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NYFA CURRENT features news updates on social, economic, philosophical, and political issues affecting the arts and culture. Your contributions are invited. Contact the Editor jmalloy@nyfa.org

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"The new facility will have everything from dramatically increased exhibition space to an innovative new media center, a blackbox theater, bookstore, expanded classrooms, study center, and a cafe. What's more, the building itself will make an architectural statement that reflects the New Museum's groundbreaking spirit," said Lisa Phillips, the Henry Luce III Director of the Museum.

The museum's new site is at the crossroads of several dynamic neighborhoods -- the East Village, the Lower East Side, Nolita, Little Italy, Soho, Noho and Chinatown -- and it intends to draw on the cultural diversity of these communities.

"We recognize the potential of the area," THE NEW YORK TIMES quotes Lisa Phillips, the museum's Director, as saying. "It could be a bridge instead of a barrier between everything that goes on in SoHo and the Lower East Side."

At the Bowery Poetry Club, which opened this year at 308 Bowery, poet/proprietor Bob Holman said: "The way Lisa was quoted in the paper -- the Bowery is the bridge between SoHo and Low East -- that's exactly how I feel about this beautiful wide thoroughfare that connects the four directions of the earth. The Bowery is the Park Avenue of downtown and as long as the artists can maintain, can be the anchors of this transition, than we can hope to stave off the Disneyfication of art land -- as opposed to the way that 42nd St has succumbed."

Founded in 1977, the New Museum of Contemporary Art -- currently based not far from the Bowery, in SoHo -- is a leading contemporary art museum in New York City and internationally. The museum's Zenith Media Lounge, which opened in the Soho building in Nov. 2000, is devoted to presenting digital art and experimental video.

Programming focuses on innovative and experimental work from around the world. "For example, LIVING INSIDE THE GRID (February 28 -June 15, 2003) features 24 emerging international artists who use the grid as a metaphor to comment on a world increasingly controlled by institutions, technology and media," said New Museum Public Relations Officer Rebecca Metzger. "The artists featured in Living Inside the Grid hail from Italy, Brazil, Israel, Spain, Slovenia, Germany, Denmark, Korea, England and the United States." LIVING INSIDE THE GRID will fill the entire museum with 40-50 computer-based works, videos, photographs, drawings, and sculptures, including many large-scale installations conceived especially for the exhibition or adapted for the New Museum's unique space.

LIVING INSIDE THE GRID is organized by Dan Cameron, senior curator at the New Museum. Cameron is curating THE 8TH INTERNATIONAL ISTANBUL BIENNIAL and was not available for comment as he is currently in Istanbul. Since joining the New Museum as a Senior Curator in 1995, he has organized the exhibitions ENCLOSURES: TERESITA FERNANDEZ, NEDKO SOLAKOV, HALE TENGER; LEE BUL: LIVE FOREVER; FAITH RINGGOLD'S FRENCH COLLECTION AND OTHER STORY QUILTS; FEVER: THE ART OF DAVID WOJNAROWICZ; and PAUL MCCARTHY, among others.

In December 2001, the New Museum of Contemporary Art hosted WORLD VIEWS OPEN STUDIO, an exhibition of the work of Simon Aldridge, Naomi Ben-Shahar, Monika Bravo, Laurie Halsey Brown, Justine Cooper, Lucky Debellevue, Carola Dertnig, Mahmoud Hamadani, Kara Hammond, Jeff Konigsberg, Motonobu Kurokawa, Geraldine Lau, Nathan See, and Hyungsub Shin -- who in September 2001 were artists in residence in the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's World Views program on the 92nd floor of One World Trade Center. Many of them lost all, or a substantial amount, of their work. The exhibition was dedicated to World Views resident artist Michael Richards, killed on the morning of September 11, 2001 while working in his WTC studio.

Other upcoming programing includes Venezuelan artist JOSE ANTONIO HERNANDEZ-DIEZ, (July 11 - September 21, 2003) a creator of multimedia installations informed by technology and the body, myth making, communication, and the vernacular culture and traditions of his home country. From October 10, 2003 - January 25, 2004, the New Museum will present TRISHA BROWN: DANCE AND ART IN DIALOGUE, an interdisciplinary traveling exhibition which will include paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, sets, costumes, models, video and sound installations, as well as performances by and workshops with Brown and her company.

"The 2003 program will also include BLACK PRESIDENT: THE ART AND LEGACY OF FELA ANIKULAPO-KUTI, (July 11 - September 21, 2003) which will give forty artists of the African Diaspora the opportunity to express their individual perspectives on the Nigerian Afrobeat musician and activist who died of an AIDS-related illness in 1997," Rebecca Metzger noted. Guest curated by Trevor Schoonmaker, the exhibition will include 80 works of painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, mixed media installation, sound installation, music, video, computer-rendering, film and performances by Kara Walker, Chris Ofili, Fred Wilson, Radcliffe Bailey, Moyo Ogundipe, Ghariolwu Lemi, DJ Spooky, and Fela's son Femi Anikulapo-Kuti, among others.

