[Sviannouncements] The True Cost of Coal -- Anti-Mountaintop-Removal Campaign with the Beehive Collective

[office manager]

A swarm is coming! The Beehive Design Collective- a non-profit, volunteer
driven, political arts organization based in eastern Maine is headed this
way. The group¹s mission is to ³cross pollinate the grassroots² through the
creation of images as an effective medium for deconstructing and educating
the public about complex geopolitical issues.

Most interesting is their methodology. The bees create collaborative,
hand-illustrated posters of dizzying intricacy which are patchwork ³quilts²
of personal stories related to them in their travels. Before setting pen to
paper, the hive does extensive touring and field research. Interviewing
community members about the effects of globalization on their situation is a
crucial component of the collective¹s investigative process. ³We feel it¹s
extremely important to gather our information from as close to the source as
possible,² an anonymous worker bee says. They heavily encourage audience
participation, ³We feel people are visual learners, and that interaction is
a learning device. You can only absorb so much from the standardized,
one-way, Œtalking head at the podium¹ setup.²

The Beehive bristles with activity, working on numerous fronts to tackle
issues as diverse as biotechnology, corporate globalization, food and
agriculture, and colonialism.


Chattanooga Event Information

On the web, including printable flyer:
http://svionline.org/svi/359/beehive-collective-show/

The Beehive Collective is coming to Chattanooga on November 19th.

They will give two demonstrations while in town.

Wed. Nov. 19th from 3pm to 5pm
UTC Fine Arts Center Lobby
Corner of Palmetto and Vine
Sponsored by The Cress Gallery
and The Sequatchie Valley Institute

Wed. Nov. 19th from 6:30 to 8pm
Green Spaces
63 E. Main Street
Sponsored by The Cress Gallery
and The Sequatchie Valley Institute

They will be bringing three of their posters and give a presentation about
their work featuring their current poster in progress concerning Mountain
Top Removal. For more information visit www.beehivecollective.org
<http://www.beehivecollective.org>

They are an internationally known group of artist/activists who explore
issues of global concern and create large collaborative art posters to
depict those issues. Currently they are working on the issue of Mountain Top
Removal.

Local contact: Jeannie Cerulean 425-4302/432-2482
also Ruth Grover of The Cress Gallery at UTC
Download and Print the Chattanooga Event Flyer




For immediate release

ABOUT THE CAMPAIGN

Understanding the devastation of Mountaintop Removal is perhaps primarily a
visual undertaking - the vastness of the altered landscape cannot be
conveyed with words alone. And while the Beehive Collective
<http://beehivecollective.org/> is known for graphics that speak in pictures
across the cultural and language barriers of North and South Americas, it is
our hope through this campaign to use our image-based storytelling methods
to cross domestic class, geographical, and literacy barriers very close to
home. We intend to produce a learning tool that artfully captures the human
and ecological scale of totalitarian resource extraction while reinforcing
and participating in the rich storytelling tradition of Appalachia.

Contact:
Beehive Design Collective
3 Elm Street
Machias, ME 04654
phone: 207-255-6737
email: pollinators [at] beehivecollective [dot] org
web: www.beehivecollective.org <http://www.beehivecollective.org>