Awesome Foundation - Projects

Tel Aviv - קרן בקטנה (Non-active) – "אמץ סבא"

2013-12-22T00:00:00Z

Ametz-a-Saba (Adopt a Grandpa) connects students studying in Jerusalem and aged citizens in the city. By volunteering their time with the elderly, the students find themselves the perfect adopted family in their new city, and the elderly receive life-long company and friendship. We love this project because it's a win win for everyone involved!

San Antonio, TX – Piazza DiColombo, Little Italy San Antonio

2013-12-20T00:00:00Z

Every major city in this great country has its unique cultural corridors or neighborhoods and some cities are defined by them. San Antonio is no different with its incredible pioneer history. This city will celebrate 300 years of its existence in 2018. Most people know the city for the “Alamo” and the spirit of rugged individualism. This is a great city with hidden treasures all throughout the region. I believe one of those treasures exists at the heart of where the city began its nearly 300 year existence. Little Italy San Antonio represents everything this city was founded on. As early as the 1870s Italians from southern Italy specifically from a town in the Calabria region known as Spezzano della Sila migrated to San Antonio. They would settle in the northwest part of downtown and band together to form their very own Italian neighborhood. In 1890 they would create the country’s oldest Italian organization known as the Christopher Columbus Italian Society. In 1927, the midst of the Great Depression their organization intrepidly built the now historic San Francesco Di Paola church and the CCIS Hall. In the late 1950s the highway act commissioned I35 and I10, cutting through the old italian neighborhood. The only remnants of the neighborhood are the church, the hall and Christopher Columbus Park. Little Italy San Antonio is a non-profit development seeking help to salvage the authentic history that exists today. Members are getting older and their generation is threatened with consequence of a forgotten legacy. LISA will provide a community/cultural center rich in authentic italian history that is unique to San Antonio. We must tell this story where it began and ensure a legacy that we can all appreciate. San Antonio is Awesome, especially for its history which is weaved into the fabric for all of us to enjoy.

Awesome Without Borders (Non-active) – Sweet Dreams

2013-12-19T00:00:00Z

Blue Marble Dreams' first project was the creation of Inzozi Nziza (Sweet Dreams), Rwanda's first-ever local ice cream shop. Our partner in this unique venture was Ngoma Nshya (New Reign), Rwanda's first and only all-women drumming troupe. Ngoma Nshya was founded in 2005 by Kiki Katese, a Rwandan artist. Kiki conceived the group as an opportunity to bring women together from both sides of the 1994 genocide and provide them with a means to express themselves, expand their sense of self and nurture the reconciliation process in a new and creative way. Over time, the group developed into a talented, cohesive team of performers. Yet, they still struggled with severe hardship at home and faced pressure from their families to abandon drumming and tend to their domestic duties. Eager to mitigate this pressure and provide material support for the women, Kiki began to seek income-generating activities for the group. In 2008, Kiki met Blue Marble Ice Cream's co-owner, Jennie Dundas, at an artists' workshop in the US. When she learned of our business, she found the opportunity she was looking for. Could we come to Rwanda and help these women open an ice cream shop of their own, she asked? We were surprised but intrigued by the question and asked Kiki to explain her reasoning. Here's what she said: 1, it would create training and employment opportunities for the women. 2, it would support local farmers and producers. And 3, it would serve as a place for people to gather, indulge and heal. Inspired by her reasoning, we signed on and dug in. After two years of planning, fundraising and traveling, we opened the doors to Sweet Dreams in 2010. The shop has endured challenges like any business but is alive and well today. Through Inzozi Nziza, we have trained and employed dozens of women, indirectly supported 200+ family members, buoyed the local economy and provided a special place for the community to feel safe, happy and renewed.

Connecticut – AND ANOTHER THING

2013-12-19T00:00:00Z

Our project is a super awesome interactive sculpture; a soap box and GIANT exclamation point. We want to encourage activity and whimsy in an otherwise buttoned up section of Hartford. We want to activate an underutilized space and create an opportunity for people break out of their normal routine and have some fun. The soap box is there for folks to exclaim, proclaim and otherwise shout out their thoughts, dreams and ideas. The exclamation point is to really drive home the message. We have identified a local artist, Tao LaBossiere, to fabricate the exclamation point and adjoining soap box from fiberglass. We envision it being big, red and shiny: at least 8 feet tall and a super glossy shade of bright orangey-red. We are developing a low-key lunchtime programming schedule to get the ball rolling and encourage people to get on our soap box and make it their own. We would like to incorporate local inprov group, Sea Tea Improv, to help us in that effort. We have identified a plot of asphalt on a heavily trafficked corner in the core of the central business district. It is currently underutilized and we have permission from the property owner to regularly program the space.

Orlando, FL – Distance 2

2013-12-18T00:00:00Z

Distance Music takes advantage of the delay caused by the speed of sound over distance by placing sound sources far away from the audience. "inSPIRE for 22 Brass, Carillons, C Bell and Distance" used twelve distinct rooftop and lake locations in downtown Orlando and proved the viability and audience appeal of the concept. See: http://www.keithlay.com/works/inspire_for_22_brass_c_bell_ca.html Distance II asks the audience members to walk along a paved path around downtown Orlando's Lake Eola during the performance. The music's sound sources comprise of machines, called "sounders," and live musicians. The sounders are air-driven diaphone horns tuned to the C major scale. Three brass choirs will be stationed high above on nearby roofs of buildings. Distance II will also include two improvising musicians. The work will consist of three movements, each 5-7 minutes in duration. Each sounder will be controlled by a solenoid valve actuated via Zigbee two-way radio, in turn controlled by a music sequence composed in Max6 software. When the sounders play their notes simultaneously audiences at the east deck will hear an upward musical scale because the first notes of the scale will be closest and the highest notes placed farthest. The west deck will hear the very same event as a downward moving scale because of the opposite distance relationships. The composition will be designed to make it easy for the audience to understand why their changing of position creates a new musical result depending upon their coordinates. The three brass choirs will read standard notation and will synchronize their timing in three ways: Synchronize by metronome click over two-way radio. Synchronize by listening to the other groups. Synchronize by using the regular pulse of the sounders below Distance 2 is music which makes the speed of sound tangible. The audience will be able to control their experience.

Calgary, AB (Non-active) – Girls Gone Wilde

2013-12-18T00:00:00Z

Girls Gone Wilde Late Night Cabaret is a tongue in cheek evening of performances created by female artists or with a strong female perspective. Girls Gone Wilde is awesome because: - We will involve over 30 artists, a huge cross section of the emerging talent in Calgary, in a supportive environment to create, develop, and perform new work. - The process includes dramaturgical support, production support, and mentorship by professional artists. - It’s a fun night of theatre to see- it’s like going to a tapas restaurant where the dishes tantalize your palate, leaving you wanting more! - Urban Curvz is Calgary’s professional feminist theatre company whose work reflects the wit and intelligence of women to counteract the underrepresentation of females in popular culture, and we’re extending this year’s Cabaret to two weekends because last year’s sold out!

