Conversations.org is committed to the gift economy, so much so they give subscriptions to their print magazine for free--and there's no advertising attached!
Check out this
article about three artists who gift their ceramic art (and soup!) in response to the war.
The Power of the Giving, Berkeley Art Center, Richard Whittaker in Conversation with Ehren Tool, Fariba Safai and Ashley Smith, Oct 21, 2004
"Fariba Bogzaron and Ashley Smith were still students at CCA when they decided to do something radical. They decided to prepare a large batch of home made soup (from a favorite recipe of Fariba’s mother), to construct a cart able to wheel a very large stainless steel pot along a sidewalk, and to make their way to Union Square in San Francisco on Black Friday[the day after Thanksgiving and largest shopping day of the year] where they would offer free bowls (that they made) of soup to any and all.
Ehren Tool, a marine who served in Iraq, upon finishing his tour of duty, enrolled at UC Berkeley to study ceramics in the Art Department. There he learned to throw on the wheel and found himself engaged in a new mission: making, and giving away, thousands of handmade ceramic cups—shaped like tea bowls and sometimes accompanied by a letter—each cup impressed with military emblems and images such as bombs, rifles and gas masks. Tool refers to himself as a “war awareness” artist.
The evening of our conversation only a modest crowd had turned out, but they were in for a special treat…"
Labels: art, generosity, gift economy, peace
