MISSION
The ARTIS Foundation’s mission is to serve the general public and educational community through dissemination of free educational multimedia in order to raise awareness about such themes as media literacy, the environment and sustainability. We will work with environmental and social change organizations in the development of web–based communities, activities and publications.
The ARTIS Foundation has 2 main objectives:
- To work with environmental & social change filmmakers, artists and celebrities in the creation of entertaining, educational feature films.
- To create educational DVD series and other downloadable educational materials (videos, public service announcements, powerpoint presentations, slideshows and printable materials).
PARTNERS
The ARTIS Foundation works with other partner organizations in our educational goals. Please review the following partners and see what they are doing to make a positive impact on the planet.
N e x t N o w Collaboratory
Transformation through Collaboration | Ideas that Spread like Wildflower*
NextNow is both a kind of social network (NextNowNetwork) and a collaboration laboratory (“collaboratory”). The social network, intended as a synergistic web of relationships focused on transforming the present, began in January of 2003. In September, 2006, the collaboratory was established to help activate those synergies and tap them for social benefit. Our first big project was to collaborate with the International Society for Digital Earth on producing the 5–day Fifth Annual International Symposium on Digital Earth (the first held in the United States) at the University of California, Berkeley in June of ‘07.
NextNow Collaboratory is a new social enterprise with two main objectives:
- Mobilizing the social, intellectual, creative, energetic, and financial capital and good will available in our diverse and growing “network of networks” by collaborating with social good projects (currently with an emphasis on digital earth and collaborative technologies), and
- Co–creating the “next now” of collaboratories with others engaged in creating collaboration laboratories to leverage the concept and practice for the social good.
We’re about collaborating, co–creating, and co–evolving.
Visit them at www.nextnowcollab.wordpress.com.
TEAM
JOEL CHRISTIAN MCEWEN, Founder
Since making his first film at 8 years old, Joel Christian McEwen has had a love and appreciation for the visual medium as an art form. Finding himself wrapped up in the materialistic American Dream, he stepped back and decided to make a film about it. Since that awakening he has been passionately pursuing environmental and social change films. His current film, American Dream, will be released nationwide in early 2009. Joel founded the ARTIS Foundation to create educational series available for free distribution to schools and other education organizations that are absent from most school curriculums nationwide. Combining that with the need to have a vehicle to offer support and promotion of environmental and social change projects that are seemingly lacking in our media world, the ARTIS Foundation was born. Joel is also a consultant to various organizations and is on the board of directors of NextNow Colloboratory.
CLAUDIA WELSS, Board of Directors
Claudia Welss of Berkeley, California is founder/executive director of NextNow Collaboratory which advances social benefit projects emphasizing collaboration and information visualization technologies, such as ISDE5 http://www.isde5.org where she created the Digital Earth/Digital Mind initiative http://isde5.org/sessions.htm#Sessions_DMDE. She’s a founding director of Fig Leaf Technologies http://figleaftechnologies.com/glove.html, innovating a one–handed typing device for mobile computing, is on the external research faculty of the Institute of Noetic Sciences http://www.noetic.org contributing to consciousness research, and is on the Steering Councils of the Global Coherence Project http://globalcoherenceproject.org and 2009 State of the World Forum http://www.worldforum.org/state-2009.htm#. She is also a graduate student in Conscious Evolution. Previously, Claudia was executive director of the Center for Executive Development at the Haas School of Business, University of California Berkeley, responsible for the development and delivery of strategic learning programs for client corporations. At Berkeley her passion was to help usher in a new paradigm of business as an agent of positive social change and environmental restoration, and was part of a 5–year international inquiry committee sponsored by the Fetzer Institute http://www.fetzer.org examining the peace–building potential of global business for a report to the United Nations.
DANNY GLOVER, Board of Directors
When Danny Glover is not behind a camera, you can usually find him doing one of his many social change projects. From working with organizations in Africa to putting his name behind numerous worthy causes, Danny Glover’s dedication to aiding the world is tireless. He truly shows that with success and fame comes a wonderful chance to help so many.
Further board members soon to be announced.
JOSEPH FERRERA, Educational Research Coordinator
As a coastal native of Northern California, Joseph has grown to appreciate the issues of environmental conservation that are now arriving at the forefront of public consciousness. He attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he structured his own interdisciplinary program, called ‘Art, Technology and Culture.’ It was in Berkeley that he was an Arts Educator at a non–profit children’s summer camp, and where he worked on issues of homelessness at the Berkeley Food and Housing Project. His work in documentary film has garnered an award from the International Documentary Association for his creative use of footage, and he has collaborated with the United States National Archives to digitally preserve their Moving Images collection. Joseph brings experience with arts education, social issues, and documentary film and media, which he has long believed can raise environmental awareness and inspire positive social change.
JILL MACINTRYE WITT, Outreach Manager
A global citizen and activist, Jill has studied environmental biology in Australia, worked on health and water quality education with the Peace Corps in Morocco, counseled teens at a boarding school in Italy, and volunteers in her school and soccer communities in Bellingham, Washington. She received her BSc. degree in Environmental Biology and as a Founding Consultant for The Body Shop At Home, Jill led support for a national campaign against domestic violence and continues to help thousands of customers and consultants see how their purchasing power makes a difference. One of her favorite books is Anita Roddick’s, Take it Personally, How to Make Conscious Choices to Change the World. Jill believes that we all have the power to make a difference as individuals and collectively, each and every day, and that the time is now for people to learn how their choices affect this planet. Jill, her husband, and their two girls, take care of the planet every day by cycling and walking most everywhere they go. “Activism is the rent we pay for being on this planet.” – Dame Anita Roddick, 1942–2007.
RICHARD GOLDBERG, Consultant
Richard has been at the forefront of natural medicine, healing and the environment for over 30 years. Being a personal nutritionist for such people as Robin Williams, Francis Ford Coppola, Danny Glover and thousands of other Americans, Richard is always open to assisting people in their efforts of finding a natural path and way to heal themselves. He is currently working as a consultant and co–producer on the ARTIS Foundation’s next project, WalkingThroughWorlds.
RYAN E. WALTERS, Director of Photography
Ryan has had a love and passion for the visual arts since a young child when his grandmother, an avid photographer, took him along on photo expeditions. Since that time, Ryan has developed this passion and turned it into his career. His work has allowed him the opportunity to travel worldwide and to experience the greater social consciousness prevalent in the world today. Having worked on a number of commercials, industrials, and feature films, Ryan is honored to be able to bring his skill and talent to the ARTIS Foundation. It is his desire to not only create compelling and provocative cinematic images, but to use these images in such a way as to help promote and further positive social change. You can see Ryan’s various work online at http://www.ryanewalters.com.