Art
Since last week’s assassination of Imad Mughniyeh, a leading figure in Islamist fundamentalist organization Hezbollah, Liz Dembrowsky, director of New York theatre company White Trash Intellectuals, does her day job with a police officer in the room, for security.
A speechwriter for United Jewish Communities, a non-governmental organization that raises funds for Israel’s poor, she also spent her 30th birthday last week writing a press release on a suicide bombing that occurred in Dimona, Israel. For Ms. Dembrowsky, it’s all good training.
Six students from the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School Visual Arts Department have been honored at the annual Boston Globe Scholastic Art Awards, including one who earned a Gold Key, the highest honor.
“There are a ton of competitions out there, but this is the big one we focus on every year,” said Paul Brissette, chairman of the high school arts department. “For them to get recognition on this level is great.”
The Dukes County Health Council Youth Task Force has hired Theresa Manning, who long has worked with children and families on the Vineyard, as youth task force coordinator.
The Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office recently awarded the task force a one-year, $90,000 grant. The grant will be used to target seventh and eighth grade students and their parents as a first step toward mobilizing the Vineyard community in preventing sustained substance abuse.
A 10-year-old Vineyard project to raise money for disadvantaged in Haiti reached a milestone this year. The locally funded Haiti Fish Farm Project has raised more than $100,000.
Haiti is the poorest country in this hemisphere. Margaret Penicaud of Vineyard Haven and her close friend Jeanne Staples of Edgartown have been working closely with others to bring changes to the lives of some residents of that distant Caribbean country.
The Menemsha fisheries development fund will kick off its 2008 program series at the Chilmark Public Library on Wednesday, Feb. 20 with two documentary films looking at traditional fishing communities impacted by declining fish stocks, changing regulations and the loss of a way of life.
The Permanent Endowment Fund, the Island’s community foundation, is seeking grant requests from not-for-profit organizations and public agencies for grants from the general discretionary fund, the Island Fund, the James P. Cahen Fund and the Goldberg Fund. Grants from the general discretionary fund and Island Fund are for nonprofit (501(c)(3)) organizations primarily for capital, startup and special needs, not operating expenses. Grants from the James P.