Spring for Art

I'm not sure why we all do this to ourselves, but spring is sheer madness in the local nonprofit community! One can become quickly overwhelmed by all the activity out there: River Run, Empty Bowls, Hispanic Night, Race for the Cure, Bird Fest and taste of the Town, recycled bikes and block parties and all sorts of other great events to support!

Associated Artists is no different. We are gearing up for our 12th annual fundraiser, Spring for Art. This year our honored guests are Milton & Mattie Rhodes, as Milton prepares to retire as President and CEO of our local Arts Council. He's done an incredible job - truly amazing - with fundraising and clean-up and progress within that organization. Many believe that ours was the only arts council in the country to meet a fundraising goal last year. Now that's something to be proud of! And as a Funded Partner of The Arts Council of Winston-Salem & Forsyth County, we are as proud as he must be. (AAWS received a 52% increase in our grant funding from The Arts Council this year)

So yes. Spring for Art is coming up at the end of May and we are planning the party. Volunteers are needed of course - and we'll have a meeting in the gallery Wednesday April 28th at 2pm to discuss details like flowers and food and art placement. We'll have a huge mailing to go out May 1st. And we need a few suggestions on ways that we can add a little extra special pizazz this year, too!

For the artist, there are detailed instructions on ways that you can participate here on our website. Click the prospectus link on the left hand side and read carefully. Again - we've changed things up a bit in order to present our best work, and to make the purchasing a little more fun. This is, after all, a fundraiser! :)

That is what comes next on our calendar at the gallery. Leave a comment and tell us what you are working on, too!

Live!

Our video from the Dimensions reception

Dimensions!

For 44 years now, Associated Artists has coordinated and hosted Dimensions - a national juried fine art show with work selected by an independent (hired) juror from another organization, museum, or gallery with a strong reputation in the art world. This year is no different. Our juror, Robert Lange, owner of Robert Lange Studios in Charleston SC, has been featured in numerous fine art publications over the past 2 years. His Charleston gallery has been incredibly successful, enabling him to move and double his space this past fall. We are thrilled, honored really, to be working with him. (thanks Robert!)

Robert arrived in Winston-Salem yesterday afternoon and chose the awards for Dimensions 2010. VERY strong show! Great comments these past few days, and the staff just loves walking into the gallery amidst such wonderful artwork! (kudos for our fabulous show chair, the amazing Vicki Schober, and our even-more-fabulous Installations Dude, Mister Dennis Millsaps for their great work in getting it on the walls. Well done, friends! Well done.)

This morning Lange spent time with 10 different artists, offering individual one-on-one portfolio reviews. Everyone I spoke with had positive feedback on this process adn gained a lot of insight and inspiration from his comments. One artist told me she just wanted to run home and start painting!

Ahh but tonight...

Tonight we open the show! A reception for Dimensions will be held this evening (Thursday April 8th) from 5-7pm at the Associated Artists' Gallery. We'll have food and wine and other reception essentials, as well as the important parts such as juror comments, show chair remarks, and the presentation of awards.

Oh yes. Awards! As if having a piece in, 79 from 400 entries, were not cool enough - there is the $1000 first prize, cash, to the 1st place piece.

Here are a few sneak peaks at the show: