Blue Mountain Center

Liz Kirkham is managing the CAIR (Change Agents in Residence) at Washington's Bainbridge Graduate School.

For the last eight years I have worked on a photographic project sponsored by the Blue Earth Alliance, called “No Agua, No Vida/ No Water, No Life.” In between assignments as a photo-journalist, I’ve scraped together time and money to visually tell the story of the Colorado River, and through it the story of the American West, its people and environment. The project explores the damaging perception of the river as an unlimited, plentiful resource. Since November of last year, I have made a lot of progress on the project, including photo exhibits in New York and Northern California.

But, I’ve hit a wall. I need your help to complete what to date has been an epic labor of love. I need to raise $10,000 for the remaining film processing and travel to finish the story, and put it before the public. I’m writing to you, my friends and family, and asking you to make a tax deductible donation in my name to the Seattle-based Blue Earth Alliance to help me complete this mission, and tell this important environmental and social story. http://www.blueearth.org/projects/current.cfm?projectID=25

I will be forever grateful for any help you can give towards the completion of this project — whether it’s a gift of $500 or $50 (or fellow photojournalists — even $10) I promise you that any donation will be spent carefully and wisely. I process my own film, make my own scans and work almost exclusively from an ingenious and efficient folding bicycle, rather than renting a car: http://www.blueearth.org/blog/?p=579 Not only does it save money, but I think it is a better fit for working on a story about the impact of humanity on our environment. I also see things I would miss if I were speeding past them in a car. If you give me a mailing address along with your donation, however small or large, I promise to send you a postcard from the road somewhere while I’m finishing up the project in 2010.

Thanks for your time and generosity. Here’s the link to the Blue Earth donation page:

http://www.blueearth.org/community/join.cfm

This will open a PayPal page and you can pay through a PayPal account if you have one or with a credit card. When you reach a page titled “Review your payment,” look for the small link: +Project name on the left side. Click the link and write “No Agua, No Vida”. This will make sure that anything you give will go to my project. OR payment can be mailed to:

Blue Earth Alliance
PO Box 94388
Seattle, WA 98124-6688

For donations of $1000 or more, you will receive one 16" X 20" gelatin silver print of your choice from the project for each $1000 donated.

John Trotter
555 Washington Ave. #4E
Brooklyn, NY 11238
USA
Land 1.718.230.1624
Mobile 1.347.232.0106
anamerican@earthlink.net

I am excited about my new position at Program Officer of External Affairs – Fiscal Sponsorship at the New York Foundation for the Arts ( www.nyfa.org ). Fiscal Sponsorship http://www.nyfa.org/level2.asp?id=2&fid=10 Fiscal Sponsorship is a critical way for individual artists across all disciplines, artists' collaborative projects, and emerging arts organizations in all disciplines to apply for funding usually available only to organizations with 501(c)(3) nonprofit status. The right fiscal sponsor will not only allow you to manage your project efficiently, but can actually help artists to raise more money and realize their artistic visions more fully.

I will be marketing and promoting NYFA’s fiscal Sponsorship program to give more artists this important opportunity to fundraise for and implement creative projects. In particular, I am so pleased and honored to work for NYFA, whose mission is in alignment with what matters to me – to empower artists at critical stages in their creative lives. As both an arts administrator and a professional artist I am so grateful and honored to take on this position with NYFA, the largest provider of funding, information & services to artists in the United States .

My commitment to my own studio practice is strengthened. I have a great space in Brooklyn in which to work and I have several upcoming opportunities that are very exciting….including participating as a visiting artist in this year’s Art Papers Magazine fundraising auction http://www.artpapers.org (back to the ATL in February!).

I’ll be traveling a lot in the coming year to promote NYFA’s programs around the country. I have trips planned to LA, Atlanta and Ohio in the coming months, with Chicago, Seattle and Minneapolis in the works. If you know artists or organizations that I can network with in these cities please let me know!

NEW WORK CONTACT INFORMATION:

Rory Golden
Program Officer, External Affairs - Fiscal Sponsorship
New York Foundation for the Arts
20 Jay Street, 7th Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11201
phone: 212-366-6900 x 223
fax: 212-366-1778
email: rgolden@nyfa.org
www.nyfa.org

Andrea Clearfield, composer, was recently awarded The American Academy in Rome Fellowship from the American Composers Forum and will be living and composing in Rome next fall.

Andrea's cantata, Kabo Omowale (Welcome Home Child), commissioned by The Philadelphia Orchestra and premiered in 2008, was performed again on January 18, 2010 to celebrate Martin Luther King with Charlotte
Blake Alston, narrator, the Philadelphia All City Choir and The Philadelphia Orchestra, Maestro Thomas Wilkins, conductor.

Andrea traveled through the Himalayas on a trek to the remote northern region of Lo Monthang, Nepal, in 2008 to gather research for a commission from Network for New Music for large chamber ensemble in
collaboration with visual artist Maureen Drdak. The resulting work, Lung-Ta (The Windhorse) was premiered in Philadelphia in March, 2009. Andrea and anthropologist Katey Blumenthal received a grant from The Rubin Foundation to return to Lo Monthang to record and document the music of royal court singer, Tashi Tsering. They will embark on a trek to
this restricted region in May/June 2010.

More information at
www.andreaclearfield.com

It is with great sorrow we announce the passing of Eithne McGuinness.

www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2010/jan/08/eithne-mcguinness-obituary

In September, I traveled to Guatemala to teach soap making workshops to several Mayan communities.
A photo essay about this project can be seen on my site, http://www.ericaharris.org
and new drawings from the trip have been added to my Etsy shop: http://www.ericaharris.etsy.com

On the India & Etsy fundraiser:
Thanks to your very generous participation, I met my goal. Your Etsy purchases are sending me to be a resident at Kriti Gallery in Varanasi for six weeks. I leave in February.

