freeDimensional Youth Engagement

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REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS
ZER01 Youth International: A Micro Grant Program for Youth (ages 11-21)
to Produce and Exhibit Digital Art

Requesting Organization
ZER01: The Art and Technology Network
In August 2006, ZER01 with a consortium of seven Silicon Valley-based
organizations that includes the City of San Jose, San Jose State University
CADRE Laboratory for New Media, the San Jose Convention and Visitor’s
Bureau, the San Jose Museum of Art, The Tech Museum of Innovation, and
Montalvo Center for the Arts, produced the inaugural biennial 01SJ Global
Festival of Art on the Edge. This event – the most ambitious digital arts festival
ever held in North America – showcased the potential for
the transformative effect that art, creativity, and technology can have on a city, a
region, and beyond. ZER01 and its partners plan to present 01SJ biennially and
sustain ongoing, year-round programming that will contribute to the event. The
2nd Biennial 01SJ Festival will be held June 4-8, 2008.

Seeking Participants for an International Youth Digital Art Production and
Exhibition Program
ZER01, seeks a dynamic group of artists, organizers, collectives, organizations
and institutions with the means and desire to support youth (ages: 11-21 years)
in the creation of digital art (including but not limited to digital video, 2D or 3D
animation, game development, sound or electronic music projects, software or
hardware projects, robotics, multi-media performance or installation, public
actions driven by new or digital tools or distribution methods, etc.).

ZER01 is excited to announce a new international micro-grant program to
support the production of digital art by youth facilitated by the aforementioned
target groups via $500 grants—for exhibition at the upcoming ZER01 festival.

The micro grant program and exhibition will be coordinated by Liz Slagus,
Director of Education and Public Programs at Eyebeam, an art and
technology center in New York City.

This program is made possible by the generous support of Adobe Systems, Inc.

Youth Digital Art Micro-grant Production Program Overview
Program Philosophy
Based on the theories of Muhammad Yunus (Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending

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and the Battle Against World Poverty, 1999) and with the generous support of
Adobe Systems, Inc., ZER01 is using the opportunity of the international 01SJ
Festival to catalyze and facilitate a world-wide youth digital arts production
initiative; culminating in an exhibition of new work by young digital artists (ages
11- 21 years) at the 01SJ Festival in June 2008.

The act of supporting youth production at an international level, in addition to the
conversations about how to best facilitate youth digital arts programming is an
incredibly timely and important service for the international youth community and
the digital arts entities supporting this work. With this micro-grant program,
ZER01 will support a variety of art practices and production, an international
exhibition of youth digital art projects, but also a basis for understanding how
such work is made and how organizations at all levels (grassroots to fully realized
centers) go about developing and implementing support for youth digital arts
projects.

Program Values
Given ZER01’s mission, this grant program allows the perfect opportunity for the
Festival to showcase how youth (ages 11-21years) around the world are
accessing and utilizing digital art tools and practices to find and share their
voices, opinions and ideas. With micro grant program, ZER01 is able to
recognize, highlight, and support the work being developed around the world by
youth, while taking a critical look at how this work is produced by the support of
artists, collectives, organizations, and institutions. ZER01 is excited to enable
youth to explore and comment on their world via this micro-grant program.

Program Goals and Expectations
Selected participants or micro-grant recipients will agree to use the $500 micro-
grant to do one of the following:

• Support/sponsor an individual art project by youth (defined as ages: 11-21
years) via an open call for participation in their city/community.
• Support several youth engaged in one collective art project (divide the
money between several young individuals in their city/community).
• Support a local arts education program that would use the money to work
with many youth in their city/community.
• Use the micro-grant to run process-based workshops, which would lead to
the development of one digital artwork for the exhibition.

Each micro grant recipient will be responsible for supporting the production of the
youth-generated work in some way, including but not limited to:

• Mentoring the recipient of the funds; folding them into the digital art
community in their city. For example: making introductions to people to

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help the youth develop/make their work
• Co-developing or guiding the production of a youth-driven participatory
digital arts project.
• Being a resource (with equipment, knowledge, critical feedback, and/or
skills sharing/demonstrations/workshops) to the youth or organizations
selected to receive the funds by the nodes.
• Providing the youth they are sponsoring public presentation and/or
distribution opportunities for their work, in an effort to promote the
appreciation of youth generated work at the local level.

The work from each micro grant recipient will be included in a juried exhibition at
the ZER01 festival to bring a wider perspective to the work. The art included in
the exhibition will be divided into two different age categories: 11-16 years and
17-21 years, in recognition of the different capabilities of the participating youth.

In recognition of the relevance of the decision-making process and
methodologies behind each of the participating entities for the expenditures of the
ZER01 youth digital art production micro-grants, the participants will be asked to
document the very community-specific methods for supporting youth digital art
that made them a viable candidate for the micro-grant. A blog site and/or other
public online forum will be developed for periodic uploading of documentation of
the participants’ process and progress with the youth digital art projects
supported by the micro-grants. This information and documentation will serve as
the context for the exhibition; shedding light on the state of youth media arts, how
to judge such work, and the language used to describe and disseminate the work
of youth. Additional funds will be provided to the micro-grant program participants
for proper documentation (photo, video, written entries, etc.) of their work and
progress with the youth of their communities.