Seattle, WA – Live Action Side-Scroller

2013-12-17T00:00:00Z

The Live Action Side-Scroller would transform an alley or sidewalk in a busy pedestrian area of Seattle into a level of a side-scrolling video game, for one day only. Lucky passersby will don hero gear (overalls, red hat, big mustache) and navigate the level. The bricks would be painted or chalked to create a pixelated background. The rest of the level will include elements such as: 1. break-apart cubes with items inside for the player to collect 2. platforms, springboards, and obstacles for the player to traverse 3. remote control enemies (e.g. stuffed turtles mounted on RC cars) 4. costumed person enemies roaming the level 5. giant cardboard or foam coins to collect 6. sound effects and music (being played by a volunteer) We will video and/or ani-gif each player's run and post it on our website afterwards. We have a great team of people ready to put this together. We will work with Graffiti Defense Coalition to find a location, rope in friends with set construction experience to help build, and artist friends to design the background and oversee painting. The painting and set-up itself could be part of the spectacle! The level will be staffed with volunteers (some of whom will play costumed enemies.)

Boulder, CO (Non-active) – Boulder Student Art at 1175 Lee Hill

2013-12-17T00:00:00Z

Art@1175 is looking to kick off our public art installations with a seasonal art piece inspired by Boulder’s talented High School art students. The theme is entitled "How did the Boulder flood affect your vision of home?” Our intent is to recognize and reflect on the effects the recent Boulder flood has had on many of our lives. We have gathered a distinguished jury of local art industry professionals to review the submissions and choose up to 18 art pieces that best reflect the theme and the student's talent. Building construction at 1175 Lee Hill Drive has just begun, and a 6-foot construction fence has been installed around the perimeter of the site. The intention is to have the student’s art work displayed on the construction fence for up to three months where they will be viewed by the public. Art@1175 public art committee envisions this as a wonderful opportunity for the students to be able to not only showcase their artistic talent in a very visible location (corner of Broadway and Lee Hill), but to also have an item for their college applications and portfolios. This project not only engages students and the community, but the final product enhances and beautifies an otherwise unsightly construction area.

Melbourne (Non-active) – National Boat Day

2013-12-17T00:00:00Z

In response to the Australian Government's inhumane treatment of asylum seeker boat arrivals, and the pervasive rhetoric surrounding 'boat fear' in Australian politics and the media, we have decided to organise National Boat Day, to be held on 26th January 2014. As the website states: "National Boat Day is an opportunity for Australians to confront their fear of boats in a safe and caring atmosphere. All around the country, let us gather in boats to re-acquaint ourselves with a heritage we have come to fear. Paddle-out into the ocean, onto a lake, or simply beach your boat for a picnic in the park. Inflatables, tinnies, dinghies, sail-boats, ocean-liners. All are welcome on Boat Day. Many of us will be beaching our boats on the steps of parliament, paddling softly at the ground to ease boat-fear from the hearts of our politicians and from the pages of policy. Boat day may look a little silly. And it is. But it's not." National Boat Day's objectives are: 1. encourage Australians to celebrate boats 2. highlight the absurdity of boat (and boat-related) fear 3. encourage Australia to address its boat-related histories and prejudices 4. appeal to Australia’s cultural (rather than political) heart 5. do this in a light, cheeky, non-adversarial manner All around the country, Australians will gather to celebrate boat day. As of 28th December, people will be able to go online and register their boat day event, encouraging others to join them or do the same. We will be holding the main event in the Treasury Gardens in Melbourne, where people will be able to picnic with their boats. Throughout the day, groups will be encouraged to pose with their boat on the steps of Parliament in front of a banner bearing the National Boat Day slogan: 'We're Not Scared Anymore'. Through our press and social media campaign, it is our hope that the message of National Boat Day will reach deep into the cultural heart of this country.

Ottawa – Sesquisharp Productions

2013-12-15T00:00:00Z

The second of December's two Awesome Ottawa awards goes to Megan Johnson and Jacob Caines to support innovative community concerts. “The music scene in Ottawa is conservative,” says Megan, “and dominated by older institutions. Jacob and I felt a need to create a platform that would allow young emerging artists the chance to create collaborative, innovative concerts. Sesquisharp (which means three quarter tones sharp) is a totally grassroots organization, and we function completely on volunteers. We program three concerts a year, and just completed a successful second season opening show in November. We perform all kinds of music: classical, contemporary, cabaret, broadway, etc., and use all different kinds of performers: instrumentalists, singers, dancers, tumblers, actors, etc. Our concerts are very multidisciplinary and are always held in non-traditional venues throughout the city.” “We always have a loose theme for each concert,” Megan explains, “which informs the music choices, the types of performers involved, the venue and the marketing. We include as many young artists as possible, to provide them with the exposure, the performing experience, and also the chance to have a say in the creation of the concert. We believe in the power of art and music performance in creating vibrant, healthy, sustainable, communities, and with each concert we try to push ourselves even more to provide our community with something innovative and out-of-the-box.” The award from Awesome Ottawa will go toward the remaining two shows in Sesquisharp’s 2013-14 season—an evening of rotating conductors, and a short tour of Eastern Ontario with a concert of cabaret music. Megan is a classical singer and art administrator, and Jacob a clarinetist and conductor. Both grew up in Nova Scotia, and came to Ottawa in 2010.

Ottawa – Herbs and Edibles - Help Yourself

2013-12-15T00:00:00Z

The first of December's two Awesome Ottawa awards goes to Gail McGuire and the Brook Tower Tenant Circle to support neighbourhood planters for herbs and other edibles. “I am a tenant of an Ottawa Community Housing building, and a recipient of Ontario Disability Support,” Gail begins matter-of-factly. “This past spring, fellow tenants and I planted herbs in a large raised planter at the back corner of our building, at Cartier and Gladstone. We labeled the herbs and placed signs which read ‘HELP YOURSELF.’ We also planted strawberries late in the season. They will eventually take over the planter, and so we would like to build more planters for herbs and edible flowers, and an arbour for grapes. These would be accessible to anyone passing by and we would encourage all to enjoy the harvesting, sharing, and interacting at our little corner of the universe.” “We have been delighted with the engagement this planter has provided us with our neighbourhood,” Gail says. “Neighbours from the surrounding blocks contributed herbs. People paused to take photos of the planter. I found it moving to see that despite the fact that many in my building are financially challenged and many of us use our local food bank, we received so much pleasure and satisfaction from watching others enjoy the herb planter.” The award from Awesome Ottawa will help grow that pleasure, satisfaction, and enjoyment next summer. Gail is a tenant at Brook Tower, where she is also garden coordinator and volunteer facilitator.

Chicago, IL – Chicago Recipe Box

2013-12-14T00:00:00Z

The mission of Potluck: Chicago is to use the concept of a potluck where everyone brings a different dish to an event, to explore ways that the city can come together as equals, sharing our stories, joys and struggles, while celebrating the diversity that makes Chicago what it is. The Chicago Recipe Box, the awesome project, will archive our process and promote further city wide community bonding. The project will foster new connections, strengthening Potluck: Chicago’s sustainability. How it works: 1. Participants bring comfort food and recipe to potluck 2. A meal is shared 3. Cards are collected 4. A deck is made 5. Deck is added to the handmade Chicago Recipe Box 6. Deck is added to the online archive in a printable PDF format Two formats for the Box//Archive: 1. Handmade - we will craft several editions to be given to the community partners who helped us launch the project 2. Digital – full archive available online for anyone to access and construct their own Chicago Recipe Box For the potlucks, held at various community organizations around the city, guests bring a portion of their favorite comfort food dish and its recipe to share with others. We chose comfort food because we believe it creates comfortable spaces and conversations among strangers. Through the empathic act of bringing a taste of your favorite comfort food from your culture to a table of strangers, the potluck fosters a connection among diverse cultures and generations over the common need for nourishment. These moments of mutual generosity, when the story of one dish is exchanged for another, often reveals additional commonalities and dependencies among a seemingly incompatible group of people. (Support from The Awesome Foundation will significantly help us prepare for our role in the forthcoming exhibition "RISK: Empathy, Art and Social Practice", where we will both exhibit the project and host meals around Chicago where cards will once again be collected and added to the archive.)