In response to question from Current about how the Museum's move might impact the museum's future programming, Metzger said that "The New Museum will remain committed as always to presenting our international program. It is too early to comment on the specifics."

Painter Curt Hoppe, who has lived in the Bowery for many years, is cautiously optimistic about the New Museum's move into the neighborhood. "It could be very positive the neighborhood has changed so much in the last few years good and bad," he told NYFA Current.

Some of Hoppe's work has focused on the area, including a series of paintings of the Little Italy neighborhood, and he also had some concerns about the impact of the new museum on the Bowery neighborhood which is home to many artist's studios.

"While the Museums move is great I fear that Starbucks, Banana Republic, The Gap, Hyatt Hotels, are not far behind," he said. The 'little guy business' and 'little guy renter' would be forced out by rising rents and eventually Joe Shmo artist living on the Bowery will give way to Joe Shmo investment banker who will want to live in Joe Shmo artist's now 'chic' live work loft forcing Joe Shmo artist to look for the next skid row to live in ...ie look what happened to Soho former artist community now Fashion high rent capitol of the world. Let's hope this does not happen and the museum's move in, brings with it new understandings of art and not chain stores forcing locals out with higher rents."

The Bowery site, currently an 8,000 square foot parking lot, is located between Stanton and Rivington Streets at the beginning of Prince Street. Plans call for a 60,000 square foot building, which will be twice the size of the Museum's current facility at 583 Broadway in Soho.

In the 1800's, the Bowery was one of New York's major theater districts, hosting popular theaters including the Great Bowery Theater which opened in 1826, The Bowery Theatre, New Bowery Theater, The Bowery Garden Variety Theatre, Crystal Palace Emporium, and Stadt Theater.

In making the announcement Saul Dennison, President of the Board of Trustees of the New Museum, emphasized the presence of the art museum in downtown. "We're confident this is the right moment for us to take the bold step of expanding and becoming part of the revitalization of Lower Manhattan," he commented.

"The Museum will provide a stimulating and accessible gathering place for the public and continue to be a resource for the City's creative and intellectual community," Dennison said.

Sources/resources:

THE NEW MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART -- http://www.newmuseum.org
Currently on exhibit: CARROLL DUNHAM: PAINTINGS (Through Feb. 2, 2003) and NALINI MALANI: HAMLETMACHINE (through January 12, 2003) in the Zenith Media Lounge.

THE NEW YORK TIMES - http://www.nytimes.com
_Robin Pogrebin
"More Museums for New York, Despite Poor Economy"
THE NEW YORK TIMES - http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/11/arts/design/11MUSE.html
December 11, 2002 _Dennis Hevesi
"On the New Bowery, Down and Out Mix With Up and Coming" THE NEW YORK TIMES -- http://www.nytimes.com
April 14, 2002

BOWERY POETRY CLUB -- http://www.bowerypoetry.com
The Bowery Poetry Club is hosting a Jeliya Kwanzaa New Years party hosted by James "Blood" Ulmer: "Blood hosts, does a solo set, and plays with the trio. Fina Kewulay Kamara will front hot NY Badinya koras/balophones. Toni Blackman will freestyle with live band. And Papa Susso and Bob Holman will blend griotologies. BPC! THE PLACE 2B!!" Champagne toast at midnight.

VILLAGE VOICE -- http://villagevoice.com
_C. Carr
"Po Show
Bringing Poetry Alive on the Bowery"
VILLAGE VOICE -- http://villagevoice.com/issues/0239/carr.php
September 25 - October 1, 2002
This article details the founding of the Bowery Poetry Club

"WORLD VIEWS OPEN STUDIO - LMCC and the New Museum Present New Work from the Artists Whose Studios Were in the WTC on Sept 11, 2001"
Arts Wire CURRENT -- http://www.artswire.org/current/2001/cur120401.html
December 4, 2001

CURT HOPPE - http://www.curthoppe.com/

Mercy Bona Pavelic, President of the Heathcote Foundation, has received her Croatian "green card", making her a permanent resident of Croatia. In 2000, she moved to Croatia with her family to begin a new life.

In conjunction with FACE Croatia, a program she established at Arts International in New York and as President of the Board for Art Radionica Lazareti, she is working on exchange programs with the artists of Croatia and the artists of the United States, as well as on the renovation of the ancient Maritime Quarantine-Lazareti. The Lazaret (1627 to 1648) -- a substantial stone barracks on the Adriatic sea, built to quarantine the sick and to prevent plagues from arriving by ship at the walled city of Dubrovnik - will become an arts complex with galleries, residency areas, and an artist in residence program.

In a speech on the occasion of receiving her "green card", Mercy Bona Pavelic said:

"....With great pride, I would like to announce that at 10:00 AM this morning, I received my Croatian 'green card', making me a permanent resident of Croatia. If all goes according to plan, I will become a Croatian citizen by the end of this year, and an official resident of this city. Thus, I am triply proud to be addressing you today as both an American, a Croatian, and finally, as a 'Dubrovkinja'.....I am told I have four minutes to describe to you my life work. I can describe it in one sentence: Lazareti is my life work."

