IN THIS ISSUE:

• AC5 Arts Recognition Award Nominations Now Being Accepted

• El Cerrito Poet Jack Marshall Awarded Guggenheim Fellowship

• Celebrating the Arts Directory and Calendar's First Month
  

• Opportunities - Calls for Artists:

• New American Paintings

• Berkeley Art Center's Annual National Juried Exhibition

Nominations Now Being Accepted

Attention all Artists, Advocates, Educators, and Philanthropists for the Arts!

AC5 is looking for you or someone you know who has made significant contributions to the Arts in Contra Costa County to be nominated for our annual AC5 Arts Recognition Award. Since the program was initiated in 1996, the commission has honored 65 local individuals and organizations for their endeavors in the arts.

Five nominees will be selected for recognition based on demonstrated qualities of leadership, vision, creativity, and commitment to enriching the quality of life through the arts in the community. Honorees will receive this coveted award at our October 26, 2008 ceremony, county wide recognition for their contributions, and year-long exposure on CCTV.

Nominations must be received by 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, July 15, 2008.

Get Nomination form here. See list of past winners here.

El Cerrito Poet Jack Marshall Awarded Guggenheim Fellowship

AC5 salutes Jack Marshall of El Cerrito, who was awarded a 2008 Guggenheim fellowship for poetry.

Marshall is an award-winning American poet and author born to an Iraqi father and a Syrian mother of Jewish heritage, who had an arranged marriage. He grew up speaking Arabic in a Sephardic Jewish household, ruled by traditional Arabic and Jewish culture. While growing up as well as attending public school he also attended Hebrew school in his neighborhood. He is the author of numerous books and poems which reflect and explore his cultural heritage, From Baghdad to Brooklyn:Growing Up in a Jewish-Arabic Family in Mid-century America along with Millennium Fever: Poems proved very successful. He was awarded winner of the PEN West Award and also a finalist nomination for the National Book Critics Circle Award, for From Baghdad to Brooklyn. Jack had discovered his love for literature at the New York Public Library, where he used to attend night classes in poetry with poets Robert Lowell and Stanley Kunitz. He cites History, Geography and Literature as the subjects he was interested in.

The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation announced on April 3 its 84th annual competition for the United States and Canada the Foundation has awarded 190 Fellowships to artists, scientists, and scholars, with awards totaling $8,200,000 for 2008. The successful candidates were chosen from a group of more than 2,600 applicants.

"Guggenheim Fellows are appointed on the basis of stellar achievement and exceptional promise for continued accomplishment," noted the press release. "One of the hallmarks of the Guggenheim Fellowship program is the diversity of its Fellows, not only in their fields of endeavor but in their geographic location and ages. This year's Fellows continue that tradition."

Celebrating the Arts Directory and Calendar's First Month

AC5's Arts Directory and Calendar is one month old today, and already it features over 50 local artists and arts organizations, and many calendar listings. If you've already created a profile - thank you!

If you haven't created a profile for yourself or your arts organization on the Directory, we encourage you to do so now. Creating a profile is easy and free, and will allow you to upload up to sixteen images, videos or audio samples of your work. You will also be able to post your gigs, performances, shows or other arts events on the calendar, so your community will have a place to learn about your arts event. By creating a profile, you will also be helping AC5 to provide an inclusive arts resource that reflects the diversity and multicultural nature of the arts community in our county.

Arts groups, venues and organizations have the added benefit of being able to post a link to their group's website on their AC5 Directory profile.

Your community wants to learn about you and your work, so please take a moment to create a free profile on the Directory. You can start the process by simply going to AC5's website (www.ac5.org).

About the Arts Directory and Calendar

The Arts Directory and Calendar was created to provide an inclusive platform for individual artists and performers, arts groups and organizations, and any arts-related enterprises to make themselves known to each other and to their community. The Arts Directory and Calendar is a searchable, user-created and -maintained online directory of regional artists and arts organizations serving Contra Costa County. Accessible from the AC5 website, this new Directory includes a calendar where artists and arts organizations can list events, and where the public can go to find local artists, arts events and organizations, and other county related arts information.

OPPORTUNITIES:

CALLS FOR ARTISTS

New American Paintings

Open Studios Competitions are conducted annually in each of 6 regions of the country. Competitions lead to publication in our bimonthly New American Paintings which, juried by curators from prominent museums, has extended the reach of artists and expanded the resources of collectors since 1993. All styles/painting, drawing, monoprints, mixed media; 2-D only. Entry fee $35. Deadlines: Pacific Coast 6/30/08 (CA, OR, WA, AK, and HI). Send four 35mm slides or printouts (no larger than 8.5" x 11" - no discs), resume, entry fee and SASE to: Open Studios Press, 450 Harrison Ave #304, Boston, MA 02118. Questions: (617) 778-5265 or www.newamericanpaintings.com.

Berkeley Art Center's Annual National Juried Exhibition

JURIED @ BAC, the Berkeley Art Center's Annual National Juried Exhibition, now in its 25th year, has earned a reputation as a prestigious national competition. The exhibition draws the attention of collectors, museum directors, curators and media outlets. It appears in Bay Area newspapers, publications, and gallery listings, and it is generally considered a resource for curators and dealers seeking emerging artists. Since 1983, JURIED @ BAC has attracted artists from across the country. Our respected jurors have contributed greatly to its prestige, as has the BAC's commitment to developing and inspiring artist's work.

This year's jurors are: Catharine Clark, Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco, and Joanne Northrop, Senior Curator, San Jose Museum of Art. Submissions will be accepted in slide and digital (.jpeg) formats. http://www.berkeleyartcenter.org/web-content/pages/juried.html

Contributors: Robin Moore & Anne Atkinson

AC5 is partially funded by: