Creativity Supports Community

Photo by Anna Goldstein

Before summer’s abundance of creativity begins (in and outside The Art Garden),
I want to share some enchanting images from the third Fabulous Hilltown Draw-Around: our 12-hour creative community art-making extravaganza that local artist and Art Garden board member, Laura Iveson imagined, organized, coordinated and made happen with the help of over 50 volunteers.

First hour of the Draw-Around captured by James Smith

“Creativity is a force of Enchantment!”

                                                                    —from Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert

Photo by Emily Crehan

One of the most magical things about the Draw-Around, for me, is how it draws out (sorry for the pun) the creativity in everyone:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Photo by Emily Crehan

The historic Cowell Gym (where the Draw-Around takes place) is big enough to get lost in; after 12 hours the floor and walls were covered with exquisite and humorous testaments to private musings and communal exchanges:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Photo by Emily Crehan

This year, 400 people became a part of something ephemeral and enchanting and bigger than ourselves; something that encouraged us to be ourselves, which is essentially what it means to be IN community.

Photo of local artist Nancy Katz ‘having a blast’ by James Smith

ARTeen Micah drawing her dad while her sister Anna takes photos

Thank you! Thank you, LAURA IVESON!

Photo by Nancy Katz

Thank you to the core group of movers and shakers who met for weeks to help shape the event. Thank you to the volunteers who showed up to prepare the space and clean it up afterwards.

Photo by James Smith

Thank you to everyone who helped during the Draw-Around, the artists who led workshops and community members who donated healthy food. Thank you Janice Sorensen for organizing and managing our Cowell Café! Thank you Reed Arahood for creating the Draw-O-Saurus:

Photo by James Smith

Thank you Samantha Crawford for creating the elaborate drawings that we enlarged to become the walls of our 3D garden coloring book:

Photo by James Smith

We are so grateful and enchanted!

Thank you local businesses for your support and Suzanne Conway for your whimsical tribute to them (and 12-hour drawing performance!)

Thank you to the following Local Cultural Councils for your support: Ashfield, Buckland, Charlemont/Hawley, Colrain, Conway, Deerfield, Heath, Leyden, Plainfield, Rowe, and Shelburne!

Thank you Phyllis Labanowski and ARTeen volunteers for welcoming everyone!

Photo by Phyllis Labanowski

All proceeds from the Draw-Around help support our ARTeens program.

Here are our current spring session ARTeens after Valley Gives Day
(which also supported their program!)

All this is what community looks like!

Advertisements

Read Full Post »

Small Things Matter

Photograph by Laura Iveson. Graphic design by Jane Beatrice Wegscheider.

The Art Garden invites you to participate

in the Community Exhibit:

Here’s how it works:

Reflect on the theme! 

What are some

of the small things

in your life

that

make a difference

in the quality

of that life?

The pragmatic in me thinks:

paper clips,

twist ties,

buttons,

&

tape, staples and scissors

(all indispensable small things

to a group of self-directed

elementary-aged artists.)

What are some of the small things you care about?

My list includes my friend Elisabeth’s beautiful, almost 70 year-old hands with their stubby thumbs, the fan of laugh lines that emanate from Bob’s eyes and the sound of John’s “How are you, Dearie?” on the phone.

 What

small

things

do

you

do

to

nurture

yourself,

your

family,

your

friends,

your

community?

Do you recycle?

shovel

your elderly neighbor’s

walkway?

volunteer at a

community

meal?

buy

locally

grown

food?

Skylar, Jen and Delia with mittens they made to give to families in transition.

Are you contributing

[something small]

to the larger battles

against poverty,

intolerance,

habitat loss,

injustice,

racism,

bullying,

species extinction,

pollution,

oppression,

hunger,

or hatred?

The small things we do add up.

Which is partially why we are doing this exhibit NOW.

We invite you to make “small” art that reflects your ideas, feelings, and/or interpretation of the theme: “Small Things Matter”.

Write a small

poem.

Create a tiny book

from a short story.

