The following is an article  from  the magazine "District Administration- Solution for School District Management." Puffin Foundation West is a lead sponsor for this symposium that has brought together top educators and School District repreentatives from around the country to discuss Bullying and LGBTQ issues.  Please read on.  In service,  Java Kitrick

School Districts from Across the Country Network at Invitation-Only Conference on LGBTQ Issues

A project was started over a year ago under the auspices of the STONEWALL NATIONAL MUSEUM AND ARCHIVES that sought out photographs and text from young LGBT artists around the country.  These actors, guitarists, painters, and writers  through  their creative energy allow the viewer to see beyond "just" sexual labels and view the talent within that  defines these gifted youths.  On view  at the Museum March 1-16 and then look for  this show, as  it will be traveling around the country. 

Saturday Morning Art Classes (SMAC) at the Columbus College of Art and Design (CCAD) provides 900 students in Grades 1-12 the opportunity to develop superior skills and gain a strong background in the visual arts.  

CCAD faculty and local professional artists provide instruction, with CCAD degree-seeking students assisting in the classroom.  These courses are carefully planned sequences of age-appropriate artistic activities that are designed to develop students' creativity and imagination, while expanding their aesthetic and cultural sensitivity. The highlight of these two ten-week programs is when the Campus is opened up to these students and their families and friends for SMAC Hop, a festival and art exhibition that showcases the work by these children and teens.  PFW gave a modest grant for need-based scholarships so that these young people could have the opportunity to experience the transformative powers of learning about and creating ART.

Jan Mun  (www.janmun.com) has an MFA from Rhode Island School of Design and has been working with living organic matter to explore the generative principles of how complex systems such as botany, economics, and social networks function and the effects of interactions between different entities, whether cultures, plants or people. Jan is a member of the NYC Beekeeping group and has created BeeSpace, an audio interactive observation beehive. BeeSpace shows the bees’ natural system in an artificially built environment, which allows the viewer to have a visceral and intimate experience with the natural world. Humans are threatened by BEES, and bees certainly have been threatened by HUMANS due to environmental pollution, pesticides, disease and modern farming techniques.

PFW’s Grant to BeeSpace may be out of the ordinary realm of awards given out, but PFW believes that technology and science have a growing place in social discourse, and  we cannot be blind to the fact that emerging technologies have and will  effect social justice and that scientists are using their tools to make scientific art because  it does communicate.  We believe that culture and its roots as a scientific study have had great effects on the arts and expression. As a viewer of BeeSpace, Jan Mun invites you up to the glass that separates you from the bees and then you put on headphones and an ultrasonic sensor is triggered to increase the audio from inside the live hive. The sound increases until you no longer feel the bees are isolated and “OH DEAR” you fear that they may have escaped into the room. The question is,  are either the bees or us safe within artificially built environments? Jan uses this as a social reflection and critique of our political and social systems. Jan’s original colony located in Battery Park at the tip of Manhattan which was brought up to Saint John’s the Divine for the Feast of Saint Francis and Blessing of the Animals in October, 2012 was lost to Hurricane Sandy.

Did you ever hear DANCE speak to you? PFW has provided a Grant which will provide female ex-offenders, who are in recovery, and their children, who are all residents in the AMETHYST program, the opportunity to receive three-months of weekly dance instruction.   This project will culminate in a performance on April 27th during the OhioDance Festival, April 26-28th.  Dance is able to communicate every emotion and feeling and through its own language of choreography. This will allow these women and their children to have a voice to dance-out their individual and collective story through Dance.  Taking ownership of their own story and its emotional content will be part of their recovery and allow them to transition to a creative and meaningful life. That mother and child will interact will be an emotional experience that they are willing to share and we ask that you be there to share these moments.   A keynote speaker, Pat Graney, from Seattle who is well known for her prison projects and for her arts-based educational programming will speak that afternoon in a panel discussion.   She will also give a master class that will provide a hands-on example of how to work for your community utilizing the language of dance.  OhioDance is a socially concerned community organization devoted to creating a better world by bridging the gap between art and the lives of ordinary people.  This festival will bring dancers together  from all around the state.  More information:     www.ohiodance.org

