Visual arts

Lawrence Lessig sees Big Media waging war against culture in America. And he, for one, is fighting the battle. A professor at Stanford Law School, Lessig achieved notoriety when he represented web site operator Eric Eldred in the ground-breaking case Eldred v. Ashcroft, a challenge to the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act. Eric Eldred was a man who wanted to build a library of derivative versions of public domain books (e.g., Hawthorne's A Scarlet Letter) and make them available for free on the Internet.

2005, 136 pages, ISBN 0-9514763-6-X. Centre for Creative Communities, 118 Commercial Street, London, E1 6NF, UK, 44-(0)-20-7247-5385, www.creativecommunities.org.uk

2005, 256 pages, ISBN 0-252-07208-1. University of Illinois Press, 1325 Oak Street, Champaign, IL, 68120-6903, 217-244-4689, www.press.uillinois.edu

In the author's own words, "This book is a report card on American Culture. Not the culture of Wal-Mart and the cineplex, but culture as it is lived closer to the ground, local culture, neighborhood culture... It is about dancing, not about watching somebody else dance on television. There is a big difference."

2004, 45 pages. Published by Cultural Policy Center at the University of Chicago, 1155 E. 60th Street, Chicago, Il 60637, 773-834-5995

Download pdf: http://culturalpolicy.uchicago.edu/pdfs/grams_producing.pdf

2004, 51 pages. Published by Pew Internet & American Life Project, 1100 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, DC, 20036, 202-296-0019, www.pewinternet.org

Download Report: http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2004/Artists-Musicians-and-the-Internet.aspx

2004, 72 pages. Published by the Alliance for Artists Communities, 255 South Main Street, Providence, RI, 02903, 401-351-4320, www.artistcommunities.org

Download Report: http://www.artistcommunities.org/resource-library/publications/engaging-communities-lessons-learned

GIA members have often expressed an interest in providing resources for artists that go "beyond the check." Following is a list of web sites for organizations that provide useful information related to specific disciplines, funding, career opportunities, professional development, and other resources for artists.

Recent decades have seen rapid immigration into traditional gateway cities as well as rural and suburban communities throughout the United States. Craig McGarvey's thoughtful Pursuing Democracy's Promise speaks to the importance of new United States residents' fully participating in civic life alongside the native born.

To California's great Central Valley they have come from the highlands of Oaxaca, the cities of eastern Pakistan, the relocation camps of Thailand—political refugees and new immigrants from around the world aspiring to build a future for their children, grands, and greats.

For three days in October these new U.S. Americans gathered in Fresno's Tower District for their second Tamejavi Festival. Everyone was welcome; the historic Tower Theatre's marquis proclaimed, “Tamejavi: It's Still Free.”

Early in 2004, the Graduate Center of the City of New York convened ten small to mid-sized arts organizations to talk about what had happened to them in an experimental, internet-based project funded by the Ford Foundation. The ten, from across the country, are community-based cultural organizations; they share a commitment to emerging and experimental artists and art forms, and a commitment—equally firm—to their local or nearby communities. Despite their similarities of mission, the ten were not familiar with each other's work.