Artist/Educator Show

It is time to get read for this year's Artist/Educator show. It will be at the Jefferson Center this year, 541 Luck Ave. in Roanoke. Bring your artwork READY TO HANG to the Jefferson Center on Friday, November 12 from 4-6, or Saturday, November 13 from 10-12. Please email Anne Pfeiffer (annepfeiffer@verizon.net) your label information by November 6th so that she can prepare the labels for you. The label information should be: your name, title of artwork, media, price if for sale or if NFS.

The reception will be Friday, December 3rd from 5-7. We will take down Saturday, January 8th between 10 and 12. There will be no charge for VAEA members, but $10/artwork for non-members. Spread the word!

Electronic Gallery

Hope to see a lot of you at conference this year. We have not had many artist/educators submit artwork to the electronic gallery, so we'd like to extend the deadline another week (until Oct. 22). Please see the vaea website, conference tab for the form, etc.

Time to Nominate SWVAEA Members for Board Positions

It's time! You can also nominate yourself. All the information and forms is on the VAEA website homepage. You must have all your nomination paperwork in to Jennifer Fowler: swvaea@gmail.com by July 1st.

College of Santa Fe

The College of Santa Fe is coming to the Roanoke area Monday, May 24-26 not only to share information about their creative programs, but also to review portfolios and hold auditions. Their majors are: creative writing, filmmaking, theater arts, studio art, graphic design, and photography. They are also interested in awarding some talent scholarships. For more information about their programs, visit their website.

If you are interested in attending one of the afternoon or evening meetings in the Roanoke area, please email Anne Pfeiffer: annepfeiffer@verizon.net.

Free Admission to the Taubman Saturday

Saturday, March 13, is Family Day at the Taubman Museum of Art, between 11 and 3. There will also be entertainment and activities. Check out their website calendar for other upcoming events.

Hollins University Offering a Three-Week Drawing Course in Italy this Summer

Study drawing, learn Italian, visit the studios of Italian artists and a local art restorer, as well as visit Rome, Florence, Arezzo, Perugia and Assisi. Application deadline is March 31. http://www.hollins.edu/grad/mals/italy/italy.htm

ADVOCACY!!!

As you could have guessed, Advocacy was the main topic of the VAEA retreat this past weekend. This is our wakeup call. Advocacy will have to be part of our job for the next five years at least. It doesn't necessarily mean a whole lot more work-"work smarter, not harder"

Here are some ideas: Post a prinout of Elliot Eisner's Ten Lessons the Arts Teach or any other of the advocacy documents suggested by NAEA or that you've come up with on your own, inside your classroom and outside the door of your room. Make copies to handout to parents at art shows (we will do this at the YAM show reception), band concerts, drama or dance productions, PTA meetings, or any meetings you have with the community. Create eye-catching brochures or posters of the list and distribute throughout your community. Use guerrilla marketing tools to spread the ideas, for example, twitter one of the 10 lessons per day, one per day on FaceBook, and ask people to pass it on; create videos to post on YouTube; have your students create works of art that feature advocacy statments and give as gifts to each member of your school board. Use SpreadShirt or Cafe Press to make T-shirts with advocacy statements. Next time a friend or relative is trying to raise money by selling ad space in a printed program, put in an ad for the arts in education.

My school has an electronic "billboard" on the wall when you enter the building. It features any kind of announcement and I'm going to provide something for that. Time slots on Lamar advertising electronic billboards are available for free public service announcements. Just remember to get your idea to them long before you actually want it to show up.

Get together with your local arts council member and see if they can come up with a performance art event that will bring attention to the value of art education or arts in the community. One idea is to ask your local symphony or theater to delay a performance with one minute of complete silence, drawn curtains and low lights to show what a community without the arts would be like (after an announcement explaining what the purpose of the empty minute is.) Ask your local university's arts education students to come up with advocacy ideas.

Visit Americans for the Arts and Virginians for the Arts for more ideas. Encourage your supportive parents to please join Virginians for the Arts.

Please send us photos and stories of anything you do and we will post them. We need to have a constant flow of advocacy ideas and examples.

Urgent: Advocate for the Arts

VAEA president, Scott Russell, asked that we make send this information to all our constiuents:

ARTS ADVOCACY RALLY
At the Virginia General Assembly and Capitol
FEBURUARY 25, 2010

WHY YOUR ATTENDANCE IS URGENTLY NEEDED AT THE ARTS RALLY

On February 21 the Appropriations Committee of the House of Delegates voted, 15-7, to cut state funding for the Virginia Commission for the Arts by 50% in 2010-11 and to eliminate the agency completely as of July 1, 2011. The Senate Finance Committee has adopted the proposal in the budget bill submitted by Governor Kaine not to make further cuts in state funding for the Commission.

There will be votes on the House and Senate floors THURSDAY on the proposals from the two committees. The different versions of the 2010-12 budget bill approved by the two house of the General Assembly then go to a Budget Conference Committee to resolve the differences.

EMAIL VIRGINIANS FOR THE ARTS at VaForArts@aol.com to let us know you are attending.

