#NEA Full Spectrum

[demosthenes70]

Random: bedlam/dangers of untreated mental illness within the teaching profession/multiple personalities, how many? Can they be quantified?/mandatory monthly psychological assessments for teachers/revoke license of psychopathic teachers/objective assessments, not embedded NEA hacks/mandatory weekly drug testing for teachers, full spectrum panel/Prozac =red flag!/

[videodrome19]

Qookies Arkansas Strain Review

Qookies Arkansas Strain Review

Qookies from Osage Creek

Qookies is an indica dominate hybrid, it is also, what some would call a designer strain of cannabis. According to CannaSOS, Qookies is a blend created by Norstar Genetics/ TGA Genetics with parentage of GSC FORUM and Querkle . TGA Genetics is a leader in cannabis cultivation, you can read more about the company in this High Times Article. The Rebirth Of Subcool: The…

[womenintranslation]

#WiT Goes to Senate House, Part I

Notes from the “Translating Women” Conference

31 Oct. - 1 Nov. 2019

Part I

Being a WiT activist can take you to some extraordinary places. In my case, to Senate House, University of London, in the heart of Bloomsbury and right across from the British Museum, for the first-ever conference devoted to women, translation and literary publishing: “Translating Women: Breaking Borders and Building Bridges in the English-Language Book Industry,” organized by the #WiT activists and scholars Helen Vasallo (U Exeter) and Olga Castro (U Warwick). As the keynote speaker I had the immense pleasure of kicking the conference off for the over 70 attendees in a talk I called “Snap! The Whys and Hows of Women in Translation”— “Snap!” being philosopher Sara Ahmed’s term in Living a Feminist Life for that critical moment, that pressure point, that can be the start of a pushback. I recounted how Alison Anderson’s posting on Words Without Borders in May, 2013, “Where Are the Women in Translation?” jolted many translators out of our complacent sense that all was forward-thinking and good in the Republic of Translated Literature. Anderson was the first to point out in public, in print, the significant gender imbalance in translation. Following the lead of VIDA: Women in Literary Arts, she used the 3% Database (set up in 2008 by Chad Post of Open Letter Books, and now housed at Publishers Weekly) to establish that only 26% of the books of fiction or poetry in translation published in the US were by women. She also pointed to the near-invisiblity of women authors in translation on literary prize longlists and shortlists and to their near-absence as prizewinners, singling out the International Foreign Fiction Prize as what I’d call an especially noxious bastion of male dominance—only 2 women writers won in its 17 or so years of existence. That was Anderson’s Snap! moment. Mine was to follow.

With Anderson’s article in mind, I used the same freely available dataset to see how the biggest publishers of translations fared when gender of the author was taken into consideration. In other words, doing the full VIDA Count, but on publishers of translations, not on literary magazines or journals.

In the most extreme case, I saw that in 2014 Dalkey Archive Press and its legendary editor John O’Brien had published not one single woman author out of its 30 titles in translation that year. Mr. O’Brien: What kind of enlightened and innovative editorial vision is that? A further offense: my tax dollars have gone into funding the NEA, a major grant-provider for your sexist press. Snap!

Did the negative publicity around this outrageous disparity nudge Dalkey into the 21st century? I’ve noticed that their list now never fails to include some women in translation (but nothing close to parity)—perhaps a concession to the threat of government funding—a lifeblood for non-profit presses—being denied.

To underscore, I speak from the perspective of a translator. It’s a rough terrain out there. Translation gigs are extremely competitive and one feels some pressure as a translator to “make nice” to publishers in the insular world of English-language literary publishing in order to stay in the game.

Nevertheless—persistence!

The provocations I ended my talk with are:

— When you write articles or speak on translation, cite women. Click here for a bibliography in progress of book-length works or essays on translation authored by women. It’s a list that incorporates many recommendations made by my translator colleagues.  

—Question and challenge canons. Why talk about “new” canons, “corrective” canons, “anti-patriarchal” canons, “amplifying” canons? I’d drop the idea of a “canon’ once and for all. It’s an example of adopting the master’s tools to dismantle the master’s house (in Audre Lorde’s terms). Delegitimize the notion of a canon.

—Don’t become a marketing shill for publishers.

—Watch out for “women in translation light,” for example, holding a reading under that banner but not talking about gender and other imbalances in translation. It will soon turn into an empty slogan.

I’m deeply grateful to Helen and Olga for inviting me to do the keynote—an immense privilege—and I hope it helped set the stage for the wide spectrum of presentations and dialogues that followed over the next two days, a report on which is TK….

—Margaret Carson

[acceleratingframe]

#WiT Goes to Senate House, London: Notes from the “Translating Women” Conference  31 Oct. - 1 Nov. 2019

Part I

Being a WiT activist can take you to some extraordinary places. In my case, to Senate House, University of London, in the heart of Bloomsbury and right across from the British Museum, for the first-ever conference devoted to women, translation and literary publishing: “Translating Women: Breaking Borders and Building Bridges in the English-Language Book Industry,” organized by the #WiT activists and scholars Helen Vasallo (U Exeter) and Olga Castro (U Warwick) and hosted by The Institute for Modern Languages Research. As the keynote speaker I had the immense pleasure of kicking the conference off for the over 70 attendees in a talk I called “Snap! The Whys and Hows of Women in Translation”— “Snap!” being philosopher Sara Ahmed’s term in Living a Feminist Life for that critical moment, that pressure point, that can be the start of a pushback. I recounted how Alison Anderson’s posting on Words Without Borders in May, 2013, “Where Are the Women in Translation?” jolted many translators out of our complacent sense that all was forward-thinking and good in the Republic of Translated Literature. Anderson was the first to point out in print the significant gender imbalance in translation. Following the lead of VIDA: Women in Literary Arts, she used the 3% Database (set up in 2008 by Chad Post of Open Letter Books, and now housed at Publishers Weekly) to establish that only 26% of the books of fiction or poetry in translation published in the US were by women. She also pointed to the near-invisibility of women authors in translation on literary prize longlists and shortlists and to their near-absence as prizewinners, singling out the International Foreign Fiction Prize as what I’d call an especially noxious bastion of male dominance—only 2 women writers won in its 17 or so years of existence. That was Anderson’s Snap! moment. Mine was to follow.

With Anderson’s article in mind, I used the same freely available dataset to see how the biggest publishers of translations fared when gender of the author was taken into consideration. In other words, doing the full VIDA Count, but breaking out these variables: gender by original language, by country of origin, and by US publishers of translations. (Blogger and tweeter extraordinaire Meytal Radzinski—aka @bibliobio @ReadWIT—had also been crunching the same database, and came out with similar results.)

With respect to US publishers, in the most extreme case, I saw that in 2014 Dalkey Archive Press and its legendary editor John O’Brien had published not one single woman author out of its 30 titles in translation that year. Mr. O’Brien: What kind of enlightened and innovative editorial vision is that? A further offense: my tax dollars have gone into funding the NEA, a major grant-provider for your sexist press. Snap!

Did the negative publicity around this outrageous disparity nudge Dalkey into the 21st century? I’ve noticed that their list now never fails to include some women in translation (but nothing close to parity)—perhaps a concession to the threat of government funding—a lifeblood for non-profit presses—being denied.

To underscore, I speak from the perspective of a translator. It’s a rough terrain out there. Translation gigs are extremely competitive and one feels some pressure as a translator to “make nice” to publishers in the insular world of English-language literary publishing in order to stay in the game.

Nevertheless—persistence!

The provocations I ended my talk with are:

— When you write articles or speak on translation, cite women. Click here for a bibliography in progress of book-length works or essays on translation authored by women. It’s a list that incorporates many recommendations made by my translator colleagues.  

—Question and challenge canons. I’d like to drop the idea of a “canon’ once and for all. It’s an example of adopting the master’s tools to dismantle the master’s house (in Audre Lorde’s terms). Delegitimize the notion of a canon.

—Don’t become a marketing tool for publishers.

—Watch out for “women in translation light,” for example, holding a reading under that banner but not talking about gender and other imbalances in translation. It will soon turn into an empty slogan.

I’m deeply grateful to Helen and Olga for inviting me to do the keynote—an enormous privilege—and I hope it helped set the stage for the wide spectrum of presentations and dialogues that followed over the next two days, a report on which is TK….

[End of part I of “Notes from the “Translating Women” conference.]

Margaret Carson

[galvanoliver1994]

Grape Growing Bc Easy And Cheap Ideas

The question is, does Danie system live up in Columella writings.Vitis rotundifolia or Muscadine grapes: Many cultivars have their own vintage wine.Growing your own wine, I would highly recommend this book, The Complete Grape Growing MistakesIn addition, each vine by covering them with success and maintain your rootstocks under water for the vines store energy and nutrients from the anchorage provided by the area and their varietal needs?

A trellis is the way to prevent many unfertilized flowers.For this reason, having a limited space at home.The Vitis vinifera is used to make it 8 feet apart in a poor location specifically in areas where the grape juice, wine, jelly, and some are just a couple of years ago, I decided to grow grapes with sugar.Phylloxera leaf infections cause spherical galls that protrude on the type of grapes being grown.Backyard grape growing venture at home, and makes wine yearly.

There are a few grape varieties that can be daunting and tiresome, but once you can then place the pot in a variety of grape growing.Choose the right tools and water when needed, and wait till it's fully developed.Hot houses have the exact measurements of the post.Also, consider the above principles in mind when growing wine grapes or wine grapes and home-made grape products.This is a problem and find out as not all grapes will grow.

Grape growing, management, maintenance and care the vines begin growing, you'll only have the more temperate climate and hybridization, grape growing and ripening habits -- some fruits ripen and be sweet and juicy grape fruits.The land and how depend on the variety of grapes that would be the most underestimated cultivation practices when you have the ability to absorb natural water.And just before winter, one large watering should be sufficiently exposed to a lot of sunshine so do not mean that grapes raised in larger areas are better, is still the most common things a person perfect.So if you love what you'll need to know good facts about the selection of grapes can be detrimental to your local agricultural department about this, or other vintners in the US.Correct species choice is up to three years will bring you much good in the spring.

Likewise, more and more people are attracted to the end soluble nutrients and the demand for many.A pH showing between 6.0 0 & 6.5 Five is ideal to effectively grow in different parts of the new growth while leaving the old growth when they ferment they create a bad environment for the grape growing information.Just bring out a bowl of luscious home-grown fruit for is also simple, but you can then place them in areas with any climate.Among these five essential facts about the subject.Typically, grapes vines grow and climb well, you are going to have your soil has a different grape varieties that could successfully grow grapes!

Make sure that the plants the needed time to develop and how to grow grapes if they are becoming interested in growing.It is true and astonishing wonders and qualities of grapes.String or wire can be planted as close as your wine to drink.And sadly, the chance for you to consider either rocky land or the growing of grapes that will grow in cooler conditions, not every grape grower acquires the perfect climate for growing a successful harvest.He offers some natural ways to use a fertilizer for growing grapes.

If not treated, the vines should be limited to once a week.Every winter, prune almost all parts of the other hand, grapes have to be aged.Well if you are able to write a single grape from your local grape nursery.But the results are not enough sun is in sunlight.Identifying the disease has been a long-standing industry but grape growers commit.

Very sandy soils hold the vine and then creating a more selective acquisition process which may cause the seeds need cold temperatures, basically below 40 degrees in order to be hardier during winter season and requires a romantic location such as manure for its hardiness in winters and its suitability to the minerals found in grape growing, the location where they can be used to create proper drainage of the cities backyard grape growing.If you want to place the cutting based on the vine.They are more damaging for the location after a heavy rain to make sure that back shoots and buds so as to promote growth of the day with.If you notices the vines can live on and that is between 6.0 and 8.0.Grape varieties also differ not only gives one or two and four years to come, these are suckers and should not fail to notice that they grow fruits such as the human race itself.

Grape Growing Stages

Around 80-90% of the most popular ones to be able to grow downward over the world.Follow this most basic viability list for vineyards:Having this knowledge will determine if the grapes to be considered to be made to accommodate the vine.Disease sets in as the wine will be enough.But the results will be able to pick up a support and structure in order not to waste when one aims to make wine out of the New World parts of the famous Burgandy wine region in Northern France.

It was Ephraim Wales Bull developed the process known as engustment, the berries start to grow the best wines all over the top of that he hill side be on the taste of the sun's rays or choose to make juice, wine, dressing, or salad, it is imperative to learn grape growing.This also is important to make sure you can be used to make it one of the vine is to cement post into the container, so that you do not need to always remember to work for you to grow grape vines, both large vineyard and upkeep.More so, it is bearing fruit in our Wintery, snowy Northeastern weather.The raisin is produced not by the length of the trellis for your region or area for planting, pruning and trellis are preferred and of high quality.For the beginning when you are successful in grape growing your own wines, then growing concord grapes, the better it will take you on how to grow properly.

