avaaonline.org

The Austin Visual Arts Association is pleased to announce our role as the new publisher of the popular Art Lovers Guide Publication. The AVAA Board of Directors has accepted the generous donation of the publication and the website by ALG founder Barbara Lugge. The publication, now entering its fourth edition, maintains a circulation of 35,000-40,000. AVAA will further the mission of the publication to support and build the arts economy in Austin by actively connecting patrons with our local artists.

In December, AVAA and ALG finalized the agreement to continue the publication under AVAA’s realm. “The board of directors wishes to thank Barbara for her generous contribution of the Art Lovers Guide to AVAA. This fine publication is an Austin treasure and we look forward to expanding the scope to include everyone in the Austin visual arts community. We want this to be a valuable reference tool for both Austin artists and art loving patrons everywhere,” said AVAA President Bill Keese (pictured on the right with ALG Founder Barbara Lugge). Details about the next issue of Art Lovers Guide will be announced in future articles.

As Austin arts patron Bill Keese enters his second term as AVAA Board President, his collection of artwork by local artists continues to grow. Bill became involved in the local arts community in 2005 when he was invited to be on the AVAA Board of Directors. At that time, he began collecting work by local artists. Since then, he has amassed a wonderful collection of more than 44 works of art — all created by Austin artists. Bill regularly attends art events throughout Austin and has selected at least one work of art to purchase from every AVAA event since joining our Board.

“It has been a great experience for me. A great aspect of buying the pieces is getting to know the artists and plugging into the Austin art scene. Everyone interested in collecting should meet the artists and participate in the art culture. It is much more rewarding that way,” Bill explained.

Hats off to our President for supporting our local artists and our arts economy!

The AVAA Board of Directors unanimously elected AVAA member and volunteer Bill Oakey to our board in December 2007. Bill is a talented artist, writer and arts advocate. He has been an active AVAA member for several years. We are honored to have his energy and talents leading our association into the future. Bill is a columnist for the community magazine Austin Wide Open and has written a feature on AVAA for the February/March issue. Bill will take on the much needed Board role as Marketing and Media Chair. This is a particularly important job right now as our association enters a new era with a special focus on boosting not only the profile of AVAA, but of all of the artists and arts organizations in our community. Bill joins AVAA’s dedicated leadership of artists and arts supporters on our 2008 Board of Directors including: Bill Keese (President), Bryan McMath (Secretary), Donna Crosby (Treasurer), Bob Coffee, and Dr. Christopher Adejumo.

One of the best parts of my job is working with our talented and energetic interns each semester. This past semester I was fortunate to work alongside Molly Phillips, who is currently a senior majoring in Fine Art at St. Edwards University, and Ryan Rogers, who just graduated with an art degree from St. Ed’s in December. Both of our student interns were outstanding in their dedication and service to AVAA and provided us with invaluable help to wrap up our 30th Year in the contemporary arts of Austin. On behalf of AVAA, we wish them the best in their future endeavors and they will always remain an important part of the AVAA family. Best of luck Molly and Ryan!

Former AVAA intern Meghan Welsch, who graduated last May from St. Ed’s, currently works for the Haven Gallery on 6th St. For three semesters, Meghan worked tirelessly as our dedicated intern and later as our program coordinator. She is greatly missed! And, if you’ve been around AVAA long enough, most of you remember one of our first St. Ed’s interns “Swiss,” aka Sandra Schoenenberger. Swiss helped create the AVAA Studios at our current location. She currently resides in Switzerland but regularly keeps in touch with her Austin fan club. AVAA is thankful for all of the support provided by our wonderful interns.

-Kelli Montgomery, AVAA Director

AVAA’s Weekly Life Drawing Program met every Sunday and Monday throughout the year for 3 hour open sessions with a professional model. Life drawing classes are held every Sunday from 2-5 p.m. with our volunteer hosts George Anderson and Arye Shapiro, and on Mondays from 7-10 p.m. with our coordinator David Ferguson. Our popular sessions would not be possible with out the generous support from our great volunteers. Thank you to our wonderful life drawing coordinators!

Talks/Lectures:
International Artist Edward Povey & D. L. Tolar spoke to AVAA artists in December. They also held a salon exhibit and hosted a workshop at AVAA during their recent visit. AVAA is pleased to announce Povey & Tolar will be working with us regularly on their return to Austin in the upcoming year. (Artwork by Edward Povey)

AVAA and the Texas Society of Sculptors hosted Houston photographer Rick Wells at AVAA this fall to work with artists on their portfolio presentations. The artists worked directly with the photographer to get the look they wanted for their portfolios. AVAA plans to invite Mr. Wells back to Austin in 2008.

AVAA President Bill Keese, who has been elected to a second term as AVAA president, spoke to artists participating in AVAA’s 30th Anniversary Show at the Dougherty Arts Center in June. Keese has personally helped to support the arts industry in Austin by not only volunteering to lead AVAA into our next phase, but also by directly supporting our artists by purchasing artwork regularly to add to his private collection. Since beginning his role as AVAA president, Keese has purchased more than 44 works of art by local artists. Keese has also become a sought-after spokesperson for the arts industry in Austin, speaking most recently to a group of 150 Austinites at the LAMP Presentation at the UT Thompson Conference Center on Nov. 8, 2007. Many works by AVAA artists were featured in the presentation, which drew one of the largest crowds to date.

