Noted printmaker and University of Virginia art professor Dean Dass has generously donated an original work titled Two Birds in a Cloud to the Spring For The Arts silent auction. Made with gouache, collage, pencil, and gold leaf, the piece is meditative and pleasing with a central image that almost appears to have bloomed in place.

Dean Dass was born in 1955 during an Iowa blizzard. His grandfather, Virgil Liittschwager, taught him to fish and hunt, and how to paint with oils. He studied art, philosophy and anthropology at the University of Northern Iowa, and then moved east where he earned his M.F.A. in printmaking from The Tyler School of Art, Temple University.

Since 1985 he has taught at the University of Virginia. His works are held in many public collections – from The Brooklyn Museum of Art, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, The Walker Art Center, to The Alvar Aalto Museum in Jyväskylä, Finland, and the National Collection of Poland, Krakow. Watch a video of Dass discussing his artwork in 2011 here.

You can bid on unique items like this one at Spring For The Arts next week! Come celebrate cultural life in Charlottesville with us! Tickets to Spring For The Arts can be purchased online.

Need to get away from it all? Up for auction is a one-week stay at a beautiful beach house in Emerald Isle, NC. This 3 bedroom/3 bath property is open, light and airy with fabulous ocean views and inlet views. The ground level has an enclosed hot & cold shower with changing room for when you walk back from a day at the beach. The Master Suite has a king bed with a private bathroom, a second bedroom has a queen bed, and the third bedroom has a pair of twin beds, perfect for the kids! There is a kitcken, dining room, and 3 separate living areas in which to relax.

Choose from 5 televisions with cable or spend the afternoon lounging on the covered deck before making dinner with the outdoor grill. No matter how you choose to pass the time, you will be sure to make fond memories while on vacation at this Emerald Isle Beach House. Look at more photos here.

You can bid on unique items and experiences like these on May 23rd at Spring For The Arts! By attending, you’ll help support a variety of PCA’s programs and initiatives including the Arts & Economic Prosperity IV study, Charlottesville Area Cultural Plan, Arts Access Project, annual Rising Star Awards, Law & The Arts seminars, Arts Inspire workshops, and more.

Come support your local arts council!

Tim McDaniel is a resident of Batesville and an active member of the Charlottesville Photography Initiative. All of the images on display were taken with a Canon EOS or point-and-shoot cameras.

Mr. McDaniel says about his work:

“Ever since about the age of 13, I have been told that I have an ‘eye’ for photographing things. I never really took them seriously, as I have always been my worst critic until I decided one day that maybe I should share my work. I thought that perhaps by allowing others into a part of my life, they would experience some of the joy that I feel every time I see something beautiful capture my attention, then to be captured forever on a photograph. I have photographed everything from landscapes to flora, even a couple of weddings and portraits. If I think it needs to be memorialized I’ll shoot it (so to speak). I moved to Virginia from California after living there for over 27 years. I had the opportunity to see and experience many things, then found myself in central Virginia shortly after a rather large earthquake convinced me to try something new. Ever since moving in 1994 I have seen a new and fresh kind of beauty all around. I started taking more and more photographs and began sharing them with my close friends and family. After hearing enough positive feedback, I decided to begin showing my work. So there you have it. I remain always grateful for the blessings I have in life, and let others share my joy in pictures. One photograph at a time.”

Please stop by the PCA office inside CitySpace to say hello and check out the art! We are open to the public Monday-Friday from 10am to 5pm.

Would you like your artwork to be on display here? PCA manages this small exhibit area in our office to celebrate PCA member artists and other local artists. Submission of visual art is encouraged and exhibits will change on a monthly basis. If you are interested in having your artwork displayed, please contact info@charlottesvillearts.org.

The participants have been working with volunteers from a variety of local arts organizations, including Second Street Gallery, Piedmont Council for the Arts, the Kluge-Ruge Aboriginal Art Museum, Early Visions, and many more! The result is an array of visual art for the show.

The Club reports, “In addition to the many other wonderful uses of our art studio at the Cherry Avenue location, we have seen a significant increase in the number of visually artistic opportunities, thanks to great volunteers and staff. The kids are very proud of their work and we hope you will join us on Friday, May 4th to celebrate their works.”

This reception is FREE and open to the public. CitySpace is open to the public Monday-Friday 9:00am-5:00pm. For more information, please email info@charlottesvillearts.org.

That’s right: Live Arts is offering up for auction two pairs of subscriptions to the opening nights for the entire 2012-2013 Season (approximately a $400 value for each pair of subscriptions).

For twenty years, Live Arts has been a creative hub in Charlottesville, a community theater that produces stunning, professional quality productions with the help of countless volunteers. From musicals, creative takes on old classics, and contemporary plays that make audience think, Live Arts does it all in style. Shows routinely sell out and this is your chance to secure a pair of seats for you and a date (or a friend or family member with whom you’d like to share the world of theater) for the whole next season!

You can bid on unique items and experiences like these on May 23rd at Spring For The Arts! It’s a great party with an important cause. By attending, you’ll help support a variety of PCA’s programs and initiatives including the Arts & Economic Prosperity IV study, Charlottesville Area Cultural Plan, Arts Access Project, annual Rising Star Awards, Law & The Arts seminars, Arts Inspire workshops, and more.

