One of our first Awesome Foundation in DC went to Experience Counterpoint, an experimental chamber orchestra. Now, after much scheming and planning, their guerrilla “flash mob” style performance of Audio Warhol was performed yesterday at the Andy Warhol: Headlines exhibit of the National Gallery. Dressed as Warhol doppelgangers, the actors, musicians and DJ performed a musical/multimedia event inspired by the work of Andy Warhol based on Terry Riley’s minimalist work In C. See more about the performance here: http://pinklineproject.com/article/counterpoints-audio-warhol-national-gallery-saturday

The winner of the Awesome Foundation DC grant teaches high school students the basics of computer programming through free, extra-curricular, off-campus trainings hosted by community partners. CodeNow, founded by Ryan Seashore, is a DC grown non-profit focused on developing the next pioneers in technology by teaching underrepresented high school students foundational skills in computer programming through free, extra-curricular, off-campus trainings. Creating a fluency in this language spurs innovation and opens doors for our youth, while creating a pipeline of talent for American companies. Watch more here: Code Now We talked to Ryan Seashore, founder of CodeNow, about his project: There are 5 parts to the program that focuses on providing access to hardware, training, and ongoing support and engagement: Weekend Training – CodeNow partners up with other organizations to hold weekend trainings. Each student selected for the program will attend one of these trainings, which includes instruction in Scratch and Lego Mindstorms. Project – Each student will be assigned a project after the weekend training which they must complete to attend the weeklong bootcamp. Bootcamp – Students participate in a 4-5 day training to learn the programming language Ruby. Netbook – Each student who attends the weekend training and bootcamp receives a… read more →

Congratulations to Awesome Foundation DC grantees Ryan and Hayes Holliday (aka BlueBrain) for this great piece in the New York Times celebrating the launch of their new locative album in Central Park – Listen to the Light:  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/08/arts/music/bluebrains-app-central-park-listen-to-the-light.html Watch the making of: http://vimeo.com/bluebrain/music-for-landscapes We funded BlueBrain’s experimental Living House installation with a delicious dinner back in September with the help of Noah Kunin, Ayana Johnson, Christopher Brown, Nancy Pragre, Nelson Jacobsen, Andrea Zanon, Jessy Kate Schingler, Alexander Barth, and Miriam Schwedt and their guests. The fruits of our labor:

Individual actions wont change the world, so Awesome students in DC are going to reinvent it. Katie Kindle, a teacher in a DC school, wants to empower her students to become change makers in their communities. When she started a project with her students to identify a problem they see in the world around them, and then generate an action they could take to change the course of the problem, they unanimously responded that their individual actions won’t change the world. So Katie created this project to proving them wrong and giving them an experience with creating a vision and seeing it through to completion. Katie tells us about her awesome project: Students will experience what it feels like to generate an idea, implement it in the world, and then see what happens. We have no delusions that their individual actions will solve complex problems like world hunger, but we are opening up the possibility that the actions of one committed individual can be the ember that sparks change and inspires others to join the campaign to take responsibility for making the world a world that works for all of us. Over the course of this school year, six seniors… read more →

“Like planting a row of flowers on a blighted corner, planting some beautiful sounds in an under-utilized part of town will help make it more beautiful, intriguing and fun to visit.” Jocelyn Frank, a DC based radio journalist/musician/documentarian/sound artist tells us about her awesome project Sound Garden. You can look at the website to learn more. Tell us about the Sound Garden: The idea which is made with the help of landscape design in Portland, Oregon is to create an audio installation that adds a bit of sonic beauty to an area or neighborhood of DC that can use a little beautification. The Awesome Foundation grant helps along with U.S. Lawns landscaping franchises to fund the creation and exploration of best-styles/shapes for the project to take. Audio engineer Sean Phillips and I are working together to try out a few different configurations of solar power, battery life, motion sensors, wiring and security to create audio flowers that will be durable, weather resistant, secure and attention grabbing in order to create a small garden in an under appreciated area of the District. Once we’ve developed a working prototype we hope to solicit additional funding for a city-based project to be installed… read more →