Chicago, IL – Community Nursing Home Garden

2013-12-14T00:00:00Z

It started in 2009. The Naperville Community Nursing and Rehab Center allows me to garden on their empty plot of land. I presented my idea of a flower/vegetable garden and the owner was thrilled. They let me free farm their unused land. They have about an acre of pasture. I grow everything possible on this small plot. Each year I plow up another 2 feet and I’m hoping to increase again. This project is done by me. I had help with the initial till and the installation of the fence but I manage everything else without any outside help. The home provides me with the land, water from a nozzle 200 feet away and use of the storage shed for hoses, shovels and supplies. I do not take profits from the Market sales we have with extra harvest. The residents use the money for local trips. The joy I receive when I can share some good food with them is worth it. There is a wild black berry patch on the property and one year I made Black Berry Cobbler. It’s is a simple dish but when one of the residents reached for her third piece, the orderly stopped her but she said “But it’s the best I’ve ever eaten”. It brought tears to my eyes. Over the holidays I make pumpkin and squash pie from those grown. I am not allowed to incorporate the harvest into their diets but we can have "Tastings". On the days I present, the cafeteria is now almost full as they wait for me. At first, it was only a dozen. I feel they need to eat fresh once in awhile. I treasure their wisdom and welcome their comments when I am out weeding/watering the plot. Most of the residents are physically unable to work but they will sit while I work and share stories with me. I learned dried blood keeps the rabbits away and if I pinch back the basil before it seeds, the plant will last longer. These bits of advice are priceless. Once I have the farm, I will bus every one of the residents to the first “Farm Dinner”. They would love it. The funds for wheelchair accessible and more flowers for beauty

Orlando, FL – Light Up The MSO!

2013-12-13T00:00:00Z

PAM maintains sound and stage equipment, percussion instrumentation with chairs, music stands and electrical lighting for a 100 piece symphonic orchestra. The Maitland Symphony Orchestra (MSO) is a community of volunteer musicians that come together every Thursday night to rehearse for 5 to 6 concerts a year. Setting up for rehearsal or a show is extremely labor intensive and includes placing lights on each music stand and plugging them in to power strips that lie on the floor by the players feet. Our recent outdoor concert taxed the electrical power that was available on the lovely stage in Mead Botanical Garden. Our twilight show required lighting each music stand in addition to installing stage lighting for spotlights. During the concert, the breaker would blow every time a spotlight was used. This left some musicians playing in the dark, and caused momentary voids from sections that were affected. Stage volunteers quickly tripped the breaker to restore the lighting and the show came off as perfect as we could expect. There simply was not enough power on the stage to handle a large orchestra. We are looking for ways to improve this venue for next year and lighting is essential not only for the musicians, but for the ambiance of the performance. Funds are limited and electrical assistance is costly.

New York City, NY – Sneel - Open Hardware Swimming Robotic Snake

2013-12-12T00:00:00Z

Sneel engages communities to take a hands-on approach to marine preservation through the use of modular hardware toolkits for fabricating and programming open-source biomimetic robots for environmental exploration. I have led hackathons and workshops, worldwide in places like Ireland, New York, and Casablanca, developing and deploying toolkits for environmental sensing. My ultimate goal is to proliferate modular toolkits for environmental and social impact. Sneel is a series of biomimetic swimming robotic snakes designed to navigate unknown territory and sense environmental data, The inspiration for Sneel originates from a fascination with exploring lifelike, reptilian motion in an aquatic robot. The electromechanical design of Sneel mimics the structure and motion of a real snake, as a test to explore swimming behavior in an undulating linear robot. Worldwide applications for Sneel include remote marine data collection of salinity / toxicity levels, radioactivity monitoring, pipeline or underwater exploration, fishery monitoring, and search and rescue. Sneel is a fully open source hardware project, which means that I document all of my work online and in-print, including the CAD designs, the source code, and the electronic schematics for others to see and use, on my own website (sneel.cc), on github, and on sites like Instructables. From Sneel spawned global communities of people building and developing their own open hardware snake robots based on my own. Sneel was originally developed as part of the Protei project, open source sailing drones for the ocean preservation and cleanup. Sneel_001 was designed as the 7th prototype of Protei and has since spurred into its own project and initiative. Sneel has been exhibited at TEKS meta.morf Trondheim Electronic Arts Biennial, Transnatural Art Festival NEMO Amsterdam, ITP NYU, Geekdown 92Y Tribeca, Open Hardware Summit 2013 MIT.

San Francisco, CA – A Stop to Bullying

2013-12-12T00:00:00Z

Our awesome project is to make "pledge bracelets" and hand them out to all the high schools and middle schools in the city of Santa Cruz, CA. Not only hand out these pledge bracelets to create awareness but also, give our resources to those who have been bullied. And tips on how not to a bystander. We believe that empowering bystanders is the key to end bullying. By making these pledge bracelets we will be giving the bystanders tips on how to safely intervene someone who is being bullied. We plan to devote 50+ hours making bracelets, tabling and doing presentations at our local high schools and middle schools.

Awesome Without Borders (Non-active) – The Mlangarini Project

2013-12-11T00:00:00Z

Gloucester, MA – Lights, Camera, Nature Gloucester Spring Session

2013-12-06T00:00:00Z

Lights, Camera, Nature is a nature film making class for children ages 7-12. The spring session students will connect with a unique coastal setting in Gloucester. They will choose a favorite beach, marsh, or rocky shore on which to set their movies. The class combines authentic immersion in the natural world with technology and storytelling skills. Students have the opportunity to connect deeply with a place, and to produce a creative piece that will give a sense of accomplishment and be shared with the general public. The final products will document the unique nature of this area and will be screened at various venues to generate understanding and enthusiasm for local natural resources. Lights, Camera, Nature is a partnership between Jessica Kagle, a professional naturalist and the Founder and Director of Kestrel Educational Adventures, and Robert Newton, a film specialist and Founder and Director of Cape Ann Community Cinema (CACC). We alternate between venturing into the local wilds to capture natural drama on our cameras, and working at CACC editing our movies. Student movies will be debuted on the big screen at the CACC for a public audience, and will be screened at other venues throughout Gloucester later in the year. The films made by students throughout several seasons will be compiled into a collection highlighting the stories of natural places throughout Eastern Essex County. Jessica and Rob provide instruction in nature awareness, ecology, camera use, storytelling, and video editing. We also provide mentoring in leadership skills and confidence, emerging from the process of the students working collaboratively to put together awesome films. Each class period allows substantial time for wandering, playing, and pure being. The pilot run of this class is almost finished, with footage and stories completed and edits ready to happen. Students' movies will premier at CACC Dec 9th. The linked website shows pics and stories from each class meeting.

