Sheila Hall / United Arts Center

The bold and vibrant hues of SJ Hall’s art give us pause as we go about our otherwise busy routines of life. Passionate crimsons, royal purple and gold denote culture and ceremony. Bright yellows and orange reflect the warmth of the sunlight or floral gifts of nature. Hall paints and creates from experiences, memories, dreams and visions.

Originally from North Carolina, SJ Hall ventured to Alaska in 1981. For eighteen years she taught art to children and adults of all ages. Having retired after thirty plus years as an educator, principal and supervisor Hall now paints for enjoyment and on commissioned works. Sheila Judge Hall is best known as an Alaskan artist whose work can be found in several art collections in Anchorage Alaska. She has been a featured artist in Anchorage Wild Salmon on Parade Sculpture Project, Transformed Treasures Salvation Army Benefit art exhibitions and has donated art to many charitable silent auctions. Her colorful artwork is among many private art collections from Anchorage to North Carolina. Living and working in Alaska for over twenty years exposed Hall to a multitude of nationalities and cultures, which influenced her art. Visit sjhallartwork.com to see some of her work and shopvida.com/collections/sheila-j- hall for wearable art. Hall has returned to her native state and now works from her home “Color Speaks Studio,” in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Sheila Judge Hall is a graduate of East Carolina University, School of Art and Design, and the University of Alaska Anchorage. Hall is currently a professional artist in Raleigh, NC and a member of NC Artspace. She is a proud wife, mother and grandmother.

PROJECT POSTCARD

PROJECT POSTCARD IS BACK!

A blank postcard, a stamp and a few USPS restrictions were the only guidelines given for VAE’s inaugural Project Postcard.  In today’s culture we so rarely mail things.  This project encouraged students to think about the ways in which we communicate our creative ideas.

Postcards are displayed May 5 - 15, 2017 in the windows of

VAE Raleigh

Holly Grove Middle School

Holly Springs High School

Homeschool

JF Webb High School

Leesville High School

Longleaf School of the Arts

NCSU

Reedy Creek Middle School

Roxboro Community School

Salem Middle School

Southern Wake Academy

The Waldo School

Vance Granville Community College

Wake Young Men’s Leadership Academy

White Oak Elementary School

311 Gallery

Apex Friendship High School

Carnage Middle School

Dillard Drive Middle School

Durant Road Middle School

Enloe High School

Heroic University

Millbrook High School

Saint Timothy's School

Sanderson High School

Wakefield High School

United Arts

Apex High School

Broughton High School

Garner High School

Holly Ridge Middle School

Ligon Middle School

Martin Middle School

North Garner Middle School

Partnership Elementary School

Rand Road Elementary School

Ravenscroft 

Rolesville High School

Southeast Raleigh High School

Turner Creek Elementary School

Ignite Marketing Speed Date →

SOLD OUT! More SPEED DATE opportunities, here. 

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MONDAY, MAY 15TH @ VAE RALEIGH

SPEED DATES are thematized 30-minute one-on-ones with area smartypants who can answer your pressing professional questions! This time, we are excited to host four marketing experts from Centerline Digital to answer your questions about how to get the word out about your creative projects. Learn how to stand out from the crowd! Register now while space is available! 

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HOW IT WORKS

This is your chance to pick some smart brains in a relaxed, comfortable environment! You should come with a few questions you want to ask your guru(s) during your 30-minute meeting(s). The Speed Date registration form will give them a little background on you before you meet so you won't have to start your conversation totally from scratch.

This event will be held from 2-6 pm on Monday, May 15. That time frame is just when the gurus are available to meet. You get to pick who you meet with and when (depending on availability). You are not expected to be at the event the whole four hours it's happening. Pick and choose to suit your needs and schedule!

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REGISTRATION

STEP ONE: Complete the registration form through Wufoo [CLICK HERE]. You will be asked for your contact information and a short survey of questions to help the gurus understand your needs. This event is FREE for current VAE members and $10 for non-members.

Questions/prompts Include:
 - What are the five words that BEST describe your creative work?
 - What kids of marketing do you currently do?
 - What marketing outreach do you enjoy doing? 
 - What are the main challenges with marketing your creative work? 

