For the past ten years I have been on an incredible journey. My history as a social activist from the 60's has been rewritten to portray a community art activist and educator. The people I have met on this trek are some of the most giving people I have ever been honored to know. Their interest in a peaceful world is of primary importance. Their manner of reaching this balance and harmony is through positive creative expression and tolerance for persons of multiple cultures.

The beginning of my journey was as a program developer for a group of artists who were very concerned about Community Transformation Through The Arts. From this planning position an opportunity arose for me to design and implement a Literature Based Arts Program for inner city youth. This six-year period brought for me many emotional rewards by working with both youth and caring adults. I interacted with persons from educational institutions of higher learning and grass roots arts organizations. I learned that children and adults in other than academic settings deserve and require arts experiences that are significant and relevant to their lives. (The arts have a way of transforming anyone in ways that are still not completely understand: physically, intellectually and emotionally.) This website has attempted to document just a few examples of Arts for Community Transformation.

There is one community example which I have not yet given credit. That is acknowledging the power of cultural sites and museums to integrate the needs of a community. My current volunteer position in the art world is working with The Bead Museum in Glendale, Arizona. The facility has been in operation for less than a year. Under the guidance of a managing director, staff and Board of Directors this cultural site is outreaching to help unite the developing city consisting of persons from middle and lower incomes and culturally diverse backgrounds. Through the diversity of beads and their importance in the "Human Story" as adornment, currency, status and power symbols, and protective and ritual objects relevancy to a museum visitor's own life is being connected and validated. Please take the time to link to The Bead Museum website.

Judy Butzine, following a tour of The Bead Museum, discusses the power of ritual and ceremony in our lives and the need to reconnect to it. The display case on prayer beads, rosaries and talismans from around the world presents the documentation and examples of this concept. Visitors later create their own "power bracelets" that are strung with specific beads which are designated with certain ethereal qualities.

An ornament and fiber arts class taught at the magnet arts high school won multiple awards for this student in city art competitions. The Bead Museum staff provides opportunities and beads for students to explore new art expressions with meaning back to their own lives. These same youth's artworks were exhibited in The Bead Museum for the community inclusive of other youth to enjoy.

A teacher of enrichment programming, also a Bead Museum member, brought her students to the museum for a tour and art-making activity. The participants

washed gourds covered with soil right from the earth, sanded and whittled sticks for handles. They later designed and painted the gourds, then beaded them. Before each session the members sat in the "Circle Of Power" listening to rattle music from around the world. Each student shared their own story of family ritual. The rattles became instruments of

those shared stories and traditions sometimes lost.

The circular bead is a metaphor for the circle of energy contained in the "Beading Experience", which can be taken home and shared with family and friends. Many participants said they learned things about their fellow students they had never known.

The rattles were later displayed at The Bead Museum to Honor and Celebrate the creative energies of these students and their teachers. Please e-mail me your story of Community Arts. jhb6@mindspring.com