Sarnia (Non-active) – JOY-Full Socks

2013-12-06T00:00:00Z

I have a friend who's name is Cindy Cassidy. She is heading up a program here in Sarnia this year called JOY Full Socks. Her sister headed up this program and has been running it in Sault Ste. Marie for 3 years. Cindy is taking donations from people in Sarnia/Lambton who can buy new socks and fill them with toilietries such as toothpaste, toothbrush, soap, shampoo. Once all the socks are dropped off to her she is planning on taking them to the Lambton County Food Bank to be distrubuted to the homeless/tranisient people there. She has already been in contact with them about this program and they are thrilled she is willing to help. When I was in Detroit feeding the homeless a man came up to my son and asked if he had an extra pair of socks, unfortunatley we had none to give. When I heard what my friend Cindy is doing I knew there was a real need for socks and toiletries. Giving socks and toiletries will give back some dignity they deserve. Doesn't matter what circumstances led them to be homeless or not well off, they are all children of God and deserve to be treated with respect. I think I feel so passionate about this program because I have witnessed and interacted with true homeless people and i would like to continue to serve when i can.

Yerevan – Girls basketball team in Nerkin Karmiraghbyur

2013-12-05T00:00:00Z

Following advice of Mr. Ashot Galstyan—the local school trainer—started a basketball team for girls. Now 16 girls, grades 4-7, exercise at the local school gym 2 days per week. Only couple of months old the team has already won 14:1 in a match with the team of Tavush. While Mr. Galstyan gets a moderate compensation for training the local football team launched by Zorakn, he however works as a volunteer with the basketball team. To secure the further stable development of this awesome project we need to provide some monthly compensation + buy sporting equipment (basketballs) and uniform for the kids.

Boston, MA (Non-active) – Tree of Knowledge

2013-12-04T00:00:00Z

see the pdf document at http://www.okhaos.com/TreeOfKnowledge.pdf

New Orleans, LA (Non-active) – Preparedness & Wetlands Club

2013-12-03T00:00:00Z

Team Happy Foundation (THF) will utilize a grant from The Awesome Foundation to inspire and equip the next generation of first responders and environmental engineers with fun literary tools to fuel their imagination! Thus, the THF Preparedness & Wetlands Club at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School in the Lower 9th Ward will engage 50 elementary school students (second grade) during the Spring Semester and provide them with free educational material and enrichment activities. Each month in the first quarter of FY2014, 50 students will receive one new, age-appropriate children’s picture book (paperback) from the Children’s Publishing Division of THF. The combination of our read-alouds are uniquely and creatively based on the Multiple Lines of Defense Model, which identifies wetlands as our first natural line of defense against storm surge - in conjunction with individual and community preparedness planning. Students are asked to submit a one-page handwritten book report (4 sentence minimum) and on the back of the same page, illustrate their favorite idea about the story! The aforementioned assignments will enhance their final journal entry: a 6-step action plan on how they will help their community become more prepared for hurricane season and also, how they will become advocates for the environmental restoration of wetlands in Southeast Louisiana (3 steps for each concept). Wednesday, January 15, 1:30-2:30p – 50 students receive The Adventures of Happy & Big Wanda. * Author reads, signs and disseminates books; explains club goals; 30mins for each separate class of 25 students. Wednesday, January 29 – book reports and illustrations are collected and picked up. Wednesday, February 13, 1:30-2:30p – 50 students receive Fearless Delta Fox. * Hour is spent same as above. Wednesday, February 27 – book reports and illustrations are collected and picked up. Wednesday, March 13, 1:30-3:00p – 50 students receive Backyard Bayou. * Students will receive books at urban wetlands field trip. Wednesday, March 27 – book reports, illustrations and 6-step action plans are collected/picked up. The club’s culminating story time and book dissemination will take place during a field trip to the Viewing Platform of Bayou Bienvenue’s Wetland Triangle at the corner of Caffin and Florida Avenue. Students will hear from wildlife experts and see firsthand many of the lessons highlighted throughout the collection of books. Before departing campus for the field trip, students will watch a 20minute documentary titled Bayou Sundance produced by L9 Center for Sustainable Development and Engagement, which focuses on the urban bayou in the city’s backyard!

Awesome Without Borders (Non-active) – No, No Estamos Locos

2013-12-02T00:00:00Z

My awesome project is a two-week story-telling residency in La Central de Abasto in Mexico City. La Central is one of the largest wholesale markets in the world — up to 30% of all the food sold in the entire country passes through it every day. I will be accompanied by a Mexican photographer and translator (sadly, I chose German in high school). Together, we will spend one workday (starting at midnight, in most cases) at a time in its different sectors and with its different actors, from flowers to fruit, and from cargadores to cleaners and prostitutes to police. We will record their stories, document their day-to-day activities, inventory data (what do they eat? where do they come from? where and to/from whom does the produce they work with go? what do all the crazy fruit and vegetable signs say? what is the most expensive and cheapest product on sale each day? what is in the market’s waste and where does it go? etc.). Each day, at the market’s close, we will return to our own headquarters to put together a beautifully designed broadside of our findings: photographs, stories, and infographics that bring to life the people and unpack the mysteries of this "Axis of Food." Each day’s broadside will thus focus on one facet of the market: there will be an entire sheet on ice vendors, another on carrot cartels, and yet another on truck drivers, for example. We'll print these and distribute them as food wrappers at the city's public and street markets, where much of the produce sold at La Central ends up. We'll also publish them online (in collaboration with the BBC), and, at the end of the project, display them in tear-off pads as an exhibition in DF and then NYC. The market is amazing and mysterious, even to 99% of the residents of Mexico City: this project will help bring its daily operations and idiosyncrasies to life for the people it feeds. I have been wanting to do this since my first quick visit in 2010 (http://www.ediblegeography.com/the-axis-of-food/)!

Austin, TX – Legends for Youth baseball clinic for kids with disabilities

2013-11-30T00:00:00Z

CTX Ability Sports is the only organization in America that provides year round sports and activities to children with disabilities and their siblings and parents, all free of charge. The goal: total family inclusion. After one year of knocking on the Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association's door, they agreed to hold the first ever "Legends for Youth" Baseball Clinic for children with disabilities. This will be a benchmark for the rest of the country to follow and even the MLB Network will be there to cover this historic event, scheduled for April 14, 2014.

Pittsburgh, PA – The Drop Project

2013-11-30T00:00:00Z

The Drop Project is an interactive exhibit that will embody sustainability and cutting edge science communication. This graduate student-led project will involve a month-long series of exhibits and activities held at Assemble, “a community space for arts + technology”. Our vision is to grow and diversify the ‘watershed movement’ by increasing awareness of the human-water relationship as well as promoting lifestyle choices that support a cleaner watershed. The Drop Project will include pieces that allow the participants to have a sensory experience that draws them into a stream ecosystem. Visitors will bump their way through stream rocks made from used fabrics. Macroinvertebrates, aquatic organisms underfoot but overlooked, are the most commonly used tool for assessing stream health. The exhibit will highlight their role in stream ecosystems and bioassessment. Participants will also learn about the visible and invisible pollution that stress our waterways. From plastic to pharmaceuticals, visitors will engage in creative, unconventional approaches to understand the problems, but also the personal practices, the “little drops” that can truly make a difference. One measurable objective for The Drop Project is to create community and connect stakeholders. Water is a valuable and contentious resource in the Pittsburgh region, and around the world. It will take many stakeholders coming together to creatively manage the draws we ask of our water resources. The Drop Project will facilitate connecting communities with action organizations, government agencies with non-profits, artists with scientists, and fly fisher people with resource managers. Through these social networking events, connections will be made that will catalyze sustainable resource use in the region.

