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On
Presidents’ Day, when most of Alabama’s high school
students were home taking a welldeserveD break from
studies and classes, a group of 22 highly dedicated
students traveled from all over
the state with their teachers and supportive family
members to the Alabama Shakespeare Festival in
Montgomery to participate in the state finals of Poetry
Out Loud. Last year, Alabama’s Champion went
on to Washington D.C. to become the National Poetry Out
Loud Champion for 2011. This year,
Alabama’s
new State Champion, Margaret Payne, from St. Peter’s
Academy in Limestone County, is hopeful
that she may follow in the footsteps of last year’s
champion, Youssef Biaz, from Auburn High
School. In fact, she spent a good deal of time studying
the video clips of his recitations in order to
inspire and improve her own technique. “Peggy was very
close to Youssef last year in her scores. When
I saw her name on the list of regional winners, I knew she
would have a good chance of making it
to the top this year,” reported Diana Green, Arts in
Education Program Manager at the Alabama State
Council for the Arts. “When I heard her first recitation
during our finals on Monday, I was amazed
at how much she had improved and grown in the maturity of
her recitations since last year. It does
not surprise me that our judges chose her to represent our
state this year in Washington DC. Regardless
of whether or not she places nationally, I will be proud
to have her representing Alabama in
the national competition this May.”
To
read the full press release,
click
here
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To read
about Youssef Biaz winning the 2011 National Poetry Out Loud
Competition click
here.
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To Learn more
about the National Poetry Out Loud Competition,
click
here.
THREE
ALABAMA ARTISTS CREATE ILLUSTRATIONS FOR KEEPSAKE BIRTH
CERTIFICATES. Art was commissioned from these artists:
Bethanne Hill, Woodie Long and Cyd
Moore. Funds
raised will provide for programs protecting children from
abuse and neglect. To learn more about this project, click
here.
To
view these colorful images, visit: www.adph.org/vitalrecords
and click on keepsake birth
certificates.
Governor's
Emergency Relief
Fund
www.servealabama.gov
For
those wishing to help Alabamians with unmet recovery needs
that unfold in the wake of the recent tornado outbreak
across the state.
Grants
Awarded at December's Council Meeting (please
click
here)
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It
is with great sadness that I make you aware that long-time
employee of the Alabama State Council on the Arts,
Georgine Clarke passed away peacefully in her sleep on
Thursday, May 3.
A
public memorial and celebration of Georgine’s life is
being planned for Saturday, June 9, at 2:00 p.m. The
location to be announced.
The
family requests that in lieu of flowers contributions may
be made to The Kentuck Association in Support of
Programming in The Georgine Clarke Building, The
Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, The Birmingham Museum of
Art, The American Cancer Society or the Leukemia and
Lymphoma Society of America.
Georgine
recently retired from the Council due to health issues.
Her contributions to the Council, the arts, thousands of
artists, and the State of Alabama are too immeasurable to
record in this format. She will be deeply missed by all
who knew her. Her passion for the arts and artists of
Alabama helped to nurture and encourage the careers of
innumerable artists throughout the state, region and
beyond.
Mark
Cobb with the Tuscaloosa wrote a feature article on
Georgine and her many gifts and talents. To read Cobb's
article, click
here.
Updated
ADA Regulations:
Are Local Area Cultural & Sports Venues in Compliance?
As
of September 15, 2010, the U.S. Department of Justice has
added new language regarding ticketing to the regulations
for the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Title II
(State and Local Government) and Title III (Places of
Public Accommodation). These new regulations are
enforceable as of March 15, 2011. The new ticketing
regulations are composed of eight sections and section
five specifically regulates the hold and release of
wheelchair-accessible locations.
On Thursday, April 12 from 2 - 3:30 PM Eastern, the
Mid-Atlantic ADA Center will present a webinar open to
theaters, stadiums, and other performing arts and sports
venues who must comply with these regulations. Our
presenter will be Betty Siegel, Director of VSA and
Accessibility at The John F. Kennedy Center for the
Performing Arts. The cost of this session is $15.
For more information: Updated
ADA Regulations and Ticketing Webinar
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Alabama Masters: Artists
and Their Work was produced
in conjunction with the Alabama
Year of the Arts, an initiative of the Alabama
Bureau of Tourism and Travel and the Alabama
State Council on the Arts.
For
teachers using the Alabama Masters book in lesson plans, please click
here.
Alabama Masters: Artists
and Their Work features
forty-two artists and is a partnership publication between the
Alabama State Council on the Arts and six major art museums in
the state. The full color paperback features an essay and images
of each artist’s work, with the goal of honoring the
individual artists and highlighting museum collections. The
selection of artists was based on guidelines determined by
the museum directors. Al Head, executive director of the Alabama State Council on the Arts
and Gail C. Andrews,
the R. Hugh Daniel Director of the Birmingham Museum of Art,
contributed essays. Georgine
Clarke,
visual arts program manager at the Alabama State Council on the
Arts, coordinated the publication.
The National Endowment for the Arts has
funded a series of projects throughout the country under the
broad heading of American Masterpieces, and this publication is
Alabama’s contribution. It is a major step toward
compiling the state’s visual arts history, cultural fabric,
and national contributions of its artists.
The
six participating museums are Birmingham
Museum of Art, Huntsville Museum of Art, Jule Collins Smith
Museum of Art at Auburn University, Mobile Museum of Art,
Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, and Wiregrass Museum of Art in Dothan. Featured master artists range
from turn-of-the-last-century painters John
Kelly Fitzpatrick, Anne Goldthwaite, Louise Lyons Heustis, John
Roderick Dempster MacKenzie, and Clara
Weaver Parrish to contemporary artists Kerry
James Marshall, Frank Fleming, William Christenberry, and Dale
Kennington.
The
book is available for a $25 donation to the Alabama
Craft Council, 201 Monroe Street, Suite 110, Montgomery, AL
36104-3721. For additional info, contact: staff@arts.alabama.gov
Links:
http://www.800alabama.com/
http://www.arts.alabama.gov
http://www.arts.endow.gov/
Educational
Resources Available. For more
information, click
here
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ALABAMA
AL DIA: A Report On Hispanic Cultures. For more
information about this
report, click
here
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