SPOTLIGHT

15th Annual T.C. Williams Student Art Exhibition (Last Weekend)

Once again we are proud to be showcasing the artworks of our area's teens. This year it is the art of thirteen T.C. Williams High School students, who were selected as this year's National Art Honor Society inductees, which will be on exhibit. Many of these students will continue their art studies at the college level and much of the work on exhibit was featured in their winning college admission portfolios. Show runs May 4–13. For more information, visit: DelRayArtisans.org

Cosmic Quest – 2012 Children's Arts Festival Sunday, May 20 from 2–4pm at TC Williams High School.

The Alexandria Symphony and The Del Ray Artisans are hosting the Cosmic Quest – 2012 Chilren's Arts Festival. The Symphony will be playing excerts from Gustav Holst's suite The Planets. After the Symphony has played the children will then work with some Del Ray Artisans on a wondrous art project that will allow the children to bring the music to life. For questions or information call (703)548-0885 or visit www.alexsym.org

Member Meeting and Monotype Workshop: Sunday, May 20, from 2–4pm

DRA's own talented printmaker Karen Schmitz presents "Making Monotypes," a workshop for DRA members only. Watch up close to learn basic techniques for making simple, unique monotype paintings using a Plexiglas sheet and water-based paints. Due to limited workspace, 20 members, chosen from a drawing at the meeting, will participate hands-on in this valuable opportunity; materials supplied. There will be a brief introductory "meeting" before the workshop, so bring questions you wish to ask or ideas you wish to offer. For more information, contact Kathryn Brown (Membership@DelRayArtisans.org) or Linda Hill (Programs@DelRayArtisans.org)

Fourth Annual DRA Yard Sale

Yard Sale: Saturday, May 26, 8am–2pm. Need that unique gift? Do you have something that you would love to give to a new home! Someone's trash is another's treasure. Donate to the DRA Yard Sale and stop by and see what we are all about! FREE admission and open to the public. Funds raised will help the gallery with ongoing needs. For information on donating items or volunteering, please contact Amanda Wright (Fundraising@DelRayArtisans.org) or visit: DelRayArtisans.org/YardSale

Decorating Parties for the United Way Shoebox Project

Tuesday, May 15 and Thursday, May 17 from 6-8 pm. Many of our neighbors are at risk of not meeting their basic needs including personal care products and emergency preparedness items. You can help by: (1) filling a shoebox with items like toothbrushes, socks, and soap; (2) decorating the shoebox and; (3) submitting a photo of the shoebox in the United Way Shoebox Project Decorating Contest. By entering the contest, you have the chance to win great prizes such as a Nook Simple Touch or a night stay at the Lorien Hotel and Spa in Old Town Alexandria. Drop-off your shoebox at the gallery by May 24. Submit your photos to the United Way by June 1. Details at: DelRayArtisans.org/shoebox

Open Life Drawing Sessions (including a Sunday Gesture Session!)

• Wednesday, May 16 from 6:30–8:30pm (Long Pose)
• Sunday, May 20 from 9:30–11:30am (Gesture)
• Wednesday, June 6 from 11am–1pm (Gesture, Clothed), 2–4pm (Short/Long Pose)
• Wednesday, June 13 from 7–9pm (Gesture)
• Sunday, June 17 from 9:30–11:30am (Gesture)
• Monday, June 20 from 2–4pm (Short/Long Pose)

These sessions operate on a drop-in basis so there is no need to register in advance. Bring your supplies and join us at the gallery to draw or paint our live models. The fee for each 3-hour session is $8 for DRA members and $10 for non-members. 2-hour sessions are $6 for members and $8 for non-members. For questions, contact Katherine Rand at LifeDrawing@DelRayArtisans.org

Poetry and Creative Play: Writing as an Expressive Coping Strategy Workshop on Monday May 21 (7:00–9:00pm)

Join Mary Azoy a Creative Expressive Therapist for a stimulating and low-risk interactive workshop that will involve various forms of artistic expression to encourage artistic, personal and professional exploration and a renewal of creative energies. No supplies are required and there is no charge. Contact Millie Mateu (milaenartes@gmail.com) or Katherine Rand (katherine@katherinerand.com) with questions.

Partners in Art Group

• Monday, June 4 from 2–4pm
• Monday, June 12 from 2–4pm

Looking for a chance to get together with other creative people to discuss art and exchange ideas? Then come to a meeting of our cooperatively-led Partners in Art group. You may find us engaged in a creativity exercise, enjoying a short demonstration or having a lively art-related discussion. This program is free of charge and open to all. Contact Millie Mateu (milaenartes@gmail.com) or Katherine Rand (katherine@katherinerand.com) with questions.