Detroit, MI (Non-active) – Detroit Charter Data

2013-11-29T00:00:00Z

Detroit Charter Data [DCD] was born out of the discrepancies I witnessed between school funding and access to resources at my charter school. Independently operated and funded by federal, state and local taxes, charter schools are a composite of traditional public schools (public funding and universal access) with aspects of private schools (choice, autonomy and flexibility). The end result is a mixed bag of independent districts with free reign of everything from the curriculum to budget. In many states, like New York, charter schools are required to be not-for-profit operations; Michigan is not one of those states. In fact, according to a report by the National Education Policy Center, Michigan has the highest proportion of for-profit charter schools in the nation. Having a background in journalism I decided to send in as many FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] requests as possible to figure out where the money was being allocated. The process was really important for me to understand the decisions at my school. That said, I ran into a number of hurdles in the process. Detroit Charter Data would be a resource for community members and stakeholders, like myself, to get to the bottom of where money and resources are going inside of charter schools. A data aggregator and FOIA generator the site will be grounded in a charter map on the home page which will list out all charter schools in the city. Users can filter the map to focus on Authorizers, Management Organizations or Inception Dates. Once users have picked a school they are interested in learning more about they can click on it and go to the "FOIA Generator" this would be a template FOIA that users could tweak for their personal use (we would have recommended requests listed at the bottom of the page). Users would create and send in their own FOIAs and then upload results to the site. The overall goal is an accountability/transparency site created for and by the public.

Miami, FL – Sensor Sub

2013-11-26T00:00:00Z

José has built a small, self-propelled submarine equipped with a camera and several data collection devices. We'd like to equip and use the sub to test and report on water quality in Miami. We will outfit José's sub with an array of water quality sensors (https://www.atlas-scientific.com/product_pages/kits/sds-kit.html) that will collect data about pH, purity, conductivity and oxygenation. We would then use the sub to test various bodies of water and to take underwater photos and video in Miami's waterways. We will analyze, map and report on the results on sensorsub.com and possibly partner with local media outlets to publicize what we find. Our end goal is to help Miami better understand the health of its waterways, to promote South Florida's growing maker movement, and to encourage civic science in our city.

London, ON (Non-active) – Student Move-Out Day Garbage Program

2013-11-26T00:00:00Z

Simply put, every year on there is a significant amount of garbage generated by student households. At no time is this fact more prevalent than on move-out days at the end of the year, when a brief stroll through a student neighbourhood will reveal a disturbing amount of stuff left out by students. Clothing, furniture, discarded electronics, kitchenware, clothing, food (both perishable and non), and all sorts of other bagged items are disposed of without necessarily careful regard. This excess of visible garbage on move-out can be attributed to the fact that while the city imposes a 4 bag-per-household limit normally, on move-out days this limit is removed to allow for the excess disposal. This provides an incentive for students to uncritically dispose of their wares. When looking at this problem, it is very easy to blame students. After all, one could argue that if students simply took responsibility over their individual waste contribution we would not see unnecessarily or disposal of goods that might still have value. While there may be an element of truth to that assessment, it does not suffice to say that this is simply an individual problem; it is a community problem, and it requires a community solution. In essence, by allowing students to dispose of a limitless amount of garbage without providing them with the proper resources with which to properly dispose of or donate their things, the city is equally culpable for the large and wasteful garbage disposals seen on move-out days. With this in mind, I propose a program which makes it easier on students to access and dispose of materials that can be otherwise used. The focus of this program will be on 1. More accessible electronics recycling 2. More accessible food donation points 3. More accessible clothing and household wares donation points. Though I have yet to identify with precision the most efficient way to help solve this problem, any and all small steps can help.

Philadelphia, PA – The Awesome Fest 2014

2013-11-26T00:00:00Z

We pride ourselves as a community that strongly believes in supporting each other, independent film, and showcasing this city as one of the very finest. We have created this to be a one-of-a-kind destination festival, with attendees from all over the globe traveling to see our shows. This is why for the 4th year in a row, we presented our entire outdoor summer series completely free of charge.

Awesome Without Borders (Non-active) – Community Canvases

2013-11-25T00:00:00Z

Community Canvases takes infrastructure, such as signal boxes, light poles and garbage totes, and turnes them into canvases of original artwork that reflects the historical, coultural and georgraphic features of each community. One thing that is unique about Buffalo is how incredibly diverse it is. From the immigrant and refugee populations in the West Side, to the many heritage corridors sprinkled throughout the city, Community Canvases aims to turn neighborhood infrastructure into works that reflect the celebrated differences that ultimately unite our city. Our first series of art was focused on Tonawanda Street in Buffalo's Riverside neighborhood. We used local artists to paint designs illustrating historical concepts like the War of 1812, geographic themes like the river and the park, as well as messages showing the connectedness of the residents.

Portland, OR – Dreamland

2013-11-24T00:00:00Z

Dreamland is a place where you find yourself unexpectedly. You are heading into the library or the courthouse or the museum and suddenly you come across a bed. There is someone sitting in a rocking chair reading aloud. You lie down and listen. It takes you to another place. Our project is to take you to this place. We bring in a these props and create a setting and then we invite participation, investigation, and experience. To make the project work it requires interaction and trust. We are choosing to trust that people will respond and join and people are given the choice to trust us to bring them to a place of wonder. There is something magical about the bizarreness of the scene we are setting. We have witnessed face after face light up when they realize what we are offering them. In this project we are interrupting the day-to-day in order to remind people what is possible. This is a repetitive process, it is done again and again in different spaces in order to reach a wider audience. We want to offer this to a wide diversity of people throughout the city, to offer this moment of whimsy and this glimpse into what is possible. Our process so far has been to haul our own furniture from our homes into a park. We have carried a bed, a table, a chair and all the other components of our set up a hill. We set up our bed, our room, our lights and people are immediately interested. We are peppered with questions throughout the entire process. We talk with people, we answer questions, we joke and we invite. We start, taking turns in the rocking chair, reading to whomever has gathered, a short story. People walk up, sit down, listen. Some stay for a while, some drift off and sleep a little, some sit for only a minute or two then walk away. Others take photos, pose in front of our set up. No matter the level of interaction, people notice, talk, smile, laugh.

San Francisco, CA – Awesöme Orchestra Collective

2013-11-24T00:00:00Z

Awesöme Orchestra Collective is a group of Bay Area musicians that holds free and open rehearsals of exciting orchestral repertoire of all kinds. We provide a low-pressure environment for people to create and enjoy orchestral music together with an emphasis on collaboration, transparency of process, and high musicianship. We believe the lower the stress, the better the experience. We seek a diverse group of musicians that represent our community who are passionate about orchestras and seek a more open, encouraging, and democratic music-making experience not always present in traditional ensembles. Participation in Awesöme Orchestra Collective is on a volunteer basis, not by audition, and will always be free to both musicians and non-musicians. We seek out musical adventures and innovative ways to make both new and traditional concert music more accessible to our community. Inclusiveness is a huge part of what we do, so we work hard to have the group self-govern itself, which leads to a more empowering experience and individuals. We have a few guidelines we've created: 1. Any musician or non-musician is always welcome to join us - just make sure you can proficiently handle the part you choose. 2. Attendance is never mandatory - but if you sign up, show up. 3. Part assignments are determined by the section - do what's best for the group and share the love. 4. Relax, get to know and encourage each other, and enjoy playing together - the high musicianship will follow. 5. Thou shalt be excellent to each other. We have been in existence since last spring, and meet at least once a month, and never more than twice a month. We are coming up on our twelfth session, and the group has 400+ players now, with new members and audience at every session. We actively seeking out new musicians, new composers for new works to premiere, and to get rid of the "packaging" common to most concert music experiences that take away from the music.

