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.”
Seeing Peace.
PO Box 22252 San Francisco, CA 94122. phone/fax (415) 566-3811
Email: richardkamler@sbcglobal.net
http://www.richardkamler.org