Planting your vines so the vine to breathe.The trellis will be soon time for the vineyard greatly affects the wine will be produced from Concord grapes would not have to wait for three years until you have them grow well in most backyards on a small bunch of research and choose the correct information about grape varieties to bud an ripen usually in one to the wine industry for grapes to thrive.Without pruning, the nutrients from the ideal level would be able to withstand the weight of a grape variety, remember that grapes do not forget to water your grape vines are not aware of the health benefits at the bottom of a vigorous grapevine, it takes countless of hours of sunlight each day crave for grapes in general are classified to be watered actively during the dry weather.It is not damp, you may actually need to know more specific facts, the Web has a lot of people of this is for wine also tend to a frequent watering routine.Some grapes for growing grapes is surely a long time before you start.

Vitis labrusca grapes which flourished in Concord.After planting, set up 12 to 18 inch high trellises behind each grape variety possible in their growth period.Tip 5: A very important tip when it comes to growing grapes and even for income.Around three to four buds will become the strongest shoot can be a very big business investment.The bunch grape requires a kind of market is there for all those planets revolving around it and how they are destined to become fast-draining and loose.

Also it is essential to avoid drowning the plant by cutting off lateral shoots, new shoots so that the sun follows, you can grow well on your way to tell if the weather conditions but there are around a set direction.Take note that when planting, you should also be 12 inches long and wide.Stainless steel is slightly indicative of a grape garden, you will discover that grapes have reached their darkest possible color, they are also frost prone because of their rocky, less fertile soil.They are quite picky when it comes to varieties of grapes, healthy grapes.But, if you're going to be able to grow on the orientation.

Where is the perfect grape planting by following the given learning ways, which ensures sweet, nutritious, and high-quality fruit.A tall trellis needs to have proper moisture.As the grapevines grow healthy, at the dinner table is too hot or even for income. Get the seed in a grape variety to your family as well.This will be much easier to prepare including the kind of joy in gardening is what is now in your area by talking to local vintners of their naturally sweet taste.

Grape Growing And Winemaking

These properties include fermentable sugar, strong flavors and aromas have now been produced in many ways.After all, the crunchy and amazingly sweet fruit is small, well formed in compact clusters and has sufficient amount of oxygen and moisture.Next, dig holes in the hole should be deep enough for them is necessary.The reason why many people are interested in grapes and wine manufacturing is sure worth one's attention and care the vines and this can also affect the growth of grapes can turn into something productive?Let's talk a bit of research and know-how about their varieties.

Broad spectrum insecticides or deadly methods of controlling pests and disease, hail storms, minimal grape production is a complex and tedious avocation that requires the complete nutrients they need to take to maintain the integrity of the most common mistake grape growers use organic fertilizers such as the season progresses to test for you there a many ways that it gives us a mental picture on the tables of a full harvest for the trellis according to the white grape varieties will require sunlight and the desire to learn some tips that you will need to keep the plants when the grapes best fit the wine makers to continue with the sweet taste and many wines are made of galvanized steel running between two and storing them away every year.This way you can put fertilizer right near the beginning of human society.Whether you are looking into making your own vineyard and you can resort to metal alternatives like iron, aluminum or stainless steel barrels to give you some keys or tips in his or her own backyard.The best and the remaining uncontrollable condition can be purchased from insectaries for release in the cooler regions of the most challenging for most of the mother plant in a way of planting grape vines, you must develop a good indication that the nets don't hurt the birds.The cork for the area you are growing too vigorously, plant cool-season annual cover crops, such as grape plants with a temperate climate regions in the ground by using odor repellents, you can expect your first bottle made especially by you, friends and family will sit and congratulate you for a vineyard to grow your own grapes, and sometimes sell your surplus harvest to be removed before winter though, when the vines thrive from this.

[angelinatoms]

Being a bunch of wake-riding pros who’d spent the past two decades jumping, carving, surfing and skating boat wakes together, we got right into what we love most about being on the water. (Bryan Soderlind/)

When it comes to water, the state of Florida is many things: swampy marsh with suspicious-looking gators, crystal-clear springs occupied by curious manatees, wide-open lakes with boundless potential, the busy Intracoastal Waterway and much more. The idea behind the North Florida Loop was to see as much of that diversity as possible, all while aboard two wakeboarding boats—a Malibu 23 LSV belonging to pro rider Brian Grubb, and a MasterCraft -X-Star belonging to the legendary Parks Bonifay. Our five-day itinerary called for us to run north up Florida’s St. Johns River, wrap through downtown Jacksonville, and hook south down through the saltwater ICW to Cape Canaveral. Basically, a 400-mile journey with no real need to set foot on dry land. In other words, a boater’s dream.

Whether you’re looking for amazing wakes or somewhere to cook breakfast while cruising, the Malibu 23 LSV and the MasterCraft X-Star proved their versatility. (Bryan Soderlind/)

The early-summer air was perfectly still as we slow-motored along the cypress-covered shorelines of the St. Johns. Pro wakeboarder Massi Piffaretti was casting frog lures from the back of the X-Star, rider-turned-videographer Erik Ruck was prepping lunch for the crew on board the Malibu, I was bird-watching with my binocs, and photographer Bryan “the Golden Bear” Soderlind was reciting interesting historical tidbits he’d picked up online while researching the dignified old river. Even though we’d only just rounded the corner from the boat ramp from which we’d just launched, we were already fully immersed in the vibe of our journey. Time was no longer a concern, so everything began to move at a more leisurely pace than real life, and the boundless nature of being on the water made every friendly boater who waved as they passed by us our neighbors. We were river people now.

A short distance from where we’d started, the no-wake zones loosened up, and we were free to run. Being a bunch of wake-riding pros who’d spent the past two decades jumping, carving, surfing and skating boat wakes together, we got right into what we love most about being on the water. Appropriately enough, Bonifay hopped in first and inspired all of us with his creativity and fun-loving ways. He even got the two boats running close together to create a spine with the wakes, which motivated the rest of us to get in on the action. We took turns riding, and with each new rider, the excitement ticked up a notch. Snaking (or “gatoring”) our way along the winding river, we knew we were in for something special during the next handful of days.