San Antonio, TX – Apps for Aptitude

2013-11-22T00:00:00Z

Apps for Aptitude is a non-profit organization (501c3) run completely by high schoolers. It was established for the purpose of reducing illiteracy rates within the in the greater San Antonio area and to fight technological illiteracy across the nation. San Antonio has experienced a growth of literacy rates- about 25% of the population is illiterate or functionally illiterate. This alarming rate and the fact that the majority of students are not knowledgeable in computer programming has fueled our desire to lower these rates. In order to do this, Apps for Aptitude has created a educational flashcard app called Cards for Cause, which is targeted at the common high school student struggling to study their material while on the go.The proceeds from the app will be donated to organizations in San Antonio that were established for the purpose of fighting illiteracy; thus enhancing education for everyone. First, you sign up for a submission service. Then, you send in your study flashcards/ review materials (may even be in the form of an excel spreadsheet) to be examined by the app's team. Once your cards have surveyed, they will be reiterated back to you in our app! What a perfect solution for students who are very involved or constantly busy.

Los Angeles, CA – ShareShelfLA

2013-11-22T00:00:00Z

What if on the side of garbage cans there was a little shelf? A wooden ledge attached to the garbage can that fit a few bags or boxes with leftovers in it. This way if you go out to eat, order too much and have some leftover you could put it on that shelf instead of on the sidewalk and instead of IN THE TRASH. The thought being, if homeless people are going to look through the trash for something to eat – maybe we could make the whole experience a bit more humane. With a tiny bit of help from the share shelf – we can share our excess, and others might have the opportunity to get what is left a little easier. Ben just so happens to be great at building things! He can build the shelves. And we will install them together. Our plan is that they latch onto the side of garbage cans or light posts in populated areas NEAR BUT NOT TOO NEAR restaurants in Hollywood, Downtown and other areas that are very populated. This way there will be foot traffic but we will be careful not to place them near right front doors of restaurants, we want to be friendly with neighborhoods we’ll exist in and not get complaints from restaurants.

Kitchener-Waterloo – 5am

2013-11-21T00:00:00Z

5am Every day 5:00am passes me by. While I am asleep there is a world that I am completely detached from. When I begin settling in for the evening there are countless others getting themselves ready to start their day. From bakers and farmers to gas station attendants and factory line workers, we live in a world that never truly sleeps. Productivity and services continue to be provided while many of us are asleep and dreaming. When I wake up in the morning I can, without a second thought, enjoy freshly made bread, produce picked hours earlier or even a newly paved road. The 5am project developed out of an interest to step outside of my 9-5 world; to document places, people and livelihoods at - or as close to - 5am as possible. The world may look very different when not congested with people and cars but that does not mean we have all settled in for sleep. Welcome to 5am.

Kingston – Operation Red Nose Kingston

2013-11-21T00:00:00Z

By the community, for the community. That best sums up one of Kingston's most worthwhile - and dare we say, AWESOME - seasonal campaigns. When many other people are celebrating and imbibing during the holiday season, a group of dedicated volunteers give up their own nights to get others home safely. Yes, we drive drunks home. But they are happy, generous and responsible drunks. Our goal is to reduce impaired driving by creating awareness and education around all those options available to holiday revellers - whether it be arranging a designated driver, calling a friend, calling a cab, spending the night, or using Operation Red Nose. Our service was introduced in Kingston in 1997, volunteers have escorted almost 8,600 motorists home safely during the festive season. Area residents have donated $165,000 to local charities. AWESOME. One day, we hope there will be no need for Operation Red Nose, but until that happens, we'll be here. We are your last call before you hit the road.

Ann Arbor, MI – Update on Cooperative Phonograph for skate park

2013-11-20T00:00:00Z

Must see video of recently finished phonograph: http://youtu.be/uEXZYPG6E6w The Cooperative Phonograph uses forgotten mechanical-audio magic from 19th century in an all-new type of sculpted experience. This interactive phono-record sculpture is unique because it is not at all fragile and the recorded sound waveform is macroscopic and tactile. A voice-recording of the refrain, “Love is All You Need”, is instantly recognizable as the coda of the Beatlesʼ song “All You Need Is Love” when the textured sound wave is scraped- using a business card as the phonograph stylus. One person spins huge record disc to control the rotation frequency (musical pitch), while another person holds the sound wave scraper and varies the amplitude (volume) of the musical experience. An organic sense of community emerges as users engage each other in this cooperative play.

Ann Arbor, MI – FUSE: Mobile Microcinema

2013-11-20T00:00:00Z

With AF's support I will launch the first year of FUSE, a quarterly mobile microcinema event in our community. There are two primary focal points for the project a) experimentation with the cinema-going experience, especially how audiences and artists can interact; b) a collaborative hosting model, with a different artist helping co-organize each FUSE. Conceptually, FUSE aims to short-circuit expectations for the typically static relationship between artists, presenters and audience. Why is experimentation important for the cinema-going experience? I believe most of our viewing options – whether paying to see feature films in a theater, a home viewing of streaming/DVDs, or link-hopping online – lend themselves to a passive, consumer relationship that's reductive in how we digest ideas and art. What if the artists' whose work is shared are present (virtually and/or physically) and the audience encouraged to contribute feedback, ideas, screening fees as they feel inspired? What if the whole event is transparent in terms of revenues/expenses, time involved and programming choices? What if content is choreographed for audience participation? FUSE will focus on ways that artists, presenters and audiences can interact to generate deeper experiences of sharing cinema. Collaboration with rotating co-hosts is also a critical piece of this project. It's a way to weave through cross-sections of our community, bridge gaps and bring new audiences together. It's a way for artists to gain experience in presenting work in new contexts. And it's also a way to avoid a curator's built in blind spots and biases. I hosted a test FUSE on June 8th at the studio of Roos Roast. We showed short films by local makers in attendance for audience Q&A. We setup an interactive video installation and held a "PopOff" contest to decide whose popcorn seasoning recipe was supreme. Attendance was 50 people, double the expectation, and feedback was enthusiastic for further FUSE events.

Ann Arbor, MI – A Face Mask For Girls Playing Field Hockey.

2013-11-20T00:00:00Z

Almost all girls playing field hockey play without the benefit of a face mask and as a result some are injured by an accidental stick or ball strike to the face. Concussions and stitches sometimes result. I have designed a simple, full face clear, plastic mask with two disposable foam inserts that attach to the inside of the mask at the forehead and chin. My design provides full face protection, total unobscured vision and has slots to enable easy breathing without condensation. Field hockey traditions do not encourage the use of a mask except when a girl plays certain defensive positions. All other players on the field are unprotected. Considering that the balls and bats are rigid and hard and that serious injuries do occur, it would seem that a simple and functional mask could encourage girls to wear them and they would then benefit from safer play. Traditions are difficult to break but it is time to upgrade this sport and keep girls from injury by design.

Ann Arbor, MI – Broken

2013-11-20T00:00:00Z

I have co created my second large social art installation project called "Broken" I is an work that is regarding human trafficking. It will be on exhibit at Art Prize this fall. It is an expensive project with many components: Handmade quilt, many handmade dolls, a large painting, a bed, a vanity, chains, handcuffs. It also has many bird cages that hold the handmade dolls representing imprisoned slaves. We hope that this project will travel as our last social art project traveled for 3 years to 20 venues. We already have a request to exhibit at the Michigan Conference for Human Trafficking. This project brings to life the suffering that trafficked individuals experience. We distribute information on how people can work to solve this problem and we educate people with facts.