"The vision we have is to bring to life this beautiful, historical site," she continued. "With it, we hope to help our city, Dubrovnik, to return to where it once was; a shining jewel in the sun for all the world to see. A difficult task. But I am a fighter and will give it my best shot."

In the talk, she emphasized the landmarks already achieved, including nomination to the World Monuments Fund Watch List for 2002 and one of the largest single charitable donations to a Croatian non-profit cultural organization -- $80,000 from American Express and its Croatian partner, Privredna Banka Zagreb.

A contract with the City is enabling the long term use of Lazareti's first three buildings, and the project expects to be allowed to expand into a fourth building which will house the international residency program. An additional three buildings will be used by the women's non-profit group, Dea, the folklore ensemble, Lindo, and the ballet school, Luka Sorkocevic.

"The Lazareti project is about soul, not about politics," Pavelic said. "We do not intend for the project to carry within it the pain of war. But, it would be immoral for us not to note that on this very day eleven years ago, Dubrovnik was brutally attacked. What a coincidence that it is on this anniversary that we receive this generous gift. In this context, our effort to restore one of Dubrovnik's cultural sites takes on even greater meaning. The goal of the Lazareti project is not to look back, but rather to contribute to Dubrovnik's future."

Sources/resources:

WORLD MONUMENTS FUND -- http://wmf.org
_Quarantine-Lazareti -- http://wmf.org/2000list.html?sid=2727&year=2002

ARTS INTERNATIONAL -- http://www.artsinternational.org
_FACE Croatia -- http://www.artsinternational.org/programs/face/

"American Express and PBZ American Express Announce U.S. $80,000 Grant for Restoration of the Lazaret in Dubrovnik" -- http:// home3.americanexpress.com/corp/latestnews/wmf2002-dubrovnik.asp

"FACE Croatia to Promote Cultural Exchange Between Croatia and US; Foundation Head Moves to Croatia to "set out on a life where we felt we had something to contribute"
Arts Wire Current http://www.nyfa.org/current_archive/2000/cur070400.html
July 4, 2000

MANCHESTER, ENGLAND -- From May 2- 5, 2003, X.trax will be hosting the Decibel Performance Showcase -- a major national event showcasing the best work from Britain's African, Asian and Caribbean artists and companies.

The Arts Council of England's Decibel is a short term project running until March 2004, which is has at its heart an increased commitment to cultural diversity. The Performance Showcase is one of the ways it is working to provide an opportunity for a wide range of culturally diverse work to be seen by promoters, agents, venue managers, curators and the media.

"Getting work seen and knowing where to find the work are issues confronting culturally diverse work breaking into the mainstream, the Arts Council of England emphasizes.

x.trax is an international showcase festival of street arts, contemporary performance, visual theatre, dance and music which takes place on the streets and in the theatres and venues of Manchester. During three days and three days, the festival introduces both audiences and promoters from across the UK to over 180 artists and companies.

On 1 April 2002, the Arts Council of England and the 10 Regional Arts Boards joined together to form a new arts funding and development organization for England.

Sources/resources:

THE ARTS COUNCIL OF ENGLAND -- http://www.artscouncil.org.uk
DECIBEL -- http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/wider/decibelindex.html

XTRAX -- http://www.xtrax.org.uk

"I will not
dance to your war
drum. I will
not lend my soul nor
my bones to your war
drum....." - Suheir Hammad, WHAT I WILL dedicated to June Jordan

The Artists Network of Refuse & Resist presents many voices on its website at http://www.artistsnetwork.org They include Renee Cox, Dread Scott, Nora Eisenberg, Martin Espada, Fionulla Flanagan, Danny Glover, Danny Hoch, Suheir Hammad, Leon Ichaso, June Jordan, Barbara Kingsolver, Tony Kushner, Keith Antar Mason, Arthur Miller, Michael Moore, Arundhati Roy, Nancy Spero, Donald Sutherland, and many others.

In November at The Great Hall at Cooper Union, New York City The Artists Network of Refuse & Resist in association with playwright Naomi Wallace, produced IMAGINE: IRAQ, an evening of eight new short plays inspired by the lives of those affected by the US/UK's roles in the Middle East, specifically in Iraq, after ten years of bombing and international sanctions.

This month the Artists Network features reports on the exhibition NO WAR, curated by Adriane Colburn, Darryl Smith, Laurie Lazer at the Luggage Store in San Francisco; and on DEMOCRACY IN ISLAM, a play written and directed by Bina Sharif.

DEMOCRACY IN ISLAM is at the Theater for the New City through December 29, 2002. The Theatre's notes begin:

"Islam is a cultural phenomenon in 24 countries of the world. 'Democracy in Islam' reflects on the meaning behind these complicated, loaded words and examines the representation of Muslims and Islamic culture in America and the West, in general. Through the portrayal of a South Asian Muslim family, Bina Sharif explores the liberalism within this family that seems to be buried beneath a conservative image of what Islam is believed to be...."