"Edgy Art" Workshop and Feedback Session

Workshop: Saturday, June 9, 10am-12:30pm. What is "edgy" art? Where did the idea come from? Is "edgy" up to the beholder to define? We will explore many 'edges' in art history followed by a feedback session for those who wish to have an artwork critiqued. Max participants: 30. Fee: DRA members, $10; non-members, $15. Details and registration: DelRayArtisans.org/EdgyArt

Bring Your Scraps and Come Have Fun with Collage Cut-Ups

• Tuesday, June 12 from 1–4pm

Come play with the Collage Cut-Ups in a supportive environment that promotes an exchange of ideas, creativity and networking with beginner and experienced collage artists. Collage Cut-Ups is an informal group where everyone works on individual projects. This is not a workshop. For more information, contact Millie Mateu at milaenartes@gmail.com.

Creativity Workshop with Lynn Wyvill

Workshop: Saturday, June 16, 10am-12:30pm. What would you do if you broke free of what you've always done in your artwork? We'll use fun exercises to break out of self-imposed boundaries in our art. Max participants: 15. DRA members, $10; non-members, $15. Details and registration: DelRayArtisans.org/CreativityWorkshop

Alexandria Art Market (1st Saturdays of Months June–November. Open to all artists)

Deadline is May 14. Del Ray Artisans is pleased to announce its call for artists for the 3rd year of the Alexandria Art Market; a monthly outdoor art market that gives local artists an opportunity to sell their original handmade art work and provides them with consistent exposure to the community. The market also has musical performances and food. There will be five monthly markets on the 1st Saturday of the months June through November (except October) from 10am–4pm. The market will be held rain or shine. Each artist will be assigned a 10' X 10' space. Artists are responsible for providing their own tents, tables, chairs, and displays. For more information, contact Kimberly Bush (703-627-7656 or ArtMarket@DelRayArtisans.org). Download the application at: DelRayArtisans.org/shows/calls/

Art on the Edge (June 1–24, 2012. Open to all artists)

Receiving: Sunday, May 26 & Monday, May 27, 6:30-8:30pm. Where and what are the "edges" in your life experiences that inform your artwork? What kinds of edges draw you? How close do you dare get to a new artistic edge? How do you interpret "the edge"? Extend limits, break boundaries. Explore peripheries of the unfamiliar. Venture to the verge of a new reality. Try new media, genres, themes, subjects, or techniques. Take a risk and trek back to DRA with a new art treasure! Call for Entry at: DelRayArtisans.org/shows/calls/

Telling Images, Juried Photography Exhibition (DRA Members Only)

Submissions due online before August 31, 2012 Some photographs tell, compel, imply, or suggest some sort of narrative or story: character, place, mood, feeling, plot, past, present, future. Submit up to four (4) single images, each richly implying a story your viewer is induced to imagine from your visual vocabulary. Your topic might include people, or empty spaces that imply presence, in a realistic or abstract style. Choose from your work a group that together tells our jurors what your eye is like. Their criteria will be the quality, originality, and effectiveness in expressing this theme. Film or digital, color or black/white, are acceptable. Submit images to DelRayArtisans.org/tellingentry. For questions or information contact Jeanne Tifft at jldtifft@cox.net

Seeking volunteers to help with...

• Cosmic Quest
  Cosmic Quest – 2012 Children's Arts Festival is in need of helpers and artists who will help the children with an art project on Sunday, May 20 at TC Williams High School from 2–4pm
• Yard sale Donation Drop–Off dates
  Sunday, May 20, 2–6pm. Tuesday, May 22, 7–9pm. Thursday, May 24, 1–9pm. Friday, May 25, 1–9pm.
• Yard sale [DRA members only ]
  Pricing and tagging, Thursday, May 24 and Friday, May 25 6–9pm.
  Table helpers, 3 hour shifts, Saturday, May 26, 1–9pm.
• eBlast HTML Layout
  [DRA members only] The eBlast Editor provides the content each week for the eBlast (this email!). The HTML Layout Coordinator takes that content and puts it into HTML format for dissemination. Must know HTML, how to FTP, and have internet access. About 1-hour/week; ideally two volunteers would share the responsibility to make it a bi-weekly commitment. Contact Technology@DelRayArtisans.org if you are interested.
• Rec Center After–School Art Program
  Looking for volunteers to teach an art class (about an hour long) once a month at the Mount Vernon Rec Center. Age group of kids is 9-12 years old. Teacher would be responsible for creating a project for the kids to work on in after-school care, and that they can take home. The Rec Center will coordinated purchasing art materials for each project. If interested in volunteering please contact Stacy Rausch, Director of Youth Programs at Youth@DelRayArtisans.org
• Adopt-A-Park
  It's the season where cleanness equals points towards cash. Trash needs to be picked up from the small park and from around the gallery. About 1-1 1/2 hours of work on weekends through November 25. Contact Marlin G. Lord at MGLAIA@aol.com or 703-836-2724 with your availability.
• Gallery Without Walls Curator
  Are you interested in curating? DRA has off-site exhibits that need volunteers to help coordinate or curate. Past experience as a curator recommended. Contact Curating@DelRayArtisans.org
• Filing and Organizing Paperwork
  Hours available Thursdays and Fridays, 12-6pm. Contact Gallery@DelRayArtisans.org
• Garden
  No experience necessary. Help in the garden. Dig, weed, and learn other skills by professional landscape designer and artist, Pamela Underhill. I can meet weekdays and weekends; for an hour or more. Call me, bring a friend. It's fun and meditative; builds muscles too! Contact Underhill.Pamela@gmail.com, 703-507-4964

