Small Change Collective

The Anthropology Graduate Student Organization (AGSA) at Indiana University is dedicated to community outreach and educational events that provide opportunities for the public to learn about the field of anthropology. Every year, the organization participates in the Central Indiana Brownie Girl Scout Math and Science Day. On this day, young girls from kindergarten through middle school visit the Indiana University campus in Bloomington and engage in science and math activities conducted by various departments. In November of 2011, the Small Change Collective was able to help AGSA build a collection of reusable materials for the archaeology room at this event and for future outreach events.

The activities conducted at this event were designed to explain what archaeology is, give the girls some hands-on experience, and encourage enthusiasm for archaeology and the sciences in general. At this year’s event, there were 177 Brownie Girl Scouts and 90 adults in attendance.

The activities included two different stations. First, grinding stones and ears of corn were provided for the girls to gain hands-on experience on how people in the past prepared corn for meals. The girls were able to shuck the kernels into buckets and the use stone to grind the corn as one would with a mortar and pestle. The second activity consisted of drawing simple designs onto paper plates to show how people decorated pottery in the past. Posters explaining Indiana archaeology and sample artifacts were also on display, and participants were able to interact with volunteer archaeologists.

Bread and Roses Food Cooperative

Tallahassee, Florida
Project: Purchase of Bulk Food Storage Bins to improve storage capabilities
100% of the grant was generously donated by the band House of Lighting.

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Large bulk-food storage bins are not exactly a topic that inspires excitement. However, the goals of broadening access to healthy organic food, creating an organization that seeks to make decisions in a democratic, non-hierarchical way, inclusive of any person willing to participate––regardless of class, race, gender, or sexual orientation––are rich ideals worth getting excited about. These are just some of the goals of the Bread and Roses Food Cooperative, started by residents to enrich their local community in Tallahassee, Florida.

Bread and Roses Cooperative is a member-owned-and-operated grocer, offering an alternative to for-profit commercial grocery stores. Members contribute their labor, working together as a team, which enables the Co-op to keep costs down.

“We strive to be a responsible and ethical employer and neighbor, minimizing our carbon footprint. We are a buying agent for our members, not a selling agent for any industry.”

Bread and Roses offers a diversity of products with an emphasis on organic, local, minimally-processed, and healthful foods that are chemical and additive free. They seek to avoid products that depend on the exploitation of others, while advocating for human rights, social justice, and fair trade. Leading by example, they educate others about health, nutrition, the broader cooperative movement, and the environment.

These worthwhile values are what drew the SCC to the Bread and Roses Cooperative. In July of 2011, the SCC funded a grant for large bulk-food storage bins to help create a more secure storage system for their products.

In our increasingly top-down world, it is hard to find the truly democratic spirit of a cooperative system. We champion the efforts of the Bread and Roses Cooperative in their mission to educate and expand access to healthy organic food in their community.

Optimism and a Night of Music and Dance for Special Needs Youth

Recipients: Anne-Marie Sargent, Oviedo-Winter Springs Optimist Club
Project: “SPADES” – Special Population Area Dance ExtravaganzaS

50% of the grant was generously donated by Mary Riley, in memory of her brothers Jim and John Loehner.

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Photographs featured are from the previous Dance in March.

All applications for a SCC grant involve a kind of story. It is a story of individuals or groups coming together to address a need in their community. The grant awarded in March 2011 began with a story of a mother, Anne Marie Sargent and her teenage daughter with special needs. In Anne-Marie’s words,

“I have a beautiful 17-year old daughter who has special needs. Every month, we travel 30 minutes to attend the special population dances in Altamonte Springs. When I joined the Oviedo-Winter Springs Optimist Club a year ago, the Optimist members fell in love with my daughter and we began working to bring the Special Population Dances to Oviedo-Winter Springs. “

The Oviedo-Winter Springs Optimist Club responded to this need for youth in their community with special needs to have an opportunity to socialize with other special needs youth and able-bodied community members by hosting special population dances, called SPADES (Special Population Area Dance Extravaganzas), in September of 2010.

The first dance was attended by over 60 teens and adults with special needs. Including parents or companions, there were over 100 people in attendance. The first dance was such a success they embarked on hosting a monthly dance.

The SPADES event is an opportunity for teens and adults with special needs to socialize and make connections with other families with special needs in their area. It also provides an opportunity for able-bodied teens and adults to volunteer. As Anne-Marie explained,

“Many able-bodied people are uncomfortable around those with special needs. They don’t know how to act or what to say. At SPADES, music is the language and dancing is the action. Our goal is to bringing the able bodied community together with the special needs community. Both the local and the special needs communities will benefit. It is a win-win situation. The community will bring 10 nights of enjoyment to our local special people, while our special people will bring joy to the community with their warmth and willingness to share their joy with anyone who will take a little time to dance with them.”

