OA news.....

Faculty in the School of Education at Stanford University unanimously adopted a policy requiring all their scholarly work be made available free to the public.

complete article and more news at SPARC http://www.arl.org/sparc/innovator/stanford.shtml

In February Harvard University Faculty of Arts and Sciences voted to give the University a worldwide license to make each faculty member's scholarly articles available and to exercise the copyright in the articles, provided that the articles are not sold for a profit.

For more information about Open Access publishing see:
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/brief.htm


CCAHTE, The Canadian Creative Arts in Health, Training and Education Journal is the international and interdisciplinary peer reviewed open access journal of the creative arts in health, training and education.

"ideas like seeds fully equipped and ready for take off. " photo C. McLean July 25, 2008

Homelessness and Solutions from Lived Experiences through Arts Informed Research

From the Day in the Life Photography and Story Collective, Photo from Anagraphia website Nancy Viva Davis Halifax

Homelessness –Solutions from Lived Experiences through

Arts-Informed Research

Come and listen to our speakers panel and experience the arts based research projects.

a collaborative initiative to put forward and take action on the knowledge gained from eight arts-informed, community-based participatory research studies in Toronto. Help move our recommendations forward:

Date: Wednesday, October 1, 2008

9:30 am – 12:30 pm

Speakers Location: Toronto Metro Hall (Rotunda)

55 John Street, Toronto

A Day in the Life: Stories and Photographs of Health and Homelessness in Toronto

Coming Together: Homeless Women, Housing and Social Support

asleep in Toronto

Count Us In! Inclusion and Homeless Women in Downtown East Toronto

I WAS HERE

The Street Health Report 2007

Street Health Stories

Struggles, Strengths and Solutions: Exploring Food Security with Young Aboriginal Moms

These projects were conducted by peer researchers, community agencies and academics working with people with experiences of homelessness. Together, these works represent an important body of evidence on the lived experiences of homelessness.

The exhibit will be on display from Tuesday, September 30, 2008 to Friday, October 3, 2008. For more information, please contact Professor Izumi Sakamoto at (416)946-8224, or email: mailto:artsandhomelessnessresearch@gmail.com

Other links:
http://ccahtecrossingborders.blogspot.com/2007/05/day-in-life-nancy-viva-davis-halifax-is.html

Coming Together

Article Centre for Applied Social Research, University of Toronto http://www.socialwork.utoronto.ca/index.php?section=495

Visit Nancy Viva Davis Halifax BLOG Anagraphia/Photography and Story http://anagraphia.blogspot.com/index.html

CCAHTE Journal Call for Papers

Photo "Gift of the Water Lily", Britt Ontario, July, 2008, C. McLean

CCAHTE Journal Call for Papers

New Info. about call for papers at

http://www.cmclean.com/submissions.html

Textile Artist Judith Martin Honours Life in Intricate Fabric Constructions

"Art is part of life, not separate. My art contains my worries and hopes. It understands." Canadian Textile Artist, Judith Martin

On a recent family trip north to Espanola, Ontario, we drove to Little Current on Manitoulin Island. I was pleased to discover there was an Artists' tour taking place on the week-end and
even more pleased to have an opportunity to meet textile artist, Judith Martin who was
exhibiting her work. It was a timely meeting. I had just finished teaching the course, "Creative Responses in Death and Bereavement" at The University of Western Ontario. Many of Judith's fabric creations and textile artworks are modern fabric constructions that deal with themes around the passage of time.. birth, life and death, while reflecting and honouring life stories and poetically reconstructing personal memories.

Judith explains, "The fabric constructions I make combine fine art's conceptualism with traditional woman's craft. Photographs, drawings, paintings, and objects are mixed with fabrics, threads, and text in order to communicate poetically. Meditative handwork fills most of the pieces.Traditional quilt patterns and multi-cultural symbols concerning birth, death, and sexuality are the foundation for my artwork. When one considers the connection that these rites of passage have to the bed, then the quilt is an obvious and powerful medium."

We carefully unfolded the blanket pictured above as she shared special memories of her mother the late Pauline Johnson.

"She always encouraged me to find my own self. To follow my own interests. To save my own self and my own sanity. This advice from her during our weekly phone calls gave me the inner strength to go ahead and do what I wanted (and needed) to do in order to become the artist I was meant to be.... She had an active interest in politics and literature. She was passionate about these things."

"My subject is the passage of time. The artwork I make documents and saves the daily life of our family and our surroundings here on Manitoulin Island, Ontario, Canada.
I was born in Fort Frances and spent the next four decades of my life in North Western Ontario. I went to Lakehead University twice, once at age 19 for a teacher's diploma and again fifteen years later for a fine arts degree. After we were married in the mid 70's my husband and I made a fourteen month tour of Europe. I make mixed media textile art and have had thirteen solo exhibitions. On The Lake, a wall piece that I made from stitched photos and satin is in the Canada Council Art Bank. I must also mention that I am a mother of four because almost all of my art practice has to do with balancing that phenomenon. In 1993 we moved from Kenora to Manitoulin Island and the peace and quiet of this lovely place has had a profound effect on my work." (Quotes from Judith Martin's BLOG "Judy's Journal" )

If you will be travelling to Northern Ontario this summer, visit the Judith Martin exhibit "Red Thread" at the Gore Bay Museum Manitoulin Island until August 10, 2008.

