April 29, 2010

Colombian singer Shakira is visiting Phoenix today over concerns that a sweeping new state law cracking down on illegal immigration will lead to racial profiling, says Amanda Lee Myers in the Huffington Post (4/29/10.) The Grammy winner was set to meet with Phoenix's police chief and mayor to learn more about how the law will be implemented if it goes into effect this summer. The law makes it a state crime to be in the U.S. illegally and directs police to question people about their immigration status if there is reason to suspect they're illegal immigrants. Shakira visited earthquake-ravaged Haiti earlier this month, expressed her support for Cuban dissident group Ladies in White and has worked as a UNICEF goodwill ambassador. Her Barefoot foundation provides nutrition to more than 6,000 children in Colombia, and she is a member of the ALAS foundation that advocates for children across Latin America. Last month, the U.N. labor agency gave the singer a medal for her work to help impoverished children.

"Shakira Coming To Arizona To Investigate Immigration Law"

April 27, 2010

For those CAN readers interested in service and service-learning:

The Chronicle of Philanthropy recently reported that Patrick Corvington, the head of the Corporation for National and Community Service, is developing a five-year strategic plan to transform the agency’s approach to service to become more "results oriented." Corvington, who describes his background as “results-oriented philanthropy,” became chief executive in February, and is expanding the agency, thanks to the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, signed by President Obama almost one year ago. Corvington says, “It means ensuring our grantees are not focused on numbers, but on outcomes, that as they work with the volunteers they’re engaging, they’re always having a conversation about not what did we do, or how many, but what difference did we make.” While measuring impact can be challenging, Corvington plans to develop an approach that focuses on what works and leaves room for experimentation.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy

April 26, 2010

Times are tough, so many New York cultural executives are taking pay cuts, say Robin Pogrebin and Kate Taylor in the N.Y. Times (4/25/10)

"Glenn D. Lowry, director of the Museum of Modern Art, earned $2.7 million in the year that ended in June 2008, including several one-time bonuses and the cost of his apartment in the tower beside the museum. But in the past 18 months these cultural executives and many others have frozen their salaries or taken cuts as arts budgets have shrunk. Mr. Lowry, for example, has twice agreed to salary reductions, and last year he received a package worth roughly half of what he took in during 2008. ... It is all very much a matter of doing the right thing, said Sarah James, a recruiter at Phillips Oppenheim, an executive search firm. 'People have been laid off,' she said. 'Nobody wants to come across as inappropriate.'"

"Reducing Pay for New York Cultural Executives"

April 22, 2010

Scotland: Opera Company Aims for Youngest Demographic Yet—Babies

BBC News, 4/20/10 "Baby O, which is for babies as young as six months old, includes arias about bees, ducks, and wellington boots. The show, which will tour Scotland, is the brainchild of Scottish Opera's Education Director Jane Davidson. She compared the melodies featured in the event to the musical patterns of nursery rhymes and said the babies were 'completely fascinated by it.' Ms. Davidson told BBC Radio Scotland her idea of staging work for six to 18-month-old babies was initially dismissed as madness, and that she was 'slightly worried' about their response. 'I thought they'd just lie there screaming,' she said. 'But you've never seen such gigantic sets of eyes, they're just completely fascinated by it...The show does start off quite softly and it seems to be that once they get used to it you can really zoom up into fifth gear.' She said the show's composer focused on the idea that melody, rhythm, and harmony would attract their newly developed sense of hearing and looked at how nursery rhymes have repeated ascending and descending patterns." (Thanks Americans for the Arts.)

BBC News

April 13, 2010

The future "History of Somerville" grows apace in Tim Devin's online/book project we told you about in APInews. Dozens of participants have written in to predict the changes Somerville, Mass., will go through in the next century and they've become part of the online timeline.

April 07, 2010

Artists working with young people may be interested in a detailed new online report from Issue Lab called "Aging Out of Foster Care," addressing the situation of children who must leave foster care at 18 (also called "emancipating" and "graduating"), losing programs, case workers and foster homes that were tasked with providing for their basic needs. "This collection explores the barriers and obstacles faced by youth aging out, as well as some of the organizations and opportunities offering pre- and post-emancipation support. It includes work on housing, education, health, and permanency. The research shows that aging out of foster care can be a minefield, but it also provides hopeful glimpses of how young people might navigate those minefields more safely."

"Aging Out of Foster Care"

April 06, 2010

Here's a heartening tale from Courthouse News (4/5/10):

The self-ordained Rev. Billy Talen was arrested on Easter Sunday after putting a "holy hex" on JPMorgan Chase bank, which he calls the nation's largest financier of coal-mining mountaintop removal. The former New York City mayoral candidate and his green-robed chorus put the hex on two bank branches, saying Morgan Chase has helped destroy more than 450 Appalachian mountains, deforested 800 square miles and polluted more than 1,200 miles of streams.
Rev. Billy led his Life After Shopping Gospel Choir to two East Village Chase branches, where the singers "deposited" mounds of "sacred dirt from Coal River Mountain, West Virginia" on the floors of ATM lobbies.