Today's class was a big hit! The kids had fun creating different
objects from plastic bottles and other recycled materials. The idea of making
instruments sparked their interest from the beginning, and they put their ideas
together to make a drum set, a guitar, maracas, and even a water bottle singer.
Other kids decided to make flowers and a picture out of their materials.
Overall, it was a very fun project :)
What a great way to kick off the week with making a simple, yet
visually fascinating scratch board! Today’s Free or Three class taught our young
artists how to overlay black acrylic paint over a colorful array of crayon
designs to create a easy and fully customizable scratch board. With only an hour
of drying time, our students had designed their own scratch boards to take home
and to brighten up some of their spare time with etching on their scratch
board.
The second Free or Three class of this we challenged kids to use their special comprehension skills in order to take a complex 2-D form drawn on paper and convert it into a 3-dimensional object using different gauges of wire. This was a challenging project to all students, but with the help of each other’s artistic imputes, we were able to inspire one another and produce some really exciting and interesting forms!
This class was also very extraordinary because we had fourteen eager young artists in
attendance, which allowed us to move our class outside to catch the cool breeze
and enjoy the beautiful summer day!
Did anyone ever make you cry as a kid by pretending to steal your nose? Well, as it turns out, a person's pointer finger actually makes a great nose for a cuppet!
So, what are cuppets exactly? Well, these innovative little creatures are hand puppets made from paper cups, construction paper, and other craft supplies. The most popular attire consisted of tutus and hula skirts. With hair made of colorful yarn, these hand puppets are sure to catch attention.
The six kids that attended this class enjoyed using their own creativity to make
special and unique friends that they can carry with them everywhere they go.
Last Tuesday's Free or Three class could have possibly been our most fun class. Our students tapped into their inner ceramicist to hand build coil pots. Our gallery had available both grey stoneware and red iron oxide stoneware to use for this project. The coil pots were fun and easy pieces to make because all that was needed in order to make them was to roll coils out of clay and to adhere the clay coils to one another using wet clay called "slip."
Overall, the students had a great time with the development of this project and the pots will be fired and given back within a week. We are looking forward to another great lesson today taught by our summer intern Sara Krug!
Art Beat ~ July 2011
The Summer Wave of Youth Programming has been flowing fabulously with events and activities this summer at the Elk County Council on the Arts. The wave of activity started off with a hugely successful show from the Summer Theater Camp directed by Ridgway Elementary School’s own Jason Phipps with assistance from ECCOTA’s interns, Derek Bauer and Sara Krug. The wave continued with the Summer Wave Visual Arts Camp, a week long event hosted by ECCOTA’s interns including a fun trip to the Erie Art Museum. The interns are currently hard at work with the Anything Art Show featuring incredible work from our areas most talented youth July 11-15th and the Anything Performance show to be held July 29th. As always, the Free or Three Classes are happening throughout the summer as well with youth projects for ages 5 and up. Summer programming is essential for the vitality and education of our youth encouraging creativity and building confidence. For a complete list of Summer Wave Youth Programming, please call ECCOTA at (814) 772-7051, visit www.eccota.com, or visit our Gallery for a beautiful selection of gifts while you’re there.
The summer also brings to Ridgway another great Tasting in the Wilds festival July 23rd at the Firemen’s Grounds. This year’s Tasting in the Wilds will include great offerings from local wineries, breweries, and food vendors as well as live music. The festival will also include the Taste of the Arts Artisan Market. The Market will be packed full of extraordinary artists selling wares from jewelry to pottery, photography to mosaics. Artists will include Brenda Nicklas of Laughing Dog Mosaics, Stephanie Distler of the Flemish House Art Gallery and Jewelry Studio, Stacie Johnson Leske of Your Fired Pottery, decorative painting from Patty Smith, jewelry from Marti Laudato, Karen Beimel, and Bill Lorenzo, photography from Molly O’Bryon-Welpott, and pottery from Idle Acres Studios in DuBois. Be sure to visit this year’s Artisan Market during the Tasting in the Wilds festival to browse the wonderful finds from our local talent. Tickets are available at the gate or in advance. Visit www.ridgwayheritagecouncil.org for more details or contact ECCOTA. For more information on the Artisan Market, contact Bobbi at art@eccota.com.
