Dustin Kidd

Today begins the Cardboard to Courage Campaign at Spiral Q . Please visit the website and donate $10-$100 to support this fantastic community. Spiral Q's mission: Spiral Q builds strong and equitable communities characterized by joy, creativity, can-do attitudes, and the courage to act on their convictions. To be very clear, Spiral Q doesn't make puppets or any other kind of art object. Spiral Q builds communities first and foremost. Art happens along the way, but it never takes the form of a static object. Art is a living breathing process and at Spiral Q building art and building community are the same process. Spiral Q takes for granted the fact that all humans are naturally creative expressive beings and we all long to tell our stories--be they personal memoirs, creative fictions, lived poems, or community documentaries. I love that joy is at the heart of Spiral Q's mission, right there in the middle of the sentence. Every social movement, every project for change...

Andres Serrano's famous photograph Piss Christ was destroyed last weekend in Avignon. Here is the Washington Post's coverage of the vandalism of this art work by angered French Catholics. I thought I'd take this occasion to remind us of the history of this photograph and the controversy it faced. This is a selection from my book Legislating Creativity: Piss Christ on the Senate Floor The late 1980s was a time of controversy. In film, Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ had incited outrage from many Christians by depicting Jesus in a sexual relationship. A number of scandals plagued the music world, perhaps bolstering sales along the way. Madonna released the video for her song “Like a Prayer” in April of 1989, just as Pepsi released a commercial featuring the song and its singer. But the video, showing Madonna bearing signs of the stigmata, kissing a Black Christ figure, and dancing in lingerie in a church, upset many Christian organizations...

http://dustinkidd.blogspot.com 1. Business on Board : A function of the Arts and Business Council. Provides training to prospective board members and connects them with local arts organizations. 2. Philadelphia's Young Nonprofit Leaders : Provides training and resources for staff and volunteers, including board members, for local nonprofits. "Young" is broadly defined. 3. Blue Avocado : An online magazine about non-profit boards. 4. Board Cafe Archives : The predecessor to Blue Avocado. Has a nice section on recruitment and diversity. Here's a good one . 5. BoardnetUSA : A board recruitment and placement website. Like Monster.com for boards. 6. VolunteerMatch : Similar function to BoardNet. 7. Bridgestar : Connects corporate employees to nonprofit service. 8. Eide Bailley : Non-profit toolbox. Includes a nice short article about board service. 9. BoardSource : Recruitment and Orientation resources. More resources throughout the site. 10. Wharton Nonprofit Board...

1. Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way . The link goes straight to the Basic Tools page, which includes a pdf sample chapter from Cameron's book. If you're not ready to buy the book, this is a nice place to start on the Artist's Way. Cameron offers a lot of her work for free, unlike most similar authors. 2. William Strunk's The Elements of Style . Full-text available on this website. Great way to get familiar with grammar and punctuation basics. 3. Guide to Grammar and Writing . Nice menus for refreshing your grammar skills. 4. Citation Machine . Easy way to generate your citations.

I recently joined the advisory committee for Temple's new major art prize, the Jack Wolgin International Competition . This prize awards $150,000 to an international artist, chosen from a pool of select nominees. Three finalists are invited to share their work in an exhibition that runs throughout October. Panels and other events dot the calendar across the month. Near the end of the exhibit, all 3 artists come in for a 3 day artists-in-residency. At the end of the residency, a winner is announced. The winner gives a public lecture the following day. My role on the committee is to direct an impact assessment, examining the prize's effects on Temple University, the Philadelphia art world, and the artists themselves. This is tricky work, and I'll share some of our research design here, in hopes of getting some feedback and fresh ideas. Measuring Impacts on the University: Our first and easiest measurement here is to track media hits that are generated because of the a...