Exhibits Around Town rotated exhibits throughout the year at high-profile locations in Austin such as the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center (March 2007), The International Center of Austin (Oct. 2006), International Exhibit Tour – Austin, Denmark, Czech Republic (Oct. 2006-January, 2007), The Austin Bergstrom International Airport 2D & 3D Exhibits (Jan.-March 2007), the Dougherty Arts Center, and the Scarbrough Building Window Display and Lobby Exhibit, 6th & Congress, June-July, 2007. (Artwork by Martha Jacobson)

The AVAA Gallery & Studios, provided artists with a drawing and meeting space, along with affordable studio space conveniently located in central Austin. On Nov. 17th-Dec. 8th, AVAA hosted The Life Drawing Show. (Artwork by Cindy Corkill)

AVAA’s 30th Anniversary Reunion & Exhibit, juried by Rick Hernandez, Ken Hale & Jack White. The exhibit featured 47 artists selected to show 64 artworks at the DAC, June 28-July 30, 2007. A satellite exhibit featuring 10 artists also took place at the Scarbrough Building, 6th & Congress. AVAA received great press on the show including features in the Statesman, the Chronicle and Austin Monthly. Entertainment was provided by The Atlantics. To see works featured in the show, please visit our 30th Anniversary Slide Show. (Photo on the right by Donna Crosby)

The Austin Visual Arts Portal, is a web portal currently being developed that is designed to expand and maintain our high-traffic website “AVAA Online.” Features will include news updates, artist profiles, art resource links, along with a developing registry and art-related blogs. Thanks to our web guru Doug Watkins for bringing us into the 21st Century!

Community Outreach/Social Impact. AVAA continues to proudly sponsor Christopher Adejumo’s Greater Tomorrow Youth Art Program, weekend art workshops for at risk kids, held at Mitchies Gallery.

AVAA Artist Keith Davis and Director Kelli Montgomery presented an art workshop at a local children’s home this summer. Through volunteer support from our artists, we will continue to “foster the arts” by developing programs and providing artistic support for kids in need.

And finally, it just wouldn’t be right to end the season without mentioning one of our favorite AVAA projects of all times — Tim Pipe’s Intercontinental Mobile Art Gallery. That’s right, we are the proud sponsors of one of Austin’s most unique treasures, The Art Bus. Keep up the good work, Tim! (Photo by Donna Crosby)

Well, well, well. Well into the 21st century and posting my first blog. I feel like tapping my com button and telling Scotty or Data to beam me up. Or maybe I’l just get another cup of coffee to beam me up. The Songwriters Series Internet TV Show is in in its fourth season of television broadcast and its second season of Internet television broadcast. We have been pioneering independent Internet TV for two years and, lately, it looks like the world is catching on. We hold monthly concerts in Austin, TX from March to November. We broadcast live to the world through the Internet our concerts AND tape them to edit them into our 30-minute weekly Internet television series broadcast on songwritersseries.com. We are sponsored by AVAA and the City of Austin, the Texas Commission on the Arts, TVKnob.com and Hank Sinatra Presents.

Lately, though, we have had some interesting new developments outside of this pioneering new blog (cough-cough). First of the all, the vision of the Austin Visual Arts Association (AVAA) and their generous non-profit housing of our show to receive grants has been a great new addition, support and recognition for our television series. Secondly, the recent agreement with San Francisco-based Blinkx and their Internet TV broadcast search engine contacting us after viewing the show wanting to partner showed that the high-tech industry is investing into the Internet TV broadcast industry. And finally, the number of e-mails and requests we have been receiving from songwriters across the world is also a testament of the power of marketing your art to the world with today’s technology.

Somebody has told the world about the Songwriters Series Internet Television Series and now I have to blog about it. With hundreds of weekly songwriters requests to be on our show, I have the enviable task of scouting tomorrow’s stars today or promoting today’s songwriting stars with tomorrow’s technology. (How’s that for a play on tenses? Or was it a tense play at a play on tenses?) If you do not know what the Songwriters Series is, go to our current show at songwritersseries.com. Or if you want the real Songwriters Series experience, log onto our website, Saturday nights when the season kicks off in March and watch our concerts live.

Well, there it is. My first blog and I can only hope that it worked and somebody out there in the cyberworld actually read it and understood it.

-Richard May, Songwriters Series

The Austin Visual Arts Online Portal. AVAA is in the process of expanding its high-traffic website “AVAA Online” through a new web “portal” designed specifically for Austin visual artists.

Ten years ago, AVAA was one of the first arts organizations in Austin to create a website, thanks to our first web pioneer Nathan Jensen, a local favorite in the Austin arts scene. Our board of directors at that time was pretty sure that “this internet thing” was probably not really going to take off. Once again, AVAA & technology have collided head on with the help of web guru/inventor/multi-patent holder Doug Watkins. And, once again, we’re not really sure if “this internet thing” is really going to take off. We’ll see what happens…

The Austin Visual Arts Web Portal will allow AVAA to maintain a large-scale, visual artist registry/database, along with additional new features such as profile pages for members, news and art postings by the public, and more. Our website, www.avaaonline.org, is easy to access and available on search engines throughout the nation, allowing AVAA to support and promote artists not only locally but also on a worldwide level. The website currently promotes member artists and businesses, and has received tens of thousands of hits worldwide.