Thursday, August 13, 2009

The City as a Stage

Thank you to all my Bohemian Art Society Friends who rocked this city with their fantastic art at
One State in the Arts Conference.
You can watch the cool video about us below.
When you first play the video, please press the two lines on the bottom left to pause the video and allow the red bar to load completely before playing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZt5B3u5ItU

ArtsPartners of Central Illinois, Inc. is pleased to present "The City As A Stage", an artistic and musical video based on the Illinois Arts Alliance/Illinois Arts Council One State Together in the Arts Conference held at the Hotel Pere Marquette in Peoria, Illinois on June 1 and 2, 2009. The montage includes excerpts from a speech made by guest presenter James Early of the Smithsonian Institute along with welcoming remarks by Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis. Local artists, musicians and performers, all of whom set the conference stage by serving as "street performers" at the Hotel Pere Marquette or by showcasing the wealth of Peoria's arts scene during several Monday Evening with the Arts Bus Tours. The montage captures the spirit in which Peoria, as the host city, embraced this conference experience which was to capture the conference's See Change theme occurring right before one's eyes.



For those of you who aren't in the know
(Until now, which is why you should always check out my blogs and share them with the rest of the world)
I once again called on my friends in the art world to come to my aid to help promote art in our community. My goal was to bring a sense of commUNITY in art through a progressive mural that was created on site at the Pere Marquette during this 2 day conference so that people could SEE CHANGE in Peoria which was the theme of this years conference.
Now, it's a big honor for Peoria to have been chosen and the event is only held every 2 years so the pressure was on to do something that would really get the organizers, officials and participants talking, thinking and imagining in such a fun way that we would be the highlight of every conversation for years to come...and WE DID IT!!!
Who are "We" you ask?
Well, our fearless leader Suzette Boulais, with Arts Partners, is always right at the top of the list with any fabulous art event. Kathy Chitwood of the Eastlight Theatre and Amanda Hahn of the Pere Marquette and the grand Zetter gave me a jingle to ask if I could gather some artists together to make this happen in a big way.
Just so you know, the band of merry art making buddies that participated did so with absolutely no idea that there would be any compensation or real recognition of any kind. Several of these same people have donated to many causes and helped at many events at my beck and call. Most of the time they get a pat on the back and a promise that "some day" I will make good things happen for them.
Well, Cha-Ching!!!
Not only did they get generously compensated for their time but they were on the news, in the paper, have been contacted to demonstrate at other events, commissioned for private works AND our progressive canvas mural will be displayed (proudly) at the Art Guild's River Front Art Show!!!!

Who are "they"
you ask yet again because I got side tracked telling you how fabulous "they" are?
Well, I started the day painting on the windows of the Pere Marquette so people would know there was a happening.
Then Mary Keltner showed up with helpers to prepare the window on Main St. for the children to paint! Amazing work and so so much fun! A dozen paint cover darlings decorated the window and themselves inspiring all of us who were lucky enough to watch them express themselves so joyfully.
Tom Gross,
Adrienne Risby,
James Flanigan
and Ross Stovall
worked individually and sometimes together to create a coordinating series of paintings to represent the changes they have seen or hope to see in Peoria.

Tom Warren set up a 20 foot, yes! I said it and I meant it, 20 foot canvas
that he airbrushed over 2 days at the conference.
While we were painting away there was music, performances, laughter and conversation!
We had so much fun!
I'm sorry it's over..... or is it?
Stay tuned for the next exciting news flash on this continuing saga of...
Amy takes over the world through Art!

Enjoy!

1 comment:

LoisW said...

Clicked on video... Not Found Error 404 : (