Awesome Foundation - Projects

Alaska (Inactive) – more color for kids

2015-09-29T00:00:00Z

For the last eight years I've been traveling the state through the Artists in the Schools program, making mosaic murals with students of all ages. Our work is based directly on their drawings, and one of the challenges I face is that I never know exactly what the students will draw - or exactly what we'll need to make their designs come to life. Placing my supply order is a guessing game, and I often find myself having to adjust their work in order to fit what I have on hand. Also, as artists on the review panel will know, certain colors are far more expensive than others. Even though I have a generous discount with a wholesale account through a tile company, I often find myself having to ration some of the pricey colors. Red, yellow, and orange tiles are three to four times as expensive as other colors, but who wants to turn that glorious orange duck drawn by a kindergartner into a less glorious blue duck? The schools I work with spend a lot of money (often raised by the PTA organizations) to bring me in, and I have to be very careful with our supply budgets. On occasion I've ended up spending my own money to make things happen, something I really am not in a good position to do. I would use the grant to place a large order of some of these more expensive colors as well as some others we often run out of. This would result in a tile library that I could draw from when we need just a little more or something to finish a project - which could then be replaced on my next order. Having some stock on hand would also put the project within reach of less well funded communities. Over time this supply would be depleted, but I am certain it would have an impact for several years. I've talked to other organizations in the past about funding this idea but have met with little success - though they agree it would be "awesome," it does not seem to fit into their strict funding box.

London, ON (Inactive) – 48 Hour Film Frenzy

2015-09-29T00:00:00Z

Have you ever wanted to create a movie? What if you took a weekend and dedicated it to becoming the next Spielberg? The 48 Hour Film Frenzy is a weekend where local filmmakers are challenged with creating a film in 48 grueling hours. Each filmmaker is presented with a required set of criteria that must be included in their film; such as a required line of dialogue, location in town, prop, etc. London has not has a film showcase in over two years. We have an abundance of local talent that are capable of creating some incredible short films over the span of a weekend. The submitted films will be viewed by a panel of judges who will declare the winner of the competition. The plan is to have a screening event the following weekend at the Hyland theatre where every film is screened and the winner is presented an award. To encourage filmmakers to bring their friends, an audience’s choice award will also be presented. My hope with this $1000 is to start this as a yearly event in London.

Stockholm (Inactive) – Make Musik Sthlm

2015-09-29T00:00:00Z

Music is a language that we all understand. The energy during Make Musik Sthlm is amazing and can bring people together and give a sense of belonging. With 200 concerts performed by 1170 musicians and 12 000 in the audience Make Musik Sthlm take music and volunteering to new awesome levels. Celebrating music and all those how loves music, Make Musik Sthlm is a non profit festival and free to the public. Open for everyone and all ages, it’s a great chance for musicians to reach out to as many as possible and an amazing opportunity for visitors to discover new music styles. The grant from Awesome Foundation will go to public transport tickets to bring as many kids in to the city from the suburb. Make Musik Sthlm takes place every year on the 6th of June in SoFo (the south side of Stockholm).

Awesome Without Borders (Inactive) – Making Mayhem!

2015-09-28T00:00:00Z

My students are 7th and 8th graders who have Intellectual Disabilities and/or Autism. They are fabulous kids! We work on academics, but just as important for my kids is learning communication and social skills. It is really important for my kids to gain experience in navigating a variety of social situations and learn to advocate for themselves. This project addresses my students' academic, social, and communication needs. The King Center is our local theatre. In November they have a group coming, the Mayhem Poets. This traveling troupe performs spoken word, improv, stand up comedy, and dramatic readings for schools around the country. We have an opportunity for our students to work with the Mayhem Poets after the show in an exclusive Master Class! This would be fabulous for my students! They will learn how to perform onstage, enhance their creative and critical thinking skills with improv activities, and how to turn their poetry into a spoken word performance. They will gain the confidence to make their wants, needs, and feelings known, and they will learn social skills such as timing, expression, and fluency. Prior to the performance we will read poetry, learn about poets, and write our own original poems. Students will learn about figurative language, analyzing poems, and how to read poems. My students like to perform, but they don't always know how to. Last year they were in the school play, performed in the Very Special Arts Showcase, and were contestants in the school talent show. They have expressed the desire to tell jokes, but they don't really know how to. This Master Class will give students the skills to be able not only to perform, but also to be able to fit in better with their peers and be able to blend in more. After the class we will expand on what students have learned by performing for seniors in assisted living and in the school talent show. I try to get my kids into the community as much as possible!

Ann Arbor, MI – The Oasis Aquaponic Food Production System

2015-09-28T00:00:00Z

Food insecurity, the lack of access to sufficient nutritious food, is the constant companion of the poor. In some cases, food simply is not present; in others, food is available but not affordable. Since the majority of the world’s poorest citizens are subsistence farmers, food insecurity can be addressed at the source by improving agricultural productivity. However, due to increasing land and water shortages, as well as increasing costs and dangers of agrochemicals, traditional methods are out of reach for the majority. Aquaponics, an alternative production method, represents a promising solution. Aquaponics is the co-culture of fish and vegetables in a re-circulating biofilter-based system. The bacteria present in the biofilter transform the fish waste into a form of nitrogen suitable for plant uptake. Thus the fish feed the plants and the plants clean the water for the fish. This symbiotic relationship allows more food to be grown in a smaller area and with less water than traditional aquaculture or horticulture can support. Our team has spent the last two years refining the design of a small aquaponics system. We have prototyped and tested two design iterations to date in rural El Salvador. Using what we learned from these trials, we have redesigned the system with the goal of increasing production capability while simultaneously drastically reducing manufacturing cost. Our solution is a solar-powered aquaponics system capable of producing at minimum 200 pounds of Tilapia and 200 pounds of tomatoes or other vegetables annually. With a projected retail price of $100, and a business model that provides low-interest purchasing credit, our system is radically affordable and accessible.

Washington, DC – COMEDY HACK DAY DC

2015-09-28T00:00:00Z

Comedy Hack Day DC (CHD DC) is a comedy hackathon on Friday, October 23rd and Saturday October 24th. This is the first DC version of Comedy Hack Day, a national event launched by Cultivated Wit, a company started by former employees of The Onion. The group has already done nine successful events in LA, San Francisco, New York and at MIT over the last three years. This past spring, they launched a program for individuals to run their own local CHD and CHD DC is the second locally-run event in the country. Our event begins on Friday night at Canvas Co/Work in Dupont Circle with software developers, designers and comedians gathering to pitch funny new apps and tech ideas. They then form teams and "hack" all night and all day Saturday, creating functioning products and presentations to showcase them. The teams then present their ideas to a live audience on Saturday night at iStrategy Labs in Shaw in a comedy show format. The evening is complete with hosts, guest judges from the tech and comedy communities, food, drinks, music and prizes. In total, there will be approximately (10) 4-person teams of "hackers" and 100 attendees for the live event. It’s a unique and hilarious way to showcase bright and funny DC talent while also bringing together two of the city’s most active communities that don’t often overlap: tech and comedy. Cultivated Wit has laid the foundation for a creative and uproariously entertaining event. And though there may be plans for future funding, the group does not currently provide financial backing for these local events. But fortunately DC has the opportunity to inject its own homegrown humor, ingenuity and interminability into an affair that is proven to be fun and exciting. While giving area residents something new and different, CHD DC also aims to further the continued rise of both the tech and comedy scenes, lending to the effort of making DC less of a career stopover town and more of a destination city.