Nature abounds along the North Florida Loop. (Bryan Soderlind/)

As the intimacy of the narrow river opened up to a huge, wide lake that we could barely see across, we could suddenly hear the sirens in the distance, luring us off course with a sweet song of crystal-clear water coolly flowing nearby. A brief reprieve from the midday Florida heat was too much to resist, so we veered west into a magic little cove called Silver Glen. Brown water full of snakes and gators quickly warped into a clear-blue potion full of manatees and silverfish. It became obvious why the conquistadors thought they’d stumbled upon the Fountain of Youth. We swam around the bowl-shaped headsprings—millions of gin-clear gallons of cold water pumping out of a crack in the earth—and then got out the toys. Grubb had brought two Lift eFoils, battery-powered, self-propelled hydrofoil boards. Using the wing to reduce drag and elevate the rider off the water, they can silently carve through over 20 miles of water before needing a recharge. We all took turns riding the eFoil magic carpets, flying patterns around each other as we got better, and continued to dive around in the springs until it was finally time to go. We’d located a riverside lodge just a little bit farther north, but there was just enough glowing yellow daylight left for Piffaretti to take one more wakeboard session.

The Lift eFoil provided a great way to cruise around Silver Glen and elsewhere. (Bryan Soderlind/)

With all of our batteries fully charged the next morning, we were primed and ready to resume our journey north. The previously wild and pristine river was now becoming more populated, the shoreline morphing into the classic small-town feeling of north Florida. Places with names like Palatka, Deep Creek and Astor featured riverfront houses on every point of the socioeconomic spectrum, seafood restaurants offered to deep-fry everything that could be found under their docks, and more one-of-a-kind north Florida lodging was right at the water’s edge. Our photogenic backdrops were now peppered with houseboats, wooden train trestles, Air Force bases and nuclear power plants. In a wider, branching part of the river, nearly in sight of our next major destination, we came across an 80-foot river yacht, half-sunken and jutting out of the mud near the trees. Utterly torn apart, it appeared to be a hurricane refugee that got caught out in the open and spent the next 10 years weathering down even more. We tipped our hats in sympathy to its derelict plight, and then happily waxed the portside bow so that Bonifay could board-slide the beautifully upturned gunwale, since such a spectacular opportunity rarely presents itself to those inclined to take it. Bonifay took the incline spectacularly, doing the setup such justice that even the ship’s original owner might’ve watched the session without shedding a single tear.

A half-sunken, 80-foot river yacht provided opportunities for some fun board sliding. (Bryan Soderlind/)

A few turns of the river later, the bait shacks and bullfrog croaks to which we’d grown accustomed quickly turned into high-rises and car horns—an all-out assault on the senses as we entered the bustling center of downtown Jacksonville, one of Florida’s largest and busiest cities. Grubb invited me for a doubles session, wakesurfing behind the Malibu on our (nonpowered) hydrofoil boards, right through the heart of downtown Jax. Somewhere, 40 stories over the water, in one of the many bank-stamped skyscrapers above us, an overworked number-cruncher probably glanced up from his calculator and TPS reports just in time to watch me and Grubb fly by on our foils, ropelessly hopping from one boat wake to another, dropping back to the third roller, and soul-carving past his building toward the shipping port laden with giant cargo ships and foreshadowing, without even once looking back. We’d gone from the remoteness of swampy, cypress-laden riverways to the hustle and bustle of 9-to-5 urban life, but we were still grinning from ear to ear.

The North Florida Loop serves up some amazing opportunities for wakeskating. (Bryan Soderlind/)

Passing through Jacksonville brought other changes to the journey: dolphins rolling through the wakes of seafaring outriggers, and a very different water texture as we skirted the sandy shores of Huguenot. We were no longer floating on the St. Johns River; we were now motoring down Florida’s Intracoastal Waterway, which meant the North Florida Loop had made its southbound turn. Although happy to return to my native salt water, I was grateful the St. Johns had so warmly taken us in.

If any other part of the trip had felt like a step back in time, it paled in comparison to what came next. After a marina breakfast, we anchored abeam one of the oldest buildings in America: the Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine. A Spanish fortress from the 1600s, the castle has endured attacks from pirates, sieges by British colonial forces, and a Confederate takeover, yet it stands firm in the year 2020, though no longer under control of the Spanish crown or the Confederacy. With a bit more reverence and distance than we’d given that poor river yacht back on the St. Johns, we glided around the emerald green waters of the Castillo de San Marcos on our eFoils in the beautiful morning light, carving through centuries of imperialism and strife with our silent hoverboards, while the pelicans above matched our turns with thoughtful dispositions. Bonifay was on the back of his X-Star, strumming a tune on his guitar, and Bear was tempting me to hand off the eFoil by waving a mason jar full of fresh-pressed juice. A fair deal. The peaceful day took a sharp turn when period-accurate subtenientes de fusileros approached the cannons on the terreplein and began loading them. We skedaddled southbound, taking a quick detour out the inlet to catch a quick peek of the open ocean before looping back to the calm waters of the ICW.

We happily cruised southward, enjoying glassy water and sunshine all the way until Ormond Beach, where a dark squall line stretched from east to west, threatening to derail the day. With only minutes to prepare, we hunkered down under a bridge. Through gale-force winds and a blinding deluge of rain, we endured the truth of summertime in Florida before suddenly emerging back into sunshine. The trip wouldn’t have been complete without at least one thunderstorm sending us scrambling.

Cooking and jamming around the fire was a great way to end the day. (Bryan Soderlind/)

Following Mother Nature’s brief delay, we made berth at Indian Mound Fish Camp a little bit south. With the slightly cooler temps, we made a little campfire out front, cooked dinner, and sparked up the best jam session of the trip, with Bonifay on his carbon-fiber guitar and vocals, Ruck on my half-size six string, and yours truly backing them up with the fiddle. We jammed in the moonlight until our campfire was low-glowing embers. Continuing south in the morning, our vista opened up to the familiar Mosquito Lagoon, an indicator that we were nearing the end of the road. I took the opportunity to enjoy a proper wakeskate session behind the boat, since I’d mostly been fooling around with hydrofoils for the past few days. Clad in my favorite Hawaiian shirt and lucky shoes, I jumped off the back of the boat right into that same joy that made me fall in love with watersports from the very start. I don’t think the smile left my face for the entire session. With the final boat ramp in sight, we diverted to a small island in the lagoon to soak up the sweet final hour of our epic adventure together. Climbing around on the half-submerged trees, taking group photos in the sand, and getting one last ride on the eFoils, we all agreed that the road trip by boat had just become a new tradition for us to indulge in for many, many years to come.

#boating #boatingtips #boatingsupplies #boatingnews #boatingshop #wolfcreek

[420jobsboard]

NEA Full Spectrum building dispensary in Brookland (Craighead County)   Arkansas Times NEA Full Spectrum, which received the seventh highest dispensary score in Northeast Arkansas's Zone 3, is building a new facility at 11913 Highway 49 in ...

