The creative community is invited to participate in ArtPEACE, an eight-month campaign for Long Beach’s Creative Community to create positive change for youth through their Art. Sponsored by The Creativity Network and the City of Long Beach Human Dignity Program, ArtPEACE will provide an artistic outlet for young people to express their perspectives on peace as well as their visions and dreams for themselves and their community. It will also provide them with training and incentives to pursue careers in the creative arts. ArtPEACE offers a creative approach to networking resources for our valuable youth at a time when city and school budgets are getting leaner.

The organizers are seeking Sponsors, Partners and Planning Committee members from the Creative Community and the Youth Services Community. ArtPEACE is interested in partnering with private, public, and community-based organizations to produce other community, cultural and educational events throughout the eight-month program that promote respect, harmony, unity, cultural appreciation and understanding. Partners will be encouraged to work with youth and incorporate facets of ArtPEACE into their events, as well as to serve as mentors and sponsors of the ArtPEACE experience.

The next planning meeting will be held on Wednesday, August 6, at 6 p.m. at Utopia Restaurant on First Street at Linden Avenue in the East Village section of Long Beach. ArtPEACE will kick-off October 1, 2008, which is the beginning of National Arts Month and Cultural Diversity Month. ArtPEACE will run through A Season for Nonviolence (January 30-April 4) and will climax with the Unity Festival at Rainbow Lagoon on May 30, 2009. Through partnerships with artists, creative organizations, public, private and community based organizations, a series of mentoring and art-making workshops will be held for young people to develop works of art that promote the message of peace through art. The guiding principles will include Respect, Harmony, Unity and Cultural appreciation and understanding, all centered on the ArtPEACE theme. 

If you would like to get involved, visit the website here, where you can download ten ways you can get involved.  Any new and creative ideas are always welcome.

From this effort, ArtPEACE will host a series of viewings, installations, performances and exhibits throughout the city. ArtPEACEs will be created in four mediums:

Video ArtPEACEs
Participants will develop a 30- to 60-second video ArtPEACE. Selected works will be used as public service announcements on Charter Communications Channel 3 and other cable channels.

Public ArtPEACEs
Participants will design temporary and permanent public ArtPEACEs. Selected designer(s) will work with established artists to develop the ArtPEACEs for installation in public places in the city.

Visual ArtPEACEs
Participants will draw, paint, sculpt, photograph and/or construct ArtPEACEs by hand, computer or other means. Selected works will be exhibited at a local art gallery alongside works created by established Long Beach artists and recognized at a reception in their honor. At least one piece will be selected to develop an ArtPEACE poster.

Musical/Performance ArtPEACEs
Participants will perform five-minute original or existing musical, spoken or theatrical works alone or in groups. Winning performers will be featured in a professional stage performance featuring works centered on the ArtPEACE theme.

ArtPEACE also includes three other Key Components:

ArtPEACE Creative Dialogue and Education:
ArtPEACE will begin a video dialog in the community about the power of art in promoting peace in individuals, families, neighborhoods, and the greater community and beyond. In partnership with the City of Long Beach Human Dignity Program, inter-group dialogue opportunities will be presented to the community to discuss issues of respect, cultural understanding and appreciation. These projects will include creative aspects that utilize artistic expression of thought.

ArtPEACE Celebration:
The ArtPEACE campaign will climax with a live multimedia community celebration at the Unity Festival in May. The event will honor ArtPEACE winners and weave together live ArtPEACE performances and other
components from the eight month-long campaign.
 

ArtPEACE Documentation:
A documentary will follow the step-by-step unfolding of the ArtPEACE vision, the implementation of the vision through the interaction between youth and their creative mentors, the resulting ArtPEACE artwork and the effect of ArtPEACE on everyone who experienced it. The final product will air on various media platforms including Cable and the Internet.

To RSVP for the planning meeting or for more information on ArtPEACE and how interested parties can become involved, contact the following:

Antonio Pedro Ruiz
Co-Chair, ArtPEACE
THE CREATIVITY NETWORK
2892 N. Bellflower Blvd., # 214
Long Beach, CA 90815
562-430-8637
[email protected]
www.thecreativitynetwork.org/artpeace

Melissa Morgan
Co-Chair, ArtPEACE
THE CITY OF LONG BEACH
HUMAN DIGNITY PROGRAM
333 W. Ocean Blvd., 13th Floor
Long Beach, CA 90802
562-570-6948
[email protected]
www.artpeace.longbeach.gov