PRESS ROOM
Showcase of Valley Art Alliance Members’ Work Established at Sebasticook Valley Weekly Office
The Valley Arts Alliance is proud to announce that beginning in May, there will be a continuous “Showcase”, a display of members’ artwork, at the offices of the new Sebasticook Valley Weekly newspaper, at 66 Main Street in Newport. The public is invited to view the work during normal business hours and to visit often as the exhibits will change frequently.
Members will arrange monthly shows of their paintings and watercolors, photography, collage, fabric art, prints and graphics. Some shows will be solo shows and others will be group shows of similar theme or style. Upcoming shows will include the work of Marjorie Whipple, Connie Henderson, Alison Olds, Amy Nichols and Annette Houston among others.
Two dimensional art work will be framed, ready to hang on a wall, and available for purchase from the artist. Books and jewelry by members of the group will also be featured.
The Valley Arts Allliance held its second General Meeting of the year on
Wednesday, May 30th
at Sebasticook Valley Middle School.
The "Show and Tell" portion of the meeting was an impressive display of talent.
Ronda Belgard showed many of her photographs of Maine subjects and talked about her approach to photographing her images. Marjorie Whipple showed watercolors, Bonnie Ross had brought some watercolors in progress for critique. A new member, Floyd Lawrence, brought oil paintings of fruit and vegetables which we all admired, and Annette Houston showed some costumes being whipped up for the upcoming play at Sebasticook Valley Middle School.
We welcomed three new members : Floyd Lawrence of Newport ( oil painting), and Suzanne and Irwin Leibowitz of Palmyra ( he is a photographer she draws)
The first two artists to be featured here on the website will be Bonnie Ross and Marjorie Whipple. Brenda Seekins discussed the hangings at the Valley Arts Showcase at the Sebasticok Valley Weekly to coincide with the featured artist.
Reactions to the Jim Wilfong Workshop (March, 2007)
from Marjorie Whipple:
"I want to say that it was a Saturday well spent..Jim Wilfong gave me so many ideas on how to promote my work, plus he was so interesting, the day went by very fast..he was very pleasant, and sociable, and I really enjoyed myself..at the end of the day, I felt as if he was a good friend.. I would recommend anyone starting out in a business to take his workshop..it will be worth it."
from Annette Houston:
I sent a thank you to Valerie Lamont who arranged having Jim come. Here is my quote:
"Thank you so much for managing this workshop for us. Jim Wilfong was wonderful. He struck just the right tone with the participants. His welcoming manner made everyone immediately comfortable with him. He is so personable. He interspersed so much good information and knowledge throughout his anecdotes and stories. We all took copious notes, but I feel that in the long run we will remember that he inspired us to go forward with our dreams, to follow our vision, but also to do the necessary and careful research as a foundation. We especially liked the way he tied in a lot of our hopes and plans for the future, and gave suggestions to individuals and to our organization about how to proceed. We all felt that he had made connections with us, and that it was not a one-time thing - that we would connect again. We did not do a formal evaluation form, but you should know that everyone left inspired! We had 19 people. Thank you again for your help in this."
Jim Wilfong is a former legislator, now a nationally-known presenter who entertains as well as instructs. Jim particularly welcomes questions from participants, and will stay late to help answer your special questions.
Through a grant from the Maine Community Foundation and support from the Center for Entrepreneurship
The workshop was held at Sebasticook Valley Middle School, on the Williams Road in Newport.