Celia teaches creative writing at Bard, and for the Bard College Prison Initiative and the Bard Institute for Writing and Thinking. This year she has taught workshops at the American Military Academy at
West Point, Al Quds University in Jerusalem, American University of Central Asia in Bishkek, Krgyzstan, and the Keene State College Writers Conference in New Hampshire. She has published in recent issues of Field Notes, Writing on the Edge, and the Boston Review. In November, her collaboration with visual artist Dianne Kornberg, titled "Madonna Comix," was the topic of an artist talk at the Portland, Oregon, Museum of Art.

Returned in November from a month long residency at the Printing Museum in Darmstadt, Germany working on a new artists' books. While there I had 2 exhibits - one at the Kulturhaus Ziegulhutte and the other at the Hessische Museum in Darmstadt. It was a great experience.

“What’s On Your Plate?,” which I produced, screened at the South Bronx Food and Film Expo and at the Brooklyn Kitchen Labs as part of their Kids Day program, and was selected as a top weekend pick by The New York Times’ Urban Eye. Julie Bloom of the Times wrote: “This documentary by Catherine Gund takes on the well-trodden terrain of food politics, but this time from the point of view of two 11-year-olds. Over the course of a year, Sadie and Safiyah try to make sense of New York's complicated food systems by visiting farmers, supermarkets, fast-food chains and school lunchrooms. The girls sift through enough layers of the sustainable movement to make Michael Pollan proud…”

Recently I began producing a 10-episode online series about the experiences of New Yorkers in the performing arts. HERE Arts Center conceived the Portrait Project, which is funded by the Rockefeller Cultural Innovation Fund, and have kindly brought me on board. Director Chiara Clemente will be joining me in this venture, and I look forward to sharing more news as the series develops.

BOOK DRIVE NEWS: Two huge shipments of books to Sri Lanka in December. Many thanks to everyone who donated. One of the organizations receiving the books is up for the Chase Bank Facebook Challenge. Please take a minute to vote for Sarvodaya:
http://apps.facebook.com/chasecommunitygiving/charities/594855
It is very deserving of your vote and of the Chase grant.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/02/arts/music/02hollenbeck.html?emc=eta1

Katy Butler's family memoir -- on pacemakers and the prolonging of her father's
worst years -- has been accepted for publication in early 2010 by the New York Times magazine.
She taught "The Alchemy of Memoir" at Esalen Institute Nov. 29 through Dec. 4 2009.

Puzzle in the New York Times, Saturday, 11/21/09; puzzle in the L.A. Times Tuesday, 11/24/09.

I am very pleased to publically announce my win at the “International Competition to Design an Outdoor Gallery” in Gdansk, Poland in 2009. My winning design, “The Scent of Color”, calls to revitalize the neglected Lower City District in Gdansk, making it a welcoming gathering point. Please take the time to look at this featured article in Art Knowledge News, by following the link below. The project will be slated for completion in 2011.

http://www.artknowledgenews.com/2009-11-20-00-23-15-artist-carmen-einfin...

"The People's Pension: The War Against Social Security from Reagan to Obama," is finished after some 8 to 9 years of intermittent work (depending on the criteria used to time it).
I'm happy it's over and pleased with the result. I
understand the last 30 to 40 years of American history better, and suspect so will those who read the book. Now, I just need to find a publisher - a project that will take much less time, I firmly expect!

I have started a podcast series on general hypnosis, and it’s available at the itunes store. The series is called Hypnosis Power. It’s free, and I’ll be putting out a new episode each couple weeks. The url is

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=3399226...

This first episode is about what hypnosis is, how I became a hypnosis, and a little about the latest research on what it can do. If you like it, it would be great if you rate it on itunes, or even write a review. This will help me get it out to more people, and increase the visibility.

Each episode will have a particular focus, the next one is on hypnosis and pain relief. You can subscribe to the podcast if you want to also.

If you don’t have itunes, you can also get the podcast on the podcast page on my site, realsolutionshypnosis.com

I’m also thinking about starting a podcast series on creativity and hypnosis, if people are into it.

January news:

I received a grant from the Department of Cultural Affairs as a Regrant through the Brooklyn Arts Council, in support of programming for six upcoming artist presentations and performances at Central Booking. Stay tuned for the schedule

James Cañón changed the name of the group "Fans of TALES FROM THE TOWN OF WIDOWS by James Cañón" to "Fans of 'Tales from the Town of Widows' by James Cañón".

To see the group, follow the link below:
http://www.facebook.com/n/?group.php&gid=38415709515&mid=1aba53fG28aec29...

Here's what I've been up to: I finished my first semester teaching at Swarthmore and am now getting ready for my second. I love it! The students are smart and interesting. Not so much the commute, but I'm learning how to make it enjoyable through the wonderful world of podcasts... The film I was working on at BMC, "Passerine: A Bird Duet," is almost finished and will premiere in Columbia University's Film Festival in the spring. On a different note, I seem to be moving into photography, which is something I didn't plan, but now seems like a natural extension of the minimentals. It all happened at BMC! I'll be in a group show at Gridspace in Brooklyn with a photo I took on a morning
hike up to the ridge.

Wonderland: A Fairy Tale of the Soviet Monolith is back in print!
To order contact: jasoneskenazi@hotmail.com
Red Hook Editions
P.O. Box 94
New York, NY 10276

New press on Did You Kiss the Dead Body project in Red Pepper (UK based alter globalization magazine),
exhibited in Augmented Flaws, curated by Shaheen Merali at Kunstagenten, Berlin in 2009.
http://www.redpepper.org.uk/A-brief-history-of-Red-Pepper