Make a small

painting,

collage, sculpture,

drawing, print,

assemblage,

photograph,

& & &

All work (even written pieces)

must have dimensions (height, width, depth)

under 5″

(that includes borders and frames!)

Because of this size restriction, you can also mail your submission[s] to us at:

The Art Garden
4 Union Street
Shelburne Falls, MA 01370

Please include a SASE for return of your work and an Artist Information Form
(see below to download) to be included in the exhibit folder.

Deadline for submissions is January 25, 2017
(if you would like your work to be part of our Winter HooPla event and the official opening on January 28.)

Participation is free and open to all ages and experience. Work will be accepted throughout February and added to the exhibit after the opening, until there is no space left on the walls. Show closes April 1.

Questions?

Email Jane Wegscheider at csartgarden@gmail.com or call 413-625-2782.

 

Downloadable form to complete for each submission:
artistsinfosmallthingsmatter

 

This exhibit is supported in part by
the following local cultural councils:

Ashfield,

Buckland,

Charlemont/Hawley,

Colrain,

Conway,

Heath,

Leyden,

Plainfield,

Rowe

& Shelburne!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Handmade paper by Jane Beatrice Wegscheider. Poem by Sappho.

 

 

Read Full Post »

Good work = Light in the world!

Seven years ago, I condensed all of my hopes and visions for The Art Garden into the following Mission Statement:

The Art Garden seeks to create a nurturing, non-judgmental and inspirational environment where people of all ages and experience can engage in the creative process and the exploration and exchange of ideas through individual and collaborative art-making.  Relationships between materials, images, ideas, self, and community are cultivated with questioning, poetic vision and social/ecological consciousness.

I am so delighted that this statement IS TRUE about our work AND that it can be seen in the tiny Art Garden Alphabet book that is part of our 2016 annual appeal mailing!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Every end-of-the-year we send out a visually embellished envelope, collaboratively written letter and small visual ‘gift’ that reflects on what we have accomplished in the past year, and who we are. Our hope is that the ‘who we are’  is conveyed not only in the words and images, but also in the physical form and sensual experience of a mostly hand-made gesture.

Thank you Laura, John, Elisabeth, Cheryl, Ardath, Kristen, Sam, Kate, Cosima and Reed for helping cut and glue art-stamps and fold, score and hand-bind over 500 tiny alphabet books!

Thanks also to Honey Bunny for her patient supervising!

 

Thank you Art Garden board members Kate Bailey, Candace Bradbury-Carlin, John Hoffman, Laura Iveson and James Smith for your collaboration and commitment to The Art Garden and our good work.

Thank you also to all of our [over 200 and growing!] individual supporters!
We would not be here without you.

If you would like to receive our 2016 mailing please email your name and address to csartgarden@gmail.com.
If you would like to support The Art Garden’s work, you can make a secure contribution using our donate button on this website.
You can also send a check (made out to The Art Garden) to our mailing address:
The Art Garden, 4 Union St, Shelburne Falls, MA 01370.

Good work = Light in the world!

Do good work!

Be the light our world needs in 2017!

 

Read Full Post »

May 3, 2016 is The Art Garden’s 5-year 501c3 Anniversary!

“What the World Needs Now” performance by Phyllis Labanowski and a group of intrepid Art Garden volunteers, 2014. Photo by Elaine Boucher.

May 3, 2016 is The Art Garden’s 5-year 501c3 Anniversary!

WE made it!
WE painted, sculpted, sewed, drew and collaged it!
WE invented, designed, organized, coordinated, collaborated,
and fund-raised it!

WE = you + me + The Art Garden’s hard-working Board of Directors
+ hundreds of people supporting our work with so many GIFTS:
donations of supplies, money and time…
all of us coming together to make The Art Garden truly
a Community-Supported Art-making place!

As a happy coincidence,

May 3, 2016 is also Valley Gives Day here in western Massachusetts.

Our Valley Gives fund-raising this year is dedicated to supporting our
2016-2017 ARTeens program.

Your support will make a difference in the lives of rural creative teens!

