Worcester Public Library Art Space

The Worcester Public Library offers a wonderful way for artists to be seen by thousands of visitors to their library. The art is presented in locked cases and is safe from gooey little children’s fingers :). There are two areas involved in the art display.

First, at the center of the first floor by the information desk, is a space with two rows of two long, flat cases each. Behind them are two tall, vertical cases against the wall. Here’s looking at the group of six cases from the front right.

c2

Here’s looking at these same six cases from the front left.

c1

Now we’re standing in between the rows of “floor cases” and looking just at one case row with the vertical ones beyond it.

c4

And again another angle from in between the rows of floor cases.

c3

OK now we are moving to the main entrance of the library, located by the parking lot. In this area there are two standing vertical cases and two floor (horizontal) cases. First, the vertical case to the left of the entrance as you’re heading in, which is on its own.

 

c7

Opposite this case are a pair of floor / horizontal cases along with another vertical case against a wall.

c5

Here’s a close-up view of the two floor cases in this area.

c6

 

So all told there are four tall / vertical cases and six floor / horizontal cases available for the art display. The art-and-poetry show will have 36 total artwork items paired with 36 poetry items. That will be an average of 3-4 art/poetry pairs per case. We will just need to make sure that we arrange for the taller pieces of art to go in those vertical units and for smaller pieces to go into the horizontal units.

It will be good for artists to think in terms of the sizes of these cases and not create massive mural-sized pieces :). On the other hand, they don’t have to go pendant-small, either. Somewhere in the middle will be good!

BVAA 2017 Art-and-Poetry pair-up
BVAA 2018 Art-and-Poetry pair-up

BVAA 3-Ring Binder – Sept 2016

We’re in the process of updating our BVAA 3-Ring Binder for the upcoming fall art show season! Please take a look at this and let us know what updates you’d like to make to your page. You can swap out your featured image, change your artist’s statement, or both!

Read through what others have written and let us know what you’d like to update!

We bring the binder to all shows and events, and a binder is kept at the Milford TV Station with our art show there, so this is a great way to get your information seen by a wide audience.

BVAA 3-Ring Binder: Sept 2016

MultiMedia Art Collaboration Project

Thanks to Bob Evans for thinking up this fun collaborative project!

Here’s the idea.

We start with an image. Let’s say it’s of a house. We then divvy that image up into sections for each person to portray. Maybe an oil painter gets the roof. Maybe a watercolor person gets the doorway. An acrylic painter might get the front side. A pen-and-ink drawer might get the side of the house.

Everyone makes their image however they wish.

All of the pieces are then given to Bob and he assembles them in PhotoShop to connect together to show the house.

Then we can showcase in an art show the original image, each person’s standalone work, and then the final, assembled image.

Let us know if this sounds interesting to you and what types of items you’d be interested in working on!

Film vs Digital 2016

event-2016-10-filmdigital

Thank you to Dennis Smith for inspiring this fun project!

The idea is for our BVAA artists to send in up to five each of digital and film images. Let us know which are which. All images must be in to us by Monday, October 31, 2016.

The film images should be as near straight-from-the-camera as possible. No photoshopping beyond simple contrast and brightness.

On the digital side, anything goes. You can try various techniques to try to make the image look “filmy.”

We’ll mix them all up, shake them around, and then put them on our website.

Everyone then has to guess which ones are digital and which ones are film.

The more unusual the better! Can you create strange light-leak and flare effects from your digital camera, using PhotoShop? Can your film image reach HDR levels?

We’ll find out!

2017 BVAA Calendar Project

event-2016-9-calendar

Last year we tried to make a yearly artistic calendar but we got started a bit late. This time we’re going to start early, so we can get done before the holidays!

The 2017 BVAA Calendar Project will end up showcasing 13 images. There will be the cover image and then the 12 one-per-month inside images.

All BVAA members are welcome to participate!

Begin by emailing up to five images to the main info AT BVAA.org email address. The images should all be LANDSCAPE (wide) because that’s how the calendar is laid out. The physical size of each image is 8.5″ x 11″. So aim for an image of that dimension and the maximum pixel count possible. Don’t artificially make your image larger – that tends to pixellate the image and make it worse. Just have it be as large as it can be naturally, without inflation. If you have any challenges taking photos of your oil paintings, acrylic paintings, etc. just let us know and we’ll try to lend a hand. If you’re a photographer and are having trouble cropping your image to the right dimensions we can help with that, too.

All images must be mailed in by Friday, September 30th, 2016.

We will then load all of the images up onto this website. Last year we used Facebook and it turns out many of our members don’t have Facebook accounts. So by putting them on this website everyone can participate. Each member should send us an email for their choice of their twelve favorite images. The votes should all be in by Saturday, October 15th.

