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.

Michael Liu was born in Kweishan, Taiwan in 1962, the grandson of the city’s mayor.  At the local high school he was both an avid artist and track star, winning several national medals.  In 1985 he graduated from the College of Engineering in Kaohsiung and began his military service.  After working as an engineer for several years, he returned to his early interest in art and opened galleries in Taoyuan, Taiwan, and Evadon, Switzerland.  At first he handled only works by other artists, specializing in prints from the Yunan School, but then he began to produce his own art both in charcoal and acrylic.  At this time Michael also worked actively as an interior designer, often providing the art that his clients needed.

Michael’s art is self taught and reflects his personal interests and his experiences in both the Chinese culture in which he grew up and the Western culture which he experienced as an adult.  Using his detailed and realistic style he does portraits in charcoal and in pencil.  Often these are interesting people and often they are animals, especially dogs.

Since 2008 Michael has explored an interest in paper cutting, an art form that has roots in both Chinese and Japanese art.  In the US we may think of the cut-paper silhouettes that were popular in our Federal period as an early antecedent, but anyone who has seen Michael’s cut paper portraits knows that he has pioneered a new approach to capture personalities in three dimensions.

Today, Michael divides his time between Taiwan and Alabama.  His bicultural life is expressed in his signature which overlaps his western name with his Chinese personal stamp.  Michael creates art as inspired and by private commission.

The folk song traditions of Alabama and other parts of the South have transformed popular culture in America. Country music, rock ‘n’ roll, and other popular musical styles trace their beginnings to vernacular forms of music that include blues, gospel, Sacred Harp, and old time fiddling.
The Music Lives On: Folk Song Traditions Told by Alabama Artists considers the impact of the region’s folk song traditions on a group of Alabama artists. To create the works for The Music Lives On, the artists drew inspiration from the musical worlds surrounding them – music heard in churches and informal settings, on the radio and television, in both urban settings and the Alabama countryside. Some of the music represented is firmly rooted in folk music traditions as practiced in rural Alabama and elsewhere in the South, while many of the works reflect popular styles of music forged in American cities.
The show contains artistic expressions of place – of settings both rural and urban, and the journey from one to the other. Many of the exhibition’s visual artists come from families that migrated into Alabama’s largest industrial city, Birmingham, while others remained in rural Alabama. All are self-taught and African American. Woven into the music and visual art encountered in The Music Lives On is a shared desire to find solace and express joy that transcends differences in medium, time, race, and place.
The exhibit includes works by Mary Lee Bendolph, Richard Dial, Thornton Dial, Lonnie Holley, Ronald Locket, Charlie Lucas, Joe Minter, Jimmie Lee Sudduth, and Mose Tolliver. The works are on loan from Soul Grown Deep Foundation.
In celebration of the Year of Alabama Music, The Music Lives On: Folk Song Traditions Told by Alabama Artists is organized by Vulcan Park and Museum and presented in part by the Alabama Humanities Foundation. The exhibit at The Carnegie is sponsored in part by Decatur’s Womens Chamber of Commerce.

Writer. Southerner. Icon. Eudora Welty has long been recognized as one of the great Southern literary voices of the twentieth century. However, to this day, many Americans do not know of a body of work she began long before her first published written work appeared in the popular American spotlight in 1936. The body of work is a collection of photographs taken during and after Welty’s time as a junior publicist for the WPA. Artful and truthful, the photographs create a record of the Great Depression South from the eye of one of its own.

The Author/Photographer claimed her art forms were parallel activities, with photography never directly affecting the product of her pen. Eudora Welty- Exposures and Reflections explores a unique relationship the written and photographic catalogues share despite Welty’s assertion to the contrary. The exhibit is a first effort to create a stronger tie between the two art forms so as to more fully explore these photographic images in reference to her complex written works. It is Welty, in her own words, describing the images put before the visitor to this exhibit.

Developed in partnership with The Southern Literary Trail and funded by Alabama Humanities Foundation, the exhibit is the first traveling exhibit designed by the Museum of Mobile. It is a way to work collaboratively across Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia to keep alive our memory of this native daughter of our region. Traveling in the tri-state area until October 2011, the exhibit’s 40 photographs, excerpts from various Welty short stories and novels, and text panels lead the way for each venue to host humanities-based programs that will further embrace the idea that the camera exposes what has become a reflection of our collective history as the South.

