Walk into any archaeologist’s laboratory and you’re likely to see bags of broken pottery. Walk into Bárbara Arroyo’s laboratory in a warehouse on the edge of the ruins of Kaminaljuyú in Guatemala City and you’ll find bags containing millions of pottery sherds, stacked almost to the ceiling. Millions more sit in the vaults of the National Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology a few miles away. Outside Arroyo’s laboratory, she and her team have dumped thousands upon thousands more ancient ceramic scraps into a large hole. “They can’t take any more at the museum,” she says with a shrug, gesturing out a window at the overflowing pit
Read MoreFrom London, UK to Denver, CO, tiny homes are in the spotlight as architects and activists are turning toward “living small” as a potential solution to homelessness. AIA Chicago is sponsoring a nationwide Tiny Home Competition, encouraging students, architects, designers and the public to plan and design a community of tiny homes for unsheltered homeless young adults, ages 18 to 24. According to the 2015 Chicago Homeless Count and Survey, 31% of the unsheltered homeless population is between the ages of 18 and 24 years old. This competition both raises awareness of younger homeless populations while also providing viable design solutions to a contemporary social issue. Submissions to the competition—generously funded by the Alphawood Foundation -- were due on January 30, 2016. Nearly 300 submissions were received.
Read MoreA stunning and unexpected discovery in Guatemala is providing researchers with important new information on the fierce rivalry between two Maya superpowers that raged during the apex of the empire some 1500 years ago. (Discover the top 10 Maya Secrets.)
The find of a broken stone monument at the site of El Achiotal in Guatemala’s western Petén may depict a local vassal lord, or ajaw, installed by Siyaj K’ahk’ ("Fire Is Born"), a warrior-ruler from far-off Teotihuacán, near modern Mexico City. (Who built Teotihuacan?)
Read MoreCHICAGO – February 8, 2016 – The South Side Community Art Center, the oldest African American art center in the country, announced today that it has received a grant totaling $300,000 from the Alphawood Foundation. The grant is intended to allow the South Side Community Art Center to devote more resources to fundraising and development, increase staff capacity and operating hours, and begin planning for the restoration and preservation of its historic building. The grant will be received by SSCAC over the next 3 years.
Read MoreChicago, February 1 — Today, the Chicago PrEP Working Group (CPWG) launched PrEP4Love, a citywide, sex-positive media campaign designed to increase awareness of PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis), a daily HIV prevention pill for HIV-negative people. Honest and visceral photography with a simple tagline — “One pill. Once a day. Protect against HIV.” — is displayed in ads throughout Chicago on CTA trains and buses, as well as in an interactive, heated bus shelter at State and Lake that will be going up soon. The campaign also includes a large online advertising component anchored by the prep4love.com website — where you can see the campaign imagery.
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