smithri's Blog

Berkeley Arts Bulletin April

Here's the second issue of the Berkeley Arts Bulletin.  It's continuing to grow, with more listings of arts events and activities in our local area.  There's something for everyone to appreciate and enjoy.  Just visit

http://berkeleyartswv.artsroundtable.net/bulletin0409.html
 

Subscribe to the Berkeley Arts Bulletin

Starting with the April edition of the Berkeley Arts Bulletin, it will be available direct via email.

If you did not receive the Bulletin through one of the organizations that is distributing it, you can sign up to receive it directly by going to the Arts Roundtable Home page and submitting your email address.

Berkeley Arts Bulletin Posted

Friends--
As artists, we understand that we have to let our audiences and customers know where our work can be seen (or heard, or maybe experienced).  We also have to find new opportunities to share our work.
Currently there isn't an "umbrella for the arts" here in Berkeley County to help promote the wealth of arts events and activities, so individually and in our own interest groups we all do our best to get information out to the public.  It's time consuming and sometimes expensive, and each event has to be promoted as if it were new.  Here's an announcement that may help:
Attached is the first issue of what we're calling the Berkeley Arts Bulletin.  The aim is to collect information about the arts in Berkeley County into one publication, and to distribute it on a regular basis to as many people as possible.  Taking note of the increasing use of email in the area, we are asking community organizations to help us make the public more aware of arts activities by distributing the Arts Bulletin to their contact lists.
We're also asking each arts organization to distribute the Bulletin to their contacts.  This way everyone gains exposure and most importantly, we're building a reputation by keeping the variety and richness of the local arts in the public eye on a regular basis.  Through email, our audience will have the information delivered to them, rather than having to seek it out if they happen to think about it, or seeing it because they are in the right place at the right time.
We're asking that you do two things to further the effort:
1)  Send information about your events to berkeleyartswv (at) gmail (dot) com.  (Please write first to request the email form that will help us do a good job for you.  Lengthy press releases are not desirable:  be concise.)
2)  Forward the Bulletin to your email contacts.
The plan is to "publish" the last week of each month, and to include about five to six weeks of events.  The current month's items will bethe primary focus.  Events occurring later will be mentioned briefly, as space allows. See page two of this issue for examples of other news.
It's a start.  With everyone's participation by contributing and distributing we'll have a means to reach a wider spectrum of our community.
The Berkeley Arts Bulletin is an independent production developed by Malinda Shaver and Rip Smith.  You can reach us through berkeleyartswv (at) gmail (dot) com.
Click on the link below to read the bulletin.

Attachment: Berkeley Arts Bulletin_March09.pdf (113.0KB)

Supporting American Artists and Artisans

AtBerkeley News January 2009

Studio & Classroom Space for Rent in Hagerstown

Re: Parkersburg Art Center

Parkersburg Art Center

I was in Parkersburg, WV on Sunday, November 23 for the opening reception of the West Virginia Art and Craft Guild Biennial Exhibit, where I had two prints in the exhibit. The Parkersburg Art Center is the first of three venues where the exhibit will be displayed between now and April, 2009. The Parkersburg Art Center was a sight to behold. They have refurbished a large building in downtown Parkersburg and turned it into a facility with a fabulous gallery, gift shop and a whole basement full of classrooms.



I was given a tour of the place by Abby Hayhurst, the Executive Director of the center. The gallery is made up of five or six spaces on two levels, depending on how they are utilized. They have a regular schedule of exhibits and Abby tells me that she likes to turn the exhibits over on a monthly basis.



One gallery was set up as a Holiday gift shop with a wide range of products from local artisans.

The lower level has been organized in to a complex of classrooms for children and adults, including a ceramics classroom complete with kiln, a "dirty classromom" where students can make whatever mess they must to be creative, and, with a donation of some computers, they have a computer lab where they can teach digital photography and graphics.

To find out more you can go to their extensive web site at http://www.parkersburgartcenter.org/

Building and running this beautiful facility is, I am sure, not without financial challenges. But it shows what can be done and should provide some measure of inspiration for us here in Martinsburg that such a goal is not impossible if we work together.

Obviously, this is not something we can accomplish in Martinsburg overnight but a point of discussion here is how do we build a community-wide critical mass that might generate the resources to make a start?

Friday 11/21 - Light the Night For the Arts in Martinsburg

Re: A Unified Resource

Call for Artists (From Leia Wood)

Local November Events (from Leia Wood)

ArtBerkeley News