Schwartz also noted, according to Backstage, that NYSCA funds are distributed statewide. "We do a very good job throughout the state. We have to grant money to every county in the state on a per capita formula. And the arts in the state are in very good shape. There's a lot of enthusiasm, in terms of performance, museums, literature."

Sources/resources:

Roger Armbrust
"Pataki Wants $46.2M for NYSCA"
BACKSTAGE -- http://www.backstage.com

Roger Armbrust
"NYSCAs New Chair Takes Reins"
BACKSTAGE -- http://www.backstage.com

Sheldon Silver
"A Commitment to the Arts Enhances Communities and Local Economies"
FYI - v. 14 no, 4
Winter 1999
FYI is published quarterly by the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) in association with the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. The winter issue also includes statements by Senator Roy M. Goodman and Assemblyman Paul A. Tokasz. For more information, contact NYFA at 212-366-6900 or visit http://www.nyfa.org

For information about Arts day Albany, to be held this year on March 16, contact the Alliance of New York State Arts Organizations at 516-298-1234 fax: 516-298-1101 Email: jkweiner@worldnet.att.net

The Lila Wallace-Readers Digest Fund (LWRD) has initiated new expanded support for small literary presses by awarding a total of $2.4 million in grants to 10 nonprofit literary publishers in order to enable the presses to develop a variety of innovative, nontraditional marketing strategies as well as new editorial ventures. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ONLINE reports that from 1991 and 1996, LWRD awarded grants to 12 literary presses. The results, according to LWRD, were "stunning." Presses were able to establish strong marketing strategies and reported aggregate revenue increases of as much as 65%.

The new grants include support for Arte Public Press ($175,000 for distributing bilingual Spanish/English editions to neighborhood stores) and Dalkey Archive Press. ($175,000 for an expanded literary Web site for readers age 18-26) Additionally, The Council of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP) will receive $525,000 to augment services to publishers, and Small Press Distribution, which specializes in small literary houses, will receive $424,374 to develop its EDI systems, Internet marketing efforts, and more.

The other grants to literary presses were $173,000 to Coffee House Press; $160,000 to the New Press; $100,000 to Boston Review; $174,663 to Copper Canyon Press; $150,000 to Milkweed Editions; $125,000 to Ploughshares; $71,284 to Sarabande Books and $150,000 to Theatre Communications Group.

Source:

Calvin Reid
"Lila Wallace Fund Awards $2.4M to Literary Presses"
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ONLINE -- http://www.bookwire.com/pw/pw.html
Feb 1, 1999

ARTISTS AND CHILDREN CREATING TOGETHER OPENS NEW HOME

CHICAGO, IL -- Artists and Children Creating Together (ACCT) celebrated the opening of a new home in East Humboldt Park last week, according to the CHICAGO TRIBUNE.

Since July 1992, the group has done 140 outdoor projects with artists and neighborhood children -- ranging from photography excursions documenting "places you think are beautiful in the neighborhood" to self cutouts created from large sheets of cardboard, obtained from a National Guard armory. "Some 50 of the figures were nailed to poles and staked in a vacant lot, much like ancient Chinese emperors created phantom soldiers," The Tribune writes.

The group was started by Carmella Saraceno, a sculptor, and her husband, sculptor Roger Machin, also a sculptor, who moved into East Humboldt Park in 1988, looking for affordable live work space. As they began fixing up their place, they welcomed neighbors and children into their studio to look at the art and even make their own art. "Not for them was the all-too-common rush of gentrification, a process that leads to new people in, old people out, with much hard feelings," Jon Anderson writes in the Tribune.

Many artists in the neighborhood have volunteered to teach classes in the new center. The new indoor activities will be overseen by Yasmil Raymond and Yoko Takahashi. Raymond, who grew up in Puerto Rico and is about to graduate from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago told the Tribune that "For me, as an artist, this is the philosophy I believe in. You can spend your day watching TV. Or making pots. Or painting. You can live a more active life than just watching. I like to help people see options."

Source:

Jon Anderson
"Art Creates Sense of Community"
CHICAGO TRIBUNE -- http://www.chicagotribune.com
February 10, 1999

CONFERENCES, SYMPOSIA, LECTURES

THE FULTON COUNTY ARTS COUNCIL announces a series of professional development workshops designed for staff, volunteers and board members of nonprofit cultural organizations. The workshops are designed to provide information and practical advice on a variety of topics relevant to the management of arts and cultural organizations.

Five workshops are planned during the next four months on subjects ranging from cultural diversity to developing new ways of community support. They have been organized in partnership with a number of local non-profit organizations and will be facilitated by experienced arts and cultural administrators. A list of workshops with dates and locations follows.