We’ll tally the results and create the calendar!

Let us know if you have any questions.

Sept 2016 Meeting – Oil Painting with Dustin Neece

event-2016-09-monthly

Our first meeting of the 2016-2017 year will be a fun one! We’re bringing in talented oil painter Dustin Neece to discuss all sorts of topics. Oil painters can ask questions about oil painting techniques – but that’s just part of it! We can discuss color and composition, layout and balance – things that all artists will find useful.

The meeting is at the Northbridge Senior Center on Tuesday, September 20th from 6:30-9pm. All are welcome.

Come on out and join us!

Address:
20 Highland Street
Whitinsville (Northbridge), MA 01588

Our monthly meetings are always held on the third Tuesday of the month.

Daniel’s Farm Art Show with Claflin Hill 2016

event-2016-09-daniels

On September 11, 2016, the Blackstone Valley Art Association will once again team up with the fantastic Claflin Hill musicians to create an afternoon of art and music.

The wonderful event will take place at Daniel’s Farm in Blackstone, Massachusetts. It’s in conjunction with a farmer’s market, too! The farmer’s market runs from 11am to 3pm. There’s a grill for fresh food to eat from 11:30 to 2:30pm.

There are even house and grounds tours by docents!

The musical part of the day runs from 3-5pm.

We’re planning on being there from 10am to 5:30pm. Drop off before 10:30 and pick up by 5:30 to be part of the art show. Several of us are going to bring easels and paint. We’ll also have a picnic and get some group photos. Bring some flowers for the table to add ambiance! We’d love farm themes / Blackstone themes for the images but if you don’t have anything that matches bring what you can. Two per person so we all fit. Bin work sells well – bring some of that and bins, if you have any. We’ll share them. It is wholly FREE for BVAA members to participate in this show. Sales have the traditional 20% BVAA commission.

Please let us know if you’re intending on coming so we can plan out the panels! Please use the online submission form to submit your titles and prices – we intend to create labels for this show’s display.

For more information on Daniel’s Farm, including directions:

https://www.danielsfarmstead.org/

Come on out!

Hopedale Day in the Park 2016

event-2016-09-dayinthepark

2016 will be Hopedale’s 37th Annual Day in the Park celebration! It all takes place on Saturday, September 17th, 2016.

The BVAA has an informational booth at this day-long festival. All BVAA members are invited to bring in art to hang on our panels. This is an informal art show meant to help visitors learn more about the BVAA. We do get sales and there’s no cost to participate. This is a “pop-up” style event where we bring everything in in the morning, set it up, hang out for the day, and then take it down again.

Official festival times are 10am to 4pm and that means we should be ready for visitors for that period. So we should set up at 9am. Usually it’s quiet by 3:30pm and we can start taking down early to be done by 4pm.
Please let us know if you’re able to participate, how many pieces you’d like to bring, and if you could watch the booth for a period of time. There is no charge to participate in our booth and we do make sales, especially of bin art.

You can bring up to three small works to hang. The hanging items must be properly wired (no saw-toothed hangers). Additionally you can bring as much bin art as you wish. If you have a bin please bring that along! Otherwise we share. The standard BVAA 20% commission applies to sales here, to help cover the cost of the booth. There’s no need to use the online submission form for this, since we aren’t doing labels. Just email us to let us know how many hanging items you’re bringing so we know how many panels to bring.

SEPARATE FROM THAT, Hopedale itself has an art show which is a key part of the Day in the Park Celebration. It is the Hopedale Cultural Council which holds this art show. All submissions to participate in their art show must be done ON PAPER by filling out a form and mailing it in to them. They have to get the form in their hands by September 10, 2016. So plan ahead! They don’t need to see JPGs of the entries or anything like that. You just send them the titles, prices, and so on along with a check. You then show up that morning with the artwork to enter in the show. Again this is a one-day pop-up show under a tent. You bring your artwork in in the morning, it goes on display, it gets judged, prizes are awarded, and you take it home in the evening.

Pickup at the big main art show tent is by 4pm so they expect that tent to be wholly clear by 4pm.

Here’s the entry form!

Hopedale 2016 Day in the Park Art Show Entry Form

For more information on the Hopedale Cultural Council visit here:

https://www.facebook.com/HopedaleCultural/

BVAA Calendar 2016-2017

Here’s the first version of our upcoming calendar for the September 2016 through August 2017 season. Our Blackstone Valley Art Association calendar year runs in a “school year” cycle from September through the following August.

This is quite preliminary – let us know your thoughts on what else you’d like to see us do during the year!

Single-page Calendar 2016-2017

Tri-Fold Brochure 2016-2017