Rebaked Alaska

A red letter day on sim Rhetorica today, the home of the University of Alaska and the Rasmuson Foundation. Jeffronius Criss (in RL Jeff Clarke, Rasmusen VP) announced the winner of the Distinguished Artist Award of $25,000 and - I'm guessing - both a chicken dinner and a trophy of some sort. There are also a whole load of smaller prizes, covering everything from textiles to novels to photography to performing art. I was having some serious rezzing issues to begin with, but a couple of Ctrl/Shift/R and suddenly the gallery popped for me, in all its four floors of glory.

25k buys a lot of creative time, but you have to be an Alaska resident to get in on this one.
I wonder, though - could we get a virtual Alaska going? I bet Bits n Bobs could put together some pretty realistic culturally referenced animations...*waits for you to put down that mental image*  ...seriously, the Rasmuson vision is one we can all get behind, over the years they've awarded about 4.5 million dollars to almost 200 people working to sustain and renew a cultural heritage as vast and diverse as the state of Alaska itself.

The Rasmuson award ceremony was one of the first events I ever covered on ArtsParks, and so it was nice to be back again, thanks to my old friend Cybergrrl Oh, seen at the top of this post. We were there to hear composer John Luther Adams accept, with only slightly bemused grace, our congratulations and questions.

TP over to the Rasmuson gallery to see art spanning the past four years, it's imaginative, fresh and surprising. Bring a sweater though, it's still snowing!!

Day and Night

Two things to tell you about, one the Rasmuson Foundation just had their big Day - the prize-giving ceremony over at the University of Alaska Fairbanks sim. Go check out the beauty and diversity of the pictures on display, and if you'd like to see the real life artists, and photos from the cerimony, they are at Flickr.
Friend of ArtsParks Cybergrrl Oh built the gallery, as she says, "First as a 'building' - but then I cut loose! When in SL do as your imagination, not the confines of reality, dictates - this is often where galleries fall short. I do want to do more with 3-D, too, but didn't want to over-complicate things at this early stage." Iconolith Taggart also gets much credit for how good the gallery looks; the picture (courtesy of Rasmuson Foundation) gives only a hint of the loveliness. The display is perfect for flying out with your cam and getting the full effect of the art. CG has been working with the Rasmuson Foundation on internet strategy for some time, it's one of many RL organizations getting in on the virtual act, including the MacArthur Foundation which has begun offering grants for virtual world exploration.

Also of note, Lisa Gibbs of the lovely Van Gogh sim told me about their new initiative Tracing Vincent, a web-community and resource about Vincent van Gogh where you can share your thoughts and opinions, rate his paintings and learn more about his life and art, an excellent site to put you in the mood to TP over to Virtual Starry Night .



Due cose da raccontarvi oggi: festa alla sim della University of Alaska Fairbanks per i vincitori dei premi fondazione Rasmuson per l'arte in Alaska. L'arte è bella e molto diversa, e se vuoi vedere i vincitori real, ci sono tutte le immagini a Flickr.
L'ha costruita la galleria l'amica di ArtsParks Cybergrrl Oh : Ha contribuito molto anche Iconolith Taggart per il look della galleria. La disposizione delle immagini invita ad usare la cam per un'effetto panoramico. Cybergrrl lavora con la Rasmuson da circa due anni scoprendo modi in cui l'internet può servire enti non a scopo di lucro: ci sono sempre più fondazioni real che offrono sovvenzioni a favore dell'esplorazione dei mondi virtuali.
Molto interessante anche la notizia che mi ha dato Liza Gibbs della bellissima sim di Van Gogh. Hanno una nuova iniziativa Tracing Vincent un sito web tutto van Gogh. Ci sono informazioni sui quadri e musei, puoi condividere le tue opinioni e idee, votare per il quadro più bello, imparare qualcosa sulla vita del pittore, è un'ottima risorsa che ti farà tornare la voglia di visitare Virtual Starry Night.