If you are an aspiring artist looking to market your wares or a seasoned artist looking to advance your computer marketing skills, the upcoming Art on the Edge Meet-Up is for you. Show Stopper and Marketing Basics is scheduled for July 30th at the Johnsonburg Community Center and will focus on tackling art show and festival applications, what jurors look for from applicants, as well as how to set up a vendor booth that will wow potential buyers. Topics will also include the basics of marketing artwork successfully using web-based social media, easy website builders, and other marketing strategies. Guest speakers will include Marilyn Blackmore of the Art in the Wilds festival and Ta Brant of the PA Wilds Artisan Initiative. These topics are vitally important to artists in order to promote their work successfully. Cost to attend is $5 for ECCOTA members and $10 for non-members. To register, go to www.eccota.com/art-on-the-edge.html or contact Bobbi at art@eccota.com or (814) 772-7051.
An Art on the Edge Trail Event is in the works for October 14-16th thanks to a marketing grant from the Elk County Hotel Tax Committee. This artisan trail event will connect over 27 galleries, studios, and wineries throughout Elk County and surrounding regions showing off the wares and goods of local talent. This weekend long event will feature open houses and events encouraging tourists and locals to explore the variety of unique sites our region has to offer. For more information or to register to be a trail stop, please visit www.eccota.com/art-on-the-edge.html or contact ECCOTA.
Catch the Summer Wave with the Elk County Council on the Arts, working hard to bring the community cultural enrichment and educational opportunities in the arts. Join us to keep local art alive!
Submitted by Bobbi Mennetti Shaffer
Art Beat ~ June 2011 Catch the Summer Wave with the Elk County Council on the Art’s summer youth programming! This year’s ECCOTA interns, Derek Bauer and Sara Krug, are hard at work planning fun and fantastic events for the youth of our county. First off, the annual Summer Theater Camp runs June 6th through the 10th where the campers will learn and perform Once on this Island Jr. This Caribbean adaptation of “The Little Mermaid” has earned 8 Tony nominations for its Broadway run. Now the interns along with 30 campers under the direction of Jason Phipps are bringing it to Ridgway with performances June 10th and 11th at the Ridgway High School Auditorium. The campers will also feature a float in this year’s Firemen’s Parade June 11th so be sure to show your support and check them out! The Wave continues with ECCOTA’s Visual Arts Camp held at the Fox Township Community Building. This year’s camp will run June 20th through the 24th where students grades 3 through 8 will create masterpieces of their own while learning a variety of art mediums. These art-campers will also enjoy a field trip to the Erie Art Museum along with their fabulous interns. This summer the ECCOTA interns are also bringing to our county’s youth the ever popular FREE or THREE classes, the Anything Art, and the Anything Performance shows. Check out www.eccota.com or find them on Facebook for more information. In other art news Art on the Edge, the regional artist community dedicated to bringing all facets of art together, is planning their annual Meet-Ups and a Trail Event set for October. This year’s Meet-Ups will be devoted to developing yourself as a professional artist. The first Meet-Up, Show Stopper and Marketing Basics, is scheduled for July 30th at the Johnsonburg Community Center. This session will focus on tackling art show and festival applications, providing a database of local shows, discussing what jurors look for in applicants, as well as setting up a vendor booth that will wow potential buyers. Topics will also include the basics of marketing yourself successfully as an artist using web-based social media, website builders, and using other marketing strategies. In addition, Ta Brant from the PA Wilds Artisan Initiative will present a talk on how this initiative can help to promote you as an artist. These topics are vitally important to novice as well as seasoned artists in order to promote artwork effectively. Thanks to a grant for marketing courtesy of the Elk County Hotel Tax Committee, plans are in the works for the Art on the Edge Trail Stop event October 14-16. This artisan trail connects the talents and wares of over 27 studios, galleries, shops, and wineries throughout Elk County and surrounding regions. For more information or to register for the Meet-Ups contact ECCOTA at art@eccota.com or (814)772-7051 or friend Art on the Edge on Facebook for the schedule of events. Whether you are supporting our local youth, our local professional artists, or promoting your own art, catch the Summer Wave of excitement with the Elk County Council on the Arts!