Please help make another year of this amazing Teen Art program possible
by donating here on May 3rd:

https://valleygives.razoo.com/us/story/Art-Garden

 

A very special thank you goes to artist and non-profit attorney Peter Chadwick, who first suggested our becoming a non-profit in 2010. He all but held our hands as he shepherded us through the legal process with kindness, skill and lots of clarifying emails. We are so grateful, Peter!

Read Full Post »

A New Year’s Reflection on Creativity

During our last Community Exhibit, the 6 year-old grandson of one of our volunteers visited The Art Garden for the first time. He walked thoughtfully around the studio, asking questions as he looked at everything: the different supplies, images, objects, and variety of art works in the exhibit.

photo by Rick Miller

One of the pieces, titled “My Shoeless Soul”, caught his attention, and I asked him if he knew what a soul was.

“It’s what makes you YOU!” he replied, without a moment’s hesitation.

I wrote that down…
so that each day…
when I come into The Art Garden…
I am reminded:

what we do is
“soul-work”! 

Art-making
helps
me
be
me.

Creativity 
nurtures 
our
souls!

And strengthens us for the work of making this world a better place.

“In a real sense all life is inter-related. All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be…This is the inter-related structure of reality.”

—from Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, 1963

Because winter can be a time for ‘going inward’, I encourage you to carve out time and space in this season for exploring who you are through your creativity.
If it leads you to The Art Garden, we’ll be delighted to see you!

Happy New Year!

For more about creativity:

http://www.creativitypost.com/create/how_creativity_makes_us_feel_alive

 

 

Read Full Post »

The Fabulous Hilltown Draw-Around really WAS Fabulous!

Art Garden board member Laura Iveson
(who co-directs all of The Art Garden’s festival and parade work)
organized and coordinated a HUGE-ly successful community art event
at the Cowell Gym in Shelburne Falls on April 11^th, 2015.

Here is a beautiful reflection about the Fabulous Hilltown Draw-Around,
written by Laura’s partner, James Smith
(who was also a tireless volunteer and shameless promoter.)

From left to right: Mark, Kate, James, Jane, Laura, Robin…still smiling the next day!

“This new regional event is a seedling carried by Laura Iveson
from the New Orleans annual 24-hour Drawathon.

Laura’s vision is to nurture a uniquely Hilltown version
of the lively arts, magic, and most of all community
that planted New Orleans so indelibly in our hearts and imaginations
during our 20-year residence there.

photo credit: John Snyder

Where better to grow a vision like that than The Art Garden,
which has already done so much to establish
a welcoming, supportive arts community
in this corner of the world?

Pencil crowns go to Draw-Around Divas: Phyllis Labanowski (ARTeens co-director), Laura Iveson (our fabulous Draw-Around Organizer and all-around troubleshooter) and Jane Beatrice Wegscheider (Art Garden director)

The Art Garden family embraced Laura’s idea fully
and provided infrastructure, guidance, big hearts,
and capable hands to help make it happen.

After much hard work we remained worried until the last minute
that no one would risk a Saturday to see just what the heck a Draw-Around is,

but several hundred doodlebugs from all over the Hilltowns
showed healthy curiosity and an admirable sense of whimsy
by stopping in to draw on the walls
and lay on the papered floor for hours with friends, family, and strangers,
talking, dreaming, and creating
4000 square feet of gorgeous art. 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The Draw-Around was solidly attended from noon til midnight.
Participants donated generously
enough to fund a large portion of The Art Garden’s ARTeens program this season.
The proceeds allow for even stronger programming in the next session,
and help The Art Garden ensure
that no ARTeens participant is prevented from participating for lack of funds.

Our

ARTeens

(present, former and possible future)

participated

from

S

T

A

R

T

to F I N I S H !!!

I was deeply moved by the way the aptly named Draw-Around
drew people together, head-to-head,
to engage in a novel and powerful collaboration.

photo credit: John Snyder

The sheer audacity of the venture
– covering 12 hours and 4000 square feet of paper with imagination and dialogue –
disrupts the many routines of day-to-day life
in a way that provokes
fresh shared perspectives, bonding, and true community.