WHAT TO DO THURSDAY AT THE RALLY

1. MEET WITH YOUR LEGISLATORS
WHEN? In the Morning, as early as possible
WHERE? At the General Assembly Building, 9th and Broad St., Richmond

Legislators begin arriving as early as 7:30 a.m. Make an appointment with your legislators, if possible. If this is not possible, make an appointment with an aide or drop by and leave our advocacy handout. Legislators attend committee meetings before the noon legislative session begins at the Capitol, and it's best to catch them in their offices as early in the day as possible.

Check here for contact information for your legislators

2. PARTCIPATE IN SHOW OF SUPPORT AT IN THE GALLERY OF THE HOUSE FOR FLOOR DEBATE

WHEN? Line up outside the House of Delegates Gallery at 11:30 a.m.-admission on 1st come basis-Be there no later than 11:45 to be admitted and seated before the session begins. Stay as long as you can between noon and 2 pm and later, if available. Advocates will be recognized by a local legislator.
WHERE? At the Capitol, in the House Gallery.

Getting there: The general public must enter the Capitol through the public entrance near 10th and Bank Street. Once in the Capitol Building, Virginians for the Arts will have volunteers present to help direct you to the House Gallery.

Public Parking: A limited number of metered public parking spaces (2 hours) are located on Bank Street, between Governor and 14th Streets, on the south side of Main Street, between 9th and 12th Streets and on 12th Street between Main and Bank Streets. Pay parking lots and decks are nearby on 8th and Grace Street and 7th and Marshall Streets.

Talking Points for These Contacts with Legislators and Letters to the Editor

• The House Appropriations Committee, on a divided vote, has made a short-sighted decision about state funding of the arts, proposing a 50 percent reduction in state funding for the Virginia Commission for the Arts in the first year of the new biennium, and eliminating the agency completely in the second year.
• The arts community recognizes the severity of the budget problems facing state government and expects to share in the budget cuts and has already been cut by 30 percent over the last two years.
• However, every dollar that the state invests in the arts through the Commission returns $7 in investment by private citizens, businesses, and local governments.
• The Commission made matching grants to Virginia local governments of half a million in FY 2009-2010 to support festivals and programs generating tourism and attracting business and cultural activity throughout the state.
• The Commission is funded at the lowest per capita level among state agencies of surrounding states.
• Elimination of the Commission would also mean the loss of Federal funds for arts in Virginia ($1 million in FY 2009-2010).
• The arts contribute to the economic vitality of Virginia communities. Localities such as South Boston, Richmond, Lynchburg, Blacksburg, Alexandria, and Petersburg are using the arts as a lynchpin for attracting business and economic development.
• Artists and arts organizations work in Virginia schools to expand educational opportunities for children so important to developing a creative workforce. The arts have stepped in to meet cultural education needs of our children where these programs are being cut in the schools. Funds provided by the Virginia Commission for the arts often represent the only opportunity for children in rural areas to be exposed to arts and culture.
• The arts provide jobs, and cultural tourism as an important part of Virginia tourism promotion efforts.
• Over the past two years the arts have faced large spending cuts, cancellations of performances, staff layoffs, and galleries closing. Minimizing further cuts in state arts funding is essential to the survival of Virginia's cultural infrastructure. CUTS OF THE MAGNITUDE BEING PROPOSED WOULD CAUSE ARTS ORGANIZATIONS, BOTH LARGE AND SMALL, TO CLOSE THEIR DOORS throughout the Virginia.
• We urge you to vote against the proposal of the House Appropriations Committee. The small investment the state makes in the arts has a major impact on local economic development, tourism, and education.

Thank you for your essential support! Action by our advocates will make all the difference!

Trish Poupore

Virginians for the Arts

(804)644-2787

VaForArts@aol.com

Poster for YAM Show

Above is the poster for the YAM show. Email us if you would like a pdf to print from.

YAM Time Again: Art Breaks the Rules

Woven object above created by Irish artist Debbie Smyth.

Youth Art Month is upon us again. The theme this year is 'Art Breaks the Rules'.

For those of us who have not begun thinking of ideas here are some to get you kick started: broken mirror portraits; mosaics from broken objects; paint the frame not the canvas; graffitti art; surrealism or Escher - breaking rules of reality; paint with your fingers not the brush; mix oil with water; paint with rulers not with brushes; sculpture with rulers as the medium; paint on rulers; mobiles/chimes made from rulers, rulers as frames.

There are no restrictions with size or medium, we just ask that the work is READY TO HANG or if it is a sculpture that you bring a pedestal.

Please note the dates below have changed from previous information.

The show will be held at the Jefferson Center in Roanoke from March 1st - April 18th.

Hanging: Sunday, February 28th from 12-2pm. (If you are unable to make that time please make arrangements to have your work brought by another member or contact a member of the board. Make sure your work is READY TO HANG. ) A format for labels to accompany the work will follow.

Reception: Friday, March 19th from 5-7pm.

Take down: Sunday, April 18th. You can collect your work from 12-2pm and if you are unable to make that time, please make arrangements for someone else to pick up your work, or email us.