Do you have stacks of audio cassette tapes and no idea what to do with them? Do you want to know the best way to store your 16mm film collections and are unsure where to start? Do you have a limited preservation budget and want to spend it in the best way possible to preserve your audiovisual media items? The University of Illinois Library has developed the Audiovisual Self-Assessment Program (AvSAP) to address these and other media-related needs.

AvSAP is free and accessible to the public, providing a series of questions designed to collect data about collections and assess the conditions of audiovisual items. Users may download AvSAP and host it on their own SQL server, or access it on the web. The goal of this assessment tool is to help collections managers develop a prioritized preservation plan for their audiovisual materials, including, but not limited to audio recordings, films, and videotapes, and to educate individuals on extending the lives of their collections with the resources at hand.

For more information on the Audio-Visual Self Assessment Program visit the AvSAP website.

AvSAP is supported by a National Leadership Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences (IMLS).

Photo courtesy of University of Washington Libraries

Click here to view the embedded video.

“This is the first art work to be made ‘inside’ Facebook. It runs as a Facebook application: all people who join the application participate in the art work. Every week, the work automatically generates a video and uploads it to YouTube and Facebook. The video’s narrative is algorithmically constructed from users’ Facebook status updates. Demographic information extracted from these updates is matched with a database of video portraits and clips from contextually relevant YouTube videos. The status updates that the project selects are typically from a number of different users, as the system seeks out the best combination of available posts until it finds something that can be considered a story.

The result is a collective narrative that dynamically evolves in tandem with the events, obsessions and dialogs that shape our lives. It approaches social networks as generative spaces in which personal, introspective reflections and public announcements combine with a broad fascination with the lives of others to build meaning from shared real-time, non-linear, simultaneous data.

Commissioned for the Abandon Normal Devices Festival, this is the first in a series of site-specific Facebook artworks by Coupe, exploring the relationship between voyeurism and exhibitionism inside social networks. Facebook status updates can be considered as a form of networked storytelling, through which we communicate what we do, and how we want to be seen. They are also a new form of voluntary self-surveillance, evoking Foucauldian concerns with the self-regulating effect of conscious and permanent visibility. ”
James Coupe

To receive updates from the project, including new videos as they are generated, subscribe to the YouTube channel or become a Facebook fan. To participate in the project, join the Facebook application.

Photo: © 2010, James Coupe Today too, I experienced something I hope to understand in a few days (still)

At a time when public sector budgets are strained and badly in need of re-booting, when every bit of public spending is under intense scrutiny, it is easy to weigh investment in health and human services, for example, against funding for arts and culture.  Over my long career in the arts, I’ve heard the mantra repeatedly, “How can we justify spending on the arts when people are homeless?”  Believe me, given the current levels of state, city and county spending on the arts, even if every culture dollar was reallocated for housing, we would not end homelessness.  One should not be pitted against the other.  A civil society is characterized by its ability to adopt policies and make investments that alleviate suffering, while at the same time encouraging activity that breeds increased creativity and economic growth.

The arts have long claimed to be an economic engine.  There is ample evidence that the arts, heritage and culture spur increased economic activity.  Economic impact studies conducted in our region over the past fifteen years quantify the jobs created and spending that results from attendance at festivals and theater, music and dance events, not to mention the inherent personal benefits to be gained by gathering with your friends and neighbors for a shared cultural experience.

Now we have further evidence of the unique role the arts play in community development. Storefronts Seattle, a collaboration between The Alliance for Pioneer Square, Chinatown-International District Business Improvement Area, the Seattle Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs and Department of Planning and Development, the Seattle Chinatown-International District Preservation and Development Authority, and Shunpike, will be launched on Thursday, September 2nd.  Note that this is a partnership of economic development, community development, businesses and the arts.   All public sector investments in the arts advance multiple community interests.  That’s why we should support the arts, no matter how serious our social problems.  (Disclaimer: I must confess, I also would advocate support for “the arts for arts sake”, but that’s another message.)

Storefronts Seattle is one of those simple, low-cost ideas that are good for artists, landlords and neighborhoods.  It is based on the obvious premise that occupied street level space is better than vacant space with brown paper covered windows, loudly announcing “no one wants this space in this neighborhood.”  It’s not unlike the rationale for the half price ticket booth in Times Square (TKTS): a seat filled by a patron paying 50% of the ticket price is better than an empty seat.

