Visual Arts Development Project: June 2013

MAP - Gallery of Myth, Stories, and Living Tradition

Envisioned to evoke the transformative value of historical and contemporary cultural traditions, MAP's Gallery uses the power of myth, stories, and imagination to give voice to the universality of cultural traditions.

The gallery is an outreach program of the Metropolitan Arts Partnership (“MAP“) and is designed to provide a more significant regional presence. The Gallery of Myth, Stories and Living Traditions will soon expand to include a companion lecture, workshop, and conference series.

The primary programs of MAP are its workplace giving Arts Fund; the management of the local federal workplace giving program, the Combined Federal Campaign; and the gallery outreach program at the Arts Building in downtown Auburn, from 2006 – 2013.

The mission of the Metropolitan Arts Partnership is to support arts education and outreach programs for children and youth in schools, performance venues, and neighborhood centers provided by our members’ agencies. MAP members are certified non-profit arts organizations based in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo, or Yuba Counties.

From 2006 until its closing in March of 2013, the MAP Gallery consisted of temporary installations, which were curated by Founder and Executive Director Michelle Walker, the Artistic Director of the Gallery and Founder of the International Society of Altar Making. She has facilitated Altar Making workshops since 1980. Michelle drew from her New Orleans ancestry and her interests in Ndebele, Hopi, Bon Po, Tibetan Tantric, and Kundalini philosophies and practices; she integrated those elements into her personal altars and Altar Making over the years.

Co-curator Andrea “YaYa” Porras is an artist and assistant to the Map Gallery, where she was mentored and guided by master artist/Altar Maker Michelle Walker. YaYa, in her own right, has studied the traditions of her ancestry; she is an Aztecan dancer, African-modern dancer, actress, poet, and altar artist from Sacramento, California.

Gallery-Assistant Ondrea Walker- is an artist apprentice trained in concept development and installation by the International Society of Altar Making. She attended the San Francisco Art Academy, where her concentration was photography, photo documentaries, and photojournalism.

Proposed Project-

Creation of Living Land Trust for Outdoor Altar Installations- a Continuum: MAP - Gallery of Myth, Stories, and Living Traditions- Breathing Life into the Gallery 2013. "The Land" will serve as a living experiment for sustainable practices and an incubator for personal and collective transformation.

The initiative for community land trust was known as the Bhoodan or Land Gift movement in the 1950s and 1960s, gathering people together and asking those with more land than they needed to give a portion of it to their poorer sisters and brothers; many India's leaders participated in these walks from village to village.[i]

Seeing this, Vinoba altered the Boodan system to a Gramdan or Village gift system. All donated land was subsequently held by the village itself. The town would then lease the land to those capable of working it. The lease expires if the land is unused. The Gramdan movement inspired a series of regional village land trusts that anticipated Community Land Trusts in the United States.

The first organization labeled with the term 'community land trust' in the U.S., called New Communities, Inc., was founded to help African-American farmers in the rural South access farmland and work it with security.

A precursor to this was the Celo Community in North Carolina, founded in 1937 by Arthur Ernest Morgan.

New communities: Robert Swann worked with Slater King, president of the Albany Movement and a cousin of Martin Luther King, Jr., Charles Sherrod, an organizer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and individuals from other southern civil rights organizations in the South to develop New Communities, Inc., "a nonprofit organization to hold land in perpetual trust for the permanent use of rural communities."[ii]

There are currently over 250 community land trusts in the United States. Fledgling CLT movements are also underway in England, Canada, Australia, Belgium, Kenya, and New Zealand. In 2006, a national association was established in the United States to provide assistance and support for CLTs: the National Community Land Trust Network.[iii]

Sustainability

I am interested in developing a “Community Land Trusts and Art Place Making to expand the MAP Gallery of Myth, Stories, and Living Traditions in the acquisition of land ownership to capture the value of a public investment for long-term community benefit. Instead of leasing or renting gallery spaces for exhibition, the gallery would become land owners.

Conservation Land Trust: A land trust is a nonprofit organization that, as part of its mission, actively works to conserve land by undertaking or assisting in land or conservation easement acquisition or by its stewardship of such land or easements.

Putting real estate assets into a land trust allows the owner to avoid probate and save on estate taxes when the property passes to heirs. It will also protect the property from liens and judgments that might otherwise be brought against an owner. For partners and tenants in common, each owner is insulated from decisions. With a land trust, an owner can privately transfer their beneficial interest in the faith (the actual ownership) without being reported to any governmental agencies. Lastly, with a land trust, a person’s right to the property remains confidential and does not appear in any county recorder's office or another publicly-accessible resource.

