Former ITP Grant Partner and Executive Director of  Pepperwood Preserve, Lisa Micheli has been interviewed in this recent KQED Science piece focusing on warming climate impacts on Bay Area open spaces and our ecosystem:

By the end of the century, the Bay Area's landscape could look more like Southern California's, raising tough questions for land managers trying to preserve the region's protected lands. MORE

GLOBAL ALLIANCE INCINERATOR ALTERNATIVES (GAIA) is an international alliance that works both against incinerators and for safe, sustainable and just alternatives: 

A lot of attention has been paid in media and policy circles to energy and transportation as keys to addressing climate change. But the ways that we produce, transport, use, and throw away stuff have important impacts on the climate. EPA analysis shows that the systems to make, distribute, use and waste the stuff we use and the food we eat cause 42% of U.S. greenhouse gases and that these systems are deeply intertwined with energy and transportation.  » Read More

Winters Past is an audio project from the collaborative team of Isaac Kestenbaum and Josie Holtzman.  They will use soundwalks and podcasts during the 2013-14 New England winter to create a sensory experience to preserve the memory of what winter once was. 

WINTER IS CHANGING
What does winter mean to you?  That's the question we've been posing to most of the people we interview.  I have been amazed by the responses this question has elicited.  One woman spoke about how much she enjoys the experience of being cold—and the small joy that is coming in from the outdoors and warming oneself by a hearth.  We've heard memories of sledding, ice skating and even ice sailing. » Read More

Maria Shriver's recent remarks at the USC Annenberg School Commencement ceremony gives the Class of 2013 reasons to appreciate the 'Power of the Pause'.  Read the entire speech here. 

By Maggie Kaplan -

Conversing with a former 2009-2011 ITP Grant Partner (GP) recently, she told me how the Pause's power -- even more than a year "post pause" -- percolated through many aspects of her life.  It got me wondering how the "post pause" has impacted others…. 

So, we are initiating new, more personal blogposts from former GPs with reflections upon their lives and the Pause's impact.  They may take the form of a blog, photo essay, drawings, short film, or even an interview between GPs—audio, written or otherwise.  Given the creativity of our GPs, there are many possibilities! 

To read the inaugural post by Gabriela Denise Frank, one of the CityLab7, who received their initial ITP grant in 2009, and future Partners "Post Pause" submissions, please look for this 'pause heart' icon.

This is too much fun, I worried on the second night of  The Pause.

Intro from Hidden City Diaries - Essays from Life by Gabriela Denise Frank.  A few weeks ago, I spoke with Maggie Kaplan, founder of Invoking the Pause, the environmental small grants program that funded my CityLab7 partners and I in the ideation and development of our urban mushroom farm.

It's been a year since our installation closed, marking the end of a long-term project fed by buckets of sweat equity and three grants. » Read More

By Maggie Kaplan -

What a delightful afternoon I spent at Presidio Graduate School (PGS) the other day -- being honored for supporting graduate student scholarships at a heartwarming luncheon at the PGS Headquarters in San Francisco's Presidio.  Knowing of the high level of student debt these days and wanting to help entice students to select PGS' innovative MBA/MPA and Dual Degree programs bridging the gap between commerce and the common good, I agreed to fund student scholarships over a 3 year period. » Read More

This Spring, as the trees grow blossoms that will soon bear new fruit, we are happy to share news of the collaborations blooming in our Invoking the Pause community. We selected from this year's dynamic candidates three Grant Partners who will receive funding to "invoke a pause" in 2013.

• A Creative Pause to Build a Narrative Strategy: Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA)
• HighWaterLine: Eve Mosher, Heidi Quante and other collaborators
• Memorial for Winters Past: Isaac Kestenbaum and Josie Holtzman
  

» Read More

Please read the latest blog post by ITP Pilot Program Grant Partner and Advisory Committee member, and Executive Director of Pepperwood Preserve, Dr. Lisa Micheli.

Read post here.