The Wet Paint Party was a great success! Many members came and plenty of new members joined! People really enjoyed looking at purchasing all of the beautiful local art work and watching the amazing fashion show put on by Vintage Ooollee and Modish Salon! We are working on a few things to make next year better, and if you have any suggestions please let us know!
If you didn’t attend the Wet Paint Party you can still join the Arts Council at any time! Our membership applications are located here: http://bit.ly/d34Suz
I think a lot of people in our community are unaware of what all the Greater Augusta Arts Council is responsible for and I figured that today’s blog entry would be a great time to really discuss it!
The Greater Augusta Arts Council is responsible for planning and producing many festivals, events that enhance the quality of life of the CSRA such as:
- Arts in the Heart of Augusta Festival
- Old School Music Festival
- First Friday
- Par 3 Party
- Wet Paint Party
- Augusta Arts Meet Ups
The Arts Council is instrumental in facilitating outreach programs that impact the community as a whole such as:
- Arts Reading Program
- ArtScape Camp
- Arts Weekly
- 24/7 Extensive Online Calendar
- Legislative Luncheon
- Arts Focus Groups
- CSRA Online Gallery
- AugustaArts Ticketing Project
- Contemporaries Membership Group
The Arts in the Heart of Augusta Festival, now in its 30th year, is a 2 ½ day event featuring visual, performing, and literary arts, while showcasing Augusta’s diverse ethnic and cultural heritage. Brazil is the featured country for 2010. The festival features a global food village, with cuisine from over 35 different countries, a fine arts and crafts market with over 100 artist’s booths, and four stages with over 40 performances. The Children’s Area provides FREE hands-on art experiences for more than 3000 kids. The Arts in the Heart of Augusta festival serves as an economic engine driving over 70,000 people to downtown Augusta each September.
Each fall the Old School Music Festival celebrates the greatest Soul, R&B, and Funk music from the 70s, 80s, and 90s. In past years, this festival has featured acts such as Eric Mayweather & the Finesse Band, Rudy Collins & Kayla, and Joyce McCaster & Victorious Soul.
On the First Friday of each month the Arts Council produces a downtown celebration on Artists’ Row. Galleries and studios remain open debuting new works, and local artists sell their wares along Broad Street as street musicians entertain the passing crowds. The Arts Council staff works to coordinate marketing strategies and to schedule the various bands and performers. First Friday is a FREE family friendly event.
Debuting in 2010, the Par 3 Party was held during the annual Masters Tournament. In its inaugural year, the Par 3 Party featured shag music from the South Atlantic Live Entertainment Band and the Embers, shag lessons from George Perkins, and a vintage-clothing fashion show. The first- time event drew over 700 individuals into downtown Augusta.
Back by popular demand, the Wet Paint Party returns this coming December. Local artists, who are members of the Arts Council, are invited to show and sell their recent works at a silent auction styled event. The unique format of this event guarantees that the artists will receive the full selling price of his/her work, while any dollar amount above the set price goes to benefit the Arts Council. Over 30 local artists have participated in this event resulting in great exposure and sales. Several local artists have sold their first major piece at this event.
New for 2010, all Arts Council members are invited to join staff and board members at our “meet-ups” where in they have the opportunity to be exposed to the huge variety of locally produced arts events of all genres…from classical to avant garde.
Of the 35 schools in Richmond County, only 5 have visual arts teachers on staff. To address the lack of arts programming in elementary schools we have developed two programs: the Arts Reading Program and ArtScape Camp.
The Arts Reading Program was developed by the Greater Augusta Arts Council in collaboration with the Junior League of Augusta and the Morris Museum of Art. This program connects third grade core-curriculum subjects to a particular children’s book or a famous artist, and an example of his/her work in a hands-on arts lesson. For many children the Arts Reading Program is their only opportunity to receive elementary level arts education.
In Collaboration with the Boys & Girls Club of Augusta, the Arts Council facilitates an annual summer ArtScape Camp. Now in its 16th year, this program provides arts activities to the children of the Boys & Girls Club of Augusta; exposing kids to music, drama, dance, reading, and visual art in a fun, hands-on learning environment. The program is open to all segments of the population, but the primary focus is on reaching underserved audiences.
The Greater Augusta Arts Council promotes advocacy through Arts Weekly a weekly radio show hosted by Executive Director Brenda Durant. Arts Weekly is a 30-minute broadcast, highlighting upcoming arts and cultural events in the CSRA. GAAC also produces an extensive Online Calendar, listing thousands of arts and cultural events that occur in our community each year.
The Greater Augusta Arts Council hosts the annual Legislative Luncheon each November. This luncheon connects local artists and arts organizations with local and state elected officials. The council also hosts Arts Focus Groups, which brings artists together with representatives from arts organizations and colleges to discuss challenges facing the artists. GAAC reviews these challenges and works to develop solutions to solve the issues presented by these groups.
To that end, one particular focus groups revealed that local artists wanted to establish a community gallery; a place for artists of all backgrounds to showcase their work. Although a physical gallery space is not a feasible solution, a plan was created that would meet the needs not only of the artists but also of the community as a whole: the CSRA Online Gallery. Local Interior Designers were also interviewed and reiterated the need for this sort of website. Local art work is often requested for their design projects, however finding such art can be difficult. The gallery, modeled after the commercial website UGallery.com, will be sortable by medium, genre, and listed alphabetically by artist’s name. The site will provide artists an opportunity to showcase their work at an affordable rate (memberships are $25 a year) and will increase their visibility. Artists will have an individual page wherein they can post contact information, personal websites, resumes, gallery presence, and their availability to create commissioned pieces. Workshops will be held in conjunction with this project to help artists develop the business skills necessary to promote their art. The gallery will give Interior Designers, the community, and the world, access to local art work 24/7.
The AugustaArts Ticketing Project, hosted on the Arts Council’s website, allows arts organizations, including Westobou Festival to sell performance tickets online. The Arts Council is incurring the banking/merchant fees that smaller organizations would be unable to pay. This ticket site allows arts patrons to purchase tickets at their leisure and is a one-stop shop for all ticketed arts events.
The Greater Augusta Arts Council is collaborating with the Gertrude Hebert Institute of Art and the Morris Museum of Art to create a young professionals membership- “Contemporaries.” By attracting this desirable age group we are able to expose this demographic to all of the local arts events while educating a future generation of arts patrons and leaders.
The Greater Augusta Arts Council is committed to providing quality festivals, events, and programs to the CSRA. We work hard year round to improve the quality of life of those living in our community by infusing the arts into everyday life.
I hope this blog entry gives you a better sense of why you should support our organization!