In particular, Community land trusts attempt to meet the needs of residents least served by the prevailing land market. Community land trusts help communities: Gain control over local land use and reduce absentee ownership, provide affordable housing for lower-income residents, promote resident ownership and control of housing, keep housing affordable for future residents, and build a strong base for community action.

Collaborating Organization

Visual Arts Development Project- proposes “the Land” Rituals and traditions for two-week artists in residency MayMay 13MayMay 25n Placer County.

The VADP will be the first collaborating organization to form a partnership with the International Society of Altar Making, establishing the first of a series of land trusts that serve as a network for Altar training and research. "The Land" will serve as a living experiment for sustainable practices and an incubator for personal and collective transformation.

Anita Posey-Lowe lives on three and a half archers in Placer County, where she has a potter’s studio, with several areas on her property for pit firing. She has whole-heartedly loaned the use of her land to the Visual Arts Development Project to expand its outreach program of workshops and outdoor altar installations and to build a permanent structure that will be left on her land in the area we have proposed to erect the outdoor altar. The artist has suggested that the panels and other elements of the installation be a temporary installation that will be deconstructed by the resident artist at the end of the exhibition. The residency will be a series of workshops, intensive structure construction, clearing of the land for ceremonies, artist constructing individual sculpture elements, independent studio, time for creative conversation, and libations.

Collaborating Artists Organization: Visual Arts Development Project

Anita Posey-Lowe

1855 Christian Valley Rd
Auburn, CA
530-878-8034
www.aposeylowepottery.com
aposeylo@jps.net

The 73-year-old artist, who currently lives in Auburn, is a member of the Sacramento Potters Group, Placer Arts League, Arts Council of Placer County, International Association of Workforce Personnel (IAWP), and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. Her works have been seen at the Sacramento Fine Arts Center during the Northern California Art, Inc., “Bold Expressions” exhibition, the Placer Art League’s Gallery One in Auburn; the Beecher Room of the Auburn Library during the Auburn Association of University Women’s Art “35 show; the Auburn Arts Center Clay show; and the Lincoln Arts Center in Lincoln, CA.

Talver Germany-Miller

11035 Foxmouth Circle

Mather CA, 95655

Survey and Art History and Studio Classes Lecturer at Los Rios Community College District- Folsom Lake College. A native of Sacramento, California, she was educated like many other artists from grammar to graduate school. Talver received a BA degree in Studio Art, a BA in Social Science/ Anthropology, and an MS. Degree in Counseling Education, all from the California State University of Sacramento. She is an Associate Professor of Art at Folsom Lake College, a member of the Placerville Arts Association, San Francisco Fine Arts Museum, Sacramento African American Art Collection, Phantom Gallery Chicago Network on LinkedIn, a member of the California Arts Association, and co-founded the Visual Arts Development Project.

Alpha Bruton- Chief Curator/Art Consultant

PO Box 163151, Sacramento CA 95816-3151
773-681-6570

Phantom Gallery Chicago Network and Co-Founder of the Visual Arts Development Project

Bruton is a mother of three, an artist, and a lifelong learner. She is an alumnus of Fresno City College, where she holds an Associate of Arts Degree in Liberal Arts with an emphasis on African American Studies (1979). BFA in Liberal Studies from the California State University of Fresno with a minor in Dance (1983); BFA in Art Education with an emphasis in Studio Art from California State University of Sacramento (1987) and completed the Teachers Credential Program in 1990. Bruton completed her MA in Arts Administration at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2001. She is the chief curator for the Phantom Gallery Chicago Network, where she coordinates exhibitions in alternative venues for installation, environmental, and conceptual artists to connect the arts with commerce.

As a curator, her primary focus for this project is:

Artist in Residency Projects

Creating markers for temporary installation

Land Trust for Small Museums and

Research land acquisition for permanent installations

PROPOSED INSTALLATION “the Land” Rituals and traditions Purification Ceremony

Rituals and traditions associated with sweating vary regionally and culturally. Ceremonies often include traditional prayers and songs. In some cultures drumming and offerings to the spirit world may be part of the ceremony, or a sweat lodge ceremony may be a part of another, more extended tradition.