Target Audience
ZER01 is looking to work with a wide range of artists, collectives, organizations
and institutions working with youth (ages: 11-21 years) to develop digital art. This
includes, but is not limited to:

• existing youth programs (middle school and high school) at established
arts organizations with a digital arts focus or interest in developing such a
program,
• university-level programs with students at or below the age of 21,
• individual artists or collectives developing projects with youth within the
age range of the grant,
• grassroots organizations looking to initiate programs to engage youth with
digital arts tools and practice, etc.

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Critical Success Factors

• A clearly expressed methodology and plan for supporting and
collaborating with youth (ages: 11-21years) for the development of a
digital arts-based project
• Documentation of the process involved in working with the youth
supported by the micro-grant
• A finished piece or documentation of the work developed with the support
of the micro-grant
• An exhibition (organized by ZER01) demonstrating the variety of digital art
projects being developed by youth at the international level, as well as the
access points for youth to gain access to digital arts tools and practice.

Responding to RFP
Please provide the following:

1. A mission statement for you, your organization, or collective
2. A demonstrated history of working with youth (if possible), proving
examples of past youth or collaborative projects
3. 2-3 Work samples from previous projects—either personal or in
collaboration with youth
4. A statement regarding the relevance of supporting young digital artists to
you and/or your community
5. Specify what age group you will be supporting with the micro-grant: 11-16
years, or 17-21 years
6. A project description regarding the use of the micro-grant. This should
include a plan for selecting and supporting youth in your community to
create a new piece of digtal art, including: a project description and
specific ways by which you will support the production of such work (as
outlined in the “Goals and Expectations” section of this RFP)
7. A plan for documentation of proposed project on the blog site that ZER01
will provide (i.e: digital photos, video, written entries by grant recipients
and/or the youth involved in the project). Separate funds will be allocated
for documentation, according to the needs outlined in this section.

Please note: The micro-grant does not have to be the impetus for or the sole
support for a new project, but can be a supplement to an existing effort or project.

Qualifications as an individual or organization responsible for dispensing
micro-grant (background and competency)
Participants in this program do not have to have been actively working with youth
in their community prior to this grant program, but must demonstrate how they
will facilitate such work with the grant money via past experience and
collaborations (not specifically youth initiatives). ZER01 seeks to work with

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dynamic individuals, collectives, and organizations with the ability to identify and
support opportunities for youth in their communities to actively engage with digital
art practices via the production of new artwork. This program is about sharing
resources and knowledge, and the grant recipients must demonstrate an ability to
take this challenge and allow for the progress of youth digital artists.

RFP Deadline and timeline for grant program

• RFP Deadline: 5pm (EST) on Monday, November 12, 2007
• Jury Selection Meeting: The week of Monday, November 26, 2007
• Notification of Acceptance: The week of Monday, December 3, 2007
• If accepted, program will commence in mid-December with program
participants selecting the youth they will support via the micro-grants.
• Work with youth: January-April 2007
• Documentation of progress uploaded to blog site and/or other online
forum: January-April 2007 (exact requirements for frequency of posts
TBA)
• Art and/or documentation of finished art pieces submitted for
exhibition: May 2007
• Exhibition of youth digital art: June 4-8, 2007

RFP responses must be received by 5pm on Friday, November 9, 2007

Send one electronic version of the RFP to Liz Slagus at Liz@eyebeam.org with
“ZER01 Youth Participation RFP” in the subject line. If you have any questions,
use the same contact. Acceptable electronic formats include Word, PDF, HTML
and any other common file formats. Work samples must be provided in electronic
formats (urls or uploaded media). No physical work samples will be accepted.

This program is made possible by the generous support of Adobe Systems, Inc.

We are pleased to announce the winners of the 2007 International Essay
Contest for Young People, a joint program of UNESCO and the Goi Peace
Foundation.

The theme of this year's contest was "The role of media and information
and communication technologies in building a peaceful world." From
among 4,029 entries from 138 countries, the following wiiners were
selected.

We take this opporutnity to thank all of you who participated in the
contest!

1ST PRIZE
---------
- Children's category
Sneh Shah (Age 8, USA)

- Youth category
Anna Rosario A. Elicano (Age 24, The Philippines)

2ND PRIZE
----------
- Children's category
Alexandra Girel (Age 10, Belarus)
Yunitha Ratnadilla T. A. K. (Age 14, Indonesia)

- Youth category
Yukari Nemoto (Age 16, Japan )
Sara J Wolcott (Age 25, USA)

3RD PRIZE
----------
- Children's category
Momone Ozawa (Age 9, Japan )
Wendyll Ermac Mejia (Age 12, The Philippines)
Yurika Sakamoto (Age 13, Japan)
Kazuki Soejima (Age 13, Japan )
Elmad Ochieng (Age 14, Kenya)

- Youth category
Margarita Mischinova (Age 17, Bulgaria)
Joanna Pietrzak (Age 17, Poland)
Takuto Sato (Age 18, Japan )
Veerle Vrindts (Age 20, Belgium)
Tara Yvonne Finglas (Age 23, Ireland)

* For full list of winners and their winning essays, go to:
http://www.goipeace.or.jp/english/activities/programs/0702.htm

** The award ceremony for the 1st Prize Winners will take place during
the Goi Peace Foundation Forum 2007 on Novmeber 18, 2007:
http://www.goipeace.or.jp/english/activities/lectures/lectures18.html

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ZER01 Youth International: A Micro Grant Program for Youth (ages 11-21) to Produce and Exhibit Digital Art

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