Issue 45 | June 2026

June 03, 2026

This is the Wednesday before the first Friday of June and so it is time for another edition of Miaaw Monthly, courtesy of Beehiiv.com, the people who make this possible and simple for us.

The Miaaw.net website looks a little more complete this month, because we have found time to go back and add most (but not quite all) of our podcasts to the Series menu. You can now find every episode ever published of A Culture of Possibility, for example, by clicking on the menu item under the Series menu. We will endeavour to get the rest of the episodes attached to the menu during June.

We are aware that not all of the older episodes have their links available on their show-notes. They are not lost though, and they will be added back over the coming months.

Finally, when everything has been fixed and the website looks perfect, we will probably find a reason to move again and start all over. Sisyphus ‘R’ Us!

PODCASTS FOR JUNE 2026

Friday June 5

Meanwhile in an Abandoned Warehouse | Episode 87

In an apparently unexpected plot twist Owen Kelly talked to Claude.ai about what it knows and how it thinks. This began because Owen decided that he would ask Claude to define the difference between AI and AGI, and then developed further.

Much further…

Friday June 12

Parallel Streams | Episode 6

We contacted Bill Cleveland, Host of the ART IS CHANGE Podcast, and Director of Center for the Study of Art & Community in Alameda, Canada.

We asked him to choose an episode that he thought you would like to hear, and to introduce it, and he agreed - and this is that episode.

Friday June 19

A Culture of Possibility | Episode 65

Arlene Goldbard and François Matarasso talk with Clare Reynolds, codirector of Restoke, a community arts organization in Stoke-on-Trent in the north of England.

They first interviewed her five years ago, and return to discover how Restoke has progressed, and how it has changed after receiving National Portfolio funding from Arts Council England.

Friday January 26

Echoes and the Unsaid | Episode 6

Over the next two episode we will hear from Peter Renshaw, founder of the Performance and Communication Skills programme at Guildhall School of Music and Drama in the 1980s. This initiated placements for music students in schools, prisons and community centres.

Peter has written extensively on music, education and socially engaged practice and is an influential figure in the worlds of community music and collaborative practices.

A THOUSAND WORDS

An example of Ruben Bolling’s cartoons [see below for more details]

THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD

Creative Bureaucracy again

We received this email which began Dear Creative Bureaucrats, and asked

How can creative administration strengthen democracy? This question sits at the heart of this year's Creative Bureaucracy Festival.

At a time when government modernisation has become a top political priority across Europe and beyond, public administrations have a unique opportunity to become more innovative, faster and more effective — and to deliver results that people can truly experience. In doing so, they play a critical role in strengthening democratic trust.

On 11 June 2026, the ninth Creative Bureaucracy Festival will bring together more than 2,000 participants from public administration, politics and civil society in Berlin.

This year's programme addresses key challenges shaping public sector transformation — from federal cooperation and digital transformation to resilience and defence, artificial intelligence, migration, cities as innovation labs, leadership, youth participation and new forms of citizen engagement.

Now you know what’s in store for you if you find yourself in Berlin on June 11!

No ICE in the cup

No ICE in the Cup is a national call to action demanding the World Cup remain joyful, safe and secure for all to enjoy. This means that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has no place near the World Cup festivities. We want ICE out of stadiums, out of watch parties, out of local businesses, and off the streets where people will gather to celebrate the game they love.

The World Cup is coming to the United States. It should be a moment of joy and community around the beautiful game of soccer. But for many communities, especially immigrants, the presence of ICE threatens to turn that celebration into a moment of cruelty and fear.

Soccer belongs to the world. Our communities and international visitors deserve to experience it without the threat of government violence or intimidation.

We are artists, organizers, lawyers, athletes, and community members from small businesses, diverse faiths, veterans groups and labor unions from across the country who have come together to make this demand clear: No ICE in the Cup.

You can find out more at the website here: https://www.noiceinthecup.us The action is organised by the US Department of Arts & Culture.

NeuroArts Resource Center is 1 year old

According to a message we received,

The Neuroarts Resource Center was created in response to a strong need for a central meeting ground where the many disciplines involved in neuroarts could connect, collaborate, and share knowledge. Developed through extensive consultation with researchers, artists, clinicians, educators, and partners around the world, the NRC was designed to address key community needs: access to up-to-date research and clinical findings, opportunities to connect across a global network, and dedicated resources for funding and professional development. Today, the NRC serves as a fully searchable, continually updated hub that brings together research, events, opportunities, and tools to support collaboration. 

Since its May 2025 launch, the NRC has grown to more than 2,700 members from 168 countries. We have received more than 320,000 page views and over 5,600 content uploads. The content shared spans 15 sectors including 135 disciplines and more than 1,200 research articles, with much more to come.

You can find out more at https://neuroartsblueprint.org.

Who is Ruben Bolling?

According to Wikipedia

Ruben Bolling is a pseudonym for Ken Fisher (born c. 1963 in New Jersey), an American cartoonist and the author of Tom the Dancing Bug.

His work started out apolitical, featuring absurdist humor, parodying comic strip conventions, or critiquing celebrity culture. He came to increasingly satirize conservative politics after the September 11 attacks and Iraq war in the early 2000s. This trend strengthened with the Donald Trump presidency and right-wing populism from 2017-2020, his critiques of which earned him several cartooning awards.

We note there that he has a Substack, which you can find at https://substack.com/@tomthedancingbug/posts and this has several levels, including a free subscription. The free subscription brings you a newsletter every Friday containing up to three comics, some new and some reprints.

You can also find his comics at boingboing.net and at Go Comics, as well as many other places.

And next month…

The February edition of Miaaw Monthly will appear in your inbox on Wednesday, July 1 with the first podcast of the month arriving just two days later.