Art Beat – May 2011 Refresh ECCOTA! May finally brings us much needed sunshine and warm weather to enjoy with our friends. Your Elk County Council on the Arts friends are busy shining with summer scheduling and grant opportunities this month as well. ECCOTA has been selected as a participant in the Pepsi Refresh Project with a proposal to renovate their gallery space. Each month Pepsi is giving away thousands to fund ideas that help people and organizations in need. This grant would allow ECCOTA to modernize their gallery space making it worthy of the stunning artwork it contains. But ECCOTA needs your help! Patrons, members, artists, and friends are asked to help by logging on to www.refresheverything.com/eccotaridgway and voting daily throughout the month of May. It is very important to remember to vote everyday during May and get friends and neighbors to help support the cause as well. ECCOTA cannot do this alone and they need your help to make this happen! In addition, there are a few other ways you can help. Each voter is given 5 daily votes. After using one for the ECCOTA project, the remaining 4 can be used to vote for other worthy causes. When voting for these projects, let them know you are supporting a worthy cause of your own and they will return the votes. Simply scroll down to the comment section on the project’s page and add the following comment, “A vote of support from ECCOTA ( http://pep.si/gB6rPE) Please return the love!” Looking for projects to support? Scroll down to the comment section of the ECCOTA page and see who is voting for them. Pepsi is giving away Power Votes to their Pepsi drinkers to help with projects as well. Look for specially marked yellow caps on Pepsi products for these Power Votes. Each cap can be worth up to 100 extra votes! To help boost the voting for this great cause, ECCOTA will be hosting a Refresh Rally event in the gallery on May 19th at 7 pm to get people voting. Please call the ECCOTA gallery at (814) 772-7051 for more information on the Pepsi Refresh Project or assistance in voting. To help spread the long awaited sunshine ECCOTA is planning a summer full of Youth Programming. The gallery welcomes 2 new interns, Derek Bauer and Sara Krug, to help run and implement the 2011 Summer Wave classes, camps, and events. To begin, ECCOTA’s Summer Theater Camp occurs this year June 6th through the 10th where campers will learn and perform Once on this Island, Jr. Public performances of the play will be June 10th and 11th and campers will also create a float for the Firemen’s Parade on June 11th. ECCOTA’s Summer Youth Programming also includes their annual Visual Arts Camp June 20th through the 24th. Students will explore several art mediums through numerous projects and enjoy a trip to the Erie Art Museum. A limited number of scholarships are available to campers along with a number of discount opportunities. In addition, Summer Wave programming will include FREE or Three Classes, Anything Art and Anything Performance Shows as well as many other fun events throughout the summer months. For more information on these events and for Summer Youth Programming applications please visit www.eccota.com or call (814) 772-7051. Catch the Wave with ECCOTA and help the Summer Youth Programming by becoming a Summer Shine Sponsor today! Submitted by Bobbi Mennetti Shaffer
Art Beat ~ April 2011 April showers, and showers, and showers have brought us indoors to find our sunshine beginning with the Elk County Council on the Arts annual Youth Arts Concert. Many thanks goes out to all those who made this fantastic event possible, especially Father David and the Holy Rosary Parish, Tracie Pretack, and Jason Phipps. And of course, the event would not be the success it is without all of the extremely talented performers. Bravo! April also brings to ECCOTA a new after school program called Reality Check. Created in conjunction with the Ridgway Area High School, Appalachian Arts Studio, the YMCA, and the Penn State Cooperative Extension’s 4-H Program, Reality Check is a program offering youth safe and educational opportunities for gaining skills to become active community members and reach future goals. The Creative Youth Series portion of the program is a 6 week session for High School and Junior High students held at the ECCOTA gallery every Thursday after school beginning April 21st. Each meeting will introduce the students to a new local artist and project. The artists and projects include: - April 21st Bill Granche ~ Collage Poem Workshop
- April 28th Lisa Connelly ~ Decorative Painting
- May 5th Lois Devilling ~ Cinco de Mayo Project with Oil Pastels
- May 12th Ray Beimel ~ Digital Photography Workshop
- May 19th Stephanie Distler ~ Polyshrink Monogram Bracelet
- May 26th Bobbi Shaffer ~ Hand Hammered Copper Ring