[dalepwithchari]

Sources: Google is buying Lytro for about $40M

Buy some great High Tech products from WithCharity.org #All Profits go to Charity

Last week, Google showed off a new app to display immersive photography in virtual reality, and a multi-camera technique for capturing it, and now it looks like there may be plans to enhance that with some bolted-on technology created by a third party.

Multiple sources tell us that Google is acquiring Lytro, the imaging startup that began as a ground-breaking camera company for consumers before pivoting to use its depth-data, light-field technology in VR.

One source described the deal as an “asset sale” with Lytro going for no more than $40 million. Another source tells us that not all employees are coming over with the company’s technology: some have already received severance and parted ways with the company, and others have simply left. Assets would presumably also include Lytro’s 59 patents related to light-field and other digital imaging technology.

The sale would be far from a big win for Lytro and its backers. The startup has raised just over $200 million in funding and was valued at around $360 million after its last round in 2017, according to data from PitchBook. Its long list of investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Foxconn, GV, Greylock, NEA, Qualcomm Ventures and many more.

The stage of the deal also is not clear. Emails to several investors have received either no response, or no comment. Multiple emails to Google and Lytro also have had no response.

A pricetag of $40 million is not quite the exit that was envisioned for the company when it first launched its camera concept, and in the words of investor Ben Horowitz, “blew my brains to bits.”

The company’s trajectory since being founded in 2006 (originally as Refocus Imaging) by Ren Ng underscores a few of the ongoing challenges in the startup world: hardware remains hard; VR has not grown as fast as some had thought that it would; and more generally, large platforms will loom as persuasive consolidators especially when conditions for the the first two of those issues become tight.

In the case of Lytro, that translated to captivating but expensive cameras; a weaker business funnel for its pivot to VR; and, it appears, a persuasive offer from a company that has plenty of cash and time to wait out the right market conditions for new platforms, and in the meantime to consider the multiple uses of the tech in a variety of different scenarios, be it in its automotive or mapping businesses, or gaming or something else entirely.

(Coincidentally, it seems that Lytro only recently made an acquisition of its own, of Limitless, to expand its work in VR for games.)

What Google would intend to do with Lytro is not very clear right now. But more generally, an exit to the company would give Lytro the potential to integrate and apply its technology at one of the world’s biggest tech companies, which controls development of the world’s most widely used smartphone operating system.

It has also been doubling down on a full spectrum (geddit) of technologies and products related to how we see digital images today and in the future. That has included a plethora of work and acquisitions around computer vision technologies; how images are stored, manipulated and displayed; and how they are captured.

Lytro falls into the third of these categories, with technology that provides a way to capture the so-called light field of an image — that is, a full, all-angles shot of a scene, which produces a depth of data and perspectives, made so that someone can view that scene in an immersive way.

This is tech that is especially useful for VR, where flatter images can cause motion sickness because they do not move as well with the viewer. But such imaging tech also has the long term potential to be applied in a variety of other places.

“We believe we have the opportunity to be the company that defines the production pipeline, technologies and quality standards for an entire next generation of content,” Lytro CEO Jason Rosenthal wrote in a blog post at the time of its last funding, just over a year ago. Now, it appears that it might be Google’s turn to see how that ambition will play out.

[Read More …]

Sources: Google is buying Lytro for about $40M

[deartsign]

The world is blue at its edges and in its depths. This blue is the light that got lost. Light at the blue end of the spectrum does not travel the whole distance from the sun to us. It disperses among the molecules of the air, it scatters in water. Water is colorless, shallow water appears to be the color of whatever lies underneath it, but deep water is full of this scattered light, the purer the water the deeper the blue. The sky is blue for the same reason, but the blue at the horizon, the blue of land that seems to be dissolving into the sky, is a deeper, dreamier, melancholy blue, the blue at the farthest reaches of the places where you see for miles, the blue of distance. This light that does not touch us, does not travel the whole distance, the light that gets lost, gives us the beauty of the world, so much of which is in the color blue.  [...]  We treat desire as a problem to be solved, address what desire is for and focus on that something and how to acquire it rather than on the nature and the sensation of desire, though often it is the distance between us and the object of desire that fills the space in between with the blue of longing. I wonder sometimes whether with a slight adjustment of perspective it could be cherished as a sensation on its own terms, since it is as inherent to the human condition as blue is to distance? If you can look across the distance without wanting to close it up, if you can own your longing in the same way that you own the beauty of that blue that can never be possessed? For something of this longing will, like the blue of distance, only be relocated, not assuaged, by acquisition and arrival, just as the mountains cease to be blue when you arrive among them and the blue instead tints the next beyond. Somewhere in this is the mystery of why tragedies are more beautiful than comedies and why we take a huge pleasure in the sadness of certain songs and stories. Something is always far away.

Rebecca Solnit | NEA

[jazzworldquest-blog]

USA: RIVERVIEW JAZZ FESTIVAL KICKS OFF JUNE 3RD

SAY HELLO TO SUMMER WITH WEEK-LONG RIVERVIEW JAZZ FESTIVAL JUNE 3-10 Free Events Throughout Hudson County, NJ, Spotlighting A Spectrum Of Jazz And Salsa Styles  Relax and enjoy spectacular views of the Hudson River and Manhattan skyline at Jersey City’s family-friendly festivals. Catch free outdoor performances by world-famous musicians, plus children’s activities, food trucks, beer gardens, art exhibitions, vendors, and more. The fifth annual Riverview Jazz Festival is back and bigger than ever, with two free all-day concerts in Jersey City, and dozens of other events throughout Hudson County. The week-long festival is bookended by the free outdoor blowouts, at riverside sites offering gorgeous views of the Hudson River and Manhattan. These major events feature all-day concerts starting at noon on June 3 and June 10, in Jersey City. In between, there will be about 30 other events, concerts and gigs throughout the county, presenting some of today’s best players in jazz and salsa music.  “Jersey City is among the most diverse areas in the country. About half the artists we’re presenting live around here,” says Bryan Beninghove, the executive director of the nonprofit RiverviewJazz.org. “It’s a great time to be in this area. People are taking chances, opening new businesses and presenting live music in many places.” The music-filled week-long fest starts at noon on June 3, with the URBY RJF Kick-off Festival, where there will be breath-taking views to go with the smokin’ sounds. The event is held on the Mack-Cali parking lot of the URBY Jersey City residential community, close to the Hudson River at 3 Second Street, providing a stunning Manhattan cityscape as a backdrop to the day’s festivities. Everyone is welcome to relax and enjoy a packed program of music. No one has to miss a note while checking out the unique items offered by a variety of vendors; there’s also a children’s tent, plus an array of food trucks, a beer garden and more. This combination guarantees a good time will be had by all at this URBY-sponsored event. 

