This I Believe essay #1

Please post your essay here before class on Friday. Please also remember to bring a printed copy of your essay to class and be prepared to read it aloud.

Blog Assignment #1, 2013

Please post a paragraph-long question in response to any of the three readings (or a combination of them) for Wednesday's class. Post your question by noon on Wednesday.

Welcome to Community Engagement Through the Arts (CETA) 2013

Welcome to CETA 2013. Now that you have found our class blog, please return to see photographs of what we are up to, get updates about our visitors on Wednesday nights, and follow our collaborative, community-based public art project Writing on the City.

Final words about the 1,000 Dolls project:

(and some images too)

Herald-Leader article

We hope to see you again next year. Stay tuned.

Event at Kentucky Theater

Seeing all 1,000 dolls together for the first time in a concrete setting, with the knowledge that they were all present and accounted for- well, that is an amazing feeling, considering the fact that we have touched almost all of them.

At first, some of us were a bit skeptical. One thousand dolls? Really? Is that really going to happen? But then, as we struggled through the sweat shops and long nights, coupled with sing-alongs and frustration and splinters and maybe a bit of blood, it seemed more and more possible with each new wave of wooden dolls and sock creatures.

The culmination of months of work was showcased for us, along with the wider Lexington Community on Wednesday April 7^th (a date which will go down in history as the Day of All Dolls). This tremendous display of communal effort and basic awesomeness represented our over-all pride in our work and the community that supported us. With dolls hailing from Ohio to North Limestone (and maybe some other places- we are not quite sure), we exceeded our goal and displayed the official number of 1,111 dolls.

To the soundtrack of “The Puppy Song” and “Energy,” the rhymes of several local and passionate hip hop artists, and the punk rock renditions of suffragette resistance songs, the Kentucky Theater hummed with activity and delicious cake. People crowded around the doll display, picking out their favorite, no doubt to find at a later, more mysterious date, which will soon be announced… maybe. Depending upon the weather. We were able to give the first of the 1,111 dolls to our earnest mayor, Jim Gray, who opened the event to our varying and equally talented musical acts: Robert Schneider of Apples in Stereo, Sheisty Khrist, Just Me, Divine Kurama, and lastly, The Spooky Qs. And when Schneider invited the younger members of the audience to display their dancing skills on stage, we were only moderately fearful for instrument casualties. However, no violins were lost that night, and we were able to relax and enjoy an excellent slide show of pictures from throughout the semester, put together by the lovely Katie Brewer.

To conclude our slightly silly article, we would like to say that the event at the Kentucky Theater was very much a success. We would also like to present to you a verse from the bottom of our souls, in order to motivate doll- searching.

We made some great dolls

You should go find them out there

Have an adventure

That was our haiku dedicated to the CETA class of 2012 and all those who helped us reach and surpass our goal of 1,000 dolls. The day is coming for you to find your favorite doll. Be prepared.                                            

                                                                                                                               

Love,

Aimee & Stacey

It's That Time Again

We've reached our final TIB submission deadline of the semester. Leave your parting thoughts here.

This I Believe

Essays for week 12 belong in the comments!