This program is sure to be a unique and fun experience for both the students and the instructors. More sessions are to come in the summer months for both High School and Junior High students. For more information on the Creative Youth Series please contact Bobbi Shaffer at ECCOTA at art@eccota.com. To register for these workshops, contact Natalie Aiello, 4-H Youth Development Educator, at (814) 776-5331 or nla11@psu.edu. In other April news Art on the Edge, the regional artist community, has scheduled four work sessions dedicated to developing and improving the professional aspects of art as a business. Each seasonal session will be geared toward separate aspects of the business of art lasting approximately two hours each. The following is a list of the where, when, and who: · April 30, 2011 ~ Marketing Basics: Learn the basics of marketing your art as a business. Topics will include marketing techniques, utilizing social networking, and writing successful resumes and artist statements. · July 30, 2011 ~ Show Stoppers: Learn how to set up a booth that wows the crowd at art shows and how to find and tackle the show applications. · October 22, 2011 ~ Organizing in the Off-Season: Topics will include how to use your down time productively to get ready for the busier season. · January 28, 2012 ~ Get the Shot: Discover the ins and outs of photographing your own work professionally both for gallery and commercial settings. For more information visit www.eccota.com or join the group on Facebook at http://groups.to/edge or contact ECCOTA at art@eccota.com to register. Before you know it May will bring us those long awaited flowers and then summer will be upon us with lots of fun art activities for our youth. This year’s Summer Theater Camp at the Ridgway Area High School will run June 6-11 under the direction of Jason Phipps. Campers will perform Once on this Island, Jr. a creative and highly honored adaptation of “The Little Mermaid.” Performances are open to the public and scheduled for Friday June 10 and Saturday June 11 so don’t miss it. Another summer favorite for students is ECCOTA’s Visual Arts Camp slated this year for June 20th through 24th. Students in grades 3 through 8 will have the opportunity to explore various art mediums through different take home projects. The camp will also include a trip to the Erie Art Museum. Registration is now open for both camps. Sibling and dual camp participation discounts as well as a limited number of scholarships will be offered. Participation in the arts is not only a vital part of cultural awareness and support, but also a healthy way to bring us out of the winter doldrums. Sign up for a class, attend a meeting, or visit a local gallery to bring the sunshine into your life today! Submitted by Bobbi Mennetti Shaffer
Art Beat ~ March 2011
February brought to Ridgway another wonderful Chainsaw Carver’s Rendezvous filled with amazingly talented and creative individuals from all over. A special thanks goes out to everyone who makes this local event the huge success it is every year and for all those who make the trek to our lovely town for this fantastic piece of local history.
A big thank you also goes out to everyone involved with the 5th Annual Feed the Arts Soup Benefit for another successful year. This year’s benefit featured a first ever artisan market with handmade jewelry from local artist Stephanie Distler and ECCOTA’s own Bobbi Shaffer, photographers Bill Warmbrodt and Molly O’Bryon-Welpott, edibles from Moose’s Seasonings and Little Mill Creek Whole Grain and Specialty Breads, and PartyLite candles from Shannon Shuey. The vendors were a great addition to a much loved and fun event.
March not only brings a much needed respite from winter but is also Youth Art Month celebrating and supporting the arts for our youth and young adults. Youth Art Month was established in 1961 as a way to emphasize the importance and value of art for children and involve the public to support school art programs. Art education allows students to not only express themselves and hone their creative abilities, but also teaches respect and understanding of multi-cultural values and diversity. Founded by the National Art Education Association in conjunction with the Art and Creative Materials Institute, together they formed the Council for Art Education in 1984 which oversees the annual observation of Youth Art Month.
Traditionally Youth Art Month is celebrated by a national competition of school students who create flags to represent their state. The competition is called School Flags Across America…Flying High where students design a flag based on a theme selected by their state’s Youth Art Month Chairperson. Winning designs are then selected and made into actual flags to be flown high over Washington D.C. following opening ceremonies the first week in March. The flags will continue to fly over our nation’s capital throughout the month of March then will proudly be displayed at the National Art Education Association conference in Seattle.
Help to celebrate our youth this month by participating in and supporting local events or by hosting youth art projects of your own. Organize workshops, proudly display your student’s work, take students on field trips to galleries and museums, or host a project to support a local charity or to beautify our community. The Elk County Council on the Arts will continue celebrating our youth with the Annual Youth Benefit Concert April 9th at the Holy Rosary Church and Summer Youth Programing. ECCOTA is proud to bring our region another summer of fun activities for youths such as Summer Theater Camp, Free or 3 Classes, Visual Arts Camp, and the Anything Art and Anything Performance Shows. For more information on these or any ECCOTA programming, please visit www.eccota.com.
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