The continually updated Artists Network web site also hosts a selection of compelling texts. Among them are the poetry of Suheir Hammad; a report on Gore Vidal's call for an investigation into whether the Bush administration deliberately allowed the terrorist attacks to happen; and coverage of a Portland, Oregon March to present a petition against war on Iraq. The March was led by Ursula K. Le Guin, and the organizers of the petition are calling on writers in other cities to deliver the petition.

Sources/resources

ARTISTS NETWORK -- http://www.artistsnetwork.org

PETITION AGAINST WAR ON IRAQ -- http://www.douglaslain.com/aawii.html
The petition is available online and will continue to accept signatures through the end of the year.

THE LUGGAGE STORE - http://www.luggagestoregallery.org

THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY -- http://www.theaterforthenewcity.org

BOSTON, MA -- On Friday, December 20, 2002 at 4:00 PM, a Procession will begin at St. Paul's Cathedral, 138 Tremont Street in Boston and move directly across the street to the Boston Common's Brewer Fountain located at the intersection of Tremont St. and Winter St.

In the Boston Common TEMPORAL MEMORIAL, a series of lighted lanterns -- created by artist and architect Sandra Vieira, working with the homeless community -- will commemorate homeless individuals of Boston who have passed away during the year.

At 5:00, after the Memorial ceremony, people are invited to attend the Third Annual 'SPEAK OUT' TO END HOMELESSNESS 2002 a Vigil on the Longest Night.

Temporal Memorial's purpose is to bring awareness to homelessness in the City of Boston and to create a ritual for the remembrance of the deceased. Boston Common was selected as the site of installation because it is a gathering place for many of the city's homeless population.

The project is sponsored by Visible Republic, a public art funding collaborative including New England Foundation for the Arts, LEF Foundation, The Boston Foundation- Arts Fund, and Fund for the Arts. Visible Republic is administrated by New England Foundation for the Arts.

Sources/resources:

NEW ENGLAND FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS -- http://www.nefa.org

'SPEAK OUT' -- http://www.solutionsatwork.org

BLAINE, WASHINGTON/ DOUGLAS, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- The 67 feet high Peace Arch stands astride the international boundary between Blaine, Washington and Douglas, British Columbia. The design for the concrete and reinforced steel arch was donated by architect H.W. Corbett of London, England. Construction began under an international force of volunteers in 1920.

The Peace Arch was constructed to commemorate the centennial of the signing of the Treaty of Ghent on December 24, 1814. On that date, the Treaty of Ghent ended the war of 1812 -- a war of murky and complicated causes which encompassed the burning and looting of Washington, DC by the British as well as an abortive American attempt to invade Canada.

"Today the Peace Arch represents the trilateral friendship that exists between The United States, Canada, and Britain. As a beacon of hope around the world, the Peace Arch continues to be a testament to Peace, truly a gift for all seasons," the memorial states.

On the 40 acre Peace Park which surrounds the Peace Arch, an outdoor sculpture exhibition is held every year, sponsored by the United States/Canada Peace Anniversary Association in cooperation with Washington State Parks and British Columbia Provincial Parks. Its mission is to serve as a catalyst in the development of Canadian and American artists, while creating a greater awareness and appreciation of the Peace Arch and the International Park.

Artists are invited to submit sculpture for the 2003 International Sculpture Exhibition to be held May 1, to September 30, 2003. The deadline is December 30, 2002.

For more information, visit http://www.peacearchpark.org

Representing painting on a web site is not easy. The texture, the impact of the size, the true colors don't always translate well. Nevertheless, the World Wide Web can offer an entry way to the work of painters, creating a wider audience for their work.

Some of the many ways in which painters display their work on the web are:

• A frame or table-based site where thumbnails of images in one quadrant click to a larger image in a central quadrant or on a separate page. For example on TONY VAN ROOY's website -- http://www.sbmedia.com/vanrooy -- clicking on a thumbnail on the left brings up a larger figure of the painting in a central frame; and on the website of ALETTE SIMMONS-JIMENEZ -- http://artformz.net/painting/painting2.html -- the title of the work brings up a new image in the frame situated above the list of titles.

  SOHYUN BAE's "An Ode to the Women of Josun Dynasty" Series is represented at http://www.sohyunbae.com/gallery1.html by small images grouped together in the center of the page which click to larger images on separate pages.

  MATTHEW DELEGET displays smaller images of his drawings in two columns in the "work" section of his website at http://www.matthewdeleget.com/work.html Each thumbnail clicks to a larger image in a new frame.

• a scrolling page which allows the display of larger images on one page by utilizing vertical or horizontal scrolling.. For instance, P.P.O.W. Gallery in New York City, displays SARA EICHNER's oil on panel paintings -- http://www.ppowgallery.com/exhibitions/12003Eichner on a horizontally scrolling screen. Viewers are invited to send email about each piece. P.P.O.W., which presents artists -- including Karen Arm, James Esber, Michael Flanagan, Jill Levine, Katia Santibanez, and Lynne Yamamoto -- hosts many examples of their work on its site.

