During this urgent time for artists and arts organizations across the country, we are asking you to join us in supporting our local advocacy group, RI Citizens for the Arts.

Formalized in 1999, RI Citizens for the Arts serves as "the voice for the diverse statewide arts community in order to further raise awareness and support for the arts in the public and private sector, for the benefit of all Rhode Islanders."

We learned recently that RI CFA is in very real danger of shutting down at the end of this month. While their attention has been focused on making sure that government funding for the arts is protected and preserved, their fundraising  has not been as successful as they've needed it to be over the past year.

The bottom line is that they need to raise approximately $10,000 by March 31. This may sound like a lot, but they really just need 200 new members at an average of $50 each. We know that there are many more people than that in Rhode Island who feel strongly about protecting public funding for the arts.
 
It would be a devastating blow to Rhode Island to lose RI Citizens for the Arts.

As a fellow believer in the importance of the arts, we hope you will consider becoming a member today. Their entry level membership is $25 for one year. Donations of any size are also welcomed. You can do all of this online. (Note that as RI CFA is a 501c4 organization. Therefore, your membership or donation is not tax-deductible, but it goes towards very important work.)

To become a member of RI Citizens for the Arts by March 31, click here.

Thanks for considering this important request on behalf of RI CFA.

-Heath Marlow, CMW staff

Photos by Heath

Over the last ten years, the work of artists, activists and scholars in Providence has been incorporated into a rhetoric of “creative city building.”

Join a conversation with founders and current leaders from AS220, New Urban Arts, Community MusicWorks, and The Steel Yard about what it means to start and sustain organizations which support creative practice in Providence.

This event is part of the 2011 New Urban Arts Series of Conversations on Creative Practice and is generously supported by the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities.

Thursday, April 7, 7-9 pm, at New Urban Arts, 743 Westminster Street. Click here to download the flier.

-Jori Ketten, Media Lab Director (and event co-instigator)

More photos by Jori in CMW's Flickr account.

In the fall, CMW commissioned The Steel Yard to fabricate custom bike racks for our office. Now that the snow has cleared, The Steel Yard is putting the final touches on a pair of bike racks to grace the front of our home at 1392 Westminster Street. Aaron's bike can't wait to get locked up to a shiny red treble clef this Spring!

Concert host, and honorary CMW Board member, Rick Keller.

"The entire event was very special–the performance was superb and thoroughly appreciated and the feeling of community in the room was palpable throughout the entire event.. The quartet really captured the interest of the kids from Holyoke in their pre-concert meeting with them. Also really bonded with the audience. I was also delighted to reconnect with Kirby; she gave in inspiring talk during intermission."

Kirby, visiting from Smith College in nearby Northampton.

Photos by Rebecca Reid

Plans are still emerging for the Fellows Quartet's Brahms and Shostakovich performances next week. In addition to the Sunday, March 20 concert at the Carriage House Stage at 4 pm, the Fellows are "cooking up" several additional West Side appearances at various nontraditional performance venues. Promises to be fun, and if you want to be in the know, send an email to Carole (carole@communitymusicworks.org) and we'll send you an update with the details!

Visit the Culture Stops! website.

 Visit the Culture Stops! Facebook page.

Find out how to participate in Culture Stops!

More photos by Jori in CMW's Flickr account.