Take Courage!

Announcing the 2009 Credere Fund Recipients

Courage is needed for human beings to create the future. Individuals must be true to their inner calling even if it vague and unformed or even if it seems crazy to the outer world.

Initiative is not a one way street. If it is to come into being, the outer world must also be receptive. What may appear crazy nevertheless needs recognition to exist. Today no one can go it alone. Those with greater experience, connections, and resources must recognize what is struggling to be born and attempt to support it.

In this spirit the Credere Fund is proud to present the recipients of the 2009 Credere Grants. Four individuals have been directly supported this year and three others are part of our Circle of Support. We lack the money to support these individuals but strongly believe in their projects and so are appealing to you. These individuals are our co-workers. Like you and I, they are striving to make things better in whatever way they can. Please consider donating to their worthy causes.


2009 Credere Grant Recipients


SOCIAL CHANGE + ANTHROPOSOPHY

Silas Beardslee ~ The Rimbi Farm Project
The vision of the Rimbi Farm Project is to start a community-based and supported biodynamic farm in eastern rural Zimbabwe. Through community engagement a new type of agriculture will be introduced that not only has potential to boost harvest quantity through permaculture and crop rotation but also create job opportunities, a space for cultural exchange and ultimately, a new source of hope. In the words of an active Rimbi Community Council member, “[t]his is an opportunity for the community that should be upheld, maintained and carried by the community at large, inclusive, non-discriminating and open for all”. Silas Beardslee is a recent graduate of the Youth Initiative Program (YIP) in Järna, Sweden.

Bea Birch ~ Agawamuck Project for the Fine and Practical Arts
Bea Birch of Philmont, NY, has been an artistic therapist for many years and has worked with individuals with various physical and psychological conditions, including addiction and incarceration. The Agawamuck Project for the Fine and Practical Arts in Philmont, NY will offer approaches to learning which honor not only the intellect but also the intelligence of the heart and hands. The Project will provide a therapeutic, supportive environment for at-risk youth and facilitate meetings, workshops, and apprenticeships with members of the local craft and trade community.


ART + ANTHROPOSOPHY

Benjamin-Jonas Meier ~ A Marionette Performance of 2 scenes (2 & 9) from Rudolf Steiner's first Mystery Drama
Why marionettes? Because marionettes have a real power to develop the faculty of imagination. To look at marionettes cultivates and reawakens our heart, as if it were again the heart of a child. These scenes from Rudolf Steiner's Mystery Drama were chosen because the characters in them are striving with their inner being. The language from Rudolf Steiner, the sounds and the rhythmic aspects of it, are composed in such a way that spiritual forces are revealed to the senses. The scenes will be performed by Benjamin-Jonas Meier and Cecelia Elinson. The backdrop will be painted by Nathaniel Williams. Performances will begin in the Harlemville, NY, area around Eastertime, 2010.

Seamus Maynard ~ Music for Everyday Life
Seamus is a young actor and musician who has studied with the Actor's Ensemble in the U.S. and at the Artemis and Guildhall schools in England. Music for Everyday Life attempts to answer the questions: "How can the work of the artist be brought to its fullest potential? How can that continuously developing work be brought to the people purely, given freely as a gift, unblocked by doubts, fears, anxieties, and pride? And perhaps most importantly - how can simply living and being become a perpetual act of creativity...fulfilling us both on an individual and on a communal level?" Money from the Credere Fund will enable Seamus to explore these questions and offer his musical findings in a number of concerts in 2010. In order to keep the gift moving, proceeds from these concerts will be given to other worthy projects, including Patrick Stolfo's outdoor Flowform Cascade that can be found in our Circle of Support.


CIRCLE OF SUPPORT

Simon Stott ~ Aramitan-Cultural Work Camp
Simon is originally from Germany and is now working at Aramitan in São Paulo, Brazil. Aramitan is an initiative inspired by Rudolf Steiner’s insights into education and the needs of São Paulo. He is organizing and helping to execute work camps that will renovate and build facilities for volunteer housing and for families in need. Those executing the work will be from all over the globe and will be living together, learning about Brazil from many perspectives and creating art together, among other activities. The program will be based on a balance of theoretical work and practical/artistic work. Donate to Simon here.

Thijs Moonen ~ Sense Magazine
A graduate of YIP in Järna, Sweden, and a recent intern with WorldChanging in Seattle, Washington, Thijs is now creating a new periodical called Sense Magazine. The magazine’s layout will be organized so as to help the reader perceive the threefoldness of social life and it’s content will focus on experienced and aspiring social entrepreneurs who are working towards Comprehensive Sustainable Development (sustainable development that considers social and spiritual realities as well as purely economic and ecological). On the one hand, it will be an open platform initiative where everyone is a potential contributor, while on the other, it will continue to serve, and be organized by, students at YIP. Donate to Thijs here.

Patrick Stolfo ~ An Outdoor Flowform Cascade
Patrick Stolfo is building a 9’ long, 4’ wide set of seven Flowforms to be installed on the grounds of Hawthorne Valley School in Ghent NY. This artistic/social centerpiece will honor former teacher William Ward. Flowforms are an artistic/functional offshoot of the pioneering research, in the realm of applied Goethean exploration into fluid movement, of Theodor Schwenk and John Wilkes. Most of the Flowform installations worldwide are in public settings where people, especially children, are magnetically drawn to the sight, sound and magic atmosphere of the pulsating water. Donate to Patrick here