Come celebrate arts and culture in Charlottesville with us!

Co-sponsored by Second Street Gallery and the Office of Statewide Partnerships of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, this workshop is intended for teachers, educators, and all those interested in ART!

Jeffrey Allison, Paul Mellon Collection Educator at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, will lead this interactive presentation.

FREE for PCA and Second Street Gallery members, $5 for non-members.

Registration is required. To RSVP, please contact info@charlottesvillearts.org by May 8th.

Second Street Gallery is located at 115 Second Street SE, Charlottesville, VA 22903.

(Details of Image: Kehinde Wiley (American, b. 1977) Willem van Heythuysen, 2006, Oil and enamel on canvas. Image courtesy of Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Arthur and Margaret Glasgow Fund.)

The Virginia Arts of the Book Center (VABC) is offering an intensive certification class in letterpress or bookbinding and one introductory letterpress class for the auction.

Letterpress is all about a hands-on creative process and it’s seen a huge resurgence in recent years. As the NYTimes explained in 2011, letterpress is “the graphic design equivalent of slow food.”

These personalized, intensive courses with the VABC will teach you competence in old book arts that are coming back in style! By the end of the bookbinding class, students will have a bookmaking vocabulary, two to three sewn books, as well as the skills to create their own hand-bound book projects. And, by the end of the letterpress class, students will have a set of printed cards and the skills to create their own stationery or posters. Sessions will be scheduled in the fall or winter, usually over six weeks on weekday evenings or Sundays; a week-long daily intensive may emerge in summer. The VABC will work with the winning bidder to find the class that best meets his or her needs.

The VABC is a community of artists exploring books, printing, and paper while sharing a fully equipped letterpress, printmaking, and bookbinding studio with a gallery and a classroom right here in Charlottesville. A unique program of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, the VABC offers training and community for those with an interest in the book arts. Members participate annually in collaborative projects and feature their work at the “Raucous Auction” in November. Galleries, schedule, and announcements are available here.

You can bid on unique items and experiences like these on May 23rd at Spring For The Arts! By attending, you’ll help support a variety of PCA’s programs and initiatives including the Arts & Economic Prosperity IV study, Charlottesville Area Cultural Plan, Arts Access Project, annual Rising Star Awards, Law & The Arts seminars, Arts Inspire workshops, and more.

We hope to see you there!

Join PCA for Spring For The Arts, a fun celebration of arts and culture in Charlottesville as well as an important source of funding for PCA’s many programs throughout the year.

Spring For The Arts is the only community-wide celebration of all genres of the arts. This year, the event will take place on the evening of Wednesday, May 23rd at CitySpace and we’d like you to be there to help us celebrate.

A wide array of interesting items and experiences will be featured in this year’s silent auction (more on that in a moment), plus we’ll have live performances by Beleza and the Charlottesville Ballet as well as delicious drinks and mouth-watering hors d’oeuvres from our friends at Harvest Moon Catering.

It’s a great party with an important cause. Spring For The Arts supports the work of PCA, which exists to sustain the thriving presence of the arts in the Charlottesville area. The event is an important source of funds for the organization, not to mention a wonderful opportunity for the community to show its support for the arts. By attending you’ll help support a variety of PCA’s programs and initiatives including the Arts & Economic Prosperity IV study, Charlottesville Area Cultural Plan, Arts Access Project, annual Rising Star Awards, Law & The Arts seminars, Arts Inspire workshops, and more.

Read on for a sneak peek of the silent auction!

As part of Spring For The Arts, PCA is holding a silent auction, which includes exciting items such as:

• a one-week stay at Springfield Point South in Emerald Isle
• original artwork by Tim O’Kane, Kristin Harris, Dean Dass, John Borden Evans, Nina Ozbey, Anne Slaughter, Richard Crozier, Dorothy Djukulul (from the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection), Lewis Dunn, and other local artists
• opening night subscriptions for the entire 2012-2013 Live Arts season
• two all-festival passes for the 2013 Virginia Festival of the Book
• creative experiences including: a writing course at WriterHouse, dance classes from Shergold Studio, bookbinding or letterpress workshops at the Virginia Arts of the Book Center
• tickets to: Charlottesville nTelos Pavilion, Ash Lawn Opera, LOOK3 Festival of the Photograph, Virginia Film Festival, Wintergreen Performing Arts, and others
• private event rental of the Chroma Projects gallery
• complimentary sessions with artist consultants Leah Stoddard and Deborah McLeod
• gift certificates, memberships, and merchandise from Second Street Gallery, Monticello, Vinegar Hill Theatre, ACAC, Angelo, Victoria Horner, and more!

Tickets are $40 for PCA members ($60* for non-members) and may be purchased at www.charlottesvillearts.org/rsvp.
*Non-member tickets include a complimentary one-year membership for new members.

Can’t wait to see you there!

PCA thanks the following sponsors: Crutchfield, Harvest Moon Catering, Market Street Wineshops, City of Charlottesville, Commonwealth Restaurant & Skybar, and Virginia Commission for the Arts.