Early Childhood Family Art and Learn Night

On Tuesday, October 27, over 90 people traveled to Ken-O-Sha Preschool in Grand Rapids for an evening of art and fun hosted by VSA. At the event, these preschoolers and their families listened to stories, created pottery pieces, had their faces painted, played with parachutes, and made beautiful necklaces. It was a wonderful night for teachers, artists, students and volunteers alike!
See our facebook page for more pictures of this event.

Arts and Mentoring: Grand Haven

Students in Grand Haven's transition program (aged 18-26) classrooms are currenlty taking a 9-week watercolor and drawing class with artist, Vickie Morgan. Catch a glimpse of what they've been doing through a few pictures of the classes.

VSA Auction: A Success!

Thank you to everyone who made VSA's Annual Auction such a success! To our countless volunteers, sponsors, auction committee members, artists, our wonderful auctioneer, Judge Sara Smolenski, and of course, all of you who attended: THANK YOU! We truly couldn't have done it without all of you!

And in case you missed Fox 17's story on Friday, check it out HERE

A Very Special Art Auction

VSA's Annual Very Special Art Auction

There are still a few tickets available for VSA's annual Auction at DeVos Place tomorrow, Friday October 16, beginning at 6:30pm.

Come for delicious food, amazing auction items, to hear auctioneer, Judge Sara Smolenski, and to support the work of VSA arts.

Call #616-885-5866 to reserve your tickets.

And check out the 2009 Live Auction items on our website to decide what you'll be bidding on.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Call for Entries

2010 VSA arts International Young Soloists Award
Musicians and vocalists with disabilities, age 25 and under.
Four recipients will each receive $5,000 and perform at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.For information on how to apply, visit www.vsarts.org/soloists.

Elephant Painting with VSA!

On Thursday, September 24, Van Andel Arena teamed up with the Circus and VSA arts to decorate a city bus with paint. Students from Karen Rashewsky's class at Alger Middle School in Grand Rapids and from the classrooms of Emily Molesta and Lynelle Gears from Appleview Elementary in Sparta journeyed downtown to cover the bus with paint and then handed the rollers and paint brushes to the friendly elephants and watched them finish up.

See colorful pictures below of this exciting event!

Our fearless intern, Nichole, prepares the paints for the elephants (and kids).

The bus: Before

And the fun begins!

Even the clowns came out to paint!

And then the elephants wanted a turn...

The bus: After

Thank you to everyone who made this event possible: the students, their teachers, Van Andel Arena, the circus, and of course, the elephants!

For even more pictures, visit our facebook page.

ArtPrize 2009 Features Several Artists That Are Friends Of VSA

Over the past few weeks, I have been asked about ArtPrize from a number of our friends. Like you, we are excited to see how this revolutionary, international art competition plays out on the Grand Rapids stage.

I am excited to announce that VSA has 16 of our friends competing in this inaugural competition. This is my chance to tell you who they are, where they are showing and how you can vote for them!

Voting:
First, to vote, you must register in person with ArtPrize. They have registration sites throughout the three-mile competition radius and one site at the Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park. (You can find the list on their website at: www.artprize.org)

After you are registered, you can vote on the ArtPrize website, by text message or by I-phone.

The first round of voting is September 23- September 30, 2009. During the first round, you can vote once on each of the 1,262 pieces of artwork in ArtPrize. Your vote can be: YES, I like this artwork or NO, I don’t like this artwork.

The second round of voting is from October 1 – October 9. During the second round, the artwork in the competition will be whittled down to the top 10 entries. During the second week, you can only vote once for your favorite in the Top 10.

The Friends of VSA in ArtPrize:

Artist Name Location Address
Jerry Berta WMCAT 98 East Fulton Street
Mark Bird Front Row 53 Monroe Center Ave, Ste B
Stephen Duren Old Federal Building 155 N Division Ave
Jasna Gopic Alten Place 17 Division Street South
Dennis Grantz WMCAT 98 East Fulton Street
Randall Gornowich Ledyard Building 125 Ottawa Ave NW
Jeff Hage Front Row 53 Monroe Center Ave
Madeline Kaczmarczyk Fountain Street Church 24 Fountain Street NE
Geraldine Kawa-Kurdelski Mel Trotter Ministries 225 Commerce Ave SW
Victoria Marnich-Reynolds Monroe Community Church 800 Monroe Ave, Ste 140
Victoria Mullen Bigby Coffee 146 Monroe Center
Dennis O’Mara The BOB 20 Monroe Ave NW
Marella Poortenga Amway Grand Plaza Hotel 187 Monroe Ave NW
Robert Stewart River House Condominiums 353 Bridge St NW
Stephanie Timmerman Schlatter Ottawa Tavern 151 Ottawa Ave
Phil Wilson Lots O Pots Pottery 645 West Fulton

Have fun with ArtPrize! And if you are downtown, stop and see the VSA co-hosted venue at Riverview Center 645 Front Ave NW.