The Center for International Education

WE MAKE POSITIVE MEDIA

What We Do

Since 1975 we have been creating an array of multimedia, multicultural projects with people of all ages for audiences of all ages all over the world. Our activities are divided into three parts: videos, art projects, and teaching artist residencies.

What You Will Support

Your donations will support creating new media art. 

Mr. Positive portrays a good neighbor who never says a negative word about anyone or anything, Carl Bentson. "Carl is like a light of the neighborhood. He loves to watch out for people. He is just good, and wants to make the world cleaner and better," says Carl’s friend, Dr. Tim Rumsey. Watching the documentary inspires viewers to imagine what they can do to make their neighborhoods better and their neighbors happy. Click to stream the film.

The Dream Factory

We carry on sharing old and making new videos.

If we could only save one video of our 228, it would be Mr. Positive. People of all ages from all over are moved by this portrait of Carl Bentson. It’s a community lesson for the global village. Click to stream the film.

We are collaborating with Lacinea McBride to create Take Freedom. Editing video footage recorded in 1980, it is a portrait of Mike Belchak, also known as Mike Freedom and Human Humorous. He was an advocate for the Priceless Economic System and a Priceless Society. Handing out pamphlets from the Little Free Press, Mike dreamed of free people in a free world. 

Work continues on The World's Worst Documentary Filmmaker: Patrick Hazard. The portrait incorporates a film within the film whereby the professor offers a lesson on the architect Louis Sullivan's philosophy of organic design.

We now have 228 videos with 456,747 views on social media, free for all.

Organic Media

We have been commissioned, once more with feeling, to photograph life at the Hmong American Farmers Association Farm. In addition, two pictures from our first commission are on display through 2027 at the Minnesota Museum of American Art (the M) as part of their permanent collection in an exhibition titled Here, Now. We like to say we make organic media.

Mayia grows and dries garlic at the Hmong American Farmers Association Farm. Photo by Mike Hazard

Camera Works

We teach people of all ages how to express themselves by making videos and photographs which we then share with public media. 

Pictured is a scene from a residency at Capitol Hill Middle School in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Every student photographed and wrote picture stories portraying students, teachers, and staff at their school. The work was published as a book, People of Capitol Hill. Every student got their own copy. Students were so jazzed, they were signing each other’s books like a yearbook. Photo by Mike Hazard

Making Books
The poet Mike Hazard photographed the audience during his own poetry reading. He read seven mysterious poems from his manuscript of poetry and prose which poet Margaret Hasse has been editing. Laughter and tears hereafter. A book is coming soon.

More, Hazard was chosen to attend the legendary Chico Photobook Review in Chico, Montana. Eighty photographers and lovers of photography assembled for a week to immerse themselves in the world of photo books. Hazard presented Solar Power & Moonshine, a paper movie with images and texts on light. Networking is proving to be global.

Making books is a new focus for The Center.

The Organization
The Center is a micro-nonprofit with an artist-in-residence, Mike Hazard, guided by an engaged board of directors. We contract with many talented individuals and collaborate with many organizations to create new work.

The Ask

We invite you join us by supporting creation of new positive media.

As we carry on into our 50th year as a nonprofit media arts organization, we are organizing our archives with an eye on our legacy. We are in conversation with the Elmer L. Andersen Library at the University of Minnesota to save our master archive. Simultaneously, we are producing a show of selected work from 50 years. Dubbed The Suitcase Project, it will be a traveling show of motion pictures and paper movies. The premiere will be June 19, 2025 at the Rourke Art Museum in Moorhead, Minnesota. 

We have always regarded the media which we have made with public funding to be a public work. This archive will be free for all to use and/or repurpose in perpetuity. 

Donate if you can, please. Ua tsaug. Danke. Gracias. Mahadsanid. Pidamaya. Miigwech. Arigato. Tak. Merci. Thank you.