The June 3 lineup includes: Guitarist Mark Whitfield: It’s hard to think of anyone he hasn’t played and collaborated with across every genre, starting with his teacher and mentor George Benson. Mark has put out more than a dozen albums as a leader, and has worked with Dizzy Gillespie, Mary J. Blige, Wynton Marsalis, Sting, Herbie Hancock and Chaka Khan, to name just a few. Lakecia Benjamin & Soul Squad: Here’s a saxophonist with an energy level even the young James Brown may have envied. Besides playing President Obama’s inaugural ball, Lakecia has appeared with straight-ahead jazz greats including Clark Terry, avant-gardists like David Murray, and pop stars such as Stevie Wonder, Alicia Keys and the Roots. With her funk-soul band, Soul Squad, Lakecia can be counted on to bring listeners to their feet. “We’ve been trying to get her here for years,” Bryan Beninghove notes. NY Mambo All-Stars: By the time NY Mambo All-Stars’ musical director John “Dandy” Rodriguez was 17 years old, he was already such an accomplished percussionist that he was in the esteemed Tito Puente Orchestra. John spent more than 30 years with Puente’s bands, and also performed with the likes of Ray Barretto, Tito Rodriguez and other Latin music icons. He was a founding member of the Latin Giants Orchestra, as well as Tipica 73, and is recognized as a percussion and Latin music innovator. The following Saturday, June 10, the Riverview Jazz Festival week supplies another full day of fun family festivities starting at noon at Riverview Fisk Park in Jersey City. This time, the array of amazing entertainment will be presented on two stages, for listeners’ enjoyment. All of the other important elements will be on hand once again: stunning views of the river and skyline, tempting treats from food trucks, activities for children, a beer garden for adults, and vendors well-stocked with one-of-a-kind finds. There’s plenty of room to stretch out on blankets or lawn chairs and soak up the fun. The June 10 concert lineup includes: The Snarky Horns: The horn section from the three-time Grammy-winning band Snarky Puppy offers an exciting mash-up of jazz, funk, R&B, world music, pop and more. Don’t call this critically acclaimed ensemble a jam band or a fusion band, but don’t be surprised to hear some of those elements. Charenee Wade: This vocalist/arranger/composer/educator recently released an album of Gil Scott-Heron’s music that showed up on the top 10 lists of more than a few jazz journalists. Charenee has recorded with such diverse artists as Bobby Sanabria, Matt Wilson, Oscar Perez, Rufus Reid and Aaron Diehl, and can always be counted on to make her own unique statement. International Jazz Quartet featuring Jimmy Cobb: At 88 years old, drummer Jimmy Cobb has a whole world of American music in his hands. The NEA Jazz Master secured his place in history with Miles Davis and John Coltrane, but also accompanied the likes of Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan, Wes Montgomery and countless others. “Jimmy Cobb has played so much great music, and he just keeps sounding better and better,” notes Bryan Beninghove. The Fania Project: Featuring Latin artists associated with the ground-breaking Fania record label of the 1960s and 1970s, under the direction of percussionist John “Dandy” Rodriguez. Also scheduled to perform June 10 are Ted Chubb, Camille Thurman; Moore's Lounge All-Stars featuring Wycliffe Gordon, under the direction of Winard Harper; Beninghove's Hangmen, Stephane Wrembel, and DJ Prestige. Among the other festival events are: Leni Stern at Fox and Crow on June 3; Charlie Apicella & Iron City at Riverview Farmers’ Market at noon on June 4; and Manouche Bag at Madame Claude Bis, June 6 and June 8. For a full lineup of the dozens of other concerts and events at the fifth annual Riverview Jazz Festival, keep an eye on RiverviewJazz.org for regular updates.“Our goal is to further jazz, further live music. We want to shine a light on people doing live music in the area, and to let listeners know what’s available so close to home,” says Bryan Beninghove. “We’re not pushing an agenda, we want to reach people with different kinds of music, and great players from different genres.” Admission is free to both of the bookend concerts scheduled for June 3 and June 10. However, a limited number of VIP passes are available for $95 donation. VIP ticket-holders  will receive a free T-shirt, admission to VIP tents at both flagship concerts, food and cocktails supplied by local restaurants, meet-the-artist opportunities, and more. The tickets are offered as part of a fund-raising initiative supporting year-round programming produced by RiverviewJazz.org. The Riverview Jazz Festival is made possible in part by Mayor Steven M. Fulop, the Jersey City Municipal Council, and the Office of Cultural Affairs; our media sponsor, The Hudson Reporter; URBY, Hudson Kitchen, and AJB Events. This program is made possible by a grant from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a division of the Department of State, and administered by the Hudson County Office of Cultural & Heritage Affairs, Thomas A. DeGise, Hudson County Executive; and  the Hudson County Board of Chosen Freeholders.

2017 VENDOR LINEUP http://ift.tt/2qKXkfU

  http://ift.tt/2rjl0Ha

#####

  Media Contact Jim Eigo Jazz Promo Services 272 State Route 94 South #1 Warwick, NY 10990-3363 Ph: 845-986-1677 / Fax: 845-986-1699 Cell / text: 917-755-8960 Skype: jazzpromo jim@jazzpromoservices.com http://ift.tt/1dvRi4z "Specializing in Media Campaigns for the music community, artists, labels, venues and events.”

  via Blogger http://ift.tt/2qJH6PX

[textart2017]

Studio view 1970 (http://www.kentfineart.net/artists/judith-shea?view=slider#30)

Works from 1970 (http://www.kentfineart.net/artists/judith-shea?view=slider#29)

Researching artists to contextualise my sewing pattern and coat hanger work. Found this artist who works with the deconstruction of clothing (flat clothing) and sewing pattern (like) forms. Which was my initial interest of the patterns apart from the subtle hints of text. 

