Volunteers wanted
  | Birmingham -- Now that officials with Region 2020 and a Massachusetts-based consulting firm have released their long-awaited arts and cultural master plan for Birmingham/central Alabama, volunteers are needed to serve in different groups to help attain the plan's goals. Priority areas include facilities, funding, technical assistance and neighborhood education.
"The success of the master plan depends on all of us," said Kate Nielson, president of The Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham. "This important work cannot be done without the continued involvement of citizens and arts organizations." Nielson is co-chairing the arts and cultural master plan implementation process.
Those interested in volunteering should contact Elizabeth Sims at Region 2020.
After nearly a year of research, public hearings and facilitated group meetings, Boston-based consultants Wolf, Keens and Company released their findings and laid out arts and cultural needs for the 12-county Birmingham region. Among the needs found in the report: increased funding for arts organizations, more cooperation between arts groups and local and state government and more minority participation in the arts.
History of the arts and cultural master plan
| Birmingham -- In the last ten months, there have been several public hearings and meetings - complete with facilitators - to discuss the details of a regional arts and cultural master plan. At the meetings, hosted by Region 2020, participants -- many of them leaders in arts organizations statewide -- discussed specific problems and possible solutions in the Birmingham area arts community.
At the outset of the arts and culture master plan discussion a year ago, civic leaders and residents showed up for an initial presentation and a chance to speak up about future plans. The open house broke ice between the consultants and the arts community. Some people in attendance told the panel that only a select few wield much of the community power and control with regard to money and publicity. A vast amajority called the initial step toward a master plan a constructive beginning with much to do.
Organizers say the final report, released at the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham annual meeting, mirrors what's been discussed in the past year. They also say many of the community concerns are addressed in the master plan.
- A Mom And A Baby Find Out What's Really Rural In California
- Most moms probably don't want their babies around pot growers, but San Francisco-based writer-photographer Lisa Hamilton is totally cool with it.
- S'il-Vous-Plait: Raising Your 'Bebe' The French Way
- Raising her children in Paris, American journalist Pamela Druckerman discovered that the French have mastered the art of child-rearing — or at least they have mastered the art of smoothly assimilating children into adult routines and reducing the stress of parenting.
- Finding 'Life, Death And Hope' In A Mumbai Slum
- Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Katherine Boo spent more than three years in Mumbai's Annawadi slum. In her new book, Behind the Beautiful Forevers, she profiles people living in extreme poverty — right in the shadow of luxury hotels.
- Donald Hall: A Poet's View 'Out The Window'
- The 83-year-old former poet laureate reflects on how life has changed as he's grown older. "My body causes me trouble when I cross the room, but when I am sitting down writing, I am in my heaven — my old heaven," he says.
- Two Rowdy Talk Shows Showcase Vintage Humor
- Both The David Susskind Show and The Sid Caesar Show featured large, unwieldy guest rosters and entertaining, timely jokes. A vintage episode of Susskind's show and a reunion of Caesar's writers are now available on DVD. TV critic David Bianculli says both offerings are laugh-out-loud funny.
- 'Revolution 2.0': How Social Media Toppled A Dictator
- Egyptian activist Wael Ghonim offers a rousing firsthand account of the Egyptian popular uprising and the power of social media to catalyze political change.
- How To Get Your Goat
- It's widely eaten in the rest of world, and now goat's popularity is growing in America's increasingly diverse marketplace. Bring goat into your kitchen with these recipes for curry, mole rojo, meatballs and more — or churn up a sweet goat-milk caramel ice cream.
- New In Paperback Feb. 6-12
- This week brings four novels about love: childhood love in immigrant Brooklyn; married love in dot-com San Francisco; intergenerational love and tension in Philadelphia; and an academic father's sometimes obtuse love for his three daughters. In nonfiction, football star Michael Oher describes his experiences in foster care.
- A Pulpit For The Masses: YouTube, Christians Click
- Many have turned to YouTube to express their views about the message of Jesus. At least one has reached biblical proportions. With more than 18 million views, "Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus" has become a sensation.
- The Risks And Rewards Of Practicing Yoga
- Yoga can be extremely beneficial, but it also can be quite dangerous. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist William Broad examines the pleasures and pitfalls of the practice in his latest book, The Science of Yoga.
- 'Miseducation': A Cowgirl Coming-Out Story For Teens
- In short succession, Cameron Post loses both parents to a car accident, is outed as a lesbian and is sent to a a religious camp to be "cured." But the heroine of The Miseducation of Cameron Post, a triumphant new young adult novel, is made of strong and irresistible stuff.
- 'Beautiful Forevers': Surviving Slum Life In Mumbai
- Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Katherine Boo chronicles the hardscrabble lives of some of Mumbai's poorest — and most inventive — people in her first book, Behind the Beautiful Forevers.
- Dickens At 200: A Birthday You Can't 'Bah Humbug'
- For nearly two centuries, Charles Dickens' colorful characters and memorable expressions have worked their way into the vernacular. The prolific 19th-century English novelist left behind 989 named characters and two dozen novels full of the pathos and comedy of London's rich and poor.
- Is White, Working Class America 'Coming Apart'?
- In his new book, Charles Murray, co-author of the controversial The Bell Curve, argues that in an increasingly economically stratified America, the white working class is slipping behind.
- Sandwich Monday: The Pie McFlurry
- For this week's Sandwich Monday, we go once more into the breach that is the McDonald's Secret Menu: blending a Hot Apple Pie into a McFlurry. Spoiler alert: it was amazing.
|