Liverpool – Ninety Squared Autumn events program

2015-09-27T00:00:00Z

We have created an awesome event programme for autumn 2015. We are offering a series of workshops and exhibitions across the autumn months to anyone in Liverpool who takes interest in what we are offering. Introductory sessions on things such as; animation, calligraphy, bookbinding. The exhibition element are a continuation of the work we’ve been doing with our “knack exhibition” giving opportunities to artists to showcase work and provide selling opportunities in a non-traditional art settings that has a higher likelihood of views, and thus sales. The aim of the series is to reach people from outside our immediate community. It’s our aspiration to advertise the programme is traditional and creative ways, to extend that reach. We want to use avenues like print media, local news and magazines as well as the social and online routes already in use. We have brought together some very talented workshop facilitators. We spent a period of time collating all the application and meeting with the best ones we thought would fit with our aspiration and aims. We’ve worked in partnership with these people to develop a programme that will appeal and excite a broad range of people. Our exhibitions, which will run alongside the workshops, will showcase work from talented creatives looking to shows a wide range of people their work. Photo credit: Tracey Nichols

Amsterdam (Inactive) – Gold Rush in Amsterdam

2015-09-27T00:00:00Z

Imagine 779.808 people in Amsterdam looking for one shiny nugget of gold, worth 1000,- euro. Gold fever hits the streets, everybody wants that piece of bling. Wanting is the easy part, the hard part is finding this gem! The nugget will be hidden somewhere in Amsterdam, deep underground... Off course Amsterdam is to big and pretty to fill it with holes, made by gold crazed diggers. That's why Gold Rush Amsterdam will give away clues on the -yet to be made- Facebook page. Sounds easy? There's a catch... All the the clues will lead to historic monuments and streets that are linked to the colonial times of Amsterdam, informing the participants of the dark pages of our Golden Age history. The lucky finder of the golden nugget is asked by note, if he wants to donate the nugget to the Keti-Koti festival (National commemoration and celebration abolition slavery) Therefor we want to enlighten the dark pages of Amsterdam by a gold crazed rush, and test the character of charity of the lucky finder.

Liverpool – A Small View

2015-09-27T00:00:00Z

A Small View is a non for profit exhibition space situated in the heart of Liverpool. Its based in a shop unit in Gostins arcade, hanover street. This is filled with all kinds of creatives but as of yet know one has made use of the cheap rent in order to set up a gallery. Its run by two MA students studying fine art. The project came from a despair at the lack of available and viable art opportunities. We give artists a space to experiment with different ways of curating and also a place to network and display work. We primarily display emerging or aspiring artists work. The two of us running this this project space know the difficulties in finding viable exhibition opportunities in big cities like Liverpool. A Small View offers the kind of artistic freedom that larger institutions don't allow. Under the cost of the rent we are allowed use of seminar rooms and on wednesday the workshop room. We hope to make use of these facilities in the future, hopefully further involving the public. We have collaborated with many people while doing this project, including graphic designers, writers and artists. As many of these are students or new graduates, this project is a great way of gaining experience in the real world and away from the safety of university.

Edmonton, AB (Inactive) – Nature is Awesome

2015-09-26T00:00:00Z

Everything is awesome! Well, Lego certainly is, and so is nature. This project combines the awesomeness of Lego with a beautiful natural place on the outskirts of Edmonton, by building a Lego model version of the Edmonton and Area Land Trust’s newest conservation site. A volunteer Lego Master Builder (an architect by trade), and his team will meticulously build a large replica version of the lands. We are a small organization, so have lots of volunteers helping us with our work. Because hey – everything is cool when you’re part of a team! The 80 acre natural area is home to animals such as deer, moose, frogs, squirrels and many types of birds from chickadees to hawks. The beautiful aspen poplar forest, with patches of coniferous spruce forest throughout, is split by the picturesque Willow creek that runs through it, on its way to the North Saskatchewan River just a couple of kilometres downstream. There have even been some dinosaur remains found in the creek bed – amazing footprints of a hadrosaurus, plus the skin impression of an Albertosaurus – which is only the 3rd (and best) example of this in the world! We plan to have the completed Lego model on display at a public venue in Edmonton or the surrounding region, such as in Leduc, since the property is in Leduc County. And if you think this Lego version is awesome, just wait until you see the real thing! This Lego version of the lands will encourage people to visit and enjoy the real conservation site in person (because you can’t exactly hop into a Lego version of it), and inspire them to help us conserve this special place, and the others that we protect and steward. We will also make an Art Gallery of the process of creating the Lego model of this property. We’ll add this to our current Culture-Conservation-Connection Galleries (http://www.ealt.ca/culture-connection/). This will add a really fun dimension to our already awesome website.

Portland, OR – Teaching playwriting in MacLaren Correctional

2015-09-25T00:00:00Z

I've been teaching playwriting to the men at MacLaren Correctional for three years now. At the end of each term (which is 8 weeks long) I bring in actors from Portland to read their work for them. Since I'm not paid anything, the actors participate as volunteers. I'd love to be able to compensate them for their driving and performing. I'd even love to reimburse myself for the gas every week and the money I spend for the party at the end of each term (but the actors come first.) Feel free to reference the article The Oregonian wrote about this program and my beloved students. It ran in the Sunday Arts section in May, 2014. You may also contact Kathleen Fullerton at MacLaren. I invite you to observe any Wednesday night (new term starts August 12th) from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m. Come meet the students that inspire me and you'll be inspired too! Recently one of my students grew me a tangerine tree. They rarely get fresh fruit but a volunteer had brought in tangerines so he dried it and grew it until it was about an inch in height. Then he gave it to one of my former students who lives in Portland but he lost my phone number. So he took care of it for a month while living in a halfway house in a room that only got sunshine for 45 minutes a day. Then he brought it to the group home and tended it with care. I finally found out about the tree and was able to meet up with him and pick up my tree. You can go out and buy a seed. It wouldn't take five minutes out of your day. But this tree (which is now in my backyard) was born from the most fragile of environments. It could have been knocked over or taken away. The roommate at the halfway house could have dumped it in anger. It might not have survived the move across town. These two men are who most people in society are afraid of. Yet the men I teach did all that for another. That's who they are at their core. And that's why I continue to go back and teach them.

Newcastle – Driving with Jack and Scott

2015-09-24T00:00:00Z

My mate Scotty and I host a Podcast called "Driving with Jack and Scott" with the basic idea that we drive around in one of our cars and talk about the things that have been on our minds with an emphasis on asking 'why?' to what we accept as the social norm and to make the world a better place one small concept, idea, challenge, goal at a time. We are all about having a go, enjoying the journey and keeping the vibes on a high! Being locals Newcastle is our home turf and nearly every podcast has been recorded in our local streets and suburbs and we always say the streets are just as an important part of the Podcast as us. We are just 2 months into our venture, in our first month we got just over 1000 downloads over 9 episodes and we just just completed our second month and got just over 900 downloads over the next 9 episodes which is a huge milestone for us, we are stoked with how its going but we would love to see those numbers going up. We release 2 episodes a week Monday and Wednesday

Oklahoma City, OK (Inactive) – How I See OKC Homeless Photography Exhibit

2015-09-23T00:00:00Z

The Curbside Chronicle is a program of the Homeless Alliance in OKC. The Curbside Chronicle magazine employs homeless and formerly homeless individuals through the sale of its publication. Our goal is to employ and empower the homeless and help them transition into housing and further employment opportunities. The Curbside Chronicle also includes articles written by the homeless, about homelessness, and about other social issues in our publication. We hope to educate the community about local social issues with our content. We also host community awareness events that seek to bridge the gap between those experiencing homelessness and mainstream society. How I See OKC is a photography exhibit showcasing what homelessness looks like through the eyes of individuals in Oklahoma City. Homeless and formerly homeless vendors for The Curbside Chronicle were partnered with local professional photographers and asked to share parts of their stories via photography. Together, they went around OKC capturing photos that represent what individuals experiencing homelessness see on a daily basis in our city. They saw it as a way to raise awareness for homelessness in OKC and put a face and story to the issue. Each homeless participant titled and captioned each photo with what they want their viewers to take away from the image, giving them an avenue to share their experiences with the public. A.K.A. Gallery in the Paseo District in Oklahoma City heard about the photography project and asked The Curbside Chronicle to be their featured exhibit during the Paseo Arts Festival this month. There will be a launch for the exhibit on Thursday, May 21st and it will run through the Festival until the 1st of June. The homeless participants will be present at the exhibit to provide insight into their photographs. We see this as a great way to raise awareness about homelessness in our community. Tens of thousands of people attend the Paseo Festival.We would love OKC Awesome to be our sponsor!

