The Carnegie Visual Arts Center presents ArtWalk Festival, our annual outdoor art event. The art festival is located in the area of Founders Park in front of the Old State Bank and historic Bank Street, two blocks from the Carnegie Visual Arts Center. Friday will include check-in and set up, artist displays, and live entertainment. A ticketed Preview Party will be on Friday evening. Starting off early Saturday morning is the 5K Brooke Hill Ovarian Cancer Run for Awareness and 1 mile Fun Run. Saturday’s activities will feature artists’ and artisans’ displays, and art demonstrations, live bands on stage, food vendors, and multiple children’s’ art activities under the Kawanis Creation Station tent.

It’s down to the last days to sign up for Camp Carnegie.

Join us as we push our creativity to the limits! Have hands-on experiences as we rotate through the learning areas of  art, music, improvisational acting, and creative writing in age divided groups throughout each day. Learn new skills and improve on old ones as you create with your hands,  play a real violin, act out a scene, think up a funny story, beat out a rhythm on percussion instruments and participate in some Surprise Creativity activities.

Download PDF Camp Mailer

Session I:  June 4 – 8, 2012

Session II:  June 25 – 29, 2012

Camp is for rising 1st – 6th graders and lunch is included

Both sessions are Monday – Friday, 8 AM – 5 PM and the instruction and classes are the same

Carnegie members (Family Level +) – $155 per camper

Non-members – $185 per camper

Fine artists and artisans may apply to participate in the ArtWalk Festival in Decatur, Alabama on August 10 – 11, 2012. Deadline for application is June 1, 2012. We are seeking artists who will display and sell orginal works of art. Download PDF Artist Application

We are also seeking a limited number of food vendors. Download PDF Food Vendors Information

The Carnegie Visual Arts Center’s ArtWalk Festival is an annual outdoor art event. The art festival is located in the area of Founders Park in front of the Old State Bank and historic Bank Street, two blocks from the Carnegie Visual Arts Center. Friday will include check-in and set up, artist displays, and live entertainment. A ticketed Preview Party will be on Friday evening. Starting off early Saturday morning is the 5K Brooke Hill Ovarian Cancer Run for Awareness and 1 mile Fun Run. A ticketed Preview Party will be on Friday evening. Saturday’s activities will feature artists’ and artisans’ displays, and art demonstrations, live bands on stage, food vendors, and multiple children’s’ art activities under the Creation Station tent.

Come by The Carnegie for Fri@ 5 and see the amazing exhibit Telling Stories – Quilted Art by Yvonne Wells. Visit with your Carnegie friends while enjoying delicious appetizers and complimentary beverages.

Ms. Wells has quilts in many collections and pictures of her works have been included in numerous publications. She has exhibited from Tokyo to Manhattan and many places in between. Mrs. Wells is completely self-taught as a quilt maker and an artist. She is known for her hand-stitched quilts that depict historical events, personal experiences and observations, and religious themes. Using appliqué, she creates quilts with ingenious materials and innovative visual designs.

Fri. @ 5 is a monthly member event. Suggested donation is $5 for members and $15 for member’s guests. Attendees should be 21 years of age. RSVP at 256-341-0562 or admin@carnegiearts.org.

Benefiting the Carnegie Visual Arts Center and the Volunteer Center of Morgan County.

Don your finest hat, place your bets, and prepare to enjoy hors d’oeuvres, mint juleps and racing!

Fun competitions for all!

May 5, 2012 / 4:00 pm to 6:oo pm

Bank Street Green

508 Bank Street, N.E.

$35 / person

Ages 21 and older

Please R.S.V.P. by April 30th – vcomc.org or (256) 355-8628

Mail Payment to:

Carnegie Visual Arts Center

P.O. Box 1591

Decatur, AL  35602-1591

Online:

www.carnegiearts.org

www.vcomc.org

BUY YOUR TICKETS TODAY!

Kentucky Derby Party 2012

The 13-piece exhibit features full-size quilts by Yvonne Wells, a retired teacher from Tuscaloosa. Mrs. Wells is completely self-taught as a quilt maker and an artist. She is known for her hand-stitched quilts that depict historical events, personal experiences and observations, and religious themes. Using appliqué, she creates quilts with ingenious materials and innovative visual designs.

Yvonne Wells started quilting in a traditional fashion in the late 1970s but quickly realized her need to create works from the stories and thoughts within her. She is a natural artist, and where some artists create with paint, brush, and canvas, she creates with fabric, scissors, and thread. Mrs. Wells does not use patterns or templates but cuts freehand from fabric and other materials the elements of her art pieces. She is inspired by many materials; using non-traditional quilting materials such as buttons, zippers, tape, and rope, and recycled materials such as whole flags, objects given to her by friends, and garage sale finds. She has been known to raid her own closet, cutting up her clothes to obtain the perfect textured or colored fabric for a piece.