Initially, Storefronts Seattle is focused on the Chinatown-International District and Pioneer Square, two neighborhoods with their share of vacant retail space, emblematic of these difficult times.   It will modestly begin with ten storefronts, but it is easy to see the idea taking hold in additional spaces and in other neighborhoods such as Capitol Hill and Belltown and suburban cities.  The spaces are donated by property owners on a short-term basis, one to three months.  The artists know it’s not forever; if a space is leased to a paying tenant, the artists will have to vacate.  In the meantime, they have access to free space to display, sell and even create work.  The landlords showcase their properties and support creative businesses, which may evolve into long-term tenants. The look of the street is improved by activating vacant space.  The neighborhood experiences increased foot traffic and changes its identity from “distressed” to “cool.”

Why haven’t we done this before now?

With a little imagination and creativity, Storefronts Seattle attacks a vexing problem at very little cost to the city, artists or businesses.  It demonstrates once again the value of the arts in the civic environment.  September 2^nd is First Thursday in Pioneer Square and Jam Fest in the Chinatown-International District.  The artist storefront spaces will be open.  You can find a map to the various spaces at www.storefrontsseattle.com.   Just another great opportunity to get out, patronize local businesses and discover new places.

Artist John Fleming takes a first look at his new storefront space © 2010, Eliza S. Rankin

PLOP!: Call for Writers
Deadline: September 6, 2010

PLOP! Literary Series is a monthly series hosting writers and musicians from across the Northwest in an intimate house setting.  Providing artists with an opportunity to challenge, shape and engage their work and the audience by thinking in new ways about space.  With support from local  small business sponsors, we provide you with only the best in performance, fresh seasonal pies, and drinks on the house.

Center for Documentary Studies/Honickman First Book Prize in Photography
Deadline: September 8, 2010

The Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) at Duke University and The Honickman Foundation (THF), co-sponsor this prestigious biennial prize for American photographers. The only prize of its kind, the CDS / Honickman First Book Prize competition is open to American photographers of any age who have never published a book-length work and who use their cameras for creative exploration, whether it be of places, people, or communities; of the natural or social world; of beauty at large or the lack of it; of objective or subjective realities.

Residency: Virginia Center for the Creative Arts
Deadline: September 15, 2010

Situated among 400 acres of rolling Blue Ridge farmland, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts in Amherst, VA, offers two-week to two-month residencies for writers, composers, and visual artists from around the world. Residents receive meals and private studios and bedrooms. The Center asks residents to contribute to the cost of their residency if able, but financial ability does not figure into the selection process.

Arteles Residency Program, Haukijärvi, Finland
Deadline: September 17, 2010

For Winter 2010 and Spring 2011 Arteles is calling open-minded creative participants from all disciplines such as music/sound, fine art, photography, contemporary research, film/video, multidisciplinary arts, installation, painting, new media etc. Also other fields of creativity are now open such as graphic design and fashion. The selection of artists is done by the Arteles administration along with selected network members or invited creative professionals.

Writers Residency: Whidbey Island
Deadline: September 23, 2010

The Hedgebrook Writers in Residence Program on Whidbey Island, WA, is accepting applications for its 2011 residency season (February – November). Residencies range from two to six weeks and are open to women writers from around the world. Residents live in handcrafted cottages on the property’s 48 acres of forest and meadow with access to nearby Double Bluff beach, and enjoy a nightly communal dinner prepared with locally and organically grown food.

Second Use’s Salvage Art Contests
Deadline: September 25, 2010

Calling all Artists, Do-it-Yourselfers, and Crafty Creative Types for our annual Salvage Art Contests, a celebration of all that is great about salvage – the search, the inspiration, and the unexpected result.So, pull out your paintbrush or hammer and get cracking on the next great salvage masterpiece. Prizes awarded.

University of Iowa Press: The Iowa Short Fiction Award
Deadline: September 30, 2010

Any writer who has not previously published a volume of prose fiction is eligible to enter the competition. Previously entered manuscripts that have been revised may be resubmitted. Writers are still eligible if they have published a volume of poetry or any work in a language other than English or if they have self-published a work in a small print run. Writers are still eligible if they are living abroad or are non-US citizens writing in English. Current University of Iowa students are not eligible.

