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Month: July 2014

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Arts Opportunities, Scholarships, Programs, and Research Grants

From the New York State Alliance for Arts Education

Uncommon Approaches to the Common Core 2

August 12- 13, in Albany. Hear an inspiring keynote on inquiry-based learning from Barbara Stripling. Participate in experiential labs where you’ll learn how to create compelling lessons using cultural resources to meet the Common Core Learning Standards. Explore inquiry as a professional discipline. Network with colleagues in your region. And, to close the conference, hear from James B. Short, Director, Gottesman Center for Science Teaching and Learning at the American Museum of Natural History. Register today!

Summit on Transforming Education through Creative Practices

Move this World, a global non-profit that uses creative expression to address and transform conflict and bullying in communities worldwide, invites you to participate in its 5th Annual Global Summit in Transforming Education through Creative Practices! They are calling on a global network of educators, youth workers, thought leaders, creative arts therapists, students, artists and social change advocates to connect and collaborate in New York City, August 22 – 24.

Aesthetica Art Prize 2014

Entries close August 31, 2014.

The Aesthetica Art Prize 2014 is now open for entries, offering both budding and established artists the opportunity to showcase their work to an international audience and influential figures from the arts sector. Celebrating and nurturing outstanding contemporary art from across the world, the Art Prize welcomes all forms of art in the following categories:Photographic & Digital Art, Three Dimensional Design & Sculpture, Painting & Drawing and Video, Installation & Performance.

Prizes include a 12 week group show; up to £1000 in cash; publication in the Aesthetica Art Prize Anthology and editorial coverage in Aesthetica Magazine (readership of 140,000 worldwide); art supplies and art books; and Q&As on the Aesthetica Blog. There are two main categories to enter: Main Prize and Student Prize. There is a winner for each main category. Entry is £15 and permits the submission of two works into any one category.

Grammy Foundation Supports Music Research and Preservation Projects

Deadline: October 1, 2014 (Letters of Inquiry)

Funded by the Recording Academy, the Grammy Foundation’s annual grant program provides support for music archiving and preservation efforts and scientific research projects related to the impact of music on the human condition. The research projects grant program awards funding of up to $20,000 to organizations and individuals working to research the impact of music on the human condition. Examples include the study of the effects of music on mood, cognition, and healing; the medical and occupational well-being of music professionals; and the creative process underlying music. Priority will be given to projects with strong methodological design as well those designed to address an important research question.

Ucross Foundation’s Spring 2015 Artist Residencies

Deadline: October 1, 2014

Founded in 1981, the Ucross Foundation provides uninterrupted time, work space, and living accommodations in Sheridan, Wyoming, to competitively selected visual artists, writers, and composers. Nearly thirteen hundred individuals from every state in the U.S. as well as Germany, France, Scotland, England, Poland, Egypt, the Netherlands, Canada, and Thailand have spent time at Ucross since it first opened. Currently, the foundation is accepting applications for its 2015 Spring Residency program, which runs from late-February to mid-June.

YoungArts Applications for 2015 Open

Deadline: October 17, 2014

YoungArts identifies and nurtures emerging artists ages 15-18 (or in grades 10-12) in the visual, literary, design and performing arts. Winners in cinematic arts, dance, design, jazz, music, photography, theater, visual arts, voice, and writing are provided once-in-a-lifetime opportunities, significant access to scholarships and national recognition, including:

  • Up to $10,000 in monetary awards
  • Exclusive U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts nomination
  • Master classes with world-renowned artists
  • Access to scholarships, career opportunities and professional contacts
  • Opportunity for works to be viewed by top artists in their fields
  • All applicants to YoungArts have the opportunity to learn about college programs, scholarships, summer programs and festivals through participation in the YoungArts Student List Service.

Apply here.