New York City, NY – Pier 42 Wild Oyster Survey

2013-11-20T00:00:00Z

The oysters of New York Harbor were once world-renown for their quality, and the legendary vibrant and diverse social and cultural life of lower Manhattan in the 1800s revolved around oyster street stands, halls and saloons, and waterfront barges. Oysters made downtown what it is today. Restoration of the historic reefs and beds is the highest habitat goal for NY Harbor for the next decade; though not edible in our lifetime, oysters would provide valuable ecosystem services. Oysters are nutrient-rich food sources for marine life, birds, and humans. Hundreds of fish species and thousands of microscopic plant and animal species associated with oyster reefs settle in, providing increased abundance, functional diversity and complexity: the indicators of ecosystem health. Adult oysters can filter 50 gallons of water a day, removing toxins and contaminants from the water, and pelletizing them into the sediment. Oyster reefs and beds buffer the edge against storm surge, sea level rise, and acid rain. Oysters are returning to New York Harbor after a hundred-year absence due to habitat destruction, pollution, and over harvesting in the 1800s! The River Project first observed wild oysters at Pier 26, Tribeca in 1990, and continues observations. Presently, oysters seem to be settling at an accelerating rate. Our project is a survey to assess the local population and establish a baseline dataset for this site, which has habitat representative of much of the Harbor; Pier 42, in the Hudson River Park Estuarine Sanctuary, on the Greenwich Village waterfront, adjacent to our wetlab and office at Pier 40. The survey will measure settlement, growth, mortality, habitat distribution, size, age, and disease, if any. Early results show densities of approximately 8 oysters per square meter, maximum size 11cm (4.5 inches).

Boulder, CO (Non-active) – Opera for kids: The Magic Flute

2013-11-19T00:00:00Z

What is more awesome than opera? As a group of classically trained musicians, we are eager to share our love of music to a new audience! Opera is often received as boring, expensive, and hard to follow. By involving children and families in the production through opportunities that include helping to design the costumes and sets of the opera, informative workshops introducing children and their families to the magical world of opera, and in-school performances, we plan on bringing opera to the community. We offer discounts to local parent groups, donate tickets to I Have a Dream Foundation of Boulder, a drop out prevention program, and offer group sales for in-school performances. In December 2013, we will produce an abridged version of the widely known and well-loved opera, Mozart’s The Magic Flute sung in German with english dialog. Through our collaboration with Tinker Art Studio, we will offer a series of free workshops to create a dragon head and a set design for the show. These workshops will happen in late October. In an effort to directly and personally engage students, we are offering in-school visits by the team and some cast members for an “Intro to Opera” workshop. We will also hold a ten minute Q&A session with the cast at the end of each show.

Awesome Without Borders (Non-active) – Hope through Common Threads

2013-11-18T00:00:00Z

While living in Thailand, I developed a love for the handmade textiles woven by Burmese refugee women. From my perspective as a Western visitor, the textiles were “wearable art,” beautiful with intricate and colorful patterns. To them, the textiles are purely functional. They use them as clothing worn daily to carry vegetables from the market or their gardens and even to carry their babies on their backs while they work. The women weave these textiles using a back-strap loom, a traditional and ancient technique used by indigenous peoples around the world. They build the looms themselves out of wood and pvc piping and they weave for hours at a time in their homes. Not only does weaving preserve these ancient techniques, it also ties their communities together, bringing women together to talk about social and economic issues. Weaving provides an outlet for self-expression and most importantly it creates supplementary income. I want to help the refugee women I work with in Florida preserve their traditional craft and support themselves financially. When they arrive in America, they face an uphill battle. Most speak little or no English and have very limited employment prospects. This project will provide refugee women with the materials necessary to build their own looms and start weaving. It will also help them with the marketing and sales of their finished textiles. By organizing “sewing circles” which include Iraqi, Afghan, Cuban, Colombian, Congolese and Ethiopian refugees, as well as Burmese, the women will improve their English skills because it is the only way they will be able to communicate across nationalities. This program will help the refugee women preserve their cultures while simultaneously improving their integration into American culture by creating a desirable artisanal textile products and selling them at local arts markets. Eventually, we will grow the program to include instruction on Internet sales, including product listing sites like Etsy.

Vancouver, BC (Non-active) – Prado Parklet

2013-11-18T00:00:00Z

I'm working with a young architect, an up-and-coming public artist, a new and innovative social enterprise, the BCIT ironworkers program, and a talented photographer to develop one badass parklet: a public space that takes over street parking. Consulting for the owner of Prado Cafe on Commercial Drive, we are one of only a few parklet teams accepted into the City's 2013 parklet pilot program, and we are the only team on the Drive. As a resident of the neighbourhood, it's important for me to bring together a great team in order to create an interesting public space for our community. The architect and I have sought to honour the conversational qualities of this new space by working with Jordan Bent, a visual artist with a prolific portfolio of work. Ever seen those huge blocks of text above the Cambie or Granville bridges? Or on the walls of the Little Mountain Gallery, Chapel Arts, or Bitter? He did those. We will work with Jordan to garner the words and sentences of passersby, after which he'll distill and synthesize them into abstract metaphoric images. We''ll then bring the imagery to Derek from the Laser Cutter Cafe, who will laser etch the designs onto the wood structure. We believe this is the right aesthetic and conceptual choice for our design: the wood will actually embody the words of the community! It's going to look slick. We have reached out to students at BCIT, who will be welding and fabricating our table and bench structures. Since they are students, their work is inexpensive! We also wanted to give them an opportunity to work on a project with real consequences, one they can visit and share with friends. Finally, while building the structure a photographer will be creating a time-lapse video of the process, and looping it in the cafe for patrons to view. I hope you'll agree that we have maximized this collaborative opportunity for a really awesome endeavour. Come, sit and enjoy when it's completed over the next few months!

Ottawa – Walk (Bike) Your City

2013-11-13T00:00:00Z

November’s Awesome Ottawa award goes to Lana Stewart, to support a raft of do-it-yourself “guerrilla wayfinding” street signs to improve walkability and bikeability in Ottawa. “Everyone says Ottawa is boring, but it's not if you know the right places to go,” says Lana. “Unfortunately, the signs you see along the streets and highways aren't going to direct you to the heart of local Ottawa. We need signs that point the person who hopped off the bus and is walking, or the person cycling along a bike path, to the great things just minutes or metres from where they are.” Starting in the spring, Lana will use the do-it-yourself sign-making website Walk [Your City], which she backed when it was first a Kickstarter project, to create signs to local businesses or points of interest that would not normally make it onto a formal street sign. “I hope these signs help point people in the right direction to find good local food, shops, and culture,” she says. Lana is a pedestrian, cyclist, and mom. She blogs at http://www.modalmom.com.

Awesome Without Borders (Non-active) – Dances Made to Order/En Route Dance Film Festival

2013-11-11T00:00:00Z

Dances Made to Order is an online, monthly, dance film series. Every month we invite three talented artists who rise to the challenge of creating new and original dance films inspired by the themes chosen by our audience. 65% of the revenue we earn from subscriptions and ticket sales goes back to our artists to support their work. We also produce the En Route Dance Film Festival yearly in December for which we take submissions. The program includes a selection of dance films from all over the world that are not available anywhere else online. The ticket sales from the festival are used to furnish a cash prize for the audience choice award winner. We also invite a prestigious jury to watch the films to provide more exposure for our artists. Here's a link to our trailer for our 2012 festival:https://vimeo.com/55131992. We realized that people's habits and preferences for the way they consume media are changing. Our project responds to those changes to present local dance on a global scale.