The American Academy in Berlin: Residency Fellowship
Deadline: October 1, 2010

The Academy welcomes emerging as well as established scholars, writers, and professionals who wish to engage in independent study in Berlin. Around two dozen Berlin Prizes are conferred annually. Past Berlin Prize recipients have included historians, economists, poets, art historians, journalists, legal scholars, anthropologists, musicologists, public policy experts, and writers, among others. The Academy does not accept project proposals in mathematics and the hard sciences.

Vermont Studio Center Residency
Deadline: October 1, 2010

The Studio Center provides 4-12 week studio residencies on an historic 30-building campus along the Gihon River in Johnson, Vermont, a village in the heart of the northern Green Mountains.VSC awards a number of Fellowships for 4-week residencies throughout the year. Open to all artists and writers. In addition to VSC Fellowships, a variety of special fellowships are also available for full or partial funding.

T-shirt Design Contest: World’s Fair Anniversary
Deadline: October 20, 2010

Seattle Center Foundation invites sketchers, designers, artists and all with a creative mind to make a delightful, inspiring and future-focused t-shirt design for the Arts, Culture & Design theme for The Next Fifty, the 50th Anniversary of the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair.

Call to Artists & Curators: The Center for Wooden Boats
Deadline: October 31, 2010

The Boathouse Gallery is pleased to announce a call to Artists + Curators for solo shows and curated exhibits for semi-annual shows at The Center for Wooden Boats [CWB] in Seattle. Artists + Curators with interest in water or waterways, craft or craftsmanship, in the real or the abstract are encouraged to apply.  For each exhibit, the artist or curator will participate in CWB’s 3rd Friday Speaker Series as part of the opening festivities, sharing their inspiration, process and insights into the show with the public. Contact: gallery@cwb.org

International Film Event, Mono No Aware, Brooklyn
Deadline: November 5, 2010

MONO NO AWARE is an international film event open to any person or group of persons making work that incorporates Super8mm or 16mm film format as part of that presentation. (Expanded Cinema) In previous years 16 film was blended with dance performance, Super8 with live spoken word/audience involvement, & multi-projections with live jazz/musical devices. Dancers, Sculptors, Musicians, Theorists, Scientists, Athletes, Visual artists, everyone, AND Film-makers are encouraged to submit.

Gallery 110: Call for Submissions
Deadline: November 1, 2010

Gallery 110 is a non-profit collective gallery of professional artists located in Seattle, Washington.The Call for Submissions is for an international juried show titled “Couplings”. Gallery 110 is calling for artwork that explores personal relationships that celebrate parings and the power of the bonds they create. Juror is Rock Hushka, Curator of Contemporary and Northwest Art for the Tacoma Art Museum in Tacoma, WA.

Northwest Film Forum: Pocket Film Challenge
Deadline: November 8, 2010

Northwest Film Forum announces their latest obstruction for the frisky filmmaker: The Pocket Film Challenge-a small screen, big picture experience.Filmmakers are asked to use mobile phones to shoot and edit three-minute, one-take films. One-take-films are shot without interruption, from the moment of turning the camera on to the moment of turning the camera off. Any text or music must be added using only what is technologically capable with the mobile device. We’ll put all submitted small screen images in our big screen cinema.

If you’re interested in opportunities in public art, please be sure to check out our extensive list of possibilities for public artists, including local, national and international calls.

Photo: © 2010, Arteles Swimming Spot, Arteles Residency Program,  Finland

Alka Badshah – Bellevue – King County District 6
Alka trained as an architect and went on to pursue a career in IT, building and managing User Interface Design.  She worked with various high tech companies for over 20 years, most recently as a Group Manager of a User Experience team at Microsoft.  She has a deep interest in using the knowledge of human behavior in improving our spaces – whether they be virtual spaces on a computer screen or physical environments in our cities and neighborhoods.

