This week during the Democratic National Convention in Denver a group of RISD students, faculty and alumni, led by adjunct professor Charlie Cannon, is presenting Partly Sunny: Designs to Change the Forecast, a project (on view at the Denver Pavilions August 24-29) meant to spur grassroots action on climate change. It’s just one component of Dialog: City, a public arts program sponsored by the Denver 2008 Host Committee and curated by Seth Goldenberg ‘03 PT.

RISD’s presence in Denver has received ample advance press (the Associated Press and The New York Times covered aspects of the events) and that will likely be the case for the rest of the week. Charlie and his team are also spearheading the August 25 Green Constitutional Congress, the  Bruce Mau-moderated symposium on the future of environmental action. The 6pm event is free and open to the public at the Denver Performing Arts Center, but if you’re not in Denver, you can keep up with the week’s events on the Partly Sunny blog.

Also in Denver this week, Assistant Professor of Film/Animation/Video Daniel Pelz is staging Karaoke Convention ’08, “a post-partisan, trans-political, artist-led campaign to create a platform for public ‘re-speech’ at the 2008 Democratic National Convention” — people in bars, clubs and restaurants across the city use digital media to translate a dozen Republican and Democratic Presidential Candidate addresses from the 2008 campaigns into karaoke formats.

And… Shepard Fairey ‘92 IL has organized the Manifest Hope Gallery in Denver at the Andenken Gallery (August 24-28) and online. Designed to celebrate the pivotal role that art plays in creating cultural momentum, the gallery “shines a spotlight on artists across the nation who use their voices to amplify and motivate the grass roots movement surrounding the Obama Campaign.”