Puffin Foundation West

PFW provided a grant in 2012 to Central Community House (CCH) which is the comprehensive neighborhood-based community center that has been serving the near east side of Columbus since 1937! Teens who are in the Transit Arts program at CCH have been collaborating with OSU's Department of Industrial, Interior and Visual Communication   to turn CCH's former facility on Bryden Road into a satellite campus.  On Thurs., April 8th the public is invited to see the work that has been done to date in their DESIGN MATTERS Showcase where you will see how CCH's teens working jointly with OSU college students have come together to visualize, design and build furnishings and features for the future Walter and Marian English Center for Art and Community (the renovated facility on Bryden Road). For more info: Central Community House <lhweaver@cchouse.org>; 

PFW has made a Grant award to the YWCA Columbus which has worked for over 125 years towards eliminating racism and empowering woman through nurturing, housing, feeding and mentoring them and their families through all stages of their lives. Our grant supports their undertaking entitled Faces of Courage and will enable the “Y” use the portraits of twelve women clients, which were taken by local and acclaimed   photographer Scott Cunningham. Each photograph offers a glimpse at the character and fortitude of these women. The photographs will be on permanent display in the Y's main headquarters,  the Griswold Building.  These portraits have  also been packaged as note cards with the impactful stories of these women’s lives on the back of the card and describes how YWCA's Women's Residency Program is helping them overcome adversity, abuse and other disadvantages so that they can rebuild their lives and futures . The “Y’s” commitment to the rights of women and their children has created positive social change, provided economic empowerment, and has raised a voice for justice for many in our community who previously were not heard. These portraitures are powerful messengers, and those that are able to see these images will stop and reflect on the work that is being done by the YMCA to help end racism and suffering.  (Image by Scott Cunningham) 

Peace Is Loud in honor of International Women's Day invites you to bring the award-winning documentary series Women, War & Peace to your community!  Puffin West was one of the sponsors in 2011 that helped The Women's Fund of Central Ohio bring Abigail Disney to Columbus to discuss this award-winning documentary.  The series that Peace Is A Loud is offering examines war through women's eyes and includes the film Pray the Devil Back to Hell, which features Leymah Gbowee and the women who came together to bring peace and reconciliation to Liberia.  Nobel Peace prizewinner Leymah Gbowee was at Otterbein University , in Westerville, OH, late last fall promoting Libraries for Liberia and speaking about her continuing work in Liberia uplifting women and girls.  Women, War & Peace premiered on PBS in 2011, where it reached 13 million viewers.  Peace Is Loud is now bringing the films to a global audience by sharing Women, War & Peace screening kits for FREE with organizations around the world. To request screening kits and download a resource and discussion guide, visit peaceisloud.org!

NIGHTHAWKS, which will be presented to the public in September 2013 by PUSH LEG a Portland-based theatre company is an original work inspired by the classical paintings of EDWARD HOPPER, particularly his painting the small town diner.  As the viewer is drawn onto the set, they will encounter the town's locals.  The cast of eccentric characters including the proprietress, her busboy nephew, a young waitress, the town's reporter and some "regulars."  The interweaving relationships reveal layers of personal history while simultaneously painting a larger picture of this town, ANYTOWN USA.  Camille Cettina and Anne Sorce have over twenty years of professional experience as performers, creators of new works and as producers. Developing the “landscapes” of Edward Hopper’s paintings and transporting/transposing them into contemporary Americana is so very ripe. It appears certain that Push Leg will provide Portland with a very important original cultural production.

          (image by Stephen A. Miller)  More info @ www.pushleg.com

PFW is continuing its granting to the North Shore Musical Festival in Northbrook, IL this June 5th, 7th, & 8th under the leadership of VADMIM GLUZMAN, Artistic Director, and ANGELA YOFFE, Executive Director. We are especially impressed with your commitment to continue and expand your educational outreach to the over 100 students who will be included in the educational portion of the series entitled The Next Generation on stage" which is made possible through the generosity from many of the artists, whom you have been able to attract to the festival and who will also share their talents these student   musicians.  The opportunity to listen, learn and play with some of the world’s most renowned artists in master classes is an experience of a lifetime.  Your understanding that the language of music can instill in a student the curiosity to explore their own creativity, nurture their ambitions and influence them to continue honing their skills so that, perhaps, they can realizing their dreams, is applauded.   Your unique programming reaches out to all ethnic groups, and your stimulating program helps to enrich communities and strengthen community spirits - as music explores the diversity of human emotions through its multi-faceted palate.