Oklahoma City, OK (Inactive) – Rocktown Youth Mentoring

2015-09-23T00:00:00Z

Rocktown Youth Mentoring has been in the OKC community well over a decade serving youth by cultivating character through mentoring and adventure. Over the years we've honed our skills at Rocktown Climbing Gym, where mentors and youth meet weekly to build a rich relationship that provides them an important soundboard, contact, and caring adult to lean on and learn from. We've had a great experience using rock climbing, and this past Spring, made our first foray into cycling as a tool to educate, empower, enrich, and equip the youths we serve in our city. We are partnered with Oklahoma City Public Schools and are providing a character education class that students get class credit for, that is being taught using a bicycle at Emerson Alternative School. As the students repair and build bikes, we are very intentional to dovetail life lessons and values into the class. Additionally, we want them to become competent and active cyclists, thus improving their fitness, and expanding their world. We want to continue building this new cycling program, building character, skills, and providing an atmosphere where youth have healthy relationships they can lean on as they grow. To that end, we are strategically building relationships with the schools that are in the greatest need in our community. This awesome project genuinely is fulfilling our mission of serving youth by building character through mentoring and adventure.

Tallahassee, FL (Inactive) – Hang Tough Foundation

2015-09-23T00:00:00Z

Our foundation was established by Michelle Hart and Janelle Irwin. These two women were connected by one common bond, children with cancer. We have an incredible vision for Tallahassee to provide a comprehensive approach to taking care of the entire family that has a child affected by a chronic or life altering illness in the Big Bend area. We are striving to be a physical, mental, and financial reprieve designed to provide resources, support, hope, and encouragement to our clients. We were established in February of 2015 and recently received our 501(c)3 status. We have a board of seven members and 16 on our committee of advisers. It is a great group of people striving to provide more for the kids of Tallahassee. Although we do not have a location yet, we are already visiting Tallahassee children upon diagnosis at Shands Children's Hospital and delivering care packages and resource packets to the families. We are making ourselves available for any questions and support. UF Health Shands social workers have agreed to formally refer any Tallahassee clientele to us. Each week, we highlight a Hang Tough Hero, a child fighting illness, on our facebook page! Please visit our website for more details and how we were founded! It's a pretty incredible story! We are ready to impact our community and provide a refuge for families facing childhood illnesses and empowering them to "Hang Tough!"

Newmarket – Underwear Fund!

2015-09-23T00:00:00Z

310-COPE provides community mental health crisis intervention services to residents of York Region, North York and South Simcoe. COPE has a 24/7 Mental Health Crisis Bed Program that serves York Region only. Many of the individuals COPE Crisis Bed Program serves fall between the ages of 16-26. The youth we serve have serious mental illnesses and we assist them to stabilize and get connected to housing, health care and counselling. Unfortunately, our clients arrive with very limited belongings and often times, just the clothes that they are wearing. Staff wash clothing and service users are provided a loan of cozy, clean pajamas to wear ( gently used and donated from community) . Most often, the youth we serve do not have socks or underwear. We at the Community Mental Health Crisis Bed Program would love to use an awesome grant to purchase 300 pairs of underwear and two hundred pairs of socks. We believe that the basis for any recovery is a feeling of self worth and human dignity. Providing the basics of clothing, food, shelter and care go a long way to making a person feel valued and dignified.

Awesome Without Borders (Inactive) – Second Puberty

2015-09-23T00:00:00Z

Second Puberty is an upcoming edutainment video intended to provide education for trans and non-binary individuals considering starting Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT). We'll be using a number of old puberty videos as our inspiration – you know, the ones you saw in middle school that taught you all about the joys of menstruation, wet dreams, and increased body odor – and updating them with essential information about the experience of "second puberty." Second Puberty will touch on both the physical and emotional aspects of HRT, offering an honest, celebratory, and humorous look at the experience. The Second Puberty team includes experienced sex educators, and will be collaborating with a number of medical professionals and individuals currently undergoing HRT in order to provide a well rounded, diverse look at the wide range of second puberty experiences out there. To the best of our knowledge, no one's ever created a professional video on the subject of what to expect from HRT as a trans/non-binary individual. Furthermore, most of the information that exists on the topic isn't easily accessible or understandable for the general population – it's very dense, with a great deal of medical terminology that can make it difficult to understand at worst (and very, very boring at best). Our aim is to create something that's entertaining and easy to understand – breaking down the experience of HRT in a way that'll make sense for everyone. Though Second Puberty is primarily intended for people who are considering going on HRT, it will also be helpful for family members, partners, friends, and allies of trans and non-binary individuals as well, allowing them to understand the experience of HRT as they seek to support the trans and non-binary individuals in their lives.

Gloucester, MA – Discover Dogtown - The App to Have in Dogtown

2015-09-22T00:00:00Z

We will develop a free app that offers visitors a guided tour of Dogtown’s cultural and natural history, folklore, and literature. The app shows a user's GPS location as he or she walks along the old roads and trails of Dogtown, along with numerous placemarks at key locations in Dogtown. Tapping a placemark triggers media that tells a story, plays a song, or provides some other information that is connected to that area in Dogtown. In effect the app functions much like a trail guide or docent at a museum, without need of any other external device other than a smartphone. The proposed app offers a unique solution to the problem of lost hikers, vandalism of physical signage, and a reluctance of local tourism organizations to offer Dogtown as a destination for visitors to Cape Ann. Based on feedback from our last pitch we will expand the proposed app in three important areas. 1) Navigation - Display of the user's location along easy to follow loop trails that lead to key areas in Dogtown including the cellars along Dogtown Road, the Babson Boulders, and Whales's Jaw. The app will also show the user how to get back to where they started. 2) Historical Content - Early Gloucester history tied to specific sites in Dogtown -- places where the first settlers lived in Dogtown, the location of an early schoolhouse next to Granny Day Swamp, Revolutionary War hero Peter Lurvey's home along Wharf Road, the location of the last house to be torn down in Dogtown, and many more. The app will also show more recent twists and turns in Dogtown's history including locations of a proposed airport and anti-ballistic missile site. 3) Landscape Features - For those more interested in the natural features and landscape, the app will point out erratics, terminal moraine, heathland, wetlands, old farms and pastures, and mature forests. It will direct the user to some of the places where Marsden Hartley and John Sloan painted their iconic landscapes.

Louisville, KY (Inactive) – Surgery on Sunday Louisville Inc.

2015-09-21T00:00:00Z

Surgery on Sunday provides in-kind outpatient surgical and endoscopic care to income-eligible members of the Louisville community who are uninsured or underinsured. Surgery on Sunday Louisville was formed in 2013 by a group of passionate medical professionals and members of the Louisville community. We are modeled after Surgery on Sunday Lexington, which has been serving Kentucky residents since 2008. Surgery on Sunday Louisville is an organization led completely by volunteers, fueled by our desire to deliver outstanding surgical and endoscopic care to income-eligible members of our community. Currently Surgery on Sunday Louisville is on track to host six surgery days, called events, in 2015. Our goal over the next year is to expand our reach to ten events in 2016 in partnership with the local medical community.