Feb 19 - 9:00 AM - 12:30 PM
"Are the Arts Really Culturally Diverse in Our Community?"
William Breman Jewish Museum, Atlanta Jewish Federation, 1441 Spring Street
Facilitators: Carla Roberts, Arizona Community Foundation, and John Thorpe, Network of Cultural Centers of Color

Mar 29 - 9:30 AM - 4:30 PM
7 Stages, 1105 Euclid Avenue
"Partnerships and Collaborations: Who, What, When, Where, Why and How?"
Facilitator: Barbara Schaffer-Bacon, Author and Consultant

Mar 30 - 9:30 AM - 4:30 PM
The Arts Exchange, 730 Kalb Street, SE
"Digging Deeper: Helping your Community Support the Arts"
Facilitator: Barbara Schaffer-Bacon, Author and Consultant

Apr 28 - 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
West End Performing Arts Center, 945 Ralph David Abernathy Blvd
"Introduction to ADA"
Facilitators: Pam Fordham, Arts for All, and Nancy Duncan, Georgia ADA Exchange

May 6 - 1:30-4:30 PM
Atlanta Botanical Gardens, Piedmont Park at The Prado
"Access and the Arts ADA in Action"
Facilitators: Pam Fordham, Arts for All, and Nancy Duncan, Georgia ADA Exchange

Workshops are free to Fulton County artists and cultural organizations. Artists and organizations based in other counties are welcome to attend for a nominal fee. For information and registration, please contact the Fulton County Arts Council at 404-730-5780.

ARTS EVENTS

THE FIFTH ANNUAL VIVA AZTLAN THEATRE AND DANCE FESTIVAL explores "the richness of a diverse and yet unified Texas by showing the many dances traditionally danced in Hispanic celebrations and expressing the feelings and emotions of Chicanos, that are not too unlike those of all other Texans."

During the Festival, which is a celebration of Mexican Folklorico Dancing, dance groups from Colorado; Amarillo, San Antonio, San Angelo, Houston, Edinburg, Lubbock, Texas; and Albuquerque, Las Cruces, Roswell, Hondo, New Mexico will compete for awards for the Best Company, the Best Technique and Form, Best Choreography, Best Costumes, Best Male and Female Dancers and many more, including awards for a childrens' division.

Made possible by a grant from the Lubbock City Council, as recommended by the Lubbock Arts Alliance, Southwestern Bell Telephone Co., and through the generosity of various Lubbock businesses, the event will demonstrate to the public, through both workshops and events, the many hours of work needed to perfect the intricate steps, to hand make the colorful dresses, and to learn the different styles of dances that go into producing the dances normally seen during the Fiestas held to commemorate holidays -- such as el Diez y Seis de Septiembre and Cinco de Mayo.

For More Information Call Bidal Aguero at 806-763-3841 email: elellub@aol For ticket information call 806-763-3841

CURRENT regrets that Last week the url for 18TH STREET ARTS COMPLEX (EVENTS - Barbara T. Smith and Anna Pomaska, memory, as in "TO SEE AGAIN") was inadvertently omitted. It is http://www.artswire.org/arts18st

CALLS FOR ENTRIES

The Franklin Furnace announces a call to performance artists. Supported by Jerome Foundation and the New York State Council on the Arts, Franklin Furnace awards grants of $2,000-$5,000 to artists, allowing them to produce major works anywhere in the State of New York. Artists from all over the world are invited to apply. DEADLINE: April 1, 1999

For more information, contact Franklin Furnace Archive, inc. tel: 212-766-2606 fax: 212-766-2740 Email: info@franklinfurnace.org web site http://www.franklinfurnace.org

SPACES, Northeast Ohio's artist-run, alternative gallery, is accepting applications for its 1999/00 season. They are seeking artists in all media, including video and installation, as well as proposals for curated exhibitions. In addition, students are eligible for the SPACES Lab program. SPACES lab focuses on smaller, experimental, timely exhibitions or installations. All selected arts and curators are paid honoraria.

DEADLINE: April 6

Call, write, or email SPACES to request an application form at SPACES, 2220 Superior Viaduct, Cleveland, Ohio 44113, tel and fax: 216-621-2314 Email spaces@apk.net Applications will be available on line soon at http://www.myenvent.com/spaces

SERPENT SOURCE FOUNDATION FOR WOMEN ARTISTS funds San Francisco/Bay Area women from poverty and working class backgrounds, women of color, disabled women artists, women not formally trained and those whose work embodies a political and social change focus stemming from progressive/radical politics and personal history.