“If exposure is essential, still more so is the reflection.” Eudora Welty, from Foreword, One Time, One Place

Special Events
Lunch & Learn
The first Lunch & Learn is on July 8th from Noon to 1:00 PM. Dr. Harry Moore will speak about the life and works of Eudora Welty. Harry Moore, a native of Tallassee, Alabama, taught English at Calhoun Community College for four decades before retiring recently.  He holds a bachelor’s from Auburn University, a master’s from Rice University, and a doctorate from Middle Tennessee State University.
The second Lunch & Learn is on August 5th from Noon until 1:00 PM.  Participants will watch a video dramatization of Eudora Welty’s short story A Worn Path. The 20 minute film by Bruce Schwartz is followed by a 10 minute interview with Miss Welty conducted by Beth Henley. Following the viewing will be a short discussion and comment time led by Dr. Harry Moore.
Lunch & Learn is free to the public but reservations are encourage because of limited seating. Attendees are to bring their own lunches. Call 256-341-0562 to make reservations.

Dramatic Reading
On Thursday, July 21st at 7:00 PM, Lee Anne Mitchell and Chuck Puckett will perform three of Eudora Welty’s short stories . The dramatization is directed by Carol Puckett. Limited seating • $5 at the door • RSVP at 256-341-0562.

Guided Tours
Docent guided groups and school field trips are available and welcome. Please call Danielle at 256-341-0562 to schedule a time.

Images ©Eudora Welty, LLC; Eudora Welty Collection – Mississippi Department of Archives and History

This exhibit was developed by the Museum of Mobile in partnership with the Southern Literary Trail and funded by the Alabama Humanities Foundation

Sponsored at the Carnegie Visual Arts Center by Decatur Women’s Chamber of Commerce and a grant from Alabama’s Mountains, Rivers and Valleys Resource Conservation and Development Councils, Inc.

Works by Area Amateur & Professional Artists

The annual juried exhibit featuring North Alabama connected artists, amateur and professional.

Embracing Art artists include:

Carrie Alderfer, Gary  Anderson, Dixie  Anderson, Kay Basiago, Gail Bergeron, Amita Bhakta, Mary Nelle Black, Jane Blevins, Lily Champion, Jeri Clayton, Cindy  Cummings,  Tiger Ennis, Susan Estes, Judith Fields, Gayle Franklin, Joan Funk, Tracey Greene, Pat Gulick, Rick Henry, Rickie Higgins, Pamela Hoscheit, Donald Houlser, Patricia Hrivnak, Calvin Hubbard, William Lawler, Spencer Laws, Janet S. Lindsay, Johanna Littleton, Linda Livingston, Michael Lott, Joyce Lowery, Becky McDougal, K.M. McWhorter, Ankica Mitrovska, Marja Morris, Beth  Morris Veigl, Sheila Motley, Lee Nabors, Janet  Parker, Deborah Perry, Mary  Reed, Robin Roberts, Patsy Roby, Annolee Russell, Hollen  Seay, Jackie Segars, Judy Seymour, Erin Silvestri, Doris Sisk, Detra Smith, Donna St. John, Mavis Stephens, Ruth Ann Stephens, Angela True, Shirley Tucker, Arcenia Turrentine Wynn, Ann Upchurch, Kathryn Vaughn, Cynthia Volin, Lynn Weatherford, and Charles Whatley

Award winners are:
Best of Show – Donna St. John,
First place – Cindy Cummings
Second Place – Patsy Roby
Third Place – Joan Funk
Honorable Mentions – Gary Anderson, Tracey Greene, Pat Gulick, Rickie Higgins, Michael Lott, Hollen Seay

The Carnegie Visual Arts Center presents A History of Duck Stamp Art: Ducks Unlimited’s Federal Duck Stamp Exhibit.  The exhibit features complete collection of yearly Federal Duck Stamps and artists’ prints since  from 1937 through 2010. The exhibit will be on display  at The Carnegie through May 13, 2011.
The Federal Duck Stamp
The Federal Duck Stamp is a revenue stamp waterfowl hunters 16 years of age and older must purchase and carry with them each year to hunt. It is also a conservation stamp because proceeds from stamp sales help purchase and protect wetland habitat for the National Wildlife Refuge System. Formally known as the Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp, the Duck Stamp was conceived in 1934, when Congress passed and President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Migratory Bird Hunting Stamp Act. In addition to hunters the yearly stamp is also purchased by birdwatchers, conservationists, and collectors. For more information, see their website at www.fws.gov/duckstamps
The Federal Duck Stamp Contest
Each fall, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service hosts the Federal Duck Stamp Contest to select the artwork that will provide the design for the next year’s stamp. A panel of judges review hundreds of entries and select the winner. The Federal Duck Stamp contest, the only federally sponsored art competition mandated by Congress, is considered the most prestigious wildlife art contest in the country.
Ducks Unlimited
Ducks Unlimited, Inc. is a volunteer-based organization which conserves, restores, and manages wetlands and habitats for North America’s waterfowl. Ducks Unlimited is now the world’s largest and most effective private waterfowl and wetlands conservation organization. For more information visit www.ducks.org

The Duck Stamp image is used with the permission of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services.