Pittsburgh, PA – H3O/OO3

2015-09-21T00:00:00Z

The Drift has been developing an event series in Pittsburgh called H3O. In this series, we present a single evening performance along the Allegheny River that includes architectural scale video projections, live music, and interactive art that is free and open to the public. For our last event we selected and commissioned video animations from 13 artists from Pittsburgh and around the world to project onto the facade of the Veteran's Bridge along the North Shore Allegheny Trail. For this free event we had over 200 people in attendance. For our upcoming H3O/OO3 event, we are partnering with Venture Outdoors to provide a custom guided night paddle for kayakers to explore our event on the water in addition to the audience that will congregate on shore. We are also partnering with the Center for Urban Intervention Research, who will be providing all technical equipment for the event. We have contacted and confirmed with 10 visual artists that will be providing animations and interactive video, as well as musicians Elysia Crampton (Sacramento) and Jono Mi Lo (Pittsburgh) that will be providing a live score for the visual content. We hope to inspire our community by presenting the most compelling and innovative artwork of our time in this incredibly unique context on the river. Over half of our participating artists and musicians are female identified and/or people of color. Visual and musical content will be designed for an all ages audience, exploring the fluidity of identity in the digital age and how we relate to water in the era of climate-change.

Boulder, CO (Inactive) – The Still Not Asking For It Project

2015-09-21T00:00:00Z

The Still Not Asking For It Project is a rape culture awareness project created as a direct response to one horrific statistic: one in five women in the United States has been raped, and nearly half have experienced other forms of sexual violence in their lifetime. The Still Not Asking For It Project works to empower people at the individual level to start the conversation on sexual violence and to change the status quo of how the bullied, the bully and the bystander view and respond to harassment. This is done through t-shirts featuring a graphic of breasts with the words “Still Not Asking For It” printed beneath, with 25% of proceeds going towards nonprofits based in Colorado (and eventually nationally and internationally) that work to end sexual violence. Part two of The Still Not Asking For It Project is a public-participation photography project. I worked with photographer Sarah Fosco to create a photo portfolio featuring me wearing the shirt while in various acts of “asking for it” to directly question at what points we interpret rape culture as acceptable. These acts include being passed out with a bottle of vodka, texting in a skirt with legs apart, lifting a shirt for Mardi Gras beads, and eating a banana like a penis. You can view the images here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/6ooq5ckj48xxzdq/AAAf4J4C1dZIzl3SKLCqaFTAa?dl=0. For every shirt sold, I ask the recipients to take a photograph wearing the shirt demonstrating what rape culture looks like to them and will compile all the photographs to create a public rape culture awareness art project.

Antigonish, NS (Inactive) – Keppoch Fall Colours Community Fun Day

2015-09-20T00:00:00Z

Awesome Keppoch Fall Colours Fun Day Planned for October 2015( date to be confirmed on September 9th), the Keppoch will be hosting a community fun day. We have had these sorts of events in the winter - they attract hundreds of people - but have never had one in the fall season before. We would want hikers, cyclists, runners, kids, parents, men, women, teenagers - everyone to come out and enjoy outdoor activity, nature, music, food, drink, community and to learn about our plans for so much more in the future. We also plan to launch our community fundraising campaign at this event. We will be acknowledging our early supporters and letting people know about our goal. We were thinking it could also be fun to stage an activity during the event where the Awesome Foundation could solicit awesome ideas for the Keppoch on the spot. Our overall goal will be to have more people join our effort to make the Keppoch the most awesome 4 season outdoor recreation facility in Atlantic Canada or beyond.

Awesome Without Borders (Inactive) – Her Story

2015-09-20T00:00:00Z

"Her Story" is a new media series that looks inside the dating lives of trans & queer women as they navigate the intersections of desire & identity. The plot centers around two trans women in Los Angeles who have given up on love, when suddenly chance encounters give them hope. Violet is drawn to Allie, a reporter who approaches her for an interview, while career-driven Paige meets James, the first man she’s considered opening up to in years. "Her Story" stars transgender writer and actor Jen Richards, accomplished trans entrepreneur and actor Angelica Ross, and writer/actor Laura Zak, star of the hit web series #Hashtag. Jen Richards and Laura Zak are co-writers on the series, with award-winning filmmaker Sydney Freeland (Drunktown’s Finest) directing. It's Executive Produced by playwright and activist Eve Ensler and Katherine Fisher of Speed of Joy Productions. This is a new media series created BY trans and queer women FOR trans and queer women, but at its heart is a universal love story that will appeal to everyone.

Seattle, WA – King West Office Moms

2015-09-18T00:00:00Z

Children who have recently been removed from their homes due to unsafe living conditions or trauma often wait in a DSHS office for up to 8 hours while a suitable placement is found. This can be a time of high anxiety and uncertainty, but these kids don't have to go through it alone! Office Moms (and Dads!) are a team of on-call volunteers who's sole purpose is to sit with and entertain kids awaiting placement in a DSHS office. We hope to make the transition into foster care just a little bit easier on kids, and support our overloaded social workers by helping with the child-care aspect of their job. A group of amazing volunteers is being assembled right now in Seattle, but we need funding to get the program off the ground. Office Moms to the rescue!

Minas Gerais (Inactive) – Centro Zanmi

2015-09-17T00:00:00Z

Com uma experiência de mais de dois anos, estamos certos de que o acompanhamento em diversas áreas faz mudanças permanentemente na vida das pessoas que imigraram do Haiti e fará na daquelas que ainda estão por vir. Esta relação de intimidade que se criou com o tempo de ante um grande número de haitianos e haitianas que moram na região metropolitana de Belo Horizonte mostrou para nós vários casos de pessoas contagiadas com o vírus HIV. Isso pede de nós novas estratégias de prevenção como estimular para que a prática de sexo se dê de modo seguro nesta população que, pelas dificuldades de aprendizagem da língua portuguesa, se encontra desligada das campanhas de prevenção de DST, e HIV/ AIDS. Para tal, procuramos facilitar o aceso à informação em crioulo haitiano, utilizar a linguagem e ferramentas específicas para a cultura da população haitiana e promover comportamentos adequados, evitando a prática de relações sexuais de risco. A ideia é realizar 2 palestras com tradutor, na região metropolitana e distribuir material para fortalecimento de gênero e educação em saúde preventiva. O objetivo é o envolvimento não só dos alunos das aulas de português que o Centro Zanmi oferece, mas também que outros moradores da região metropolitana participem . Será fabricado e distribuído o material informativo e auxiliaremos na distribuição de preservativos.

Kingston – Flags of Remembrance - Kingston

2015-09-17T00:00:00Z

Flags of Remembrance will be a powerful, visual statement to honour our Canadian military men and women. One-hundred and twenty-eight Canadian flags – one veteran- hero representing each flag – flying along the fence line of Bayridge Drive at Front Road, Kingston. Together with our community partners we will raise and fly 128 Canadian flags, each representing 1000 Canadian soldiers fallen and missing in action from the Boer War to current service, along with our Ontario flag. Our aim is to invite everyone to drive by, reflect, and think about our military heroes – past, present and future. We must never forget. We can’t think of a better Ontario city to lead the way than Kingston - Where History and Innovation Thrive, Canada’s First Capital, home to CFB Kingston and Royal Military College. It’s the perfect city to honour Canada’s military men and women. Installation of the Flags of Remembrance Tribute will occur on October 17 and the tribute will remain in place until November 12, 2015. The timing will coincide with Flags of Remembrance Tributes in four other locations: the original location of Slyvan Lake, Alta.; Kelowna, B.C.; Ponoka, Alta.; Amherst, N.S.; and Charlottetown, P.E.I. Veterans Voices of Canada/Flags of Remembrance is also a fundraising initiative. Flags of Remembrance-Kingston has selected Dominium Assistance Dogs to be the local benefactor. Dominium Assistance Dogs provides psychiatric and mobility service dogs in Southeastern Ontario. Members of the greater Kingston area will be able to honour their military hero(s) by sponsoring an honor plaque for a minimum donation of $200. Funds raised with be shared evenly between Veterans Voices of Canada and Dominium Assistance Dogs. At a special closing ceremony the donor will receive the honour plaque and flag as a keepsake. Tribute flags and honour plaques may be purchased to honour anyone’s service. The veteran-hero need not to have died in combat.