Since Microsoft, Alka has been involved in various endeavors, including angel and other investing, being active in philanthropy serving on the board of directors of Tateuchi Center, A.K. Guy Award Committee and Advisory Board of the South Asia Center at UW.  As a Director of Tateuchi Center, Alka initiated a campaign to raise a million dollars from the South Asian Indian community in support of the Center.  Alka has also been involved with furthering education in the field of math, science and business by coaching and judging for organizations like DECA & FPS (Future Problem Solving.)  She is a graduate of MIT’s media lab and has an undergraduate degree in Architecture.

Alka and her husband Akhtar live in Bellevue.  They have 3 amazing sons, youngest of them being in high school.  She enjoys interacting with artists and talking to them about their thinking process.

Alan Cornell – Kent – King County District 7
Alan is Senior Vice President at Nitze-Stagen, providing guidance, oversight and decision making for the firm’s investment, property management and development activities.  He is a Real Estate Developer and his background includes corporate strategic planning, market research, business development and consulting. He has over 30 years of commercial and industrial real estate experience, has developed several suburban business parks as well as urban centers such as the Union Station Campus.  Alan has a Masters Degree from the University of Nebraska in Economics and holds a Washington State Real Estate License.

He has been active in Pioneer Square and International District Communities for over two decades and is interested in community revitalization and urban spaces.  Currently a member of the Seattle Goodwill Board of Directors, he serves on several of their committees including the Executive, Nominating, Compensation and Site Development Committee.  He is also Chairman of the Seattle Chinatown International District Public Development Authority (SCIDpda) Real Estate Committee and, in past years, has served on several other area Boards and Committees.

Kirstin Haugen – Bothell – King County District 1
Kirstin Haugen is a resident of Bothell where she chairs the Cascadia Community College Board of Trustees.  She is a past member of the Northshore Performing Arts Center Foundation Board and the King County Charter Review Commission.

Kirstin was formerly the account executive at the public affairs firm The Mercury Group, and Chief of Staff to King County Councilmember Bob Ferguson.

e4c, 4Culture’s storefront gallery for electronic art is proud to present two media works by Longhouse Media.

Unreserved, is an intimate profile of Pacific Northwest artist and activist, Louie Gong (Nooksack, Squamish, Chinese, French and Scottish). In this documentary, Gong speaks about his artwork, a blend of Coast Salish with Vans, a popular skateboard shoe.  Raised in a rural farmhouse in Canada before moving to live on a small reservation in Washington, Gong grew interested in identity and “walking in multiple worlds.” Longhouse Media captures his fascinating story about how he developed this hip, contemporary artwork, which honors his Native roots.

Also featured, Two Worlds – Inside Out, is an intergenerational production made by mentors from Longhouse Media and youth from SuperFly 2010. Two Worlds – Inside Out shows young people slowing disclosing their identities  -  both contemporary and traditional. Young people use poetry, dance, music and sport to share their challenge of living in two worlds.

The vision of Longhouse Media, is to serve as an indigenous media arts organization that nurtures the expression and development of Native artists, drawing from traditional and modern forms of storytelling, cultural identity, teaching and inquiry, based in the technologies of today.

Photo © 2010 Longhouse Media, Unreserved (Louie Gong), Video (still).
Courtesy of Longhouse Media

If you haven’t made it down to Occidental Park this summer, this is your last week for a number of great projects, but never fear there will be more projects happening until October!  Below is a preview of Michelle Arab’s Wind Map of Occidental Park.  Imagine this in every tree in the park!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here’s what’s happening this month:

Michelle Arab’s Wind Map of Occidental Park – Up now through September
Mila’s Prismatic Lightscape – Last Day is Wednesday, September 1
Celeste Cooning’s Celebration and Fanfare – Last Day is Wednesday, Sept. 1
Sol Hashemi’s Driving a Sculpture – Final Drive is Thursday, Sept. 2 5-8pm
Britta Johnson’s Heat Transfer – Thursday through Sunday 6-11pm from Sept. 2 to Sept. 26
Stimulate Dance Open Air Performance Series – Sept. 8-10 at Noon & Sept. 11 at 1pm
Joan Laage’s Red – September 20 11:30am-1:30pm

Exciting Things Happening in Issaquah!
Pickering Barn, Issaquah
1730 10th Ave. N.W.

Toy Boats Music for Waiting at the Pickering Barn in Issaquah during the Issaquah Farmer’s Market on Saturday, September 4 11:30am-1:30pm.

