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You are browsing the Blog for Current Events Archives - Page 13 of 13 - Marja-Leena Rathje.
by Marja-Leena by Marja-Leena ArtsNow for Olympics 2010
The monthly Opus Visual Arts Newsletter (in print and online) provides useful information for artists such as calls for submissions, some arts news and, my favourite part, an always thoughtful and well-written editorial by arts advocate Chris Tyrell. Sometimes this newsletter seems to be the only source of some of the arts news in our province!
In this month’s editorial New Money for the Arts, Chris Tyrell details the cultural funding program that is now in place for Olympics 2010 being held in BC. Of special relevance to artists and particularly arts organizations is ArtsNow whose “mission statement is as follows: To strengthen and enhance the creative capacity of individuals, organizations and communities throughout the province.[…]They seek to fund projects that create lasting change for a better arts sector and/or community.” Please read the newsletter and the ArtsNow website for all the details.
Tyrell finishes: “This good news is timely. As I wrote in last month’s editorial, Opus has offered to host an artists’ forum later this month on what kind of collective action the visual arts community might take to coincide with the Olympic Games. Now when we meet, we will know that there are new funding opportunities for us should we decide to do something innovative. The meeting will also give the community the opportunity to discuss Artropolis, a tradition in need of help.
Opus’ public forum is on Wednesday, January 26th at 7:00pm in the H. R. MacMillan Space Centre (the Planetarium), 1100 Chestnut Street in Vancouver. The forum will determine if there is interest in a visual arts Olympic celebration, different models of showcasing visual art and about the future of Artropolis. It will be an interesting meeting, so please plan to attend and, as space is limited, please RSVP to my e-address below.” (ctyrell at shaw.ca)
Related link: Artropolis
by Marja-Leena Indian Ocean Tsunami Disaster
I don’t usually touch on political and world events here, but the magnitude of the human and economic disaster in the countries around the Indian Ocean compels me to join many others in expressing early disbelief, horrified awe and shock at the power of nature’s destruction and a great sadness for the staggering numbers of lives lost, over 68,000 dead in 11 countries at last count. The most tragic is that UNICEF estimates at least one-third, possibly up to a half of the lives lost were children (from today’s Vancouver Sun headline article “A Generation Swept Away”). The coming days and weeks and months will be extremely challenging and the young are the most vulnerable to any lack of clean water, food and medical care.
For those of us living on the west coat of North America, this is another reminder of the huge possibility of an earthquake here. We do have the West Coast /Alaska Tsunami Warning Center here, and there are calls to have such a warning system set up in the Indian Ocean region, led by Australia. Such warnings might have saved many many lives in areas furthest from the quake epicenter, where the tsunamis hit up to 2 1/2 hours later.
Yesterday, two of my favourite bloggers wrote very compelling articles related to this disaster. Beth at Cassandra Pages talked about her fear of oceans and features the very meaningful Hokusai print The Great Wave. Ronni of Time Goes By reported on the safety of another blogger Thomas Brinson who has been stationed in Sri Lanka the past few months.
Some good useful links from the great number out there:
BBC and CBC
Wikipedia
SEA-EAT aid resources
Doctors Without Borders
tsunami possible on Pacific Northwest coast
UPDATE Dec.29.04. The terrible toll keeps rising, now at 80,000 lives! On a personal note, I have just had a reply from Finland that a cousin and her husband, who went to Thailand on Christmas Day, are fine – they are holidaying in an area unaffected by the tsunami. We are all relieved and grateful, considering how many hundreds from Finland, Canada and numerous other countries are unaccounted for. My heart is sore for all this tragedy.
UPDATE Dec.30.04. 120,000 lost souls! Finland has many of its citizens visit Thailand and 260 are still unaccounted for. On New Year’s Day flags will fly at half-mast and the government’s traditional New Year reception is cancelled. It is Finland’s largest loss of lives in peacetime. ( from Helsingin Sanomat, Finnish edition). Canada’s missing are thankfully a smaller number, yet all heart-rending stories.