Austin, TX – CLAWstin: Austin Collective of Lady Arm Wrestlers

2015-09-17T00:00:00Z

CLAWstin — the Austin league of the national Collective of Lady Arm Wrestlers — is an association of tough (and smart) Austin ladies dedicated to showcasing women’s strengths and bringing in the Benjamins for local nonprofits. A CLAWstin match is part athletic event, part circus, and just about the wildest show in town. A grant from the Austin Awesome Foundation will fund a new arm-wrestling table and other expenses to make the next CLAWstin match the biggest and baddest one yet!

Ottawa – Feel the Food: It's Your Fridge Too

2015-09-14T00:00:00Z

September’s Awesome Ottawa award goes to Karen Secord to support a community fridge on a street corner. “I run a food bank in an area of Ottawa that is fast becoming gentrified,” explains Karen. “But the 14 rooming houses, transition house, mental health housing, family shelter, and Ottawa Community Housing buildings tell a different story.” “I want to put a community fridge on a street corner in Hintonburg. It will be in a small plastic shed so that it can be locked overnight. The fridge will be in a place where shopkeepers and restaurants can distribute leftover or sealed near-the-best-before-date food. The food would be identified and dated if produced in a commercial kitchen, and gardeners would be encouraged to leave veggies. Businesses are excited for this to happen,” says Karen, “and volunteers are ready to monitor the fridge several times a day.” During the winter, the shed will be used to house the Parkdale Food Centre’s gardening supplies. “All food banks should have gardens,” Karen adds. “That's where real food comes from, ya know!” Karen is the manager of the Parkdale Food Centre.

Rio de Janeiro (Inactive) – Bibliocicleta

2015-09-14T00:00:00Z

O projeto da Arte Andarilha visa comprar uma bicicleta cargueira velha e, após uma reforma, transformá-la em uma Bibliocicleta: uma biblioteca itinerante para circular pelo Complexo de Manguinhos, Zona Norte do Rio de Janeiro. O processo de montagem, decoração e adaptação da Bibliocicleta será realizado conjuntamente com crianças e adolescentes da comunidade. O principal objetivo é aproximar os moradores do universo das histórias e dos livros. Para isso serão realizadas apresentações artísticas de contação de histórias com livros de pano, bonecos, música e circo, além de oficinas que dialogam com as histórias. Como a finalidade é estimular o gosto pela leitura, a Biblioteca Parque de Manguinhos será parceira do projeto. E como forma de incentivar as iniciativas culturais da região, nos dias de evento de contação de histórias, os artistas locais, assim como os participantes das oficinas, serão convidados a apresentar sua arte. Contar histórias sempre foi a arte de contá-las de novo, pois caso as histórias não sejam mais contadas vão se perdendo. É nesse sentido que a Trupe Arte Andarilha traça seu rumo e faz sua caminhada. ____ The Arte Andarilha (Wandering Art) project will use a refurbished delivery bicycle and turn it into a "Bibliocicleta" -- a mobile library that will circulate in Rio de Janeiro's North Zone Complexo de Manguinhos, a series of favelas or informal settlements. Community children and teens will help with putting together, decorating and adapting the Bibliocicleta. The main goal is to bring residents closer to the world of books and stories. We will tell stories with cloth books, puppets, music and circus art, and hold workshops centered on these stories. The Manguinhos Park Library will partner with us, as part of their program to encourage reading. Workshop participants and local artists will be invited to showcase their art in storytelling events, as part of our effort to encourage local cultural initiatives. Telling stories has always been the art of telling them over and over again; stories that don't get told end up getting lost. This is what gives the Arte Andarilha Troupe its life and breath.

Sydney – On The Floor

2015-09-14T00:00:00Z

House of Riot is an extended art project fuelled by political frustration. It began at Australian Fashion Week 2014 when founder Ollie Henderson hand painted 100 t-shirts with positive messages, and has grown from a creative project to a not-for-profit social enterprise. It’s our mission to bring about social change through creative expression and to encourage young people to take action on the issues that they care about. On The Floor is our inaugural event series launching in October. Running bimonthly in the lead up to the federal election, each OTF event will bring together 5 panelists to debate an issue young Australians care about. OTF will run in the same format as ABC’s Q&A, with a focus on engaging youth audiences across the political spectrum. We want to provide a much-needed platform to engage youth audiences by creating a physical + digital space where young people can get informed, voice their opinions - and be heard. Questions will be collected from the audience and curated by the team to be discussed by the panel. By encouraging youth to actively participate in our program, we hope to foster an environment in which youth opinions are not only valued but seen as an integral part of the solution. The pilot event “The Future of Sydney’s Nightlife” will be held on the 22nd of September. This event will explore what the newly imposed lock-out laws, smoking and live music restrictions mean for Sydney’s cultural landscape. The mediator for our first event is Tom Tilley (triple J Hack) and confirmed panellists Jess Scully (Barangaroo Cultural Development Board), Tyson Koh (Keep Sydney Open), Jenny Leong (Newtown Greens MP), Scott Weber (Last Drinks) and Troy Grant (Minister for Justice and Police). In the pursuit of making change not noise, at the end of the event we will be creating a submission from the panellists and audience comments to be published online and shared with relevant ministers and organisations.

Chicago, IL – Drums for the Deaf

2015-09-11T00:00:00Z

On October 3 and 4, my taiko group is hosting our first mainstage concert - 90 minutes of music to do with what we like. One huge thing we'd like to do is invite a group of high school students from the Illinois School for the Deaf to see us perform. We met these students in February 2015 at a gig for Illinois College. A member of the college music department hatched a plan to invite an ISD class to our concert. They sat in the front row and we all had the most amazing time. Taiko is visceral. Our drums are the size of wine barrels. They’re faced with cowhide and played with drumsticks the size of tree branches. At a taiko show, you can feel the music coming up through the floor. It hums in your chest like a heartbeat. When we hit our first notes that night, the kids in the front rows jumped. Some pressed their hands to their chests. Others looked excitedly at each other. By being music they could feel, it was music they could hear. After our song ended, they erupted in cheers. We came down to talk when the show was through, typing messages on our phones and handing them back and forth to each other. It was a performance none of us will forget. Now we’re mounting a concert in Chicago and we’d like to invite them back. It’s a way for us to support the arts for students who can appreciate them from a completely different perspective. And since we’re composing all-new pieces, it will be an even more awesome experience for them, both visually and rhythmically. But ISD is in Jacksonville, IL–almost 5 hours away–and the fiscal challenges of bringing this many students would be hard for either the school or our group to surmount alone. We propose to charter 2 vans on the day of our concert to drive 15 students and 4 chaperones from Jacksonville to Chicago to hear our music again. We’ve reached out through our contacts at IC and have started talking through the details to make sure everyone is on board. All we need now is the money to do it.