For more about Judith Martin's life and work:
see Judy's Journal and visit Judith Martin website
email: njmartin@vianet.ca


And, oh yes, also while in Espanola I discovered the walrus. But more about this great catch, later. CM

As the Crow Flies Ron Benner's Garden Installation Raises Awareness About Unequal Distribution of Food

An interesting article by reporter Kathy Rumleski in the London Free Press last week-end about artist Ron Benner's garden installation project "As the Crow Flies" and book launch of "Gardens of a Colonial Present". The installation was first exhibited in Montreal in 1984 and involved years of research and investigation.

Within the garden are photos that trace the militarization of food and society as well as themes of activism, environmentalism and global food politics.

"Certain countries view food as a form of warfare.....the roots of this warfare are hidden, like a plant's."
Artist, Ron Benner

The book is a compilation of newly commissioned essays, published material and photographs and, as Rumleski reports, "Gardens of a Colonial Present" reminds us that we are still affected by colonialism. Food can be used as a form of warfare.

If you would like to meet the artist to discover more about this work visit the 4th Annual Corn Roast Saturday, September 13, 2:00 to 4:00 pm. at the Wolf Sculpture Garden,
Museum London, London, Ontario. Ron Benner will be at his garden installation "As the Crow Flies" for "a corn roast"..part sculpture, part installation and part performance.

Windsor Regional Children's Centre, Healing Arts Program Incorporates Creative Arts in Mental Health Program for Children and Families

I received news recently about the Windsor Regional Children's Centre Healing Arts Program.

The centre offers programs and services delivered by interdisciplinary teams that provide programs including in-school, in-home and on-site services. In addition to traditional family, parental and group therapy The Healing Arts Program also makes use of music, art, drawing and painting, drama, dance and creative movement approaches.

In March 2005, the Centre conducted a research study supported by the Ministry of Culture and Children's Mental Health Ontario which demonstrated the effectiveness of children's mental health interventions that made use of the arts specifically music, painting and dance.

The study concluded the arts did have a positive impact on children (self-esteem, self confidence improved, positive social interaction between children, children's independence increased) Some parents also expressed children were happier, less depressed, more spontaneous and listening skills improved.

Source: Windsor Regional Children's Centre

The Windsor Regional Children's Centre would like to announce that they are sponsoring a new event called "Jazz Up the Arts" to take place September 21, 2008 from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m at the Centre. Professional jazz musicians will perform and there will be a silent auction and wine tasting...all to help support the Healing Arts Program.

If you would like to sponsor or donate to this event contact Lindy LeDuc-Wilson at lleducwilson@wrh.on.ca

Website: www.wrh.on.ca

Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art Offers Accessible Data Base

CCAHTE Journal and our Arts and Health Crossing Borders BLOG often feature and support the works of contemporary Canadian artists many active in provocative artmaking in the visual arts, installations, new forms of public performance..work that inspires further investigation and questionning while opening the way for constructive criticism and a fresh examination of current belief systems or practices.

I would like to share with you today a helpful website and resource, The Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art Data Base. Here you will find the artists, the designers, writers and curators as well as highlights about projects by artists on the leading edge of contemporary art in Canada. CM

The CCCA's Canadian Art Database Project is a work in progress. With the overall objective of broadening public awareness of contemporary Canadian Art in Canada and abroad, the CCCA is documenting the careers of some of Canada's leading professional artists, designers, art writers and curators, as well as some important Canadian art institutions and organizations that have helped shape the Canadian art scene since the 1960s.

A wide range of previously hard to access material [images, texts, media works, and related ephemera]from a variety of sources across Canada is being assembled into the fully searchable, bilingual, database.

The Canadian Art Database Project currently holds 54,000+ images and 600+ video and audio clips by 600+ artists and designers; and 1,600+ texts by 200+ writers and curators.

Click here for more information about the Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art and

Data Base.

St. Thomas-Elgin Public Art Centre Features Beautiful Woman Project

"I found out that my daughter’s friend was saving money for breast implants. She was 13 years old! I knew I had to act."

Artist, Cheryl-Ann Webster

I had an opportunity to drop by the St. Thomas-Elgin Public Art Centre today where the "Beautiful Women Project" by Gananoque, Ontario, artist, Cheryl-Ann Webster, is currently on display. The decorated representations seemed to embody and reveal the model's personality and life story, each women 19 to 91 proud and strikingly beautiful in her own special way.

Webster describes the project as "a teaching and healing tool for women and girls, men and boys. The mission of the project is to raise awareness about the link between self-worth, self-identity and physical appearance. "

Tonight I would like to share with you a Youtube video about the "Beautiful Women Project"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCjRrS1GzYA

See "Beautiful Women Project" Artist Cheryl Ann Webster website:

http://www.beautifulwomenproject.com/healing/index.htm

Featured until July 6 at The St. Thomas-Elgin Public Art Centre.