Two quilts on display, North Meets South and Liberty Lives feature the Statue of Liberty and are inspired by Mrs. Wells’ visits to New York City. In her quilt Portrait of a King, Mrs. Wells presents a life size Martin Luther King Jr., with his Bible in hand, surrounded by vignettes of events that occurred during the Civil Rights movement in Alabama. In contrast, Mrs. Wells’ whimsical Elvis depicts another “king” smiling in a silvery suit with a purple guitar. The Code challenges viewers to decipher a word code “written” in buttons.
Yvonne Wells says of her work, “Oh, art is a way of expression. It is a way of getting the inner feeling out so that others can see it. It is a fulfilling event. It is like a baptism. It is all those things in one. It’s not what you learn in the halls and walls of the schools, but it is that which is learned out there in this vast world, and it’s also satisfying. It’s that inner peace or that inner thing that’s talking to you that you hear and others don’t hear. But when you make the quilt or make the piece of artwork, this is what the inside of you is saying, and you just bring it out and people can see the way you feel or the way you are hearing things.”

Selected Exhibitions, Awards, and Permanent Collections
Birmingham Museum of Art
Huntsville Museum of Art
International Quilt Study Center, University of Nebraska
Cultural Exchange with Pietransanta, Italy
Museum of Folk Arts, New York City
“Yvonne Wells: An Exhibition of Quilts” Rosa Parks Library and Museum, Troy, Alabama
“African-American Quilts from Alabama” The Textile Museum, Washington, D.C.
Alabama Arts Awards
Visual Craftsman Award
Three of her quilts reproduced as greeting cards by Hallmark Card Company
Regular museum hours are Tuesday – Friday, 10 AM – 5 PM and Saturday, 10 AM – 2 PM.
The Carnegie is located at 207 Church St. NE Decatur, Alabama 35601.
Hi-res images available by request.

The next Fri @ 5! will be held March 16, 2012!

Join us as we celebrate Youth Art Month with an exhibit of wonderful works by youth in our community!

More information coming soon!

The 2012 Carnegie Carnival has come and gone and a great time was had by all! To revisit the great fun, take a gander at photos from all events taken by 2012 Carnegie Carnival Official Photographer Brandie Hatfield!   The photo albums can be found here:

http://brandiehatfield.smugmug.com/other

While you are viewing the photos . . . be sure to show Brandie the love by purchasing a photo or two or three or more!

In addition, Renasant Bank now sends a photographer to community events and posts photographs for participants to view.  We are proud to announce that Carnegie Carnival was the first event included in Decatur, Alabama.  Thank you, Renasant Bank.

To view the photos provided by Renasant, please visit:

http://getaroundal.com

And start planning now . . . the 2013 Carnegie Carnival will be held the weekend of February 8 & 9, 2013!

February 2^nd is your opportunity to join thousands of Alabamians in being part of a history making event that aims to raise millions of dollars for hundreds of Alabama nonprofits in just 24 hours. Inspired by other Gives Days in the nation, Alabama Gives Day provides nonprofits an opportunity to showcase the impact of the incredible work they do that helps improve the quality of life for everyone in our state.

Alabama Gives Day is the perfect time to show your support for the Carnegie Visual Arts Center. Whether you join the Carnegie or otherwise donate, we appreciate your support!

The Carnegie Visual Arts Center presents the 9th Annual Youth Art Month Exhibit, in coordination with area art teachers who submitted works by their current students, ages 5 to 18 years of age. See the amazing creative abilities of the Decatur area student artists.

Youth Art Month is an annual observance each March to emphasize the value of art education for all children and to encourage support for quality school art programs.

Youth Art Month was created in 1961 by Art and Creative Materials Institute, a non-profit association of art and craft materials manufacturers, in cooperation with the National Art Educators Association.

Participating schools The Carnegie’s annual exhibit are Austin High School, Austinville Elementary, Banks-Caddell Elementary, Benjamin Davis Elementary, Cedar Ridge Middle School, Chestnut Grove Elementary, Cornerstone Christian, Decatur High School, Eastwood Elementary, Eva School, Frances Nungester Elementary, Jackie Goode Art School, Julian Harris Elementary, Leon Sheffield Elementary, Somerville Road Elementary, St. Ann Catholic School, Walter Jackson Elementary, West Decatur Elementary, and Woodmeade Elementary

YEA Decatur! is a children’s arts awareness event sponsored by Rotary Club of Decatur Daybreak.The YEA Decatur! Visual Arts Award winners are as follows.