The Art of Activism

Because we believe activism is an art.

The Art of Activism is an annual series of Bay Area events produced by the Redford Center.  We launched our 2010 program on February 4, as a way to recognize the work of national and local activists who are making a difference, and to inspire more of the same.

Held at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas in San Francisco, the first event featured a conversation with Robert Redford, who reflected on his more than 40 year commitment to social and environmental change, and paid tribute to the work of two Bay Area activists, nominated by their communities: Victor Diaz and Avery Hale.

The series offers multi-faceted, 90 minute presentations designed to move, provoke, and inspire the audience and to have a positive impact on people’s lives beyond the events.

Art of Activism, June 2010, 7-9pm, Sundance Kabuki Cinemas

(San Francisco, CA)

Art of Activism, November 2010, 7-9pm, Sundance Kabuki Cinemas

(San Francisco, CA)

“My motivation is part vendetta.  Too many before me suffered for demanding better books, safer buildings, or for trying to shatter the cloak of mediocrity placed upon children of color generation after generation.  Yet I am also motivated by the genius, the raw brilliance of our children.” Victor Diaz, Principal, Berkeley Technical Academy

“The activism that I do is also meant to inspire the community, not only to “create change”, but to realize the privileges and advantages we have, that as a society we may take for granted.” Avery Hale, 15, Founder, Step by Step

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Featured Artist: Chad Hoopes

In November 2010, the Redford Center, ICLEI, and the USGBC convened convened U.S. mayors and superintendents from around the country, invited in city-based teams, as well as leading green designers, educators, artists, youth leaders, and green school advocates. The summit built on the momentum of the National Green Schools Campaign, which aims to have every child in America attending a green school within a generation, and leveraged the interest and opportunities created by the Mayors' Alliance for Green Schools. Sixteen-year-old violinist Chad Hoopes served as our artist at the table. His inspirational performance helped provoke a different kind of dialog. Check back here for a video of his performance, coming soon.

BIO

At age 16, Chad Hoopes already possesses the kind of technical mastery, ease of expression and joyful talent that come along only once in a generation. He has performed with numerous ensembles throughout the world including the Cleveland Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Brussels Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of the Welsh National Opera and Trondheim Symphony.

During the 2010-11 season, Chad performs with orchestras throughout North America, including a re-engagement with the San Francisco Symphony and a gala concert with the National Arts Centre Orchestra under Pinchas Zukerman. Recent European appearances include Vivaldi's Four Seasons at the Tuscan Sun Festival in Cortona, Italy, and recitals in Italy and Germany. Following his debut at the Menuhin Festival in Gstaad in August 2009, Chad received an immediate re-invitation and appeared again this past summer. He was subsequently re-engaged and will make his third appearance there in Summer 2012.

Beyond the concert hall, Chad's virtuosity and exuberant personality have been featured on the CBS Early Show, NBC affiliate station WKYC (Cleveland), NPR station WCLV in Ohio, ABC affiliate station KSTP Twin Cities Live, and on PBS's From the Top: Live at Carnegie Hall. He was the soloist in the Emmy Award-winning June 2007 television commercial for the Cleveland Indians Major League Baseball team produced by SportsTime Ohio Network, which aired on NBC, SportsTime Ohio and ESPN. Chad was one of the featured artists in the Cincinnati Pops Telarc recording released in 2009, a collaboration with NPR's From the Top.

Chad began his violin studies at the age of four in Minneapolis with Nancy Lokken and continued with Sally O'Reilly at the University of Minnesota, and David Russell at the Cleveland Institute of Music. He currently studies with David Cerone and William Preucil at the Cleveland Institute of Music. He was a student in the ENCORE School for Strings for four summers and has also studied at the Kent/Blossom Festival, the Bravo School for Strings, the Meadowmount School for Music, and with Pinchas Zukerman at Ottawa's NAC Young Artists Program. In April 2008, he won first prize in the Young Artists Division of the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition.

In addition to his solo engagements, Chad performs in a trio with his two sisters; they appeared live on From the Top in 2007 and have been featured twice on The Early Show, on WCLV radio, and on WVIZ TV in Cleveland. Chad is also active in the Boy Scouts of America, having advanced to the rank of Eagle Scout. He plays the 1713 Antonio Stradivari Cooper; Hakkert; ex Ceci violin, courtesy of Jonathan Moulds.

Greening of America's Schools Summit

What if every child in America attended a green school? What if the idea of a green school extended beyond the building itself to enlightened education that takes the arts, creativity, and imagination seriously?

The Greening of America's Schools Summit: Transforming a Bold Vision into Reality

The Greening of America's Schools Summit took place in November 2010. Held at Sundance, UT, it convened U.S. mayors and superintendents from around the country, invited in city-based teams, as well as leading green designers, educators, artists, youth leaders, and green school advocates. The summit built on the momentum of the National Green Schools Campaign, which aims to have every child in America attending a green school within a generation, and leveraged the interest and opportunities created by the Mayors' Alliance for Green Schools.

The Redford Center employed its unique facilitation model of civil and open discourse, creativity, and the power of the natural setting to nurture new ideas and solutions and to focus the discussion on the following:

• Transforming the vision of the National Green Schools Campaign into an actionable plan

• Making existing school building conversions as viable and attractive as new construction when it comes to green.

• Ensuring that the definition of a green school goes beyond bricks and mortar, and that it engages students' imaginations while creating healthy living environments for them beyond their school experience.

Two days of thoughtful and challenging discussion led to prioritized action plans, and to firm commitments from leaders to organize teacher trainings and local green school summits, establish green schools fellowships, and bring young speakers into schools, including educators from the Alliance for Climate Justice (ACE) and 16-year-old Founder of Kids vs Global Warming, Alec Loorz.

SEE images from the event.

READ Architectural Record's coverage of the Summit.

WATCH youth-created videos screened at the Summit, winners of the Green Schools Media Challenge:

Downtown High School

Our School at Blair Grocery

Runner-up: Marin Country Day School

VIEW the Summit page at the Center for Green Schools.

A Call for a Cleaner Environment

Pebble Mine: Disaster Waiting to Happen from NRDCflix on YouTube.

Write a letter to development company Anglo American urging them to abandon plans for Pebble Mine.

Robert Redford on Clean Energy and Climate Legislation from The Redford Center on Vimeo.

View his appearance on Countdown with Keith Olberman here.

Robert Redford: The independent mind invoking change

Robert Redford is somewhat of an anomaly in the entertainment industry. Though he has been world-famous for some 30 years, he remains a highly private individual.  He is an ardent conservationist and environmentalist, a man who stands for social responsibility and political involvement and an artist and businessman who is a staunch supporter of uncompromised creative expression.  His life-long passion for nature and issues of justice has resulted in Redford being widely acknowledged as a highly effective and dedicated political and environmental activist.

He is recognized the world over for the roles he has played and the projects he has directed or produced throughout a distinguished stage and film career. His passion remains to make films of substance and social/cultural relevance, as well as to encourage others to express themselves through the arts.  Believing that it is the unexpected and uncommon, which ultimately enlivens the cultural ecology of a society, Redford has nurtured more than a generation of innovative voices in independent film through his non-profit Sundance Institute and Film Festival.  Harvard Business Review observed, “Sundance has become to Hollywood what Silicon Valley has been to the high-tech industry.”

Robert Redford: A Sundance Timeline