BLACKSBURG REGIONAL ART ASSOCIATION
We create, teach, exhibit, appreciate and play with ART!!!
BRAA
Bulletin Board
Check out local ART NEWS and opportunities on our
BIG NEWS page!
WEEKLY ART MEETUP
Tuesdays, 1:30 - 4:30 PM
Glade Church (Basement)
Come create with friends!
Sign up each week here.
Welcome NEW MEMBERS:
Sydney Altizer
Bonnie Anderson
Katerina Chebotaryova
Nicole Clements
Aline DeSouza
Gwyn Hamilton
Shirley Hannah
Laura Harrison
Kenna Jewell
Jessica Jones
J D Judith
Emma Navarro
Mary Osten
Do you have an ART EXHIBIT, WORKSHOP or ART PLAYDAY coming up? We can post any BRAA related events or member events on this Bulletin Board or our BIG NEWS page. Send relevant information to info@blacksburgart.org
With over 125 members, we are painters, sculptors, photographers, wood carvers and turners, glass fusers and cutters, weavers, quilters, multi-media maniacs, copper artists and more. We are professionals, homemakers, retired folk, college students and youth. All ages and persuasions are among us and new members are always WELCOME.
Maybe some of you remember David Bowie's famous words in his popular song CHANGES, "Time may change me, but I can't trace time". Songs are often like abstract paintings - the artist wants to give impressions of his or her own thoughts but more likely wants to let the viewer/listener form their own interpretations. My interpretation of this song is that we can't manipulate time, but we can learn from the mistakes and experiences that time gives us and indeed make positive changes. Change can be wonderful or painful, but it is always necessary to adapt to 'new' times.
Image of David Bowie by British photo artist, Gavin Evans
2024: NEW ORDER and Opportunities
Ch-ch-ch-ch-CHANGES!!!
Written by Ava White Howard
Each year BRAA has an opportunity to make changes in order to improve with time and evolve as an organization to better serve its members and purposes. One of the key components of BRAA's evolution is to elect officers and recruit volunteers that can sustain and guide our growth through the years. We call on our members to help us change, by stepping up to serve as a board officer, a committee member, and/or to VOTE on who might best guide us through the coming year.
THE CHALLENGE
This is truly a challenging feat for most any non-profit and ALL volunteer organization because:
-
Finding people that are willing to sacrifice time and energy to fill these positions with the special devotion and skills that are required is especially difficult when most people are spread thin by the demands of life in general. Many members of BRAA would rather be doing art than promoting art, which is essentially what a board member does.
-
It is difficult to divest from something that has become a large part of your life, that you care for and have nurtured. Though volunteers grow weary or have other priorities which require them to step away from their investments, they long for their legacy to continue, for their organization to continue to succeed and thrive.
BRAA has had the good fortune to have a board of officers and many volunteers over the years who have made our organization critically important to the well-being of the New River Valley. As artists we understand that the visual arts are more than the cumulative paintings, sculptures, and expressions that we generate.
We make the world more beautiful with perspectives on life that can only be told without the limits of words. As much as we love to produce art, so do our communities need us to.
Thank you Charlotte Chan for making the world more beautiful with paintings like these and of course your service to BRAA for four years as our president.
CONTINUING AND WILLING TO SERVE
We are lucky that our officers that step up and then down most often continue to serve beyond their administrative positions and provide their wisdom to future officers, committees and/or activities. Our outgoing president, Charlotte Chan will continue to oversee our gallery exhibits for 2024, and while vice president, Michele Walter must focus on a new full-time job, we know her smiling face and enthusiastic support of BRAA will not end because of that. Marvi Stine along with Krista Westman are willing to continue to steward our finances as co-treasurers in 2024. Judy Crowgey is also willing to serve as our secretary again, documenting our decisions and keeping us on track when we tend to go off on many ideas and tangents. These ladies are BRAA caregivers who have demonstrated over and over their desire to serve this organization in official and unofficial capacities. We should thank them often and find ways to demonstrate our gratitude to them and all BRAA volunteers. Please check out our 2023 officers page to see their smiling faces and to learn more about them.
MAYBE NEW TO YOU, BUT NOT TO BRAA
Our 2024 candidates for president, Martha Olson and co-vice presidents, Ruth Lefko and Jolene Crafton have been BRAA members for many years and most of us have run into them along the way in our artistic endeavors. They are accomplished artists, involved in multiple art supportive organizations, and well...they are just nice, hardworking, caring and spectacularly creative individuals. They are pursuing a more active role in BRAA administration as officers, but more than that, they are looking to continue, increase, and/or improve BRAA's contributions to the New River Valley and beyond.
Martha Olson, Candidate for 2024 BRAA President
"I was born, raised and received my degrees in higher education nestled in the Appalachian mountains of West Virginia, but it's the Blue Ridge Mountains and Blacksburg that I now call home.
My career in public administration and raising my family was rewarding in numerous ways, but my current endeavors as an artist have provided me with amazing life passages.
I look forward to the challenges and opportunities as your next BRAA President."
Ruth Lefko and Jolene Crafton, Joint Candidates for 2024 BRAA Vice President
"Ruth has been a member of BRAA for 10+ years, Jolene for 2 years. We look forward to working with fellow artists making the BRAA a source of pride for our region. We will work closely together to create programs and workshops of interest to our members. We also plan to adhere to the BRAA mission of bringing art to the community throughout the New River Valley.
We want to hear from you about what you want from the BRAA and we invite you to find a way to be involved with this exciting group of artists. We want to share our passion for art by creating art, talking about art, sharing our talents with the community and selling art!"
NOW, IT'S ABOUT YOU!
Now, you as a BRAA member can have an impact on the future of BRAA. Firstly, make certain that when we e-mail you to VOTE for our new officers that you do. We need to know that you endorse our candidates and care about our organization's future. If you don't like our slate, then jump in yourself and run for an office or nominate someone else who is enthusiastically willing to embrace the responsibilities. Listen carefully though...there are many areas in which you can contribute to BRAA, with fewer time requirements and less responsibilities. Of course making art is maybe a bigger priority, but when we contribute to the art world outside of ourselves, we are actually helping ourselves to BIGGER and BETTER creative opportunities. CAN YOU HELP? We need event planners, web and social media contributors, organizers and cheerleaders who want to promote our members, and educators that are willing to share their experience in workshops, meet-ups, and play days. I ask in a different way, WILL YOU HELP? Talk to us, your current or future BRAA Board members, let us know what you want out of BRAA and where you can help.