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ISE’s Beverly Naidus publishes “Arts for Change”

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Lectures, readings, and workshops upcoming

The Institute for Social Ecology is is proud to announce the release of Beverly Naidus’ latest title, “Arts for Change.” Additionally, the ISE would like to call attention to several lectures, readings, and workshops featuring Beverly that are set for May and June of 2009. (Please see below)

OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE for Arts for Change
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Arts for Change overturns conventional arts pedagogy with an activist’s passion for creating art that matters

New Village Press announces its new title, Arts for Change, by Beverly Naidus, a provocative, personal look at the motivations and challenges of teaching socially engaged arts. The author offers candid examination of her own university teaching career, weaves in broader social and historical perspectives, and opens readers’ minds to other points of view, including those collected from contemporaries in her field.

Arts for Change intersperses scholarly concerns with intimate, image-rich metaphor in a free-spirited, non-academic prose. The author answers vital questions that students and educators have long been asking: How can polarized groups work together to solve social and environmental problems? How can art be used to raise consciousness?

Using her personal experiences in the classroom as a template, Naidus guides the reader through a progression of steps to help students observe the world around them and craft artistic responses to what they see. Arts for Change also features interviews with 33 artist/educators with diverse opinions and strategies for successfully engaging students in what, to them, is most meaningful.

Illustrated with 48 visuals and photographs of student, faculty and community works, Arts for Change is both inspirational and instructional. It is sure to stimulate new thinking among arts faculty, arts students, and activists of all kinds, as well as anyone who has an inkling of the role the arts can play in responding to critical issues of the day.

BRIEF BIO FOR BEVERLY
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Inspired by lived experience, topics in Beverly’s artwork include environmental illness, global warming, unemployment, the alienation of consumer culture, nuclear nightmares, body hate, celebrating cultural identity, confronting racism and anti-Semitism, and envisioning utopia and global justice.

Beverly has produced several artist’s books including What Kinda Name is That? and One Size Does Not Fit All. Her art has been discussed in books by Paul Von Blum, Lucy R. Lippard, Suzi Gablik, Lisa Bloom and others, and reviewed in many contemporary journals. Her writing about art for social change has been published in two books (New Practices — New Pedagogies edited by Malcolm Miles and The Arts, Education and Social Change: Little Signs of Hope edited by Mary Clare Powell and Vivien Marcow Speiser), and in articles in Radical Teacher, the New Art Examiner, and the National Women’s Studies Association Journal.

Beverly is teaching art for social change in the Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington, Tacoma, where she has also co-created a program in Arts in Community. Unfortunately the program is on hold due to budgetary constraints.

UPCOMING EVENTS FEATURING BEVERLY NAIDUS
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Reading and Book Signing @ Boswell’s Books, Shelburne Falls, MA
On June 21st at 2 pm, Beverly Naidus will read her book, show slides of her students’ work and sign books at Boswell’s Books, 10 Bridge Street Shelburne Falls, MA 01370 413-625-9362
http://www.boswellsbooks.com/

Reading and Book Signing @ Food for Thought Books Collective, Amherst, MA
On June 24th at 7 pm, Beverly Naidus will read her book, show slides of her students’ work and sign books at Food for Thought Books Collective, 106 N.Pleasant Street
Amherst, MA 01002
Tel: 413-253-5432
http://www.foodforthoughtbooks.com/NASApp/store/IndexJsp

SEEDS Festival: Workshop on Eco-art for Everyday Life
Beverly will facilitate a week long workshop on Eco-art for Everyday Life for the SEEDS festival run by Earthdance in Plainfield, MA from June 21-28th. Contact Earthdance for more details:
http://www.earthdance.net/programs/seedsschedule09.htm

***Note:
This SEEDS Festival (Somatic Experiments in Earth, Dance, & Science) is not to be confused with the SEEDS (Social Ecology Education and Demonstration School) project that Beverly is involved with on Vashon Island near Seattle, Washington. For more information about that project please visit their website: http://socialecologyvashon.org