Chamber Music Residency Partnership Program

Application Deadline: October 31, 2014

Chamber Music America’s Residency Partnership Program supports ensembles and presenters in building audiences for classical/contemporary, jazz, and world chamber music through residency projects. Funding is specifically aimed at activities that take place in community settings and that are not part of a regular concert series. These activities may include, but are not limited to, clinics, interactive classroom programs, and lecture/demonstrations in libraries, hospitals, senior centers, or similar venues. Projects must take place in the U.S. or its territories. The length of the residencies ranges from a minimum of three days to one year. Grants support up to 75 percent of expenses directly connected to the project. The balance must be drawn from other sources, such as cash from other grants, earned income, or an allocation from the organization’s general operating funds. For information on applying, please see their website.

Infographic on Arts Education

This one page document from the Indiana Youth Institute summarizes some valuable research and information on the value of arts education.

Website for Lesson Sharing

Share My Lesson is a free platform, developed by teachers for teachers, that gives access to high-quality teaching resources and provides an online community where teachers can collaborate with, encourage and inspire each other.

Art, Events, Media, Poetry, Poland - Polish - Polonia, Political, , , , , , , , ,

Summer Issue of the Cosmopolitan Review

The summer issue of the Cosmopolitan Review has been published. The authors note:

The arts, in all their variety, are mirrors that reflect a people. We owe so much to artists. They make us laugh, cry, think, and see ourselves in our infinite variety, so no wonder we admire those talented people who create images, words and music that enrich our lives.

This issue, we focus on them, whether we find them working in films, theatre, or galleries, composing music or performing it, writing plays or acting, or writing prose or poetry. You’ll find them all represented here.

Let’s start with the movies. For that we’re grateful to Agnieszka Niezgoda and Jacek Laskus, whose marvelous book, Hollywood.pl, introduces us to some of the most talented people to ever leave Poland – not necessarily forever – and make their mark in the dream capital of the world.

Hollywood has been a talent magnet for a long time and one of the first superstars was Poland’s Pola Negri. Justine Jablonska reviews her story written by Mariusz Kotowski.

Poland’s poets… as once written in the New York Times, “if cash money were on the line…” few critics would bet against Polish poets being the best in the world. With that in mind, Agnieszka Tworek spoke to award-winning translator Joanna Trzeciak about her work – and her friendship – with two of the greats: Wisława Szymborka and Tadeusz Różewicz.

And speaking of poets, Magda Romanska introduces us to a poet and playwright who also happens to be a Nobel Prize-winning scientist, Roald Hoffman. Join them for a discussion about the arts and science, and about Polish roots.

Beth Holmgren revisits prewar Polish cabaret… and its postwar reappearance in Tel Aviv.

Meanwhile, Lara Szypszak has a few suggestions about galleries, performances and generally low cost and easily accessible culture in Warsaw. Join her.

An anthology of modern Polish plays, (A)pollonia, came to our attention via Will Harrington. The eleven plays, some performed in many countries, are set in Poland but deal with universal themes.

Łukasz Wodzyński returns to CR to share his love, and understanding, of modern Polish literature with an essay about the Introduction to Polish Literature by Jarosław Anders and a review of a new edition of Gomrowicz’s Diary, with the great writer’s thoughts on everything from the Catholic Church to Marxism, and the human condition in general.

Finally, there’s that long established and very special art form that, over time, has left us a record of some of the most interesting people in every culture: letter writing. We bring back that most colorful member of the original, 19th century Polish Society of California – not to mention a great American patriot, Rudolf Korwin Piotrowski, in a translation of previously unpublished letters found in the library of Jagiellonian University by the research/writing team, Maureen Mroczek Morris and Lynn Ludlow, who seem to travel between centuries with the greatest of ease.

And another writer whose letters transcend time and place, Krystyna Wituska, will be remembered in Germany on June 26th with a new book and a monument unveiled by the Memorial Centre in Halle Saale. A young member of the Polish underground, her words about war and peace, friendship and love, hairstyles, fashion, literature and fun, as well as life and death, were written to her parents and also – in what must be a unique prison correspondence – to the daughter of her compassionate German prison guard. Seems Wituska’s letters were written for our troubled times.