Volunteers serve food and drinks, as well as having the opportunity to enjoy the music and dance. To continue bringing this event to the Oviedo-Winter Springs area the Optimist club must find a sponsor for each dance to cover the costs of food, drinks, decorations, paper goods, and the DJ. The Small Change Collective was honored to sponsor the April 2011 Spring Fling dance. This project is also special to us because it was the first project where one of our members, Kristen Riley, was able to participate. She attended the March 2011 Dance. Kristen is studying speech-language pathology and has worked with children on the autism spectrum. In Kristen’s words,

“I had a wonderful time at the Special Population Dance. This dance is an event where everyone is welcome. My favorite part of the night was when they crowned the king and queen of the dance. This is an event worth the support of the community.”

Special thanks to Vincent Guerra for assistance with this post.

Museum of Florida Art – Pam Coffman

Pencils, erasers, sketchbooks, paint and brushes are among the basic supplies needed to teach an art class. The Small Change Collective (SCC) believes in the necessity to teach students of all ages and abilities creative, critical thinking through the practice of art. In support of this we were excited to award the December 2010 grant, generously donated by Trio Evanston in Evanston, Illinois, to the Museum of Florida Art. The grant will fund the purchase of art supplies for the Museum’s art outreach program titled Vessels of Knowing.

The art program is being held in conjunction with the most recent exhibition at the Museum, Topographies: The Sculpture of Barbara Sorensen, from December 10th 2010 through March 13, 2011. Barbara Sorensen was selected as a Florida Artist of Enduring Excellence and this exhibition will recognize and honor that achievement.

The Museum is also collaborating with VSA Florida (The State Organization on Arts and Disability) and VSA Volusia to achieve their shared goal of providing public exposure to programming designed for the visually impaired community as well as training and education dedicated to an inclusive, accessible and adaptive art environment for all to enjoy.

The outreach program, which began in January, is an 8-week classroom experience through VSA Florida’s statewide county residency program. Charon Luebbers has been selected as the resident artist. She is a practicing artist and curator, has taught art in Volusia County public schools, and has participated in previous VSA Florida artist residencies. Pam Coffman, Curator of Education at the Museum of Florida Art, will serve as the project coordinator. Ten students from an 8th grade exceptional student education program at Deltona Middle School will be participating in the art education program.

The program began with students touring the Topographies exhibition in preparation for the residency. During the 8 weeks the students will use sketching, clay, and reflective writing to explore the idea of a vessel and how vessels can be “containers of knowing and knowledge”. The Museum will host an exhibition and opening of the student’s work at the end of the residency in March.

Jennifer Cronin and Dan Bellini
Mural Project, Rogers Park – Chicago, IL

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The Small Change Collective (SCC) believes that small is beautiful. Through the disbursement of small grants, connecting individual donors with community-oriented projects, the SCC empowers individuals to create productive change in their communities.

Muralists, Jennifer Cronin and Dan Bellini, were two of twelve artists commissioned to paint murals throughout Rogers Park, an ethnically and economically diverse neighborhood on the north side of Chicago. In August, local residents chose their mural designs, and after fronting $500 for supplies, such as primer and paint, Dan and Jennifer began working on their murals, which run side-by-side, merging at the Farwell and Ravenswood Viaduct. Shortly after beginning, the city postponed the contracts for the murals, citing a shortage of funds. By September, with Chicago’s winter weather not far off, Jennifer and Dan faced abandoning their projects or spending more of their own money to complete their murals for the residents of Rogers Park.

Public art projects provide neighborhoods the opportunity to visualize themselves and create an identity. Dan and Jennifer’s project has already engaged the neighborhood residents of Rogers Park, and their SCC grant will help ensure that this engagement continues, not cooling off due to winter or a lack of funds.

Dan says it best: “We want it to look really good, especially after we met the people in the neighborhood and they embraced us. Their kids helped us scrape and prime the walls; they let us store our supplies at their houses; they brought us water and food. We want to give them something nice to look at everyday.”

The residents of Rogers Park now have a lasting and beautiful source of pride in their community, one in which they themselves have invested their time, work, and care.

In our increasingly global lives, the SCC strives to shrink the distance between strangers–between those who want to support change and those who have the skills and know-how to make their communities stronger and more beautiful. Over the summer Meghan Young and the Young family of Polk County, Florida generously donated the first SCC grant. From Meghan’s donation to us, from us to Dan and Jennifer, the first Small Change Collective grant has brought together a coalition of strangers to help make these murals a success.

Special thanks to Vincent Guerra for assistance with this post.