San Jose, CA – Flowers for the people

2015-09-08T00:00:00Z

Someone send me flowers unexpectedly and it made my day. It was a happy surprise, and who doesn't love flowers? Imagine if you are walking downtown, or waiting for the light rail or bus and someone walks up and gives you a flower. Yes, it's random. yes, it's a surprise, and yes, it makes you happy.

Awesome Without Borders (Inactive) – Tennessee Woman Suffrage Monument, Inc.

2015-09-08T00:00:00Z

On August 18, 1920, Tennessee became the final state needed to ratify the 19th Amendment which granted women the right to vote in America. The history of how Tennessee became the deciding vote will be retold through art and exemplified for future generations. Tennessee Woman Suffrage Monument, Inc. (TWSM), is a statewide grassroots organization that seeks to memorialize the work done by Tennessee suffragists to secure ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by erecting a woman suffrage monument in the Tennessee capital city of Nashville. In the U.S., there are approximately 5,193 statues of individuals. Of those, 394 are of women and of those, only 5 are of black women. We will feature 7 women, including 2 important black women. This monument will be for the ages so this story will be known by future generations. It was the greatest nonviolent revolution in our country's history. More than 27 million American women were enfranchised with TN's vote. There is nothing outside the State Capitol Bldg. in Nashville that tells this story. Alan LeQuire created the bas relief plaque that hangs inside the capitol as well as a large suffrage monument in downtown Knoxville. He is creating the Nashville monument which received unanimous approval from the TN Capitol Commission and Building Commission.

Philadelphia, PA – Bartram Wellness Warriors

2015-09-08T00:00:00Z

At Bartram High School, in Southwest Philadelphia, there are few resources to nurture healthy minds and bodies. Teachers put forth their best effort to reach the young people in our community. There are many success stories to celebrate and honor, but there are also stories about the many unmet needs of pur young people. Last year, a determined group of students refused to accept the status quo at Bartram. Though few in number, they named themselves the Bartram Wellness Warriors. They decided to wage a war against apathy, poor eating choices, lack of physical activity, difficulties with mental health issues and the unknown potential to grow their own food in local gardens. The first step was to rejuvenate the harden beds around the school. Despite a few setbacks, students, with help from Bartram Garden staff, grew lettuce, broccoli, kale,tomatoes and cucumbers. More produce will be grown as new beds are established around the school. Next, we received a grant called "Typical or Troubled Teens" from the American Psychiatric Association to provide support in groups after school. These discussions helped students who had experienced bullying and peer pressure. Additional grants received recently will promote healthy eating habits through completing taste samplings from dairy, protein, grains and produce choices. The Bartram Wellness Warriors will continue to flourish this upcoming year with support from staff, community members and others invested in the Southwest Philadelphia neighborhood surrounding Bartram High School.

Sarnia (Inactive) – Mindful Music

2015-09-06T00:00:00Z

The Mindful Music program is aimed at providing personalized music to persons with dementia. Research has shown that even when someone is no longer able to communicate verbally, he or she will still respond to their favourite music. Music, it seems, is a unique conduit for emotional memory. The playlists are designed based on the client's past and current musical interests. Using digital music technology we can provide an immediate improvement in quality of life for people living with dementia. This project was just a vision of the Alzheimer Society and something that they wanted to bring to the community. It wasn't until I started my placement there, that I was able to get the program started. I partnered with Vision nursing Home to pilot the project there with a few of their residents. The change in behaviours and moods of the residents has been wonderful. I would like to bring this program into the community, but funding is needed in order to purchase the equipment to do so. The benefits of listening to music is so wonderful. Aggression lessens, depression and anxiety decrease, memories are brought back from earlier times, people start to sing along to songs that they have forgotten about. The smiles on people's faces just tells you how beneficial it is for them to listen to the music. Each playlist is created per person with the input of family and staff who know them well. Sometimes the people receiving the program are able to tell me what they like to listen to. Documentation occurs so that I am able to see how and if the program is benefiting them, what changes need to be made to playlists, and what reactions are occurring with the person. I volunteered my time over the summer in order to make this program happen, and I will continue to do my second year placement with the Alzheimer Society in order for this program to be brought into the community so that people with dementia can receive the benefits of personalized music.

San Francisco, CA – Re:Sound

2015-09-03T00:00:00Z

Re:Sound is an experimental audio/visual series started in 2015 which explores the relationship between forgotten spaces, sound abstraction and the natural environment. The series takes place on the Mare Island Shoreline Heritage Preserve, a 215-acre park that formerly served as one of the first Naval Ammunition Depots. Our event is held in a concrete munitions storage magazine. The architecture of the space traps sounds resulting in a beautiful and prolonged reverberation. There is no electricity, so everything is powered by solar or by generators. The money will go toward operating costs and making an all access ramp for the building.

New York City, NY – THE FREE PORTRAIT PROJECT: CROWN HEIGHTS

2015-09-03T00:00:00Z

The Free Portrait Project paints a portrait of a place through it’s people by giving oil-painted portraits to residents of Crown Heights for an entire year, creating a physical record of who we are now amid shifting demographics, documents our community, and quietly breaks the tradition of portraiture reserved only for a wealthy few by giving these paintings to people from all walks of life. Starting in June 2015, over 200 residents of Crown Heights, Brooklyn will come to the studio of Rusty Zimmerman (portrait artist to Governor Andrew Cuomo) to sit for a portrait from life. Partnering with StoryCorps, conversations will be recorded that explore each individual’s relationship to the neighborhood, revealing a multi-faceted living history at a pivotal moment in time. Each oil-painted portrait will measure 18” x 24” and will represent all subjects on equal stature — state senators next to shelter residents, local merchants next to museum custodians. The project thus showcases commonality and fosters engagement to integrate the disparate cultural communities within Crown Heights. Furthermore, the project will benefit neighbors who may not otherwise have access to portraiture by granting them this painting at no cost, formerly a fancy thing for fancy people. Exhibitions run through the year in over 10 venues and culminate in 200 portraits at the Brooklyn Museum in July, 2016, where the whole community will gather to celebrate each other and a newfound commonality. Why We Think This is Awesome Our city is constantly changing and we appreciate that this project acknowledges this and celebrates it in a unique way. We especially love the multi-stage approach to the distribution of these portraits - a public exhibition to share the stories of the portrait subjects, followed by the gifting of these portraits to the subjects themselves to allow them to bring the work back into their own homes and their own lives.

Madison, WI (Inactive) – The "Invisibles"

2015-09-01T00:00:00Z

The "Invisibles" Project stemmed from the fact that there are many folks here in Madison,Wisconsin who are, for whatever reason, Homeless. As a local Playwright, I found it very disturbing to see passerbys who refused to look at,acknowledge or extend a greeting to those who were merely existing on the strees of our "Liberal" city. It began asking questions of School officials about their views of the situations, Homeless Shelter Coordinators regarding their thoughts on why do we have so many homeless people here. I have even queried social-psychologists as to their take on why people are wary of acknowledging the "Street People." I now sit and converse with "street folks" who would share their stories with me, as to the how's and why's of their personal situations. My ultimate goal is to bring an awareness to the majority as to how it feels to be "invisible." It is NOT my goal to make the majority feel guilty,personally responsible or ashamed. It is only to allow people to hear how those who have lost their homes to various situations feel on a daily basis. None of us are exempt from finding ourselves in the same or similar social or economic misfortunate situation.