Mandy Greer’s Mater Matrix Mother and Medium has finished installation near the Pickering Barn in Issaquah.  The river will be up through September.

Want to hear more about what’s happening with Site-Specific?  Click here to join our email list!

Ah summer – for many of us, it’s time to squeeze in that much needed vacation… warm breezes, beaches, blue oceans, delicious food. Hawaii anyone?? If you’re like me, and aren’t able to hit up the Hawaiian Islands in person, you can still embrace the spirit of “Aloha” at the Live! Aloha Hawaiian Festival at Seattle Center each year. This summer, our award-winning 4CTV team  made a special trip to record the sights and sounds and shed light on how you, too can enjoy the magic of Hawaii right here in the Emerald City.

Watch the episode

Click here to view the embedded video.

In early August, a peer-selection panel chose 16 artists/artist teams from a highly competitive pool of applicants. From stop-motion animation to a narrative exploration of the Puget Sound by canoe, selected works represent a diverse sampling of electronic media. Projects will be presented as soon they have been adapted to meet technical requirements of the site, as early as October 7, 2010.

To date, 23 artist/artist teams have presented or are presenting from 1-5 media artworks on e4c. In addition, e4c has been included in Digital Fringe, an international animation festival based out of Melbourne, Australia. e4c was the only US venue in 2009.

SELECTED ARTISTS:

Julie Alpert & Andy Arkley — Seattle, WA
e4c will present a collaborative animation piece entitled, Round and Round, by this artist team. Their goal was to create a short collection of animations using things found around the house. Additionally, e4c will feature two animations by Andy Arkley entitled; Fifty Four Fifty and What It’s All About, music-based animations that supplement live performances of his band, The Brand Flakes.

Evertt Beidler — Portland, OR
e4c will feature several works by Beidler that focus on ideas around labor and repetitive behavioral patterns. Beidler writes, “What attracts me most to this location is that a significant portion of the potential viewers will be commuting to and from work, caring out routine activities during the course of their day.”

Tony Buchen & Jazzmean Goodwin — Santa Fe, NM
This long standing collaborative team will present a select group of experimental works using three-dimensional models to explore virtual realms on e4c. The videos represent ways of experiencing sculpture that are not pragmatically possible in the physical worlds.

Brit Bunkley — Jamestown, RI/Wanganui, New Zealand
For e4c, Bunkley has proposed two videos that are composite 3D animations with actual footage. By manipulating virtual and actual images, videos and objects are convincing and yet unsettling.

Drew Christie — Seattle, WA
e4c will present Fire, Fire, I heard the Cry, a short animated history of the Great Seattle Fire of 1889. The animation was created by making hand printed pictures from linoleum engravings. These engravings were inspired by historic photographs of the fire’s aftermath.

Lisa Marie Evans — Tucson, AZ
Evans will present an excerpt of an extensive text animation piece that displays varying thoughts as a test in how our perceptions of a physical space alter as we perceive someone’s thoughts.

Joseph Farbrook — Boston, MA
e4c will present two works by Farbrook: Cell in The New Body and Texture. These works explore alternative uses of text, displaying sentences as flashing single words, so that they cannot be read in the traditional sense.  As the viewer looks upon the words flashing, sentences form in the viewer’s mind as a kind of mental after-image.

Neal Fryett — Seattle, WA
On e4c, Fryett will present videos based upon simple gestures that are intensely focused on object-based events contained within the contemporary living space. These works use common, unconsidered objects as platforms for the projection of ideas experiences and questions.

Ben Houge — St. Paul, MN
Houge will adapt Shanghai Traces, a real-time generated video that is a meditation on Shanghai’s rapid change of pace in preparation for this year’s World Expo, incorporating items sold by street vendors who have been expelled from the city center during the event.

Miguel Jara — New York, NY/Bogota, Columbia
e4c will feature recently developed works entitled, In the Woods and Chex Eux. Both works are created from drawings on paper, which are then scanned and compiled as cell animation.

Britta Johnson — Seattle, WA
Excerpts from two recent works will be presented on e4c. Johnson utilizes stop-motion animation, sound and narrative elements to examine the benefits of a natural drainage system in Waterway and the tale of shipwreck victims going mad in Crashing Waves.