Baltimore, MD – Hanky Pancreas

2013-11-11T00:00:00Z

Hanky Pancreas is a series of products currently for women to help make the insulin pump more wearable and socially acceptable. My top selling item, the Hanky Scarf is a versatile piece that can be worn around the neck or waist. Made of wonderfully soft fabric, it feels great against the skin, and has a special pocket to hold and protect the insulin pump in a user-friendly, comfortable, & fun way. For a person living with diabetes, the social and psychological impact of the illness can affect day-to-day management. Individuals who feel more social support living with the disease may be in better health than those who do not. Studies show that patients with diabetes are more likely than their non-diabetic peers to develop anxiety, depression, and disordered eating behavior. While insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitors serve as significantly better alternatives to multiple daily injections and finger sticks, some people are concerned with how it will affect their appearance to others. Primary research has shown that women, specifically within the range of 15 – 35, are less likely to use these treatment options due to reasons that are typically socio-psychological in nature. Some find these devices socially inconvenient and difficult to integrate into clothing or on the body. Hanky Pancreas products are designed as an intervention providing fashionable yet functional solutions transforming the devices into positive conversation pieces. The mission is to plug diabetes technologies into social identities and create support in everyday environments for women living with diabetes. It has awarded me the opportunity to speak at the headquarters of Medtronic Diabetes, The Mayo Clinic, and on Public Radio International. I am honored to have received accolades from The Mayo Clinic, Core77, DiabetesMine and Humana. Founded in 2010, the products are sold to happy customers all over the world and have been featured in exhibitions in the UK, New York, and Spain.

Baltimore, MD – "Cantata for a Loop Trail" for Rhymes With Opera

2013-11-11T00:00:00Z

Erik Spangler will be collaborating with the ensemble Rhymes With Opera to create a 35-minute music theater work for singers and instrumentalists along a forest trail. In his role as Guide, he will escort small groups of audience members to different stations along the path, blending intimate proximity to performers along with the experience of voices and instruments heard from a distance. His own texts, along with those of poet Wendell Berry, the Roman Code of Justinian, along with adaptations of several Appalachian folk songs, frame the work as a type of secular ecological Mass. This work is intended to connect audiences with a natural environment close to home, and with memories of older generations regarding changes that the land has undergone. Each performance will have site-specific audio components, derived from recorded interviews with local people and samples of environmental sounds found in the area of the performance. In each location where the work is performed, Spangler will work with local students to record the spoken accounts of their elders in the community, relating to changes in the landscape, local sounds, and what their home area means to them. Using portable audio recorders, the youth participants will also seek out and record sounds that are unique to their area. He will integrate these audio contributions, which will be played back on hidden boomboxes placed in the foliage along the loop trail. Rhymes With Opera will present the premiere of "Cantata For A Loop Trail" on the Norman Reeves Trail at Gwynns Falls/Leakin Park in Baltimore, Maryland, during the afternoon of June 21, 2014. On June 22, the work will be presented at Prospect Park in Brooklyn, New York. Five performances are proposed for each day at 9:00 AM, 10:00 AM, 11:00 AM, 2:00 PM, and 3:00 PM. The performance will be free, with 20 tickets available for each performance.

Gloucester, MA – Art Haven Lobster Trap Christmas Tree

2013-11-08T00:00:00Z

Cape Ann Art Haven is a community space where artists of all ages and abilities are encouraged to develop creativity and confidence through hands on learning and collaboration. The Lobster Trap Christmas Tree, located on Main St. in Gloucester outside of the Police Station, has been a long-standing winter tradition. The Cape Ann Art Haven has taken over the duties of building and setting up the tree in recent years, while it's students paint buoys to adorn the piece of art. This has historically been the organizations best known and most attended event, a true Gloucester favorite!

New Orleans, LA (Non-active) – Take a Professional to School Day

2013-11-08T00:00:00Z

After launching Nolablackprofessionals.com, I got the crazy idea to remix Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day. So I gather professionals of all races together and we take over a school. It's not like your normal boring Career Day. We dress like ourselves, we talk to the kids in a relatable manner, we invite a local DJ to provide music during our lunch session and then we allow the kids to ask us questions at the end of the day. I wanted to create something dope that the students would like and appreciate.

Boston, MA (Non-active) – Secured and Fortified

2013-11-06T00:00:00Z

My goal is to create an interactive, painted and sculptural blanket fort which will be in the center of "The Game Room" at Highfield House in Falmouth, MA, in April 2014. The curator, Annie Dean, of this historic house museum approached me to install one of my large life-size stacked furniture wall painting installations. (not attached but can be seen at http://candicesmithcorby.com/walls.html ) After seeing the proposed room and describing my recent work with blanket forts, my interest was piqued by the possibility of creating a new 3-d work that encompasses painting, sculpture, and an interactive element. The room has a high ceiling with beams and a skylight which physical objects can be attached to. At my last exhibition at the Ellen Miller Gallery, I made an actual blanket fort (see images) and was left with some ongoing questions/interests- How could painting and the real be merged more believably? In this exhibited fort, I hand-painted a sheet but used other real blankets and fabric. In the images of the paintings, there is a freedom of construction without having to adhere to gravity, as well as perspective. For the new fort, I am interested in using life-size illusionistically painted images of blankets in lieu of actual blankets. Furniture will be used for structural needs (real and illusory) and may be physically altered and painted to support the blur between the 2 and 3 dimensions. A conceptual and physical reference for me are Roman fresco wall paintings in which the architecture and illusionistic paintings expand the understanding of the space. http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/247017?rpp=60&pg=1&rndkey=20131013&ao=on&ft=*&deptids=13&what=Paintings&pos=57 This new fort will be interactive in that visitors, including children, will be able to crawl and move through the fort, capturing the belief of playful transport that we often lose in the day to day duties of our adult lives.

Liverpool – SOLA ARTS- Art Therapy in the Community

2013-11-06T00:00:00Z

SOLA ARTS is a small charity that does big things! We have been supporting the most disadvantage people since 2004 and intend to continue doing so through this brilliant and innovative project. We want to provide a 12-week Art Therapy in the Community offer for people on low income with mental health problems. Although we will focus on people from refugee and BME communities, the project will be open to anyone in need referred. Art Therapy is a non-verbally focused form of mental health support, using creative approaches to healing of the mind and soul. It can be very extremely distressing for people with mental health problems to feel a pressure to engage verbally and so it is fundamental that people in this situation have an opportunity to engage in non-verbal mental health support and for this to provide art therapy. For people with language difficulties, art therapy can be more effective for mental distress than talking therapies. Yet, surprisingly even though Liverpool is a multi-cultural and creative city it is only now through SOLA ARTS that Art Therapy has recently become a community based offer. SOLA ARTS has been delivering arts engagement activities for the past 10 years, however, over the past 6 months SOLA has become specialist in being the only community project offering Art Therapy as a core programme. Specialist mental health services such as psychotherapy or counselling are often charged and expensive or difficult to access due to long waiting times or the stigma of having to request such a provision through a GP or NHS process. We want to provide this service free of charge and in a community setting . This allows for the person to have direct access to the provision and by being in the community based at a community arts project, participants will have an anonymity and privacy in their healing journey, this project is for those most needy in our community. We think this is awesome and need your support to make it happen.