What a glorious way to welcome in the spring.

Eleven-year-old emerging artist, Katie Martin (mother and older child drawing on right) was inspired by Colrain artist, Suzanne Conway’s mother and baby drawing above it!

People have told me the event’s magic sustained them days later,
and that like me, they are already dreaming about next year’s
Second Annual Art Garden Fabulous Hilltown Draw-Around.”   — James Smith

Thank you to everyone who made this event so amazing!

The list of
thank you‘s

is longer than this

optical illusion drawing

made by teen artist,

Jaden Skelly.

You may want to start at the bottom and scroll up to see how it looked.

THANK YOU!
THANK YOU!
THANK YOU!

Angie Arahood

David Arfa

Brook Batteau

Candace Bradbury-Carlin

Molly Cantor

Valerie Caro

Sonny Crawford

Susannah Crolius

Laura Davis

Kelly Flaherty

Brendan Flannelly-King

& Eamon

Joanna Goodman

Emily Gopen

Katie Hennessey

Cosima Hewes

Cara Hochhalter

John Hoffman

Robin Huntley

Liz Jacobsen-Carroll

David Jensen

Phyllis Labanowski

Jen Martin

Cheli Mennella

Rick Miller

Diana Noble

Mark Ostroff

Colleen Rauch

Crisabeth Shearer
& Lauren Veaudry
from Greenfield Savings Bank

James Smith

Kate Snyder

Kristen Strange

Alethea Tschetterwood

Frances Whistler

Karen Willard

Betty Z-A & Tucker

THANK YOU!  THANK YOU!  THANK YOU!

Aubuchon, BJ’s, Brass Buckle, Buckland Pizza, Casey’s Pizza, Cowell Gym, Franklin Community Coop, Fosters, Hager Brothers, Home Depot, Mo’s Fudge Factory, Mother’s, Real Pickles, Shelburne Coffee Roasters, Staples, Trinity Church & Turley Publications!

Thank you Angie Arahood for creating this amazing Request-A-Sketch!

Children and adults put sketch requests in a slot under the doors…

Within seconds, doors sprung open, & a sketch was delivered…in a cuckoo’s beak!

THANK YOU ARTeens (present, former and possible future):
Dylan, Erin, Jeff, Jennieke, Isabelle, Micah, Mikayla, Rhiannon & Tori
for WELCOMING everyone, explaining our pay-what-you-can model,
and for sharing what the ARTeens program means to you!

And for HAVING FUN!

THANK YOU ARTeens co-director
and graphic messenger extraordinaire
Phyllis Labanowski
for creating such a great entry into the event!

Thank you to our community for your generosity!

Thank you Emmy for starting us off with such a generous and inspiring donation!

We are a Community Supported Art-making place!

And we are so glad to support our community with events like this!

Thank you! Laura Iveson!!!
for your creativity and perseverence, your vision and hard work,
your collaboration and willingness to dive into daunting projects.
YOU are fabulous (especially in that dashing hospital blue smock!)

Read Full Post »

New Beginnings and a Five-year Anniversary

Five years ago, on the Winter Solstice of 2009, I officially launched The Art Garden and this website with a slightly sloppier version of this image. My The Art garden is open! email began with:

I’m sending this announcement out on the longest night of the year (or almost)…a bit of Light, I hope, in a season when light and dark do their undulating dance in each of us.

 

The Art Garden has done it’s own undulating dance over these five years; always holding to a core vision that integrates art-making, community-building, sustainable living, creative exploration, social practice, self-direction and the cultivation of a nurturing, non-judgmental environment.

 

Goethe’s words are no less applicable than they were in 2009. Every day is a beginning! This work of making and being…creating art…creating community…creating ourselves!      What a joy!      What a challenge!      What a dance!

 

Thanks to the collaboration, participation, enthusiasm, encouragement, financial support and hard work of so many, The Art Garden is now firmly rooted!

 

We wish you a very Happy Season of Light!

 

 

with love and gratitude,

 

Jane-doll made by Edite Cunha

Read Full Post »