Artist Swap Meet

On Thursday, August 27th, Orange County Arts Council, will be hosting our fourth installment of our "Creative Contacts" series. Right here at our office, 23 White Oak Drive, Sugar Loaf at 6:30-9 p.m.

We are pretty sure that everyone, especially artists, have that one particular draw that is filled with many different items of nonsense. Many call this their 'junk drawer' and many are in denial of having one at all, but we are encouraging you to open that draw and bring whats inside to the Artist Swap Meet! So go and get your art supplies, old play scripts, old instruments, buckets full of shells, bundles of yarn, thread or fabric. Bring whatever is in your space that you don't feel is any use to you anymore. By doing so you may be helping out another artist and maybe someone will bring something they could do without but was just the thing you were looking for. Everything you give, and everything you take is free.

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A delicous home cooked meal and refreshments will be available to enjoy before the swap session begins. We are very sure that the Artist Swap Meet will a great time, so please come stop by and bring your junk.

Another Workshop About the Business of Art

Tomorrow (August 25th) from 7-9pm the Arts Council will present the seventh in the 2009 workshop series, What Every Artist Wants to Know, but Is Afraid to Ask. These workshops all cover the business of art and this one, focusing on non-profit law, is no different. Gary Schuster will be the speaker at this event, and will not only be running the workshop but will also be avaliable to answer any legal questions you might have. All questions can still be sent ahead of time to info@ocartscouncil.org.

Gary Schuster- taken by Andy Komonchack

Gary Schuster has had a long history in the law business as an attorney with Jacobowitz & Gubits, LLP in Walden, the largest full-service law firm in the Hudson Valley. While he has worked on almost everything (including business entity formation and transactions, work with non-profits, commercial transactions, franchises, commercial and residential real estate transactions and leasing, will drafting, probate, and estate administration, guardianship proceedings, and copyright and trademark matters), he focuses on the laws of arts and entertainment. He also represents a number of non-profits and artists, and knows the in-and-outs of the business.

Everyone who owns their own business or has to promote their own art should attend this workshop. For more information, visit our website. And please call us to tell us your attending or with any questions at 845-469-9168.

The (Entire) Orange County Calendar

Most sites have calendars. You'd be hard pressed to find an organization that doesn't want people to know what they have going on. But our calendar is different; our calendar has events from all over Orange County, searched for and checked for accuracy by the interns here at the Orange County Arts Council. From Library Poetry Readings to Street Fairs, what's going on every weekend (and most weekdays) can be found listed on our calendar.

Each event that ends up on our calendar is not only found on the internet, it’s double checked to make sure that it actually exists. We find who you can contact with any questions you might have and how to contact them. The entire internet is searched so you can be sure what's going on in your area next Friday.
As if this wasn't enough, we also give you the option to post your own events. Save the effort of sending us an e-mail or writing up an entire press release, you can just add the event to our calendar yourself. In one moment you are able to turn all the visitors of our website into possible attendees.


Our calendar is an underused resource that should be under everyone's "favorites" tab. There's rarely a day that goes by that doesn't have an event to go along with it. With us, you can know exactly what those events are.

A New Idea for Creative Contacts

Every artist has that pile in their house. The one of old paint brushes, scraps of paper, maybe some ink that you might use one day. And that pile sits there growing, like a junk pile in any other household times a hundred (or far more depending on the artist). The next meeting of the Creative Contacts series on August 27th is a way for artists to not only clean out that pile (or for the real packrats, just make it a little lighter) but help other artists in the process.

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For everyone who doesn't know, Creative Contacts is "a series of artist networking events that encourage collaboration, cooperation and sharing resources is "a series of artist networking events that encourage collaboration, cooperation and sharing resources." It gives artists a chance to meet other artists in their area, make contacts to help them proffesionally and creatively. For this meeting, in addition to artists getting a chance to network with other artists, there will also be an opportunity for artists to share old art supplies that they're never going to use but may be a treasure to someone else. Everything artists bring and take to the meeting is free.

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This is also an opportunity to get inspired by what others think of as junk, what might just sit in a closet or get thrown away. Maybe you make your masterpiece using someone else's collection of old shells or discarded pieces of fabric. Maybe that old instrument that stopped working thirty five years ago is exactly what you need to finish your sculpture, or that interesting piece of wood is enough to inspire your next poem.

