Uphill idealist

This Fall, I'm excited to be included as a potential Teaching Artist in Residence with the Arts Council for Chautauqua County's "Arts in Education". This manual lists local artists that are available for teaching residences within daytime school opportunities and after school care programs. This partnership between local schools is to provide opportunity for students to become involved with art, writing, music and theater beginning at an early age and throughout their education experience. The Arts in Education Program is made possible in part by a grant from The New York State Council on the Arts and in cooperation with Erie2 - Chautauqua - Cattaragus BOCES. Below is the listing of classes and projects that I will be offering to the program as well as my biography. If you have any interest in these activities or would like to book a workshop in any of these areas, feel free to contact me at eastman_tara@yahoo.com. Arts Council Seeks Teaching Artists The Arts Council...

Hot Metal Bridge , The Open Door and Christ Community Church collaborated in bringing the Church Basement Roadshow to the south hills neighborhood of Pittsburgh, PA last Saturday evening. This summer book tour included Doug Pagitt , Tony Jones and Mark Scandrette in a revival style event that truly captivated audiences nation-wide! Ian, Nigel and I pack up our Toyota and hit the road to take in this opportunity to see just what the road show was all about! As we drove 3 1/2 hours to the Church Basement Roadshow. Nigel kept asking us, "What are we going to see?" "Is it a concert?" "Who is going to perform?" After much explanation about the potential of the vaudevillesque nation-wide book tour, we simply concluded to our 11 year old. "It's kind of hard to explain, so we'll just have to see when we get there." We arrived early at Hot Metal Bridge Saturday evening to find Doug, Tony, Mark and crew setting up chairs, merchandise tables ...

Its Friday and you can guess the kind of week it's been if I'm writing my Monday post on Friday. In the last month there have been some great changes and shifting in my vocational life and it makes me realize how much my vocation had to do with my life overall. Letting go and holding on: The month of July seems to be a month of great letting go. I've experienced the death of my family dog, the passing of one of my dearest spiritual mentors - Grace Connors, and the ending of my time of ministry with Westminster Presbyterian Church due to economic reasons. Sometimes we have the choice to let go of people, work or things. This time has been composed mostly of things passing away with little choice from me. Pets get ill, elderly people reach their physical limits, and budgets - well they run out of funds. In these cases - there is not much choice I have except in how I choose to react to the massive change around me. I've started to grasp the idea of how to cope with all th...