Enjoy the summer, read a lot, visit galleries and theatres, go to movies, and tip your hat to the creative people who make all this possible.

Christian Witness, Events, PNCC, , , , ,

Congratulations to Holy Trinity Parish

From the Meriden Record-Journal: Southington church turns 100

Been to the parish. Very dedicated and loving people. Congratulations on your anniversary! Dwieście lat!!!

SOUTHINGTON, CT — Marilyn Folcik and her sister Arlene Strazzulla looked at a black and white photo pinned on a corkboard inside the Holy Trinity Polish National Catholic Church on Summer Street Thursday afternoon.

Strazzulla leaned into the picture from 1957 to get a better look and then pointed to a little girl among a crowd of people standing outside the church.

“That was me and that was my sister,” she said.

Then she pointed to a man in the back.

“And that was my grandfather,” she added.

Folcik and Strazzulla’s grandfather, John Knapp, along with 16 other men, helped build the church 100 years ago. It opened its doors in July of 1914.

Rev. Joseph Krusienski, pastor of Holy Trinity Polish National Catholic Church, stands with long-time parish members Arlene Strazzulla, left, of Southington, and Marilyn Folcik, right, of Bristol, Thursday, July 24, 2014. The church, located on Summer St. in Southington, is celebrating its 100th year anniversary. | Dave Zajac / Record-Journal
Rev. Joseph Krusienski, pastor of Holy Trinity Polish National Catholic Church, stands with long-time parish members Arlene Strazzulla, left, of Southington, and Marilyn Folcik, right, of Bristol, Thursday, July 24, 2014. The church, located on Summer St. in Southington, is celebrating its 100th year anniversary. | Dave Zajac / Record-Journal
In October, the church and its parishioners will celebrate the anniversary with a Mass followed by a banquet at the Aqua Turf Club.

The first Polish National Catholic Church was formed in 1897 in Scranton, Pa. after many Polish immigrants were longing to have Mass spoken in their native language.

“It was one of the original reasons why we broke away from the Roman Catholic Church,” said Folcik who is also the chairman of the church’s Parish Committee.

“They wanted a Polish-speaking priest,” Strazzulla added.

One of the major differences is that Polish Catholic priests are encouraged to marry and have families. The Holy Trinity Polish National Catholic Church also doesn’t consider the Pope to be infallible. Some of the seven sacraments have also been modified.

Folcik said she remembered her grandfather saying he wanted Polish people to be able to become priests and bishops and wanted Mass in their native language. The desires prompted some Polish members of the Southington community to form their own church.

A short history of the church written by Folcik for the anniversary, says the foundation of the building was “dug by hand by these sixteen men and others.”

After 1958 all Masses were in English.

“Even though ‘Polish’ is in the name of the church, that’s because it’s our heritage,’” said Strazzulla. “But it’s open to all nationalities.”

In April 1944, a fire tore through the building. Strazzulla and Folcik said the cause of the fire was never determined, though many speculate it could have started from a candle left burning from a wedding ceremony earlier in the day.

After the fire, parishioners joined together to salvage the church. Many made donations.

The Rev. Joseph Krusienski, who has been with the church for 43 years, went to the front of the church Thursday to retrieve old receipts from the repair work.

“The main altar, it was $1,050 to repair,” he said pointing to the typewritten receipt.

He added that each stain-glass window had to be replaced, costing $200 apiece.

“Now they’re worth a couple thousand,” Krusienski said.

In the 1960s the church underwent renovations that included new carpeting, paint on the walls, new pews, and new altar railings. A lot of the help came from parishioners who donated money to keep the church going.

The church’s properties, which include a rectory next to the church and a cemetery on Prospect Street in Plantsville, are owned and maintained by the parish. The parish committee and pastor make decisions regarding the properties.

