What would make LA stop, drop and …eat? Well this months Awesome LA winners, Farley Elliott and Danny Cohen, think they have the answer: one giant kick-ass picnic. In a city that is far too often characterized by its traffic, and its residents constant rush to get from point  A to B – these two awesome individuals want to given LA a reason to stop for a bit, enjoy the day and break the bread with their fellow Angelenos! In their own words: Picnic baskets, blankets, kites – all the makings of a classic picnic, but on a massive scale. Baskets as big as a sofa, Paul Bunyan-sized sandwiches and enough grapes to make Caesar blush. It’s a giant picnic in size, scope and mission. There will be food, games and an open invitation for anyone and everyone to stop by and meet their neighbors. Here’s a few more awesome facts about these two picnic-neers : 1. They are improvisers at the amazing Upright Citizens Brigade (clearly they know how to have a good time!) 2. Have you heard of Minutiæ ? If you haven’t you should check this brilliantly satirical magazine that Danny and Farley co-edit! 3. They’re simple… read more →

Every month we are floored by the fun/inspiring/hilarious/surprising/moving applications that arrive via the complex set of tubes known as the interwebs.  At our last meeting we got to talking about how the text based format of the review process doesn’t do justice to some of the submissions we receive. Sometimes a tweak in how an idea is explained or the addition of a quirky twist to the project plan can take a really cool application and dial it up to completely freakin’ AWESOME. To add that missing Interactive/3D/IRL component to the funding process, we held the first ‘Office Hours’ session in December. A bunch of Boston trustees hung out with awesome, super creative, dynamic peeps interested in applying for a grant. We discussed ideas and gave tips on strengthening proposals. It went so well that we decided to make it a regular thing. HOW IT’LL WORK: About once a month (most likely on a Thursday), we’ll hold court in an embarrassingly nerdy/trendy establishment after work. Ideas will be exchanged. Brains will be stormed. Noms and beverages will be consumed. WHO’S INVITED? You!  Trustees, past grantees, applicants, and friends/community members. We’re keeping it broad ’cause wouldn’t it be cool if some of these crazy/brilliant ideas met, fell in love, and… read more →

Hello everyone! It’s official: the trustees of Awesome Foundation San Francisco are extremely proud this month to make an award to Erin Bregman of the Little Opera Company. Erin’s project is simple, but awesome. She works with children between 2nd and 5th grade at the West Portal Elementary School to write, produce, and perform complete operas. That’s singing and dancing. Since they come out of the collective minds of the kids that Erin works with, the topics of these operas are unbelievably intense: previous works have included operas about evil ponies on Mars, pirates, and Custer’s Last Stand (see video above). Naturally, we’re all about this, so AF-SF is helping to fund their upcoming production in March. We’ll post more details as they come together – but from what Erin tells us, the performance is set to include wild animals, magical moons, and spooky forests, so it pretty much is going to be awesome. Also: they’re looking for people to lend a hand! If you know of a small performance space that might be a good place for it – be sure to drop us a line at contact@awesomefoundation.org. Also, if you’re interested in donating to these efforts, the Little… read more →

Here at Awesome Boston, we get a lot of ideas every month. Not all of the ideas are awesome, but a lot of them are pretty close and could use just a pinch of awesome-factor to send them over the edge. That’s why we’re starting Awesome office hours. From 6-8 PM this Thursday, December 15th, several trustees from Awesome Boston will be at Voltage Cafe in Kendall Square to help you refine your idea from great to awesome. If this is successful, there’ll be many more. Don’t have an idea? Come talk to us until you have one, or just say hi! Make sure to follow us on Twitter (@awesomebos) for updates.

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