The MY HERO Project Launches an International Arts Exchange for Cross-Cultural Communication

Laguna Beach, CA - September 28, 2006 - The MY HERO Project, under the artistic direction of internationally acclaimed Skip Blumberg, will conduct a series of narrative storytelling and media production workshops for artists, students and educators in Belarus, Macedonia, Kosovo, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, Senegal and Jordan. The project is supported by the U.S. State Department Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs as part of its ongoing program to present the excellence and diversity of American arts and culture to global audiences.

Founded in 1995, The MY HERO Project is an online interactive Web journal that promotes media literacy, the arts, personal expression, and cross-cultural communication in classrooms around the world. This freely accessible, not-for-profit Web site offers students, educators and professionals a venue to share their artwork, short films and stories about heroes with the online global community.

U.S. EXPRESS, curated by Skip Blumberg, is an exhibition of more than 80 short videos made by 50 artists living and working in the United States from the 1970s to the present; including Nam June Paik, Beryl Korot, Mary Lucier, Juan Downey, Chip Lord, Ant Farm, Videofreex, and Paper Rad.  U.S. EXPRESS is made possible by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and available through August, 2008 for free public presentations outside the U.S.A. in museums, galleries, libraries, cultural centers and schools.

As part of the workshops and U.S. EXPRESS exhibitions, participants will be invited to create and share original examples of documentary art and film on the MY HERO Web Site to celebrate their local heroes.

Visitors of all ages are invited to join in this interactive Web project by sharing stories, art and short films that celebrate the best of humanity on the MY HERO Website.