Dmitry Kmelnitsky — Venice, CA
Kmelnitsky will present his work, The City Unfolds. He writes, “With this piece, I ask the questions ‘Can we read a city like a book? Can its streets unfold before us like pages, inviting us on a journey of the imagination?”

Jonathan Monaghan — College Park, MD
Monaghan will create a new animation and adapt three others to create a 4-channel series that depict simple forms and elements, many that refer to symbols of institutional power, such as the bald eagle. However, everything is distorted as candy-like and surreal.

Anna Norton — Philadelphia, PA
Norton will present a selection of works from her series of time-lapse photography pieces that explore historical architecture as a container for time as it is defined and revealed by light. She writes, “The ephemeral quality of the light plays upon the structure and suggests a tension between historical time and geological time; the animate and inanimate; permanence and transience.”

Piper O’Neill — Seattle, WA
e4c will feature several of O’Neill’s stop-motion, animation works. Animations, made using found objects, drawings, cutouts, music and film clips from the past, O’Neill examines her own interested in themes of nostalgia and inherited histories.

Scott Schuldt — Seattle, WA
Schuldt’s View from the Canoe Project is a non-traditional documentary work that incorporates the artists reflections on nature and the attitudes people have about water. The work also demonstrates how the artist has been able to find a very real sense of wilderness in an urban setting.

Check out these amazing events supported through 4Culture’s Individual Artist Projects program.

Arun Sharma
(de)composition: Human
Bellevue Arts Museum Biennial
August 28, 2010 – January 16, 2011
Free Opening Reception: August 27th – 5-9pm

BAM Biennial 2010: Clay Throwdown! is the inaugural edition of BAM’s new, juried exhibition competition. With over 30 participating artists, it provides a panoramic survey of ceramic art created in the Pacific Northwest and a glimpse into the many directions in which this dynamic medium is moving. Clay Throwdown! features a select blend of both emerging and established artists with an emphasis on new and site-specific works.

Stokley Towles
Trash Talk: the Social Life of Garbage
The Shoebox Theatre
PERFORMANCE DATES: Thurs, Fri & Sat, September 9-11; Thurs & Fri, September 16-17; Fri, Sat & Sun, September 24-26. 7 pm (Sunday, Sept 26 performance is at noon)
Cost: $12 General, $5 Student/Senior

Trash Talk: the Social Life of Garbage, digs into the human side of garbage: garbage men on vacation who can’t keep themselves from photographing trash cans; transfer station attendants who gather throw-away flags so they can be disposed of “properly”; suburbanites who leave plates of cookies or flowers for their garbage collectors.

John Grade
Circuit
Davidson Galleries
September 2 – October 2, 2010
Free Opening Reception: September 2, 2010
Free Lectures: September 10th – 6pm @ Downtown Seattle Library | September 18, 2010 – noon @ Davidson Galleries

Grade’s work overtly engages with its surrounding environments, both architectural and natural. When indoors, his work references built space. Circuit will literally engage with the gallery’s walls. When presented outdoors, the work evolves materially. Weather patterns affect the work, and the exposed surfaces, evolve, disintegrate and morph into something new.

Kate Lebo, Martha Silano, Kary Wayson, Jason Dodson & Tomo Nakayama
72 Days of Summer
Fremont Abbey
September 22, 2010 – 7:30pm
Pay-what-you-can

72 Days of Summer, a reading by Kate Lebo of poems written the summer of 2010. Also featuring performances of new poems from Kary Wayson and Martha Silano, plus new songs from Jason Dodson and Tomo Nakayama. Kate Lebo spent the summer of 2010 composing the poems that will round out her first collection of poetry, Supper So Clean. On the last day of summer, she’ll celebrate this bounty of time and creativity by reading from the manuscript. She’ll share the stage with award-winning poets Kary Wayson and Martha Silano, both of whom also received grants from 4Culture this year. Jason Dodson of the Maldives and Tomo Nakayama of Grand Hallway will round out the evening with solo sets of music.

Photo: © 2010 John Grade, Circuit, Glazed ceramic bonded with gypsum polymer to corn-based resin embedded with marine netting, 9×24x24′, Courtesy of the Artist

Click here to view the embedded video.

