Hello World! The Awesome Foundation-San Francisco had its kick-off meeting last week and we are psyched to start awarding $1K grants to men and women with awesome ideas! We’re focusing on Bay Area projects/submissions and our first submission review meeting will be mid-May. If you have a project that rocks, be sure and submit your idea by May 11, 2010 for our chapter to consider. Can’t wait to see what’s out there!

The Awesome Foundation is pleased to introduce our latest chapter, San Francisco. We’re thrilled to have such an amazing group of people involved, and on a personal level, I’m proud to call several of them friends. Ladies and gents, here are your AF-SF micro-trustees: Amit Gupta Brynn Evans Ivan Kirigin Jesse Farmer Kevin Adler Krista Sanders Mitch Altman Raffi Krikorian Rod Begbie Tim Bentley and Jesse Taggert as AF-SF’s Dean of Awesome We anxiously await their first grant. I’m sure it will be amazing! Now that the Awesome Foundation has reached the Pacific, where do we go from here? Stay tuned to find out. https://apotheek247.com

Every month the Awesome Foundation NYC gives away $1000 a month to something that is awesome. It can be anything, anywhere….then we throw a party give out the award (always cash in a brown paper bag), and celebrate all things AWESOME that month. You are invited to the: Awesome Foundation NYC April Party Monday, April 19, at 7pm D.B.A. in the East Village 41 1st Ave. btw 2nd & 3rd RSVP at http://awesomenyc.eventbrite.com In previous months we have funded a laser tractor beam that prods amoebas in a bus and an Arduino-powered Anywhere Organ. This month we are funding something more reptilian in nature. Just what exactly? Come see for yourself in the flesh on Monday, April 19 at 7pm. These things have a curfew. Who is the Awesome Foundation NYC? Jesse Chan-Norris, Lee-Sean Huang, Sam Lessin, Steve Rosenbaum, Douglas Repetto, Dawn Barber, Clay Shirky, Colin Nederkoorn, Brandon Kessler, Catherine White, and Elizabeth Stark. And how do you apply for an Awesome Foundation grant? http://awesomefoundation.org by the end of the month, awesome. Hope to see you next week, The Awesome Foundation NYC

Things have been quiet from Boston for a little bit: we’ve been swamped readying the new, improved, and expanded Awesome Foundation for the Arts and Sciences website — and been repping it up at conferences and the like. But, to all those who have been asking, yes, yes, we’re still in business. Extremely proud today to announce that our March Awesome Fellow is Charles Fracchia (that guy above). His idea? To create pens that draw from actually living, growing ink cartridges. Excerpting from his proposal: “I want to develop a set of bioengineered inks to be used with various pen types ranging from gel pens to fountain pens. As an intern at ginkgo bioworks and avid DIYbiologist, I have access to a number of bugs engineered with proteins that result in colour production. I want to make special cultures that can then be packaged as ink cartridges to be used with ordinary pens.” For all you science dorks out there, there’s some neat little possibilities when you start growing your own ink: “This would allow artists and enthusiasts to draw with awesome engineered inks. The great thing about using bioengineering to produce the colour, is that you can engineer them in… read more →

The Providence Chapter of the Awesome Foundation for Arts and Sciences has selected Matt Grigsby to receive its February award. Grigsby will use the Awesome Foundation Grant to create a “Materials PettingZoo” showcasing textile, industrial, consumer products and residential construction materials that offer ecologically sensible solutions to more traditional products. Moving beyond descriptions and pictures of such materials, the materials zoo will encourage participants to touch, feel and directly interact with a variety of materials, offering a novel and interactive way to help people of all ages get educated and exposed to spectacular sustainable materials. “The goal of the Materials PettingZoo is to have lots of fun while educating people about on the best sustainable material alternatives and technologies available,” says Grigsby.  “With this on-site and hands-on educational event, the PettingZoo serves as an approachable way for the community to gain real knowledge of what a sustainable material or technology truly can be.” Grigsby, an industrial designer and sustainability expert, has been collecting and investigating sustainable materials for years.  With this grant, Grigsby will expand his collection and improve the design of his mobile “zoo” so that it can be displayed in more locations and at events across the city…. read more →