By Holly White-Gehrt, founder and primary instructor of Texas Hill Country Atelier
Each year, for the past seven years, we open our doors to share with the public an inside view of the Texas Hill Country Atelier and to celebrate our hard-working Atelier students.
This year, on Friday December 6th at 5:00pm, we are combining our annual celebration with our first, semi-annual art sale! Our art sale is different from any other: it is an ART SCRAMBLE!
What is an ART SCRAMBLE?
We invited over 90 artists who have participated in any one of our four levels of programming: Workshops, Classes, Core Atelier, or Life Drawing. More than 30 artists responded and committed to transforming the four 8” by 8” panels we provided into works of art. That adds up to over 120 artworks!
This art sale is different! First, every single piece is priced the same: only $50. That’s a fantastic price, right? Here’s the catch. When you arrive at 5 pm (I recommend that you arrive on time), you get to browse the artwork at your leisure.
However, you may not claim art you wish to take home…until the BELL RINGS! At that moment, you may take the art you want off the wall and pay for it at our pay station. Be fast, before someone else gets it. It’s a SCRAMBLE!
We will also have a silent auction of artwork by our four art instructors: Tenaya Sims, workshop instructor and founder of the Georgetown Atelier in Seattle, Roger Parsons, our Landscape instructor, Matthew Fielder, our assistant instructor, and myself, founder of TX HCA.
While the Art Scramble will raise funds to support TX HCA programming, we are concurrently running a Hard Hat Campaign to secure the future of the Atelier at this pivotal juncture!
In our downtown Kerrville location, overlooking the beautiful Guadalupe River, we have operated our first year as a non-profit organization in a temporary suite. Now we have an opportunity to significantly expand our offerings by moving into a larger space in the same building. The new space will be specially designed to efficiently accommodate studio spaces, teaching classrooms and a small lobby-foyer to greet the public. This would enable us to:
· Expand the Core Atelier Program enrollment. Essential to the 3-4 year program is 24/7 access to individual studio space for each student. We are currently limited to 9 students while our waitlist is growing. In our new location, we could accommodate up to 17 students.
· Schedule more workshops and classes. Presently we are limited to scheduling around the Core Atelier. The new space would allow concurrent programming, including a fully developed Teen Program, expansion of our Landscape Painting and Composition Classes and growth of our Continuing Education programs for K-12 art teachers.
· Bring more nationally recognized artists to Kerrville. For the second year in a row, we sold out a workshop by Tenaya Sims, internationally awarded artist and founder of Georgetown Atelier in Seattle. He also gave a free public talk at the Butt-Holdsworth Library as part of a series we would like expand for our local arts community. Artists we are currently in talks with include Juliette Aristides, author of 6 books translated into 5 languages, Mandy Theis, art teacher educator who founded the School of Atelier Arts, and Maureen Hyde, former principal instructor at the Florence Academy of Art.
Time is critical! Before the end of the year, we must commit or forfeit the opportunity to begin construction in the new space. To seize this rare opportunity, we need to raise funds! Our Hard Hat Campaign goal is $96,000.
Every donation, big or small, is dearly appreciated and fully tax deductible. I believe passionately in what the Atelier provides. For any contribution you can provide, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