For more information about this event, or to tell us that you're attending, click here or e-mail us at info@ocartscouncil.org.

Open Studios Around Orange County

In October of this year the Orange County Arts Council is hosting an Open Studio Tour for artists from all around Orange County. For one weekend, from October 17th-18th, local artists open up their studios to the public so people can see and experience how they work in their natural habitat. All artists listed in this entry are going to be part of the Open Studio Tour.

Artist Joan Kehlenbeck

The Open Studio Tour raises public awareness of art in the community. There are so many people who don't realize how many artists there are creating in this area. I was one of those people before I became an intern for the Arts Council. I had no idea how many working artists were in my area, and I'm so grateful to have had the experience to meet them. This will give everyone the chance to have the same experience I did when I realized that our little piece of New York is filled with wonderful creative people doing wonderful creative things.

Artist Roslyn Fassett with her work "Veiled Silence"

The tour is a self-guided one. Maps, found online as well as in galleries, businesses, lodging sites and tourist info centers, will show a list of studios that will be open for visiting. One of the stops on the list will be our very own Arts Council building, where we will have five artists using our lovely office to show how they work.

In addition to a weekend of open studios, there will be an opening reception on October 9th and preview weekend from the 10th- the 11th. During this time, one piece of art from each artist will hang in our gallery. Think of it as a way to let you know what you have to look forward to while you're touring around the weekend after. Also, take this as an opportunity to support the arts in your community, because artists need support from their friends and neighbors. I hope you enjoy the experience of getting a behind-the-scenes look that you wouldn't get to see otherwise.

Work by Artist Jill Brody

The National Purple Heart Hall of Honor

Since we at the Arts Council work closely with The National Purple Heart Hall of Honor through the Arts for Vets program, we thought it would be a great idea to share their upcoming event in our blog. The National Purple Heart Hall of Honor and the New Windsor Cantonment invite you to share our thanks to the sacrifices of America’s military. The day begins with a concert by the 89th New York Guard Band. Learn about our military history with a military time line representing the American soldiers from the17th through the 20th centuries, including weapons demonstrations. The Veteran's Administration will have outreach services for a wide range of veteran’s needs. Learn about the history of the Purple Heart, America’s oldest military decoration. We as well as many others, including artists who will be doing demonstrations during the event, will be attending. Artists include Daniel Mack, demonstrating traditional mortise and tenon joinery, Bob Breur, wood carving, and Najim Chechen with wood working and clay molding. We hope to see many familar faces this Saturday, August 8th from 11:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.! Have a great weekend and see you there!

Chris Farlekas and his calling

Photo found at www.current.com

The brain child of writer, storyteller, educator, and arts advocate Chris Farlekas, the Council and Hall of Honor are working with Farlekas on the creation of a play, a series of vignettes, narratives and anecdotes based on the stories of those veterans from these recent conflicts.

Farlekas, who created a similar program in the late 60’s and early 70’s that travelled throughout the region telling the stories of returning Viet Nam War veterans, this is something he feels he needs to do.“No one is listening to these men and women coming home today from overseas,” he states, “and they need to be heard.” Farlekas approached the Arts Council because of our Arts for Vets Program, and we contacted the National Purple Heart Hall of Honor who we actually work closely with. The National Purple Heart Hall of Honor records the history of Purple Heart recipient accounts through filming their personal stories.

Chris is a tremendous writer, a former vet himself, and completely dedicated to the causes of these returning veterans. We feel if anyone can pull this project together, he can. Anita Pidala, Director of the Hall of Honor, is helping to gather information from veterans with which she has already worked. We hope to put the pieces together by late fall with performances beginning after that with the National Purple Heart Hall of Honor being one of the venues for presentations.

The Orange County Arts Council and the National Purple Heart Hall of Honor are collaborating on a program that will tell the stories of the men and women returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. In order to start the project, the Arts Council is asking for veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan to send in their chronicles of either preparing to go, while they were there, or coming home. These accounts can be poignant, funny, hopeful, sad, terrifying or joyous.