Seattle 100: Portrait of a City is the culmination of a two-year personal project by renowned photographer, filmmaker, and activist Chase Jarvis. Seattle 100 shares more than 300 black and white portraits and biographies of each subject. It is a curated collection of artists, musicians, writers, scientists, restaurateurs, DJs, developers, activists, entrepreneurs, filmmakers, all of whom are defining and driving culture in region.

Jarvis has created a snapshot of a city’s culture through its people. It’s a 100, not the 100, and it invites each of us to survey our own surroundings, our lives, our friends — and those not yet our friends — that make up the place we live. The place we call home.

Chase Jarvis, in collaboration with Small Lot Co-Op, Terra Blanca Winery, and Theo Chocolate will release a Seattle 100 book, collection of Seattle 100 wines and a Seattle 100 Theo Chocolate bar. All proceeds will benefit 4Culture! Wha? That’s right. All sales will support 4Culture’s programs.  We feel loved.

The Wallace Foundation and Washington State Arts Commission announce an Arts Participation Leadership Initiative learning opportunity August 26-27. Designed for arts managers, board members, artists and volunteers, the event features a Forum + Workshops that cover emerging practices in audience engagement.

Called Engaging Audiences, researcher and consultant Alan Brown of WolfBrown and participants will explore how audiences engage with different art forms, plus how arts organizations can respond to the changing expectations and demands of audiences. The forum will be introduced by Daniel Windham of The Wallace Foundation with a discussion led by Sandra Jackson-Dumont of the Seattle Art Museum.

Engaging Audiences happens at the Seattle Center’s McCaw Hall. The event is free, but seating is limited.

Register below for detailed information:

Engaging Audiences Forum
Thursday, August 26, 3:30-6:30 p.m.
https://www.regonline.com/arts_participation_forum

Engaging Audiences Afternoon Workshop
Friday August 27, 1:30-4:30 p.m.
https://www.regonline.com/arts_participation_pm_workshops

Seattle hip hop artist Jawaan LaRue has just launched his CD, Saturn Returns. A 2010 4Culture Individual Artist Projects award recipient, LaRue’s is known as an adept wordsmith, with positive lyrics, influenced by his experiences serving overseas.

LaRue enlisted in the army upon graduation from high school, and spent eight years in the service. During a tour of duty in Iraq in 2004 and 2005 he recorded an album, but it was never released. He’s been working hard ever since to write and perform amazing hip-hop music. He celebrated the launch of Saturn Returns last weekend at Chop Suey. If you missed that, be sure to visit his website to see videos, hear samples and learn more about upcoming shows.

Students, researchers, educators, artists, and the general public will find the online archives a valuable resource for current and historic source material, and will glean knowledge of the APA community from the newspaper’s personality profiles, coverage of news stories, and even the advertising sections. Access the International Examiner online archives at www.iexaminer.org.

Image: Copyright International Examiner

Sunday, Aug 22, 2pm
Rattlesnake Lake Recreation Area, North Bend
RSVP requested

Trails Project artist Paul Rucker looks forward to seeing you on the banks of Rattlesnake Lake, for a concert at the southernmost point of the Snoqualmie Valley Trail. Join Paul where the trail meets the water for an opportunity to interact with his work, and to create some of your own.

Paul will be playing original compositions written using water from the lake and invites you to compose your own watercolor images as you listen.  Paul will provide music, watercolors and paper, the trail will provide your twig/paintbrush or feather/stylus and the lake your water.

Picnic blankets (and picnics!) are encouraged, as are camping chairs and swimming gear should you desire a post-concert dip.

Directions:  from the Snoqualmie Valley Trail – follow signs to the lake.
Driving directions – from I-90, take Exit 32, 436^th Ave SE.  Go South on 436^th Ave SE/Cedar Falls Road SE for 2.7 miles and follow the balloons to Rattlesnake Lake Recreation Area.  Look for the Trails Project directional signs.

For more information on the Trails Project, please visit the Project website. To learn more about King County’s Snoqualmie Valley Trail, please visit the Parks website.

image © Paul Rucker

Thinking of downsizing your physical possessions in favor of storing your memories on a hard drive? Remember, ink on paper and photographic prints have stood the test of time and have managed to survive fairly well, even when stuffed in a shoebox. However, digital records require periodic migration to newer media formats to be preserved and accessed.