SPRING DEADLINE: April 1 focus: visual art, writing, and music The fall focus will be on film, video, dance, theater and promoters of women artists.

For an application, send a SASE to: Serpent Source Foundation, 3311 Mission Street #176 San Francisco, CA 94110 tel: 415-597-3545 email: SerpSource@aol.com

ARTS COUNCIL OF INDIANAPOLIS TO AWARD $375,000 IN CREATIVE FELLOWSHIPS

INDIANAPOLIS, IN -- The Arts Council of Indianapolis will award $375,000 in 1999 to individual professional artists and arts administrators through an innovative new fellowship program designed to celebrate artists and infuse the arts community with new energy.

The Arts Council's new Creative Renewal Fellowship Program is a nationally unique program designed to celebrate and fund individuals in the arts. Funded by the Lilly Endowment, the program will award 50 fellowships of $7,500 each to individual professional artists and non- profit arts organizations artists/administrators who live and work in central Indiana. Examples of possible projects are: exploration of new works, pursuit of new or familiar avenues of artistic expression, research, instruction, and retreats or conferences.

"Lilly Endowment supports the development of our community as a place where creativity and innovation are valued and encouraged," said N. Clay Robbins, Lilly Endowment president. "We hope that these resources will rejuvenate and stimulate artists in this area and thereby add to their considerable contributions to the vitality of this community."

Following a February 19 application deadline, recipients will be announced in June 1999. For more information, contact Greg Charleston, Deputy Director for Programs and Marketing or Christine Freiman at Arts Council of Indianapolis tel: 317-631-3301 fax: 317-624-2559 web site: http://www.indyarts.org

Following is a small sample from the searchable database of current funding opportunities for artists and arts groups available in Arts Wire's MONEY conference to Arts Wire subscribers. To add your listings to MONEY send email to zarwan@artswire.org Please mention Arts Wire when you apply. MONEY is compiled by Elijah Zarwan.

Ongoing: AARON SISKIND FOUNDATION PHOTOGRAPHY FELLOWSHIPS - up to $5,000. For application, send SASE: Aaron Siskind Foundation, School of Visual Arts, 214 E 21st St., New York, NY 10028 or http://www.aaronsiskind.org

April 30: MANHATTAN GRAPHICS CENTER - offers a grant for fall 1998 to any artist who has not previously worked at MGC. Etching, silkscreen and lithography facilities are available. Printmaking experience is not required. For details, send SASE to Scholarship Committee, Manhattan Graphics Center, 481 Washington St, New York, NY 10013, or call (212) 228-4186.

April 30: WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH ART EXHIBIT - seeks films, paintings and sculpture celebrating and created by women. Works addressing domestic violence and women - causes, results, remedies, implications for all women, etc. - are especially sought. Submit slides, resume, and optional essay or artist's statement. For details, contact: Dolores DeLuise, Women Studies Committee, John Jay College of Criminal Justice/CUNY, Department of English, 445 West 59th Street, New York, NY 10025.

June 8: INROADS - makes eight to twelve grants of up to $30000 to support multi-disciplinary and collaborative planning residencies in the US for artists from Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific Islands to work with US-based artists under the umbrella of a U.S. host organization. For details, contact: Arts International/ IIE, 809 United Nations Plaza, New York NY 10017. (212) 984-5588.

June 14: PAINTING SPACE 122 - offers four one-year project studio spaces, available 10/1/99 through 9/30/00 to professional visual artists in NYC area. Applications must be received by June 14th 1999. For an application, send SASE to Project Space Application, Painting Space 122 Gallery. 150 First Avenue, New York, NY 10009. (212) 228-4249.

June 15: THE NEW MILLENNIUM AWARDS - $1000 each for poetry and fiction. $500 award for non-fiction. Winners published in New Millennium Writings. For more information, contact Don Williams, Editor, New Millennium Writings, New Millennium Awards, Room A, PO Box 2463, Knoxville, TN 37901. (423) 428-0389.

June 30: AARON COPLAND FUND FOR MUSIC PERFORMING ENSEMBLES PROGRAM - grants $3000-$20000 in general operating or project support to non-profit performing ensembles with a commitment to contemporary American music. Ensembles must have existed for at least two years at the time of the application. For an application, contact: Aaron Copland Fund for Music, American Music Center, 30 W. 26th Street, Suite 1001, New York, NY 10010-2011. (212) 366-5260 ext. 29.

