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.

Scholastic Art Competition Deadline Dec. 1

If you didn't receive the packet, go to artandwriting.org for how to apply. There is a nice intro videos about those who have received the awards on youtube to show your students. (Start with the first and select the next, for example. They are short.) The deadline for our area is Dec. 1.

Inspired by Nature

Spend a Saturday outside at beautiful Carvin's Cove, near 81 in Roanoke while earning recertification points and getting new lesson ideas. Rich Moon will present a workshop based on the work of Andy Goldsworthy, at Carvin’s Cove on Saturday, November 7th 12-4pm.

Bring a visually inspiring food for a potluck picnic lunch. Workshop is free for NAEA members, $10 for nonmembers. RSVP REQUIRED to swvaea@gmail.com for us to pay your park admission.

Arts and Crafts Festival

The Titan Archery Club of Hidden Valley High School in Roanoke is holding an Arts and Crafts Festival on Saturday March 27th from 10am to 5pm in the gym. Adult vendors can take part for $50 for a 10' x 8' space. High school student vendors for $30. For more info and to receive the registration form (due March 5th), contact Lisa Sink-Morris, lsink@rcs.k12.va.us.

The Memory Project

We asked SWVAEA member Pat Carr to share her experience taking part in the Memory Project. She will also present a short q&a session about it during the Secondary Division meeting at the VAEA conference.

The Memory Project is an exciting art activity and service opportunity for skilled art students on an international basis. Ben Schumacher began this endeavor several years ago as a college student. It begins with deciding on a group of students to create individual portraits of children, registering through the Memory Project website, and paying a handling fee. Soon, you receive digital photos of orphans from another country – many of these orphans have no family and have lived in an orphanage all their life. Other orphans may have been displaced because of floods, famine, war, and death – and have been abandoned with no personal items from their childhood and families. Our students are always excited to receive and choose the child that they will recreate. I encourage our students to research the conditions of the orphan’s country - political, economic, social, and environmental. This will help them to personalize the portrait for a particular child. After completing the portraits, we display them, document them with a photo of the student artist, and send them all back to the Memory Project headquarters. Portraits should be 11”x14” or smaller, and can be rendered in any permanent to semi-permanent medium.

The NAHS club completed 25 portraits of children from orphanages in Myanmar, Kenya, and Uganda last year. Patrons and friends from the Taubman Museum of Art helped to fund this activity through their generous monetary donations. A feature article with lots of photos about the CSHS NAHS chapter can be viewed on the swo-co.com website, and in the Roanoke Times “SWo-CO” publication. Our club has participated in this activity for the last 5 years, creating portraits of orphans from Guatemala, India, Mexico, and Honduras. You can read about this world-wide “children helping children” activity at http://www.thememoryproject.org/

In addition, Ben recently sent this letter:

Dear Friends,

Well, it looks like the recession is officially affecting the Memory Project. There has been a 30% drop in artists signing up. It makes me wish more than ever that I could find a different way to fund the project, because the $15 participation fees have become too much for some schools during these hard times.

If you would like to participate this year, but are hesitant because of the fees, let me offer the following tips:

1. You are welcome to participate now and send your participation fees up to 6 months later. Just mail us this promise (www.thememoryproject.org/promise.pdf) and we'll send your pictures.

2. Consider approaching your local service organization such as Rotary or Kiwanis to request sponsorship for your artists. Such groups are eager to support youth engaged in service.

3. Form a partnership with a local bank, grocery store, or other business. The business would pay the participation fees, and then the finished portraits would go on display at the business before they are due to be sent to us. Customers would appreciate that the business is supporting local service activities.

4. Hold a gallery exhibit of the finished portraits and invite donations to cover the participation fees.

5. Students can present this letter (www.thememoryproject.org/sponsors.doc) to anyone interested in sponsoring their participation. In exchange, the student can write the sponsor's name on back of the portrait.I hope these tips can help your students participate!

Thanks very much,Ben

Arts Institute for Educators October 31

The Arts Council of the Blue Ridge in partnership with Virginia Tech is presenting an Arts Institute for Educators on Saturday, Oct. 31 from 9-3 at the Roanoke Higher Education Center, 7th floor, 108 N. Jefferson (next to the Hotel Roanoke).

The keynote speaker is from the Kennedy Center. The workshops are cross-curriculum involving not just the visual arts, but music and dance as well, so invite some non-art colleagues to join you. The cost is $20, which includes a boxed lunch.

For the details and descriptions of the workshops, check out the flyer.