OF THE RISING TIDE has been a long-term project of documentary photographer Melinda Rose who has received a PFW grant to continue her chronicling of the lives of the people who inhabit a remote Louisiana Island, Isle de Jean  Charles, which has literally been disappearing.  Melinda Rose's pieces have focused on a gentle yet determined community as they cope with the fact that their lives and livelihoods have been swept away by the ravages of wind and water.  Ms. Rose heads back to Bayou Country this spring wondering which families have relocated and about those families that  have managed to  stayed how have they managed to hold their tight-knit community together?  It is a story of a series of disasters, but more importantly it is a story of survival. For an incredible history lesson of this Isle go to isledejeancharles.com.  

For over forty years Kevin Locke a visionary Hoop Dancer, preeminent player of the indigenous Northern Plains flute, traditional story teller, recording artist, educator and cultural ambassador for the Lakota has  gathered as many traditional songs, musical skills and dances as he can to preserve the Lakota culture and present it to the world.  He is collaborating with Rich Dube an honored music educator from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada on an accessible educational curriculum for the classroom to re-introduce tribal youth and Native American music enthusiasts to the traditional tuning and songs of the Lakota "Sioux" peoples of the Northern Plains.  This project seeks to revive a nearly forgotten musical tradition and song culture.  This project will introduce to many an ancient but now unfamiliar scale, being the flute's traditional tuning, which is unlike the Western pentatonic scale and it will also explore the  distinctive song structure  which is  "authentic" Lakota style.  Rich Dube has found a way to recreate the traditional Lakota flute so that an affordable replica can be produced and the Grant made by PFW will enable the music teachers from North and South Dakota attending the 2013 Lakota Summer Institute in Fort Yates, ND on Standing Rock Reservation to be introduced to this flute music and the curriculum to take back to their students. This is a Project of the Lakota Language Consortium (www.lakota.org)

Puffin Foundation West has given a Grant to support the CELEBRATION of the Massachusetts Clubhouse Coalition (MCC), a non-profit organization that serves 8300 members who have serious and persistent mental illness, such as depressive disorders, bi-polar disorders and schizophrenia. Clubhouses started decades ago as a “movement” in NYC in the 1950’s by a group of former patients trying to de-institutionalize themselves from that stigma. Fundamentally, it can be described as human rights movement that now has 300 centers in 23 countries worldwide. We are happy to contribute to their EMPLOYMENT RECOVERY CELEBRATION this April in Boston. People who struggle with these illnesses have found that through the Clubhouse Programs that they have opportunities that enable them to learn real skills that can allow them to reintegrate back into the work place and give them hope that they can reconnect with family and friends and even return to school. Members do not live in their local Clubhouses but use the centers as a base of support in their efforts to live successfully in the community.  They learn to build sustaining relationship and how to become civically engaged. Clubhouse Centers also support the artistic expression of their members via Clubhouse organized art shows; by helping members learn how to sell their work; by publishing members poetry and hosting coffee houses with open mics. MCC offers a variety of resources to help people with mental illness to find meaningful paid work and the Celebration highlights the successes of Clubhouse members who have found employment and also recognizes and celebrates the employers who have provided meaning jobs.  www.massclub.org

During 2013 you will see our Puffin West Logo adding support to the sponsorship of a number of Columbus Metropolitan Club (CMC) Forums.   CMC encourages civic awareness of contemporary matters by providing a face-to-face platform that is built on civil discussions and debate about common local, national or global concerns.     13 forward, civic-minded WOMEN founded CMC in 1976  because they could not gain access to private lunch clubs and speakers' programs in Columbus, OH because they were not men.  For the last 37 years notable speakers/leaders from around the city, the nation and the world representing a wide-range of diversity - (be it race, age, gender, orientation, religious and/or political beliefs) have taken the stage to discuss relevant and newsworthy issues at the weekly luncheons.  8-9000 people attend these Forums annually. Each program has time built-in to always include unedited questions from the audience to the presenters, ensuring that the audience plays an essential role in each forum.  columbusmetroclub.org 