The Carnegie Visual Arts Center presents the 7th 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. In 1984, ACMI created Council for Art Educators, Inc. to administer the national Youth Art Month program and encourage funding for the program. Current members of the Council include: ACMI, which provides all administrative support and the majority of funding for national Youth Art Month; NAEA, whose members carry out local Youth Art Month activities and whose state affiliates help fund state Youth Art Month programs; The SHIP, a group of art materials exhibitors at the annual NAEA Convention; and the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, a volunteer women’s organization dedicated to community improvement through volunteer service. Other involved organizations include the Association of Crafts & Creative Industries, Hobby Industries Association, and National Art Materials Trade Association.

YEA Decatur! Activities Sponsored by Rotary Club of Decatur Daybreak

FREE TO THE PUBLIC

FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH 123 CHURCH STREET NE – DECATUR ALABAMA

10:00 AM to 11:30 AM – MASTER CLASSES FOR ALL AREA MUSICIANS, MUSIC STUDENTS AND TEACHERS. Principal musicians of the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra will conduct master classes for all playing levels of string, wind and brass instruments.

12:30 PM to 1 PM – MEET THE MUSICIANS AND THE INSTRUMENTS A pre-concert opportunity for young and old alike to meet the musicians in an informal environment, and to learn about the instruments of the orchestra.

1:00 PM to 2:00 PM –  CONCERT PERFORMANCE BY THE DECATUR YOUTH SYMPHONY AND THE HUNSTVILLE SYMPHONY CHAMBER ENSEMBLE A program of classical music selected to provide a memorable musical experience for all ages and tastes.

CARNEGIE VISUAL ARTS CENTER – 207 CHURCH STREET NE – DECATUR, ALABAMA

10:00 AM to 2:00 PM – CHILDREN’S ART ACTIVITIES – OPEN TO CHILDREN OF ALL AGES

Children under the age of 5 must have an adult “helper”

10:00 AM to 2:00 PM – YOUTH ART MONTH EXHIBIT OPEN IN THE CARNEGIE GALLERIES

In February 2009 the idea of the Sanctuary Artists was formed over coffee shared by Margaret Anne Goldsmith, philanthropist and naturalist, and Clayton Bass, artist and past President and CEO of the Huntsville Museum of Art. Attracted by the beauty of the Goldsmith Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary, a recent gift to the City of Huntsville by the Goldsmith family, their hope was to raise awareness within the community and North Alabama of this resource by introducing it to artists. The idea and group quickly evolved to include individuals from many disciplines including the visual arts, natural sciences, literary and oral traditions. Together they continue to explore Huntsville’s newest green space, sharing their creative responses. This evolving group exhibition has also been on display at the University of Alabama in Huntsville  and the Guntersville Museum of Art. Over 50 paintings, photographs, and pottery by about a dozen artists will be on exhibit. The exhibit includes works by Clayton Bass, Jerry Brown, Dee Burt Holmes, Marian Lewis, Maggie Little, Sarah McDaris, Guadalupe Robinson, Jimmy Robinson, Jim Poff, Sam Tumminello, and Katrina Weber, and historical information and photographs from Ms. Goldsmith.

Lunch & Learns
February 18, 2011  12 PM
Philanthropist Margaret Ann Goldsmith, along with Dr. Marian Lewis, photographer & biologist, speak about the Goldsmith Schiffman Wildlife  Sanctuary. Dr. Lewis will share a photographic presentation of the wildlife and vistas of the Sanctuary.

March 4, 2011  12 PM
Katrina Weber and Maggie Little speak on plein air painting and transitioning from field sketches and studies to larger studio paintings
• No charge    • Bring you own lunch    • Drinks will be furnished    • Limited seating     • RSVP for each at 256-341-0562

Guitar artist Bill Jehle presents his collection of historic and contemporary cigar box guitars. The exhibit features guitars, violins, banjos and ukuleles, as well as other instruments, made of cigar boxes and other everyday materials.

Bill says of his collection:

“My approach to making these instruments is, first, to share the experience in the creation of cigar box instruments, then to enjoy something for being imperfect, and to ultimately appreciate it for being an unusual instrument. I take great pride in exploring the possibility of using discarded materials and elevating them to something sacred. I refuse to think of them as toys.”

“Working with such unconventional materials and putting new meaning into them when they are attached in a different way reflects my appreciation for great thinkers like Jacque Derrida whose deconstructionist philosophy sought to unravel the presuppositions and prejudices in Western culture. My own studies in Zen and my work in rapid prototyping also greatly influence my work. I constantly have to ask myself about what is essential and what is unnecessary.”

Bill, originally from Biloxi, Mississippi and now a resident of Decatur, Alabama, is also a musician and author. He presently has for sale a number of musical CDs, guitar building instructional DVDs and a book, One Man’s Trash: A History of the Cigar Box Guitar.