PFW was so happy to  learn about  Ms. LEROYNA EDWARDS, who is the Executive Director of The Children Shall Lead Them Productions in Columbus, OH,  through her Grant Application "Health is W.E.A.L.T.H.S. Empowerment Thru Arts."  She has been engaged and in-service to the most needy children and their parents in the Pointdexter Community.  You can find her using her skills and talents at the Beatty Recreation Center where she has been instrumental in creating community programs such as Circle 77 Community (Food) Co-op, and the Joyful Living Wellness Institute where community members can learn about nutritian, do yoga, and learn how a healthful lifestyle  can change behavior in a positive manner to empower you  to take control of your own life.   She has started after-school programs where none existed before and  has spearheaded a program where elderly residents of the Near Eastside  can now  apply for grocery delivery.    Her youth development program offers health and wellness education by creatively integrating art education  in a way that  highlights how a healthy lifestyle and preventative activities allow people to  achieve a healthy, successful life through self-care and right thinking. 

W = Water

E = Exercise

A = AIR

L = Light 

Two-hundred  high school students representing the diverse backgrounds of the 15th largest American city will be immersed in a culturally-rich, real-world experience outside their classrooms as they converge on the Wexner Center to be part of  WorldView.  This programming supports national initiatives in global education  and will expose these young adults  to diverse cultural views, perspectives, and ways of life  using contemporary art, including film as the messenger.   Being able to discuss and write about these encounters are part of the exercises required and in doing so they will be exploring the diverse points of view that artwork provokes.  This program is designed to:

-Develop writing skills

-Learn how to  communicate effectively

-Understand why people value the arts

The COLUMBUS GAY MEN'S CHORUS gets it!  They understand the beauty of the Not For Profit Community working together, and collaborating as these   partnerships have greater impact on the communities they serve. The importance of the ARTS on the quality of life and economic development in underserved neighborhoods cannot be down-played and bringing this caliber of entertainment to this near-eastside neighborhood has significant impact on local businesses as well as visitors’ perceptions of the inner city as this neighborhood is bustling with new developments and opportunities.  Our Grant to the Columbus Gay Men's Chorus  (CGMC) will allow them to provide free tickets to the King-Lincoln District Boys and Girls Club as well as neighborhood clients of Franklin County Children's Services to come out and hear the CGMC during their presentation of MOTOWN IN OUR TOWN at the Lincoln Theatre. The Gay Men's Chorus will also be raising their voices and discussing this entire season, the effects of HIV/AIDS on communities and families.    Following the Sunday, June 30th concert, CGMC will be part of a panel exploring the impact that the music of Motown has had shaping the Lincoln Theatre district and other communities in Central Ohio.  More info on this and all other performances for this season at www.CGMC.com.

Non-Violent CARTOONS from around the world will  entertain 300 giggling children on  Saturday November 16th as part the Columbus International Film Festival. If you do not  get a seat don't worry as  on December 31st during First Night Columbus at COSI thousands of children and their parents will be joyfully entertained by  these TOONS.  The hour-long program   promises to be special as many of these cartoons will be first runs in Central Ohio.  The Columbus Film Festival (CIF)  started in 1952  and is the longest running film festival in the U.S. It was founded by progressive educators and has always included documentaries, narratives, experimental works and  animation.    PFW is encouraged that CIF is making this dedicated effort to share with our community violence-free TOONS as children need to be children and parents need to know that there are alternatives to the  high level  of violence that permeates kids' daytime programming.  Studies have shown that the new intensity of this medium causes children to be more aggressive, anxious and potentially can desensitize them to the realities of pain, fighting, war and death.  The  differences between  the graphics of Tom & Jerry or Popeye  when compared to contemporary children's programming and the prevalence of unacceptable real-world behaviors portrayed  in these cartoons is startling. Children studied under ten years old cannot, for the most part, distinguish between reality and fantasy as they do not have enough life experiences "on file" yet.    More info on the entire  Festival is on line at www.columbusfilmcouncil.org

LOCAL MATTERS has been working in Central Ohio to ensure that everyone has access to healthful foods and has a history of partnering with communities to create opportunities for them to have access to healthy foods so they can eat well.   Growing Matters is one of their core programs.   Local Matters has put together a stand-out partnership team that will join the creative talents of Architect Tim Lai, Eliza Ho, who has been instrumental in developing opportunities between neighborhoods and artists to better their communities, and with the Westside Boys and Girls Club in creating and sustaining a food production garden on their property.  This outdoor learning environment will provide not only the Club members but their parents and neighbors the opportunity to learn how to design, construct and maintain an urban garden.  In addition to planting, weeding, watering, composting and harvesting, participants will be taught that fresh foods are important to health and a healthy planetary environment.  This Growing Matters garden will also be a multi-dimensional/multi-sensory space where Club members will be involved in projects such a creating edible art, creating songs, stories and performances about their garden and other activities often led by Artists from the studios of 400 West Rich Street.   PFW is pleased to partner with so many fine people, businesses and organizations in this project that gives the participants an environment to explore connections between the natural world, our health, the food we eat and our cultures. 

