On a Tuesday night in December, when much of New England was hunkered down against the cold, hundreds of people stood on the sidewalk in front of the Portland Museum of Art, Maine, to view the light projections of artist and social activist Jenny Holzer. For the site-specific work, which the museum commissioned in celebration of the 10th anniversary of its Leonard and Merle Nelson Social Justice Fund, Holzer chose selections from the poetry of Nobel Prize-winning, Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska. The poet’s words in white light floated like a cold breath up the museum’s brick façade, disassembling over the building’s architectural features, and disappearing into the black sky.

Somerville, MA - Davis Square is pretty funky under normal circumstances. Over the years, the influence (and confluence) of students from nearby Tufts and Harvard and MIT, along with Somerville city officials, has transformed the Square and environs into a must visit destination.

Somerville, MA - On an otherwise ordinary warm spring night, about 40 people gathered for free spaghetti, socializing and learning at Sprout, a community learning space at 339R Summer Street near Davis Square. Sprout seeks to actively engage the public with an interactive and broad form of science education. Continuing with its monthly spaghetti dinner, on Wednesday evening the space hosted four performance artists who presented their versions of “Performance in a Public Space.”

BOSTON/South End - This week, for the fourth winter in a row at the Boston Center for the Arts Cyclorama, the Glover, VT based Bread and Puppet Theater troupe present their subversively entertaining brand of politics and punditry.

Members of the year round Bread and Puppet collective again will be joined this week by scores of local actors and performers (a mix of pros and mostly amateurs who have been rehearsing all week at the BCA) who responded to the annual call for volunteers.

Somerville and Cambridge, MA - Davis Square thronged with crowds excited to see the dozens of marching bands from around the world performing at this weekend's Honk! Festival. Second Line Social Aid and Pleasure Society kicked off the music and arts festival Saturday afternoon at 7 Hills Park, taking band attendance in loud, rowdy fashion, and sending them marching to all corners of Davis to perform throughout the day. Sunday, bands paraded from Davis square down Massachusetts Avenue to Harvard Square for encore performances at Oktoberfest. Photo, audio, and video coverage follows.

BOSTON/Jamaica Plain - On Tuesday June 30 from 7-9 pm, the Axiom Gallery in Jamaica Plain was practically overflowing with curious, creative “dorks” of the Boston community. It was the first time the experimental media venue had hosted a meeting for Dorkbot, an organization with the tagline “people doing strange things with electricity.” The evening’s proceedings included presentations by local artists Gideon Weisz, Brian Knep, and Leah Buechley, each willing to display and explain the products of his or her creative and scientific genius. The speakers were followed by an “open dork” session, a period during which anyone was free to exhibit their own technological projects.

BOSTON/South End - The Youth Workers’ Alliance of the South End/Lower Roxbury welcomed dozens of students, parents, teachers, youth workers, and other members of the community to their 7th annual Youth Shines! Art Auction on Wednesday in the auditorium of the Ben Franklin Institute of Technology.

The first hour of the event was dedicated to a silent auction. As the musician Kabluna provided the jazzy soundtrack for the evening, the room hummed with energy while enthusiastic young artists between the ages of 6 and 21 showcased their original work to a crowd of bighearted patrons. Emcee Dave Brown of WCVB-TV eventually led the spectators into the live auction featuring six donated pieces.

BOSTON/South Boston - Unless you’ve arrived only recently from another planet, you know that Shepard Fairey’s first museum exhibition, a 20-year survey of his images, is on view at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston. Fairey is the world’s most famous street artist, best known for his iconic red, white and blue “PROGRESS,” “CHANGE,” and “HOPE,” posters of Barack Obama. He made headlines in Boston over the weekend when he was arrested.

Somerville, MA - Honk! Festival marched through Davis Square and took over Oktoberfest at Harvard Square this weekend. If you were unlucky enough to miss it, check Open Media Boston's video and photos from the festival.

From July 28 - August 3, 2008, the Roxbury Film Festival celebrates its tenth year with features and short films celebrating local, national, and international filmakers and artists of color.