Raleigh, NC (Inactive) – Tactile Workshop : Transformable Pavilion

2015-09-01T00:00:00Z

Our City: Raleigh is a two-day celebration of new public design projects produced in conjunction with the Hopscotch Design Festival. Over the course of the event, thousands of Raleighites, visitors, and civic innovators will experience and respond to the installations - with the goal of inspiring more permanent work that reimagines the future of the city's downtown. Our City staff have supported three teams of local artists and designers in creating new public design projects that respond to local needs. One of those teams, Tactile Workshop, built the Transformable Pavilion (a transformable pavilion structure that is modular and flexible) with the grant from Awesome Raleigh. Its potential is to show individuals how our built environment can be more dynamic, and how they themselves have the capacity to choose the possibilities. It will be on public display outside CAM Raleigh for the duration of both Hopscotch Festivals. The installation will engage residents in the idea of directly shaping the future of their city.

Awesome Without Borders (Inactive) – KidPack

2015-09-01T00:00:00Z

The St. James Town Youth Council is hoping to bring back KIDPACKS to aid the youth in need in St. James Town.The youth in St. James Town have lived through many challenges and hardships. Currently, this is one of the world’s most highly educated, yet low-income communities. There is so much potential within these young people and we believe something as simple as not having basic supplies for school shouldn't prevent them from reaching their full potential in their education. KidPacks are backpacks filled with basic school supplies such as paper, pencils, erasers etc. We are hoping to secure approximately 100-150 backpacks ready to be distributed by September 2015. With your help we know that it can be brought forward.Thank you in advance for your kind support!

Atlanta, GA – Supporting Adult Literacy

2015-09-01T00:00:00Z

As DREAMLEIGH LLC, my project is a curriculum unit aligned with General Education Diploma (GED™) Exam, College and Career Readiness, and Common Core standards and designed for adults with low literacy. The curriculum unit will engage adults with a focus on social justice issues and values to support adults as everyday citizens while also improving their literacy skills. There are at 800,000 adults in Atlanta who are "functionally illiterate." There are a number of organizations working to address illiteracy in Atlanta, and DREAMLEIGH LLC's project is designed to lend a hand to the same movement to close the literacy gap in Atlanta --- and make Atlanta more Awesome!

San Francisco, CA – Oakland FIGMENT

2015-09-01T00:00:00Z

Oakland FIGMENT is a free, family-friendly, interactive arts festival that will take place in Mosswood Park on October 24th, 2015. In partnership with Oakland Parks and Recreation we will bring over 100 art projects, performances, installations and interactions to the neighborhood. Our organization's principles calls for no commerce or corporate sponsorship so we rely on funding from the community and foundation support. While we do understand commerce is necessary for any artist or performer, we strive to bring an experiential art experience to our community without the expectation of a transaction. Also by our own rules, we do not curate or dictate what is art, allowing anyone to participate without our approval as long as their project poses no danger. With a grant from the Awesome Foundation we will be able to provide micro-grants to our participating artists during this season’s festival and to support their supply costs.

Paris (Inactive) – Demain j’lui dis

2015-08-31T00:00:00Z

Le Collectif Tribudom utilise le cinéma comme un outil social, pour provoquer des rencontres, changer les regards et les a priori, entre des personnes d’origine ou de milieu social différents. « Demain j’lui dis… » est une web série participative réalisée avec les habitants des quartiers de Curial-Cambrai-Alphonse Karr, Flandre (Paris 19e), et Quatre-Chemins (Pantin). Après deux saisons, de nouveaux épisodes vont être réalisés en 2015-2016, avec de nouveaux publics et de nouveaux partenaires. Le but est de créer du lien social entre des habitants des quartiers populaires qui vivent au même endroit mais ne partagent pas les mêmes préoccupations, la même culture, les mêmes difficultés. The Collectif Tribudom uses the cinema as a social tool, to encourage meetings between people from different social or cultural backgrounds and change the way they think of each other. « Demain j’lui dis… » (I’ll tell him tomorrow…) is a community web-series created with the inhabitants of the 19eme arrondissement of Paris. Two seasons have already been made, and new episodes will be created in 2015-2016, with new participants and new partners. The goal is to foster the links between the inhabitants of popular areas, who live in the same place but don’t share the same problems, culture or difficulties.

Washington, DC – The DC Wheels -Summer Santa-

2015-08-31T00:00:00Z

The DC Wheels skateboard charity organization will be doing one of their many charities on September 17th for the Homeless. They already distributed money clothes and food to the Homeless on Christmas Eve all throughout the city but feel it is time to go back for the end of the summer to help them again. Here's a link to their film of a similar event they did in the winter. https://vimeo.com/115403866

Stockholm (Inactive) – Beacon

2015-08-29T00:00:00Z

Light sabres, lasers and art all sounds awesome doesn't it? This month's winner has a flavour of all those things, but instead of us trying to explain it we'll simply let the winner Jonas describe it. One thing is for sure though, we can't wait to see it happen! ---------------------------------------- For a year or two I have been interested in creating installations using sensorial data such as wind, touch, heat, proximity etc. A step further is now making these installations self-sustainable so not only are they intelligent, but they do not rely on a power-grid provided by man, and further more, than can aid others and give something back on their own command. Beacon MK1 was the first iteration of this as it is a lighting sculpture that takes energy from the sun during the day, in order to illuminate during the night. Each light could be turned of/on as each light was connected to a sensor, so there was a reactionary element where the lighting could be animated by visitors. For MK2 I want to explore the concept further and provide by-passers with a power-source for them to charge their 5v-gadgets (such as common smartphones), and as well extend the sensorial variables making the sculpture take on more of an identity.

Oahu, HI – MO’ILI’ILI JAPANESE CEMETERY GATEWAY ENHANCEMENT

2015-08-28T00:00:00Z

Mo’ili’ili Japanese Cemetery is a very active cemetery in the University Avenue-King Street-Kapiolani Blvd. triangular area, situated just outside the makai driveway entrance of Kuhio Elementary School. Even after more than 100 hundred years, its presence is felt by all in the area. Many local residents have memorials of their family members which they visit frequently, especially on Memorial Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and Obon. However, this historical cemetery is bounded on the mauka side by a shabby chain-link fence connected to two crooked lava-rock pillars on each side of the driveway. The gateway is a sorry sight and is in great need of improvement. We propose a new gateway entrance. We will brace the existing lava-rock pillars. On each side we will build a low lava-rock and concrete wall to replace the chain-link fence. No City and County building permit will be necessary. We will have permission from Cliff Hosoi, president of Hosoi Mortuary, the overseer of the Japanese Cemetery Association/Moiliili Japanese Cemetery. Laura Ruby was commissioned by the Hawai’i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts and the City and County of Honolulu to create large site-specific public sculptures (of which concrete featured prominently). Please see www.hawaii.edu/lruby and www.laurarubyart.com.

Oahu, HI – Ilio Hale (Dog House) Program Support

2015-08-28T00:00:00Z

Founded on Oahu in 2003, K9 Kokua, a 501 (c)(3) non-profit, is the sole organization in Hawaii whose primary focus is providing care and emergency services to the most vulnerable animal population in the state- those owned by the homeless, financially destitute, & victims of domestic violence (DV). K9 Kokua educates and assists dogs and owners at beaches and houseless communities on Oahu to stop the cycle of pet overpopulation, abuse, & neglect. Outreach consists of pet owner education on licensing, wellness examinations for dogs, making & transporting dogs to medical appointments, & providing for the dog’s basic everyday needs. Over the past decade, K9 Kokua observed a critical unmet need in our community. With the exception of service & certified therapy dogs, there are no shelters or transitional housing options on Oahu for homeless & DV victims that allow companion animals. This places DV victims in an incredibly difficult situation. According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, up to 40% of DV victims are unable to escape their abusers because they are concerned about the welfare of their pets when they leave. The 2007 Report to the 24th Legislature, State of Hawaii, by the Department of Health, reports that at a minimum, 2.4%, or 22,000 Hawaii adults experiences DV from an intimate partner each year. The American Humane Association reports 71% of pet-owning women entering women’s shelters reported that their batterer had injured, maimed, killed or threatened family pets for revenge or to psychologically control victims. K9 Kokua is seeking support to assist its new ‘Ilio Hale (Dog House) program. When fully implemented, this program will be the 1st of its kind in Hawaii. When DV victims leave their abusive situations, K9 Kokua provides resources with boarding/foster care in a secure home or boarding facility, & will provide medical treatment & behavioral rehabilitation for dogs that have suffered abuse and trauma.