San Francisco Cinematheque received a grant in support of their three-program film series From the East: Post Soviet Legacies to be presented in the Fall of 2013. The PFW grant will help to enable each of the filmmakers to visit the US.   Sergey Loznitza will present his film REVUE, a feature-length critical compendium of archival propaganda newsreels produced in the USSR in the 1950's and '60's, documenting the lives of people from all sectors of the vast nation, depicting "hardship, deprivation and absurd rituals, but at the same time illuminated by the glorious shining of the communist illusion."   Loznitza, who is from Belarus released another film in 2005 entitled BLOCKADE about the 900 day "Siege of Leningrad."  Filmmaker Stephan Rusu from Moldova work is intimately related to examining processes of change which, occurred in post-socialist societies after 1989.  His interests include mass-manipulation techniques, political engineering strategies; and various modes of colonization, national absorption and post-Soviet re-division of states and regions.  He will present works from several projects, including Changing Climate.  Andras Szirtes of Budapest, Hungary, known as the "dean of Hungarian experimentalist," has created personal experimental films since the mid-1970's.  He will be at the San Francisco Cinematheque festival to present a retrospective of his important and neglected works which include his 16mm Diaries series (1979-2004) which document the impact of the communist system on the artist's daily life. 

Activist New York

Activist New York explores the drama of social activism in New York City from the 17th century right up to the present. In a town renowned for its in-your-face persona, citizens of the city have banded together on issues as diverse as historic preservation, civil rights, wages, sexual orientation, and religious freedom. Using artifacts, photographs, audio and visual presentations, as well as interactive components that seek to tell the entire story of activism in the five boroughs, Activist New York presents the passions and conflicts that underlie the city's history of agitation.          

Lynn Levine is a family member who lives in Vermont.  We are PUFFIN  Proud of her!

Mammal Tracks and Scat: 
Life-Size Tracking Guide

A life-size and waterproof tracking guide that will help turn your tracking adventure into a magical experience.

Ph.D. Candidate at O.S.U.’s Dept. of Arts Administration, Education and Policy, Ruth Smith received a grant for her participatory photography project, Dumarka Soomaaliyeed.  This exhibit includes written narratives and photographs by second and third generation, 18-35 year old Somali women, whom are college-educated and living in Columbus, Minneapolis, or Boston. These second-wave immigration cities have the largest concentration of descendants who originally emigrated from Somalia to the USA since violence and civil war torn through their homeland. Participatory Photography is an art making process in which the community determines and explores issues, questions, and problems with the camera. The power of this type of project is in the potential to give communities a voice and empower them to create social change by using this process to open a window on an idea. The women in this project will tell their own stories, focusing on their respective roles in the community and how that community has developed since the original Somali immigrants arrived. These women will definitely challenge assumptions and stereotypes that many people have. Currently the work by the group of Columbus women who worked on this project is on view at Westerville Public Library and will be exhibited at the Columbus Metropolitan Library Northern Lights branch in April. Venues in the two other cities to be announced.  

The Anne Frank Center (www.annefrank.com) offers a wide range of museum, school and community based programs for students, teachers, administrators, young families, and other engaged in the missions of peacemaking, courage, resilience, justice, and ending discrimination and bullying. PFW has provided The Anne Frank Center with a grant in support of Debbie Rosenfeld’s photographic exhibition The Jews of Cuba. Ms. Rosenfeld was a Puffin Grant recipient in 2012.   Ms. Rosenfeld’s photographs take viewer into the lives of a small and vanishing population of the remaining Jews living in Cuba. Although Jews have lived in Cuba for centuries - peaking at 24,000 in the 1920's - it is estimated that there remain only 1500, mostly elderly Jews, now on the island. Following the revolution Jews were discriminated against, as were other religious peoples.   The history of the Jewish population in Cuba is part of history that should not be lost even though, for the most part, these people have been forgotten. Rosenfeld’s diptych formatting of pairing a portrait of a person and then a still life of their Spartan living environment takes the viewer in and invariably the on-looker makes up a story about the face they just encountered. The exhibit will run from late May throughout the summer. When you go to the Center catch the performance of Letters from Anne & Martin which is an imagined meeting of mind and heart, drawn entirely from the text of Anne Frank’s Diary and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail.