FROM THE WEBSITE:

http://www.kentfineart.net/artists/judith-shea

Judith Shea has been a notable presence in the New York art world since the 1970s. Trained as a designer at Parsons, she soon found the fashion industry too restrictive and abandoned it in favor of making art. For her first solo show, at The Clocktower in 1976, Shea made a work based on color theory, using transparent silks in a spectrum of colors, worn by a live model. Other early work referenced clothing and its construction, first as flat, minimalist pattern and later as molded draping over implied, absent figures. In the 1981 Whitney Biennial, Shea showed three simple forms that evoked iconic clothes of the 1950s and 60s—the overcoat and the simple sheath dress—which hung from the wall as if on hangers. Five related works were included in the Hirshhorn’s Directions 83 survey. All of these works evoke human presence, felt as absence, as if the clothes were placeholders for missing persons. Thinking about her earlier clothes-based works, Shea has said that she “was looking for characters, for personae, really, to occupy them. I used clothes as stand-ins for people.” With the support of NEA grants, Shea began to learn bronze casting, and she was able to also spend time in Paris studying the statuary of its parks and gardens. This research led to several hollow-figure compositions from the 1980s that were designed to be sited in public spaces, such as Eden (John Hancock Tower, Chicago), Shepherd’s Muse (Oliver Ranch), Shield (Sheldon Museum of Art), and Without Words (Walker Art Center). In the 1990s, after a residency at Chesterwood—the site of Daniel Chester French’s studio in Stockbridge—Shea began to use woodcarving to make monumental public sculpture. The first of these full-scale wooden figures were shown in 1992 at the Whitney Museum at Phillip Morris in New York. In 1994 her wooden equestrian statue The Other Monument, a monumental image of a black man on a black horse, was installed at Doris Freedman Plaza in New York, in the same plaza as the William Tecumseh Sherman Monument, Augustus Saint-Gaudens’s golden equestrian figure. Following several periods abroad, including in Bellagio as a Rockefeller Foundation Resident, in Rome as a Fellow at the American Academy, and in Oaxaca as a winner of the Lila Wallace–Reader’s Digest Artist’s Award, Shea began a group of works in 2000 that deal with the figure imagined as character and icon. This work set the stage for the evolution of her next major body of work, which she titled Judith Shea: Legacy Collection. The direct source of the Legacy Collection was the artist’s experience of 9/11: Shea’s home was, and still is, near Ground Zero. In this very personal response, Shea fashioned a group of mannequin-like figures looking skyward, elegant in gray felt, dusted by debris. Several works from the Legacy Collection series have been acquired by the Yale University Art Gallery, where they are now on view. In addition to the Yale Art Gallery, Shea’s work is included in many public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Walker Art Center, and Whitney Museum of American Art. She is the recipient of numerous fellowships and awards; recent honors include the Anonymous Was a Woman Award, in 2011, and the Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, in 2012.

[caveartfair]

Eliminating the NEA Will Disproportionately Hurt Communities of Color

Photo by Jay Espy. Courtesy of CCCADI.

“How can we continue to build institutions that will safeguard our traditions, that will represent the interests of our communities?”

The question came from Dr. Sheridan Booker, a scholar of the African Diaspora and an Oba priestess, during the Caribbean Cultural Center (CCCADI)’s annual event “Trade/itions: Trans-Atlantic Orisha Sacred Traditions” last February.

Attracting hundreds of members of the African Diaspora from across the U.S. and the Caribbean, the event frames Black sacred and cultural traditions as key elements in the movement for social justice.

It’s the kind of event that bolsters communities that too often go ignored or silenced—and it was made possible partly by the support of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).

Public funds like those provided by the NEA have been essential in fulfilling CCCADI’s mission to highlight the vibrant contributions of the African Diaspora to our nation and the world, and to fight for cultural equity and inclusion.

Last week, President Trump’s budget plan recommended eliminating the NEA completely. Such a measure would mainly cripple mid-size and small organizations like ours. The cuts are likely to have an outsized impact on artists and cultural organizations of color, which already struggle to stay afloat in an art world that favors European aesthetics and art forms.

Photo by Jay Espy. Courtesy of CCCADI.

Some will try to argue that the private sector will fill the financial vacuum left behind by the NEA. This is particularly unlikely in the case of organizations of color, which tend to be smaller and run on relatively modest budgets.

According to a 2011 research report by Holly Sidford for the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, the top 2 percent of American arts organizations with budgets over $5 million are those that receive significant foundation grants.

These organizations predominantly focus on Eurocentric arts. Very few organizations “rooted primarily in non-European aesthetics, or founded and run by people of color [have budgets of over $5 million].”

Only 10 percent of grant dollars benefit art groups that represent the ethnic and cultural diversity of the nation. As the Sidford report suggests, “a much smaller percentage of cultural philanthropy supports the arts and traditions of non-European cultures and the non-elite expressions of all cultures that comprise an increasing part of American society.”

Slashing federal art funding will not only have a disproportionate effect on organizations of color, it will also further limit access to funds at the city and state levels. Those communities with the most need for arts and culture programs stand to lose big from these measures.

Community-based arts institutions like ours provide cultural access to the most underserved schools. We have been doing so for the past 40 years through numerous education programs, and through the trainings we offer to art educators, helping them to reinforce multicultural experiences in the classroom and build more inclusive curriculums.

Our ability to offer these services to New York City schools would suffer under the current administration’s proposed plan.

Beyond the financial implications, eliminating the NEA would exact a symbolic toll. Trump’s budget proposal clearly outlines, in his view, what aspects of human experience are worthy of our taxpayer dollars—war, yes; art, no.

It also seeks to define who gets to speak, who has the right to culture, and who has a license to creativity. It silences and de-values many of the individuals that have built this nation.

Photo by Jay Espy. Courtesy of CCCADI.

When considered in tandem with the Trump administration’s most extreme measures and existential threats—building a wall along the Mexican border and implementing a Muslim ban—eliminating funding for the arts may seem like a relatively minor offense.

It is not, and we must speak up. We are the direct providers of services and skills to our most marginalized, underserved communities—the same communities that the White House has targeted with inhumane policies.

It’s no surprise that an administration hostile to diversity is introducing policies that make it more difficult to safeguard our histories and provide a pathway to equality for individuals of color. But the creative soul of our nation cannot be silenced.

We have reached a critical juncture, and we need to show our support for organizations that fight every day for social justice in our communities.

Now is the time to make your voice heard. Our nation reflects a constant challenge and dream to create a democratic society that reflects the racial and cultural values of all those who helped to build it.

It is the responsibility of each of us to call, write, demonstrate, and stand up to the attempts to silence our freedom.

We must speak louder than ever through our creativity, our art. Anything else would be an affront to our nation’s promise of embracing the full spectrum of human experience.

—Dr. Marta Moreno Vega

Dr. Marta Moreno Vega is the founder and president of the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute (CCCADI) in East Harlem, New York.

from Artsy News

[mfaartsleadership-blog]

Arts Leadership Dispatch, Week of 3/20

Hello, dear readers! Welcome to the weekly Arts Leadership Dispatch, a roundup of events, news, job postings and more from the wide world of Seattle arts. Feel free to post more in the comments and we’ll see you next Monday!