Y33,  is the oldest known nesting PUFFIN in North America. This 35 year old female was one of the original chicks brought to Egg Rock  Island off the coast of New England  in 1977.  My mother, Dorothea Rosenstein who died in 1981,  was part of this program that helped restore this lost puffin colony.  As you know from our Mission Statement, we are the Puffin Foundation West as we believe sometimes you need to interfere to make things right! So, if you are still  looking for that uniquely special way to celebrate Valentine’s Day? Consider adopting a puffin from Eastern Egg Rock.  This is a project of the AUDUBON SOCIETY and is not related at all to Puffin Foundation West's work.  Your tax-deductible gift will help protect Maine puffins and your Valentine will receive a biography, photo and certificate of adoption.

  http://projectpuffin.audubon.org/adopt-puffin-special-valentine

For a quarter of a century the dedication of Artist and Art Activist, MR. JIM ARTER, has made a difference in thousands of children's lives in Central Ohio.  Puffin West will be supporting two exhibitions that will  inform the public of the programs' histories he created, the methodology he used and how  his ideas  in creating vehicles for  young people, who were frequently excluded from access to arts and programming, helped not only the children, their families and the community but instigated and ultimately  promote social change.   His work with the Greater Columbus Arts Council (GCAC)  has served 100,000's children in  Columbus' City Schools  through a program entitled ARTISTS-in-SCHOOLS (A-i-S) that  he  helped expand.   Mr. Arter has mentored 214 artists in the community  who have been able to use the arts to address social issues and promote peace.  Many of these artists are part of  A-i-S and  teachers use their diverse talents and skills to supplement existing curriculum.  This array of artists brings to the schools   workshops,  seminars, performances and interactive activities  that the students take part in.  (PFW has in the past  funded A-i-S programming at the Hubbard Elementary School and at John Burroughs Elementary through grants requests made by a teacher,  Mrs. Pollyea.)   One of  Mr. Arter's visions embraced by the GCAC ultimately  became a nationally recognized  model  used by Americorps entitled  Children of the Future.  These retrospectives will also have programming sessions with children aged 7-11, gallery lectures and a "drop-in" studio program entitled "THE WORKS."  The first part of this Show will run from July-September, 2013 in Granville, OH. This project is endorsed by the Ohio Alliance for Arts Education.   More updates  to come under   Press and Announcements on this site.

Twenty-five works of ART by middle and high school students all  interpreting the spirit of the life, works and words of Martin Luther King and how his non-violent life was dedicated to making  us a more enlightened, peaceful and progressive democracy are now on display at Columbus' City Hall.  The  ARTISTS' RECEPTION  is scheduled for February 11th @ 4P.

This will be followed by an appearance of these artists before the Columbus City Council where the awards (as this was a juried show) will be given out.  Please attend to meet and then applaud all these young people for believing in THE DREAM!

90 West Broad Street.

Community Arts Advocate, Aaron Thomas, who devotes so much  of his time as a community outreach leader touching the lives of hundreds of young people with his amazing talent, and vision  has received a PFW Grant.  Aaron can be found nurturing lives  with work done through Little Gems, Transit Arts, Central Community House, St. Stephen's and the  After School All Stars.  If that was not hard work enough, he is now gearing up to bring his passion and creativity to community festivals.  Stop by and meet Aaron at his Monastic Arts booth this summer at Com Fest, Hot Times, GCAC's Arts Festival, and many other outdoor events throughout the metropolitan area. His work and dedication have not gone unnoticed and this year he will be continuing his partnership with various agencies both public and private.   Aaron Thomas  will tell you that ART helps positively shape and hold together both  neighborhoods and families and  that  donating time, being in service  making art  with young people are essential ingredients to humans thriving.