Strazzulla and Folcik, both born and raised in Southington and now nearing or in their 50s, reminisced on the many years they spent in the church. As the third generation, they remembered being baptized, having their communion, confirmation, and even getting married in the church. The church’s 100th year anniversary is important, they said.

“It’s a really warm feeling,” Strazzulla said.

“We’re proud,” Folcik added.

“We’re very proud and honored to carry on what our ancestors started,” Strazzulla said.

Christian Witness, Homilies, ,

Reflection for the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2014

20941

Follow the blueprint
for being in Christ

“O LORD, my God, you have made me, your servant, king to succeed my father David; but I am a mere youth, not knowing at all how to act. I serve you in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a people so vast that it cannot be numbered or counted. Give your servant, therefore, an understanding heart to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong. For who is able to govern this vast people of yours?”

We could make much the same prayer as Solomon did. Lord, give me a wise and understanding heart so that I may serve you in the midst of all those around me. Help me to distinguish between right and wrong so as to follow the path Your Son Jesus has set for me.

Solomon was young and wasn’t quite aware of what God had in store for him. He wasn’t aware of God’s blueprint for his life. Solomon made the right choice. He prayed for wisdom – a wisdom that would allow him to build his life on God’s way, according to God’s plan. This gave him confidence in leading and building as ruler of Israel. He prayed to follow God’s blueprint for his life.

If you’ve ever watched a house being built, you know that blueprints are essential. Blueprints contain plans that tells the builders how to assemble everything so that the home is strong, safe, and of high quality. A good blueprint gives a homeowner assurance that the job will be done properly and provides confidence.

Our call is to follow God’s path for us, and to pledge ourselves to following His blueprint for our lives. His blueprint gives us a guarantee – confidence in all we do in Him. By following His blueprint we will succeed. We will be strong, safe, and have high quality lives that last forever. We have assurance that our lives will be lived properly and with goodness. We will judge rightly, with wisdom, and lead many to come to know, love and serve Him. He created a blueprint for each of us with all we need to live a faithful life, a life that draws us closer to Him and leads others to Him.

Following the Lord’s blueprint for us shows us what to do and how we can do it with joy, peace, and trust in both good and bad times – it allows us to overcome all.

God created a blueprint for our lives. When God designed our lives, when He drew our blueprint, He accounted for everything we need to live in Him and with Him. If we build our lives on Jesus as our foundation, if we follow His blueprint, if we are truly wise, we will, like Solomon, ask correctly. Lord, show us the way! It takes time to learn how to follow His blueprint for us. Like Solomon, we must continue to pray for the wisdom to follow His blueprint for our lives and work daily to live it out, to follow Him and live in Him.

PNCC, , , , , , ,

A place to fill out their souls

From the The Lowell Sun: A welcoming family: St. Casimir’s Parish in Lowell welcomes those seeking faith to its tight-knit community

LOWELL — It may be one of Lowell’s best kept secrets, particularly for those who love traditional Polish foods like pierogi (dumplings), golabki (cabbage roll) or kapusta (braised sauerkraut or cabbage with bacon, mushroom and onion).

At a church kitchen and hall on Lakeview Avenue, volunteers who know their way around a dough pressing machine as well as the tricks to producing the perfect cabbage roll lend their talents a few times a month to their church, St. Casimir’s Polish National Catholic Church.

The team effort of these volunteers, who range in age from pre-teens to their 90s, results in hundreds of handmade pierogi and golabki, plus dozens of quarts of kapusta — all later frozen and sold in their parish store.

On Sundays from 11 a.m. to noon, St. Casimir’s Parish Store is open to the public. Pierogi sell for $11 per dozen, kapusta is $6 per quart, golabki $18 a dozen. Proceeds benefit the parish.

“This is a labor of love. We make these the old-fashioned way, with so many steps that it’s time-consuming. People often don’t have the time today,” said Joanne Menzia, who took part in the pierogi assembly line on Tuesday, along with more than a dozen other volunteers.