STEP TWO: Once you've completed step one we'll give you a link to an outside scheduling service called Sign Up Genius where you will choose the guru(s) and time(s) you want. Once you've done that and hit submit, you're 100% registered!

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MEET YOUR DATES

Meghan McKeon
Senior Digital Strategist: AKA, get eyes on digital platforms
Meghan specializes in content strategy for social media, and analytical reporting. So if you need tips on how to best use social media to reach potential customers, Meghan is your gal!

Brenna Mickey
Senior Interactive Designer: AKA, turns digital platforms into art
Brenna is a web designer who can help you organize your website and social media posts to look amazing and connect with your future customers. She has a knack for thinking about online platforms as opportunities for creativity and personal storytelling.

JT Moore
Associate Strategy Director: AKA, temporary press agent!
JT is a business creator, the ultimate pro at connecting artists to buyers, target audiences, and people who "dig" what you do. This guy is terrific at listening to your challenges and brainstorming creative solutions! He can help you find the heart of your 'brand'.

Brittany Kotary
Communications Manager: AKA plans the talking to meet your goals  
Brittany creates goal-oriented communication plans for web-based outreach. So much of marketing creative work is finding your voice and telling your story. Brittany can help you do that. 

Off Route Journals

Off Route Journals

presented by Betsy Peters Rascoe, Mike Cindric, & Sam Cox

Join us as we celebrate the unique people and landscapes of Eastern North Carolina.

April 7 - 27, 2017
Opening Reception: April 7, 6-10pm

Project Statement

North Carolina’s coastal plain has a fertile landscape and rich agricultural and cultural history. Yet, the counties between Interstate 95 and the coast remain a blank spot on many North Carolinians’ mental maps. Most experience the region as a blur of pine trees, fields, and gas stations as they rush towards the beach. What can we learn by slowing down and engaging Eastern North Carolina in a conversation on its own terms?

Click here to continue following the conversation on Facebook.

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IGNITE CREATIVITY SUMMIT

Let us rock your brain for 36 hours.

The Ignite Creativity Summit is designed to empower creative people of all persuasions by inspiring them to think bigger, make connections and become familiar with the resources available to them, both locally and nationally.

Ignite is not a professional conference. It is a blow-your-mind learning experience.

Through Ignite, VAE is rethinking and retooling professional education for creative makers. Online search engines have changed the way people learn. With information just seconds away, the job of educating artists is no longer about providing data, but about teaching artists how to apply data to build stronger careers and communities. Ignite offers a new interactive learning structure to fit the times, providing creative entrepreneurs with learning experiences that can’t be googled.

The 2017 summit theme is ALLIES: How can artists use creativity to empower and engage marginalized communities, creating relationships that are reciprocally beneficial and that bring about positive social change?

This year’s programming includes: 

• A free public keynote address by New Orleans citizen artist Imani Jacqueline Brown, a founding cultural activist of Blights Out, an organization that serves a cultural connective tissue to join oppositional groups of people in order to heal literal and figurative blights in New Orleans.

• Cool regional panelists and speakers speaking about the ways that creative symbiosis between art and community unlocked unexpected artistic and professional opportunities for them.

• A facilitated charrette (which is a fancy word for group problem solving and brainstorming) around the idea of using and building alliances as artists to meet needs within the community. Ignite has $3000 to give away as seed money for projects resulting from these discussions and interactions!

• A live recording of the Don't You Lie to Me podcast.

• Two delicious meals and a fun cocktail reception.

COSTS:

$35 for VAE members, $50 for non-members

Michael Bambuch / United Arts Council

Micheal Bambuch

United Arts Council - March 

   I'm not cool enough to talk about myself in the third person. I'm a photographer, original from the northeast(New Jersey and Massachusetts), that has landed in Apex, North Carolina.

    I shoot people. I love conceptual. I want my photos to be dynamic, to shape a perception, whatever you feel it might be. I do not have formulas and I never went to art school. I won't be able to explain or defend my work with gregarious themes and deeper meanings. I subscribe to the idea that you can just shoot something and like it. It doesn't have to go further than that. If you find something deeper, kudos, I've done something to elicit a response. I suppose that's what art is about? My photographic inspirations are Ritts, Lagrange, Blumenfeld, Wolf, Avedon and Walker. I don't think my work necessarily looks like their images, but they drive a lot of what I do.