Upcycling a Mural

PFW has given long-time muralist, Brian Taylor, a Grant. His 8 x 8 foot painting will challenge everyone's imagination to take objects that seem no longer useful such as empty containers, vent covers, cords, hubcaps, a leaf rake, or hoses  - all of which are headed to the dump  - and give them new identities as make-shift musical instruments.  This colorful mural will inspire anyone to innovate, recirculate, repurpose and recycle his or her junk and perhaps in the process create beautiful music by doing so.  Mr. Taylor plans on donating the mural once completed.  This ia a previous  mural that Mr. Taylor did for Butzel Middle School.

Puffin Foundation West's Mission uses ART, the universal language that reaches across the borders of our imagination and so often peaceably transforms our society’s ideas.   Kay Westhues the gallery owner of ARTPOST in South Bend Indiana, a town on the southern most bend of the Saint Joseph River, and in collaboration with other local groups, is organizing an outdoor event of five installations along the river that will celebrate  its role in their community's past and present.  South Bend developed an industrial-based economy that depended on the St. Joseph for transportation and energy.   Owing to bad corporate citizenship (and perhaps ignorance) it became a repository of pollution from industrial and agricultural sources.  In fact by 1930, the State Board of Health concluded that the river was dangerous to public health and to fish life!  It has taken eighty years but the river has changed and it is COMING BACK TO LIFE providing work, sustenance, recreation and beauty in this community.   Through the efforts of citizens, non-profits and government initiatives, it is understood that maintaining a healthy river ecosystem is critical to the survival of South Bend.   What does WE ARE THE RIVER mean to you?   This exhibit will remind everyone who comes to this contemporary art exhibit Sept 6-October 27th, that the natural world can and must survive in an urban space and that unlike Captain Kirk’s prime directive, many times you do have to step-up to make things right.  

If you are a regional artist and would like to participate, contact kwesthues@gmail.com (Illustration St. Joseph River  and South Bend, IN, 1866)

GLOBAL GALLERY, a local Columbus Ohio organization with four retail locations that is known for its Fair Trade goods for sale, is just part of what this organization does in Central Ohio.  Did you know that they offer monthly workshops entitled WOMEN CRAFTING CHANGE that invite immigrant women to come together and creatively express themselves through the development of making unique, marketable crafts from sustainable and reclaimed materials?  Imagine this program, by design, integrates newly-arrived immigrants into the fabric of our town.   Through  this work, they are introduced to the community and it allows them to have an outlet to discuss  issues affecting immigrants in Columbus such as  poverty, economics, Fair Trade, and women's concerns. Having a place to discuss issues that may not have been part of the cultural dialog in their  respective home countries gives them a sense of America and how communication between all people is a building block for peace, social justice, understanding and creates  change. By inviting women from different socioeconomic communities and backgrounds, Global Gallery is also breaking down the ethnic barrier of isolationism that new members of our community often face.   These monthly meeting encourage social interaction and the "crossing of borders."  The program also offers food security and meals are prepared and served.   In addition, as Global Gallery has a Fair Trade store on the campus of The Ohio State University, it has attracted student interns who are afforded the opportunity to interact with women from different cultures and who may be experiencing economic hardship. It also allows students to have hands-on experience with the day-today work of Fair Trade practices both locally and internationally.   This is a model for collaborative partnerships that teaches respect and humility. 

A long-time favorite project of PFW -  that was developed at the Wexner Center  and comports with  Ohio Curriculum Standards  so that  it  aligns with visual arts education, literacy, and writing for High School students, grades 9-12 -  has been PAGES.  Participants in this program come from diverse backgrounds and it is provided  to our community at no cost to schools, teachers or students.  Teachers from across the community are invited to attend a day-long orientation session and  commit to integrating PAGES into their curricula which brings both OSU educators and local artists into the classroom prior to these classes visiting the Wexner Center to experience:   (1)  A dynamic Live Performance presented by the WEXNER Center or OSU's College of the Arts; (2) a Visual Arts gallery exhibition at the Center; and (3) a Media Arts event of a film or video.  Following each encounter  the students participate in discussions and are then asked to write in prose, poetry or do a paper on how these artistic experiences have influenced their creative thinking about art.  The goals of the project combine improving  writing skills, communication, understanding of the value of art and how it elicits diverse view points and it also provides ownership in the process as a compendium of the students' work is published at the end of the program in a beautiful volume entitled PAGES!  You can also visit Pages Online (http://wexpagesonline.edublog.org).