“People use pierogi as a side dish, a main dish, or even as an appetizer,” said Janice Klimczak. “We sell quite a lot of them.”

The store also sells for $12 each the parish’s new cookbook, A Taste of Heaven, featuring traditional Polish recipes from church members as well as recipes contributed by the church’s many non-Polish members.

Doing his own part in the pierogi assembly line was the pastor, the Rev. Andrzej Tenus, a native of northern Poland who came to the United States in 2006 speaking no English.

Tenus, a former Roman Catholic priest, born in 1972, and a current beekeeper, musician, husband and father of four, went to Pennsylvania to study English for three months at the Polish National Catholic Church headquarters. He was preparing for his new role as a pastor within the Polish National Catholic Church in the U.S.

He did pretty well with the Pennsylvania dialect; then he came to Lowell, where the Boston accent made it a little more difficult, he said, smiling. Today, Tenus has only a trace of a Polish accent, which belies the fact that he’s spoken English for less than a decade.

One of the questions he’s often asked from those outside the community is how the Polish National Catholic Church differs from the Roman Catholic Church. Many find it hard to grasp, he said, how a Catholic church in Lowell is not connected to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, that its bishops and priests (since 1921) are allowed to marry, and the church is democratic. Its governing board chooses the pastor, controls the finances, and the parish owns its assets.

The Polish National Catholic Church, according to its website, is a Christian denomination formed in 1897 in Scranton, Pa. While it serves the spiritual needs of its members, it also welcomes all people who wish to follow Christ. Today, there are more than 25,000 members in the United States.

The National Catholic movement, which encompasses more than the Polish National Church, resulted from the division in the Christian Church that similarly initiated the Protestant movement. However, according to the St. Patrick Catholic Church website, a National Catholic Church in Rhode Island, it differs from the Protestant divisions in that it kept its belief in the Mass and the priesthood necessary to have the Mass, as well as other Catholic rites and rituals.

The liturgy, especially the contemporary liturgy that Tenus is initiating at St. Casimir, closely resembles that of the Roman Catholic Church. Standing inside St. Casimir’s Church, which was built in 1908 for the then-large Polish community in the city’s Centralville neighborhood, is like standing inside any Roman Catholic Church.

“We keep the same beliefs. The difference is only in the administration level. We’re not connected to Rome,” said Tenus.

Tenus leads a busy life while living next to the church with his wife, Agnes, who followed her husband to the United States three months after his arrival. In Poland, Agnes trained as a nutritionist and professional cook. She creates recipes from her home country and often bakes desserts for home and the church with the honey Tenus harvests from three bee hives located at St. Casimir Cemetery in Pelham. Beekeeping was a hobby Tenus started in Poland and has since resurrected.

Their children, Karina, 13, Jonah, 9, Christoper, 6 and Amelia, 3, consider St. Casimir’s close-knit parish family as surrogate aunts, uncles and grandparents, Tenus said. Likewise, the parishioners love having them here, he added.

Tenus has many ideas to keep the small parish active within and outside the community, including a busy youth group that produces an annual talent show. He emphasizes the importance of welcoming others to their church.

“No matter your background, ethnicity or denomination, we don’t look at that. Just people with good will looking for some place to fill out their souls,” he said. “If you need comfort, a place to pray, this is the place. We do not judge — it’s not up to us to judge.”

Sunday Mass is offered at 10 a.m. at 268 Lakeview Ave., Lowell, followed by fellowship hour. For more information, visit the parish website, call 978-453-0742, or send an E-mail.

Watch live streaming video from StCasimirs at livestream.com
Christian Witness, Homilies, ,

Reflection for the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2014

3803

We have a
Treasure

He said to them in reply, “Because knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been granted to you, but to them it has not been granted. To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”

We are rich. We indeed have a treasure. We have built our Church and our local parish in which we participate in and increase our personal and collective treasure. This treasure makes our lives whole and complete. We are filled with true riches that will not fade away!

