SEEING PEACE Updates (on-going)
1) Met with Exhibition Directors for the UN gallery and they are “interested” in the Exhibition component in the gallery and “agreed” to the Chant component in the exterior plaza.
2) Met with representatives from the Permanent Missions to the United Nations from Bulgaria, Kazakhstan and Indonesia. Kazakhstan was extremely “enthusiastic” and is considering being a Co-sponsor of Seeing Peace. Bulgaria and Indonesia are “very interested” and will send Seeing Peace info back to their respective capitols for discussion and, probably, approval for Co-sponsorship. This brings to 11 member nations of the United Nations that we have contacted and who have expressed interest in being part of Seeing Peace.
3) Met with Fritzi Brown, Executive Director of Artslink, an organization based in New York that brings eastern European artists to the US to be in residence or to exhibit or to do projects.
She gave me a list of artists in 37 eastern European countries whose work is socially engaged and whose work is also of international caliber.
An enormously helpful task. We are now in the process of arranging contacts with them.
4) Met with the office of Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi. They are interested in supporting Seeing Peace and assisting us in moving it along.
5) Met with Congressman Tom Lantos’ Office. We have a Letter of Support.
6) Have contracted with SomArts (South of Market Cultural Center) to act as Fiscal Sponsor for Seeing Peace.
7) Have contracted a Development Director to raise funds …and we have begun.
8) Richard Kamler has been speaking to Colleges, Universities, Civic organizations and generating support and interest in Seeing Peace.
9) Interviewed by Charles Osgood on Osgood Files, a CBS program with an estimated listener base of 12,000,000.
10) SF Chronicle article by Steven Winn re“Artists Give a Peace of Their Minds.”
11) Speaker at international meeting of College Art Association in New York re Seeing Peace.
12) Seeing Peace is projecting a San Francisco exhibition of Seeing Peace in Sept. 2006. The exhibition is planned for the lobby of the War Memorial Building where the signing of the UN Charter occurred. Seeing Peace is projecting a New York opening in Sept. 2005
13) The Asian Art Museum will advise with Seeing Peace to curate the selection of the Asian artists for the Exhibition Component.
14) The Latino Arts Network will work with Seeing Peace to identify Latino artists for involvement with Seeing Peace.
15) Richard Kamler presented Seeing Peace to the United Nations Association-East Bay Chapter. They voted unanimously to endorse Seeing Peace.
16) Richard Kamler presents Seeing Peace in a week long residency sponsored by the University of Michigan, Dept of Art, Ann Arbor in April 2004. .
17) Re San Francisco component of Seeing Peace: to date we have contacted many of the Consulates in San Francisco for participation in Seeing Peace and they ALL have expressed interest. To date we have received commitments from Brazil. Switzerland, Israel, Peru, Italy, Ecuador, Bolivia, Greece, Luxemborg, Germany, Mexico, Spain, Japan, China, India, Egypt, Indonesia, Ireland, Nicaragua. Many of the Consulates are identifying artists for participation with Seeing Peace’s assistance.
18) Kamler has begun to design “the table” and gather images for a UN General Assembly model.
19) We are planning a gathering of the Consul Generals in February of 2004 to create an agenda, discuss the role of the artists in policy and creating peace, and the logistics of the event…and to socialize. President Steve Privett of The University of San Francisco, along with the Honorable Roland Quillet, Consul General of Switzerland and Dean of the San Francisco Consular Corps and Richard C. Blum, Honorary Consul General from Nepal have agreed to host this event.
20) The Consul Generals from Ecuador, Bolivia and Chile come to the University of San Francisco on Nov 12 to meet with the Deans and begin the planning of the February gathering.
21) Artists from the various countries represented by Consulates here in San Francisco have been contacted and are in the process of being contacted by their Consulates based upon Seeing Peace’s requirements:
a. The artist must have been born in the country they are representing, though they do not have to be currently living there.
b. The work must be of a caliber to be shown internationally.
c. The artist must have a history of their work being socially engaged, iee., a critical stance.
22) Feb 10 2004, the first public event of Seeing Peace is introduced at USF. It is successful. 25 of the Consulates were present, various representatives of the press were present, many of the artists were present as were people from the art community, several funders were present. Dick Blum asked. “what do we do next?”
23) We have received grant awards from the LEF Foundation, Potrero Nuevo Fund, Zellerbach Family Fund, Richard C. Blum Family Foundation. We have several pending.
24) Presentation of Seeing Peace in July 2004 at the international meeting of the ACLU; on panel with Danny Glover, Actor and Alice Walker, Writer.
25) On Sept.11, 2004 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art hosts a presentation and discussion by Kamler on Seeing Peace.
26) Featured presentation on SPARK, KQED-TV, Channel 9, April 27 2005. Survey of work that led to Seeing Peace8
27) On Sept. 11, 2005 Kamler presents Seeing Peace at the San Francisco Jewish Community Center.
28) Kamler presents Seeing Peace at the First International Conference on Art, Faith & Social Justice hosted at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. Oct. 2005
29) Kamler presents Seeing Peace at the 4th International Conference on Arts & Humanities in Honolulu, Hawaii, Jan. 2006
30) Kamler presents and discusses his work and Seeing peace to graduate students at the Univ. of Hawaii, Jan. 2006.
31) Kamler presents Seeing Peace at Skidmorre College, March 2006.
32) Meeting with various Representatives of Permanent Missions to the UN to request they make a drawing of their vision of “what peace looks like.” Representatives from Columbia, Italy, Philippines, etc have responded. We are hoping to have a vision of peace from each country. April 2006
33) A blog; Seeing Peace at http://seeingpeace.blogspot.com/, is created and is now on the web. It includes visions of peace from the various Representatives to the UN as well as the global; community responding to “what peace looks like.”