Oahu, HI – Fine Arts Bonanza

2015-08-28T00:00:00Z

We have both been deeply affected by music in our lives so we decided to focus on music for our Gold Award. A Gold Award project must address an actual need and not just a want in the community and it must be sustainable. So we researched the effect of music on things like school performance, relationships with others and college success. We found out that playing a musical instrument or participating in other fine arts activities do things like increase SAT scores, promote multicultural awareness, increase cooperativeness with teachers, etc. We also found that despite the benefits of the fine arts that public schools and other organizations dedicated to the fine arts are being forced to slash fine arts budgets as more focus is being placed on standardized testing and cutting government spending. Musical instruments are very expensive and it is very unlikely that kids will spontaneously decide on their own that they want to be musicians. So, there had to be some way to introduce them to music. At our first Fine Arts Bonanza, kids grade 4th-7th got to hear, touch and play the drums, trumpet, tuba, saxaphone, clarinet, flute and trombone and learn vocal skills all in one place in one afternoon. According to people in the fine arts community, our workshop was very unique and worthwhile. Even schools with band programs do not allow students to try out so many different instruments. Because it was one of a kind, we also had adults asking us if they could attend to see and learn how such a workshop would work. We had over 20 volunteers sign up to help so we know enthusiasm from music clinicians is there. We also received great feedback from participants and we are being encouraged by many people to host additional workshops. Also, we will be making teaching packets with things like video snippets from the workshop, research findings, and other teaching tools to send to schools and youth organizations so they can have step by step instructions.

Detroit, MI (Inactive) – Detroit: Door of Opportunity

2015-08-27T00:00:00Z

Detroit has always been a place of new beginnings, innovation and trailblazing. It is a city open to new things while treasuring its history. Symbols of beginnings, transitions, endings and entrances into new worlds and places, doors are the perfect medium to tell the Detroit story; its past, its present and it future. Door of Opportunity is a traveling exhibition of visual art, film and online performances displaying the creativity and opportunities in Detroit for artists. What makes this exhibit unique is the visual art in this exhibition is actual doors transformed into art. Participants range from students to seniors, emerging artists, and seasoned artists - all Metro Detroit residents. This is not a competition or juried show. It is open to all Metro-Detroiters who want to create. We are in our first year but the vision is clear; to grow Door of Opportunity into a project that continually tours around the city bringing more art to communities. We also will work diligently to permanently install doors in Metro-Detroit neighborhoods and communities. These doors will be visual symbols of the opportunity that exist in Detroit for all Detroit residents. All doors and the stories of the artists who create them will be available online increasing awareness of the talent in Detroit beyond Detroit's borders.

Orlando, FL – Art in Odd Places: TONE/ORLANDO

2015-08-27T00:00:00Z

A crack in the sidewalk sparkles and won't ever be the same. A curb becomes part of an imaginary room in a dance piece. Drain pipes never looked so beautiful. A median in the road becomes a magical stream. A piece of trash becomes art. Art in Odd Places: 2015/TONE Orlando will bring new attention to the mundane and invite visitors to “see” Orlando differently. Art in Odd Places (AiOP) presents visual and performance art in unexpected public spaces. Art in Odd Places 2015/TONE Orlando presents its inaugural public visual and performance art festival, taking place from September 17-20, 2015, along Magnolia Avenue, from Anderson Street to the Washington Street. Fifty artists were selected from around the world to participate in this festival and twenty-four of them are local artists. AiOP aims to stretch the boundaries of communication in the public realm by presenting artworks in all disciplines outside the confines of traditional public space regulations and reminds us that public spaces function as the epicenter for diverse social interactions and the unfettered exchange of ideas. AiOP began as an action by a group of artists led by Ed Woodham to encourage local participation in the Cultural Olympiad of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. In 2005, after moving back to New York City, he re imagined it as a response to the dwindling of public space and personal civil liberties – first in the Lower East Side and East Village, and since 2008, on 14th Street in Manhattan. AiOP has always been a grassroots project fueled by the goodwill and inventiveness of its participants. Local arts advocate Pat Greene's vision helped bring the project to Orlando.

Melbourne (Inactive) – Happy Hubbub

2015-08-26T00:00:00Z

We are building a coworking community for parents in Melbourne's north: a shared office space, or work hub, with high-speed internet and printing/scanning facilities, bookable meeting rooms and offices, networking opportunities and – crucially – a childcare facility, allowing parents of preschoolers to work or study with their children on-site but not under their feet, being looked after by qualified childcare professionals. With women starting businesses more than ever before – often whilst juggling child-rearing – a Happy Hubbub membership will help relieve the pressures of fluctuating business demands, especially as many long daycare providers are unable to provide additional care on an ad-hoc basis or at short notice. Having the childcare on-site also enables parents to stay in close proximity to their child, and helps to facilitate continued breastfeeding. Happy Hubbub will also run events with on-site babysitting available, for members and non-members alike. Such events – book clubs, networking events, business workshops, and arts and crafts classes – will enable parents, and especially single parents, to connect with the wider community, and enjoy some 'me time' without having to go to the gym. Happy Hubbub is committed to championing women at work... We will work with companies to help develop flexible pathways and ramp-up solutions for women (and men!) returning to work from parental leave. ...and women in business. Our long-term goal is to create an annual grant program where we award a fledgling business with a 12-month hubbub residency. With a leaning towards applicants with childcare needs, the program will be a fantastic opportunity for mums (and dads!) starting out in business. We aim to offer one placement per year per branch (that's right, per branch – our vision is a network of hubbubs across Australia. We're not afraid to dream big!).

Alaska (Inactive) – Forget Me Not Movement

2015-08-26T00:00:00Z

Alaska Natives comprise approximately 85 percent of the homeless population in Alaska, most of whom live in Anchorage. This community—and it is a community—is not hard to find, if you know how to look. Many live in or around the “triangle” formed by Brother Francis Shelter, Beans Café, and the Anchorage Jail. In an effort to reduce the alarming homelessness rate in Anchorage, Samuel Johns, an Athabascan hip-hop artist and community advocate, took an unconventional approach and established the Forget Me Not (FMN) Facebook group in June 2015. The group’s primary purpose: connecting the homeless of Anchorage with their families in Rural Alaska. This was the first time an Alaska Native had used social media to engage other Alaskans to help eradicate homelessness, while humanizing the men and women on the streets of Anchorage. Within four weeks, the group grew to more than 7,500 members, and Samuel was able to reconnect a homeless person with their family in the Bush. Surprised by the explosive success of the group, Sam reached out to four other Alaskan community advocates to establish the first steering committee. In August, the Steering Committee filed nonprofit Articles of Incorporation with the State of Alaska. Johns and the FMN Facebook page have already made statewide and national news. ABC Alaska conducted an interview with him, articles were written in the ADN and the Indian Country Media Network, and the LA Times contacted Johns to produce an article of their own. Here is a link to the ADN story: http://www.adn.com/article/20150621/facebook-group-helps-rural-alaska-families-track-down-homeless-relatives In a very short time, the FMN group has experienced tremendous growth. At our core, we are a grassroots, Alaska Native-led organization trying to help our community. The Awesome Foundation grant will play a crucial role in continuing our street-level impact, as FMN transitions into a more formal and sustainable organization.