It’s with great pleasure that we can announce that the first recipient of the Awesome Foundation Sydney grant is the team from Big Fag Press, who submitted an awesome application to us in March. The guys at BFP have at their disposal a huge printing press, which they are going to use to create a unique map of the Sydney suburb of Woolloomooloo. Here is an extract from their application, to give you some idea of what it’s all about. Woolloomooloo is awesome. It contains some of the wealthiest bankers, swankiest restaurants, and pristine apartments in Sydney; it also contains a huge population of homeless folks, plenty of public housing, and loads of social services and cultural institutions. Its current urban form was made possible through union Green Bans in the 1970s. For the first time ever, our map will put all this conflicted data on a two dimensional inky collision course. To create the map, the team will print up a ‘first version’ of the suburb map and then walk around the area. They will mark on the map, by hand, anything ‘weird and wonderful and important that we happen to bump into.’ They will then take this information and… read more →

Gruezi* World! Awesome Foundation Zurich has just gone live. Today, we are proud to announce the launch of the Awesome chapter Zurich – only the second one on the European continent (the UK doesn’t count, right?). We have no other motivation than the fact that we see a lot of undiscovered awesomeness in Switzerland. Things are truly bubbling here and it is about time some of the things that are going down in the land of chocolate and cheese get noticed, acknowledged, hellyeah’d and awesomeized. That’s what we are here for. We are ten people from all walks of life aiming to come together four times a year to award 1000 CHF to awesome project ideas, that they may see the light of day. We are accepting first application as of now (we try to communicate in German, but English is no problem either). *Gruezi is how we say “Hello” around here.

Hi. CHicago is launching today. Could use advice: how you do best let people in your city know you exist? I’m sending out a press release–but if any of you have friends in Chicago, please ask them to tell people about us, and send friends to our new Facebook page. Thanks!

It was perhaps out of character that Nick and I both arrived on bikes for the handover of Awesome Foundation Melbourne’s March grant, given Nick runs the not for profit group Tram Sessions. Tram Sessions encourage Melbourne artists and bands to perform on city trams, trying to bring more culture into the public space. The sessions are recorded and uploaded to the Tram Sessions website, where you can see the awesome in action.

We are happy to announce LA’s APRIL grant winner – LA Compton Junior Posse. In 1988 Mayisha Akbar created, somewhat by accident, a safe haven for kids in Compton. Little known fact to most, the Richland Farms area of Compton is zoned for farming. Many people have ranches and raise horses in a part of Los Angeles that is widely perceived as unsafe. A mother of three, Mayisha moved to Compton to buy a farm where she could raise horses. What she quickly realized was that in Compton, many children’s basic needs are not being met. Her own children slowly brought more and more neighborhood kids back to the farm after school to play, for meals, and so on. Mayisha found that horses acted as a motivational tool for the children, and slowly but surely has formed a strong organization teaching kids to ride. Through Mayisha’s backyard program, hundreds of young people ages 5-18 have learned to take care for and communicate with horses, many even compete! Mayisha provides kids with a sense of self-worth and belonging and a real life skill. We think the Compton Junior Posse is awesome! If you want to donate or check out the posse,… read more →