Some standard practices and key elements associated with purification ceremonies include:

Training - Most cultures holding ceremonial sweats require that someone undergo intensive training for many years to be allowed to lead a purification ceremony. One of the requirements is that the leader can pray and communicate fluently in the indigenous language of that culture and understand how to conduct the ceremony safely. This leadership role is granted by the Elders of the community, not self-designated.

Orientation – The door may face a sacred fire. The cardinal directions may have symbolism in the culture holding the purification ceremonies. The structure may be oriented within its environment for a specific purpose. Placement and orientation of the system within its territory are often considered to facilitate the ceremony's connection with the spirit world and practical usage considerations.

Construction – The purification ceremonies are generally built with great care and respect for the environment and the materials being used. Many traditions construct the purification ceremonies in complete silence, some have a drum playing while they build, and other practices have the builders fast during construction.

Support – In many traditions, one or more persons will remain outside the structure to protect the ceremony, assist the participants, and aid purification ceremony etiquette. Sometimes they will tend the fire and place the hot stones if it is a structure that uses rocks, though usually this is done by a designated firekeeper.

2013 TRAINING SCHEDULE

March 23 – 25: Weekend Retreat Visual Arts Development Project,

March 30th: De-installation Gallery of Myth, Stories, and Living Traditions.
April 1 – 30: Approval of design proposal, a gathering of supplies, an invitation to guest artists and bids, facilitators, registration, and fundraising.
May 11-12: North Auburn Studio’s Tour Mother’s Day Weekend
May 13 – 25: Building Living Sculpture Installation- Guest Artist and Preparatory
May 17 – 19: Weekend Retreat Workshop and Studio Intensive
MayMay 18 Ceremony Begins
May 20 – 24: Installations, murals, and layering of the Shell
May 25: Community Celebration

RESOURCES: (Please add cost-share resources here and other partnering artists and sponsors)

International Society of Altar Making is committed to offering high-quality training, programs, consultations, and celebratory-based events led by credentialed trainers skilled in facilitation, Altar Making, and Art Placemaking. To that end, all gallery directors seek support and expert advice from leading land trust organizations, purification ceremonies authorized elders, and traditional spiritual leaders, regionally, statewide, nationally, and internationally.

PROPOSED INSTALLATION “the Land” Rituals and traditions Purification Ceremony

Etiquette

The most important part of purification ceremony etiquette is respecting the traditions of the culture in question. Knowing what is allowed and expected before entering a structure is essential. Traditional Peoples usually place a high value on modesty.

Perhaps the most important piece of etiquette is gratitude. It is important to be thankful for the purpose of the sweat, the people joining you in the lodge, and those helping to support the purification ceremonies.

Physical effects

Even people, who are experienced with sweat, and attending a ceremony led by a properly trained and authorized ceremonial leader, could suddenly experience problems due to underlying health issues. Therefore, it is recommended by Lakota spiritual leaders that people only attend lodges with official, traditional spiritual leaders.

There have been reports of purification ceremonies-related deaths resulting from overexposure to heat, dehydration, smoke inhalation, or improper lodge construction leading to suffocation.

Fire rocks are used. It is essential not to use river rocks or other rocks with air pockets. Stones must be completely dry before heating. Stones with air pockets or excessive moisture could crack and possibly explode in the fire or when hit by water. Likewise, previously used stones absorb humidity or moisture, leading to cracks or shattering.

A traditional Sweat Lodge comprises slender withes of aspen, willow, or other supple saplings lashed together with rawhide, grass, or root cordage. Traditionally, a sweat lodge was covered with the hides of buffalo, bear, or moose. The animal skins have been replaced with blankets, plastic sheeting, old carpet, heavy gauge canvas sheets, and tarps to retain the heat and the steam. The sweat lodge entrance usually faces the East and the sacred fire pit.

The ceremony starts with the loading and offering of the "peace pipe" in prayer. Then, what is typically four rounds or endurances, each lasting about 30 to 45 minutes. Finally, the round ends when the leader announces the door's opening.

The first round is for recognition of the spirit world which resides in the black west where the sun goes down, and the Creator may be asked for a "spirit guide" by some of the participants.

The second round is for recognition of courage, endurance, strength, cleanliness, and honesty, calling upon the power of the white North.

The third round is the recognition of knowledge and individual prayer, praying to the direction of the daybreak star and the rising sun so that we may gain wisdom and follow the Red Road of the East in all our endeavors.

