Please join our Hexagon Project group, also.
We are art teachers with the mission of providing children ages 9 – 18 the opportunity to explore their interconnectedness by creating inside a down-loadable hexagon – metaphor for interconnectedness.  Hexagons, like ideas, link together – creating a larger picture – an “art-map” of understanding about  crucial contemporary issues.
The material on our website [www.interdependencedaynepa.org] are resources  and links for teachers to use with their students.  The project is meant to “jump-start” thought – and action – about rights and responsibilities toward ourselves our communities, our countries and our world. It is – and can be – whatever you make it.
Any media – including digital – and any process – including collaboration with another teacher, students,  school or country – are all possible and encouraged.
2011-12 is our sixth year. The Interdependence Movement  was begun in 2003  in response to the horrific events of 9/11 – asking the question where do we go from here – how do we build a global civil society?  I, as an art educator, believing in the power of the arts to change the world and help create the necessary shift, began the Hexagon Project in 2006-7.  
Attached is our prospectus and template.  Please contact me if you are interested in participating, have suggestions or input – we welcome your ideas.

This year we are focusing on COLLABORATION. Although individual entries are always welcome, the essence of Interdependence is a relationship to/with another or others. We are excited to see what will happen with the new collaboration category!
Deadline is June 30, 2012.  The exhibit, held in Scranton, PA, will open on September 7, 2012. Recognition is given to outstanding work and, this year, Dick Blick sponsored the US awards.

I and one of my co-chairs, George Barbolish, will be presenting a session/demonstration at NAEA in NYC.  I also presented in Seattle.  We have two articles published about the Hexagon Project in School Arts [March, 2009 and Aug-Sept 2010].
Two Art Education Student Chapter members from Keystone College, where I presently teach art education, will be presenting about their collaboration between an elementary school in Scranton and one in Haiti this Saturday at the PA Art Education Conference in Gettysburg.  Please look for us there or in NY – we would love to talk with you!
Thank you!
Namaste’
Beth Burkhauser
Chair,
International Interdependence Hexagon Project