  DIANA DEAN -- http://saltspring.tripod.com/Alliance/ddean/ddean1.htm -- is a painter who lives on Saltspring Island off the West Coast of Canada City. On her site, which is a part of a larger site featuring the work of Saltspring Island artists, she utilizes downward scrolling to present THE BANQUET which begins with Dante and Beatrice "at the head of the table of festive activities".

The website of CANDACE GIERSBACH -- http://www.home.earthlink.net/~cgiersbach/ uses an image of her work with a gridded menu attached as an opening interface. Clicking on "projects" brings up another grid which integrates thumbnail images in a timeline and also includes an entry way to other parts of the site such as work and reviews. Referenced work includes TROPICALIA -- an installation of eight paintings at Roebling Hall Gallery, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY. The description of the work begins:

"This series of paintings, entitled Tropicalia, take as their starting point a set of snap shots I took of an empty theme park outside of Madras, India. I was interested in this manufactured location, with its mimicking Disneyesque landscape. I liked the confusion of western and eastern motifs. It felt like a hybrid reality. Using the computer I manipulated these photographs to amplify the fantasy and unreality of the location....."

The site uses pop-up windows to display images of the works superimposed on the black background of the primary window. Work ranges from HEADLANDS ABSTRACTS, a series of work using oil and wax medium and manipulated rusting material on birch panels (done as part of a residency at Headlands Center for the Arts in Sausalito, California) to JUKE JOINT, a life-sized recreation of his father's illegal liquor house, which recollects his experiences growing up in rural North Carolina.

Reviews featured on the site also simulate an exhibition catalog in their presentation, including both image and text in a print- style layout. In one of the reviews, Cornelia H. Butler writes about Rosen's work:

"...Similarly, A Song and Dance, made for an exhibition titled 'Daley's Tomb', curated by Jerry Saltz for N.A.M.E Gallery... is the work in which the artist locates the genesis of the relationship between movement and text. It focuses on a dancer's feet in the act of making and mimicking the positions of classical ballet. The text underneath mocks the malapropisms of Chicago's Mayor Daley, the song and dance of public oratory...."

Kay Rosen lives in Gary, Indiana and teaches at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

The Greg Kucera Gallery website provides access to each artist, to exhibition documentation, and to the gallery's print inventory. It is a fine site to browse -- offering an entry way to the work of many artists, with each page encompassing both images and text about the artist and/or by the artist.

Chuck Close's page includes SELF PORTRAIT (2000) and ROBERT. (Rauschenberg) (1998) "I always tried to put in unbelievable amounts of detail and information. If I didn't put that kind of time and energy into it, I didn't feel like I had done my job. A commitment over a long period of time is essential to the method of building something incrementally," the website quotes him as saying. (from Crown Point Press which also hosts an extensive website at http://www.crownpoint.com)

Cheryl Comstock's page includes images of her oil paintings and information about the artist and her work. (She was born in Boston, MA and currently resides on Mercer Island, WA) The site quotes her as saying about her work: "Each of these sources is a nostalgic, yet contemporary symbol of the isolation of women. Concurrently, each represents the desire to order and control an environment through the use of domestic chores, formulaic escape, and ultimately, complicity with the dominant culture."

"The limited availability of this type of art work in the market place prompted the artist to fill this void and make this art work accessible to all people who enjoy images from a different perspective," the site notes.

50TH ANNIVERSARY - SALT OF THE EARTH - CONFERENCE

"In the history of Hollywood there are few films with a story behind its making as dramatically riveting as that of Salt of the Earth. Made during the height of the McCarthy era by a group of blacklisted filmmakers who were among the best and the brightest Hollywood talent of the day, Salt of the Earth is itself a powerful and emotionally charged feature length film." - Organa

Fogelson Library at the College of Santa Fe is hosting a conference to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the filming of SALT OF THE EARTH. The movie, which tells the story of the 1950 strike by zinc miners in Silver City, New Mexico, was directed by Herbert J. Biberman who spent six months in prison as one of the Hollywood Ten who refused to give testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee. It was produced by Paul Jarrico and Adolfo Barela and written by Michael Wilson and Michael Biberman.

Panels include:

• NEO-MCCARTHYISM: DEFENDING FREEDOM IN AN AGE OF TERROR

  Panel group: Ellen Schrecker, author of MANY ARE THE CRIMES: MCCARTHYISM IN AMERICA, and (unconfirmed) guests Amy Goodman, anchorperson for DEMOCRACY NOW; Noam Chomsky; and Howard Zinn.

  "The role of government in protecting and attacking the freedom of expression is a matter worthy of constant vigilance. Panelists will discuss the historical aspects of government-based attacks on freedom of expression and what lessons are essential in protecting our rights as free citizens."

• ON THE LINE: WORKING PEOPLE IN AMERICA

  Panelists: Clinton Jencks; Marcela Diaz, Director Somos Un Peublo Unido; Linda Chavez-Thompson, AFL-CIO Vice President; and James Green, University of Masssachusetts, Boston

  "The struggle for workers rights continues and is perhaps more urgent today than it was fifty years ago. This panel will analyze the contemporary labor environment and the challenges faced by unions today."