PFW obviously LOVES artists and with immense gratitude and admiration we thank ROGER WILLIAMS  for applying for a grant to create a traveling mural entitled "OZONE MAN."  He sees a time when we can even unplug from energy saving (ugly) light bulbs, where the wind energizes us all and in doing so life and love spring freely and colorfully all around.  KISSES!

Puffin Foundation West is pleased to be a sponsor of a signature component of the revitalization and community beautification project of Livingston Avenue between Parsons Avenue and Nelson Road. Chorus members of The Harmony Project together with neighborhood children, teens and other citizens will work on a series of ten murals that will take you on a century-long journey through the Street Car District’s history and highlights.

“The Harmony Project embraces the Mission of transforming the community through service and song. “It provides an opportunity for individuals of different backgrounds, religion, ages, political affiliation, and sexual orientations to work towards performing at an artistic level they had never imagined, and bond through the collective experience of community service (www.harmonyproject.com).” David Brown, Founder and Creative Director

ROUNDABOUT OPERA FOR KIDS (ROK) under the direction of Kimberly Carballo, Coordinating Opera Coach at Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN received a grant for a project that personifies Puffin West Foundation's Mission.  ROK commissioned a new opera that explores cultural identity and is entitled Ana y la Sombra.   Five-Thousand (5000) students in grades K-12 will see a performance of this opera either in their school, community center or local library and their teachers all will receive coordinated curriculum guides FOR FREE.  The performers are all student VOLUNTEERS from the Jacobs School of Music who donate their time and talents while honing their skills through ROK's outreach. This gives these students the opportunity to venture out from their specialized world of the practice room and concert hall, to get the satisfaction of sharing their skills and talents where they are needed, and to develop a sense of themselves as contributing citizens of the community. The targeted audience is children in southern Indiana who might not otherwise be exposed to opera.  In this underserved student population 46% of the students, for instance are entitled to free or reduced priced lunches.   This new opera by Gabriela Ortiz and Monica Sanchez tells the story of a young Mexican girl, Ana, who is visited at her home by the wandering shadow of her cousin Gina, who lives in the United States.  This visit, and the events which follow, challenge the cousins to confront the cultural stereotypes they each hold of each other.  The libretto is sung in mixed Spanish and English.  Ana y la Sombra explores the riches of multiculturalism in a way that is accessible for young students who will then be engaged by their teachers to discuss issues of cross cultural communication and understanding.  This opera will connect students to global issues in a personal manner and help children explore ideas of cultural diversity....and all of this probably during their first encounter with opera.  Find out more on Facebook: Roundabout Opera for Kids

Puffin West is continuing its philanthropic support of The Women's Fund and will be a major sponsor of the screening of a film (TBA) that will highlight the effects of cultural attitudes and historical pretext on women and girls in society nationally and/or internationally. The film for 2013 has yet to be chosen, but be assured and watch for updates on this site, that it will have cultural relevance; it will empower and generate energy promoting the fact that if women stand together, they have the power to change society. The roundtable discussion following the film's messaging will help shape and sharpen the dialogue so that women not only remain in the conversation, but also are able to begin the conversation!

Lauren Kalman is  a visual artist who has explored perspectives of beauty and body image in our culture  (www.laurenkalman.com) Ms. Kalman has an MFA and is an Ass't.  Prof. at Wayne State Univ. and she is known for her wearable sculpture, electronic adornments and body piercing that track afflictions.  She has recently begun collaborating with Kipp Bradford, a design engineer, and they are producing wearable interactive electronic artwork in the form of broaches that will make visible the hidden world of biological virus spread by social contact.  HUH? These broaches will mimic the spread of a contagious disease as the wearable broach that holds the hardware interacts with another wearer of a broach.  The data gathered will create a model, in this case of how the HPV virus spreads.  The Virus Visualization's data will be down-loaded to a web-based interface that can be accessed and the modeling will grow and be visualized when each contributor adds  data.  Being able to simulate the spread of disease through social contact by utilizing an adornment is a unique idea that blends art, engineering and performance action to create a scientific model of a disease dynamic.   It is expected that 50 broaches will be distributed at a public event later this year and that the interaction between these people will be choreographed to show how the Alpha carrier affects the group.