To help you organize and care for your digital memories, the Library of Congress has produced a short video that offers simple and practical strategies for personal digital preservation. Once you’ve viewed the video, check out digitalpreservation.gov for more helpful information.

WONDERLAND: ALICE ADVENTURES
3015 NW 54th St., Ballard Seattle, Washington
August 21, 2010 and August 22, 2010 at 5:00pm     
FREE!

Join theater simple and 4Culture Site-Specific in a fanciful journey through WONDERLAND: ALICE ADVENTURES, theater simple’s newest fun-in-progress experience.  A free theatrical park adventure, WONDERLAND is inspired by and adapted from Charles Dodgson’s (Lewis Carroll) Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass stories, as well as Dodgson’s wordplay, math games and puzzles.

An all-ages adventure, theater and visual arts weave whimsically together throughout the Carl S. English Botanical Gardens, the Hiram Chittenden Locks and in Commodore Park, playing with the creative perspectives of imaginations of all sizes.  Come see the wonder!

Photo courtesy of theater simple

Opening tonight, August 12, 2010 – 6-11 pm and continuing through September 4, 2010, Zack Bent’s new mixed-media installation at Vermillion Art Gallery, Fort Branch.

This project is supported by 4Culture’s Individual Artist Projects and continues the tradition of his previous series at Gallery4Culture, Buffalo Trace, where he and his family “appropriated scouting as a tribal play frame.” Whereas his previous exhibition centered on social responsibility toward the conservation and preservation of nature while referencing the Boy Scouts of America, Zack describes Fort Branch as “less occupied with human figures in relationship to one another and more with the trace of their presence.”

“In this series,” Zack says, “many of the works walk the line between play and catastrophe in the face of an unwieldy natural order. The exhibit is filled with a series of artifacts, including a full-scale dilapidated Lincoln Log cabin, drawing on the nearly 100-year-old toy designed by Frank Lloyd Wright’s son John during the Progressive Era.”

Photo: © 2010 Zack Bent, On Location

Installation begins August 16
Pickering Barn, Issaquah
1730 10th Ave. N.W.

Mater Matrix Mother Medium is a process-based temporary art installation by Seattle Artist, Mandy Greer.  The installation is a 300-foot long fiber river made of recycled yarns and fabrics crocheted by the community into the trees of that community.   MMMM celebrates our creeks and watersheds and the communities that protect them.  It invites you to slow down and talk with your neighbors while you work with your hands.

One element of this piece that makes it so unique is that it is not made solely behind studio doors.  Artist Mandy Greer feels very strongly that this piece be made in and by the community where it is installed.  This summer Mandy has already done a number of Crochet Workshops within the Issaquah community.  You can become part of the river by joining Mandy on August 21 at the Issaquah Farmers Market for Community Crocheting from 10am – 2pm at the Pickering Barn.  Crocheting experience is not necessary.

Photo courtesy of artist

Still Lives video portraits exhibit by media artist Susie J Lee

Monday, August 9, 2 – 4pm
Washington Care Center
2821 S. Walden St. Seattle, 98118.
Free to general public

A unique collaboration between a visual artist and a nursing home has resulted in an innovative series of video portraits about aging, time, image, memory, and relationships. Still Lives, a project by Seattle-based media artist Susie J Lee, explores questions about what we hold on to and what we let go over the passage of time.

The project is the result of more than three months of weekly visits to the Washington Care Center, a nursing and long-term care facility in Southeast Seattle.
In each visit, Lee conversed, listened to stories, played music and helped out, and sought to ground each resident’s portrait in their personality with a particular focus on where they are now and how they view their past.

Cinematographer and photography director RK Adams was later brought in to film each resident. The Still Lives video portraits are composed of moments that are inherently still, such as waiting, watching, and daydreaming. The work is not slowed down or frozen, but rather, is realized as an unfolding of real time.

Lee used the paintings of Spanish artist Francisco Goya as a model for each portrait. According to Lee, Goya’s interpretation of age, time and myth were conveyed in private, personal portraits, and these images resonated and inspired her body of work.

Still Lives is sponsored by SEEDArts and 4Culture’s Site-Specific and Individual Artist Projects programs.

Photo courtesy of RK Adams