• CLASS MATTERS: WOMEN IN THE STRUGGLE FOR ECONOMIC JUSTICE

  Panelists: Betsy Jameson, University of Calgary; Virginia Chacon, wife of striker and Salt actor Juan Chacon; Ellen Baker, Columbia University; and Viky Ruiz, University of California Irvine

  "Salt of the Earth is, in many respects, a film about militant women in the labor movement. The panelists will analyze and interpret how women have played such an essential and often ignored role in the struggle for worker's rights."

• DARKNESS AT NOON: THE HOLLYWOOD BLACKLIST

  Panelists: Victor Navasky, THE NATION; Norma Barzman, blacklisted screenwriter, author; Dave Wagner, author; Paul Buhle, Brown University, author of RADICAL HOLLYWOOD; Larry Ceplair, Santa Monica College; Walter Bernstein, blacklisted screenwriter, THE FRONT

  "Salt of the Earth was written, directed and produced by blacklisted Hollywood filmmakers. The terrible story of how the House Committee on Un-American Activities curtailed free speech and freedom of expression will be discussed and explored in its historical context. It's contemporary relevance will also be examined."

Concurrent events will include screenings of SALT OF THE EARTH; NORMA RAE; (Director: Martin Ritt, Producers: Tamara Asseyev, Alex Rose) HARLAN COUNTY, USA; (Director, Producer: Barbara Kopple) and REDS. (Director: Warren Beatty)

The Santa Fe Art Institute will host the exhibition REDS AND BLACKLISTS IN HOLLYWOOD, a history of blacklisted screenwriters and the restoration of their credits, curated by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

For more information, visit: http://salt.csf.edu/ ORGANA CD-- http://www.organa.com/salt.html

The attacks of September 11 significantly impacted the arts and entertainment sector, causing far-reaching effects on the livelihoods of individual artists, both those self-employed and those employed by others. A survey was conducted by The Government Outreach Committee of DowntownNYC! on behalf of the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) in conjunction with Consortium For Worker Education (CWE) in an effort to ascertain the economic impact of September 11th on the estimated 150,000 working artists of all disciplines, who are the key drivers for the arts and entertainment industry in New York City.

The results are now online on NYFA INTERACTIVE at http//www.nyfa.org/level4.asp?id=97&fid=5&sid=9&tid=22

The City of Mercer Island, WA is creating an a work of public art to commemorate the veterans who have served this country.

They are seeking an artist, landscape architect, or design team to create and install an outdoor, site-specific work to honor the veterans of the U.S. armed forces. The work must enhance the site in Mercerdale Park, as well as serve as a reminder to visitors of the sacrifices that veterans of all wars have made.

For more information, please visit http://www.ci.mercer-island.wa.us/RFP.asp

MERCER ISLAND -- http://www.ci.mercer-island.wa.us

Musicians United to Sustain the Environment (M.U.S.E.) donates funds to pragmatic grass-roots environmental efforts.

Donations to MUSE and profits from their CD's are given to specific projects which they belive are important to the environmental integrity of our planet.

Some of the groups which have received MUSE funding are:

• NORTHWOODS WILDERNESS RECOVERY
  which is working to stop degradation of forests in Michigan and Wisconsin's North Woods.

• SWAN VIEW COALITION
  which received a grant from M.U.S.E. to help fund their efforts to report on, and put the brakes on, the current hysteria to log our national forests in order to "save them". "The fires of 2000 are being used as an excuse to log. Swan View's work is important in debunking current myths and misconceptions about our forests," M.U.S.E. notes.

• FRIENDS OF THE BITTERROOT
  M.U.S.E helped fund ongoing efforts to document the presence of grizzly bears in the Selway/Bitterroot Wilderness in Montana

• NATIVE FOREST NETWORK
  This worldwide group of grassroots activists is working to protect the last remaining native forests. MUSE helped fund their campaign to preserve imperiled wildlands in the Northern Rocky Mountains.

• RESTORE: THE NORTH WOODS
  is campaigning for a Maine Woods National Park and Preserve which would preserve and restore miles of ecologically rich forest land in northern Maine. M.U.S.E. helped fund their Pedal for the Park, an effort to publicize the project throughout New England

• OREGON NATURAL DESERT ASSOCIATION
  is trying to save a small but the Badlands east of Bend, OR: "The proposed 38,000-acre Badlands Wilderness is home to ancient dry river canyons, volcanic ridges of Pahoehoe lava, red-ochred pictographs, and 1,000-year old juniper trees. The Badlands offers critical winter habitat for deer and elk, and hosts a surviving remnant native grassland that was once typical of Oregon's High Desert."

MUSE CD's include ONE LAND, ONE HEART with:

Magpie --- We Belong to the Earth
Dakota Sid Clifford --- We Want the Whole Thing Back
Alice Di Micele --- Chinook Blues
John McCutcheon --- Leviathan
Joanne Rand --- Bearing Witness
Walkin' Jim Stoltz --- Oh, What A Life
Paul Winter --- Antelope Dreams of Her African Cousins

and more.