The internet ate our website!

Ugh, robots.

On Saturday afternoon (1/28/17), our website domain name (vaeraleigh [dot] org) was weirdly sold out from under us. It's not a big deal, but getting it back looks like it might be a long-ish process. (It was just the name. Our website itself is completely fine. We were not hacked.)

So for the time being, our website is accessible as vaeraleigh.com. We apologize for any confusion over the links in last week's enews, which were broken by the domain name shenanegans.

Thanks for your patience!
Contact us with any questions or hiccups!

xoxo,
VAE

IGNITE GRANT WRITING SPEED DATES

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6TH, 2PM-6PM @ VAE RALEIGH

SPEED DATES are thematized 30-minute one-on-ones with area smartypants who can answer your pressing professional questions! This time, we are excited to host four grant writing experts from across the Triangle to answer your questions about funding your creative projects through grants! Money for art? Yes please! Register now while space is available! 

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HOW IT WORKS

STEP ONE: Complete the registration form through Wufoo [CLICK HERE]. You will be asked for your contact information and a short survey of questions to help the gurus understand your needs. This event is FREE for current VAE members and $10 for non-members.

Questions/prompts Include:
 -What are the five words that BEST describe your creative work?
 -What kinds of grants are you looking to apply for? 
 -What short term professional goals do you have?
 -What are most hoping to learn at this event?

STEP TWO: Once you've completed step one we'll give you a link to an outside scheduling service called Sign Up Genius where you will choose the guru(s) and time(s) you want. Once you've done that and hit submit, you're 100% registered!

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MEET YOUR DATES

Jeff Pettus
Senior Program Director of Arts in Communities, North Carolina Arts Council

Jeff  oversees most of the grants programs and services to artists and arts organizations at the NC Arts Council, like the North Carolina Artist Fellowship! He studied at Princeton University and the University of North Carolina and worked in book publishing and art museum administration prior to coming to the Arts Council.

Emily Catherine Mealor
Arts in Communities Coordinator, North Carolina Arts Council

Emily Catherine manages grants related to arts in accessibility, aging, and healthcare. Emily Catherine has degrees in English and Social Work from Appalachian State University and Washington University in St. Louis, where she focused on community development and arts integration. She's also involved with SPARKcon and serves on the committee for the Arts Learning Community for Universal Access through The Arts Council of Raleigh and Wake County and the Office of Raleigh Arts.

Brandi Neuwirth
Art Coordinator, United Arts Council of Raleigh and Wake County

Brandi curates public art spaces and administrates the Professional Development Grant for Artists at United Arts Council of Raleigh and Wake County. She moved to the Triangle in 2005 from Los Angeles, where she worked in entertainment for 20th Century Fox, Vanguard Films/DreamWorks and Conde Nast. The child of two artists, she is proud to be a part of the vibrant arts community in Raleigh and the Triangle.
 

Margaret DeMott
Director of Artist Services, Durham Arts Council 

Margaret brings 34 years arts experience, overseeing Durham Arts Council's four grant programs, exhibit programs and technical assistance for arts organizations and artists. She has served on many artist selection panels, and grant review panels, managed the community process for the Durham Cultural Master Plan, coordinated a 3 year, multi-county audience development initiative and currently provides support for the Durham SmART Initiative.

Clarenda Stanley-Anderson
VP of Institutional Advancement, Shaw University

Clarenda Stanley-Anderson is a fundraising generalist who has earned the coveted Certified Fund Raising Expert (CFRE) designation. Selected as the 2016 Outstanding Fundraising Professional by the Association for Fundraising Professionals Triangle Chapter, she specializes in individual giving and major gifts, having raised more than $51M in her decade-plus career. As Vice President for Institutional Advancement at Shaw University, she spearheaded the University’s 70% increase in private philanthropy last year. Connect with her on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook! 

Anthony Garcia-Copain / UAC

Anthony Garcia-Copain

United Arts Council
January - February

When I paint, I paint abstract memories. Sometimes the memory is foggy and has been replaced by an imaginary sediment, a residue that has made one memory solid and the other fluid.

Everything in art is a memory.

I have empathic traits, therefore I paint the images of the emotions that I am able to absorb from strangers and from those who surround me.

The only expectation that I have from my art is pleasure.

AGC