The last round centers on spiritual growth and healing. From our spirit guides from the west, from the courage, honesty, and endurance of the north, from the knowledge and wisdom obtained from the east, we continue the circle to the South, from which comes growth. It is from development and maturing that healing comes.

You must leave any time during the sweat, say "Mitakuye Oyasin" (All my relatives). Then, the other participants will move away from the wall so that you may pass behind them as you leave in a clockwise direction.

The first stone is placed in the west part of a small hole in the center of the lodge, then north, east, South, and in the center to Grandfather. Additional stones are then placed on Grandmother and The People.

Some protocol for sweat is; during a woman’s “moon time,” they refrain from participating in the ceremony. Instead, they go to a different lodge called the “moon lodge.” Men and Women usually don’t sweat together.

Stay alcohol and drug-free for 4 days before the ceremony. Women cover their bodies with modest cotton dresses, and men wear shorts. Each participant makes an offering for the lodge (tobacco, sage, sweet grass, and/or items such as herbs, tea, and cotton cloth) when you come to ceremonies.

Anishinabe. The only difference I have noticed is that in our area, the Anishinabe have the door facing east, while the other two groups have it facing south.

The sweat lodge or sweat house (also called purification ceremony, ceremonial sauna, or simply sweat) is a formal or ritual event in some cultures, particularly among some North American First Nations, Native American, Scandinavian, Baltic, and Eastern European cultures.

Several structures are used in different cultures; these include a domed or oblong hut similar to a wickiup, a permanent design made of wood or stone, or even a simple hole dug into the ground and covered with planks or tree trunks.

Stones are typically heated, and water is poured over them to create steam. These ritual actions are accompanied by traditional prayers and songs in ceremonial usage.

El Altar is an extinct volcano on the western side of Sangay National Park in Ecuador, 170 km south of Quito. Bishop around a church altar. Altar (O'odham: Wawuk) is a small city in Altar Municipality in the Mexican state of Sonora. It is located in the northwest region of the state at 30°42′49″N 111°50′07″W. The town of Altar is situated on the important Mexicali to Hermosillo Highway (Federal Highway 2). However, most of the roads leading into the desert are not paved.

[i] Some of the new landowners, however, became discouraged. The land was useless to them without tools to work the land and seeds to plant it, and an affordable credit system was available to purchase these necessary things. So they soon sold their deeds back to the large landowners and left for the cities.

[ii] Their vision for New Communities Inc. drew heavily on the example and experience of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) in making land available through 99-year ground leases for the development of planned communities and agricultural cooperatives. The JNF was founded in 1901 to buy and develop land in Ottoman Palestine (later Israel) for Jewish settlement. By 2007, the JNF owned 13% of Israel's land. It has a long and established legal history of leasing land to individuals, cooperatives, and intentional communities such as kibbutzim and moshavim. Swann, Slater King, Charles Sherrod, Faye Bennett, director of the National Sharecroppers Fund, and our other Southerners traveled to Israel in 1968 to learn more about ground leasing. They decided on a model that included individual leaseholds for homesteads and cooperative leases for farmland. New Communities Inc. purchased a 5,000-acre (20 km2) farm near Albany, Georgia, in 1970, developed a plan for the land and farmed it for twenty years. The land was eventually lost, but the example of New Communities inspired the formation of a dozen other rural community land trusts in the 1970s. It also inspired and informed the first book about community land trusts, produced by the International Independence Institute in 1972.

Ralph Borsodi, Robert Swann, and Erick Hansch founded the International Independence Institute in 1967 to provide training and technical assistance for rural development in the United States and other countries, drawing on the model of the Gramdan villages being developed in India. In 1972, Swann, Hansch, Shimon Gottschalk, and Ted Webster proposed a "new model for land tenure in America" in The Community Land Trust, the first book to name and describe this new approach to the ownership of land, housing, and other buildings. One year later, they changed the name of the International Independence Institute to the Institute for Community Economics (ICE).

[iii] Community Land Trusts

A community land trust is a private, non-profit corporation created to acquire and hold land for the benefit of a community and provide secure affordable access to land and housing for community residents.

CLTs offer a balanced approach to ownership: the nonprofit trust owns the land and leases it for a nominal fee to individuals who possess the buildings on the land. As the home is truly their own, it provides the homeowners with the same permanence and security as a conventional buyer, and they can use the land the same way as any other homeowner.