"....This music recognizes that ultimately it is not an us vs. them struggle, but a collective human journey toward wholeness that we need to undertake.... Both lyrically and musically, these selections are intelligent, genuine, rooted in real connections with the earth" - From a review in TALKING LEAVES (Winter '99 edition) by Chris Roth Musicians who would like to be a part of MUSE, are invited to contact MUSE. They plan an ongoing series of benefit CDs.

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The following story -- which focuses on attacks on the arts and freedom of expression -- is reprinted from the September 11, 2001 issue of Arts Wire Current. It was posted on September 10, 2001, the night before the attack on the World Trade Towers. I went to bed feeling that we might be entering a new and kinder era. The next morning I was awaken by a phone call from my mother who was dying of cancer -- telling me to turn on the TV. - J.M.

ARTS FOES HELMS, THURMOND, AND GRAMM TO LEAVE SENATE

WASHINGTON, DC -- Three men who vehemently opposed National funding of artists and the arts -- Jesse Helms, (R-NC) Strom Thurmond, (R-SC) and Phil Gramm (R-TX) -- have announced their intention to retire from the United States Senate. In recent years, the US has spent about $6.00 a year on the arts per person, less than Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, or the United Kingdom. But while other US government agencies handed out sizeable, largely unquestioned contracts to the military industrial complex, Helms, Thurmond, Gramm, and other right wing Republican senators squandered Congressional time attacking the small amount of money allocated to foster our country's culture.

Phil Gramm -- who in a current press release promoting legislation to double spending on government-sponsored research recommends "raising the amount budgeted for science from $34 billion a year to $68 billion annually by the year 2008" -- wrote in an anti- arts funding press release: "If we are really serious about less government and more freedom, if you really believe that government is too big and too powerful and too expensive, if you really believe that having the average family give government almost a third of its income is too much, if you believe all of those things, as I do, I don't see how you can then justify having the government take $100 million from working families to spend on what we define as 'art.'"

And in a series of statements advocating eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts, (NEA) he suggested giving taxpayers a 200 tax credit instead of funding the arts. "They might decide to spend it going to three or four Texas A&M football games," said Gramm. (who according to THE WASHINGTON POST has denied speculation that he might take over as head of A&M) Strom Thurmond consistently voted to eliminate national arts funding. And, according to former NEA Chair Jane Alexander's book COMMAND PERFORMANCE, at her first meeting with him he declared that "First Amendment rights are an excuse for people to do things they shouldn't be doing."

In describing her reaction to Thurmond's words, Jane Alexander writes: "Was this the U.S. Senate? Was this what a senator of the United States actually believed? What had happened to the Constitution?"

Jesse Helms, in particular leaves a legacy of vicious attacks on artists, on the arts community, on freedom of expression, on public funding of the arts, and on public television.

"Jesse Helms is rightly famous for his attacks on artists and free speech over a long and sordid career. No one did more to undermine public support for art that asks provocative questions or to impose narrow minded standards of 'decency' on broadcasters," notes Marjorie Heins, author of NOT IN FRONT OF THE CHILDREN INDECENCY, CENSORSHIP & THE INNOCENCE OF YOUTH and director of the Free Expression Policy Project at the National Coalition Against Censorship. (NCAC)

During Helms' tenure, artists, arts organizations, and the National arts support system were continually forced to defend themselves against inaccurate attacks. In COMMAND PERFORMANCE, Jane Alexander reproduces a lengthy 1994 letter to her from Jesse Helms in which one by one he utilizes misinformation (either through ignorance or deliberately) to attack individual artists and arts organizations who had received Arts Endowment funding -- including Tim Miller, Holly Hughes, Karen Finley, Marlon Riggs, The Kitchen, Frameline, (which hosted the International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival in San Francisco) the Walker Art Center, Franklin Furnace, Highways, Centro Cultural de la Raza, Brava! For Women in the Arts, and Visual AIDS for the Arts. (for programs including DAY WITHOUT ART and the Ribbon Project which encourages the wearing of a red ribbon to express support for those living with AIDS)

Helms' systematic attacks on individual artists focused national attention not on the myriad creative approaches of this country's artists and the compelling need for their support -- but rather on the narrow-minded prejudices of the attackers. The Arts Endowment was under continual threat of elimination. The National arts budget was drastically slashed. Content restrictions were imposed on government grants.

Celebrating many of the innovative individuals who (with little financial compensation) have dedicated their lives to art making, an NEA Artist's Fellowship was a meaningful award for this country's artists to strive for. But in the summer of 1995, Congress eliminated grants to all individual artists, with the exception of writers and jazz masters.

In recent years, the NEA's budget has been gradually increased, but the content restrictions imposed on grant recipients -- instigated in 1989 by Jesse Helms, unheard of in most free countries -- remain a part of our National arts funding. Fellowships for our country's individual artists have yet to be restored.

