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February 2010
On Saturday Jan 23 the armored car pulled up at the Leedy Voulkos Art Center filled with valuable Fundred 100 Dollar bills drawn by students, children and folks like you. Out stepped Mel Chin, the brilliant artist and originator of the Fundreds Project. At its simplest: 3 million unique drawings of U.S. One Hundred Dollar Bills (Fundreds) by students and community across the nation, picked up by a cool armored truck and delivered to Washington D.C. to request real funding to make safe lead-contaminated soil that currently places children at risk for severe learning disabilities and behavioral problems. Please check out the Fundred website for more details. 
StoneLion Puppet Theatre performers danced across the gallery dressed as large bug spray cans, butterflies and praying mantises. Hip Hop Academy provided the DJ and the crowd drew Fundred bills at tables set up through our the gallery, the party was interrupted by Fundred security guards carrying rifles with shovel faces protruding from their gun barrels. They marched in cadence singing the Fundred song and marched Mel Chin into the room. Mel went directly to a table in front of a large video screen and played the role of a news caster telling the Fundred story of how the project would raise money to remove lead from the soil of New Orleans, prevent violence and disabilities. It was an amazing night spent with an amazing artist.
The Fundred Project will continue till June 2010 in Kansas City and the following organizations are all participating. We hope you will join in this arts action and host a Fundreds event. For more information, contact Hugh or Courtney at Chameleon.
Fringe Festival
StoneLion Puppet Theatre
Notre Dame De Sion
Arts Tech
St Marks Child and Family Development Center
Office of Homeless Liaison Kansas City Kansas Public Schools
YWCA Kansas City Kansas
Leedy Voulkos Art Center
Green Day Festivals Kansas City Parks and Recreation Community Centers
Hip Hop Academy
Paseo Academy of Visual and Performing Arts
Kansas City Art Institute
Block Art Space
Radio Days for Chameleon
Courtney Wasson and Hugh Merrill were interviewed in January on Disney Radio featuring Chameleon’s history, recent programming and the Fundreds project.
Hugh was also interviewed by Dacia Moore KPRT AM 1590 – The Dacia Moore Radio Show, “KC’s radio show for the Fearless Christian Woman.” They discussed the importance of Arts programming in public schools and the role of the arts in helping students achieve higher test scores and academic abilities. Many folks called in and joined in this lively discussion. Thanks Dacia for hosting Chameleon on the air.
McKinney-Vento Summit
Chameleon provided the keynote presentation for the McKinney–Vento Summit a conference for Kansas City Homeless youth providers Jan 19th at Kansas City Community College. The summit brought over 50 professionals together to discuss how to better serve homeless children in the metro area. Chameleon provided an outline of how the arts can positively help homeless children and build youth communities.