Dear Friends:

This past year has been a time of change and growth for Art Works for Change. After many years of touring, we closed two powerful exhibitions: the poignant Off the Beaten Path: Violence, Women and Art; and the inspiring Nature’s Toolbox: Biodiversity, Art and Invention — only to be succeeded by a wealth of new and dynamic projects and partnerships, and a growing organization.

I look forward to sharing more with you in our newsletter below. As we plan for an impactful 2016, we continue to ask ourselves, "How can art work for change?"

Warm wishes for the New Year!

Randy Jayne Rosenberg
Executive Director and Chief Curator
Art Works for Change

Check out our new website! http://www.ArtWorksforChange.org

Art Works for Change remains committed to maintaining a high integrity of art along with important social messaging in everything we do. Our website is no exception — powerful, stunning artworks tell rousing and sometimes staggering stories.

Antonio Briceño, Rató. Spirit of the Waterfall, Pemon Culture, Venezuela

Responsible for the website overhaul are Al Grumet, board member and director of online programming, and his cadre of volunteers. In addition to revamping the website, the team also launched Part 1 of a two-part exhibition, Footing the Bill: Art and Our Ecological Footprint, to address the urgent need to live sustainably within the Earth’s finite resources.

As human population and consumption grow, we will make ever-increasing demands upon the forests, pastures, cropland, fisheries, and other biologically productive areas of this planet we call home. Today, we use the equivalent of 1.6 planets to satisfy our demands for natural resources and waste absorption, and we are on track to require the resources of two planets well before mid-century.

Art Works for Change, along with our partners at Global Footprint Network, Earth Day Network, and World Wildlife Fund, invites you to explore these issues through the unique lens of contemporary art.

Part 2 will be launched on Earth Day, April 22, 2016.

Footing the Bill: Art and Our Ecological Footprint, Robert Bowen

Follow our weekly social media posts by Kailani Ridenour and Niki Gooya for updates on our activities, and for inspiration on how other artists use the power of art as a tool for positive social change. We encourage you to stop by and "like" us on our Facebook page.

Within this upcoming exhibition, the disciplines of science, technology, architecture, and art converge to ask what it means to survive within the context of climate change and natural disaster: How do we design and retrofit our built world to adapt to increased uncertainty?

With support from the federal National Endowment for the Arts and the Nathan Cummings Foundation, Art Works for Change has invited visionary architects and artists to consider artistically interpretive solutions and prototypes for shelter in a climate-constrained world. Commissioned large-scale and portable interactive architectural installations, existing models, photography, and drawings will open opportunities for discussion from the perspective of art, interdisciplinary collaborations, and the sociocultural relevance of housing in the age of climate change.

Survival Architecture is opening in Fall 2016 at the Appleton Museum of Art in Ocala, Florida. We are now lining up venues for the exhibition travel. Let us know if you are interested in hosting this exhibition.

From Survival Architecture, Mitchell Joachim and Terreform ONE

When 23-year-old Jyoti Singh Pandey was beaten and gang-raped on a bus in India, and dumped on the side of the road to die, the leader of the attack urged the others on with “Not to worry, nothing will happen.”

Her perpetrators were wrong: they were arrested, charged and found guilty of rape and — because, in the end, Jyoti Pandey did not survive the attack — murder. Her story has become a touchstone for other abused women to step out of the shadows to tell their stories.

To eliminate such abuse and violence, we need for women and girls, men and boys, to feel safe to come forward with their stories. Only when the exploitation and abuse of one gender by another — of those who are powerless by those who are powerful — remains hidden can it continue unabated. Exposed to the light, it is exposed for the vicious and ugly thing that it is. It is no longer normalized, no longer simply “the way things are done.”

The True Stories Project harnesses the power of photography for storytelling, giving voice to adolescent girls — both to those at risk for, and those already victims of, sexual abuse, sexual exploitation, and gender-based violence in Oakland, California and Kathmandu, Nepal.

Adolescents discover ways to transform their personal narratives of victim and victimizer into the narratives instead of advocates joined for a brighter future. And in so doing they will change their identifies, and their destinies.

From The True Stories Project, Thomas L. Kelly

There are few electronic or online games that address the empowerment of girls and young women. A recent online search of “games for girls” revealed a long list reflecting formulaic and typecast attitudes towards girls and their interests, with games such as: Makeover, Cooking Game, Shopaholic Hollywood, and Disney College Princess. Precious few games inspire and empower girls and young women.

In 2011 and 2013, Art Works for Change sought to fill that need by creating the interactive AWARE/OWARE Game, designed at that time as a public artwork and forum in South Africa and Senegal. We are now envisioning a digital version of this groundbreaking game, one that enables players to share real stories of women and girls and their challenges and achievements on their journey to empowerment.

Within the game, players are exposed to stories designed to foster empathy for young women from around the world, to facilitate deep and challenging conversation, and to inspire the belief that girls and young women can be empowered with new behavioral choices.

During 2016 we will be working with graphic designers and game makers to create a compelling digital game, we will be seeking a game publisher, and we will be partnering with organizations around the world to ensure its widespread distribution.

Please let us know if you would like more information, or if you have industry or organizational contacts to share.

From AWARE/OWARE GAME, Daniel Mok

Interested in supporting the work of Art Works for Change? Please DONATE HERE.