JOB OPPORTUNITIES

MARKETING/DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR, The Blowing Rock Stage Company, (Blowing Rock NC)

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR FOR GRANT PROGRAMS, Missouri Arts Council, (St. Louis, MO)

OFFICE MANAGER, ACEA, (Montclair, NJ)

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, TENURE-TRACK, Communication and Media Studies Department, Fordham University (Bronx, NY)

Details about these and other jobs are available on Arts Wire's Web Site at http://www.artswire.org/current/jobs.html

To submit jobs to ARTS WIRE CURRENT JOBS, send email to artswire@artswire.org

A growing list of links to job resources for artists and arts administrators is available on Arts Wire's Web Site at http://www.artswire.org/current/jobres.html

TELLING OUR STORIES -- http://www.nebraskaartscouncil.org -- documents the Second Annual African-American Artists showcase, an actual exhibition through March 7 at the Black Rainbow Gallery, 1240 South 13th Street in Omaha, NE. The exhibition features paintings, sculpture, and photography by 23 of Nebraska's African-American artists including work by Littleton Alston, Amir, Oran Belgrave, Pam Berry, BIKO, Reece Crawford, Anthony Jackson, Luther Jones, Peggy Jones, Christopher Knowles, A.C. Lofton, Warrior Richardson, Bob Samuels, Deborah Taylor, Kim Whiteside, and Neville Murray.

The Nebraska Arts Council notes that the virtual gallery makes it possible for people all over the world to view works by Nebraska's African-American artists and also "provides a necessary alternative to traditional methods of marketing, which historically have not been very accessible to artist of color."

Telling our Stories is searchable by artist, work and medium and also includes a page of resources including information about and links to Black Photographers Virtual Gallery; BlackAmerica Online; The Black Lands; The Zone I Gallery and many more.

Each artist has a page with images of his or her work and words describing their lives and their work. "I have been drawing as long as I can remember," writes Warrior Richardson. "There has always been this burning desire, or driving force that makes me draw. It is as much a part of me as breathing."

The American Composers Orchestra professional network aco exchange -- http://www.americancomposers.org -- has been created to help share and disseminate information about new American orchestral music. "It is a way for music professionals to tap into the American Composers Orchestra's research and experience with new orchestral music, and a way to ask questions and share information with others involved in the creation and presentation of new American orchestral music," ACO states.

aco exchange will start as a web-based community that includes discussion groups, announcements, as well as a calendar of events which members can access and post messages to. In addition, the American Composers Orchestra will also publish articles, news and information culled from its ongoing exploration of new American orchestral music.

They hope to create a nationwide network of those interested in American orchestral music, and that such activities as co-commissions and other collaborative programs, workshops and professional development activities, as well as special funding opportunities will also become available.

"Ruth Mott, widow of GM pioneer - 1/28/99"
DETROIT NEWS-- http://detnews.com
January 28, 1999

NEA: Partnerships - The Arts and Older Americans - Arts Programs Uniting Generations -- http://204.178.35.192/partner/Accessibility/Perlstein4.html

The Actors' Fund of America, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, (NEA) has established an Artists' Health Insurance Resource Center (AHIRC) to assist the arts community nationwide in accessing information about health insurance options.

"A major concern among Americans is their lack of access to affordable insurance and appropriate health care," they state. "This issue is especially relevant to artists and small arts organizations who experience difficulty in obtaining and keeping insurance. Because many artists do not receive health insurance through employment, and do not qualify for needs-based insurance, they frequently fall between the cracks."

Through this initiative, The Actors' Fund's goal is to provide the arts community with information on a community and national basis and to inform artists of their health insurance options. Information is provided through a website accessible through The Actors' Fund's website -- http://www.actorsfund.org -- and is organized on a state-by-state basis, because laws and health insurance coverage vary by state. A new toll-free hotline will also be available.

BERKELEY, CA -- On December 20, 1998, Gaia a community bookstore which focuses on spirituality, body-mind practices and gay/lesbian literature, announced that because sales had dropped by $175,000 in 1998, it would close on Valentine's Day 1999. But PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ONLINE (PW) reports that on Christmas Eve an anonymous donor offered the store a $200,000 matching grant to stay in business.

PW reports that after the closing announcement and the resulting donation, sales increased by 40% in January. There is no longer a set closing date, and Gaia has begun a fund-raising campaign.

"A bookstore like Gaia functions outside the normal mechanics of a bookstore -- it offers soul, representing fundamental goodness, well-being and human aspirations to the people of the community," PW quotes co-owner Patrice Wynn as saying.

Source:

Roxane Farmanfarmaian
"Gaia Saved by Anonymous Donor"
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ONLINE -- http://www.bookwire.com/pw/bs-stories.article$27259
Feb 8, 1999