Wanted: Teachers, Instruction Ideas, and Volunteers

This year the theme to Art Camp is 5 Art Days ~ Different Ways! Art Camp runs from July 23–27and the students are ages 8–14. If interested, contact ArtCamp@DelRayArtisans.org. For more information on Art Camp, visit: DelRayArtisans.org/ArtCamp

Arlington County Fair

The Arlington County Fair, which takes place August 10–12 still, has a few spaces available for some juried artists and crafts people. For general information and to view pictures visit www.arlingtoncountyfair.us. Vendor applications can be submitted online or by mail. Guidelines and application forms can be found at arlingtoncountyfair.us/vendors/

Public Hearing: Alexandria Commission for the Arts to Hold a Public Hearing on Proposed Public Art Policy

The Alexandria Commission for the Arts will hold a public hearing on the proposed City of Alexandria's Public Art Policy. This public hearing will be held on Tuesday, May 15, at 7pm at the Durant Arts Center, 1605 Cameron Street, Alexandria, VA 22314. The regular meeting of the Arts Commission will follow. The City of Alexandria is committed to compliance with the City's Human Rights Code and the American with Disabilities Act. To request a reasonable accommodation or to request materials in an alternative format, please call Alisa Carrel at 703.746.5590 (Virginia Relay 711) or email alisa.carrel@alexandriava.gov

Call for Entry: Outdoor Creations Juried All–Media Show

Deadline: Wednesday, May 16, 5pm. Outdoor Creations is a show that celebrates the outdoors. Falls Church Arts invites artists to submit artwork that is created outside (such as plein air paintings), as well as artful creations that are made to display or have function outside (for example, handcrafted birdhouses, feeders, planters, birdbaths, and decorative tiles). This show is for those who have extended their creativity to encompass the outdoors in two- or three-dimensional art. For questions, please call Falls Church Arts at 703-679-7881. To enter: fallschurcharts.org/pdf/Call&EntryForm_OutdoorCreations2012.pdf

Call for Entry: Giving Voice

Art Receiving: Sunday, May 20 & Monday, May 21 from 6–8pm. If you could give voice to anything, what would it be? If anything were possible, what would you give voice to? How would you do it? What do you wish was possible, and how would you bring voice to that? In the fast paced life we live in often people feel unheard. Here is your chance to give voice! For further information and registration questions, please contact Gallery Coordinator Barbie Fischer at barbie.fischer@gmail.com

Workshop: Watercolors with Tom Lynch (July 10-13, 9:30am-4:30pm)

Registration due by May 26, 2012. Space is limited and registration is on a first come first served basis. The workshop, sponsored by The Berkeley Arts Council, takes place at the Holiday Inn in Martinsburg, WV. The cost of the four day workshop is $400 plus food and lodging. Reduced room rates will be available at the Holiday Inn for participants (304-267-5500). For more information or to reserve a space in the workshop, please go to the Berkeley Arts Council website: www.berkeleyartswv.org/workshops/watercolor.php

Call for Entry: Alexandria Fire Department's Design the Logo for Pink Breast Cancer T-Shirt Opportunity.

Deadline: June 1. Every October the Alexandria Fire Department wears a new t-shirt to help raise awareness and funds for the Alexandria Walk to Fight Breast Cancer Fund. There is a three-color limit and the image will be printed on pink shirts. This is a great opportunity for local artists and residents to have their artwork seen City-wide. For more information contact Sarah Watson at sarah.watson@alexandriava.gov or 703-746-3123. To submit, send to Rodney.masser@alexandriava.gov or to ask about postal submissions.

All DRA events, unless otherwise noted, are held at the DRA gallery:

Del Ray Artisans gallery at the Nicholas A. Colasanto Center
2704 Mount Vernon Avenue, Alexandria, VA 22301-1124 | Directions
Phone: 703-838-4827 | DelRayArtisans.org

©2012 Arts Resource Foundation. Special thanks to the City of Alexandria, Alexandria Commission for the Arts, Virginia Commission for the Arts, and National Endowment for the Arts for their continued support of Del Ray Artisans, a 501(c)(3) organization.

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