"In the aftermath of the tumultuous years of the public funding debate, my greatest fear is that the creative souls of artists and arts leaders have been numbed, deadened or exhausted," Rob Maddrey, past president and chief executive officer of ARTS North Carolina, wrote in "Rekindling the spirit crucial to arts organizations" in PHILANTHROPY JOURNAL ONLINE. "....A choreographer may create a new dance, but it might have to be performed on eggshells."

Many of Jesse Helms divisive attempts to extinguish National recognition of artists and arts and to limit freedom of expression were initially futile, but their cumulative result was a weakening of the support system for the diverse artistic expressions in this country, an undermining of public understanding of the challenging work of artists who -- in the words of artist Martha Wilson, Founding Director of Franklin Furnace Archive -- "understand that the controversy that sometimes accompanies the risk-taking involved in artmaking is not an embarrassment to our nation, but the proud result of life in a diverse, democratic society."

Of Helm's methods, artist Frank Moore wrote in an open letter:

"Enough is enough. I have read in the L.A. TIMES and THE VILLAGE VOICE that you have the General Accounting Office investigating Karen Finley, Johanna Went, Cheri Gaulke, and myself. Why are you going behind our backs? Why aren't you talking directly to us artists, instead of having the G.A.O., at the taxpayers' expense, going to the galleries and the theaters we have performed in to ask veiled questions about us?

Here I am. Let's talk, man to man. It is the American Way. What do you want to know about me? You had my address because I sent you my article about how I think what you are doing is patently offensive to the Bill of Rights. After all, it is the American Way to directly confront your opponent, giving him a chance to answer, and giving the people a dialog. But you did not send me a letter. You sent the G.A.O."

And in the WASHINGTON POST, David S. Broder detailed Jesse Helms' "willingness to pick at the scab of the great wound of American history, the legacy of slavery and segregation, and to inflame racial resentment against African Americans," including his filibuster against the Martin Luther King Day Holiday and his use of the media to escalate racial tension.

Broder relates that "In 1990, locked in a tight race within African American Democrat, former Charlotte mayor Harvey Gantt, Helms aired a final-week TV ad that showed a pair of white hands crumpling a rejection letter, while an announcer said, 'You needed that job and you were the best qualified. But they had to give it to a minority because of a racial quota.'"

"That is not a history to be sanitized," Broder emphasizes.

In addition to his attacks on artists and the NEA, during the course of his 30 year term in the U.S. Senate, Jesse Helms proposed adding content restrictions to the appropriations legislation for Corporation for Public Broadcasting; proposed adding content restrictions to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1994; attempted to derail the Goals 2000 education bill; and introduced (with Strom Thurmond) legislation designed to dilute copyright protection afforded Musical Composers and Songwriters.

"Helms's demagoguery symbolized the worst in American politics. It would be nice, but perhaps overly optimistic, to hope that his departure will mark the end of an era of bigoted culture-bashing," said Marjorie Heins, who worked on NEA v. Finley while a lawyer at the ACLU.

Sources/resources

"International Data on Government Spending on the Arts"
NEA Research Division Note #74
NEA WEB SITE -- http://www.arts.gov/pub/ResearchNotes.html
January 2000
This note summarizes the latest research comparing government (public) arts expenditures in the U.S. with the spending levels of other countries

Phil Gramm
"Investing in Science"
PHIL GRAMM UNITED STATES SENATOR -- http://www.senate.gov/~gramm/press/nria33.html

Phil Gramm
Statements in Favor of Defunding the NEA
YES2ART -- http://yes2art.com/VoxPopuli/vp14arts.html

Helen Dewar
"Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas Will Not Seek Reelection"
THE WASHINGTON POST -- http://www.washingtonpost.com
September 4, 2001

Jane Alexander, COMMAND PERFORMANCE - AN ACTRESS IN THE THEATER OF POLITICS. NY, PublicAffairs, 2000.

Marjorie Heins
NOT IN FRONT OF THE CHILDREN "INDECENCY," CENSORSHIP, AND THE INNOCENCE OF YOUTH, Hill & Wang, 2001 For details, visit http://www.ncac.org/store/notinfront.html
In addition to her description of Helms's role in the FCC "indecency" wars in Not in Front of the Children, her earlier book, SEX, SIN & BLASPHEMY, describes his attack on "Piss Christ" and his legislation restricting the NEA.

Frank Moore
"An Open Letter to Senator Jesse Helms" -- http://www.spectacle.org/897/moore2.html

Rob Maddrey
"Rekindling the spirit crucial to arts organizations"
PHILANTHROPY JOURNAL ONLINE
June, 1998

THE FRANKLIN FURNACE -- http://www.franklinfurnace.org

David S. Broder
"Jesse Helms, White Racist"
THE WASHINGTON POST -- http://www.washingtonpost.com
August 29, 2001

NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS WEBSITE -- http://www.arts.gov

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AT THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS -- http://www.csulb.edu/~jvancamp/intro.html

"Supreme Court Rules That NEA Can Deny Grants on Indecency"
"Artists, Arts Leaders Fear 'Chilling Effect' of Indecency Ruling"
Arts Wire CURRENT -- http://www.nyfa.org/level4.asp?id=36&fid=6&sid=17&tid=32
June 30, 1998

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