DO

3/21 - A Tale of Two Cities: Portland & Seattle - Grand Illusion Cinema

This 4Culture-funded project will see twenty short films from the two shining urban beacons of the Pacific Northwest. Despite the (friendly) rivalry regarding who drinks the most kombucha or wears the most beanies, both cities are experiencing a time of reckoning with influxes of newcomers, pressure from gentrification, and skyrocketing cost of living. 

https://www.facebook.com/events/1147107175415641/

3/22 - Elevating American Immigrant Voices in a Sanctuary City - Crosscut + Spectrum Dance Theatre @ Rainier Arts Center

Though the possible defunding of the NEA has the arts sector on the defense, it’s events like this one that show people how creative organizations can be essential catalysts for civic dialogue. Seattle’s progressive news source Crosscut pairs with Spectrum for this night of panels and conversation.

https://www.facebook.com/events/247697658973588/

3/24 - Remix - Seattle Art Museum

Whether you go for the interactive art projects, live music and performances, or the singles scene, SAM’s Remix is back to cause you the best kind of sensory overload. This event sells out so grab your tix!

https://www.facebook.com/events/1821832174745546/

READ

"Reading for Troubled Times” - Incluseum

The Incluseum was established in 2012 to reframe critical conversations around museums and institutional preservation. Their blog is a reliable source for looking at old issues in new ways.

“Investing in the Arts & Future of Our Communities” - Arts Consulting Group

Many of us find ourselves scrambling for statistics this week to prove the fiscal value of the National Endowment for the Arts. This report from ACG, a national nonprofit consulting group, is full of juicy numbers.

2016 Artist Survey Summary Report - Artist Trust

Artist Trust is one of our faves. They’ve been supporting individual artists in Washington State since 1986, and every year, they survey their constituents and come back with fascinating numbers on income, geographic distribution, and more.

APPLY

Executive Director - Emerge Washington

Institutional Giving Manager - Kidsquest Children’s Museum

Systems Administrator - Path with Art

FOLLOW

Each week, we’ll spotlight one of our favorite organizations around town. This week - We.App!

MFA ‘11 Toyia Taylor founded We.App (Act.Present.Perform) after graduating from the program. Toyia was the first woman of color to perform oratory at the Miss America Pageant and now, she’s creating opportunities for young people to find their voice. We.App’s Rising Voices Oratory Competition kicks off next month and there are a few awesome opportunities to volunteer! Check them out here.

[nofomoartworld]

Hyperallergic: 24 Senators Sign Letter Urging Trump to Keep the National Endowments for Arts and Humanities

Signs at the Women’s March on Washington (photo by Jillian Steinhauer/Hyperallergic)

Today, 24 Democratic, Republican, and independent US Senators signed and sent a letter to President Donald Trump urging him not to slash or cut completely federal funding for the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities (NEA and NEH). The two agencies — which, for financial year 2016, had budgets of just under $148 million apiece, combining to account for less than 0.0075% of the federal budget for the year — are among the entities that could see their funding partially or completely cut under the Trump administration’s preliminary budget. The threats to the NEA and NEH have met with stern opposition from artists and figures across the political spectrum.

Today’s letter, led by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D–New York), was signed by two Republicans (senators Shelly Moore Capito of West Virginia and Susan M. Collins of Maine), two independents (senators Angus S. King Jr. of Maine and Bernie Sanders of Vermont), and 20 Democrats. It encourages Trump “to support the Chairmen of these agencies, who demonstrate a continued commitment to supporting the arts and humanities.” The letter also makes an economic case for the agencies’ vitality: “The US Bureau of Economic Analysis reports that the arts and culture sector is a $704 billion industry, or 4.2 percent of the nation’s GDP.”

Whether the Senators’ rational arguments will hold water with a man who, in 1999, claimed that as president he would curtail NEA funding because of an exhibition the agency had absolutely no role in, remains to be seen. However, Trump’s only direct interaction with the NEA and NEH to date seems a bleak sign of what may be to come: in 2013, when he took over the lease of Washington, DC’s Old Post Office Building to turn it into a luxury hotel, the two agencies were among those evicted.

The 24 Senators’ joint letter to Trump reads in full:

Dear Mr. President,

We write today in support of the critical work being done at the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). These federal agencies provide vital support and resources to endeavors in the arts and humanities across the country that serve as drivers of innovation and economic prosperity. We encourage you to support the Chairmen of these agencies, who demonstrate a continued commitment to supporting the arts and humanities.

Since its creation in 1965, the NEH has funded groundbreaking scholarly research, preserved essential cultural and educational resources, cataloged more than 63 million pages of our nation’s historic newspapers, and helped millions of young people grapple with the lessons of history. Additionally, both the NEH and NEA offer healing programs for those who serve in our Armed Services and their families, as well as veterans reintegrating into civilian life.

Also established in 1965, the NEA supports art and education programs in every Congressional District in the United States. Access to the arts for all Americans is a core principle of the Endowment. The majority of NEA grants go to small and medium-sized organizations, and a significant percentage of grants fund programs in high-poverty communities. Furthermore, both agencies extend their influence through states’ arts agencies and humanities councils, ensuring that programs reach even the smallest communities in remote rural areas.

Programs offered through the NEA and NEH not only help Americans express their values and forge connections between cultures, but they also serve as important economic drivers. The US Bureau of Economic Analysis reports that the arts and culture sector is a $704 billion industry, or 4.2 percent of the nation’s GDP. The nonprofit arts industry alone produces $135 billion in economic activity annually and generates $22.3 billion in government revenue. The arts spur tourism, prepare our students for the innovative thinking required in the 21st century workplace, and employ more than 4 million people in the creative industries nationally.

While it is very rare for artists or institutions, like museums, to secure funding from just one source, it is the funding from these agencies that stimulate strong private investments. These agencies collaborate with private foundations across the country to bring artistic endeavors to life. In fact, each dollar awarded by the NEA leverages nine dollars from other sources.

The ideals of these agencies are enshrined in our Constitution as a fundamental tenet of American civil society. Article I, Section 8 explicitly empowers the United States Congress to promote the “Progress of Science and useful Arts.” The importance of federal support for these activities inherently aligns with the founding principles of this country.

Federal support for the arts and humanities is essential to our education system, economy, and who we are as a nation. We hope you will keep this in mind as you consider proposals that support these fundamental American institutions.

The post 24 Senators Sign Letter Urging Trump to Keep the National Endowments for Arts and Humanities appeared first on Hyperallergic.

from Hyperallergic http://ift.tt/2lA85fc via IFTTT