Posted in Reflections on December 15, 2018| 2 Comments »
Here are some of the gifts we get to see through The Art Garden’s work:
These images are making their way (in a physical form) to many of our supporters through our annual appeal mailing*.
* If you are not on our snail mail list and would like to be,
please email Jane at csartgarden@gmail.com.
If you would like to support The Art Garden’s work, please click on our DONATE button (above right) which is a secure PayPal link.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Posted in Beginnings, Reflections on September 19, 2018| Leave a Comment »
The Art Garden is sending a big
to Phyllis Labanowski for all of her hard work and dedication in co-creating our ARTeens program. We wish Phyllis the best as she moves on from ARTeens to pursue new opportunities and challenges. Phyllis’ work, including her grant writing skills, will now help sustain the program, since ARTeens was recently awarded a Mass Cultural Council YouthReach grant!
Stepping in to co-direct the program starting this fall, is Laura Iveson. Laura is a long time Art Garden board member, director of The Hilltown Draw-Around, and set designer with Hilltown Youth Theater where she works with children and teens to create large artworks.
Check out this video about ARTeens created by graduating ARTeen Micah Goldstein last spring. Micah credits ARTeens with helping her realize that being an artist is possible, and ART is what she wants to do with her life. She is now studying Animation in Montreal.
Our 2018-2019 Pay-What-You-Can ARTeens after school program is now accepting APPLICATIONS! In our 7-week Fall 2018 session, there are two ARTeens’ groups that meet on Tuesdays OR Thursdays starting the week of October 23rd and ending the week of December 13th.
Applications are due on October 10, 2018. Downloadable application below.
Questions? Please email csartgarden@gmail.com or call 413-625-2782
Posted in Beginnings, Reflections on May 1, 2018| Leave a Comment »
Every donation, no matter the size, helps us qualify for random prizes
throughout this 24 hour Day of Giving!
Click HERE to go to our Valley Gives page!
Posted in Reflections on June 1, 2017| Leave a Comment »
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
—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:
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:
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
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!)
Posted in Exhibits, Reflections, Upcoming Events on January 18, 2017| 3 Comments »
Photograph by Laura Iveson. Graphic design by Jane Beatrice Wegscheider.
Here’s how it works:
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.)
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?
Which is partially why we are doing this exhibit NOW.
Write a small
poem.
Create a tiny book
from a short story.
Make a small
painting,
collage, sculpture,
drawing, print,
assemblage,
photograph,
& & &
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.
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.
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!
Handmade paper by Jane Beatrice Wegscheider. Poem by Sappho.
Posted in Reflections on January 1, 2017| 2 Comments »
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!
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.
Posted in Reflections, Upcoming Events on May 2, 2016| Leave a Comment »
“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!