Our Holy Church expresses this well in the second verse of the Hymn of the PNCC: Unto Thee we built a temple, Which for us became a treasure, Pouring gifts of faith and courage, In it is our hope forever…

Our treasure gives us hope. Our treasure is all we gain through faith. Our treasure both increases in and is expressed by our weekly worship, prayer, study, and outreach to others.

This treasure is a secret, a mystery, to those without faith in Jesus. Even if they know a little about it, they miss the true meaning of that treasure when they fail to accept it into to their lives, or if they let their faith die because they do not enrich the soil that faith was planted in.

The soil that must be enriched is our faith lives. We need to enrich that soil regularly in worship, prayer, study, and outreach or our lives will grow shallow and our treasure will be scorched away. We need to pay attention and protect against neglecting our soil or the weeds of the world will take over and choke out our faith.

In the Holy Church, filled by the Holy Spirit, we worship, pray, study, and reach out. Our treasure grows and we become rich.

The treasure we possess and that grows day-to-day, week-to-week, and year-to-year by worship, prayer, study, and outreach is our eternal loving relationship with God. The secret of the kingdom of heaven is that God’s kingdom is a never-ending place of love, forgiveness, and mutual support. It is knowledge that we receive God’s free gift of love – grace – and that if we cooperate with that grace our lives will be enriched, we will advance into greater holiness.

Our treasure comes from the free choice we have made for God. The first disciples had that choice – to follow Jesus or to stay behind, to stay on the path with Him or to fall away. We have chosen to: “Love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind.”

The task ahead, our work, is to increase our treasure. Let us till the soil of our lives with worship, prayer, study, and outreach. Ask for Jesus’ grace of increase. Let us be very greedy for His treasure alone.

Christian Witness, Homilies,

Reflection for the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2014

20743

Joined to, Free in
Jesus

“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”

Our children’s bulletin this week has a puzzle with the following statement and question:

Sometimes you feel tired. Sometimes you feel as if people expect too much of you. When you feel like this, Jesus has some special words for you. What are Jesus’ words? _ _ _ _ to _ _, all you who _ _ _ _ _ and are _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _, and I will _ _ _ _ you _ _ _ _.

Can we find rest in Jesus when we labor and are burdened, when life itself seems to be throwing bad things at us? Jesus says so (and of course He’s God), but it seems very hard to find this rest. St. Augustine makes an interesting statement:

And they consider that they who have fearlessly bowed their necks to this yoke, and have with much submission taken this burden upon their shoulders, are tossed about and exercised by so great difficulties in the world, that they seem not to be called from labor to rest, but from rest to labor.

If seems like Augustine is being sarcastic. People take on Jesus’ yoke, yet they get more work, labor, troubles, and are more tired. He went on to give proofs that those who have faith in Christ are not exempted from life’s trials, but overcome them. They overcome them mightily.

One problem is that we think that Jesus’ rest somehow equates to an easy life, to having no worries, to prosperity without cost. Have faith in Jesus and you will win the lottery! Hurray, give me more Jesus! Jesus’ statement is conditional. We have to take His yoke. A yoke is a binding device. It hooks two animals together for the purpose of doing – WORK.

Anyone who has taken Jesus’ yoke, and who is bound to Him no matter what, finds out that God is always asking them to do hard and even practically impossible things.

Jesus’ yoke, being bound to Him and living completely in step with him, means we will not be safe, respected, comfortable, and always prosperous. Jesus’ path is often reckless and risky. Being bond to Him means we give up being bound to other (often easy) things to follow where He leads.

We are called to do what God asks regardless of the cost and trust that God will cover us. The problem is that there is a cost to being bound to Jesus. It may be suffering, not enough money, inconvenience, danger, and even being unwelcome. God may not seem to be covering us. He is! For this is His revelation to us, His “little ones.” Trust that He is in charge, has a purpose, aids us in battle, and gives us victory.

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