Date:
3/9/2011
Contact: Wendel Sloan at 575.562.2253
K (indergarten) through ENMU: Portales arts, educational and community organizations and businesses slated to celebrate the student artists in our community in March and April 2011 For more information, contact: Dawn Wolf-Taylor Jon Birdsong K (indergarten) through ENMU: Current and upcoming related dates: Portales, NM— The Portales Women’s Club (PWC) presented a check in the amount of $100 in support of the 2nd Annual K-ENMU events that will take place in March and April. The check will partially fund the 3rd place cash prize that will be awarded during the K-ENMU juried art exhibition and was presented to K-ENMU co-chair and PWC member Dawn Wolf-Taylor at their monthly meeting. Other businesses and organizations who have pledged their support for the K-ENMU events this year include the following: Runnels Gallery exhibition fund, ENMU School of Art: $750, including $500 to provide K-ENMU exhibition reception food and printed publicity and $250 for the 1st place cash prize for the K-ENMU exhibition Portales MainStreet: $500 for the purchase of artist-grade chalk and poster supplies for the K-ENMU sidewalk chalk competition Mark’s Restaurant and Catering/Vines Italian Restaurant: $500 to provide lunch to the K-ENMU competitors during the sidewalk chalk event Portales Altrusa: $200 for the 2nd place cash prize for the K-ENMU sidewalk chalk competition Portales Wal-Mart: $50 for the purchase of chalk for the ‘free draw’ event at the K-ENMU sidewalk chalk exhibition Portales Rotary Club: $200 to Portales Arts Council for the Arts JP Stone Bank: $150 for K-ENMU sidewalk chalk competition The Portales Arts Council (PAC) is organizing the K-ENMU events under the direction of K-ENMU event co-chairs Jon Birdsong and Dawn Wolf-Taylor. Wolf-Taylor, a member of the PAC board, said businesses, organizations or individuals interested in sponsoring events should contact Wolf-Taylor. The 2nd Annual K-ENMU sidewalk juried art exhibition and chalk art competition are the result of a partnership between PAC, Portales Municipal School District (PMSD) and Eastern New Mexico University (ENMU) Cash prizes are awarded for the top works in both events. "Whether aged five or 25, Portales student artists will be the stars in these two events that the Portales Arts Council, Portales schools and ENMU are organizing to showcase student art in our community," said Wolf-Taylor. "Best of Show" was awarded to Portales High School student Alex Ledbetter for his watercolor "Broken Fence". Second Place was awarded to ENMU Junior Rebecca King for her acrylic "Implied". Third place was awarded to Brown Early Childhood Center' Kindergartener Haiden Buettner for watercolor "Moods". Awarded Honorable Mention was Portales Junior High School student Marina Vega for watercolor "Popping Out". Students in Portales from kindergarten through college submitted one artwork for consideration, and three artworks from each grade/college classification were chosen by a panel of jurors for exhibition in the Runnels Gallery inside ENMU’s Golden Library now on display through March 22. Students were given the option to sell their artworks, and a pricelist and purchasing information is available at the exhibition. Portales students in 7-12th grades submitted artworks for consideration through PMSD art instructor Jon Birdsong, and the PMSD vertical team leaders for kindergarten through 6th grade assisted younger students in entering an artwork for consideration in the exhibition. ENMU students contacted ENMU art student Caitlin Lindsey to enter their artwork into the exhibition now on display at Runnels Gallery. The sidewalk chalk art competition will be held around the Portales courthouse square on Saturday, April 30 and is open through application to 45 students from 7th grade through ENMU. Applications are available through Birdsong, Lindsey, via ENMU’s Monday Memo or in JWLA room 105B on the ENMU campus. The deadline to apply for acceptance into the sidewalk chalk competition is April 1, and the 45 competitors will be chosen on a first-come, first-served basis based on the date their application is received. Sidewalk chalk competitors will be assigned one 5 x 6 foot square of sidewalk around the courthouse and will have three hours to complete their artwork. Each competitor will be given a box of artist-grade Prang chalk for use in completing their original design, courtesy of K-ENMU sponsor, Portales MainStreet. The artworks will be judged by a juried panel, and cash prizes will be given for the top entries. An award ceremony will take place at 3pm on the courthouse square. A ‘free draw’ event will be held for kindergarten through 6th grade students on the day of the sidewalk chalk art competition that is open to all students in this age bracket and older students who want to participate in a more informal way. No application is required for the ‘free draw’ event. The whole community is invited to come down and watch the students create their artwork on April 30 around the courthouse square! The sidewalk chalk art creations from both the competition and the free draw events will be on view downtown ‘while they last.’ K-ENMU event co-chair Birdsong is the Portales Junior High art instructor and is a veteran of sidewalk chalk art competitions. He has organized similar events in Canyon, Texas and for the South Arkansas Art Center in El Dorado, Arkansas. Fellow co-chair Wolf-Taylor was the exhibition coordinator for the Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts in Lubbock, Texas, before moving to Portales in 2008. She also organized the first ‘Artival’ outdoor student art exhibition and sale in downtown Abilene, Texas that happened annually for several years in conjunction with that city’s Art Walk. Birdsong and Wolf-Taylor are pleased to be organizing year two the annual K-ENMU celebration of student art in our community, and have plans to open the exhibition and sidewalk chalk art competition to students in the surrounding communities in 2012. For more information about the current and upcoming K through ENMU student art events, contact Dawn Wolf-Taylor at dawn.wolf-taylor@enmu.edu or 575.562.2127 or Jon Birdsong at jbirdsong@portalesnm.org.
Portales Arts Council member and K-ENMU events co-chair
575.562.2127 office
806.559.3004 home cell
dawn.wolf-taylor@enmu.edu
Portales Junior High art instructor and K-ENMU events co-chair
575.356.7045 x5310 office
jbirdsong@portalesnm.org
Portales arts, educational and community organizations and businesses slated to celebrate the student artists in our community in March and April 2011.
Now through March 22, 2011 K-ENMU juried art exhibition on view at Runnels Gallery in NMU’s Library April 30, 2011 K-ENMU sidewalk chalk competition, 10am-4pm on the Roosevelt County courthouse square, award reception 3pm